oney
enough, to prevent the vast majority of the evils which afflict our
social organism, if mere knowledge or wealth could avail; but the
greater difficulty is to make intelligence, character, good taste,
unselfishness prevail.

What, then, are the interests which powerfully appeal to mind and
heart, and so are fitted to become the strengthening companions of a
woman's life? I shall mention only three, all of them such as are
elaborately fostered by college life. The first is the love of great
literature. I do not mean that use of books by which a man may get
what is called a good education and so be better qualified for the
battle of life, nor do I mention books in their character as reservoirs
of knowledge, books which we need for special purposes, and which are
no longer of consequence when our purpose with them is served. I have
in mind the great books, especially the great poets, books to be
adopted as a resource and a solace. The chief reason why so many
people do not know how to make comrades of such books is because they
have come to them too late. We have in this country enormous numbers
of readers, probably a larger number who read, and who read many hours
in the week, than has ever been known elsewhere in the world. But what
do these millions read besides the newspapers? Possibly a
denominational religious weekly and another journal of fashion or
business. Then come the thousands who read the best magazines, and
whatever else is for the moment popular in novels and poetry--the last
dialect story, the fashionable poem, the questionable but talked-of
novel. Let a violent attack be made on the decency of a new story and
instantly, if only it is clever, its author becomes famous.

But the fashions in reading of a restless race--the women too idle, the
men too heavily worked--I will not discuss here. Let light literature
be devourered by our populace as his drug is taken by the opium-eater,
and with a similar narcotic effect. We can only seek out the children,
and hope by giving them from babyhood bits of the noblest literature,
to prepare them for the great opportunities of mature life. I urge,
therefore, reading as a mental stimulus, as a solace in trouble, a
perpetual source of delight; and I would point out that we must not
delay to make the great friendships that await us on the library
shelves until sickness shuts the door on the outer world, or death
enters the home and silences the voices t