Part 6 (2/2)
CHAPTER VI
PHILLIPS BROOKS'S BOOKS AND EMERSON'S MENTAL MIST
No one who called at Phillips Brooks's house was ever told that the master of the house was out when he was in That was a rule laid down by Doctor Brooks: a maid was not to perjure herself for her master's comfort or convenience Therefore, when Edas told that Doctor Brooks was out, he kneas out The boy waited, and as he waited he had a chance to look around the library and into the books The rector's faithful housekeeper said he ht when he repeated what Wendell Phillips had told him of the interest that was to be found in her master's books Edward did not tell her of Mr Phillips's advice, to ”borrow” a couple of books He reserved that bit of information for the rector of Trinity when he caly said Doctor Brooks ”That is nice advice for a ive a boy I am surprised at Wendell Phillips He needs a little talk: a ministerial visit And have you followed his shae man as he towered above the boy
”No? And to think of the opportunity you had, too Well, I alad you had such respect for my dumb friends For they are my friends, each one of them,” he continued, as he looked fondly at the filled shelves ”Yes, I know them all, and love each for its own sake Take this little volume,” and he picked up a little volume of Shakespeare
”Why, we are the best of friends: we have travelled ether--all over the world, as a matter of fact It knows me in all my moods, and responds to each, no matter how irritable I am Yes, it is pretty badly ht of that before that it doesn't make a book look any better to the eye
But it
”Now, some folks dislike my use of my books in this way They love their books so e toa child so prettily dressed that you can't roood of a book, I say, if it is too pretty for use? I like to have my books speak to me, and then I like to talk back to them
”Take my Bible, here,” he continued, as he took up an old and much-worn copy of the book ”I have a number of copies of the Great Book: one copy I preach from; another I minister from; but this is my own personal copy, and into it I talk and talk See how I talk,” and he opened the Book and showed interleaved pages full of co ”There's where St Paul and I had an arguuly ”But then, no one ever wins in an argument, anyway, do you think so?
”You see,” went on the preacher, ”I put into these books what other azines and papers I never write for publications I always think ofco himself out thin if he atteht the boy's eye, which, as he said this, naturally surveyed his great fra his hands on his girth, he said laughingly; ”You are thinking I would have to do a great deal to spread myself out thin, aren't you?”
The boy confessed he was, and the preacher laughed one of those deep laughs of his that were so infectious
”But here I a about _yourself_?”
And when the boy told his object in co to Boston, the rector of Trinity Church was immensely amused
”Just to see us fellows! Well, and how do you like us so far?”
And in the entle him from his work
”Not at all; not at all,” was the quick and hearty response ”Not a thing to do I cleaned up all
”These letters, you mean?” he said, as the boy pointed to some letters on his desk unopened ”Oh, yes! They must have come in a later o through theh ly, as Wendell Phillips's advice occurred to him
”You like books, you say?” he went on, as he opened his letters
”Well, then, you must come into my library here at any ti I have that you like
Young men do that, you know, and I like to have theood friends if you don't share them? There's where the pleasure comes in”
He asked the boy then about his newspaper work, how much it paid him, and whether he felt it helped hiht it did; that it furnished good lessons in the study of hu as it is good journalism”
As he let the boy out of his house, at the end of that first, , he said to him: