女友之招。女固富而不文者也。既至。延入書室。女方坐群書回繞中。語曰。「君視之。環吾座者皆良朋。故吾殊不虞寂寞也。」客不答。徐步近簽架。取所知向未開卷者一冊。視之而笑曰。「吾甚喜卿不似眾人之輕視朋友也。」馬珂雷[英文學家]有言。「吾寧為寒士在窮廬而坐擁百城。弗願為不嗜讀之帝王也。」
昔嘗見十齡童子。當晚禱前。入威斯敏斯特寺直過甬廊。止於查兒司狄更司[英小說名家]墓下。四顧無人。乃跪碑前。薦堇花一束。憑吊其側。若不勝情。徘徊片時。乃面有喜色。歡然而去。一士人怪之。就察其所薦之堇。則一柬系焉。所書之字。半未能成形。文云。「為孩提時佳矣。終不及在聖誕節時為尤佳。彼夫大力之創造者。亦一兒童耳。錄聖誕詞。」少年能嗜讀如此兒者。則書中之良友。將於不知不覺中。使彼成襟懷高尚之大人物已。
少時之思想。足以蔔人之將來。伽斐德[美國第二十任總統]幼時。或問其長大所誌。答曰。「吾先學為人。茍得為人焉。將無
be lonely, forhere I sit surrounded by may best friends. " Without replying, thegentleman approached a shelf and took down a volume which heperceived to be uncut, and smilingly observed, "I am happy to find, madam, that unlike the majority of people, you do not cut yourfriends."
Macaulay says, "I would rather be a poor man in a garret withplenty of good books to read, than a king who did not love reading."
A boy ten years of age was seen to enter Westminster Abbeyshortly before evening prayers. Goins straight up the main aisle hestopped at the tomb of Charles Dickens. Then, looking to see that hewas not observed, he kneeled before the tombstone, and tenderlyplaced upon it a bunch of violets. The little fellow hoveredaffectionately round the spot for a few moments and went away with ahappy, contented smile upon his face. Curiosity led a gentlemanpresent to examine the child's offering, and this is what he foundwritten in half-formed letters on an envelope attached to the violets :-
"For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better thanat christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. -ChristmasCarol."
The young person that loves books as this little fellow did, willhave friends that will unoonsciously transform him into a great, noble-hearted man.
It is the thoughts of the boy that shape the future man. Garfield, when asked as a boy, what he was going to do when he grew up, wouldanswer. "First of all I am going to try to be a man If I become thatI shall be fit for anything." To make the most of one's youth is toqualify one's self to become a real man
