The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1907-10-17

soui, heart and mind, and give us the
right to belong to the enlightened class
OF society, who know what they are
talking about, know their race, their
people, their country and their times ?
This statement has only, as must be
we'll understood, relative meaning.
Nobody can ever know everything
about anything. We understand only
and discern in degrees any question on
any problem whatsoever that has been
debated in the past, is debated in the
present and will be debated in the
future. We are 30 shaped, we children,
OF men, both individually and collect;
lively, that we will not only need all the
time of the present existence but all of
eternity as we'll, to fnd out everything
OF even the least important. question
that life has put upon mankind as
problem to solve. Now as to the read
Ing and study OF books, it is given here
as my individual opinion, that we have
to be just as careful in the selection of
books as we ought to be in the selec-
ton of clothes and intimate friends.
NO morally sane man would ever
choose an individual as his friend and
close companion who is of british.
low, and wholly irresponsible character
or even entertain the idea that the TO-
clety OF an earth bound. pessimistic,
unretined and uncultured individual
would help him to develop the best and
nOblest in himself. He would neither
entertain the illusion that character,
who had only one idea as his fixed rule
of life, that of wallzing, imbibing in.
toxicants aud sucking cigarettes. would
help him to fight the great struggle OF
life with the most possible success to
himself as rational being. Just SO in
choosing books. They are our. close
and intimate companions. Aud as we
choose our reading, go to certain ex-
tent will we lind ourseif to be. Spirit
works upon spirits; soul Influences
soul; mind makes impressions on mind
thru books and reading, just as well as
thru everyday society with personal
individuals.
Thorean, the eminent French writer
and philosopher, once said: s'Read the
best books first, or you may not have
time to read them at ALL" That is nv
opinion, too. Life is short, very short
compared with the countless stacks OF
books on all and every question of life
and eternity, that cry out for readers
and students. Onlya very insignificant
and limited plumber of all those books
is 1t possible for any one individual to
read. Therefore, read the best books
first And these are the books that.
more than all others combined, have
had marked influence on their times
and on mankind in general. Some of
them have made epochs in history and
some of them will make epochs in the
very near future. They include ell
kinds, or rather are to be found among
all kinds of books. You will find them
in the novelistic literature, the historic
romances, the Literature of history,
dramas and arts, and the literature of
science and poetry.
In order to know something about
the sciences, that the average man has
no time to study ip specially, we can
avail ourselves of the best chances Of
fered us in the leading works Of COM
paratiye science. To know something
about the two great philosophical
schools or cults, the inductiye and de-
ductive, started by Plato and Aristotle
and further development In modern
times by the German and English
schools Of philosophy, q standard work
on comparative philosophy will open
for us the very intricate roads the hu-
man mind in its reasoning faculties
have travelled in order to solve the still
nnsolved problems, as far as philosophy
is concerned, from whence did we come:
what are we; whittier do we 60? TheFe
is also one new science, that the stu
dent of problems and of his time ought
to know something about, the science
of teIepathy. 1t has up to this time
been studied as branch Of philosophi-
cal Psychology. but is more ard more
developing itself into an individual and
specific science.
Since the discovery of the Roentgen
fConfinped On Daee fo,,y