eart before he read another. So the vivid impressions received from the
lives of Washington and the other great heroes of history ran no risk of
being dissipated before they could have their full effect upon his mind
and heart. This, however, is our danger in this day of public libraries
and cheap literature, that the mental strength of our youth will be
weakened through the too much reading of a multitude of books. As the
waters of a brook when confined to a narrow channel may have power
enough to set in motion a thousand spindles, but if suffered to spread
over the ground are not able to turn a child's toy wheel, so with the
powers of the mind. When directed to a few objects they may be capable
of the greatest and most beneficent results, but when allowed to exhaust
themselves upon a multitude they are in danger of becoming sterile and
unfruitful. With Lincoln then, and with many a frontier and backwoods
boy now, the question was and is, How shall I get a book? With a greater
number to-day, however, the more important question is, Which book shall
I choose?

Before attempting to aid any one to answer this question for himself,
let me briefly advert to the fact that there are two kinds of reading
for each of us, and two corresponding uses, therefore, of the
library--the reading for amusement and the reading for profit. In regard
to the former, I can say but a word, as it is a subject by itself. And
that word is, let this reading be the best possible, and do not let it
occupy too much of your spare time. Books read simply for amusement have
on most a greater power to elevate or degrade than any others, and more
care should be taken in selecting them than in the choice of those to be
read for instruction. Read then, and put into the hands of the young the
best fiction, and shun those writers, whatever their power or their
popularity, who reproduce in their books the slang and vulgar speech of
the streets and paint realistic scenes of vice and crime.

The answer to the question, How or what shall I read? must necessarily
be as varied as the tastes, the talents, and the circumstances of
readers vary. The general aim, however, should be the same in all. We
should read in order to do well whatever we have to do in life. Now this
implies something more than the reading simply to increase one's
knowledge--certainly a worthy aim, but not the highest. The field of
knowledge is so broad and the time for reading so short that we m