Chapter 12 Cultivate the habit of reading the secretary's notes

Kingsley approached a stone at a time, like a jeweler approaching a jewelry box in order to retrieve a hidden gem. Gage will cause succulent shoots to sprout from a small lump of hard coal, unfurl dense, fragrant foliage, and extend pungent-smelling trunks until the beauty of the tropical forest is magnified from this small lump of charcoal.Grant Allen has a little book called How Plants Grow, which shows how trees and shrubs absorb nutrients, water and pollinate.We have seen certain date palms in Palestine and others in the desert a hundred kilometers away, the pollen of one being carried by the trade winds to the branches of another.We saw that this tree has a very peculiar water management system, which uses ducts and trunks to hydraulicize the body; we saw that there was a little chemical laboratory on each branch, and some laboratories were mixing oranges. while others were mixing the juice of pineapple; we saw the tree act like a mother, covering all her babies with soft cashmere to keep them safe from the long winter Blankets, raincoats for them, and finally slipped the fruit babies into a sleeping bag, much like the ones the Eskimos gave Dr. Cain.

In the end we got the feeling that the Greeks weren't so wrong, they believed that every tree lived with a spirit who animated the tree, protected it from damage, and dyed the tree when it withered.Faraday showed us that every drop of water is a small battery with enough power to charge 800,000 Leiding jars, or power an engine to drive from Liverpool to London. William Thompson tells us how hydrogen gas eats away at a large iron nail, like a child biting off the end of a lollipop with his molars. Each new book leads us into some new and less explored areas of the natural world.The book completes for us the myth of glass, revealing to its owner all that is remote and hidden.Through books our world has become "a sprout on the fair bough of God; the sun a spark of God's wisdom; the sky a pebble on the shore of God's power." So Mrs. Browning said: " No child can be called without a father, because he has God and his mother; no young man can be called without friends, because he has God and a good book for his company."

Books are also good for us because they allow us to see unified progress, isolated races, and progressive history.The author takes us back to the development of law, liberty, or religion, and brings us face to face with the great men who advanced these principles.Just like the explorers leading us from the mouth of the Nile back to the upper reaches of Lake Niassa, there are many good ideas and suggestions in the books. When the ideas keep moving forward, they will be constantly widened and deepened, like the Nile. many civilizations.All the reforms of today can be traced back to the revolutions of yesterday.Human art originated in Athens and Thebes.Human laws can be traced back to the Black Stone and Eastern Roman Emperors.When people saw bullocks wreaking havoc on the ground with their sharp horns, the prototype of the harvester and plow appeared.The heroes of freedom march forward firmly one after another.Lincoln took Washington's hand.Washington took up arms from Hampden and Cromwell.The great Puritans joined hands with Luther and Savonarola.

This continuous succession of people finally brought us to God, whose sermon on the holy mountain is the charter of freedom.It casts a kind of divine spell on us, that we feel ourselves to have struggled alongside the great, to be a thread in the basic fabric of civilization.Books connect us to our times, and all ages to God, whose providence dictates the direction of history, and these teachers continue to inspire us to new and greater achievements.Man is alone without a lighted candle.The mind needs books to light it up.Before Byron began to write, he often set aside half an hour to read some of his favorite passages.The ideas of some great writers ignited Byron's creative light, even as if a match were to light a flammable substance in a furnace.In this burning, bright mood, Byron's mind was at its best.Real books quicken the mind as good wine quickens the blood.It is reading that maximizes our own potential and stimulates the greatest vitality of our various organs.

We see this as pure condensed milk, and if it at first seems secondhand, from a friendly milkman, let us not forget that the subject is "Books and the Uses of Reading".A lot of people these days belittle the value of reading.We read books and we are told never to have a mind of our own.Books are for lazy minds. Although this fact is very one-sided, the part of the truth is large enough to surprise us.Put yourself on an old Presbyterian soul-seeking self-quiz, and if reading books made your mind lazy is your sin, confess.No one can forgive you - except yourself.Be sure to use your brains to repent, because it is a sin to belittle the growth of the mind and to destroy the freedom of thought.Confession can be tough at first - but you'll have fun in the end.

Reading should be enjoyable, informative, and stimulating.But here we are primarily concerned with information and its stimulating function for thought. What books should we read for information? The vast sea of ​​knowledge, as Gray said, is "treasures full of time", and this knowledge is like a ticket for us.You can ask Socrates and Emperor Aurelius to sit beside you and discuss their beliefs, and you can hear Lincoln at Gettysburg and Pericles at Athens, and you Hugo smashed the Bastille together, and Dante roamed Paradise.You can follow Stanley into the deepest part of Africa, listen to Shakespeare analyze people's hearts for you, talk about heroes with Carlyle, and delve into the mysteries of faith with St. Paul.These extensive knowledge and enlightening ideas are accumulated by predecessors in many years of hard practice.They are all yours as long as you want.The Chelsea sage was right: "The real university of this age is a lot of books."

You can understand a lot more than one good book, but few of us can fully understand it without first owning the book.Reading borrowed books can be a pleasure, but find a place for your own books on the shelf - no matter how many or few books are on the shelf - cherish books, love the feeling of touching their worn covers, page by page Read it slowly, use a pencil to write your own feelings of approval or disapproval in the blank space, and you will smile or be refreshed when you smell the familiar spicy book fragrance-if you just borrow the book to read, you will never feel that. Kind of happy.

The owner of the books in turn finds that the books also own him, and those books that firmly grasp the direction of his life are often obtained by him with great effort.Those "easy to come" books can rarely play the role of a mentor, philosopher and friend at critical moments, but those books that have been longed for for a long time and make people happy after getting them can give us such help.Books should therefore be welcomed into our lives, not just into libraries, for all. A good book that you have and understand is like a friend in many cases. we prefer to give our love to those whose inner world we have really entered.

When you cannot rely on time to test the validity of a book, research the authority of the book you read as thoroughly as possible.There are many books in circulation that are of no value at all. The phrase "I read it in a book" is enough for many people to be synonymous with truth, but not for thinkers. "What book?" the thinking mind asks. "Who wrote it? What did he know about the subject? What right did he have to speak? Who acknowledged him as an authority? What other recognized authorities did he agree with or disagree with?" Most importantly, look for books to read that make you think.This is a book that is full of vigor and fresh ideas, contains specialized knowledge, and discusses some very important topics.Don't limit your reading to only those whose views you know you share.Opposite views give a lot of inspiration.The other way might be better, but you'll never know until you "try it once".

Don't just think and study what is "proved" in front of you, just list the reasons between the theorem and what you want to prove, and your research will not make any progress.Approach every subject with an open mind - and once you've established that your own thinking is honest and comprehensive - you can boldly believe in the decisions you make.But then don't go around showing off. No book on speeches will teach you how to talk about tariffs if you don't know anything about them.Only by knowing more than another person can you expect him to listen to you.