Page:Address on the opening of the Free Public Library of Ballarat East, on Friday, 1st. January, 1869.djvu/19

 13 Men's minds are not cast in one mould—what charms one may repel another—nor is one man's mind at all times in the same frame. It will vary as the cloud of adversity lowers over him, or the sunshine of well-being smiles upon him. It will vary with the tone of his bodily health. Of the men who will avail themselves of the privilege of admission to this library many will have been educated at different schools, in different countries, under different habits of thought; many may be self-educated: all are not approachable through the direct avenue of cold, stern reason. Variety must therefore be provided. It is a question, moreover, whether the cause of religion itself, of temperance, or of any other virtue which it is desirable to inculcate through secular channels, can be most effectually promoted by tendering to all readers alike, under all circumstances, and at all seasons, works exclusively devoted to the treatment of those subjects and of none other.

As the Rev. Henry Allon informs us:—"When the excellent John Wesley was told that one of his preachers made it a boast that he never read any book except his Bible, his reply was, "We may expect to hear that he will soon cease to read that."

Persons of wavering religious principles are not always to be captivated by a tract. Those who partake too freely of intoxicating drink are not usually allured by a Rechabite lecture. Whereas works professedly on other topics which under the garb of fiction, narrative, or description, introduce sound doctrine, moral instruction, or persuasive argument may win the attention, and operate more powerfully on the mind of the materialist, the indifferent, the libertine, or the drunkard, than austere volumes for