which may reduce the soul to utter barrenness and waste, and even scathe it as with devouring fire. We would treat.also of the different kinds of books and the methods of reading appropriate to each. We hope also to give some direction to the taste, and this without the dry and formal precepts of the schools, or the captious and positive dogmatism of the professed critic. The taste, as applied to books and reading, like the eye for color and form, may be educated, or rather it may be taught how to educate itself. We would aid in this effort at self-culture; especially would we indicate what are the methods and ways of reading imaginative literature, which may cause it to yield pure and exquisite delight, to add power to the intellect, and to impart a grace and finish to the character and life.

We e are not insensible to the perils which are incident to our attempt. Not a few have undertaken to answer the questions which we have proposed, and have succeeded very indifferently. Many a young man has asked his respected teacher or trusted adviser "What and how shall I read?" and been put off with tiresome platitudes and solemn commonplaces for an answer, coupled with the titles of half a score of works, which every person is supposed to be acquainted with, and which are deemed eminently judicious and safe reading. The manuals usually known as "Courses of Reading," though useful to a certain extent, usually lack the germinant force of fundamental principles in respect to the object of reading and the estimate of authors. The list of books which Dr. Johnson recommended to a clerical friend, is a good example of most of the catalogues which are hastily prepared even by eminent critics. "Universal History (ancient)-Rollin's Ancient History-Puffendorf's Introduction to HistoryVertot's History of the Knights of Malta-Vertot's Revolutions of Portugal-Vertot's Revolutions of Sweden-Carte's

History of England-Present State of England-Geographical Grammar-Prideaux's Connection-Nelson's Feasts and Fasts-Duty of Man-Gentleman's Religion-Clarendon's History-Watts' Improvement of the Mind-Watts' Logic-Nature Displayed-Lowth's English Grammar— Blackwall on the Classics-Sherlock's Sermons-Burnet's Life of Hale-Dupuis' History of the Church-Shuckford's Connections-Law's Serious Call-Walton's Complete Angler-Sandys' Travels-Sprat's History of the Royal Society-England's Gazetteer-Goldsmith's Roman History-some Commentaries on the Bible." This list seems to include works of three different classes. Books of standard authority and permanent value; books which had happened to please Dr. Johnson's permanent or temporary humor; books which had happened to occur to his mind when he was writing out the catalogue for his young friend. The most exciting and satisfactory comments on books and reading are not usually found in formal treatises, but in such incidental remarks as those which are recorded by Boswell of Dr. Johnson, or are met with in Montaigne's rambling and free-spoken essay “ Of Books," or in the pithy and pregnant essay of Bacon on "Studies," with Whateley's Commentary, or in Charles Lamb's "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading," or in Hazlitt's many incisive essays and Coleridge's wonderfully stimulating criticisms, or in two or three good thoughts from Carlyle's address at Edinburgh mis-named "On the Choice of Books," or the essay of R. W. Emerson on "Books" in the volume entitled "Society and Solitude," which is characteristic of the author, even to his remarks about "Jesus" and "the Bibles of the world."

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All manuals entitled "Courses of Reading" must be exposed to the objection noticed by the elder D'Israeli, that they necessarily fall behind the times the moment they come up to them. A course of reading that

should be complete in one month must begin to be defective the next.

Courses of reading from an elder adviser or friend to a pupil or protégé, even if they are hastily prepared, serve a good purpose as pictures of the times. They cast more or less light upon the culture and knowledge which prevailed when they were written. A very distinguished clergyman of New England, furnishes the following list of books for a young pastor in 1792. "In Divinity, you will not wonder if I recommend President Edwards' writings in general; Dr. Bellamy's and Dr. Hopkins'; President Davies' Sermons; Robert Walker's Sermons; Howe's do; Addison's Evidences; Beattie's Evidences of Christianity; Leland's View of Deistical Writers; Berry Street Sermons ;in History Prideaux's Connection; Rollin's Ancient History; Goldsmith's Roman History; do. History of England, or Rider's History of England which is more prolix and particular; Robertson's History of South America; do. History of Charles V; Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts; Ramsay's History of the War; Guthrie's and Morse's Geography; Josephus' History of the Jews;-Watts on the Mind; Locke on the Human Understanding;-Spectator; Guardian; Tattler; Rambler; Pamela; Clarissa; Grandison; Telemachus; Don Quixote; Anderson's Voyage; Cook's Voyages; Milton; Young's Night Thoughts; Vicesimus Knox's Essays; Do. On Education;-Buchan's Family Physician; Tissot on Health.-These may be sufficient-but additions may be easily made. The great danger will be of getting useless and hurtful books, especially Novels and Romances which generally corrupt, especially young minds; beside the loss of the purchase money and the time spent in the reading of them."

Another paper of a later date was prepared by a clergyman, of some reputation for literature, for a young lady, whose mind the writer sought to direct, and, as is very

likely, whose heart and hand he sought to win. It is as follows: "List of Books for a young lady's Library." "Cann's small Bible (with marginal references); Horne's Paraphrase on the Psalms; Mrs. Hannah More's Strictures on Female Education; Mrs. Chapone's Letters to her Niece; Grove on the Sacrament; Mason on Self-Knowledge; Doddridge's Rise and Progress, etc.; Newton on the Prophecies; Guide to Domestic Happiness and the Refuge; Cowper's Works, 2 vols.: Young's Night Thoughts; Elegant Extracts in Poetry; Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; The Rambler; Thomson's Seasons; Dwight's Conquest of Canaan; Washington's Life; Trumbull's History of Connecticut. This list of books might be enlarged, and perhaps upon recollection some alteration might be made, but these are well calculated to mend the heart, to direct the imagination and thoughts to proper objects, and to give command over them upon good principles. To read profitably we should always then have some object in view more than merely to pass away time, by letting words run off our tongue or through our minds. *** Order and system in any business, and certainly in cultivating the mind, is really necessary, if we would be benefited by study. It is by having a few books well chosen and attentively and perseveringly read, that we fix in our mind useful principles. Books are multiplied without number, and it becomes perplexing to run from one to another, and none are well understood when we read in this manner. The Bible should always stand first in our esteem and be read first daily. It affords every species of reading,—history, biography, poetry, etc.,—and shows the heart in its true character."

If anything would discourage us from prosecuting the plan of writing upon Books and Reading, it would be the perusal of this paper of well-meant truisms and well-worn commonplaces. It does not follow, however, because

advice upon any subject is especially liable to degenerate into meaningless generalities, that advice should never be given; nor, because it is comparatively easy to discourse safely with uplifted eye-brows about the books we read and the companions we choose, that such counsel should never be given at all. The much-needed pilot-boat must run the risk of being itself stranded upon dangerous flats and beguiling shallows, if it would preserve the vessel from being ingulfed in the deeper seas, and the more terrible breakers.

There are not a few readers who reject all guidance and restraint-some from inclination, and some from a theory that counsel and selection interfere with the freedom of individual taste and the spontaneity of individual genius. Their motto in general is: "of all the sorts of VICE that prevail ADVICE is the most vexatious." So far as read ng is concerned, it is, "In brief, sir, study what you most affect." One person, they insist, cannot advise for another, because one cannot put himself in the place of another. "Read what speaks to your heart and mind; let your own feelings be your guide, and leave critics and advisers to their stupid analyses and narrow or prejudiced judgments. Read that you may enjoy, not that you may judge; that you may gather impulse and inspiration, not that you may understand the reasons or explore the sources of the instruction and enjoyment which you unconsciously derive from the books in which you most delight." There is truth and force in this position, we grant. No man can read with profit that which he cannot learn to read with pleasure. If I do not myself find in a book something which I myself am looking for, or am ready to receive, then the book is no book for me whatever, however much it may be for another man. But to assert that one cannot help another to select and to judge of books is, in principle, to renounce all instruction and dependence on those who are older and