Your eyes will not be so bright in their old age.  The volumes should not be bulky—­that is, for true, practical use.  “Great books,” says Clulow, “like large skulls, have often the least brains.”  “Books,” says Dr. Johnson, “that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful, after all.”  There is no objection to a costly and beautifully-bound Bible, out of which you may read each day with added veneration, but your sons and daughters should have pocket copies.  From these modest little volumes, the marvels of language and thought may be gathered without seeming effort.

Do not be afraid you are spending too much money on reading.  If you read each book as you buy it, you cannot buy too many—­that is, if you are an honorable man, earning your living in the world, and not sponging it off some one else.  Read your book slowly, above all things.  Read it as you would ride in your boat on the waters, looking down at the pebbles, the fishes, the grasses, and the roots of the pond-lilies which, being of God’s creation like yourself, send a responsive thrill of acquaintance through your heart as you float above them.  You can, at best, but glide over a book.  Even the writer has been but a passing observer of a few of its truths.  It is

THE RECORD OF THE CENTURIES.

Respect it.  “My latest passion will be for books,” said Frederick the Great, in his old age.  He had hardly looked down into the waters until he got nearly to the other shore.  Gibbon declared that a taste for books was the pleasure and glory of his life; and Carlyle, who, it is supposed, was better acquainted with books than any man who has yet lived, declared that of all man could do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy were the things we call books.

HELP OTHERS.

If any members of your family have the love of books, aid them in satisfying it.  Such are the salt of the earth.  They are the blazed trees in the dark forests of the present generations, to mark out that course which shall, in future ages, be the highway of the whole world.

FRIENDSHIP.

     The friend thou hast, and his adoption tried,
     Grapple him to thy soul with hooks of steel.—­Shakspeare.

     I praise the Frenchman, his remark was shrewd,
     “How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude!”
     But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
     Whom I may whisper “Solitude is sweet!”—­Cowper.

“Whatever the number of a man’s friends” says Lord Lytton, “there are times in his life when he has one too few.”  “Life,” says Sydney Smith, “is to be fortified by many friendships.”  Says Bishop Hare:  “Friendship is love without its flowers or veil.”  “A faithful friend is the true image of the Deity,” said Napoleon, who never believed he had a true friend not a born fool.  “A friend loveth at all times,” says the Bible.  Says Herr Gotthold:  “with a clear sky, a bright sun, and a gentle breeze, you will have friends in plenty, but let fortune frown and the firmament be overcast, and then your friends will prove