Saltus, a little
more Shakespeare, temper their devotion to Mr. Kipling by small doses
of Dante, forsake "The Duchess" for a dip into Thackeray, and use
Hawthorne as a safe and agreeable antidote to Mr. Haggard? We need not
despair of the child who does not care to read, for books are not the
only means of culture; but they are a very great means when the mind
is really stimulated, and not simply padded with them.
Mr. Frederic Harrison says: "Books are no more education than laws are
virtue. Of all men, perhaps the book-lover needs most to be reminded
that man's business here is to know for the sake of living, not to
live for the sake of knowing."
But a child who has no taste for reading, who is utterly incapable of
losing himself in a printed page, quite unable to forget his childish
griefs,
"And plunge,
Soul forward, headlong into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth,"
--such a child is to be pitied as missing one of the chief joys of
life.
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