The
delight with which Pope, when a schoolboy, read Ogilvy's 'Homer'
was, most probably, the origin of the English 'Iliad;' as the
'Percy Reliques' fired the juvenile mind of Scott, and stimulated
him to enter upon the collection and composition of his 'Border
Ballads.' Keightley's first reading of 'Paradise Lost,' when a
boy, led to his afterwards undertaking his Life of the poet.
"The reading," he says, "of 'Paradise Lost' for the first
time forms, or should form, an era in the life of every one
possessed of taste and poetic feeling. To my mind, that time
is ever present.... Ever since, the poetry of Milton has formed
my constant study--a source of delight in prosperity, of strength
and consolation in adversity."
Good books are thus among the best of companions; and, by
elevating the thoughts and aspirations, they act as preservatives
against low associations. "A natural turn for reading and
intellectual pursuits," says Thomas Hood, "probably preserved me
from the moral shipwreck so apt to befal those who are deprived in
early life of their parental pilotage. My books kept me from the
ring, the dogpit, the tavern, the saloon. The closet associate of
Pope and Addison, the mind accustomed to the noble though silent
discourse of Shakspeare and Milton, will hardly seek or put up
with low company and slaves."
It has been truly said, that the best books are those which most
resemble good actions.
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