nation by which they are written, for there is a memorable interval
Grecian multitude could not hear, after the lapse of ages a few
inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well
these were not written in that Greek or Latin which they knew, but
what we will of their genius, have rarely, if ever, equalled the
story-books, which are for boys and beginners; and our reading, our
certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike. In
emperors, exert an influence on mankind. When the illiterate and
each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and
with unwearied gizzard, whose corrugations even yet need no
mastered the difficulties of the language, has proportionally
robe remains raised, and I gaze upon as fresh a glory as he did,
unconsciously, like the brutes, of our mothers. The other is the
I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this our Concord
against the corrosion of time. Books are the treasured wealth of
occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd
aliment. It is time that we had uncommon schools, that we did not
paintings -- statuary -- music -- philosophical instruments, and the
This is about as much as the college-bred generally do or aspire to
make way for more modern and practical studies; but the adventurous
to the monuments of Grecian literature, as to her marbles, only a
just come from reading perhaps one of the best English books will
has any sympathy to impartto the alert and heroic reader; and as
and let them swing round there till they are rusty, and not come
find how many with whom he can converse about it? Or suppose he
wealth and fashion, he turns inevitably at last to those still
they were written were waste paper to them, and they prized instead
schools, schools for infants only; but excepting the half-starved
Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on
make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my
here and elsewhere have really little or no acquaintance with the
nobleman of cultivated taste surrounds himself with whatever
on the next shelf, and yet I never read them. We are underbred and
Ages, by the celebrated author of `Tittle-Tol-Tan, to appear in
townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who
breath. What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to
could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the
weather-cocks, as they used to put heroes among the constellations,
for the sacred Scriptures, or Bibles of mankind, who in this town
the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting-house
raised in the town. If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why
can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his
his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us,
should we not enjoy the advantages which the Nineteenth Century
since it was I in him that was then so bold, and it is he in me that
well off -- to pursue liberal studies the rest of their lives.
the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era in
his faith, may think it is not true; but Zoroaster, thousands of
Library entitled "Little Reading," which I thought referred to a
in the select language of literature. They had not learned the
but even less known Scriptures of the nations, shall have still
institutions; and I am confident that, as our circumstances are more
serene and celestial atmosphere into all lands to protect them
him speak or attended to the wisdom of his words. But how actually
scholars read, and a few scholars only are still reading it.
nobler dialects of Greece and Rome, but the very materials on which
now reviews the vision. No dust has settled on that robe; no time
had his second birth and peculiar religious experience, and is
all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for
This town has spent seventeen thousand dollars on a town-house,
the language read. The one is commonly transitory, a sound, a
read as the multitude read the stars, at most astrologically, not
living wit, the true meat to put into that shell, in a hundred
between the spoken and the written language, the language heard and
hope to scale heaven at last.
England. Let the reports of all the learned societies come to us,
costly hours, if you learn only some words of an ancient language,
The best books are not read even by those who are called good
No wonder that Alexander carried the Iliad with him on his
Pilgrim forefathers got through a cold winter once on a bleak rock
to.
the uncommon school we want. Instead of noblemen, let us have noble
they read with saucer eyes, and erect and primitive curiosity, and
labors of the ancients. They only talk of forgetting them who never
read them. The astronomers forever comment on and observe them.
fertile press, with all its translations, has done little to bring
nor future.
their pages. The heroic books, even if printed in the character of
universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest
the most rapid strides of any nation. But consider how little this
then, having needlessly got him up there, the happy novelist rings
learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and
if they read or hear read, and perchance have been convicted by the
town of that name which I had not been to. There are those who,
transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who
with these. To act collectively is according to the spirit of our
farmer remembers and repeats the few Latin words which he has heard.
will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the
at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These
plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common
village does for its own culture. I do not wish to flatter my
takes a French paper, not for news as he says, for he is above that,
refinement. It can spend money enough on such things as farmers and
and Zendavestas and Bibles, with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares,
Harper & Brothers and Redding & Co. to select our reading? As the
know of them, there are the feeblest efforts anywhere made to become
can hire all the wise men in the world to come and teach her, and
either of us. We need to be provoked -- goaded like oxen, as we
turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and
further accumulated, when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas
It is not enough even to be able to speak the language of that
offers? Why should our life be in any respect provincial? If we
wisdom of one good book, the Bible, and for the rest of their lives
tongue, unless our civilization itself may be regarded as such a
steeple, who had better never have gone up as far as the belfry; and
relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more
only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; -- not be
irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or
he, being wise, knew it to be universal, and treated his neighbors
words of one syllable, in the fourth or fifth classes, sitting on
soar but little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns
has elapsed since that divinity was revealed. That time which we
that remoteness the treasures of antiquity. What the Roman and
and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited
skill in extracting or inserting the moral. The result isdulness
"neutral family" papers, or browsing "Olive Branches" here in New
suggested by the State, no school for ourselves. We spend more on
arts. It is rich enough. It wants only the magnanimity and
range of the ordinary circulating library, I had more than ever come
represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the
first learning revived, and scholars were enabled to discern from
the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to
our mother tongue, will always be in a language dead to degenerate
really improve, or which is improvable, is neither past, present,
none had ever loved before, and neither did the course of their true
reading. There is a work in several volumes in our Circulating
market.
there is hardly the professor in our colleges, who, if he has
will task the reader more than any exercise whichthe customs of the
mankind, for only great poets can read them. They have only been
can tell me even their titles? Most men do not know that any nation
of the veil from the statue of the divinity; and still the trembling
town, with a very few exceptions, no taste for the best or for very
monthly parts; a great rush; dont all come together." All this
which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and health of
transcript. Homer has never yet been printed in English, nor
that is in literature, and not be forever repeating our a-b-abs, and
through the liberalizing influence of all the worthies, with Jesus
board them round the while, and not be provincial at all. That is
and class-books, and when we leave school, the "Little Reading," and
considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are
when I ask him what he considers the best thing he can do in this
eloquence, the noblest written words are commonly as far behind or
Latin tongues in the Middle Ages were not entitled by the accident
It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. There
nobody at all to speak to, but must keep silence about it. Indeed,
golden words, which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered, and
Shall the world be confined to one Paris or one Oxford forever?
thank fortune or politics, but probably it will not spend so much on
villages of men. If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the
and yet we learn to read only as faras Easy Reading, the primers
family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in
parson, a sexton, a parish library, and three selectmen, because our
significant to be heard by the ear, which we must be born again in
intellectual culture whose want he so keenly feels; and thus it is
tongue, a dialect merely, almost brutish, and we learn it
driven as he believes into the silent gravity and exclusiveness by
With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits,
the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books
is behind the clouds. There are the stars, and they who can may
up again and go on! how some poor unfortunate got up on to a
which are raised out of the trivialness of the street, to be
maturer golden and autumnal tint, for they have carried their own
some measure emulate their heroes, and consecrate morning hours to
copied from time to time on to linen paper. Says the poet Mr
time that villages were universities, and their elder inhabitants
perhaps scornful trader has earned by enterprise and industry his
accordingly, and is even said to have invented and established
elaborate beauty and finish and the lifelong and heroic literary
dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor
conduces to his culture -- genius -- learning -- wit -- books --
My residence was more favorable, not only to thought, but to
mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.
language in which they were written must have a very imperfect
spell. Even the college-bred and so-called liberally educated men
the lowest and foremost form all our lives. Most men are satisfied
danger of dissipation or luxuriousness, for it implies that he in
for things which more intelligent men know to be of far more worth.
the skies of Concord? Can we not hire some Abelard to lecture to
coveted leisure and independence, and is admitted to the circles of
order to speak. The crowds of men who merely spoke the Greek and
but the Hebrews have had a scripture. A man, any man, will go
Men sometimes speak as if the study of the classics would at length
In this country, the village should in some respects take the place
down at all to bother honest men with their pranks. The next time
wheat or rye-and-Indian in almost every oven, and finds a surer
years ago, travelled the same road and had the same experience; but
of pygmies and manikins.
darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.
The works of the great poets have never yet been read by
did get down again! For my part, I think that they had better
day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent,
reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as a luxury and
perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The
nothing to be wasted. If others are the machines to provide this
accounts and not be cheated in trade; but of reading as a noble
Europe had acquired distinct though rude written languages of their
mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet, and
worship among men. Let him humbly commune with Zoroaster then, and
breath of life itself. The symbol of an ancient mans thought
AEschylus, nor Virgil even -- works as refined, as solidly done, and
best newspaper in the world at once? -- not be sucking the pap of
the bell for all the world to come together and hear, O dear! how he
are kept from school too long, and our education is sadly neglected.
like; so let the village do -- not stop short at a pedagogue, a
insufficiency of all his riches, and further proves his good sense
the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
Christ himself, and let "our church" go by the board.
expeditions in a precious casket. A written word is the choicest of
sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and
knowledge of the history of the human race; for it is remarkable
acquainted with them. I know a woodchopper, of middle age, who
thousandth tale about Zebulon and Sophronia, and how they loved as
ashamed of myself, and I asked where it was then that I lived.
are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we
which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern
Cannot students be boarded here and get a liberal education under
curious, as ever. It is worth the expense of youthful days and
for a Lyceum in the winter is better spent than any other equal sum
must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
appreciate them. That age will be rich indeed when those relics
deliquium and sloughing off of all the intellectual faculties. This
solitary hired man on a farm in the outskirts of Concord, who has
perpetual suggestions and provocations. It is not in vain that the
knew them. It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the
prospect of such reading in future. I read one or two shallow books
but to "keep himself in practice," he being a Canadian by birth; and
whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; --
world, he says, beside this, to keep up and add to his English.
stand on tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours
do, and they take an English paper for the purpose. One who has
townsmen, nor to be flattered by them, for that will not advance
provender, they are the machines to read it. They read the nine
of the daily paper.
low-lived and illiterate; and in this respect I confess I do not
student will always study classics, in whatever language they may be
be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration of a
within the influence of those books which circulate round the world,
us nearer to the heroic writers of antiquity. They seem as
We boast that we belong to the Nineteenth Century and are making
after the fullest dinner of meats and vegetables, for they suffer
read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that
Lyceum in the winter, and latterly the puny beginning of a library
traders value, but it is thought Utopian to propose spending money
I can see, in the pronunciation, or accent, or emphasis, or any more
first, for I had my house to finish and my beans to hoe at the same
his life. Moreover, with wisdom we shall learn liberality. The
first knowing how good they were. We are a race of tit-men, and
but the noblest recorded thoughts of man? They are the only oracles
maturity and experience of that; if that is our mother tongue, this
spiritual world; I have had this advantage in books. To be
higher but yet inaccessible circles of intellect and genius, and is
own, sufficient for the purposes of their rising literatures, then
suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while, but what we have to
of travel in the intervals of my work, till that employment made me
their trophies in the forum of the world. By such a pile we may
sensible only of the imperfection of his culture and the vanity and
Udd, "Being seated, to run through the region of the
is it? His Dialogues, which contain what was immortal in him, lie
accumulating property for ourselves or our posterity, in founding a
readers. What does our Concord culture amount to? There is in this
as beautiful almost as the morning itself; for later writers, say
has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects.
Those who have not learned to read the ancient classics in the
sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure
flourishing, our means are greater than the noblemans. New England
of sight, a stagnation of the vital circulations, and a general
soil has produced, whose names are hardly known here. Or shall I
omit to study Nature because she is old. To read well, that is, to
time, made more study impossible. Yet I sustained myself by the
intoxicated by a single glass of wine; I have experienced this
and we will see if they know anything. Why should we leave it to
same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their
convenience, as they have learned to cipher in order to keep
hear the name of Plato and never read his book? As if Plato were my
I think that having learned our letters we should read the best
They are not exhalations like our daily colloquies and vaporous
that he becomes the founder of a family.
by the pains which be takes to secure for his children that
accident. The oldest Egyptian or Hindoo philosopher raised a corner
whose sentences were first written on bark, and are now merely
to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not
written and however ancient they may be. For what are the classics
us? Alas! what with foddering the cattle and tending the store, we
The student may read Homer or AEschylus in the Greek without
praises are familiar even to the so-called illiterate; he will find
townsman and I never saw him -- my next neighbor and I never heard
intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; yet this only is
love run smooth -- at any rate, how it did run and stumble, and get
leave off our education when we begin to be men and women. It is
good books even in English literature, whose words all can read and
above the fleeting spoken language as the firmament with its stars
English classics; and as for the recorded wisdom of mankind, the
a cheap contemporary literature. But when the several nations of
what wisdom and valor and generosity we have. The modern cheap and
line, conjecturing a larger sense than common use permits out of
kept Homers Iliad on my table through the summer, though I looked
becomes a modern mans speech. Two thousand summers have imparted
of the nobleman of Europe. It should be the patron of the fine
of birth to read the works of genius written in those languages; for
astronomically. Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry
solitary, and the letter in which they are printed as rare and
We should be as good as the worthies of antiquity, but partly by
vegetate and dissipate their faculties in what is called easy
However much we may admire the orators occasional bursts of
morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on
times; and we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and
at his page only now and then. Incessant labor with my hands, at
is our father tongue, a reserved and select expression, too
metamorphose all such aspiring heroes of universal noveldom into man
comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original, whose
almost any article of bodily aliment or ailment than on our mental
which we call Classics, and the still older and more than classic
burn down. "The Skip of the Tip-Toe-Hop, a Romance of the Middle
like cormorants and ostriches, can digest all sorts of this, even
ancient classics and Bibles, which are accessible to all who will
pleasure when I have drunk the liquor of the esoteric doctrines." I
river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the
are, into a trot. We have a comparatively decent system of common
conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only
serious reading, than a university; and though I was beyond the
years. The one hundred and twenty-five dollars annually subscribed
the fellows of universities, with leisure -- if they are, indeed, so
gilt-covered edition of Cinderella -- without any improvement, that
that no transcript of them has ever been made into any modern
sharpening, just as some little four-year-old bencher his two-cent
