The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-06-05
SWEET GIRL
GRADUATES
From Miss Dana'S Seminary
Pay their Adieux to School
Life on Tuesday.
A NOTABLE EVENT In GIRL LIFE


held last Tuesday morning in the GYM
nasium, which had been seated and a
platform erected for the occasion.
Back Of the platform the wall was
hung with green and on it was the
motto " Age Quod Agis. At the rear
Of the platform were thirteen hand
some white columns surmounted by
punches Of blossoms and joined by
garlands.
The school as usual marched from
the main building singing as they
went. Then came the graduates and
then Miss Dana, Miss Newell and
those who participated in the pro-
gram.
The exercises opened with prayer by
the Rev. S. w. Dana, after which the
glee club under the direction Of Dud-
ley Buck, Jr., sang Merry June. "
Miss Ethel Brown rendered Scherzo,
op. 81, by Chopin.
The speaker of the occasion was
Leon Vincent, Of Boston, who an
nounced that his subject would be
G Heroic Reading" an important and
much needed theme. The graduates
he said, had said goodbye to school
and embarked in the complex civiliza-
Uion. No question is more important
than what to read Reading is half Of
life, the foundation of culture. Con-
versation as an art has ceased to exist,
perhaps because people have not time
to both read and talk, and it is a won
der that they do aught but read.
Newspapers although thrown to-
gether, afford multitudes of pages Of
the best type Of reading. The acutest
men and best writer's are employed on
these publications. Then, the maga-
zines are getting so large and so num-
erous that it is impossible to follow
them. The counters gfoan with new
books. Libraries are choked with
them and some are hiring storage
rooms to keep the reserve stock. 1t is
no longer necessary to depend on the
public libraries for books as they have
become amazingly cheap and the
works of classic authors can be had
for a song. In the degree in which
you multiply, you complicate heroic
reading.
If you had transplanted the. Aus
tralian squatter with his Bible,
Shakespeare, and Macauley's Essays,
he would have become confused and
waste his time trying to decide what
to read. The majority Of people want
someone to tell them what to read
and then do not care to follow the adj
vice. Books have been written ex-
pressly to tell how to read books, like
the memory systems in vogue some
years ago. Fortunately, most books
teach their own use.
A large class reads too little, but a
larger class reads too much and mod
GRAFTON is important. 1t is sometimes
part of heroism not to read. The
heroic reader is he who has the cour-
age to leave most books alone.
Few Of us would fail to be better for
living on our own fat for a little
while. We must read or 90 Grassy.
Madness stares us in the face, A
steady course of light novels will re-
duce one's mind to pulp in very
short time. The man who continually
reads makes fetish of a book and
prostrates himself before it with a
mind of his own, dumb in the pres
ence Of another mind which had the
courage to speak its thoughts.
The speaker also protested against
reading as a form Of idIeness. We
must live, but be epicures in reading
as well as in eating. Make wise selec-
tions and read with alertness of facul-
ties. Ii a book is without inspiration
what is the use Of filling our minds,
for most Of us have commonplace
ideas enough OF our own.
It is the part Of culture to read
largely, but there are two classes OF
people. One class specially gifted
needs a library or bookstore when
sitting down to read, rather than a
book. and when finished knows what
is in the volumes.
The rest of us need fewer books and
careful selection. Mr., Vincent urged
as necessity that his hearers read
Chaucer, especially the Canterbury
tales. Shakespeare and translation
Of the Odyssey. Then Bacon's Essays,
a library packed in few pages.
Three novelists of the Victorian
period he also suggested, Dickens,
Thackery and George Eliot. Then
of the poets read Byron, Shelley,
Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Brown
ing, William Morris and Swinbourne.
TO the class Mr.. Vincent said that
the reading done at the school had
been for study, but as they went out
it was to live and they must determine
for themselves what books they would
read. Determine wisely and waste no
time. lis worth while not to allow
anything to interfere with the form
Of intellectual life which grows out Of
your books.
The address was followed by a piano
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