From the Bible and Shakespeare roads lead down among books but little
lower in elevation and outlook. Of these the essays of Emerson furnish
a noble example; and the poems of the Concord philosopher are the
wisdom of the ancients stated in terms of Americanism. I would have
every young man spend half an hour over each page of our American
Thinker's essays on Character, Manners, Power, and Self-reliance.
Indeed, wherever you turn, among the pages of our Sage, you find no
desert place, but always a very forest of thought, tumultuous and
vibrant with fancy and suggestion, sweet and wholesome with living
truth and all helpfulness. You can form no better habit than to read a
page or two of Emerson every night.
Take Emerson as an example; read books of that sort--books that are
kin to the Bible and Shakespeare. There is no excuse for your
poisoning your time with idle books or low books or transient
books--moth volumes that flutter an instant in the light and in an
instant die. For the great books are entertaining. If you want
excitement, Plutarch's Lives furnish you thrilling-narrative fiction
cannot surpass--and undying inspiration besides.
The great novels, too, have in them all the blood and battle-ax the
stoutest nerve can crave, all the incidents of love, self-sacrifice,
and gentle invention the tenderest heart can need.
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