acquisition of general information. It is not only desirable, but it is the duty of every young man, under the condition we have already laid down, to aim at some acquaintance with every branch of knowledge. And it is a duty which is placed in our day within the reach of fulfillment to every one who is in earnest, and redeems his time. But the mark must not be set too high. We must learn to content ourselves with the general principles of science, with the leading dates of history, with the broad outline of geography, and, in short, with the fundamental facts of all knowledge. These are provided by the industry of skillful writers in such variety and abundance, and at so cheap a cost, that almost every young man may have on his own shelves the elementary principles of all the literature of the world. If he take pains to establish in his mind the rudiments of any science, there will be the nucleus of an ever-growing information. Geology is the science of a life; but there are at least a dozen handbooks which digest most scientifically, in a few pages, all the results of the last thirty years' astonishing revelations in that science. A clear and definite notion of the great critical eras in the history of the world is obtained at no great expense of labor, but its advantage as the foundation of a growing historical knowledge is incalculable. The same applies with still more force to the history of our own land. In short, we may apply this principle generally. The youth who would enrich his mind, fill his memory with knowledge, and go on through life adding to his stores of information, must spend his first years in laying diligently his foundations. Let him be thankful for the handbooks of the day, its dictionaries of science and general knowledge, which none despise but the ignorant; let him make it a rule to read nothing on any subject the principles of which he has not fixed in his memory; let him keep his note-book near at hand, and use it not too much, but to the purpose; and, finally, let him determine to find out the meaning of every word which convicts him of his ignorance, and to satisfy himself at once on every point which is doubtful. If he work on his way patiently, and humbly, and perseveringly, guided by these rules, there is no limit to the amount of information with which, in the course of years, he will store his mind. But there is another purpose, and higher even than this, to which reading should be subservient the disciplining of our mental faculties. It is impossible to read at all without performing, consciously or unconsciously, a series of mental processes. So far, however, as we have already gone, these processes have been regarded as ministering to the memory alone, the aim being to store up knowledge for use. Multitudes never go beyond this. They use their minds through life without studying, or seeking to improve, the wonderful instrument which they use. But the mind is susceptible of an education and of a discipline which has no limit in this life. Now there are two ways in which reading may subserve the strengthening of the mental powers; first, when it is chosen for that express purpose, making that its only aim; and secondly, by its insensible, unconscious influence, when it is conducted aright. Those who have time and opportunity do well to put themselves in early life under the discipline of those abstract studies, the chief object of which is to train the mind to patient thought, concentrated attention, and government of its own processes. Such are mathematics and formal logic; and the hours spent upon the demonstrations of Euclid, or the mastering of the laws of syllogistic reasoning, are never thrown away, though their benefit remains simply within the mind. It direct and practical benefit be considered essential, the same advantage to the discipline of the mental powers may be gained by studying metaphysics and mental science, making some such book as Taylor's Elements of Thought the foundation; or by determining to master, for instance, Butler's Analogy and Sermons. We would lay, however, more stress at present upon the slow but sure effect upon the invigoration of the mind, of the fixed habit of reading carefully whatever is read. And here we may refer with approbation to our essayist's excellent observations on the question, How shall we read? The substance of his answer is, that we must read, first, with diligent scrutiny of the meaning of words-their shades of meaning, and their construction in the sentence. "Hence, it would be well for us to have always upon the table an English dictionary, and a biographical, a geographical, and a scientific one, that we may understand the allusions, and feel the full power, of the author. A good book read with constant references, when- | acquire it, and the best mode is to use the ever necessary, to maps, history, and au- pen; not to transcribe important chapthority, is worth a cart-load read superfi- ters or beautiful passages, to be used as cially; it exercises our highest faculties, aids in argumentation or gems in compoextends the circle of our information, and sition-a practice which enervates memorevives, deepens, and applies knowledge ry and degrades style; nor to construct previously acquired." Next, that we common-places-an exercise much more should read with reflection; that is, that useful; but to form discourse of your the reader should constrain himself to fol- own." Here, however, we must pause, low the thread of the author's argument, and suggest our own idea of the use of the exercising an independent judgment upon pen, instead of that which the author "the validity of his inferences, the weight seems to intend. Not a word should be of his matter, the additional illustrations said against the practice of accumulating and arguments by which his reasoning choice passages of great authors; the might be corroborated, the relation which very act of writing them down must imthe facts bear to our previous knowledge. press their influence deeply upon the Men too often, either from a want of in- mind. But the most important use of the formation or a want of independence, pen of the young student is to analyze the from an overweening confidence in the work which he is reading, and reproduce author or an incorrigible indolence in its train of thought in his own words, and themselves, from an unpardonable haste with as much precision as he can. This or an unfortunate weakness, receive all habit, perserved in for a few years, would that they read. Such minds are never in do more than any one other rule to form, one stay. If you would know their pre- and strengthen, and discipline the mind. sent state of mind and opinion, ask what It would abridge his reading very consibook they have last read." These last derably, but a thousandfold increase his sentences are worth pondering; but they benefit. must be guarded against perversion. It is a miserable thing for a young man to be under the hard necessity of weighing every truth for himself. Surely God never intended that. Surely the unripe youth must pass through a term of frank submission and docile surrender to the guidance of others, in which he has nothing to do but to set his own seal, and give his assent to what he learns, before he should trust to his own independent judgment. But to a thoughtful, humble, and devout youth the transition is gradual and sure from the one to the other. If he is wise enough to seek direction as to what he reads, and never in earlier life permits himself to listen to any but trustworthy and authoritative teachers, he will in due time know how to choose the good and refuse the evil; he will be in no danger of being swayed without volition of his own by every wind of doctrine. Lastly, comes the appropriation of reading. The determination to make that which is read our own results surely in the general invigoration of the intellectual powers. "The habit of attentive, reflective, appropriative reading may not be easily acquired, nor is any other good habit; but we may say of it, what Aristotle says of learning, "The roots are bitter, but the fruits are sweet." Youth is the time to Recreation is the natural counterpart of discipline; let us, then, turn to another legitimate test which may be applied. Human nature requires, and God permits, rest and diversion both to body and soul. Among all the sources of simple recreation to which men repair, books may be fairly regarded as taking the first place. There is more pure refreshment of spirit and exhilaration of mind derived from literature than from any one other refuge of man's weariness; perhaps, in our day and in this land, than from all others combined. We shall say nothing now of the perversion of this wholesome source of recreation; of the vast mass of pestilential literature which creates and feels its abuse. We have now to do only with the legitimate and necessary use of reading to this end; and with special reference to those who make reading an earnest business of life. They should impress this principle upon their minds, that writings of lighter interest are to be resorted to for mental recreation alone. Light reading is the repose of the mind which reads hard. It should not take the place of bodily rest, of the refreshment of the soul amid the beauties of nature, of social relaxation, and of the several amenities of life. It should aim simply at the refreshment of the mental faculties; and be moderate, therefore, and discreet. Being such, it is | To say nothing of the fable, and the hisas useful in its place as more earnest study, torian's and the preacher's illustrations, and can be as well accounted for. There surely the prophetic allegory and the Reis a vast range of literature in which the deemer's parables have no element of ficmind may disport itself and come back tion in them. Our Lord's parables are refreshed. In this may be classed pure based upon the deepest and most mystepoetry, books of travel, genial and garru- rious truths of nature and of life, and are lous essays, lives of good and great men, the profoundest and severest part of His and such pictures of life and manners as teaching. What seems fiction in his lips are less fictions than reflections of reality is no other than the inmost reality of and truth. The same mind which works things. But not to dwell upon this, the hard in reasoning, combining, storing up light literature of the day demands the its acquirements, finds its rest in imagina- youthful reader's utmost caution. The tion, fancy, and humor. Let us deserve our far greater portion of it is simply worthrepose by the labor of reality, and then find less; much of the remainder, however it if we will for a season in the unreal bright, is polluted. There is a residue, world. But here we are on dangerous which is the creation of the highest order ground; let us make our essayist the of genius, employed in the delineation of spokesman. life and manners: but here we are met by a sad alternative. Either they leave out altogether the mystery of man's religious nature, and the struggles of his probation for another world-that is to say, the most real and essential element of his being; or, if they admit it, it is generally in such a manner as to convey the most unreal impressions. A consciousness of this is perpetually inducing sincere Christian writers to exhibit the workings of the spiritual faith and life in religious novels— But the instances of success are not those in some cases, indeed, with great success. which command general attention and exeite general frenzy; it is not in the tales of which Dred may be regarded as the highest representative at present that we are to look for Christian truth recom "I utter a single caveat against a class of books which is usually employed to serve the purposes of recreation-I mean novels and romances. In condemning them, let us not be understood as denouncing all fictitious productions: the fables of Æsop, the allegories of prophecy, the parables of Christ, the tales which embellish and impress historical facts, and the illustrations which the pulpit employs with so much grace and efficiency, afford at once authority for fiction, and rules for its construction and use. Novels and romances usually offend a pure taste and a sound mind by their gaudy dress, their unnatural characters, and their paucity of instruction; and always tend to weaken the power of attention, to impair the judgment, to divorce the connection between action and sympathy, to give a preponderance to the imagination, to create a distaste for simple truth, and a disinclination both for manly studies and the dull realities of life. Many of them are li-mended in fiction. If faith is merely a able to a greater objection, as, by a Plutonic chemistry, they turn the diamond of virtue into the charcoal of vice. It is alleged that they soften the heart, and excite an interest in suffering. Often, however, it is an undistinguishing or a mawkish sensibility, which, while it can weep over the picture of a dead gipsy, can wring the heart of a living father. That, by inflaming the imagination, interesting the affections, and exciting an interest in books, they may be useful to some minds, and, indeed, to most minds in certain moods, must be admitted; but since the good they accomplish may be effected by works of unquestionable tendency, why resort to such as intoxicate while they imparadise, bewilder while they allure, and emasculate while they excite? The higher forms of poetry, philosophy, and religion, are sufficiently fascinating and energizing to all the faculties. All this is very good in the main, though the author's illustration of his point at the commencement is singularly unfortunate, vague aspiration of the soul, and the perfection of the Redeemer's life its only stimulant and object, then Dred, and a few other books of the same kind, but with less genius, are exquisite exhibitions of its influence; but if faith is the great condition of man's acceptance, and the atoning death of Christ its first and and indispensable object, then are these works capable of doing such mischief as their transcendent genius, and their harrowing appeals to the benevolent instincts of humanity, can scarcely repair. But this is tempting us into a digression, from which we must make haste to return. It, however, leads us directly to the last test which a thoughtful young man should apply to all his reading-its influ ence upon his spiritual nature, the performance of his duties to God and man, and his relation to another life. Our author makes, in closing, some pertinent and striking remarks upon the supremacy of the Bible, age after age, in its influence upon the human mind; and on the supreme importance of living under its continual inspiration. He whose being is ruled by the Word of God, will, of course, read nothing which that Word does not sanction; and in proportion to the integrity of his submission to its sway, will be his jealousy over his intercourse with the thoughts and words of men. It will cost him no great effort to renounce or withstand the fascinations of unsanctified literature, who trembles at the Word of God. But more than that, he will make it his study to bring all his reading into subordination to the supreme influence of Divine truth, and into coöperation with its sanctifying energy. Religion has an intimate connection with the discipline of the intellect and the enrichment of the mind. The Divine Spirit uses all our faculties in the process of our salvation. He opens the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to the prepared mind; and the preparation of our minds for the highest teaching is not His work alone. It may be that the intellectual discipline of this life may have more to do with another life than we are apt to think; and that indolence or unfruitful reading may entail consequences which the blessedness of eternal salvation will not entirely repair. Be that as it may, the piety of the earnest student and conscientious reader, who sanctifies all his acquirements by deep devotion, and who thus brings every energy of his mind, and affection of his heart, and impulse of his will, into the service of his religious life, comes nearest to that standard which the Epistles of St. Paul constantly set before the Chris tian's eyes. turn it into wisdom. The utilitarian principle, if it have any value at all, has its value here. The glory of every young Christian, of every young man-alas for the young man who is not a young Christian! is to renounce himself for the good of his generation, to seek not his own things even when most solicitous for his own advancement, but to train his powers and capabilities to their utmost pitch, that they may bring their utmost glory to God in the service of the world's redemption from ignorance, wretchedness, and sin. Every vocation of usefulness is best filled by those who bring most knowledge, and wisdom, the fruit of sanctified knowledge, to the performance of its duties. Let the young man, therefore, rejoice in his youth. The fact that he is young is itself a most inspiriting encouragement, if he is bent on living an earnest life. He may redeem his time, in a sense in which none else can; he may renounce every evil habit, form and act upon any good resolution, aspire to unlimited excellence and usefulness, and hope for a career honored of God and blessed of man-if he will. "With you the soil is plowed, and the clods broken; cast now the seed into the furrow, that, when the earth mourneth, and the vine languisheth, and the joy of the harp ceaseth, it shall not be as the shaking of an olive-tree, or as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done; but that your barns may be filled with wine.' The mind cultivated from youth puts on plenty, and your presses burst out with new its noblest crown when the almond-tree flourishes, and enjoys a marvellous second-sight when they that look out of the windows are darkened: judges have given their ablest decisions, physicians exhited their highest skill, and divines produced their richest works, when the grasshopper was a burden." But the religion of reading does not We gladly use the words of this genuine end there. We are born not only to save Transatlantic friend of young men to exour own souls, but to do our duty. press our own earnest wishes, and our fareKnowledge puffeth up, unless its subordi- well for the present to all the young peonation to the practical ends of usefulnessple who read our pages. From Fraser's Magazine. KEMBLE'S STATE PAPERS.* labor and a love of truth should be recognized among the qualities of a historian, than to allure those who only turn to history to fill up a vacant hour. HISTORIANS are rapidly getting divided streets, but that which comprises the slipinto two classes: those who take pains, shod, irrelevant, untrue, careless, pretenand those who make money. Some few tious works on grave subjects, that are writers are honest enough to do the first, intended for the higher and middle classes; and clever enough to do the second; but to comic histories, to clervernesses of all they are exceptions. Generally speaking, kinds written to demand about grave and the aim of the writer is only to construct, great men; to all the trash that is paraded with the greatest possible rapidity, that as "exceedingly well adapted for country repulsive combination of the instructive book societies." The best antidote for and the amusing which aspires to the title such literature, and the only one that has of popular literature. Facts sink into any immediate efficacy, is to be found in utter unimportance; views of character, the works of those few gifted writers who theories of political events, explanations can please as well as conscientiously inof political conduct, once given by some quire, can write as well as think, and tell standard writer, are endlessly repeated; a story as well as examine and decide the one object is, not to say any thing what ought to be told. But there is also new or any thing true, but to say some- another class of writers to whom we owe thing smart. Two causes are at work great obligations, who do not hope to to produce this: there prevails an ignor- attain a direct popular influence, and ant admiration of the inferior modes of whose office it is rather to fortify and aid modern French writers, and the class of those who already desire that a love of writers and readers constantly gets worse as it gets larger. Writers of popular history, and those who read and admire them, may be compared to Turks trying to adopt the costume and fashions of Among the principal of the writers of Western Europe. The process is inevit- this class is Mr. Kemble, whose studies in able, but it is not a pleasing one to witness. Anglo-Saxon history have been found so The West must infuse its ideas into the valuable by all who have tried to go back minds of the East, and the imitation of to the beginnings of the English constituexternal peculiarities marks the earliest tion and law. Mr. Kemble has now puand easiest stage of the change; but a blished a work referring to a very differEuropean feels rather ashamed of his own ent era, it being a collection of State Pacostume when he sees it travestied on the pers intented to illustrate the history of limbs of an Oriental. So, although we Europe, but especially of Germany and are aware that bad literature must pre- the Electorate of Hanover, during the cede good in the minds of many, and that period when William III. and Anne occuthe demand for bad literature is irresist-pied the throne of England. We have ible, still we shrink from the spectacle. rather more than two hundred letters And the bad literature of which we speak from men and women who then held emiis not that which circulates in forbidden nent stations in the political world, and of these a large proportion are from the pen * State Papers and Correspondence Illustrative of of Leibnitz. Biographical notices are inthe Social and Political State of Europe from the serted to make the reader acquainted with Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover, the previous history and subsequent fortunes of the different writers of the letters. These notices are very ably and carefully Edited, with Historical Introduction, Biographical London: John W. Parker and Son. 1857. |