In my experience, both as teacher and scholar, I have observed among the
young those who read a great many books, but at the end appear but
little wiser. They may have a confused and indistinct recollection of
events and characters, and may be able perhaps to follow out the plan of
a story. Out of the mass that they have read they may have retained a
great many facts; but being without connection or object, they are
nearly useless. Bad habits are formed, their reading is to no purpose,
and their time, therefore, misspent.
I fear there are too few among those whose years should enable them to
understand and appreciate the objects for which we live, that do
appreciate them. There are too many who suppose that reading is only a
very pleasant amusement. They think of printing as a very ingenious
invention, and have no thought higher. They may look about and see a
great deal of misery and unhappiness; but its alleviation is nothing to
them. "The great mission of life" is something that is very well to be
talked of in the pulpit, and ministers and reformers will accomplish it,
no doubt. But life has no responsibilities for them.
One of our first duties is to seek our own moral and intellectual
culture. Let both these portions of our nature be cultivated together.
Do not separate them, for by so doing both are threatened with danger.
Heart without mind is generally weak, but mind without heart is always
dangerous. Do not suppose because you have left the schoolroom and no
longer have lessons set, and are no longer reprimanded if they are not
committed, that your education is finished. Rather regard the _school_
as the place where you shall learn to study, life as your term-time, and
consider your education finished when there is nothing more for you to
learn. It is not necessary that study should be confined to books.
Accustom yourself to study actions and their influences and effects.
Public lectures, conversations, in short, every event of your life, will
present questions, and your own mind, with a little reflection, will
present the answers. If it does not, do not let the fear of ridicule
prevent your asking.
But it is through books, chiefly, that we are to look for improvement.
Every person should appropriate some part of each day to reading. Young
persons should early be taught the advantages of a method for
appropriating their time. Let each duty have its time. In this way much
time is saved. Let the time you appropriate to reading be one that will
be the least liable to interruption. Defer it not, if it can be avoided,
till late in the evening, when you are wearied with the fatigues of the
day.
At the present day, when books are so easily obtained, there is no need
of the excuse of inability to procure them. Circulating libraries are
easy of access,--though caution should be used in selecting from
them,--and each Sabbath school has a library open for all. There has
been much said, and much written about books of fiction, whether they
may be read with safety by the young. Fiction as such need not be
condemned, though works of fiction should be sparingly read. But if read
at all, let them be selected by persons of experience. There is much in
the current fiction of the day that is pernicious and unfit for
publication.
But if we set aside the light reading, there are standard works enough
to furnish reading for one generation. The better newspapers of the day
should be carefully read. The newspapers of this week are the history of
the world for this week. In each particular branch of literature there
are books without number, not only worthy of perusal, but deserving of
careful study. In history we have Rollin, Hume, Smollet, Prescott,
Macaulay, and Robertson. Philosophy, theology, and science, each in its
turn, brings names as illustrious.
But there is one book above all others. Never complain for want of
reading while we have such historians as Moses, poets before whom
Shakspeare dwindles into insignificance, philosophers of a higher and
holier school, and truths that exceed the most astonishing fictions.
Where has Scott a heroine that can compare with Ruth? Grand as are the
beauties of the Bible, life-giving as is its wisdom, and imperishable as
are its truths, it is too frequently left unread.
As a general thing, too much is read; more than can be well retained.
One page well read is more beneficial than a whole volume merely glanced
over. Never read the second line until the first is fully understood.
Make the author's sentiments your own. In reading history it is highly
important you should have a clear idea of the locality where the events
occurred. I have found by experience that the best method deeply to
impress what I have read, is to have at hand writing materials, and
after each reading write out as fully as possible whatever new idea has
been presented. But in all that you read, keep in view the great object
of your reading,--_Self Improvement_.