READING WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT.—"Some ladies, to whose conversation I had been listening, were to take away an epic poem to read. 'Why should you read an epic poem?' I said to myself. 'You might as well save yourselves the trouble.' How often I have been struck at observing that no effect at all is produced, by the noblest works of genius, on the habits of thought, sentiment, and talk of the generality of readers; their mental tone becomes no deeper, no mellower; they are not equal to a fiddle, which improves by being repeatedly played upon. I should not expect one in twenty, of even educated readers, so much as to recollect one singularly sublime, and by far the noblest part, of the poem in question: so little emotion does anything awake, even in the moment of reading; if it did, they would not forget it so soon."
So says good, sensible John Foster, whose thoughts are always as clear and pure as rock water. There is another sentiment of his we should like to have read and remembered, too, by those who are soon to be married:—
LOVE—HOW TO SECURE IT.—"I have often contended that attachments between friends and lovers cannot be secured strong, and perpetually augmenting, except by the intervention of some interest which is not personal, but which is common to them both, and towards which their attentions and passions are directed with still more animation than even towards each other. If the whole attention is to be directed, and the whole sentimentalism of the heart concentrated on each other; if it is to be an unvaried, 'I towards you, and you towards me,' as if each were to the other not an ally or companion joined to pursue happiness, but the very end and object—happiness itself; if it is the circumstance of reciprocation itself, and not what is reciprocated, that is to supply perennial interest to affection; if it is to be mind still reflecting back the gaze of mind, and reflecting it again, cherub towards cherub, as on the ark, and no luminary or glory between them to supply beams and warmth to both—I foresee that the hope will disappoint, the plan will fail. Attachment must burn in oxygen, or it will go out; and, by oxygen, I mean a mutual admiration and pursuit of virtue, improvement, utility, the pleasures of taste, or some other interesting concern, which shall be the element of their commerce, and make them love each other not only for each other, but as devotees to some third object which they both adore. The affections of the soul will feel a dissatisfaction and a recoil, if, as they go forth, they are entirely intercepted and stopped by any object that is not ideal; they wish rather to be like rays of light glancing on the side of an object, and then sloping and passing away; they wish the power of elongation, through a series of interesting points, on towards infinity."
PUBLIC LIBERALITY.—The State of New York, which has expended, from time to time, upwards of half a million of dollars in the advancement of medical education, has more recently divided thirty thousand dollars between the two Medical Colleges at Albany and Geneva.
Would it not be better to devote a little money to educate those who have the normal care of humanity in their hands—rather than give all to those who are preparing to cure its diseases? Women are the preservers of infancy, they form the physical constitution of their children; give women that knowledge of the laws of health which their duties require, and one-half the present number of male physicians might be spared.
A RULING PASSION.—I have the highest opinion of the value of a ruling passion; but if this passion monopolizes all the man, it requires that the object be a very comprehensive or a very dignified one, to save him from being ridiculous. The devoted antiquary, for instance, who is passionately in love with an old coin, an old button, or an old nail, is ridiculous. The man who is nothing but a musician, and recognizes nothing in the whole creation but crotchets and quavers, is ridiculous. So is the nothing but verbal critic, to whom the adjustment of a few insignificant particles in some ancient author, appears a more important study than the grandest arrangements of politics or morals. Even the total devotee to the grand science Astronomy, incurs the same misfortune. Religion and morals have a noble pre-eminence here; no man or woman can become ridiculous by his or her passionate devotion to them; even a specific direction of this passion will make a man sublime—witness Howard; specific, I say, and correctly, though, at the same time, any large plan of benevolence must be comprehensive, so to speak, of a large quantity of morals.