Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

' ' OT every man who is preparing himself for agriculture, business, one of the N^ professions, or public life, realizes the value of forming in youth the habit ^ of reading the best books. If it is not formed early, it is not likely to be formed at all. The taste for the largest and deepest ideas expressed in the noblest forms is a taste which gi ' ows with what it feeds upon. Darwin regretted very much in his later life that he had allowed himself to become so much absorbed in his work that this taste had died in him. Most men who have succeeded greatly in any walk of life have drawn strength and inspiration from the master- pieces of the past. In some professions the value is more direct, but whatever one ' s work it must gain by an enlarged outlook, by freedom and energy of thought; and these things are encouraged in us by the most beautiful poetry, the most profound history, the most mature essays. The person whose reading consists entirely of the specialties of his business, supplemented by fiction, newspapers, and periodicals, does not get his mind thoroughly aired out. He does not, in other words, develop in it the best of which it is capable. There is a strong tendency nowadays to make education practical; to relate it to the actual needs of the students; and this tendency is right, but it ought never to be forgotten that this is only part of education. Another part, which is also of the highest value, consists in training, in calling o ut all of a man ' s resources and making him most fully master of himself. For this last purpose the best means is a love of great books, and there is no substitute. Editor of Collier ' s Weekly.