63 



long been familiar with, henceforth to him will possess a new 

 meaning ? 



As it is with the world of objects surrounding us, when we 

 walk abroad among the works of Nature, so is it when we turn to 

 books which treasure up for us such inexhaustible sources of 

 refined pleasure, from which we can refresh the over-taxed mind or 

 body. In the region of rom.ance we may be able to enjoy the 

 descriptive powers of Scott, and laugh at the humour or weep at 

 the pathos of Dickens. In the field of poetry and imagination we 

 may be able to appreciate the stately sublimity of "Paradise Lost" 

 and the loftiness of its theme, or be lost in amaze at the far-seeing 

 philosophy of human life of a Shakespeare. We may be able to 

 admire and appreciate the language which clothes the thoughts 

 and aspirations of the greatest and noblest who have ever lived, 

 and yet all the time be insensible to the worlds of poetry, of history, 

 piety — nay, even of superstitious bigotr}', religious persecution and 

 crime, which are oftimes hidden in the words themselves, entirely 

 apart from the subject matter of the writer. Even from words of 

 commonest use we may often draw interesting scraps of information. 

 For instance, I am reading now from a "book." In its primary 

 signification the word book does not mean an article made up of 

 paper, print, page and binding — it once meant nothing more than 

 " beech," i. e. the tree we know as the beech ; and probably the 

 term at first meant " bark"; and this carries us back in thought to 

 the remote ages when our ancestors, still dwelling in the forests of 

 Germany, used the smooth bark of that particular kind of tree on 

 which to scratch or wrUe their Runes long before they knew the 

 use of the alphabet. I have just made use of the word "write." 

 It comes from a Teutonic root, "Ritzen," or "Reitzen," which 

 signifies scratc/iitig or tearins;, and bears testimony in itself to the 

 usage common among the northern nations of employing some 

 hard substance, such as wood or bark, on which to scratch or 

 grave their legends, or record the warlike exploits of their heroes. 

 Again, there is the word "read"; the word comes to us through 

 the Anglo-Saxon noun "roed," "rad," or "red," which meant 

 speech, counsel, advice, It has a whole host oi kindred in the 



