EDUCATION THROUGH READING 139 



EDUCATION THROUGH BEADING 



By Dr. B. BENJAMIN ANDREWS 



LINCOLN, NEBB. 



THEEE is a wide variety of motives any one of which may lead a 

 person to become a reader. Sir John Herschel wrote : 



Were I to pray for a taste that should stand me in stead under every 

 variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me 

 during life, and a shield against its ills, it would be a taste for reading. 



A Suwanee reviewer deals with reading as an elegant pastime, the 

 mental profit yielded by it being considered incidental. The reading of 

 books as he thinks of it is to be classed with the viewing of pictures, a 

 sort of esthetic exercise, delightful, uplifting, cultivating and, inci- 

 dentally, informing, not resorted to, however, for the sake of informa- 

 tion, at least not primarily for the sake of this, but for the refined pleas- 

 ure to be derived from the exercise. 



Reading for pleasure and diversion is perfectly legitimate when 

 people have time and inclination for this; and it is well to urge those 

 having time for it to cultivate also the inclination ; but that is not the 

 aspect of reading to which we would draw attention now. It is proposed 

 to discuss reading as an earnest occupation, carried on with the direct 

 purpose of drilling and storing the mind, its pleasurable and esthetic 

 results, important as they are in themselves, being quite secondary. The 

 theme, then, is reading as a distinct, invaluable, and too little recognized 

 educational resource. 



Consider first the very great encouragements to reading which now 

 exist, and then note certain methods for responding to these encourage- 

 ments, for utilizing the magnificent and ever-improving opportunities 

 to read profitably opened to all in our modern life. 



A cordial invitation to wide reading is extended by the presence all 

 about us of ample literature, representing every department of thought, 

 in forms perfectly convenient and incredibly cheap. 



Carlyle said : 



Of all things which men do make here below by far the most momentous, 

 wonderful and worthy are the things we call books. 



And Macaulay: 



I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king 

 who did not love reading. 



