Some will only read old books, as if there were no valuable truths to be discovered in modern publications; while others will only read new books, as if some valuable truths are not among the old. Some will not read a book, because they are acquainted with the author; by which the reader may be more injured than the author: others not only read the book, but would also read the man; by which the most ingenius author may be injured by the most impertinent reader. f. ISAAC DISRAELI-Literary Character of Men of Genius. On Reading. The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age. .g. ISAAC DISRAELI-Literary Character of If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read. h. EMERSON-Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality. I should as soon think of swimming across the Charles river when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals, when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue. i. EMERSON-Essay. Books. Our high respect for a well-read man is praise enough of literature. j. EMERSON-Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality. one. n. GOLDSMITH-The Citizen of the World. Letter LXXXIII. With spots of sunny openings, and with works To lie and read in, sloping into brooks. 0. LEIGH HUNT-The Story of Rimini. The foundation of knowledge must be laid by reading. General principles must be had from books, which, however, must be brought to the test of real life. In conversation you never get a system. What is said upon a subject is to be gathered from a hundred people. The parts which a man gets thus are at such a distance from each other that he never attains to a full view. What a wonderful,-what an almost magical boon, a writer of great genius confers upon us, when we read him intelligently. As he proceeds from point to point in his argument or narrative, we seem to be taken up by him, and carried from hill-top to hilltop, where, through an atmosphere of light, we survey a glorious region of thought, looking freely, far and wide, above and below, and gazing in admiration upon all the beauty and grandeur of the scene. a. MANN-Lectures on Education. Lecture VI. His classical reading is great: he can quote Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, and Martial by rote. He has read Metaphysics Spinoza and Kant; And Theology too: I have heard him descant Upon Basil and Jerome. Antiquities, art, He is fond of. He knows the old masters by heart, And his taste is refined. b. OWEN MEREDITH-Lucile. But for Tradition; we walk evermore To higher paths, by brightning Reason's lamp. j. Canto II. Pt. IV. GEORGE ELIOT-Spanish Gypsy. Bk. II. To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title. k. LOCKE--Letter to Antony Collins, Esq. There are two principall and peculiar gifts in the nature of man, Knowledge and Reason: the one commaundeth, the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling I wheel of Fortune can chaunge, neither the deceitful cavilling of wordlings separate, neither sicknesse abate, neither age abolish. 1. LYLY-Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit. Of the Education of Youth. Reason, however able, cool at best, Stays till we call, and then not often near. m. Line 85. Sc. 1. 0. Line 79. There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl The Feast of Reason and the Flow of Soul. p. POPE--Second Book of Horace. Satire I. Line 128. But, since the affairs of men rest still uncertain. Let's reason with the worst that may befall. Julius Cæsar. Act V. Sc. 1. Find out the cause of this effect: Or, rather say, the cause of this defect; For this effect defective, comes by cause. Hamlet. Act II. Sc. 2. r. The solitary side of our nature demands leisure for reflection upon subjects on which the dash and whirl of daily business, so long as its clouds rise thick about us, forbid the intellect to fasten itself. e. FROUDE- Short Studies on Great Subjects. Sea Studies. Summe up at night, what thou hast done by day; And in the morning, what thou hast to do. Dresse and undresse thy soul; mark the decay And growth of it: if with thy watch, that too Be down, then winde up both, since we shall be Most surely judg'd, make thy accounts t. U. Pt. I. Act V. Sc. 4. Henry IV. Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes? For now I see the true old times are dead. TENNYSON-Idyls of the King. Morte D'Arthur. Line 228. For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been." WHITTIER-Maud Muller. Line 105. 2'. RELIGION. There was never law, or sect, or opinion did so magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth. w. BACON-Essay. Of Goodness, and Goodness of Nature. Men's works have an age, like themselves; and though they outlive their authors, yet have they a stint and period to their duration. This only is a work too hard for the teeth of time, and cannot perish but in the general flames, when all things shall confess their ashes. x. Sir THOMAS BROWNE-Religio Medici. Sec. 23. |