7o JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



OPPOSING FORCES VS. INACTION. 



Bead before the Hamilton Association, February 6th, 1896, 

 BY H. B. SMALL, OTTAWA. 



To relieve the tension of the perpetual struggle which modern 

 requirements have forced upon mankind, we require something upon 

 which we may fall back — something that will tend to calm the excite- 

 ment of the whirl of everyday life. 



Idleness or inaction will not soothe the mind, or quiet the nerves, 

 but a change of action or of thought will, and there is nothing per- 

 haps that will better meet the case than the pleasure to be derived 

 from books and reading. We hardly appreciate our good fortune in 

 belonging to the 19th century, for, one hundred years ago many of 

 the most delightful books of to-day were unwritten, and we possess 

 infinite opportunities of obtaining what our less fortunate ancestors 

 would have revelled in. Sir John Lubbock, not long ago remarked 

 that he was sometimes disposed to think that the great readers of 

 the next generation will be not our lawyers and doctors, our business 

 men and our manufacturers, but the laborer and mechanic. The 

 former work mainly with their head ; the brain becomes exhausted, 

 and much of their leisure time must be devoted to air and exercise. 

 The laborer and mechanic, on the contrary, have in their working 

 hours taken sufficient bodily exercise and can therefore give any 

 leisure to reading and study. To further this the schools of to-day 

 afford an excellent education, and access to the best books is now 

 easy to those who desire. The school education now equals the 

 college education of fifty years ago. Jeremy Collier, an old writer, 

 well said of books : " They are a guide in youth and an entertain- 

 " ment for age. They help us to forget the crossness of men and 

 " things, compose our cares and passions and lay our disappointments 

 " asleep. Some relate the events of past ages, while others reveal 

 " the secrets of nature. Some teach how to live, others how to die. 



