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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



The Enjoyment of Reading. — We said a word or two on this subject in 

 our preceding volume (p. 728.) ; and, on account of its great importance to 

 every individual, we cannot help again adverting to it. We recommend those 

 who have not taken in the Penny Magazine from its commencement, at least 

 to purchase No. 95., for September 28. 1833. It is most gratifying to reflect 

 that there is not a human being, endowed with health and the ordinary con- 

 dition of the human faculties, that may not participate in what Sir John Her- 

 schel appears to consider the greatest of human pleasures. It is delightful to 

 foresee that, when the whole of society shall be so far educated as to derive 

 pleasure from reading, and when books are as common as bread and potatoes, 

 the hardest-worked agricultural labourer or mechanic, when he goes home 

 from his day's toil, may plunge at once into intense enjoyment by taking up a 

 book. The most gratifying circumstance respecting this enjoyment is its 

 universality, and its applicability to all countries, all future ages, and to every 

 human being in tolerable health and above destitution. It is equally appli- 

 cable to man, whether in prosperity or in adversity ; whether in prison or free ; 

 and even, to a certain extent, whether in health or sickness. Another gratifying 

 prospect anticipated from the result of universal reading is, universal improve- 

 ment of worldly circumstances. Let any taste become general, and the regu- 

 lations and habits of society will accommodate themselves to that taste. The 

 hours of labour, at present, afford barely time for eating and sleeping; but 

 when reading becomes a necessary of life to every, even the lowest, class of 

 society, they will be reduced so as to afford time for that enjoyment also. 

 Surely, if nothing else were to be gained by a system of national education, 

 but the power of conferring so much happiness on millions, it would deserve 

 the patronage of every benevolent mind, and be worthy the adoption alike of 

 governments professing to be paternal or to be representative. But the main 

 object which we have now in view is, to impress Sir John Herschel's statement 

 strongly on the mind of the young gardener, so as to encourage him, above all 

 other earthly things, to cherish a taste for reading in himself, and in all those 

 with whom he may have any thing to do. Another point to which we wish 

 to direct attention is, the necessity, when a national system of education is 

 established, of adding to every school, not only a garden, a workshop for 

 teaching the simpler operations of the mechanical arts, and a kitchen for 

 teaching the girls cookery, but also a circulating library for the benefit of the 

 whole parish. In furtherance of these objects, we cannot resist giving the 

 following short extract from Sir John Herschel's address: — "Of all the amuse- 

 ments which can possibly be imagined for a hard-working man, after his daily 

 toil, or in its intervals, there is nothing like reading an entertaining book, 

 supposing him to have a taste for it, and supposing him to have the book to 

 read. It calls for no bodily exertion, of which he has had enough, or too 

 much. It relieves his home of its dulness and sameness, which, in nine cases 

 out of ten, is what drives him out to the alehouse, to his own ruin and his 

 family's. It transports him into a livelier, and gayer, and more diversified and 

 interesting scene ; and, while he enjoys himself there, he may forget the evils 

 of the present moment, fully as much as if he were ever so drunk, with the 

 great advantage of finding himself the next day with his money in his pocket, 

 or, at least, laid out in real necessaries and comforts for himself and his 

 family, — and without a headach. Nay, it accompanies him to his next 

 day's work ; and, if the book he has been reading be anything above the yery 

 idlest and lightest, gives him something to think of besides the mere me- 



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