ek after its perusal. If a man lived on the banks of a
beautiful lake, and went down to its shore each pleasant day to take a
ride, and, after an excursion upon the peaceful waters, stove his boat
in, or cast it adrift, he would be actually following the practice of
our people of the present day. The man who owns a library in these
times, is considered either a book-worm or an opulent citizen. And yet
what treasures are within everyone's reach! Suppose you buy and read a
volume. You are

FILLED WITH IDEAS NEW TO YOU,

and you derive great pleasure. Keep that book a year and read it over.
It is safe to say you will gain more benefit and reap greater enjoyment
from the second perusal than from the first. A library of books, every
one of which you have read, is a mine without "walls." It is a merry
assembly of old friends ever faithful. Grief cannot drive them away.
Slander cannot alienate them. They cannot have rival interests. They
cannot want anything you have got, and you can take all they have got,

AND NOT ROB THEM AT ALL.

You have a memory which is as treacherous as the most of the other
attributes of human nature. You sit down and read two hours on an
interesting topic. A friend opens the same subject to you, a day
afterward, in conversation, and you fairly carry him by storm. That is
unfair, for you should say you have been "posting up"--but it shows the
value of a library. By frequent "posting" on whatever you have read, you
become a learned man, which is

A TITLE OF GREAT CREDIT AND DIGNITY

in most men's eyes. The men who read once and "read everything" are
never called "learned." _They_ are called "superficial." It is a little
unjust, for they have been just as studious as the "learned men," but
they have spread themselves out too thin. They have not bought and kept
the books they have read, and they cannot remember the vital points.
Suppose you recollect that Lord Bacon has said something very wise about
riches. That is all you can call to mind. That carries no impression to
anybody. If you had the book in which you saw the speech, you could
repeat it accurately, and the probability is that the next time you
referred to it you could give

THE GIST OF THE WHOLE THOUGHT,

and, by the next attempt, the language itself. You could say to your
friend when you were talking about wealth, that you have admired that
speech of Bacon where he says that he cannot call riches better than the
"baggage" of