Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1881 — Motive of Reading. [ARTICLE]

Motive of Reading.

bered who studies the art m fall and perfect the chosen handbook of reading, neither can do more than to stimulate and suggest. Noth!ng can take the place of direct familiarity with books themselves. To know one good book well is better4hsH to know someting about a hundred good books, ai second hand. The taste for reading and the habit oLreadlng must always be developed flora .irithin; they can never be added from without. . W All plans, and systems of reading, therefore, should he taken, as far as possible, into one’s heart of hearts, and be made a part of his own mind and thought. Unless this can be done, they are worse than ascioM. J>r. McCosh says: “The book to read is not the one that thinks for yon, but the one that makes yoo thtuK.” It to plain, then, that a “course of reading" may be a great gooffDFgfwrrTVTT, dc--oording to Ito use. The fate* Bishop Alonzo Potter, one of the most judicious of literary helpofs, offered to readers this sound piece of advice: "Do not be so enslaved by any system or' course of study asl to think it may not be altered." however conscious one may be of his own deficiencies, and however he may feel the need of outsideaid, hp should never permit his own independence and self-respect to be philter-' ated. “He who reads incessantly,” says Milton, <_ ;

“Ata to bia rataiac tainoita* M ▲ •jArll ata jud*tu«o* oq«Al or aapariaa Unoartoin ata oaiattiait atlll romatta -. Deop vorata io booka, bat aballow taUiphf/' The general agreement of Intelligent people as to the merit of an'nuthoEor the worth of a book, is, of course, to be accepted uutil one finds some reason tor reversing it. But nothing is to be gained by pretending to like what one really dislikes, or to enjoy what one does not find profitable, or even intelligible. If a reader is pot honest and sincere in this matter, there is small hope for him. The lowest taste may be cultivated and improved, and radically changed, but pretense and artificiality can never grow into anything better. Tuey must be wholly rooted out at the start. If you dislikk. Sbakspeare’s “Hamlet," and enjoy a trashy story, say so with sincerity and sorrow, if occasion requires, and hope and work for a reversal of your taste. “It’S good to be honest and true,” says Burns, and nowhere is honesty more ueedecLthan here. It should always be borne in mind that the busiest reader must leave unread all but a mere fraction of the world. “Be not alarmed because so many books are recommended," says Bishop Potter, “and do not attempt to read much or faM;;" but “dare to be ignorant of many things.’,’ There are now about 1,100,000 printed books in the library of the British Museum alone; and the library of the Bibliotbeque Nationale of Paris contains more than 3,000,000 volumes. Mr. F. B. Perkins, an experienced librarian, estimates tnat no less than 25,000 new books now appear annually, and yet the reading of a book a fortnight, er say twenty-five books a year, is quite as mu*h as the average reader can possibly achieve —at rate at which only 1,250 books could be read in half a century. Since this is so, he must be very thoughtless and very timid who feels any shame in confessing that he is wholly ignorant of a great many books; aud on the other narnl, none but a very superfician and conceited reader will venture to express surprise at the deficiencies of others, when a little thought would make nis own so clearly manifest.