"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.