Read great books that come from great thinkers; formative books, inspiring, soul-lifting books; and remember that it is the books read before middle life that most mould character and influence destiny.

the dust from the stone, even in much greater ratio is the mind more valuable than the axe. Bacon says:

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; morals grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend."

"No wonder Cicero said that he would part with all he was worth so he might live and die among his books," says Geikie. "No wonder Petrarch was among them to the last, and was found dead in their company. It seems natural that Bede should have died dictating, and that Leibnitz should have died with a book in his hand, and Lord Clarendon at his desk. Buckle's last words, 'My poor book!' tell a passion that forgot death; and it seemed only a fitting farewell when the tear stole down the manly cheeks of Scott as they wheeled him into his library, when he had come back to Abbotsford to die. Southey, whitehaired, a living shadow, sitting stroking and kissing the books he could no longer open or read, is altogether pathetic."

What wealth lies in books, and how easily may the poorest boy and girl become rich in information, learning, and wisdom, through a few pennies' worth of books. Through books, the poorest boy can revel in the wealth of the intellect with Plato and Socrates; the ragged bootblack can act in the tragedy of "Hamlet" with Shakespeare. The common day laborer may discourse

with Plato of reason amid the groves of the Grecian acad emy. The digger in the ditch may follow Cæsar in his campaigns, or Alexander in his conquest of the world. The poorest mechanic may explore the wilds of Africa with Livingstone and Stanley; he may follow Napoleon over the battlefields of Europe. The humblest boy may penetrate the expanse of the heavens with Galileo, Herschel, and Proctor, or with Hugh Miller may read the stories of the ages imprinted in the rocks, or with Thompson and Edison may investigate the mysteries of science.

Milton will cross the humblest threshold and sing to rags the story of Paradise. Shakespeare will enter the meanest hovel and reproduce his immortal "Hamlet." It seems like a miracle that the poorest boy can converse freely with the greatest philosophers and scientists, statesmen, warriors, authors of all time with little expense, that the inmates of the humblest cabin may follow the stories of the nations, the epochs of history, the story of liberty, the romance of the world, the course of human progress, from the Hottentots to the Websters, the Lincolns, and Grants.

Libraries are no longer a luxury, but a necessity. A home without books and periodicals and newspapers is like a house without windows. Children learn to read by being in the midst of books; they unconsciously absorb knowledge by handling them. No family can now afford to be without good reading.

Furnish your house with books rather than unnecessary furniture, bric-a-brac, or even pictures if you cannot afford all. One of the most incongruous sights in the world is an elegant house with costly furniture, paintings of the masters, imported tapestries, statuary, costly carpets, extravagant frescoes, and yet with scarcely a standard work in the library. Indeed, in many of the most elegant houses it would not be safe to ask for the commonest English classic.

Wear threadbare clothes and patched shoes if necessary, but do not pinch or economize on books. If you cannot give your children an academic education you can place within their reach a few good books which will lift them above their surroundings, into respectability and honor. A college education, or its equivalent, and more is possible to the poorest boy or girl who has access to the necessary books.

A library of standard books in every private house in America would revolutionize our entire civilization. "There is no Past so long as Books shall live," says Lytton.

All that man has ever thought, felt, experienced, or done lives in books. Nations rise and fall, great cities are buried in ruins, vast empires obliterated, but the whole past lives in books. All that is left of the once mighty Greece lives in books alone. Her armies are gone, her architecture crumbled, and only a few pieces of her sculpture remain; but her books will live forever, and influence men of all time.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading," says Mary Wortley Montagu; "nor any pleasure so lasting." Good books elevate the character, purify the taste, take the attractiveness out of low pleasures, and lift us upon a higher plane of thinking and living. It is not easy to be mean directly after reading a noble and inspiring book. The conversation of a man who reads for improvement or pleasure will be flavored by his reading; but it will not be about his reading.

To rummage around among books, reading a few pages here and a few pages there, without thought or aim, is worse than wasting time, worse than the ignorance which comes from reading nothing, for we are forming desultory habits, which are fatal to continuity of thought. We should lay out a definite line of reading, and try to master some one department of learning. Every youth, however limited his opportunities, should