Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-01-05

| we do not know without consulting dc
tionary, and if possible, committing
some of the finest passages to memory
this is the only way to read with profit.
Many will object that such method
would take too much time. But even the
most brilliant intellects found no short
cut to knowledge by reading.
Franklin advised everybody to read
with pen in hand and to make notes
of all they read Joseph Cook also ad-
vised all young men and women to keep
commonplace books and make notes of
their reading.
Macaulays Rule.
Henry Ward Beecher, in the course
of a conversation on reading, said:
The great point is to read nothing
without reflection. Dr.. Macaulay who
used to preach in New York, told me
that when a boy at college he began to
read enthusiastically, but that at the
foot of every page he read he stopped
and obliged himself to give an account
Of what he had read on that page. At
first he had to read it three or four
times before he got his mind firmly
| fixed. But he vigorously compelled him
self to conform to the process, until
now, he says, after he has read a book
through once, he can almost recite it
from beginning to end. 1t is a very
simple habit to form early in life, and
is invaluable for acquiring accuracy
and thorough knowledge of the mate
rial with which a man has to deal"
1t is recorded that Macaulay, the
great English historian and essayist,
adopted a similar plan of reading in
his youth.
Harriet Martineau said of herself: 81
am the slowest of readers-sometimes
a page an hour is all ! read"
q never knew but one or two fast
readers, or readers of many books,
whose knowledge was worth any
thing" observes Rev. f. w. Robertson.
Il read hard or not at all, never skim
ming, never turning aside to merely
inviting books; and the thoughts of
Plato, Aristotle, Thucydid5s, Sterne and
Jonathan Edwards have passed, like
the iron atoms of the blood, into my
mental constitution"
MY mother compelled me to learn,
by daily toll, long chapters OF the Bible
by heart says Ruskin, and to his dis
cipline l owe not only my knowledge
Of this work, but also much of my gen
eral power for taking pains and the
best part of my taste in literature"
If men and women whose Intellectual
| pre-eminence has made them guide
| posts for future generations, had to be
so patient and laborious in forming
correct reading habits, can the average
boy or girl of the twentieth century
afford to take less pains?
Wealth of Reading q Snare.
The fact that the majority of people
to-day are less thorough in their read
ing than were their grandfathers and
grandmothers is largely owing to the
/ bewildering mass of books magazines
and newspapers at their command in
Libraries, clubs and reading rooms, and
to be obtained for a few cents at book
stalls, or in department stores
We usually appreciate advantages
according to the difficulty of obtaining
them, and it frequently happens that
it is not the boy VINO is brought up in
an atmosphere of books who has easy
access to immense Libraries and read
ing rooms, and who has perhaps a
score of magazines coming to his home
each month, who gains most from his
opportunities. How often is it the
country lad, to whom books are lux
ury, who may never have seen a
library, but who devours the few vol
umes he can borrow as if he would
never see them again, who is heard
from in after life. Lincoln got more
real good out of the half dozen books
to which he had access as a youth than
many a modern boy ever gets ont of
the great city libraries and reading
rooms which are constantly open to
him.
Busy people complain that they have
not time to read carefully, that their
reading must be done ION the fly" on
the trains, on cars or ferryboats, or on
their way to and from store or office,
or not at all. Others say that they
cannot reserve any special time for
reading, and that it is impossible, in
the midst of household duties or other
distractions TO seize odd intervals of
leisure and read connectedly or with
any degree of profit.
All May Have Culture.
1t is not necessary to have a pre-
scribed time for reading, or a certain
number of hours day to devote to it in
order to become well read If the habit
of concentration has been fixed in boy
hood and girlhood we can read to ad-
vantage, no matter What our environ
ment or how limited or broken the time
at our disposal. 1t would of course, be
greatly in our favor to have an hour or
two each day which we could count
upon absolutely for mental culture.
But because we have not is no reason
why we should not be cultured if we
desire to be, If the desire be there we
| will make the most Of olIr OnnortInitiee