Word: maying
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...literature at large. The lamentable ignorance of a Freshman, - quite a high scholar in general reading, by the way - is cited, who readily believed that "the great Warren Hastings impeachment was going on in New York, with Edmund Burke and Wendell Phillips engaged in the case." Whatever charms vacation may have for the ideal Harvard shirk, few would grudge a moderate amount of work in the cool days of September, to be free from two weekly hours of recitation, and those dreary night hours before an inevitable examination. A little study can do wonders, and '77 will probably show...
Though it is true that the works of Shakespeare, Byron, Hawthorne, and other standard writers may be bought at any time and without particular thought, yet there remain many books which every educated man wishes to select for himself at his leisure, - books which he does not care to purchase until he has at least looked through them, - books interesting to him because connected with some subject which he has studied, though not to the majority of even intelligent readers...
...Some may say that it is not well for a student in college to attempt to gather a library, because, aside from the time it takes, he has not sufficiently mature judgment to select the books which he will want in after life. Although in some cases he may buy those which he will not afterwards wish to keep, yet by exercising his judgment he strengthens it, and forms the habit of noticing books, - a habit which will induce him to pay more attention to his library and to literature generally than among the cares of after life he otherwise...
That a private library may give full enjoyment, the books composing it should not be bought for show or to lie forever unopened, but because each supplies a want, fills its own place in our circle of silent, thoughtful friends. Such a library can neither be purchased at wholesale nor in a hurry; it must be gathered carefully, and during our college course, and while our thoughts are constantly turned to books, is the natural and fit time to begin the collection...
...that it will appear a good one, but such a point of view is one which only one of the most ardent seekers after hidden beauties could discover. The advantage claimed is, that to give a good abstract will require a thorough knowledge of the book. The disadvantages may be summed up in the assertion that to give a good abstract of sixty closely printed pages in sixty minutes requires some of the purest cramming ever employed in Harvard College...