The Use and Abuse of Books

This address was delivered to one of Princeton Seminary's entering classes in the late 1820s. In it, the seminary's first professor Archibald Alexander offers new students guidance on how they best may use books for "information and edification." From his opening metaphors, which speak of books as combative armor and constructive tools, through his final exhortation to pray while in the midst of studies, Alexander challenges his students to consider why they read, what they read, how they read, and whether they should become authors themselves. Along the way, Alexander speculates about the origin of books, discusses the common grace found in them, and works through the implications of a growing print market for reading and writing practices.