Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

A Talk with Children.

BY JOHN DENNIS.

HAVE you ever thought of the great pleasure that is to be gained from reading? Have you ever tried to imagine what life would be to you if there were no books in the world, or if you could not read? Every child knows, I hope, the joy of having a true friend, whose company is dear to him, who can be interested in what he is interested, no matter whether it be work or play. Now a book is not quite like a friend. The author can talk to us as he pleases; he can make us sorrowful or glad; he can make us cry or laugh; he can give us knowledge and he can make us think; but we cannot talk back to him, we cannot tell him what we feel, and he cannot sympathize with us as a friend can. On the other hand, friends may change; they may go far away; they may cease to care about the things we care for. Books cannot change, though our interest in them may; and if they are great and good books-for there are bad books, just as there are false friends-it is impossible to know them too well or read them too often.

I dare say you have heard people speak of a taste for reading. Some children read greedily any book that comes in their way. A biography, a volume of travels, a poem, a history, even a cookery-book will attract their attention, and be read from the first page to the last. I even knew a boy who found inexhaustible pleasure in the study of Bradshaw's Railway Guide. Such little people have, no doubt, a taste for reading. But this taste, to be of much good, needs to be cultivated. A child may have what is called a natural ear for music; but this will never make him a good musician. He must be taught his notes, and learn a great deal besides, before his ear for music will prove of much service. Just so does the young book-reader need training in order that he may read wisely. Now I shall try and tell you, as well as I can in a few pages, how to read, and the good that is to be gained from reading; but there is something to be said first. You must learn

[blocks in formation]

times the artist, have each to use brains and hands in the making of a book. If it be a good book, which our poet Milton calls "the precious life-blood of a master spirit," no toil is too great to expend upon it. If the words are beautiful, so also should be the form, and many of our publishers take delight in bringing out editions of famous poets and prose writers that it is a luxury to handle and to read. Now, not only books like these, but every book we read, should be used in a careful manner. We are gentle towards everything we love, and people who love books will be sure to treat them gently. Here are four rules to remember-1. Never turn down the leaves of a book. 2. Never play with the leaves so that they become dog-eared. 3. Never read a book with dirty or inky fingers. 4. Never place a book upon the table face downwards, lest you should crack the binding. A book that has been well read will no doubt show signs of use; but if it have been read with proper care, it will not show signs of neglect.

SUITABLE Books.

Young children with a craving for books. cannot always gratify their special tastes, but must be content with what they find in the family bookcase. family bookcase. Pious people who really want to do children good will sometimes give them tracts or little books which teach them what a wicked world they live in, and howwhich is, indeed, quite true-pain and sorrow and death are evils common to all men. A happy, healthy child, who has been taught to love his heavenly Father, who enjoys the sunshine and the flowers and feels his life in every limb, may read books of this kind, and for a moment be made unhappy by them; but he looks up to see his mother's smile, or he runs out into the fields and hears the birds singing, and the belief that he has been born into a happy world is once more strong within him. The tracts, you see, make no impression, because they are not fitting food for a joyous child; and just so, books that will do you good service must be books you can partially understand and appreciate. I say partially, because it is not necessary you should understand all a book teaches in order to gain delight from it, and wisdom also. It is a great pity when a boy or girl who really likes reading is forced to read

dull books, or books that are unsuitable. And it is a terrible pity when all the literature open to boys and girls is of a trivial, feeble sort, or worse still, of a corrupting character. corrupting character. Happily good books for the young are numerous, and there are few children, whether in country or town, that have not access to some wellselected parish library.

THE BIBLE.

And here, perhaps, I may remind you that there is one book good for all ages and for all circumstances in life. The first book an English child will learn to read is the Bible -that is to say, THE BOOK which ranks above all other books as containing the Word of God. It would be easy to fill these pages with good words about the Bible; but that is not my object now. All I want to say is that, apart from the great purpose with which it has been given to us, this book, or rather these books, for the Bible consists of many volumes composed in different ages by historians, prophets, poets, and apostlesthis book, I say, is the most interesting that has ever been written. There is, no doubt, much in it hard to be understood; but there is much more which a child can understand and enjoy. The beautiful Old-Testament stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Samuel and David, of Elijah and Daniel, are told in our translation of the Bible in the most beautiful English that was ever written. Then in Job, the Book of Psalms, and the prophecies of Isaiah, we have the devout thoughts of good men expressed in the highest strain of poetry; and, passing on from these, we come to the simple gospel story-the story of glad tidings -with our Lord's parables and precepts, His gracious deeds and divine words, followed by the Acts of the Apostles and the letters they wrote to the first Christian disciples. Our English Bible is not only the first book that should be read by the child, because it tells him what no other book can, but because it is the key to so many other good books-that is to say, it opens them and makes them plain. Nobody who has read this wonderful book carefully, and who loves the wise and beautiful lessons it contains, will like to read what is coarse and evil. He will have a taste for something better.

TWO WORDS EXPLAINED.

You will all have seen the word " LITERATURE," but probably you would find it difficult to tell me what it means. I must try and explain the term as well as I can. First of all, I will tell you what it is not. Books

have been written upon every subject in which men are interested. The architect, the engineer, the lawyer, the doctor consult books that will help them in their professions; but law books, and medical books, and books on architecture-books written for a special class-are not literature. On the other hand, books written in verse or prose that awaken thought, that give solace and delight, and lift us above the narrow round of our daily life-books that make us happier, wiser, even merrier-are books that deserve to be called literature. Our poets, our historians, our essayists, our novelists, the travellers who describe what they have seen in different parts of the world, the critics who write about books and show us their faults and beauties, have all contributed to build up what we call our national literature, by which we mean the literature produced by Englishmen. Every great people has produced a noble literature, and this is, indeed, one of the chief signs of its greatness. We read the literature of the Jews in the books. which form our Bible; ancient Greece produced a literature unequalled in Europe to this day for beauty of language and wealth of thought; Rome, that once ruled the world, did so first by the sword, then by her laws, and then by the poets and historians who have made the Latin language so famous. Modern nations, too Modern nations, too—such as Germany, France, and Italy-can each boast a national literature; but not one of these countries has a literature equal to that which is open to readers of the English language. Here, then, is a vast store-house full to overflowing of precious treasures, and the wealth piled up may so puzzle the youth who looks in at the door, that he will perhaps hesitate to enter. What can he do? he may ask; how can he best use the good gifts that wise and great Englishmen have left for his service? In reply to this question I must explain to you another word, and that word is CULTURE. You know the difference between land in its natural state and land that has been drained and manured, that has felt the ploughshare and the harrow; you know, too, the difference between the flowers of our woods and fields and the flowers that grow in a well-cared-for garden. Some sort of difference like this may be seen between people whose minds have been allowed to run wild and people whose minds are carefully cultivated. The contrast, however, is not quite complete, because nature however wild, and flowers however untended, are always beautiful; but there is no beauty in a mind that,

like the garden of the sluggard, contains nothing save wild briars, thistles, and thorns. In order, then, to read books so as to get good out of them, the mind needs culture, which is not mere knowledge, although that is very needful, but the power of seeing what is good and wise in a book, and rejecting what is feeble and false. This power cannot be acquired off-hand like a lesson. Some people, although they may read a great deal, never gain this gift, never know how to use their reading wisely. They have a confused notion of many things, but they know nothing thoroughly, partly because they have never had the training so necessary in early life, and partly because they read books in a sleepy, stupid way, content to be amused, and not wishing to learn. Reading, you will see, may be the idlest of pastimes, a pursuit followed from mere indolence and emptiness of mind. I am writing, however, for boys and girls who want to know how to read, and for them a few hints shall be given that may prove generally useful.

READING WITH A PURpose.

Some of the children who read these pages will have visited the British Museum, but few probably have entered the Reading Room with its splendid dome and vast shelves of books. Those who may have done so will have been told that the books they see are but few in comparison with the number contained in that immense library. Now it is evident that if a man were to read in that room every day and all day through a long life, the books he read would be insignificant in number when compared with the volumes stored up in the Museum. What then does the student do, who wants to make good use of that great library? He selects a subject, and chooses books that will tell him what he wants to know on that subject. And just in the same way the boy or girl who loves reading, and wishes to gain from it something more than mere amusement, must choose some subject | -that is to say, he must read with a purpose. Mind I do not say that amusement is not sometimes a sufficient reason for taking up a book. We cannot be always wise, and a capital story-book-a book for example like "Alice in Wonderland," or "Cast up by the Sea," is as good a recreation for a child on a rainy day as a game at cricket or rounders when the sun is shining. As you grow up you will, I hope, read a number of stories, and among others, the stories written by Sir Walter Scott, which are so pure, so wise, so beautiful, that young people, and old people

too, will be happier and better for reading them. The boy or girl who does, not love a good tale will not often be found to care for books of any kind.

But if reading for amusement is an easy and pleasant thing to do in leisure moments, reading with a purpose requires resolution and courage. Without these virtues neither boy nor man will do much good in life, and therefore it is well to remember, even in early years, that nothing of lasting value can be acquired without labour. There is no doubt plenty of reading that needs no thought, but then it does no good, and only serves, as people say, to kill time—a horrible expression when you come to think about it. To get good from a book you must feel a thorough interest in it. A boy who keeps pigeons and is fond of them will read with great eagerness any book that tells him about those birds; and you may be sure that when he reaches the end of that book he will have learnt all it has to teach him. And the reason is plain. The boy is interested in his subject, he wants to gain knowledge. and this desire makes it pleasant to acquire it. So you see he has been reading with a purpose.

A PLAN FOR READING.

The young reader who is beginning to understand the importance of reading is apt to waste the time which he is really wishing to improve. Now it is impossible to give him all the advice that might be of use to him in this difficulty, but I will give him one hint that may be serviceable, and one which an intelligent boy or girl can follow to some extent alone, and may follow easily with the help of a master.

I will suppose that the student has already some knowledge of English history, and especially of that history from the time of the Reformation, when a new era began in these islands. Whatever is really noble in English literature (with the exception of the poetry of Chaucer, who ranks among our greatest poets and lived in the fourteenth century) dates from the latter part of the sixteenth century, so that speaking roughly

we

may say that all the famous books England has given to the world have been given within three hundred years. Suppose then that we make our starting point the reign of Queen Elizabeth. If the chief events of that interesting reign are known to the young reader, he will have learnt from it, or rather this knowledge will come with riper age, that though our ancestors had many faults in those days (different, but not

« PreviousContinue »