lly
make the man are, in a decision that affects his hopes and happiness for
life, too often overlooked; and some mere transient incident, esteemed
perhaps a stroke of fortune, is accepted, without any hesitating thought
about the suitability of its results, as a sufficient introduction to
the business of the world. The consequence of this neglect is obvious
enough. In every social and commercial sphere we find men drudging on in
hopeless slavery, or ruined by the natural revolt of sensibilities that
could not be controlled, against the influence of circumstances wholly
inappropriate, and for which these sensibilities, most useful in their
proper sphere, were not of course designed.

A young man's very desultory reading will perhaps be one of the most
useful means for finding what his life's career should be. Knowing
himself, or being known, as has been said, by those directing him, and
by his own discursive reading having learnt what work for his peculiar
abilities is open for him in the world, he probably will judge quite
readily what line of study he should at first pursue, and following out
this clue, at first by the aid of judicious external guidance, he will,
with ever-increasing self-reliance and discrimination, proceed to fulfil
the requirements of education and the inclination of his own mental
disposition. This method of development is the natural order by which
intellectual growth, by means of books, or any other means, proceeds. To
make a choice of certain hundred books for any man's perusal, in his
youth or afterwards, is but a feat of cleverness, arousing curiosity or
wonder, but evolving nothing--ending in the choice. A man may be
possessed of any number of good books; and possibly a thousand books
might be selected, all of which would be by general consent called
excellent, and worth possessing; and perhaps he would be none the
better for them all. Young men do not require a hundred books at once.
Indeed the fewer well-selected books a youth has to begin with, the more
safe he is against excessive loss of time. His most important question
is not, what shall I read? but, what need I read? The student's care
should be to read as little, and to think as much as possible. Thus, he
will find what thing it is that he at any time immediately requires to
know, and he will make this pressing need the object of his next
acquirement in books. This method tends to education; it develops mental
power, and makes a cul