EDUCATION THROUGH READING 141 



read all that they need of it in some public library, without money and 

 without price. The public libraries in the principal cities offer the most 

 ample and inviting opportunities for reading, and these opportunities 

 are growing richer every year. Public libraries are enlarging and new 

 ones opening. In nearly every state, a Library Commission is planting 

 libraries in small places and carrying traveling libraries to the remotest 

 hamlets. Quite as important, librarians are mastering their trade, be- 

 coming more and more able to make libraries available to such as 

 use them. 



The opportunities for securing information and culture through 

 reading, which are now presented by low-priced editions, good transla- 

 tions and free libraries, constitute, together, a potent appeal to us 

 to read. 



Another such appeal lies in the certainty that by properly using 

 these privileges any one of us can become a well-informed, well-educated 

 person. "Beading makes the full man," says Francis Bacon. 



Says Lecky ("Map of Life, Conduct and Character") : 



While the tastes which require physical strength decline or pass with age, 

 that for reading steadily grows. If it is judiciously managed reading is one 

 of the most powerful means of training character and disciplining and elevating 

 thought. It is eminently a pleasure which is not only good in itself but enhances 

 many others. By extending the range of our knowledge, by enlarging our powers 

 of sympathy and appreciation, it adds incalculably to the pleasures of society, 

 of travel, of art, to the interest we take in the vast variety of events which form 

 the gTeat world-drama about us. To acquire this taste in early youth is one of 

 the best fruits of education, and it is especially useful when the taste for reading 

 becomes a taste for knowledge, and when it is accompanied by some specializa- 

 tion and concentration and by some exercise of the powers of observation. 



Mere reading by itself alone can of course never produce the ideal 

 education. Beading can not wholly take the place of schooling. The 

 seminary, student conferences and debates, the class, class drill, oral 

 explanations from arousing and able instructors, the inspiration which 

 each student derives from the student body about him, and the other 

 thousand and one stimulating associations connected with every good 

 school, exert an influence which books and reading are powerless to 

 produce. One who has never been subject to these influences, be he 

 the most omnivorous and painstaking reader in the world, is unfor- 

 tunate. Get all the schooling you can. If possible couple it with your 

 reading. Irregular schooling is better than none, and so is a poor 

 teacher. None of us are too old or too learned to be benefited by a 

 term or a course of lessons or lectures in school, college or university. 

 However, if you have never been able to avail yourself of these excellent 

 aids in the training of mind, and if you are now and henceforth unable 

 to do so, do not despair. You can read, and your chances are enviable. 



