n upon another, while a rare
sweet smile passed over his face, just as we lay hand tenderly upon
the shoulder of some dear friend. Through their books his old friends,
the heroes of the past, had told Southey of their innermost dreams,
their passions, their aspirations, what braced them in hours of
battle, how they endured when death robbed them of their best. Poor
and lonely, full oft the poet had talked with these volumes as with
familiar friends. So before he died Southey said to his books "Good
night," ere in that bright beyond he said "Good morning" to their
authors.

This divine injunction as to the companionship of books bids us search
out the use and purpose of reading. Primarily, books are to be read
for information and mental strength. The hunger of the body for bread
and fruit is not more real than the hunger of the intellect for facts
and principles. Knowledge stands in as vital relation to the growth of
reason as iron and phosphate to the enrichment of the blood. Ignorance
is weakness. Success is knowing how. Ours is a world in which the last
fact conquers. In addition to his own experience and reflection, the
young artist must stand in some gallery that brings together all the
best masters. Standing beside the Elgin marbles in the British Museum,
the sculptor must bathe and soak himself in the Greek ideal and
spirit, until the Greek thought throbs in his brain, and he feels the
Greek enthusiasm for strength in round, lithe arms, and limbs made
ready for the race.

But in a large, deep sense, books are the galleries in which spirits
are caught and fastened upon the pages. Books are storehouses into
which facts and principles have been harvested. Just as a bit of coal
tells us what ferns and flowers grew in the far-off era, so the book
gives us the very quintessence of man's thoughts about life and duty
and death. Nor is there any other way of gaining these vital
knowledges. Life is too short to obtain them through conversation or
travel. Nor is any youth ready for his task until he has traced the
rise and growth of houses, tools, governments, schools, industries,
religions. He must also compare race with race, land with land, and
star with star. Asked about his ideas of the value of education, a man
distinguished in railway circles answered: "I have learned that each
new fact has its money value. Other things being equal, the judgment
of the man who knows the most must always prevail." But books alone
ca