The Book Lovers' Anthology

E ALL THING

to each man's discretion. Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unapplicable to occasions of evil. Bad meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoction; but herein the difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewa

AND BA

od one. We cannot, then, silence evil books, but we can turn away our eyes from them; we can take care that wh

AND DEBA

ut, taken by themselves, they rarely produce vice and profligacy where virtue existed before. Everything depends upon the spirit in which they are read. He that would extract poison from them, must

IBUS P

book, the

hile Brutus

one, read throu

stain a ch

ick. He

SICAL

the serious avenues of some cath

xposure; but as she seated herself down by me, and seemed determined to read in company, I could have wished it had been-any other book. We read on very sociably for a few pages; and, not finding the author much to her taste, she got up, and-went awa

S ARE P

d apply the Scriptures: and next those, the credible histories, especially of the Church, and tractates upon inferior sciences and arts: but take heed of the poison of the wri

cause. But alas, young soldiers, not used to such wars, are startled at a very sophism, or at a terrible threatening of damnation to dissenters (which every censorious sect can use) or at every confident trium

idle wits, that know not what a man is, nor what he hath to do in the world. They are powerful baits of the Devil, to keep more necessary things out of their minds, an

LAWFUL TO R

mselves some King or Queen or other:-One Fool must be Mazares, t'other Artamen; and so for the Women, no less than Queens or Empresses will serve 'em, the Inconveniences of which are afterwards oftentimes sooner observed than remedied. Add to this, the softening of the Mind by Love, which are the greatest subject of these sort of Bo

OF POETS

s there amongst the ancients, whom the poets did not place amongst the gods? Can you open an English poet without, in some part or other of his works, finding the grossest flatteries of royal and noble persons? How are young people not to think that the praises bestowed on these persons are just? Dryden, Parnell, Gay, Thomson, in short, what poet have we had, or have we, Pope only excepted, who was not, or is not, a pensioner, or a sinecure placeman, or the wretched dependa

R'S FAVOU

at home one minute, and beyond the sea the next; beggars to-day, and lords to-morrow; waiting-maids in the morning, and duchesses at night.... One would think every man in these books had the bank of England in his escritoire.... In these books (except here and there one, whom they make worse than Satan himself), every man and woman's child of them, are

Y A

ecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda'; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed; in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature,

NGINES OF C

ruction intended to be conveyed-a sort of gilding of what they cannot well help fancying must be a pill, when they see so much and such obvious pains taken to wrap it up.... You will find that in the higher and better class of works of fiction and imagination duly circulated, you possess all that you

L OF H

has writt

of elega

bout love

of a commo

ch as pathos

gs, express

out people

t his caps-

thou once wer

o sat readi

ere striplin

es damsels

e thy terri

in derisi

are told h

ith her cou

each dialogu

'I give yo

're looking

you think

of the marqu

ith her jew

new travell

er à la fo

nds her pri

l her ins a

all talk th

eat people

s Jinks asks

om the innk

l she dreams

rs of ele

. Ba

by reading French novels.-B. Disra

S ARE

ans in England said to me only yesterday, 'I have just read So-and-So for the second time' (naming one of Jones's exquisite fictions). Judges, bishops, chancellors, mat

MAN

one piece of cloth, a bee gathers wax and honey o

apes in saltib

heir affected fine style, I must and will use) sumpsi, non surripui; and what Varro, lib. 6 de re rust., speaks of bees, minime maleficae, nullius opus vellicantes faciunt deterius, I can say of myself. Whom have I injured? The matter is theirs most part and yet mine: apparet unde sumptum sit (which Seneca approves); aliud tamen, quam unde sumptum sit, apparet; which nature doth with the aliment of our bodies, incorporate, digest, assimilate, I do concoquere quod hausi, dispose of what I take: I make them pay tribute, to set out this my M

uid gran

orsque fer

he Anatomy o

GIA

ms and confessions of faith new drest. Had he borrowed David's heart, it had been much the holier theft. For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered b

PLANT

name themselves without me. If in reasons, comparisons, and arguments, I transplant any into my soil, or confound them with mine own, I purposely conceal the author, thereby to bridle the rashness of these hasty censure

RS AND PL

and impugned in one work, they have before or after extolled the same in another. Such are all the Essayists, even their master Montaigne. These in all they write confess still what books they have

ir writings, to have read much, dare presently to feign whole books and authors, a

k to divert the sagacity of their readers from themselves, and cool the scent of their fox-like thefts, wh

NED PL

ack him everywhere in their snow. If Horace, Lucan, Petronius Arbiter, Seneca, and Juvenal had their own from him, there are few serious thoughts which are new in him.... But he has done his robberie

thoughts as gipsies do stolen children-disfigure them to

N TRE

th with great secrecy, defacing the shape or images of the one as much as of the other, through fear of having the original of their stealth or abundance discovered. And the next cause why writers are more in libraries than in company is that books are easily opened, and learned men are usually shut up by a froward or en

ARY C

t poet: with monstrous extracts and short remarks. It is a species of cookery I begin to grow tired of; they cut up their authors into chops, and by adding a little crumbled bread of their own, and tossi

FACTORY

mind of the writer. They have not even that originality-the only originality which John Mill in his modesty would claim for himself-'which every thoughtful mind gives to its own mode of conceiving and expressing truths which are common propert

e old fields,

s new corn fro

old books i

s new science

on Quixote, 'men who will make you books and turn them loose in th

me phenomenon when he wrote, in 1729: 'The great number of books of amusement which daily come in one's way, have in part occasioned this idle way of considering things. By this means time, even in solitude, is happily got rid of without the p

OLUME

se sha

indles, and ho

ors each dark

farthing cand

xts to speak ou

e is to the s

g. Love

FOR AN

he sieves and coulters of learning, though it is left undetermined whether they dealt in pearls or meal, and consequently, whether we are more to value that which passed through, or what stayed behind. By these methods, in a few weeks, there starts up many a writer capable of managing the profoundest and most universal subjects. For what though his head be empty, provided his commonplace book be full? And if you will bate him but the circumstances of method, and style, and grammar, and invention; all

w gleanings there, and his disposition of them is just as the book-bind

on his Majesty's subjects; how many hundred reams of foolish, profane, a

N OMISSION IN HIS '

hou stingy ma

swamp thee

in thy lis

ts scarce h

pect of th

-parings fro

no pity

abes their ton

eaves no t

and seems di

enerous, Hun

d gratis to

use, surcharg

r presenta

w livelier,

t in effec

. La

STER,

Meleager,

nthology an

strel with a f

lossom that be

ow; garlands we

any: one in

s, 'This is

face my publ

emblem suit

ne; I shall no

on,' quoth Phoeb

other certa

Gar

ure, to see one'

, although ther

d B

OF THE ENEMY-

ever shall forget the shock I experienced in seeing Bruce, that opprobrium of an unbelieving age, that great and graphic traveller, whose eight or nine goodly volumes took such possession of me, that I named a whole colony of Bantams after his Abyssinian princes and princesses, calling a little golden strutter of a cock after that arch-tyrant the Ras Michael; and a speckled hen, the beauty of the poultry-yard, Ozoro Ester, in honour of the Ras's favourite wife-I never felt greater disgust than at seeing this magnificent work cut down to a thick, dumpy

NAL E

uch knowledge at which Sir Isaac Newton arrived through arduous and circuitous paths. Yet we still look with peculiar veneration on the Wealth of Nations and on the Principia, and should regret to see either of those great works garbled even by the ablest hands. But in works which owe much of their interest to the character and situation of the writers the case is infinitely stronger. What man of taste and feeling can endure rifacimenti, harmonies, abridgements, expurgated edit

create anoth

afford, yet

er from m

the original. The second beauty may be equal or superior to the firs

ICA

lena, and Faustina into Lucretia, hath most diminished the price and estimation of learning. Neither is the modern dedication of books and writings, as to patrons, to b

TATION

s a little in it here and there, perhaps, and he cuts all the leaves if he cares enough about the writer, who will be sure to call on him some day, and if he is left alone in his library for five minutes will have hunted every corner of it

THEIR BIBL

ered under fri

would write ten

lavish all

ealthier in hi

popular Horac

e nine-years-

wear a wreath

se dead songs

ownward on th

lled you round a

still shrined i

ubilant that yo

ove of Lette

sacred poets

Lord T

THEIR N

into secret humours, and present men in their nightgowns, when they are truly themselves. A general may be mo

GRA

-and that it were my life; unless indee

e friendly microscopic biographers are not haunted by the ghosts of the unfortunate men w

PREFERRED

ench writers are the finest in the world, for t

r that is life without theory.-B. Disraeli

ING TRA

our Bible, and other books of lofty moral tone, it seems easy and inevitable to render the rhythm and music of the original into phrases of equal melody. The Italians have a fling at translators,-i traditori traduttori; but I thank them. I rarely read any Latin, Greek, German, Italian, sometimes not a French book in the original, which I can procure

KING INTO CH

avelled in the

ly states and

estern islan

in fealty to

de expanse ha

ed Homer ruled

er breathe it

apman speak out

ke some watche

lanet swims

Cortez when

the Pacific-a

h other with

on a peak

Kea

NS FROM TH

n here livè

us deservèd n

lations than th

us thinks he hi

r may 'mongst

curious make

apman, who hat

Homer, an

k, and by his s

ight and to our

ose poets at

ooks thus with

, having neglect

written in the

. To Henry

e they serve as a comment, so far as th

ONOURED FRIEND MAS

ld this be, Ch

e, and give it

e wrought in ri

st thou brought

st thou arrive w

nour and our w

ar tongues that

hy discoveries,

oast thine onl

t thou found, su

men, it is cal

thither else,

Jo

TIONS ARE TO

century, that it is useless to read them unless in the original. A tone of sarcastic contempt is maintained towar

Grecian and Roman history were derived from somewhat rude translations, yet it is acknowledged that the spirit of the ancient warriors and of the ancient luxury lives in his Antony and Cleopatra, and nowhere in all

ely translate is almost the work of a lifetime. Concentration upon this one pursuit gradually contracts the general perceptions, and it has often happened that an ex

ures. A young mind full of intelligence, coming to such a translation, enters at once into the spirit o

NITY OF IMPERT

en have beards and women none, because quoted from Beza; and that other, Pax res bona est, because brought in with a 'said St. Austin'. But these ridiculous fooleries, to your more generous discerners, signify noth

TAT

are usually read; others you may read for

as I would produce a witness; sometimes for a free expression, and

ustify my reputation, and I neglect all persons of note and quality that know me,

IN QUO

poets, well recited, borrows new interest from the rendering. As the journals say, 'the italics are ours.' The profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart fi

r book than in his own. In his own, he waits as a candidate for your approbat

ESPEARE H

of th

elight, the won

rise! I will n

penser, or bi

ther, to mak

monument wi

till, while thy

s to read, and

x thee so my

eat but disprop

ht my judgement

thee, surely,

r thou didst ou

d, or Marlowe'

hadst small Lati

o honour thee,

call forth thun

and Sopho

cius, him of

, to hear thy

age; or when t

lone, for th

solent Greece

since did from

itain! Thou ha

cenes of Euro

an age, but

ses still were

ollo, he came

like a Mercu

f was proud o

ear the dressi

richly spun, a

will vouchsaf

reek, tart

witty Plautus,

ated and d

not of Natu

t give Nature

kespeare, mus

he Poet's ma

ive the fashio

rite a living

are), and strik

es' anvil, t

th it), that he

aurel he may

et's made as

hou! Look how t

issue; even

mind and manner

urnèd and tru

ch he seems to

at the eyes

Avon! what a

in our water

flights upon th

take Eliza,

Jo

TRAIT OF S

that thou he

gentle Shak

e graver h

e, to outd

e but have

brass, as

e print woul

as ever wr

he cannot,

picture, bu

Jo

E'S LIVELO

akespeare for hi

f an age in

allowed relic

ar-ypointi

emory, great

u such weak witn

wonder and

yself a livel

e shame of slow-

rs flow, and t

leaves of thy

ines with deep

fancy of its

rble with too m

hred in such

such a tomb wou

Mil

S PICTURE BEFORE

in three dist

y, and Engla

oftiness of th

majesty, in

Nature could

d she joined t

Dry

CALLED 'THE GROUNDS, LA

up, and fired by

oil in this pur

s, walls, roof of

ds; and now dot

lt, crowned with

triumphs once

ys what here h

monument, on

image, that c

ese live words, an

nding-sheets he

uls the way

e more powerful

rn, when that a

letc

PICTURE OF THE SER

quering leaves: l

all tongues one

heart; and love,

und, and yield, a

rtal life whe

wd of loves a

hs wait on't; a

witnesses of th

ndiary! show

cass of a har

ter'd shafts of

es of thy larg

t this breast a

y from me my

robbery shal

rtunes such fa

nted daughte

ower of ligh

gle in thee,

ives and dea

raughts of int

ts of love more

-filled bowls o

ning's draught

kingdom of t

parting soul, an

Heaven thou

er of the

Him we hav

ing of mys

read thy l

ife of min

Cra

T OF AU

epting only savage nations, is governed by books. All Africa, to the limits of Ethiopia and Nigritia, obeys the book of the Koran, after bowing to the book of the

ion of a book which you never read.... You are acquainted with neither Hippocrates nor Boerhaave nor Sydenha

FERRED TO

you have but a mean one to hear. Every congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful preachers: but every single person may read the books of the most powerful and judicious; preachers may be silenced or banished, when books may be at hand: books may be kept at a smaller charge than preachers: we may choose books which treat of that very subject which we desire to hear of; but we cannot choose

OF M

of bread. But, surely, neither the labours of the moralist nor of the husbandman are vain: let them for a while neglect their tasks and their usefulness

T INFLUEN

fixed desire of improvement, will grow more knowing; he that entertains himself with moral or religious treatises will imperceptibly advance in good

SELLORS A

, fear, or ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence. We are not unwilling to believe that man wiser than ourselves from whose a

RKING EFFEC

ng of the voice was the natural sole method of performing this. But now with Books!-He that can write a true Book, to persuade England, is not he the Bishop and Archbishop, the Primate of England and of all England? I many a time say, the writers of Newspapers, Pamphlets, Poems, Books, these are the real working effective Church of a modern

), is it not verily, at bottom, the highest act of man's faculty that produces a Book? It is the Thought of man; the true thaumaturgic virtue; by which man works all things whatsoever. All that he does, and brings to pass, is the vesture of a Thought. This London City, with all its houses, palaces, steam-engines, cathedrals, and huge immeasurable traffic and tumult, what is it but a Thought, but millions of Thoughts made into One;-

AS SIG

e a hand with an inscription, can point out the straight way upon the road, but can neither tell you the next turnings, resolve your doubts, or answer your questions, like a guide that has traced it over, and perhaps knows it as well as his chamber. And who are these dead guide

OF A GUID

f infantry, in coat and jacket of one cut, by the thousand and ten thousand, your chance of hitting on the right one is to be computed by the arithmetical rule of Permutation and Combination,-not a choice out of three caskets, but out of half a million caskets all alike. But it happens in our experience, that in this lottery there are at least fifty or a hundred blanks to a prize. It seems, then, as if some charitable soul, after losing a great deal of time among the false books, and alighting upon a few true ones which made him happy and wise,

IVERSITY OF

omerated the various schools into one school; gave it edifices, privileges, encouragements, and named it Universitas, or School of all Sciences: the University of Paris, in its essential characters, was there. The model of all subsequent Universities; which down even to these days, for six centuries now, have gone on to found themselves. Such, I conceive, was the origin of Universities. It is clear, however, that with this simple circumstance, facility of getting Books, the whole conditions of the business from top to bottom were changed. Once invent Printing, you metamorphosed all Universities, or superseded them! The Teacher needed not now to gather men personally round him, that he might speak to them what he knew: print it in a Book, and all learners far and wide, for a trifle, had it each at his own fireside, much more effectually to learn it!-Doubtless there is still peculiar virtue in Speech; even writers of Books may still, in some circumstances, find it convenient to speak also,-witness our present meeting here! There is, one would say,

CAMBRIDGE:

erving with

f both his

ent a regim

d body want

sent books, as

loyal body w

Tra

AN

ford sent his

wn no argume

e to Cambridge

low no force

W. B

counsellors blanch.-F. Baco

THAT CARP AT O

d the hearers

writers canno

I? for when

s should praise

. Har

CR

peruse their syntaxes, and thinks all learning comprised in writing Latin. He tastes styles, as some discreeter palaters do wine; and tells you which is genuine, which sophisticate and bastard. His own phrase is a miscellany of old words, deceased long before the Caesars, and entombed by Varro, and the modernest man he follows is

E v.

guage all thei

ks, as women

still,-the sty

ey humbly tak

eaves; and where

sense beneath

Essay on

FOOLS

lockhead, ign

learned lumb

ongue still ed

stening to hi

ads, and all he

ables down to D

uthors steal the

write his ow

y, and he's th

faults-but when

cred from such

ch more safe than

rs; there they'l

in where angels

Essay on

RY HYP

s worthy of praise. But chiefly this imposition obtains in literature, where men publicly contemn what they relish with ra

EAT OF T

ner?-are apt to think that they have condemned a work irretrievably, when they have pronounced it to be unintelligible. Unintelligible to whom? To themselves, the

lligibleness is a relative quality, varying with the capacity of the reader. The easiest book in a language is inaccessible to those who have never set foot within the pale of that language. The simplest elementary treatise in any science is obscure

t he does not see himself in it: which, if it is not a comedy or a

VERDICT

will not preserve a book in circulation beyond its intrinsic date. It must go with all Walpole's Noble and Royal Authors to its fate. Blackmore, Kotzebue, or Pollock may endure for a night, but Moses and Homer stand for ever. There are not in the world at any one time more than a dozen persons who read and understand Plato: never enough to pay for an edition of his works; yet to eve

er. There must be a man behind

INFLUENCE O

reat enjoyment in reading are in the same state, with respect to a book, in which a man who has never given particular attention to the art of painting is with respect to a picture. Every man who has the least sensibility or imagination derives a certa

book. They are ashamed to dislike what men who speak as having autho

LITERATUR

t for all kinds of sake, in these days of book deluge, to keep out of the salt swamps of literature, and live on a little rocky island of your own, with a spring and a lake in it, pure and good. I cannot, of course, suggest the choice of your library to you: every several mind needs different books; b

the bachelor, 'but something goo

AL PIETY

their books. These children may most truly be called the riches of their father, and many of them have with true filial piety fed their parent in his old age; s

tuff, horrid nonsense, &c., to a book, without calling the author a blockhead; which, though in a moral sense it is a pre

E AND T

ers, and while the number of the one exceeds not the diversity of the other some will not think that too much which others judge superfluous. The genius of one approves what another disregardeth. And were nothing to pass the press but what were suited to the universal gusto, farewell, typography!... I seek no applause from

sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in, an

SOR

sides, who must be judge? The customer or the waiter? If he disallows a book it must not be brought into the kingdom; then Lord have mercy upon all scholars! These puritan preachers, if they have anyt

IMPR

s, and that is the inquisition upon the press, which prohibits any book from coming forth without an imprimatur; an old relic of popery, only necessa

OOK IS A

ga biblíon

lume till after some heavy preamble, and several words of course, to prepare the reader for what follows: nay, authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes, as the mos

o their quintessence, many a bulky author would make his appearance in a penny-paper: there would be scarce such a thing in nature as a

public; when it is canvassed in every assembly, and exposed upon every table; I cannot forbear reflecting upon that

OOK THE MO

s, if the mind could at any time be so happy as to light upon it. Most of the writings and discourses in the world are but illustration and rhetoric, which signifies as much as nothing to a mind eager in pursuit after the causes and philosophical truth of things.... The truth is, there could be no such thing as art or science, could not the mind of m

ly are discoverable by the readers; namely, that the writers there

H ONE IDE

walking lie? I swear I have often sought it till I was weary, and yet I could ne'er find it.'-Charron on Wisdom, a cumbrous piece of formality, which Pope's eulogium lately betrayed me into the perusal of, has one splendid passage, page 138, (I think) English translation. It contrasts the open honours with which we invest the sword, as the means of putting man out of the world, with the concealing and retiring circumstances that accompany his introduction into it. It is a piece of gorgeous and happy eloquence.-What could Pope mean by that line,-'sage Montaigne, or mo

OF ONE

et even a candle gives a sorry, melancholy light unless it has a brother beside it, to shine on it and keep it cheerful. For lights and thoughts are social and sportive: they delight in playing with and into eac

IVE CR

differing from the author's meaning, and such as haply he never dreamed of, and

BETWEE

have had the like experience in conversation: the wit was in what you heard, not in what the speakers said. Our best thought came from others. We heard in their words a de

LE P

e passages, I am t

ine passages are mostly culs de s

s that excl

s that lead

C. Hare. Gues

re books upon books than upon any other subject. We do but inter-glose ourselv

ROYA

art, that will help a man to accomplish himself wi

hat you talk of? Did

at was all, having nobody to

t was the subje

; and various circles, and words written in them, some in Greek,

ime did the title-page promise you th

. In fo

ise. But did you ever know anybody that

MUS.

r did, or ever will, till we c

such art then? I wish wi

e you would not be at the pains wh

. You a

s, silver, palaces, and kingdoms should be bestowed on the slothful and undeservin

loquies: The

S AND

they made no such demand on those who wrote them. Those works therefore are the most v

UD

and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. H

SPEND O

er profit nor labour. After this, out of no over-great variety, I call forth those which may best fit my occasions; wherein I am not too scrupulous of age: sometimes I put myself to school, to one of those ancients, whom the Church hath honoured with the name of Fathers, whose volumes I confess not to open without a sec

OICE O

rned. Do not confound yourself with multiplicity of authors; two is enough upon any science, provided they be plenary and orthodox; Philosophy should be your substantial food, Poetry your ba

and Holidays let Divinity be the sole object of your speculation, in comparison

NG TH

ples. For all that is to be found in books is not built upon true foundations, nor always rightly deduced from the principles it is pretended to be built on.... The mind is backward in itself to be at the pains to trace every argument to its original, and to see upon what basis it stands, and how firmly; but yet it is this that gives so much the advantage to one man more than another in reading. The mind should, by severe rules, be tied down to this at first uneasy task; use and exercise will give it facility. So that those who are accustomed to it, readily, as it were with one cast of the eye, take a view of the argument, and pre

ICIENCY

e, and you can

else appear so

prose, but still

l be all the

d, Duke of

on P

AND

rks your stud

day, and medi

judgement, thence

Muses upward t

elf compared,

comment be th

ng Maro in his

last immortal

emed above th

ure's fountains

xamine every

er were, he fo

ed, he checks t

rict his labour

girite o'erlo

r ancient rule

ture is to

Essay on

THOUT P

and unpreju

modern, e'en ea

comic salt an

pendous geniu

island, pride

which the boxe

are to every

edantries not

dupe of names

ve good parts,

t Spectator

herefore swear

court, and oft

use that wrough

cients'-Faith!

mooth round t

k which lasts

ears deserves

ention some

now in acad

oves where raptu

nting waste th

one but curious

ala's praise

els the sweet

ullus pours hi

oves and Muses

ord of some

queamish and s

ucretius vapi

edious, others

s his subject

s through barren

arches with tr

teor, gorgeous

hwart the phi

Horace no in

ell us Homer

uch a critic'

slumber unsu

strong

CORDING TO

'what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.' He told us, he read F

u read then (said he) you will remember; but if you have not a book immediately ready, and the subject moulds in your mind, it is a chance if you again have a desire to stu

et. 'Much time,' added he, 'is lost by waiting, by travelling, &c., and this may be prevente

EW BOO

nce. We feel our limbs enlarge and strengthen; yet cannot tell the dinner or the dish that caused th

one good thought, being determined never to look into them again. A man m

S FRUIT

ted in its own development and cultivation, how moderate a number of volumes, if only they be judiciously chosen, will suffice for the attainment of every wise and desirable purpose; that is, in addition to those which he studies for specific and professional purposes. It is saying less than the truth to affirm that an excellent book (and the remark holds almost equally good

VERAL BOOK

a great deal more in that time and with much greater profit. All travels are worth reading, as subsidiary to reading, and in fact essential parts of it: old or new, it matters not-somet

D WHERE

ient minutes, before the dinner is quite ready, who would think of taking

before you enter upon him. But he brings his music, to which

ceremony the gentle Shakespeare enters. At such

self, or (as it chances) to some single person listeni

o glide over only. It will not do to read them out. I could never liste

olerable.-C. Lamb. Detached T

UTHORS

ivate on the other hand the society and friendship of the higher; first that you may learn to reverence them, which of itself is both a pleasure and a virtue, and then that on proper occasions you may defend them a

AT PROVO

t profit and the most pleasure also, from the books which have made me think the most: and, when the difficulties have once been overcome, these are the books which have struck the deepest root, not only in my memory and understanding, but likewise in my affections. For this point too should be taken into account. We are wont to think slightly of that, which it costs us a slight ef

g being,

ood,-and could

n our affecti

e feeling of

hich there is

hastily, thoughtlessly, indiscriminately, unfruitfully, when most books are forgotten as soon as they are finished, and very many sooner, it is well if something heavier is cast now and then into the midst of the literary public. This

FOR

e nations have derived their culture from a single book,-as the Bible has been the literature as well as the religion of large portions of Europe,-as Hafiz was the eminent genius of the Persians, Confucius of the Chinese, Cervantes of the Spaniards; so, perhaps, the human mind would b

read any book that is not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed bo

where is no p

study what yo

and spermatic, not leaving the reader what he was: he shuts the book a richer

T OF

at diet. One must be an inventor to read well. As the proverb says, 'He that would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry out the wealth of the Indies.' There is, then, creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labour and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad a

SE OF

es, who are under a vehement suspicion of not reading their books. Well, perhaps it is true in the sense in which those who utter the taunt understand the reading of a book. That one should possess no books beyond his power of perusal-that he should buy no faster than as he can read straight through what he has already bought-is a supposition alike

ad through the sixty and odd folio volumes of the Bollandist Lives of the Saints, and the new edition of the Byzantine historians, and the State Trials, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Moreri, and the Statutes a

of life allotted to man there is but a certain number of books that it is practicable to read through, and it is not possible to make a selection that will not, in a manner, wall in the mind from a free expansion over the republic of letters. The being chained, as it were, to one intellect in the perusal straight on of any large book, is a sort of mental slavery superinducing imbecility. Even Gibbon's Decline an

REA

or he is dry; nor

f commo

romances, though

llig

he is a Hogarth,

ereth

e shall teach thee

eam, b

hy Burke; that Bur

of

er and Peeress, th

uti

'creations' of 't

anc

the Martyr, and

pp

s the dram-drinki

, in the Gadara of

of the Ideal, with

pe

vers and the orph

ve

s family chaplain

ng

though a thief, a

ual, was amongst the

e in a world peop

r-spi

t realize the Ideal,

ze the