will, read other books for amusement
once or twice; but you will find that these have an element of
perpetuity in them, existing in nothing else of their kind; while their
peculiar quietness and repose of manner will also be of the greatest
value in teaching you to feel the same characters in art. Read little at
a time, trying to feel interest in little things, and reading not so
much for the sake of the story as to get acquainted with the pleasant
people into whose company these writers bring you. A common book will
often give you much amusement, but it is only a noble book which will
give you dear friends. Remember, also, that it is of less importance to
you in your earlier years, that the books you read should be clever than
that they should be right. I do not mean oppressively or repulsively
instructive; but that the thoughts they express should be just, and the
feelings they excite generous. It is not necessary for you to read the
wittiest or the most suggestive books: it is better, in general, to hear
what is already known, and may be simply said. Much of the literature of
the present day, though good to be read by persons of ripe age, has a
tendency to agitate rather than confirm, and leaves its readers too
frequently in a helpless or hopeless indignation, the worst possible
state into which the mind of youth can be thrown. It may, indeed, become
necessary for you, as you advance in life, to set your hand to things
that need to be altered in the world, or apply your heart chiefly to
what must be pitied in it, or condemned; but, for a young person, the
safest temper is one of reverence, and the safest place one of
obscurity. Certainly at present, and perhaps through all your life, your
teachers are wisest when they make you content in quiet virtue, and that
literature and art are best for you which point out, in common life, and
in familiar things, the objects for hopeful labor, and for humble love.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] I do not mean necessarily to imply inferiority of rank in
saying that this second class of painters have questionable
qualities. The greatest men have often many faults, and sometimes
their faults are a part of their greatness; but such men are not, of
course, to be looked upon by the student with absolute implicitness
of faith.

[76] Including, under this term, John Lewis, and William Hunt of the
Old Water-color, who, take him all in all, is the best painter of
st