MR. BRICE ON READING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1324, 30 December 1911, Page 9

MR. BRICE ON READING.

At New Brunswick, New .Terser, on November 10 last, the Right Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, spoko on "Some Principle.* and Maxims tor the Reading of Books." "Perhaps it is more in the.direction of raising the finality and character of university instruction rather than its wider diffusion—in fact, ill intensify, rather than extension—that the uiwds of the time lie," ho said. "I believe in the value ef oral teaching as just as essentia! now as it was in the days when books were comparatively scarce. But the very abundance of books has made it the more important to think of the best way of using books,- and one of'the great uses of a college is to give students instruction in the art 'of using them, and to show them how,-having formed good in-: tellectua! habits in"the'student years, they may continue to apply thesa to continue their education through books to the end of their lives, because education, as has been well said, ought to end only with life itself. "Accordingly, I venture to submit for your consideration n few suggestions .'or maxiihs hs to how to use books, which have been impressed., upon, me by the experience of hiahy yrars. The first maxim is that one should always try to find and read 'The Best Book* on any subject. By the best book I mean tlvb book from which you can carry the most away. The test of the value of a book is that it should give what you can profitably make a part of your own mind: and by a good book I do not mean what used to bo called an 'improving book,' a hook containing solid information, but I include book* of every kind so long as they are good of their kind, that is to say, so long as they give you something new and fresh, something stimulating or enlivening, something on which the mind can work, and which leaves the reader knowing more, or better able to think than it found him. "The dry book is not necessarily better than the lively book; on the contrary, it is, other things being ecjual, presumably worse, because every book' ought, if. possible, lo bo so written as.to be interesting: that is to say, capable of being read with enjoyment. Of course, it is not easy to be equally lively upon oil subjects, but, however dry the subject, the same difference exists between a book which is well written and takes a.grip of the mind, and gives you pleasure of following, a line, of thought with profit, and the book which tumbles out facts and ideas in a shapeless and uninteresting way. "Lifo is too short for reading inferior books. Every one finds as he goes on how terribly short life is, and how much there is he would like to know which he never will have time to learn. Nothing of our time, therefore, should be wasted on third? rate books, or second-rate books, if firstrate ones are to be had. This is true of fiction, as well as of science or history, though in a different sense- There is all the difference in the world between fiction from which we can ga'in something and the more abundant fiction which is empty of ideas. What can be more tragic than to find mi earnest and industrious man spending upon a poor book tho energy which ho might spend upon a good one? Of course, it is not always easy to know what aro the best books, but one of tho things that collcgo courses teach is howto recognise them, and every one who is engaged in any lino of study, can almost always find some one—very often the person in charge of the local library is available—who will direct iiini to the good books. . • ~ , i ,11 "A second maxim is that one should alwavs read with suiiicieut attentiou and concentration to obtain a mental reaction. There is no use in merely carrying your eves over print unless, you get something from it. and when you find that you are oettin" nothing, you may as well leave off vcadiii". One should read in a critical, th'it is'" 1 to sav, a searching, testing spirit. Our spirit ought, no doubt, to be respectful to tho author of tho book, if ho happens to be a, wise man or a well-in-formed man; but respect is not the same thin" as --übnussion. It is Tight and htUn<Ao trv. to test the facts and the views which a 'book contains, and to emnlcy one's independent judgment upon it.