r proof-reader, was as
much needed then as now; the wrong words were erased with a sponge or
with a knife, and the corrected words inserted. Solomon, three thousand
years ago, said, "Of making many books there is no end; and much study
is a weariness of the flesh." This was uttered at a time when few read
or studied, and when all books were in _manuscript_, the printer's art
being then unknown. To-day everybody reads, studies, and writes; what at
one time was a "weariness of the flesh" has to-day become a pleasure and
a joy. Jeremy Belknap, in his Papers, says that there are four things
necessary to constitute a man: "first, he should build a house; second,
he should write a book; third, he should get a child; fourth, he should
plant a tree."

Now, let us not only do all these things prescribed, but let us
supplement them by four others, which the proof-reader thinks are just
as, if not more, important; namely: let our _chirography_ be readable,
our _spelling_ correct, our _punctuation_ faultless, and our _rhetoric_
such that "he who runs may read."

As members of _The Odd Volume Club_, we all love not only rare, but
good books. When I enter a bookstore, or more especially a large
publishing house, like that for instance of Little, Brown, & Co., and
behold before me row upon row of books,--"a sea of upturned faces," as
it were,--my feelings are like those of a loving mother, who, with
outstretched arms, is ever ready to embrace and press to her bosom her
beloved child. I long to clasp by the hand one and all of these
attractive, silent spirits, to press them to my heart, and to exclaim,
in the words of Channing, "_God be thanked for books!_"

These words of Channing recall an incident in my boyhood. One night, as
I was studying my lessons for the morrow, my father read to me, from
Channing's _Essay on Self Culture_, the words I have quoted, which
illustrate not only Channing's enthusiasm, but the power and influence
of books. Let me repeat a few more lines from the passage:--

"God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant
and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past
ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all who will
faithfully use them the society, the spiritual presence, of the
best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am; no
matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my
obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers will ent