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labors of the ancients。  They only talk of forgetting them who never

knew them。  It will be soon enough to forget them when we have the

learning and the genius which will enable us to attend to and

appreciate them。  That age will be rich indeed when those relics

which we call Classics; and the still older and more than classic

but even less known Scriptures of the nations; shall have still

further accumulated; when the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas

and Zendavestas and Bibles; with Homers and Dantes and Shakespeares;

and all the centuries to come shall have successively deposited

their trophies in the forum of the world。  By such a pile we may

hope to scale heaven at last。

    The works of the great poets have never yet been read by

mankind; for only great poets can read them。  They have only been

read as the multitude read the stars; at most astrologically; not

astronomically。  Most men have learned to read to serve a paltry

convenience; as they have learned to cipher in order to keep

accounts and not be cheated in trade; but of reading as a noble

intellectual exercise they know little or nothing; yet this only is

reading; in a high sense; not that which lulls us as a luxury and

suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while; but what we have to

stand on tip…toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours

to。

    I think that having learned our letters we should read the best

that is in literature; and not be forever repeating our a…b…abs; and

words of one syllable; in the fourth or fifth classes; sitting on

the lowest and foremost form all our lives。  Most men are satisfied

if they read or hear read; and perchance have been convicted by the

wisdom of one good book; the Bible; and for the rest of their lives

vegetate and dissipate their faculties in what is called easy

reading。  There is a work in several volumes in our Circulating

Library entitled 〃Little Reading;〃 which I thought referred to a

town of that name which I had not been to。  There are those who;

like cormorants and ostriches; can digest all sorts of this; even

after the fullest dinner of meats and vegetables; for they suffer

nothing to be wasted。  If others are the machines to provide this

provender; they are the machines to read it。  They read the nine

thousandth tale about Zebulon and Sophronia; and how they loved as

none had ever loved before; and neither did the course of their true

love run smooth  at any rate; how it did run and stumble; and get

up again and go on! how some poor unfortunate got up on to a

steeple; who had better never have gone up as far as the belfry; and

then; having needlessly got him up there; the happy novelist rings

the bell for all the world to come together and hear; O dear! how he

did get down again!  For my part; I think that they had better

metamorphose all such aspiring heroes of universal noveldom into man

weather…cocks; as they used to put heroes among the constellations;

and let them swing round there till they are rusty; and not come

down at all to bother honest men with their pranks。  The next time

the novelist rings the bell I will not stir though the meeting…house

burn down。  〃The Skip of the Tip…Toe…Hop; a Romance of the Middle

Ages; by the celebrated author of ‘Tittle…Tol…Tan;' to appear in

monthly parts; a great rush; don't all come together。〃  All this

they read with saucer eyes; and erect and primitive curiosity; and

with unwearied gizzard; whose corrugations even yet need no

sharpening; just as some little four…year…old bencher his two…cent

gilt…covered edition of Cinderella  without any improvement; that

I can see; in the pronunciation; or accent; or emphasis; or any more

skill in extracting or inserting the moral。  The result is dulness

of sight; a stagnation of the vital circulations; and a general

deliquium and sloughing off of all the intellectual faculties。  This

sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure

wheat or rye…and…Indian in almost every oven; and finds a surer

market。

    The best books are not read even by those who are called good

readers。  What does our Concord culture amount to?  There is in this

town; with a very few exceptions; no taste for the best or for very

good books even in English literature; whose words all can read and

spell。  Even the college…bred and so…called liberally educated men

here and elsewhere have really little or no acquaintance with the

English classics; and as for the recorded wisdom of mankind; the

ancient classics and Bibles; which are accessible to all who will

know of them; there are the feeblest efforts anywhere made to become

acquainted with them。  I know a woodchopper; of middle age; who

takes a French paper; not for news as he says; for he is above that;

but to 〃keep himself in practice;〃 he being a Canadian by birth; and

when I ask him what he considers the best thing he can do in this

world; he says; beside this; to keep up and add to his English。

This is about as much as the college…bred generally do or aspire to

do; and they take an English paper for the purpose。  One who has

just come from reading perhaps one of the best English books will

find how many with whom he can converse about it?  Or suppose he

comes from reading a Greek or Latin classic in the original; whose

praises are familiar even to the so…called illiterate; he will find

nobody at all to speak to; but must keep silence about it。  Indeed;

there is hardly the professor in our colleges; who; if he has

mastered the difficulties of the language; has proportionally

mastered the difficulties of the wit and poetry of a Greek poet; and

has any sympathy to impart to the alert and heroic reader; and as

for the sacred Scriptures; or Bibles of mankind; who in this town

can tell me even their titles?  Most men do not know that any nation

but the Hebrews have had a scripture。  A man; any man; will go

considerably out of his way to pick up a silver dollar; but here are

golden words; which the wisest men of antiquity have uttered; and

whose worth the wise of every succeeding age have assured us of; 

and yet we learn to read only as far as Easy Reading; the primers

and class…books; and when we leave school; the 〃Little Reading;〃 and

story…books; which are for boys and beginners; and our reading; our

conversation and thinking; are all on a very low level; worthy only

of pygmies and manikins。

    I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this our Concord

soil has produced; whose names are hardly known here。  Or shall I

hear the name of Plato and never read his book?  As if Plato were my

townsman and I never saw him  my next neighbor and I never heard

him speak or attended to the wisdom of his words。  But how actually

is it?  His Dialogues; which contain what was immortal in him; lie

on the next shelf; and yet I never read them。  We are underbred and

low…lived and illiterate; and in this respect I confess I do not

make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my

townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who

has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects。

We should be as good as the worthies of antiquity; but partly by

first knowing how good they were。  We are a race of tit…men; and

soar but little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns

of the daily paper。

    It is not all books that are as dull as their readers。  There

are probably words addressed to our condition exactly; which; if we

could really hear and understand; would be more salutary than the

morning or the spring to our lives; and possibly put a new aspect on

the face of things for us。  How many a man has dated a new era in

his life from the reading of a book!  The book exists for us;

perchance; which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones。  The

at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered。  These

same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their

turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and

each has answered them; according to his ability; by his words and

his life。  Moreover; with wisdom we shall learn liberality。  The

solitary hired man on a farm in the outskirts of Concord; who has

had his second birth and peculiar religious experience; and is

driven as he believes into the silent gravity and exclusiveness by

his faith; may think it is not true; but Zoroaster; thousands of

years ago; travelled the same road and had the same experience; but

he; being wise; knew it to be universal; and treated his neighbors

accordingly; and is even said to have invented and established

worship among men。  Let him humbly commune with Zoroaster then; and

through the liberalizing influence of all the worthies; with Jesus

Christ himself; and let 〃our church〃 go by the board。

    We boast that we belong to the Nineteenth Century and are making

the most rapid strides of any nation。  But consider how little this

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