id stringlengths 16 16 | text stringlengths 151 2.3k | word_count int64 30 60 | source stringclasses 1 value |
|---|---|---|---|
twg_000012923200 | is polite to the weak, the poor, the friendless, the humble, the miserable, the degraded." The conduct of our Lord to such is ever worthy of our imitation. Indeed, as it has been well remarked, the character of men and women is perhaps better known "by the treatment of those below them than by anything else; for to them they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923201 | rarely play the hypocrite." The man who is a bully and abusive to those weaker or less fortunate than himself, is at heart a poor creature; though, in company of his equals, he may be affable and polished enough. For example, Kingsley mentions regarding Sir Sydney Smith that "the love he won was because, without any conscious intention, he treated | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923202 | rich and poor, his own servants, and the noblemen, his guests, alike courteously, cheerfully, considerately, affectionately, bearing a blessing and reaping a blessing wherever he was." When a celebrated man returned the salute of a negro, he was reminded that he had done what was very unfashionable. "Perhaps so," he replied, "but I would not be outdone in good manners | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923203 | by a negro." "Good words," says holy George Herbert, "are worth much, and cost little." The same may be said of good manners. [] _The Secret of Success_. [] _Plain Living and High Thinking_. . TEMPER.[] Temper is the harmonious and well-balanced working of the different powers of the mind. Good temper is when harmony is maintained; bad temper when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923204 | it is violated. "Temper," it was said by an English bishop, "is nine-tenths of Christianity." We may think this an exaggerated statement, but there is much to commend it. The fruit of the Spirit of God is peace, and peace is the condition of a heart which is at rest--in harmony with God and man. Peace may be taken as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923205 | the Scriptural word for temper. Good temper is a sign that the different powers of the soul are working in harmony.--For instance, the atmosphere is well tempered when it is neither too hot nor too cold, neither too dry nor too moist, having neither too much electricity nor too little. Then the weather is called fine. It is a pleasure | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923206 | to live. When the weather is bad, the balance of the elements is broken, and life is disagreeable and unpleasant. The body is well tempered when the nervous system and the blood and the nutritive system all work in due harmony. When these three great constituents of the body are well balanced against each other, the result is health. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923207 | body is not well tempered in a student who takes no exercise, and where everything goes to feed the brain; nor in a pugilist in training, where everything goes to feed the muscles. The result is disease. We all know the musical instrument called the harp. All the strings are tuned into perfect harmony. If there is a false note | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923208 | struck, that is a sign to the musician that there is something wrong, and that the instrument needs to be tuned. The discord is a symptom, that some cords are out of order. So, bad temper is a sign that some string in our moral constitution is out of harmony and needs to be tuned. Good temper can be acquired.--It | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923209 | is the result of culture. There are two things often confounded with it--(_a_) good nature and (_b_) good humor. Good nature is something born with us--an easy, contented disposition, and a tendency to take things quietly and pleasantly. We inherit it. There is little merit in possessing it. Good humor is the result of pleasant surroundings and agreeable circumstances. A | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923210 | good-humored man is so when everything goes right; when things go wrong, his good humor departs and bad humor takes its place. But good temper results from training and self-control--keeping constant watch over our passions and feelings, and above all being in constant harmony with God; for he who is at peace with God is at peace with man, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923211 | will keep the "even tenor of his way." There are various signs or forms of ill-temper that may be adverted to. One form of ill-temper is irritability.--We perhaps know what it is to have a tooth where the nerve is exposed. Everything that touches it sends a thrill of pain through us. Some people get into a moral state corresponding | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923212 | to that. The least thing puts them out, vexes them, throws them into a disagreeable frame of mind. When one gets into that state, he should feel that there is something wrong with him--something is off the balance, some nerve is exposed. He had better look to it and go off to the dentist. Another form of ill-temper is readiness | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923213 | to find fault.--This is a sure sign of a screw being loose somewhere. An ill-tempered person is always making grievances, imagining himself ill-used, discontented with his position, dissatisfied with his circumstances. He never blames himself for anything wrong; it is always someone else. He is like a workman who is always excusing himself by throwing the blame on his tools; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923214 | like a bad driver who is always finding fault with his horses. Some fretful tempers wince at every touch, You always do too little or too much; He shakes with cold; you stir the fire and strive To make a blaze; that's roasting him alive. Serve him with venison, and he chooses fish; With sole; that's just the sort he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923215 | would not wish. Alas! his efforts double his distress, He likes yours little, and his own still less. Thus, always teasing others, always teased, His only pleasure is--to be displeased. If we find ourselves getting into this state of mind, it is high time to inquire what is wrong with us. Another form of ill-temper is passion.--Some people are very | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923216 | subject to this development. They are "gunpowdery," and when a small spark touches them they fly out, and there is a blaze. It is a very unlovely feature of a man's character, and if people in a passion could only see themselves in a glass, their eyes flashing, their brow contracted and their features distorted, they would feel that they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923217 | have cause to be ashamed of themselves. After having been in what is called "a towering rage," there often comes to a man the feeling expressed in the words, "I have made a great ass of myself." If we have done so, we should resolve never to make ourselves ridiculous again. Perhaps the worst form of ill-temper is sulkiness.--This is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923218 | passion not dying out, but continuing to smoulder like the embers of a fire where there is no flame. A sullen disposition is as bad a sign of something being wrong as there could well be. It is like what the doctors call "suppressed gout." The disease has got driven into the system, and has taken so firm a hold | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923219 | that it cannot easily be dislodged. Better a man whose temper bubbles over and is gone, than the man who cherishes it in his bosom and allows, not the sun of one day, but of many days, to go down on his wrath. A word or two is perhaps necessary, in addition to what has been said, as to the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923220 | means by which good temper is to be preserved and bad temper avoided. I. _We should cherish a deep and strong detestation of the evil effects of bad temper in all its forms_.--(_a_) It has a bad effect physically. It produces consequences injurious to health. The man who indulges in it habitually cannot do so with impunity. Doctors constantly warn | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923221 | their patients to refrain from irritating disputes, and to avoid men and things likely to provoke their anger. (_b_) It has a bad effect socially. The bad-tempered man is seldom a favorite with society. Men eventually dislike him and shun him as a nuisance. His family, if he has one, come to regard him with dread rather than love. (_c_) | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923222 | It has a bad effect as regards success in life. "Everything," the proverb says, "comes to him who waits." The patient and forbearing man attains his object much sooner than the man of passion and abuse. Such a person is continually thwarted in his plans. People refuse to be bullied into acquiescence; and threats, which have well been called "the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923223 | arguments of a coward," raise rather than disarm opposition. (_d_) It has a bad effect spiritually. () The man of evil temper wants the calm disposition of soul necessary to communion with God. The glass through which he looks into the spiritual world is clouded and gives a distorted vision. He whose soul is filled with anger and clouded by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923224 | passion cannot pray. Before he lays his gift upon the altar, he must be reconciled to his brother. () Scripture is full of warnings against evil temper: "He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly." "Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923225 | thy soul." "An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression." "Be ye angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath." "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923226 | one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." The example of our blessed Lord specially teaches the same lessen. Calmly and peacefully He pursued His divine work. "When reviled he reviled not again, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." Before the High Priest, Pilate and Herod, His indignant silence was more eloquent than scorching words. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923227 | II. _We should deliberately cultivate self-control_.--If a railway train is going swiftly along, and the driver sees something on the track, he applies the brake, and thus avoids collision. In regard to temper, self-control is like the brake, and we should be ever ready to put it on. A person can come, in time, to get a wonderful control over | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923228 | his temper if he watches against it. The writer knew a young man who was at one time of an ungovernable temper; he used to be at times like "one possessed." But by watching and resolutely putting on the brake he grew up one of the sweetest-tempered and most lovable of men. He fought the wild beast within him, lashed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923229 | it and kept it down. A merchant had passionately abused a Quaker, who received his outburst of ill-temper in silence. Being afterwards ashamed of himself, he asked the other how he was able to show such patience. "Friend," replied the Quaker, "I will tell thee. I was naturally as hot and violent as thou art. I knew that to indulge | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923230 | temper was sinful, and I found it was imprudent. I observed that men in a passion always spoke loud, and I thought if I could control my voice I should repress my passion. I have therefore made it a rule never to allow my voice to be above a certain key, and by a careful observance of this rule I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923231 | have, by the blessing of God, mastered my natural temper." Strong resolution can do much. "If the pot boils," says the proverb, "take it off the fire." A little care, a word swallowed, a rising sentence struck down in us by a simple rule, may save us humiliation. "By reflection, by restraint and control a wise man can make himself | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923232 | an island which no floods can overwhelm. He who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with the fault-finders, and free from passion with the passionate, him I indeed call a wise man."--Buddhist saying. III. But while an act of self-control can restore the proper temper and balance to the mind when it is in danger, _the best way is to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923233 | keep it so that it will not go off the balance_. You know that if a clock stops, we may perhaps make it go again by a shake; if it does not keep time, we can often put the hands right; but the best way is to keep the machinery always so well balanced and adjusted that it will not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923234 | stop or go wrong. We may watch and control the temper when it breaks out; but the better way is to keep it so well balanced that it will not break out. The soul that is in harmony with God, that is full of the spirit of Christ, will ever be peaceful and serene. If ill-temper is our besetting sin, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923235 | God's grace, if we ask it, will give us power to conquer it While we watch against it, we should pray against it also. The beautiful words of Thomas Kempis point out to us the secret of the well-tempered and well-balanced mind: "First keep thyself in peace, and then thou wilt be able to bring others to peace." If "the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923236 | peace of God which passeth all understanding" keep our hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus, our life will never have its serenity disturbed by ill-temper. [] I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness for some hints in this chapter to an interesting work on "Self-Culture," by James Freeman Clarke. . RECREATION. Recreation is another name for amusement. Both words express the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923237 | same idea. Recreation means to create over again, the building up of the system when it is exhausted. Amusement primarily is said to be derived from the halt which a dog makes in hunting, when he pauses to sniff the air in order to see in which way the scent lies. Having done this, he starts off again with redoubled | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923238 | speed. Both these words in themselves suggest the place that the things which they signify should occupy in life. They are for the refreshing of our strength, in order to renewed effort. Recreation is a necessary part of life.--There are two great laws under which we live: the law of work and the law of recreation. Man has to work, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923239 | and to work hard, in order to live. Work also is necessary to happiness. "He that labors," says the Italian proverb, "is tempted by one devil; he that is idle, by a thousand." The industrious life, it is perfectly plain (as we have shown in a previous chapter), is that which we should all follow. But recreation is as needful | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923240 | in its place as work. (_a_) This is the teaching of nature. God has made us capable of enjoying ourselves, just as He has made us able to think, or talk, or work with our hands. The first sign of intelligence in the infant is a smile. The child's nature unfolds itself in play, and as man grows up, it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923241 | develops itself in many forms. The universe also is full of joy and gladness. The sky is blue, the sea glistens, the flowers are strewn over the earth. We speak of the waves playing on the shore, of the shadows playing on the mountain side. All this indicates that there is "a certain play element" that rejoices in the world | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923242 | around us. (_b_) This is the teaching of experience. Unvaried and unbroken toil becomes a sore burden; it breaks the spirit, weakens energy, and saddens the heart. "All work and no play," according to the proverb, "makes Jack a dull boy." There are men around us working so hard that they have no family life, no social life, no time | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923243 | for thought or for culture. They are simply cogs in a great wheel that is ceaselessly turning round and round--wearing themselves out before their time by excess of labor. This cannot be right. There is an interesting tradition of St. John, the disciple of our Lord, that while amusing himself with a tame partridge he was asked by a huntsman | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923244 | how he could spend his time in so unprofitable a manner. St. John replied, "Why dost thou not carry thy bow always bent?" "Because," answered the huntsman, "if it were always bent, I fear it would lose its spring and become useless." "Be not surprised then," replied the apostle, "that I should sometimes remit a little of my close attention | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923245 | of spirit to enjoy a little recreation, that I may afterwards employ myself more fervently in divine contemplation." It is said also of a most saintly man, Carlo Borromeo, that while engaged with some friends in a game of chess, the question was started, what they would do if they knew they were to die within the hour. "I would," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923246 | said Borromeo, "go on with my game." He had begun it for God's glory, and in order to fit himself for God's work, and he would finish it. These anecdotes illustrate the truth that recreation is a necessary part of life, and may be engaged in with the highest object. Recreation, therefore, is not to be regarded as an evil | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923247 | in itself--Men at different times have so regarded it. (_a_) Those who have been termed ascetics in the Church of Rome looked upon every form of amusement as sinful. Even to smile or laugh was a fault needing severe penance. They were "cruel to themselves," denied themselves all earthly joy, and placed vice and pleasure in the same category. (_b_) | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923248 | The Puritans also, in the time of the Stuarts, set their faces strongly against games and recreation of every kind. They denounced all public amusements, as Macaulay tells us, "from masques, which were exhibited at the mansions of the great, down to the wrestling matches and quoiting matches on the village green." (_c_) In all ages there have been good | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923249 | men animated by the same feeling. Life has seemed to them so serious as to have no place in it for mirth. Even one so saintly as Archbishop Leighton said that "pleasures are like mushrooms--it is so difficult to distinguish those that are wholesome from those that are poisonous, that it is better to abstain from them altogether." Those views | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923250 | have something noble in them. They spring from hatred of sin and from realizing intensely that Recreation is liable to abuse.--It often leads to evil. It was the unbridled gaiety of the age, with its selfishness and sensuality, that made the Puritans denounce amusement, though the austerity they enforced led to dreadful consequences. Repression passed into excess. "It was as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923251 | if the pent-up sewerage of a mud volcano had been suddenly let loose. The unclean spirit forcibly driven out by the Puritans returned with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of Stuart England was worst than the first." The history of that period shows us the mistake religion makes by frowning down all amusements as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923252 | sinful. But that some may be so is equally clear. They are so (_a_) when they are contrary to the express commands of the Word of God. There are pleasures which are in themselves unlawful, and which are condemned by the divine law. These, God's children will shun. They are forms of wickedness which they will ever hold in abhorrence. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923253 | "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," with all that the words mean, though the world may regard them as pleasures, and engage in them as amusements, are evil before God. But not to dwell on this, which is evident, amusements are evil (_b_) when they unfit for work. "The end of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923254 | labor," said the Greek philosopher Aristotle, "is to rest." It is equally true that "the end of rest is to labor." Pleasures that tempt us from daily duty, that leave us listless and weary, are pernicious. Outdoor games, for instance, ought to strengthen the physical frame, they ought to make us healthy and strong and ready for work. But when | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923255 | carried to excess they often produce the opposite result, and become positively hurtful. If the Saturday's play unfit for the worship and rest of the Lord's day; if an employer, as has been stated, has been obliged to dismiss his clerks more than once because of their incapacity for work owing to football matches, cricket matches, and sports generally, it | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923256 | is clear that these have not been for their good; and the same may be said of the effect of other forms of amusement, especially when carried to excess. The amusements that send us back to toil with a lightened heart and a vigorous mind are those only that we should engage in; all others are detrimental, and should be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923257 | shunned. (_c_) It is necessary to say also that amusement in any form followed as the end of life becomes specially sinful. Even the heathen moralist, Cicero, could say "that he is not worthy to be called a man who is willing to spend a single day wholly in pleasure." How much more truly may a Christian feel that he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923258 | "who liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth." A life that is simply play, that is simply amusement, is no life at all. It is only a contemptible form of existence. "A soul sodden with pleasure" is a lost soul. To be a mere pleasure-seeker is not the chief end of man. Nothing grows more wearying than continuous amusement, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923259 | and no one needs amusement so much as he who is always at it. He loses the power of real enjoyment. He has, like Esau, bartered his birthright for a mess of pottage. He is useless to man and guilty before God. It is not easy to lay down distinct and definite rules in regard to recreation--to set down and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923260 | catalogue those amusements which it is safe for us to follow, and those from which we should refrain. This has been attempted, but not successfully! and the reason is evident. What may be safe for one person may not be safe for another. If we are told that an amusement has been held to be wrong, we are ready to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923261 | reply that the mere opinion of others is not binding upon us; and perhaps in our contempt for views which appear to us bigoted and straitlaced, we rush into the opposite extreme. The true guide in recreation is a Christian spirit. He who possesses it will need no list of what are lawful and unlawful made out for him. He | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923262 | will be better guided than by any carefully compiled code of duty set before him. All, therefore, that shall be attempted in this direction is to give a few general counsels which may be serviceable. . We should exercise our own judgment as to what amusements are helpful or the reverse. It has been said, "When you are in Rome, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923263 | do as the Romans do." We would rather put the adage thus, "When you are in Rome, do _not_ as the Romans do." There are questions which majorities may decide for us, and there are questions which every soul must decide for itself. That everybody goes to bull-fights in Spain does not make bull-fighting right; neither is an amusement right | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923264 | because it is popular. In this, as in other matters, we must dare sometimes to be singular. Follow not a multitude to do evil. . What is one man's meat is another man's poison. We are not a law to our neighbor, neither is our neighbor a law to us. The amusement that we find injures us, lowers our moral | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923265 | and spiritual tone, and unfits us for the serious business of life, is the thing for us to avoid, as we avoid food which some men can take with impunity, but which does harm to us. . Keep on the safe ground of certainty. Whatever is doubtful is dangerous, and had best be left alone. If we go skating, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923266 | have a suspicion that the ice in a certain spot is weak, that is sufficient to make us avoid it. Possibly we might pass over it without danger, but the thought that it may be dangerous leads us to give it a wide berth. "If you do not wish to hear the bell ring," says the proverb, "keep away from | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923267 | the bell rope." There is a sufficiency of amusements which are beyond doubt safe and satisfying, without our trying those that may be dangerous. The best recreation often comes from change of occupation, and there is none better than the companionship of books, the sweet solace of music, the softening influence of art, or the contemplation of the beauties of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923268 | nature, "the melody of woods and winds and waters." There are fountains of joy open on every side of us, from which we may quaff many an invigorating draught, without drinking from those which are often poisoned and polluted. . The pleasure that is more congenial than our work is to be taken with caution. So long as a man | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923269 | enjoys his work more than his amusement, the latter is for him comparatively safe. It is a relaxation and refreshment, and he goes from it all the better for it; but if a man likes his pleasure better than the duties to which God has called him in the world, it is a sign that he has not realized, as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923270 | he ought to realize, the object for which life was given him. . For the question, What is the harm? substitute, What is the good? The former is that which many ask in regard to amusements, and the very asking of the question shows that they feel doubtful about them and should avoid them. But when we ask, What is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923271 | the good? it is a sign that we are anxious to know what benefit we may derive from them, and how far they may help us. That is the true spirit in which we should approach our amusements, seeking out those that recruit and refresh us mentally, morally, and physically. Those are hints[] which may be found useful. "Religion never | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923272 | was designed," it is said, "to make our pleasures less." Religion also, if we know what it means, will ever lead us to what are true, innocent, and elevating pleasures, and keep us from those that are false, bad in their influence, and which "leave a sting behind them." "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923273 | cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." Let those who practise the first part of that text not forget the second. [] I am indebted for some of them to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923274 | an article in _The Christian Union_. . BOOKS. Books have an influence on life and conduct the extent of which it is impossible to estimate. "The precepts they inculcate, the lessons they exhibit, the ideals of life and character which they portray, root themselves in the thoughts and imaginations of young men. They seize them with a force which, in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923275 | after years, appears scarcely possible." These words of Principal Tulloch will not appear too strong to any one who can look back over a long period of life. Such must ever feel that books have had a powerful effect in making them all that they are. There are many considerations that go to show the importance of books. Books are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923276 | the accumulated treasures of generations.--They are to man what memory is to the individual. If all the libraries in the world were burned and all the books in the world destroyed, the past would be little more than a blank. It would be a calamity corresponding to that of a man losing by a stroke the memory of past years. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923277 | The literature of the world is the world's memory, the world's experience, the world's failures. It teaches us where we came from. It tells us of the paths we have travelled. Almost all we know of the history of this world in which God has placed us we know from books. "In books," as Carlyle says, "lie the creative Phoenix | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923278 | ashes of the whole past--all that men have desired, discovered, done, felt, or imagined, lie recorded in books, wherein whoso has learned the mystery of spelling printed letters may find it and appropriate it." Books open to us a society from which otherwise we would be excluded.--They introduce us into a great human company. They enable us, however humble we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923279 | may be, to hold converse with the great and good of past ages and of the present time--the great philosophers, philanthropists, poets, divines, travellers. We know their thoughts, we hear their words, we clasp their hands. The chamber of the solitary student is peopled with immortal guests. He has friends who are always steadfast, who are never false, who are | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923280 | silent when he is weary, who go forth with him to his work, who await his return. In the literature of the world a grand society is open to all who choose to enter it. Books are the chief food of our intellectual life.--There are men that have, indeed, done great things who have read but little. These have had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923281 | their want of mental training compensated by their powers of observation and experience of life. But they have been for the most part exceptional men, and it is possible they might have done better if they had studied more. To the great majority of men books are the great teachers, the chief ministers to self-culture. Books in a special manner | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923282 | represent intellect to those who can appreciate them. We cannot estimate in this aspect their importance. They are in regard to self-culture what Montaigne calls "the best viaticum for the journey of life." When we think of what we owe to them, we may enter into the feelings of Charles Lamb, who "wished to ask a grace before reading more | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923283 | than a grace before meat." In regard to books, the practical questions that present themselves are, what we should read, and how we should read. The first question cannot be answered in any definite manner. (_a_) The enormous number of books in the world forbids this. Let any one enter a library of even moderate size, and he will feel | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923284 | how almost hopeless it would be, even if it were profitable, to draw out a practicable list of what may be advantageously chosen for reading and what may well be cast aside. (_b_) Still more does the infinite variety of tastes, circumstances: and talents, forbid the laying down of definite rules. Reading that might be profitable for one might not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923285 | be so for another. Reading that would be pleasant to one would be to another weariness. Every class of mind seeks naturally its own proper food, and the choice of books must ultimately depend upon a man's own bias--on his natural bent and the necessities of his life. There are, however, one or two directions that may be given, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923286 | which may be profitable to young men. _First_, We should read, as far as possible, _the great books of the world_. In the kingdom of literature there are certain works that stand by themselves and tower in their grandeur above all others. They are referred to by Bacon, in his weighty way, when he says: "Some books are to be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923287 | tasted, others to be swallowed, some few to be chewed and digested." This last class of books may be still spoken of as few. Various lists have lately been published of the best hundred books, according to the opinion of some of the greatest men of our time. There is considerable agreement among the writers as to what they consider | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923288 | the best books, and there is considerable difference also. It is easy to see how those who compiled these lists have been largely influenced in making their selection by their own peculiar tastes and fancies. Probably there is not one of their lists which any young man would care to follow out in its entirety. We give elsewhere the one | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923289 | which seems most likely to be useful to those into whose hands this text-ay probably come,[] though it is evident that many young men might profitably leave out some of the books mentioned and substitute others. Still one thing is clear, that it is possible to make a selection of outstanding works in literature. After consultation with others better informed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923290 | than himself, a young man can make a list suitable to his capacities and tastes, of books that really are _great_ books, and in this way he may acquire knowledge that is worth having, and which will furnish a good and solid foundation for his intellectual culture. It is with books of this kind that he should begin, and a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923291 | few such books thoroughly mastered will probably do him more good than all others that he may afterwards read. It is hardly necessary to say that there is _one_ book that may be termed specially great, and which all young men should make the special subject of their study. (_a_) The Bible, even as a means of intellectual culture, stands | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923292 | alone and above all others. "In the poorest cottages," says Carlyle, "is one book wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of man has found light and nourishment, and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in him." No man can be regarded as an educated man unless he is familiar with this book. To understand its history and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923293 | position in the world is in itself a liberal education. Those who have been indifferent to its spiritual power and divine claims have acknowledged its great importance in regard to self-culture. "Take the Bible," says Professor Huxley, "as a whole, make the severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for shortcomings and for positive errors, and there still remains in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923294 | this old literature a vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur; and then consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, and is familiar to noble and simple from John o' Groat's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923295 | house to Land's End; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of a mere literary form; and finally, that it forbids the merest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923296 | of the oldest nations of the world. By the study of what other ould children be so much humanized?" In these words we have a noble tribute to the intellectual greatness of the Bible. (_b_) But it has other claims upon us than its power to stimulate mental culture. It is inspired by God. "It is profitable for doctrine, for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923297 | reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." It is man's guide through the perplexities of life to the glory of heaven, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word." Read then the great books of the world, and this book, the greatest of all. _Second_, Another suggestion that we may make in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923298 | regard to the use of books is that _we should read from some centre or standpoint_. A person takes a house in the country. This he makes the centre of many excursions. One day he climbs the mountain, another day he walks by winding stream, on another he sails along the shore. In this way he explores the surrounding country | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012923299 | by degrees, coming back each night to the place he started from. We may do much the same thing with profit in our excursions among books. For instance, we may take the starting-point of our _profession_, and read all we can in regard to it. A farmer should read about farming, a lawyer about law, a divine about theology. Or | 60 | gutenberg |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.