Year: 1877

Recreation, like many another good
old word has, under modern usage, fallen
from its high estate. Its sonorous sue
cession of syllables is often most unustly
belittled into the meaning of -pastime
But the melody of its resonance may
demand for 1t the higher dignity of its
fuller and loftier significance, as that
refreshment to faculty and feeling which
revives, renews, and re-animates. It is
under this better sense that reading may
be esteemed as recreation, and con-
sidered as one Of the strongest. as well
as one Of the most convenient, aids to
the restoration of exhausted energy and
the rehabilitation of overworn faculties.


As sleep with soothing helpfulness
unconsciously knits up the ravalled sleeve
of care. so docs rest and rofreshment,
physical and mental, come with that
genial relaxation in which the habitual
reader can at once fling his body into
his easy chair, and his thouthts into bis
book, and float away from surrounding
sorrows, enfranchised for the time from
the oppression of those petty evils of life
that wear the mind, rack the nerves, and
wreck the temper From such an in
teryal Of relreshmcnt the intellect re-
turns as from visit to distant land.
Relieved and terminated, it re-examines
its individual surroundings with a clearer
! insight, the WEAKNESS of monotony is
broken, habitual occupations assume a
different aspect, and the clouds that in
evitably gather around the path brighter
under the more genial light.


Easiest of access. reading is Of al
pleasures the least expensive, both 10
time and money Other amusemengs
must be sought abroad, at considerable
expenditure of physical excrtion and
pecuniary outlay but the benifccnt
bookshelf, close to the family. hearth
stone, offers freely its rich bounty, beg
ging only acceptance for its abounding
treasures, and presenting, with a gen
erosity as lavish as it is varied, food for
every fancy and balm for every wound


The supreme excellence of this bounty
rests, indeed, in its universal adaptability


The blessing Of reading is as free as the
light to our eyes and breath 10 our
nostrils it is a boon waiting ready
suited to every grade Of intelligence.
Like the fabled well from which each at
will may draw the draft he needs, 80 it
prolfcrs solacc and re(reshment 10 every
variety of taste, and every degree Of
capacity. With equal intensity Of pleas
ure the baby-girl may hug her fairy
story, the boy hang over bis Robinson
Crusoe while the boundloss diversities
Of fiction can realize the dreams Of every
Imagination, and satisfy the needs Of
every intellect. The weariness of the
laborious, and the cnnui Of tie unem-
ployed, alike finds the needed refresh
ment, and the student seeks bis relaxation,
perhaps, from the very Same volume
which acts as a stimulant 10 the idler.


The pursuit Of happiness ranks among
the inalienable rights Of humanity, and
it behooves every individual VI prudentIy
consider the path by which lo attempts
to reach the wished-for goal AS a staff
by the way, as a solace for sorrow, rs a
rest under fatigue, as a stimblant under
depression, no aid is 50 dircct and olIi-
cient as the habit Of reading and it might
be wisely cultivated If I'll no higher
service. But amply in ey4ry way will