VOL. XXVII. -THIRD SERIES, VOL. IX. ART. I.-On Reading, ART. II. — Unitarian Controversies. The Christian Teacher, for ART. III.-The Writings of Henry More, D. D. NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE. — The School Library. Published The History of Greece, by Thomas Keightley, to which is Third Annual Report of the American Physiological Society, ART. I.—The Satanic School in Literature and its Reformers, ART. II. Oliver Twist; by CHARLES DICKENS, (Boz.) ART. III. — Tracts for the Times. By Members of the University ART. IV. Historical Discourses 1. A Historical Discourse delivered before the Citizens of New Haven. The two hundredth anniversary of the first settlement of the town and colony. By JAMES L. KINGSLEY. 2. Thirteen Historical Discourses on the completion of two ART. I. The True Intellectual System of the Universe: where- in all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is confuted, and its Impossibility demonstrated, &c. &c. By RALPH ART. V. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society, ART. VI. — The School Library, Published under the sanction of the Board of Education of the State of Massachusetts, 1. Life of Columbus: by WASHINGTON IRVING. 2. Paley's Natural Theology: newly arranged and edited by 3. Lives of Eminent Individuals, celebrated in American 4. Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons: by Rev. H. DUNCAN. Adapted to American Readers, by F. W. P. GREENWOOD. ART. VII.-Tracy's Translation of Undine, ART. VIII. The Life and Times of Martin Luther, Louis on the Yellow Fever. Translated by G. C. Shattuck, jr. 409 The Lecturess; a Tale; by the author of 'My Cousin Mary,' 410 THE LIBRARY... NEW-YORK CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SEPTEMBER, 1839. ART. I. ON READING. THE subject of this Essay is Reading. This is, to speak technically, the great school of modern manhood. It is the continuation of that school, in which it is the privilege of our children to be brought up. Of our own country, in particular, we may say, speaking for the mass of the people, that it is the great reading country of the world. It is high time that we should enter into some serious consideration of the means by which this reading privilege may be turned to the best account. It occupies too much time to be left out of the moral account of life. Great indeed is the privilege; and when we think of nations where few of the mass of the people can read; when we think of the ages, when almost none of any class could find anything on the pages of a book but hyeroglyphics, dark as those of the Egyptian obelisks; when we think of the many heavy hours that must pass in houses where a book never enters; we cannot too highly prize our advantage. But that, which constitutes the signal advantage of modern times, is not an advantage only. It is an opportunity also; and an opportunity for what? This question I shall attempt in some meas ure to answer. There are two kinds of reading, which need to be carefully distinguished, and each to have its proper place assigned to it. There is reading for improvement, and reading for entertainment; reading as a mental task, and reading as a mental recreation; reading with thought, and reading without thought. In the one case, a man takes a book to aid his inquiries or his 3D s. VOL. IX. NO. I. VOL. XXVII. 1 |