The sea coast echo., 1897-07-10

Va "S5Nni AiNSp NiNClt FOphho z-.rHA5t~f
en-, ga lamp unto our feet and Nka,sf
to our path" Those who love them feel
as Nicolas Heinaius, poet and critic, felt
when shut up in the library of Leyden,
from years end to years end. He said :
al no sooner come into the library, but
bolt the door, excluding Lust, Ambition,
Avarice, and all such vices, whose nurse
is Idlcness. the mother OF Ignorance and
Melancholy. in the very lap of eternity.
amongst SO many divine souls, | take my
seat with SO lofty spirit, and sweet con-
tent, that pity all our great ones and
rich men that know not this happiness"
The greatest delight of leisure is that
IL permits as, to converse with books,
to refreshen our souls with spiritual COM
muuion, and to enlarge them by explor.
ing throughout new ielGs of knowledge.
A book is bhe truest and most companion-
able of friends. 1t never wearies of our
society, never resents neglect, and Is ever
ready to amuse or instructus. Acquan-
tances come and go, and are forgotten;
friends fall or grow lukewarm. But u
good book sticks frmer than brother.
Whatever our age, mood, and culture may
be, we can fluid book-or many books -
to fit them.
Most people do not read SO much for
learning as for pleasure. But when Aen-
ius amuses it also lustructs. The folly of
fools is to that of the WISE as lead is to
gold. The diamond and lump of char.
coal are both carbon, but one is black and
ray less, while the other flashes and sein-
tillates with glowing coruscations. And
1t is as easy, when We are acquiring the
habit Of reading, to form taste for GOOD
books as for worthless ones, to learn
to appreciate genius as tD be pleased
with medioerity. Those whose taste is
dlscrihll.atIve willnever tolerate trashy
work. but those who have not been right
lX trained to the habit of reading will find
pleasure IN any literary garbage: and thus
OF the muklng OF this stufi there is no end.
Some clever persons have been hardy
enough to attempt to catalogue the BEST
hundred books. 1t would be easier and
wiser, however, to name two hundred
GOOD books. For who can determine alb.
solutely and superlatively as to the true
ratio of eXcellency among so many? We
call that best which we like best. and on,a
Judgment and affections are o ften al fault.
Besides, no two think or feel alike. There
are readers who consider Chaucer duh.
who cannot endure Don Quixote. and
whom Montaigne's Essays. would fatigue.
There are other who consider LoupfelIow
a superior poet to Byron, and many grown
men of education and position ,delinbt
only in boys tales. Kipling and Ouida
have been bdnished or shut out from sew.
eral public libraries, and we cannot buy
book at railway station TO relieve the
tedium of n ajourney, unless, torsooth, IL
has first received the censorial approval
of bookselling monopoly, which--pardon
it, shade of great Milton l--could If If
choose, exclude "paradise Lost" from its
side, Suum cuique, authors aud readers
included.
We are told that Melancthons library
contained four authors only: Pliny, Plu-
tarch, Plato, aud Claudius Ptolemy. 1t
is evident, therefore, that the size of a
collection is not so important as careful.
ness in It's selection. A single book may
be worth whole library of Inferior pro-
ductious. Louis Kossuth, while impris-
oned learnt English, end became a bril-.
liant English orator, and we have his an
thority for it that his soul teacher was
William Shakespeare. Many have form
ed magnificent libraries merely from os.
tentation. More than two centuries aoo
La3ruyere said of n rich but illitefate
collector of splendidly bound books who
| had invited his inspection: II thank him
for his politeness, and as little as himself
care to visit the tan house which he calls
his library" And Lucian said to such
another fifteen and half centuries before
LaBrnyere, "Wby do you buy SO many
booksi You have no hair and you purchase
comb; you are blind and you will have
a grand mirror; you are deft and YOU in
sist on fine musical instrumental
To be concluded next week.