Show v rr ill I rL LITERARY Iiii t I if r Thoughts from the Highways of Litera LiteratI tI ture WHAT WHAT WHAl BOOKS nOOKS TO TU READ AND HOW TO READ THEM EVERY intelligent person in in the present r day is impressed with the great advantage advantage advantage tage to be derived from reading But two important questions now start up c 1 What books are we to read and 2 2 How are we to read them The great difficulty in the way of answering the thes s first question is the incalculable number 4 of books Different men have different ways of dealing with this multitude of books N The true method however seems to consist of two steps 1 1 To read first the one or two great standard works in ini i each department of literature and 2 to confine then our reading to that 5 department which suits the particular bent of our minds These two steps would tend to make us achieve in literature literature literature litera litera- ture what John Stuart Stuart- Mills says every student should achieve in the domain of universal knowledge namely The knowing something of everything and everything of something The standard authors form certainly one one of the greatest blessings that have been bestowed upon readers They are like mountains rising sheer in the midst of a flat landscape and catching and presenting to the world the ing gleams and splendors of heaven They are like well well ordered ordered gardens containing containing containing con con- in one romantic spot the choice vegetable product of a whole clime They are the real fixed stars in the Abyss of Time suns ablaze with heat hea t tand and splendor and the other authors are but planets shining with light borrowed from them They are kings by divine right the great representatives of the human race endowed specially with wisdom from on high and commissioned with an authority which cannot be gainsaid gainsaid gainsaid gain gain- said to sway the hearts of the multitude multitude multitude multi multi- tude tude- Shakespeare Bacon Milton Gibbon Gibbon Gibbon Gib Gib- bon Burns Scott Carlyle Emerson Having mastered them we have mastered in a concentrated form the whole of English literature Young students should study these great classic masterpieces If you cannot cannot cannot can can- not read them all read at least one give the whole attention to it put yourself yourself yourself your your- self in the position of the author follow him intently through all his ideas and and feelings live in his spirit as in an at atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere at- at make his whole work part of your own soul Do not care although you you vou are taunted with not knowing many mallY books When old Hobbles was asked why he had not read more II Read more he exclaimed II if if 1 I had read as many books as other men I would have been as ignorant as other men The great end of life after all is not to think but to act not to be learned butto butto but butto to be good and noble Accordingly the crowning merit of a book must always be its practical usefulness Different men have different ways of reading books but the method of reading reading reading read read- ing is very definite and consists of r several distinct steps 1 Before beginning to peruse a book know something about the author You should get a biographical sketch of his life become acquainted with his life his character and the circumstances amid which he composed the book and you will therefore r read ad his pages with far more pleasure and intelligence 2 Read the preface carefully In it the author takes you as it were into his confidence and describes to you his motives for writing the book and his reasons for making it what it is In this way he awakens your interest and gives you a foretaste of the volume itself 3 Take a comprehensive survey of the table of contents It is like the map of a journey showing through what tracts the way lies and to what destination destination destination destina destina- tion it will lead 4 Give your whole attention to whatever whatever whatever what what- ever you read A book is a representation tion of the best hest workings of the authors author's soul One must follow him closely through h all his lines of thought understand understand understand under under- under under- stand clearly all his ideas and enter into all his feelings In order to understand understand understand under under- stand it you must shut out your own circumstances cast castoff off your own person personal al identity and lose yourselves in the writer before you 5 Be sure to note the most valuable passages as you read Without note- note taking you cannot be intelligent readers All great scholars have been great note- note takers They have proved themselves in their reading as well as in other things men of mark Their memories were unusually great and tenacious but they treated their memories with the utmost consideration They did not burden and tax and torture them unnecessarily They use used d their note-book note as a sort of outside palpable memory for holding minute yet important details which their inner and re real al memory could not have retained without much wearisome toil 6 Write out t in o your own language a summary of the facts you have noted The expressing of facts in your own words will make them much more clear and definite defini te and the mere fact of writing writing writ writ- tIng t- t ing them down will fix them more securely in your memory 7 Apply the results of your reading to your every-day every duties When one is reading he is really using the minds of i j the authors author he is studying They support support support sup sup- port his mind and carry it along making making making mak mak- ing it to go through all their own own J He must apply to his processes everyday everyday every every- 1 day duties those qualifications which J Jha ha have ve made authors so great through Y appreciation of everything true and 1 y beautiful J s He must prove himself after his in intercourse intercourse intercourse in- in with the great souls of the Y past to be clearer in head larger in heart and nobler in action This indeed is t the great end to be achieved by books |