The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-28
ncrnnIonn1 Recr1ntlon.

AS d Ie5OuTC6, d CHduSS lTOHl lll6 ordinary cares and tolls of life, read Ing is a sedative that oomposes the mind and restores it's calm and regu- lar movements. Like temperate and wholesome drink, it at once refreshes and nourishes, and may be safely talk en in large and frequent drafts. Most men need something like balance wheel to equalize the operation of their mental and moral powers, and to pre- vent the imagination and fancy from domineering over the reason and judg- ment, to break sudden shocks of pas sion and interest, and to carry the mind past seasons of weariness, de- pression, disappointment or affliction. A man without any such conservative provision in his nature Is the fool of chance, and every wind that blows. His mind, i'll regulated from the start, becomes rapidly more and more disor- dered by the tear and excitement of each succeeding day. iHis only relief is in the other settlements still more frivolous and unsatisfactory, until his increasing restlessness is looked upon even by the very servants who witness it, with less of compassion than con- tempt.
 This miserable condition can never be the fate of the reading man. To him, a few books in lis house are as couch, on which his mind can repose for an hour or two of each day, and then he returns calm and refreshed to his customary business. Moreover, any kind of business or avocation is digni- fled and made honorable, when pur- sued by such mana man who reads, and has some knowledge and ideas out side of his necessary daily occupations. But. the man who knows nothing, and can think of nothing beyond his husi- ness, whether that is forging horse- shoes, selling cambrics, painting pic- lures, or preparing law cases, degrades that business, and is degraded by it, and who does not know that wN have narrow minded and mlserably lgnor- ant professional men, artists and merchants, as we'll as blacksmiths? Unvaried toll of any kind is mean and | degrading.
 Reading is no loss of time to the tbuslness man, by allowing his rivals | to pass him in the race. For this life | Is not race depending upon one short l and exhausting effort; 1t is a voyage, | a journey of alternate effort, action | and repose. Continued action without repose produces a mental heat or fever l that is unfavorable to the exercise of Ithe judgment without which the great est talents achieve no results. The artist who has worked for many hours over his composition, until, wearied and confused, he begins to doubt as to some of the details or effects of ] his piece, loses no time by shutting ur his studio, and passing the evening ir pleasant society, or at the play Or returning in the morning, as he un- locks his door, and catches the first view of his work, he can judge of il almost as clearly as though it were that of some other person. Even the statesman, harassed by his rivals, or burdened with some problem of do- nestle or foreign policy, may wisely take his gun or his rod, or unmoor his little boat for a few hours sail and
 on returning to his office, his burdens and difficulties will probably not be found greater, but less, than when he left them; simply because he comes back stronger and with cooler judg- ment to cope with them. Even the scholar, who has so much to learn that he weighs time to the utmost grain, will end with becoming little better than one of his own vocabula- ries, unless he gives some hours oi each day to his family and the gen eraI interests of society. Thus it iS that any pursuit. though in itself the most dignif1ed, when 1t is so followed as to keep the mind always bound tt | 1t, alwys in harness, becomes after {
 while slavish, physical habit. Tht mind then works mechanically ant
 without judgment. and therefore doe' much to no purpose, reaping in tht
 end neither happiness nor respect al
 the fruit of it's labors. Against this
 what better anr more perfect safe
 guard for the man of business, ther
 than the habit of reading ?-Charle'
 W. Stearns.