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Show BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU READ. The rule made early in life to read only the best books will be found of the greatest value. Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson's advice is, never read a book till it is out a year, supposing that length of time necessary to show whether the volume has, as the French say, "a reason for being." One should not read everything that intrudes itself upon his notice any more than one should admit to his companionship every person he meets. "Books, like friends, should be well chosen." [unreadable line] too much, but the best authors may be read many times with profit. If you should read Macauley until it become thoroughly familiar to you, you will have a solid foundation of historical knowledge, around which you may group earlier and succeeding events. Adopt Dr. Johnson's method, and when you have read something you particularly wish to remember, be sure to tell it to some appreciative friend, and thus fix it in your mind. The modern novel may become a "thief of time." Reading too much fiction saps the mental powers as surely as dissipation weakens the body. At one of our public libraries, quite recently, a boy was reported who had actually read one hundred and two novels, or stories, in ninety-one days. To a large class of readers our public libraries are only known as containing a supply of the most exciting tales, and it becomes a question whether it is right for them to furnish any literature but that which instructs and elevates. <br><br> - Youth's Companion. |