JiNUARY 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
275 
shame. How general are the scenes in these festive 
times, in many villages, where the cares of home and 
kindred are forgotten, and a jollity, so wild, as to touch 
upon the insane, reigns supreme ! Those scenes are in 
the drink-shops. Tobacco, beer, and spirits have so 
drowned thought and so muddled the mind, that it 
choruses, to the echo, sentiments so sensual, and songs 
so immoral, as once would have mantled their cheeks 
with indignation. Are such the scenes we expect will 
promote purity of thought and integrity of action ? 
“ Sufficiently near to, if not in, most of our villages, 
schools have been established in which reading and 
writing, &c., have been taught; but it is often now, and 
too generally, until lately, these were taught as a mere 
act of routine. Too little attention has been paid to 
imbue the mind of our youths with the importance of 
these elements of instruction, not so much on account 
of what they were worth in themselves, but as valuable 
keys for unlocking whole storehouses of wonders and 
sources of elevated enjoyment, even should the range of 
our enquiry extend no farther than the world on which 
wo dwell. Unfortunately, wo are so naturally averse to 
the pure, that, as a too general fact, it is found that the 
mind, whose reading had been directed little farther 
than a catechism, or a work on theology, will bo too 
apt to neglect reading altogether. This will bo none 
the less likely to be the case if tho few books within 
reach should in any way be associated with the hard 
knocks and canings of the village pedagogue. I would 
humbly submit this last remark to the strenuous advo¬ 
cates for retaining the “Book of books” as a class book 
in our schools. Even now, some of its most beautiful 
passages are never read by me without a vivid recollec¬ 
tion of the thumps I received when trying to read them 
when a boy. The Bible and tho cane we would divorce 
for ever from coming in contact in our schools. Let it 
be reserved for those of their classes advanced beyond 
the infliction of tho rod. 
“Be this as it may, the art of reading, when acquired, 
will be lost if not practised. Men have worked with 
me who could not read nor write, and yet had learned 
both when young. Others, who practised what they had 
learned regretted that they could get nothing to read. 
Just ask yourselves if that is not the condition of many 
a village with which you are acquainted? What are 
the men to do in such circumstancos ? 
“ I say nothing now of the unfitness of education 
females of the same classes receive for throwing all the 
charms ot utility, and the more than witchery of a well- 
balanced enlightened mind as magnetic attractions 
around humble homes. To our disgrace it must be 
owned, that girls, as to education, have ever beon less 
cared for than boys, and hence their comparative weak¬ 
ness as an improving influence on the rougher part of 
mankind. 
“ Well, what are these men to do? Many of them, 
you see, cannot read, but they think. They cannot 
help that; every moment thought is thrilling through 
their brain. What a fact! How suggestive of respon¬ 
sibility ! Will that thought be always concealed? No! 
Man is inherently social. We all relish meeting with 
our fellow-men, and exchanging thoughts by embody¬ 
ing them in words. The same of the man who reads, 
but who can get little to read. He pants for social 
intercourse. Where shall he find it? In the ale-house. 
This ability to read the paper makes him a sage and a 
philosopher there. The man who cannot read has ears; 
becomes almost as learned as his reading brother, and 
learns to talk of murders and sensualism as glibly, 
until too often the hearts of both become as hardened 
as those of the perpetrators of the villanies on which 
they delight to linger. 
“ Shall I go to the home of such men, and, beholding 
the broken furniture, the tattered bedclothes, the general 
misery, denounce them as all that is vile ? Nay; a 
word of love would be more powerful than that! Rather 
let us ask, ‘ Have I nothing to do with this man’s vice 
and misery? Havel, knowing that character is so far 
moulded by circumstances—have I, knowing the strong 
impulsiveness of human feeling—have I, knowing that 
mind must be incessautly active—have I—knowing all 
this, and feeling all this—done what in me lay, that my 
erring brother should have means and opportunities 
for his faculties being employed upon the pine and the 
elevating, instead of revelling among the gross and the 
degrading ? ’ 
“Responsibility in these matters is now becoming 
more felt, and I am happy to say that gardeners and 
their employers arc not behind in the movement. 
Reading-rooms, at times combined with a coffee-room, 
good libraries, and occasional lectures on generally 
interesting subjects, in homely language, would consti¬ 
tute, in time, great opponents of the beer-shops. From 
the correspondent I have already alluded to, a gardener 
to a nobleman, I lately received the following account 
of the forming of a village library:—‘We have just 
established a reading-room and library in the village 
of S—, which is only about half-a-mile from the garden. 
The room will be lighted and warmed from six o’clock to 
ten in the evening, and supplied with the Times, Illus¬ 
trated London News, Cottage Gardener, Gardeners Chroni¬ 
cle, Sussex Express, Marie Lane Express, Builder, House¬ 
hold Words, and many other periodicals. Our library 
is not extensive at present, but we are in hopes it will 
improve as we go on. Members are to pay Is. en¬ 
trance, and fid. per month subscription. We have had 
several meetings respecting it, and have now got about 
forty members. Mr. S., the tutor at-, has been its 
chief promoter. The clergyman has also taken an 
active part, and his lordship has become patron, so, 
altogether, I am in hopes we shall be able to do some 
good, although, I am sorry to say, tho people in this 
neighbourhood are not very fond of such things. I am 
in hopes it will keep many young men from going to a 
public-house at night, as the room will be pleasant 
and warm, with plenty to read for amusement and 
instruction.’ 
“ Who does not join in the hope of our friend ? Who 
does not feel grateful for this double example of kind¬ 
ness in the nobleman referred to ? Had I to make a 
