and easily available. There are a few standard English books which, some for generations, some in recent times, have served the noble purpose of introducing the youthful mind to early essays to thought and reflection; to the exercise of judgment and reason; and to the use of a chaste and wholesome imagination. It is the nature and office of books, to produce these grand results. "For books," to use the lofty periods of Milton, "are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them, to be as active as that soul whose progeny they are—nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them! I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragons' teeth, and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men."[1]
The particular works to which I refer, are so masterly, and have become so much the staple of the Anglo-Saxon mind, that in England, America, and the British colonies, numerous editions of them have been stereotyped, and may be had almost as cheap as palm leaves. I do not speak of the brilliant Essayists, of the profound Historians, of the sagacious Moralists. I am referring to another class of books, not less distinguished indeed, but more level to the common taste: works which have been scattered broadcast through the whole of Anglo-Saxondom, and the possession of which is attainable by the humblest persons, by the simplest investment. Any one of these books, which I shall mention, can be bought by any one, if he will practice daily a simple act of self-
- ↑ John Milton. Oration for "Unlicensed Printing."
