rLIilNOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 57 



upon it. The books that affect us are the books that delight us. Happy'in- 

 deed, and safe as well, is the boy or the girl, the man or the woman whose 

 tastes lead him to spend his leisure in the innocent and ennobling compan- 

 ionship of good books. It is the use made of these little lulls in life that 

 affect our character more than we think. To borrow the words of another, 

 "In the vacancy of their hands people's thoughts will needs be busy either 

 for better or for worse ; if their minds are not dressed for the abode of the 

 Deity they will be the workshops of the devil." 



But "books teach not their own use," and it is the business of the father 

 and the mother to furnish a wise guidance in the selection and appreciation 

 of good books. Tor the parent to forget this, is to sow the seeds of future 

 regret,and bitter dissappointment. The child must be helped to see the beauty 

 and inhale the fragrance of that which is good. He must be made to feel the 

 invigoration and inspiration of the wise selection. This can not be done 

 theoretically, that is by precept only. His guides must be what they would 

 have him become. They must "allure to brighter worlds," by leading the 

 way. 



This leads one to suggest, that the kind of culture given by good litera- 

 ture is a wholesouled one. Mere pedantry, and learned vainglory, are as 

 empty and hollow as the echoes from a vacant tomb. They are but the robes 

 left by the " Shining One," after He had arisen. The best of literature puri- 

 fies, refines, and elevates. We are never in danger of getting too much. It 

 is a little learning that is the dangerous thing. We need not be satisfied with 

 a Presbyterian sprinkling, but in this at least take a genuine Baptist immer- 

 sion . The young man whose soul is saturated with the kindliest thoughts of 

 the best minds, is in little danger from the temptations of after life. This 

 culture should dwell, not in the suburbs of one's affections, but be as Brutus 

 said his Portia was to him, "as dear as the ruddy drops that visit this sad 

 heart." 



Apparently the great effoit of the mass of men is to secure a competence 

 in life. All reasonable and unreasonable means are employed to that end ; 

 and all this in the face of the fact, that if secured it must be laid aside, in a 

 few short years at the most. Literature pursued with the same zeal, even 

 during our leisure hours, offers an intellectual and moral competence, not 

 only for time but, so far as we can see, for the great Beyond. It may be a 

 continual and increasing pleasure and profit, a means of real inspiration and 

 true growth. 



If anything can build a true character it is the grand thoughts of good 

 old books. These will keep the soul immortally young and cause the heart 

 to whiten with the hair. 



The most helpful institutions on this sin-bespattered, grief stricken 

 earth is a real home, and anything that will lessen its drudgery, gild its 

 plainness or enoble its common place cannot be trivial. Can anything do 

 this as the tenderness, the forbearance, the instruction and the inspiration 

 of the best books ? Homes thus blessed give their refinement and benedic- 

 tion to all within them. It is characters thus developed that Bulwer says 

 "Fine natures are like fine poems ; a glance at the first two lines suffices for 

 a guess into the beauty that waits for you if you read on." But I am re- 



