Reading

    ittle more deliberation in ts,

    all men udents and observers, for

    certainly ture and destiny are interesting to all alike.  In

    accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a

    family or a state, or acquiring fame even, al; but in

    dealing rutal, and need fear no change nor

    accident.  t Egyptian or hindoo philosopher raised a corner

    of tatue of ty; and still trembling

    robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did,

    since it  is

    no tled on t robe; no time

    divinity  time which we

    really improve, or ,

    nor future.

    My residence  only to t, but to

    serious reading, ty; and the

    range of ting library, I han ever come

    e round the world,

    ten on bark, and are now merely

    copied from time to time on to linen paper.  Says t Mr

    Udd, quot;Being seated, to run the

    spiritual o be

    intoxicated by a single glass of wine; I his

    pleasure rines.quot;  I

    kept able though I looked

    at  labor

    first, for I o finiso  the same

    time, made more study impossible.  Yet I sustained myself by the

    prospect of sucure.  I read one or two shallow books

    of travel in tervals of my ill t employment made me

    as  I lived.

    tudent may read

    danger of dissipation or luxuriousness, for it implies t he in

    some measure emulate te morning o

    ted in ter of

    our motongue, o degenerate

    times; and  laboriously seek the meaning of each word and

    line, conjecturing a larger sense ts out of

    y we he modern cheap and

    fertile press, s translations, tle to bring

    us nearer to ters of antiquity.  they seem as

    solitary, and tter in wed as rare and

    curious, as ever.  It is hful days and

    costly  language,

    rivialness of treet, to be

    perpetual suggestions and provocations.  It is not in vain t the

    farmer remembers and repeats tin words which he has heard.

    Men sometimes speak as if tudy of t length

    make ical studies; but turous

    student udy classics, in hey may be

    ten and  t are the classics

    but t recorded ts of man?  the only oracles

    o t modern

    inquiry in t as well

    omit to study Nature because so read  is, to

    read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one t

    ask toms of the

    day esteem.  It requires a training suces under,

    teady intention almost of to t.  Books

    must be read as deliberately and reservedly as tten.

    It is not enougo be able to speak t

    nation by erval

    betten language, the language heard and

    transitory, a sound, a

    tongue, a dialect merely, almost brutis

    unconsciously, like tes, of our mothe

    maturity and experience of t; if t is our motongue, this

    is our fatongue, a reserved and select expression, too

    significant to be  be born again in

    order to speak.  the Greek and

    Latin tongues in t entitled by t

    of birto read tten in those languages; for

    t ten in t Greek or Latin w

    in t language of literature.  t learned the

    nobler dialects of Greece and Rome, but terials on which

    tten e paper to tead

    a cemporary literature.  But wions of

    Europe inct tten languages of their

    o for teratures, then

    first learning revived, and sco discern from

    t remoteness treasures of antiquity.   the Roman and

    Grecian multitude could not er the lapse of ages a few

    scill reading it.

    ors occasional bursts of

    eloquence, t ten words are commonly as far behind or

    above ting spoken language as t s stars

    is bears, and they who can may

    read tronomers forever comment on and observe them.

    t exions like our daily colloquies and vaporous

    breat is called eloquence in to

    be roric in tudy.  tor yields to tion of a

    transient occasion, and speaks to to those who

    can  ter, whose more equable life is his

    occasion, and ed by t and the crowd

    o tellect and h of

    mankind, to all in any age wand him.

    No  Alexander carried th him on his

    expeditions in a precious casket.  A ten  of

    relics.  It is somet once more intimate h us and more

    universal t.  It is t nearest

    to life itself.  It may be translated into every language, and not

    only be read but actually breat be

    represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the

    breatself.  t mans t

    becomes a modern mans speeced

    to ts of Grecian literature, as to her marbles, only a

    maturer golden and autumnal tint, for their own

    serene and celestial atmospo all lands to protect them

    against time.  Books are treasured h of

    t inance of generations and nations.

    Books, t and t, stand naturally and rightfully on

    ttage.  to

    plead, but ain the reader his common

    sense  refuse tural and

    irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or

    emperors, exert an influence on mankind.  erate and

    perrader erprise and industry his

    coveted leisure and independence, and is admitted to the circles of

    urns inevitably at last to till

    yet inaccessible circles of intellect and genius, and is

    sensible only of tion of ure and ty and

    insufficiency of all her proves his good sense

    by takes to secure for

    intellectual culture w  is

    t he founder of a family.

    t learned to read t classics in the

    language in

    knoory of t is remarkable

    t no transcript of to any modern

    tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a

    transcript.   been printed in English, nor

    AEschylus, nor Virgil even -- works as refined, as solidly done, and

    as beautiful almost as tself; for later ers, say

    he

    elaborate beauty and finiserary

    labors of ts.  talk of forgetting them who never

    kne  the

    learning and to attend to and

    appreciate t age will be richose relics

    han classic

    but even less knoures of tions, sill

    furted, wicans sh Vedas

    and Zendavestas and Bibles, es and Shakespeares,

    and all turies to come sed

    trophe world.  By such a pile we may

    o scale  last.

    t poets  been read by

    mankind, for only great poets can read they have only been

    read as titude read tars, at most astrologically, not

    astronomically.  Most men o read to serve a paltry

    convenience, as to cipo keep

    accounts and not be ced in trade; but of reading as a noble

    intellectual exercise ttle or not this only is

    reading, in a  t which lulls us as a luxury and

    suffers ties to sleep t w we o

    stand on tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours

    to.

    I t ters we s

    t is in literature, and not be forever repeating our a-b-abs, and

    ting on

    t and foremost form all our lives.  Most men are satisfied

    if ted by the

    of their lives

    vegetate and dissipate ties in w is called easy

    reading.  ting

    Library entitled quot;Little Reading,quot; o a

    to name o.  those who,

    like cormorants and ostric all sorts of this, even

    after t dinner of meats and vegetables, for they suffer

    noto be ed.  If oto provide this

    provender, to read it.  the nine

    tale about Zebulon and Sophey loved as

    none rue

    love run smoot any rate,  did run and stumble, and get

    up again and go on! unate got up on to a

    steeple, wter never he belfry; and

    t  rings

    to come together and hear, O dear! how he

    did get do, I t tter

    metamorpo man

    o put ellations,

    and let till ty, and not come

    do all to bot men  time

    t rings t stir ting-house

    burn do;tip-toe-he Middle

    Ages, by ted autittle-tol-tan, to appear in

    monts; a great rus all come toget;  All this

    t and primitive curiosity, and

    ions even yet need no

    s as some little four-year-old benc

    gilt-covered edition of Cinderella --  any improvement, t

    I can see, in tion, or accent, or emphasis, or any more

    skill in extracting or inserting t is dulness

    of sigagnation of tal circulations, and a general

    deliquium and slougellectual faculties.  this

    sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure

    every oven, and finds a surer

    market.

    t books are not read even by those who are called good

    readers.   does our Concord culture amount to?  this

    toions, no taste for t or for very

    good books even in Engliserature, whose words all can read and

    spell.  Even ted men

    tle or no acquaintance he

    Englishe

    ancient classics and Bibles, wo all who will

    kno efforts anywo become

    acquainted hem.  I know a woodchopper, of middle age, who

    takes a Frenc for news as ,

    but to quot;keep ice,quot; h; and

    his

    o his English.

    t as muco

    do, and take an Englishe purpose.  One who has

    just come from reading per English books will

    find  it?  Or suppose he

    comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original, whose

    praises are familiar even to terate; he will find

    nobody at all to speak to, but must keep silence about it.  Indeed,

    the professor in our colleges, who, if he has

    mastered ties of tionally

    mastered ties of t and poetry of a Greek poet, and

    o impart to t and heroic reader; and as

    for tures, or Bibles of mankind, wown

    can tell me even titles?  Most men do not kno any nation

    but ture.  A man, any man, will go

    considerably out of o pick up a silver dollar; but here are

    golden iquity tered, and

    whe wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; --

    and yet o read only as far as Easy Reading, the primers

    and class-books, and tle Reading,quot; and

    story-books, which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our

    conversation and thy only

    of pygmies and manikins.

    I aspire to be acquainted his our Concord

    soil has produced, whose names are hardly known here.  Or shall I

    o and never read o were my

    townsman and I never saw  neighbor and I never heard

    tended to t ually

    is it?  ain al in him, lie

    on t s I never read them.  e are underbred and

    loerate; and in t I confess I do not

    make any very broad distinction beterateness of my

    to all and terateness of him who

    o read only s.

    e siquity, but partly by

    first kno-men, and

    soar but little ellectual flighe columns

    of the daily paper.

    It is not all books t are as dull as there

    are probably o our condition exactly, which, if we

    could really and, ary the

    morning or to our lives, and possibly put a ne on

    ted a new era in

    s for us,

    perche

    at present unutterable ttered.  these

    same questions t disturb and puzzle and confound us heir

    turn occurred to all t one ted; and

    eaco y, by his words and

    y.  the

    solitary skirts of Concord, who has

    h and peculiar religious experience, and is

    driven as o t gravity and exclusiveness by

    is not true; but Zoroaster, thousands of

    years ago, travelled t

    to be universal, and treated his neighbors

    accordingly, and is even said to ed and established

    hen, and

    th Jesus

    C  quot;our c; go by the board.

    e boast t o teentury and are making

    t rapid strides of any nation.  But consider tle this

    village does for its oure.  I do not ter my

    too be flattered by t  advance

    eito be provoked -- goaded like oxen, as we

    are, into a trot.  e ively decent system of common

    scs only; but excepting tarved

    Lyceum in ter, and latterly the puny beginning of a library

    suggested by tate, no school for ourselves.  e spend more on

    almost any article of bodily aliment or ailment tal

    aliment.  It is time t

    leave off our education  is

    time t villages ies, and tants

    ties, hey are, indeed, so

    o pursue liberal studies t of their lives.

    So one Paris or one Oxford forever?

    Cannot students be boarded  a liberal education under

    t o lecture to

    us?  Alas! tle and tending tore, we

    are kept from scoo long, and our education is sadly neglected.

    In try, ts take the place

    of t sron of the fine

    arts.  It is ric s only ty and

    refinement.  It can spend money enoughings as farmers and

    traders value, but it is t Utopian to propose spending money

    for telligent men knoo be of far more h.

    toeen town-house,

    tune or politics, but probably it  spend so much on

    living , true meat to put into t shell, in a hundred

    years.  ty-five dollars annually subscribed

    for a Lyceum in ter is better spent ther equal sum

    raised in toeentury, why

    s enjoy tages ury

    offers?   provincial?  If we

    on and take the

    best ne once? -- not be sucking the pap of

    quot;neutral familyquot; papers, or bro;Olive Branc; here in New

    England.  Let ts of all ties come to us,

    and  to

    o select our reading?  As the

    nobleman of cultivated taste surrounds ever

    conduces to ure -- genius -- learning --  -- books --

    paintings -- statuary -- music -- pruments, and the

    like; so let t stop s at a pedagogue, a

    parson, a sexton, a parismen, because our

    Pilgrim forefat ter once on a bleak rock

    o act collectively is according to t of our

    institutions; and I am confident t, as our circumstances are more

    flouriser the noblemans.  New England

    can o come and teach her, and

    board t be provincial at all.  t is

    t.  Instead of noblemen, let us have noble

    villages of men.  If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the

    river, go round a little t least over the

    darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.