The trouble with boys now is, not how to get books to
read, but what they shall select from the vast number that load the
shelves of libraries and book-stores. Benjamin had no trouble about
selecting books; he took all he could get, and was not overburdened at
that.
Another book that was of great benefit to Benjamin was an old English
grammar which he bought at a book-store. He said of it, in manhood:
"While I was intent on improving my language, I met with an English
grammar (I think it was Greenwood's), having at the end of it two
little sketches on the Arts of Rhetoric and Logic, the latter
finishing with a dispute on the Socratic method."
"What do you want of such a book as that?" inquired John Collins, when
he saw it in the printing office.
"To study, of course; I did not study grammar at school, and I want to
know something about it," was Benjamin's answer.
"I expect that some knowledge of it will not come amiss," said John.
"You mean to make the most of these things you can."
"I wanted the volume, too, for the chapters on Rhetoric and Logic at
the end," added Benjamin.
"Of what use are Rhetoric and Logic? Perhaps they may be of service to
you; they would not be to me." John spoke thus because he knew nothing
about them; he had never studied them.
"Every body ought to know something about them, even a printer," added
Benjamin.
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