Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1909-10-28

a potent adjunct to mental and moral
advancement, as well as in the per-
usal of biographies, memoirs and
travels. In the latter we get no
glimpse of the dormant passions, the
hidden sorrows, the inner trials and
trillmphs which so profoundly inter
est and effect u.s. All these the nov
el1st dlscloses to US, and that is what
makes a great novel the most power
ful Of all teachers. 'Innocently to
amuse the imagination III this dream
OF life is WISDOM SO wrote Gold
smith, and surely among those who
have earned the world S gratitude
by this ministration he must be ac-
corded a conspicuous place If in
his delightful writings he avoids the
darker problems of existence; if the
mystery of the tragic is rarely touch
ed upon we can pardon the omission
for the sake of the gentle optimism
that would rather see the kindly side
of life-"You come in hot and tired
from days battle, and this sweet
minstrel sings to you,' says Mr..
Thackery.
Unlike the dismal pess1mist, Carl
ysle, Goldsmith was ever the happy
go-lucky optimist, who, in rustic par
lance preferred to look steadily at
the doughnut rather than at the
hole.
A good library is an inspiration to
the student, a joy to the man of let
ters, a help to the scientist, an un-
raveler of difficulties to the philo-
sopher, an education to the simple
and unlearned-not such an educa-
ton as Tony Weller gave his son,
Ismael, which he boastfully confided
to Mr.. Pickwick as something that
reflected honor on himself, Eyes,
SIR" he said, ST took a great deal
Of pains with his eddication sir; let
him run the streets, when he was
very young and shift for hisself.
It's the only way to make a boy
sharp sir. -
In the pages of Chas. Dickens, the
great humorist, and broad gauge ed
ucator of our time, the man who do
mesticated himself, as a genial COM
panion at millions of firesides-the
man who has provoked so many
sealed the springs of so many puri-
tying tears, we see exemplified the
results pure and simple of reading
Without systematic scholarship he
took the world by storm, and estab-
lished himself as a favorite with
high and low wherever the English
language was spoken. Even such
men, as Macauley, Sidney Smith,
and Jeffrey, who with critical con
servation at first resisted him, end
ed by yielding uncompromisingly ito
the riotous humor of the daring
genius, who overleaped the barriers
that had separated the classes in
England for ages, and extended all
the way down from the throne to the
cottage
Edward Everett Ha1e's FEMan with
out country" makes every one who
reads it realize the joy of sharing
in the national life of their native
country, and the grief and despair
of an exile separated forever from
home and friends.
Not long ago a lady related to an
acquaintance the story of wise
young mother who had been reading
aloud to her somewhat self-willed boy
of six years, Kipling's Jungle books.
She found to her surprise that the
stories were proving her most effec-
tual means of controlling the child.
Being a woman of sound, good sense,
and natural psychological insight she
was able to discover the reason The
child seemed from the first to get
the suggestion of law and obedience
(which runs through the stories, and
which is crystalized in the Law of
the Jungle-''Now these are the laws
of the Jungle:
And many and mighty are they
But the head and the hoof of the
law,
And the haunch and the hump is
obey
Life is not long enough to learn
from experience alone, what one
should and can know through the
medium Of books. The public lib
rary is here to meet the needs of
men if they will but take advantage
of tiff they do not, they are drift
ing dangerously near the reefs of
lost opportunities. Such 1amentable
cases recall that scene III Pilgrims