of the faithful. All read; they must read, and they will read. Let us strive to check the evils of bad reading by the dissemination of that which is good."
"Everything we read," says Father Matthew Russell, S.J., in "The Art of Being Happy," "makes us better or worse, and, by a necessary consequence, increases or lessens our happiness. Be scrupulous in the choice of your books; often ask yourself what influence your reading exercises upon your conduct. If after having read such and such a work that pleases you — philosophy, history, fiction — or else such and such a review, or magazine, or newspaper in which you take delight — if you then find yourself more slothful about discharging your duties, more dry and cross toward your equals, harder toward your inferiors, with more disrelish for your state of life, more greedy for pleasures, enjoyments, honors, riches — do not hesitate about giving up such readings: they would poison your life and endanger your eternal happiness."
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"Let us often read the 'Lives of the Saints,' especially those inner lives in which the details are given in abundance. There we shall learn how we ought to behave toward God, toward others, and toward ourselves, in order to possess true happiness. Nothing( is more instructive or more profitable as regards piety and even as regards our temporal interests,
