The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1909 "HOW TO READ."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 687, 11 December 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1909 "HOW TO READ."

The issue of a work by a London publisher, How to Bead: Practical Expert Advice; Xs remindful of sundry infirmities which seem to; characterise many present-day methods of 'acquiring knowledge. Of no insignificant dimensions, the volume, let us hope, will, in familiar phrase, supply a long-felt want. To read wisely is to. read well, ran a headline in the copybook {the difficulty is that everybody knows not how to read with wisdom. Desultory reading—sipping at sweet ; will here and there—has its pure delights. But the airy skimmings of the butterfly are not always suited to tho realities of this, our mundane,' sphere. Successful' reading. is an art and one not to bo held in light cstcom. At the present time the output of books in Great .Britain alone.is so great that no, reader, however industrious, may hope to. sec, far less handle and read,,morq:than the merest fraction of the number published; The late Loud; Acton', was '■■probably tho most voracious reader of his generation. His mind has been describod as a storehouse of historic facts., He read an octavo volumo a day, but left nothing behind, to balance this immenso absorption "of information. W. E. Gladstone said that reading should bo a continual process of import and export. His. dictum, though applicable chiefly to public life and authorship, is worth remembering by all who aim at culture. Everybody cannot hope to bo nn'author: few of our species possess the power of graceful and informing speech. But humble endowments '. are not necessarily incompatible with cither the acquisition or tho importation of that which informs and enlightens. Some adult" readers scorn tho methods of the school and'college,

To them, the Ve-reading, thbVmemorising, the note-making appear inconsistent, with the maturity and the dignity of manhood. Yet, all through life, the early; simplo, natural ways will probably prove the most effectual, if one be not a genius owning the memory. of a Scott: or a Macaulay.

A famous London editor and author; not: long ago, : revealed the'■. secret of;, his '.retentive and reliable memory. His practice 1b on reading an important book or article, to commit to memory a few of the chief and more striking sentences. Those molecules, as ho names his selections, remain unforgotten for years and, by recalling them, the entire book or article vividly reappears. Not alone to books, but also to newspapers,'is some such system as this adopted by those who desire to bo. well-informed and accurate.; A poor journal indeed is that which fails to repay a little of the samo painstaking care which was bestowed in early y'cai'B on the solid lexicon and on many a kindred torao. Mr. T. H; S, Escott, in a recent, magazine article, tells of an Englishman whom he visited, who had settled on Maggiore. .It would have been impossible, he observes, to find a host more- extensively' or accurately in : formed on the science, letters, and politics of the time! Some words .of-sur-prised compliment from Mb; Escott brought forth the explanation. "The secret of it lies on: that table," said the voluntary, exile,,as he pointed to an enormous pilo of the London Times. "Since I left the University I havo read very fewbooks of any kind. I receive 1 the Ttmes, every morning.. I. 50 through it thoroughly, from tho opening advertisement to the printer's name on the last page—getting if up; in fact, as one might get up one's.books bofore going into tho schools, and I never find : it so useful or readable as when the Long Vacation opens its columns to miscellaneous articles." There are doubtless many who follow tho excellent example set them by tho shores of Maggiore; to not a few the facts learned/from the ideas generated by tho daily. journal seem often singularly, evanescent: -Unfortunately, facts and ideas aro not .like certain,.favoured seeds: they arb unprovided with an. apparatus of hooks by. which they may cling within unro'ceptive ■ interiors. "Sir," exclaimed - the peevish judge to the. barrister',;."what you say, as'far-as lam concerned, merely goes "in^at ono ear and out at the other." "Quite so; my lord,'' was the amiable rejoinder, 1 "there is nothing to pievent it." A-popu-lar: writer,' Mr. S, Martin, in Harper's Monthly, -says there.is a pretty, general complaint about the contemporary reader who does not read as good books as he should. , The publishers:keep testing his: mind's 'appetite, 'and report .with practical -■ unanimity that ho ; likes a fairly., light diet. If the publishers can find somoono to write an acceptablo story thoy canpromiso to. find readers for it;, but for any harder or more informing sort of literature, whatever its merits, they aro cxtrcmoiy modest ', in their :■ anticipations!:' This, was' 'written about American readers,' but it seems not inapplicable to English. " ,:,,': CaelylE. had a supreme contempt for fools' books, Precisely what he-placed'in that fcategory,; :or.' would place to-day, appears somowhat difficult to decide. His v ppinions on the subject- of reading were given .in .a: letter addressed by him to Dr. Oarlyle, of ■. Toronto '(a- relation),-' who had sought -his advice as to improving himself irithe : profession of school teacher. 1 Tho-Sage,'.'doubtless reflecting on the six years he spent with his books : at . Craigenputtock,: amidst'■ the' : black,' solitary moors of Galloway and- Dumfries, counselled ;patience and. diligenco. Knowledge; he wrote, gained by personal :exertion: is far more than. if a 'teacher helped. "A? v very'small lot of books .will .serve ;'to nourish'adman's mind,": fie wrote, '"if he handle them well. I have known-innumerable people whoso minds had gone all to. ruin by reading'carelessly, too,many books.' .The wisest'men-T have-known in this world were .by 'no; means great they were 'good ' readers,' I. should say, of- a' few .books-.that were;wise, having ah;ab- ■ hor'rencfl ofi'alL .books' they, : found,:to bo foolish." /Farther, on :Oarlyle lays down the law that a. man gathers .wisdom only from his own sincere exertions arid reflections. That is,' presumably,, after ho has comrrtuned for many seasons with the minds' of tho; masters..,'... Ga'rlyle's-' own reading, • apart from; the -immediate subject of his investigations, usually went no further .than, a - few good books.;; His library was; probably; one of the smallest that: ever belonged ,to, ah .eminent man, of letters. Oar'lyle's modest shelves, by-way of contrast, may.; remind' many: of the enormous collections of volumes loft by Lord: Acton and by Mr. Gladstone. Yet the literary output of tho .two, : both known' to history as omnivorous readors, is entirely eclipsed by tho works" of Oarlyle. Dr. Kodertson.: Nicoll truly, says that one of the greatest perils, of intellectual life. is tho danger of ceasing. to study when education is over! "We are," all ; of us',"; he .continues in one-of Ilia latest volumes, "turned out of our schools and colleges ignorant of very much.- A world, of. knowledge -'is bofbro us to '•'.'bo acquired. To strike, into: that .knowledge' and to make it: our own is to conquer tho "years'."' In: time tho -. searcher' after truth and knowledge,; in most cases, will discover tho .means which to him. are most appropriate arid profitable. 'The,irrevocable years of youth, and early.;manhood have, -hbwover.v to bo considered. Wise measures adopted early are likely to jirpve- the more beneficial and fruitful; An lever let us keep the lines in view: Knowledge is.proud that he has; learned so much:•■•'-.. v :';,;■:,; .'■•'. : " ; -'-." Wisdom is.liumWe that he.knows no more.' •