Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-10-23
BOOKS AND READING.


There need by no loneliness in old
age, no fricndlcssness at any time, if
we knew enough to make friends of
the great minds locked up in books
always ready to talk to us.
The happicst years of IL mans life
should be the mature yearS-those be-
tween 60 and 40, between 20 and
so.
When Il man is old, if he has lived
rightly, trying to give honest work to
the world in return for the living
which it has given him, he is entitled
to a few years of rest, contemplation
| and thought
In his youth. full of animal spirits,
animal appetitcs, personal ambitions,
every man looks forward with apprc-
hcnsion and dislike to the quiet days
of old age.
But no greater mistake is made.
The last years of mans life. if he
preserves his health ami brain activity,
if he has made books his friends, are
the best that any man can know.
The old mans death, when he has
lived justly, is, as Victor Hugo nobly
says, like the end of Il beautiful day
Mans life is but a day that passes
| quickly. The closing hours Of sunset
and Of twilight should be the most
beautiful part of it. They bring him
To Il realization of the solemnity of
| life. of the great wisdom which man
ages all things.
No young man. rejoicing in his
strength. planning, struggling for per-
sonal ACKNOWLEDGMENT can know the
peace and the happy calm Of the old
man with a quiet body and serene,
| active mind.
Today, unfortunately, old age is as
sociated in our thought with the spec
tire of possible want, of poverty and
dependence.
Before many more centuries shall
have passed this ghost of poverty will
have been laid. 1t will no longer be
necessary for men to struggle fran
tically to provide against poverty in
| old age.
Every young man in that future,
better day. while discharging faithfully
the duties of youth, will look forward
with keen anticipation to the rest and
the Well-descrved mental enjoyment
of the last years.
Good books are the best friends of
man.
We wish that We could impress upon
every American father and mother
| and teacher tho intense Importance
of making it easy for the coming gen.
Grafton to read the books that are
| worth while.
There is much talk about education.
what it should and should not include.
OF this fact never lose sight The
greatest Of all things is to know how
to read we'll
We imagine that we all know how
to read
But while we all read. only the
smallest fraction of the population
knows how to read. Only one in Il
great number reads with real ease
| and intelligence.
In addressing the school teachers of
| France. Jaures tried especially to i'm
press upon them the fact that their
principal duty was to teach their emil
| drcn to read intelligently.
There are few ADLER. more sincere
men living today than Jaurcs, and he
| never had a better thought than that.
Arithmetic. geography. bookkeeping
| cation. they prepare the child for prac-
teal conditions, and to n certain ex-
| tent they develop the mind as all men
| tai exercise necessarily does.
But the mind is really fed through
reading.
Unless YOU can take up and read
with ease the works Of any great man
philosopher. historian, essayist, NOR
| alist, scientist, or political economist
YOU are shut out from the world of
thought which makes the possession Of
a brain really worth while.
What We ordinarily call reading
the ability to swallow a novel or race
through the columns Of a newspaper
is not reading at all. There are in
this country about fourteen millions of
voters who think that they can read.
About one in ten of them really
Can read-perhaps not as many as one
in ten.
If a man takes up a volume written
by an earnest thinker and finds that ne
makes mis- way through it painfully
and slowly. like a child with a first
reader that man cannot read.
The education of children suffers be
cause we imagine that they can read
when they are able to recite aloud the
words of a simple printed page.
The greatest books that ever have
been written are practically without
readers. because the population as a
whole does not know how to read.
In the great Libraries the books best
worth while lie dusty on the shelves,
while trashy, frothy things or pseudo
scientific works are made to take the
place of real merit-Boston American.
Prairie chickens are so thick in
western Kansas this year that passing