CHAPTER V.

ON READING.

That is a most extraordinary art, reader, by which I am now communicating my thoughts to you, although perhaps a thousand miles intervene between us, with as much ease and accuracy, as though you were in my immediate presence.— This operation, to one who is a stranger to the method of its performance, would appear the work of supernatural agents. A late writer, in describing the inhabitants of one of the remote islands of the Pacific Ocean, states that they had no conception of the arts of writing or reading. When informed that one person can communicate his thoughts to another, without voice, or gesture, or without being in his presence, they utterly discredited the assertion. But after repeated experiments, becoming fully satisfied of its truth, yet viewing it as a work transcending all human power, they alleged that it must have been accomplished by necromancy.

The art of communicating ideas by inscribing

visible characters, is of very ancient date. In its first stage, it consisted merely in drawing a rough sketch or outline of the object, in regard to which the communication was made. From this state the art was advanced to the use of more systemized hieroglyphics; and from these, gradually improved to our present system of writing. Previous to the invention of the art of printing, books were multiplied only by the pen—a work so laborious and slow, as to cause them to be few in number, and of immense value. So scarce were books, that ambassadors were once expressly sent from France to Rome, to obtain a copy of Cicero's Orations, and Quintilian's Institutes. The library of the Bishop of Winchester, in 1494, contained but parts of seventeen books; and on his borrowing a copy of the Scriptures from the neighboring convent of St. Swithin, he had to give a heavy bond, drawn up with great solemnity, that he would return it uninjured. If any one gave a book to a convent or monastery, it was supposed to confer everlasting salvation upon him. Previous to the year 1300, the library of Oxford University consisted only of a few tracts, which were carefully locked in a small chest, or else chained, lest they should be carried away.

There are two prominent objects in reading, viz :—amusement, and the acquisition of valuable knowledge. These, if possible, should be combined into one. No volume should be perused for amusement, which does not instruct as well as

delight. And all publications of an instructive character, will amuse and please the mind, when read with a proper thirst for its lessons of wisdom. It should be the desire of every youth, of both sexes, to acquire a habit or taste for reading. This habit will soon become one of the highest sources of enjoyment. But it must be acquired young. If it is not established before the age of twenty-five or thirty, the probability is, that it will not be at all; and the individual in this condition, will be cut off from one of the most valuable sources of knowledge and improvement. You should read, not only for the pleasure which it affords you, but to obtain practical information, and to enlarge and enlighten your views on those subjects intimately connected with your welfare, and the interests of your race. You should read to "multiply your ideas, correct your errors, erase your prejudices, purify your principles, and that you may settle down on the everlasting foundation of truth, in all things."

A well established habit of reading, bestows benefits innumerable. The young lady or gentleman possessing this habit gives fair promise of future respectability and usefulness. There is little reason to apprehend that they will become profligate or vicious. Examine the victims of crime—the inmates of prisons—and, as a general rule, it will be discovered, that in youth they were averse to reading. In perusing useful publications, the youthful mind is elevated above the in

fluence of vicious passions, and is absolved from their contaminations.

Through the medium of books, you can live, as it were, in all past ages. You can enter the presence of the wise and the great of antiquity— you can listen to their lessons of instruction— treasure up the fruits of their research and experience, and thus make them your immediate instructors. In books you have at your disposal the history of your race. You can range over its ample extent—beholding here, the corroding influence of wealth without just principles—there, the fruits of blind rashness—and every where, the unavoidable evils flowing from ignorance and sin, and the superior advantages of knowledge and virtue. As the bee extracts honey from objects nauseous and poisonous; so can the industrious reader obtain lessons of useful wisdom, from the errors and imperfections of those who figure on the historic page.

The reader, while sitting by his own fireside, becomes a traveller in foreign lands. He participates in much of the enjoyment of the tourist, without experiencing any of his difficulties and dangers. He thus obtains an acquaintance with the condition, manners and customs of distant nations; and his mind becomes enlarged by contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of morals, of religions and literature. He is also enabled to compare the numerous privileges and advantages, which he enjoys in this happy land,

with those possessed by other nations—and be led the more sensibly to appreciate the immense value of our system of government, and the importance of striving to purify and perpetuate it.

Reading fills up many leisue hours, which Would probably be otherwise less profitably occupied. When the labor or business of the day is closed, the mind relaxes and seeks for amusement. These are dangerous hours to the young. Then temptations put on their most fascinating garbs; and unless guarded against by some counter power—some repelling force—will lead to every species of evil. These critical seasons test the character, and reveal the prospects of the young. Those youth who have established the habit of reading, in these times of leisure, turn as naturally and readily to their books for amusement, as do the profligate, to scenes of infamy and vice. And thus reading not only saves from forming sinful habits, but becomes the means of laying up stores of useful information, to be turned to profitable account in after years. The young, in this way, can deposite treasures in a "Savings Bank," that will yield a compound interest to their owner. In what manner can youth of either sex, pass an evening more usefully, than in perusing some entertaining and valuable publication, for their own edification and that of the family circle? The habit of reading can become so deeply settled, as to form the controlling desire of the mind. So firmly was this habit established in Brutus, that