Show I Records in Reading Ab Ability Superhuman i r Possessed ed I Made By y Great Men Me oy M Macaulay Balzac and ond I 1 I I A recent writer in Law NOl Notes s 18 asserts asserO rl I that mat he h has re read id pa page by pa page c 2 20 I volumes of law reports within a compani- compani i t cJ few years Of tOt course I dId dUl d not do all aU this tills reading rending as a I mere pastime ho he adds Such a comment would hardly appear necessary although Thaddeus Stevens Ste used to find relaxation from 1 public JC car cares In digging through h old law books But nut the reading of ot the Law Lav L Notes contributor Is in interesting because it i I Is by no means an nn unusual amount for tor an Inquirer Into a 0 special subject Here Is a n much more Interesting list of ot I Ithe the volumes read by b Lord Macaulay In a 01 period of thirteen months during durinG which II time he lie was also busied with wih his official duties dutes as ono one of or tho members member of or the Supreme Su Su- preme premo Council of ot India I r have have- o hl road read Aeschylus twice ho writes write a friend Sophocles twice Euripides once Pindar twice Rhodius Calabor twice Herodotus Herodotus Hero Hero- dotus Thuc Thue almost all al Xenophon's Xeno- Xeno phona phon's works almost all fn Plato Aristotle's Po Polities 1 UC In and a a. good Jool deal of ot his Orga Orga- non nc-n besides dipping elsewhere In mm him him the whole of or Plutarch's LIves about haltof halt half of ot Lucian two or books of oX o Atho- Atho Plautus twice Terence twice Lucretius Lu Lu- cretus twice Prop- Prop ertus Lucan Status Silus St LI Llvy Livy Caesar nn and lastly Cicero I have indeed n a l little mUe Cicero left lel hut but I shall shah finish him In afew a afew 0 few tew days I am now deep In and Lucian V Lucan Manifestly Uy Macaulay had an almost superhuman superhuman su su- su- su human gift git for reading Trevelyan said of him extraordinary faculty acuity of assimilating printed matter mater at first sight l ht remained tJ the tho same through lre life To Tn the en end he tie rend read books C faster ster than other people i th them cm arid and skimmed th them mom m KS ss fast a n as any one flap would turn n the leaves And Ant this speed peed va vas not In his case obtained at nt the e expense ex cx- pen pense c of ac accuracy Balzac Balzac's s ability to take in at a 0 glance half hal a dozen ozen or mor more lines of or n a page L La 1st L. L n. n S welt well wel known incident of lt literature And tho the Frenchman got all aU the meanings ar ard ard tile the shades of meaning from the p page e. e Balzac was not a n systematic reader and bO boasted tel that ho he never road rad a book through But Dut he too had the tle power of or assimilating printed matter M M. Bru- Bru neth re says gays as a's that tat Balzac capacity for tOl absorbing knowledge se as well as learning Is 18 f not to be 0 Judged at all aU by tile the standards standards stand stand- ards of or ordinary men The same prInciple prin prIn- ciple ciple Incidentally is the sufficient answer answer an an- crier to those who ho doubt that Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakes Shakes- peare wrote Shakespeare aro because became there is proof proa that that he was never a 0 student Doubtless those who have been mentioned men men- were exceptional readers reader or or lather of oC books bok But lut their their example Is interesting not b because It la Ja exceptional but for the tho re reason that Industry in industry In- In In reading is really not o tonal The Tho bibliographies attaching to meritorious works of or history attest stupendous stu stu- research research stupendous research stupendous to the man who Is content to merely do the tho ma mag mag- nie The Time learned person who occasionally occa occa- atonally advises that that a 0 redi reading of ot Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakes Shakes- and the tho Bible is peare enough has doubtless himself read rend wIde widely Mr Roosevelt is said sal to read rend nn an average of ot four four of five solid books book a n week and andIs Is omnivorous In Iii his range rang rago This lis too with wih an amount of active labor and of recreation t that t would quite stagger the ordinary ordial person pel Even a n cursory survey of the subject convinces that rending reading and its amount depends upon ones one's temperament anti ami habit and anti has nothing whatever to do with wih time Kansas City Star |