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THE INDIAN ADVOCATE.
Reading for Youth-
A wise man once said, of the making of books there is no
end. This is more literally true now than when spoken some
three thousand years ago. Thousands of new books are every
year published in this country, and many more in England
and France and other parts of Europe. A lifetime devoted
entirely to reading, would not afford time for the perusal of
one-tenth of the books already published, to say nothing of ,
the vast annual increase, and the great amount of periodical
literature. As, therefore, with the time young men have for
reading, only a very small portion not one in a hundred
of the existing books and of the periodical matter can be read
it becomes necessary that the youth should be very select in
choosing works to which they devote their time and attention,
if this is not the case, valuable time is, at least, wasted.
In selecting books, act as in choosing friends. There are
those with whom we cannot associate, and books we cannot
read, withoit receiving positive injury. Then there are light
trifling and foolish people and books, whose company tends
to dissipate the mind, and give it a distaste for anything man
ly and noble. Select only a few books for perusal, and those
calculated to improve the mind and the heart. The manner
of reading, too, is important. Books should be read not
merely for amusement, but for a purpose. Coleridge divi
des readers into four classes. " The first," he says, "may be
compared to an hour-glass, their reading being as the sand;
it runs in, and it runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind.
A second class resembles a sponge, which imbibes everything,
and returns it nearly in the same state, only a little dirtier.
A third class is like a jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure
to pass away, and retains only the refuse and the dregs.
The fourth class may be compared to the slave in the diamond
mines of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless,
preserves only the pure gem."
Another author says it is necessary to have a fixed, noble
purpose behind a disposition to read, as behind physical
strength ir secular pursuits: otherwise, what is read will be
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