No. 4.] THE ETHICS OF BOOKS. 135 



science, portraying the wonders in nature ; the facts so 

 interesting to all, both old and young, — any teacher or 

 person who can implant a love of such books in the children 

 is a true missionary. 



Literature as taught in our public schools strengthens the 

 intellect, but leaves the best part, the moral part, unedu- 

 cated. It is a hard fact for optimistic people to recognize 

 that while we are growing wiser fast we are growing better 

 slowly. The nature studies will bring about a change in 

 this direction by taking the pupil through God's works up 

 to him. If we need a training in the classics for any special 

 purpose, it is for teaching us how to use our own mother 

 tongue uniformly well. The American person is a free and 

 independent person, and is just as free and independent 

 with our English. Every trade and profession has its own 

 particular slang. Students of all ages, from the primary 

 school to the college, abound in it. Having so many books 

 has made us careless. Those old Greeks and Romans had 

 no knowledge of the slang of the 19th century. Every 

 sentence of theirs must be rendered in good English at 

 every point. To do this there must be care and attention 

 to what we are doing with words. 



Education is only a means to an end. Therefore we need 

 those books which will most surely help to broaden, 

 deepen, invigorate, making us more useful in the world. 

 These silent friends of whom we have been speaking cannot 

 do their grandest and best work for us until our inner life 

 has been stirred or inspired. That word inspiration has a 

 deeper and more intricate meaning than we casually think. 

 In the original it means " I blow upon or into." From one 

 Book we learn the true source of all high and holy inspira- 

 tion. Education is helpful, and we must have it. Morality 

 is right, useful we ought to be, and all good books are 

 auxiliary to the Book of books ; yet, if we have missed in 

 any way this " blowing in upon" our lives from the true 

 source, it has been our own great mistake. We also have 

 learned that we should receive a marvellous light reflected 

 from its Author, and that this light, if we receive it, will 

 brighten the gloomy places in life and quiet the unrest of 



