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Reading

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Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
June
Year
1882
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Ours is an age of books. Almost every family in civilized countries is able to have ils newspapers. magazines and bound volumes. In earlier periods of the earth's history this was not so. Aristotle is said to have paid $3,000 for a few books, and Plato gave è 1,000 for three volumes. Ia that day books were rare and those that did exist were written upon parchment, bark, bronze, marble or slabs of slate. A single one of these, still preserved as a curiosity in the vatican at Rome, contains fourteen leaden leaves, three inches wide and four long, and in the University of Goettingen is a relie of equal if not greater curiosity, viz. a Bible written upon leaves of palm. At a later period historians teil us of ambassadors who were sent from France to Rome to borrow a few works like Cicero de Oratore and Quintilian's Institutes, in 1494, the bishop of Winchester wishing to obtain the loan of a Bible from St. Swithin was required to give bonds to return the same in an uninjuredcondition. ín that age giving a book to a convent conferred salvation upon the soul of the donor, and the sentence of eternal damnation was pronounced by the conyent of Rochester upon him who should steal a translation of Aristotle. The Univcrsity oí Oxford prior to the fourteenth century had as a library only a few tracts locked up in a chest, and at the same period the royal library of France posaessed four cjassics and a few devotional works. Ho wever the print ing presa ha3 revolutionized this. Ever since John Faust issued his first book of a single page, the tendency has been towards au abundance of literature. Not only books, but magazines and newspapers have sprung inio being. Of these last the first appeared in England in 1622, and the Qrst in this country in 1090. As an instance of progrec z may be mentioned the fact that St. ÍTicholas had a circulation of 16.000,000 and the New York Herald of 90,000 copies. The issue of books has been equally remarkable. Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin had a sale of about 1,000,000 copies in this country and England, and Sir Charles Lyell's Principie,} of Geolojjy has alreacly run through Ihe eleventh edition. Such facts show the advantages whieh wo posse3S for study and reading over those posssessed by the ancients. liut if their libraries were limited they utilized the few works to which they had access all the more caref ully. Juvenal relates that some of their books were read as many as ten times, and the result of this ough study, as well as travel, was seen in the remarkable and able scholars of antiquity. In our age also many a. man has read his way froin poverty to a position of infiueuce and honor. Such was the case with Henr Wilson, Ilugh Miller, Ilorace Grfif;ley, Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, and last but not least the man who wassorecently elected to the highest office fey a vote of 50,000,000 peeple, President Gai field. If, however, we possess superior advantages for improvement our age also affords greater facilities for idleness. Much of our literature is wiiüen by bad men who care only for the royalty on their books and nothing for their iufluence. The re'sult is that we have many books that ought never to be read. As examples of this class may be cited the cheap novel, the sensational newspaper and a large part of the works soid in periodical stores and railway cars. Auother class of literary productions contain a good moral and have much to eo nmend them but the w'nole material is inbedded in a inatrix of slush. The moral is excellent, but in order to reach it the reader is required to push his way through a Ion? and of ten silly story. The works of Dickens, again are able and shrewd, but entirely too prolix. The moral and object of his pieces are good, but the characters aie generally low. He introduces his readers to ruffians, rowdies, and slums of society, and only exceptionally portrays a person who3e influence is enobliag and iuspiring. Such reading is not to be indiscriminately condemned. Farbetter that.than none at al!. Uetter even the reading of such works as Eugene Sue, George Sand, or Alexauder Dumaí. But af ter all, does it pay ? The world is full of better bjoks and the period of human existence is limit ed. The average ears of man are three score and ten, and, if ne spends bis time in light reading, hemustdeny himself of that which is superior. Youth is also the most imprefsible time of life. Memory is then more retentive than ever af terwards. If a person spend his time at that period in accumulating material for future usefulness, it will doubtless bringhim joy and pleasure in after life; but, if he waste it in light reading, and glean no f acts, the wrong done himse! f can never be righted, and he must ever b5 content to f all just that much short of realizing the possibilities of his existence, A person's attaiuing the allotted three score years and ten is often conditioned upon his gaining a certain amount of kuowledge. lgnorance of the laws of health has sent many a persou into a premature grave. To succeed in this world it is necessary for people to learn the laws which attain in nature and in society and to obey them. The average duration of human existence is in creas' ng, be cause we are learning how to avoid and to cure disease. Nature makes the transgression of her laws a crime and punishes the one who viólales them through ignorance just as severely as the one whose disobedience was wilf ui. The men whotn the woild de lights to honor are earnest, thouahtf ui readers and students every one of them. It is said of Carlisle that when he had once read a book it was like a sucked orange. He had absorbed all its contents. Daniel Webster read and reread his fayorite authors. Sir Ed ward Sugden made everything his own; and Edmund Burke is said to have read a book as if he should never see it agaiu. It is this kind of reading which makes one strong. A good book well read elevates the reader to a higher plañe of existence. Bad books lead to vice. In their perusal persons get ërroneous and fanciful ideas of life. They often synipa thize with the rufflan who is representod as tlie hero of the story andattempt to emulate hia coaduct. Ouly recently the New York Tribune contained the account of two boys who read Dick Turpin and ran away froni the purpose of entering upon a similar careen They had money enough to pay one's fare upon the cars, and the other was enclosed in a trunk and checked as baggage. But alai for the endeavor! "The bst laiii plans of mice and men Gang aft a glee." and it was so in this case. The trunk was roughly haDdled, thrown in the baggaBe car and other trunks piled upon it until tin youngster, oppressed for air, was glad to be let out even at the expense of detection. The other would be D.'ck Turpin wm also arrested and the two returned to their homes sadder, and it is to be hoped better boys. Not only on account of its being a waste of time, enervating the mind, and leading to vice is bad reading to be condemned, but also from the faet that it makes one like the author. If there is any one thing more than another certain in literatura it is that books stiow the character of theoneby whoiu ihey are written. In Gibbon, for instance, one sees the foe of christianity; in Macauley, the lover of f reedom ; and in Hume the champion of royalty. So it is with the other historians, the novelists.and the poets. And as one canuot expect to walk arm in arm with a miller without having his garments soiled in like manner he must not expect to commune with a bad author through the medium of his works without having his mindtainted. Why even the tree-toad becomes in color like the bark or leaf on which he sits and many insects soon come to resemble the shrub on which they light. Just so is it with people. A person's Ufe and character is influenced by his associates to such an extent that it has become proverbial that "a man is knovvn by the company he keeps. Even so in nterature. We commune with and keep the author's company. Books are to us the means of intercourse with the good and great or the bad of past ages. Through them we can think the authora thoughts and enter into the impulses and inspirations of his life. But in so doing we must expect tobe made better or worse just as our author is above or beneath us. But nothing is more foolish than to spend time in reading a work that is beyond one's comprehension. "The more sash the less light," is true in regard to a window, ani it ia also true that many an authors meaning is rendered obscure and difficult of comprehension by his cumbersome mode of expression. The real question then should be not"wi)l the reading of this bouk do me any harm?" but'cwillitdo me any good ï" Settle that question in the ailirmative and you have a standard to guide your reading. That vo.ume which does not improve one mentally, or morally, or both, is unworthy of attention.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat