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pleasures, at the same time that it is one of the first of duties.

Here incidentally, an observation falls in, which it is of no inconsiderable importance to remember. The qualities that excite admiration, seldom contribute to domestic happiness; few women being sedulous to please at home, who know themselves greatly admired abroad.

CHAP. LXXV.

Of the Misuse, and the Proper Use, of Reading.

"Read not to contradict or confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider." LORD BACON.

THE age we live in, has been remarkably a reading age. Books are more numerous and of more easy access, than at any former period; and the number of readers has increased astonishingly since the middle of the last century. In a general view, this is of good omen, for reading is one of the principal keys of knowledge: it unlocks as it were a mine of intellectual wealth, and contributes to its general diffusion. There is considerable reason to think, however, that the progress of real sound knowledge has not kept pace with the progress of reading for the slow pace of the former, in comparison with that of the latter, there being the several causes which here follow.

By reason of the abundance and super-abundance of books, the best are commonly read but superficially, and, by many, not read at all; the attentions of the reading public being distracted with such a boundless variety. If there were only one book in the world, and its copies so multiplied that it were in every one's hands, almost every one would be familiarly and thoroughly acquainted with its contents. Or, if there were only a few books, and they accessible to all, those few would be pondered and studied till a considerable part of their contents were treasured up in the minds and memories of the generality of readers. But now that books are so nu

merous and innumerable, the readers skip from one to another without settling their attention upon any; so that many who are fairly entitled to the credit of great reading, are very little improved in their intellectual faculties. They eagerly devour books, but properly digest and appropriate scarcely any thing therein, and their minds are plethoric, but destitute of vigor.

Besides this, with the bulk of the bookish tribe, reading has become an idle amusement, rather than a serious and laborious occupation. They read for pleasure, more than for profit. The acquirement of a fund of really useful knowledge scarcely comes within the scope of their object, which is chiefly to beguile the tedious hours by furnishing food for the imagination. And hence is it, that no books are so palatable, or so generally read, and with so much eagerness, as the lighter compositions, which are fraught with amusement, but barren of sound instruction. A novel even of the lowest cast, finds more readers than a serious work of great merit.

Moreover, the perpetual influx of new books has occasioned a raging appetite for novelty of some kind or other, no matter what; so that the attention of most readers is directed rather to what is new, than to what is valuable and excellent. This kind of curiosity is insatiable; for the more it is fed, the more it craves. Old authors are neglected, because they are old, and new ones engross the attention, because they are new. The standard compositions of former ages are cast aside as lumber; while a new pretender, with less than a fourth part of their abilities, is sure to find a momentary welcome at least.

From these causes it happens that a great deal of reading does by no means imply a great stock of valuable knowledge. On the contrary, it often leaves the mind empty of almost every thing but vanity; none being more vain, or more intolerable, than those who having learnt by rote a multitude of maxims and facts, deal them out by the gross, on all occasions, and in all companies. The food which they have derived from reading lies in their minds undigested, and while it occasions a preternatural tumor there, it gives neither growth nor strength.— Their reading has scarcely brought into exercise any one

of the intellectuals besides the memory, which has been loaded and kept in perpetual action, whilst their understandings and judgments remain dormant. They are proud that they have read so much, but have reason rather to be ashamed that they know so little.

One who would really profit by reading, must take heed what he reads, and how.

The use of reading, is to render one more wise and virtuous, rather than more learned; and that point is to be gained not so much from the quantity, as the quality of the books which we peruse. No single individual has leisure enough, nor is any life long enough, for a thorough perusal of even the tenth part of the books now extant in the English language. A selection is therefore necessary, and much depends upon making it judiciously. An inconsiderable number of well chosen and well studied books, will enable one to make far greater advances in real knowledge, than lightly skimming over hundreds of volumes taken up indiscriminately.

In reading, attention is to be paid also to the How, as well as to the What. The proper object of reading is not merely to inform us of what others think, but also to furnish us with materials for thinking ourselves, or for the employinent and exercise of our judgments and understandings, and of the whole of our intellectual and moral faculties. It is not enough that it supplies us with a multitude of facts; for the knowledge of facts is valuable to us chiefly for the inferences that we ourselves may draw from them, or because they furnish us with the means of exercising and exerting our own powers in the way of comparing, reasoning, and judging, and of drawing sound conclusions of the future from the past.

Knowledge cannot be bequeathed as a patrimony, or purchased with money; there is no other way to obtain it but by close attention and labor of the mind. Whoever would get knowledge in any uncommon degree, must seek for it as for silver. If it be a toil, it is one that is sweetened with pleasures peculiarly its own. Indeed it is questionable whether it would be so well for us if we could get learning without labor; for one of the essential benefits of education is, that it inures the mind to apply itself steadily to any thing that re

quires its particular attention; in a word, it tends to form the precious habit of calling home our wandering thoughts at pleasure, and bringing them to a point.

After all, book learning alone is insufficient for human concerns. To use a quotation from Doctor Johnson : "Books, says Bacon, can never teach the use of books. The student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice, and accommodate his knowledge to the purposes of life."

One observation more I will make, and hope it may be carefully heeded. We err no less in not turning to good account what we know, than in neglecting to increase our stock of knowledge. What doth it profit though a man have much knowledge or learning, if he is not better, more wise and virtuous in his conduct, and more useful to the community?—If it makes him but the worse, he turns the blessing to a curse.

CHAP. LXXVI.

Of the impassable and unalterable limits to the pleasures of Sense.

THE pleasures of sense, common to all animal natures, can admit of very little increase by the refinements of art, and at the same time are bounded and limited by impassable barriers. I say impassable barriers, for you no sooner have overleaped them than the pleasure is gone, and satiety, disgust, or some kind of painful dissatisfaction, succeeds to its place.

Sweet as is the light, too much of it would instantly destroy the organ of vision. Pleasant as it is to see the sun, yet looking steadfastly upon him in his meridian glory, would cause pain, and even blindness. The light of that luminary, by which alone we see the innumerable objects that are visible to us, is colored; else our feeble organ of sight could endure it scarcely for For what if the whole sky, the whole earth, and every object above and around us, shone with the unmingled brightness of uncolored light? In that case

a moment.

the light itself would become darkness, since every eye must instantly be blinded by it.

And as with light, so with hearing. A sound that is too strong and forcible, deafens the ear. Nay even the most sweet and harmonious sounds, when long continued, or very often repeated, become indifferent to the ear, if not tiresome.

In like manner the smell is sickened with perpetual fragrance, and the palate surfeited by overmuch sweet

ness.

Even the joy, of mere animal nature, when it exceeds the just bounds, becomes a disturber. Overmuch joy of this sort, is inquietude; it banishes quiet sleep as effectually as pungent grief."

Hence it falls out, agreeably to the established constitution of our nature, that scarcely any persons lead more unpleasant lives than those who pursue after pleasure with the most eagerness. And so it must needs be, because their over-eagerness of desire, by impelling them on to perpetual excess, turns their pleasures to pains, and their very recreations to scenes of wearisome drudgery.

If Solomon had not told us from his own experience, that such a course of life is not only vanity, but vexation of spirit; yet the world abounds with instances to prove and illustrate it;-and of these I will now cite two eminent ones of the last age:

Richard Nash, Esq.-commonly called Beau Nashwho died, 1781, aged 87, was master of the Ceremonies, or King of Bath, for the space of nearly half a century. His body was athletic, his constitution strong and healthy, and his ruling passions were vanity, and keenness of desire for fashionable dissipation. With his darling wishes the means of indulgence exactly and altogether corresponded. Presiding over the amusements of the courtiers and nobility and gentry of England, he gratified his vanity with the finery and costliness of his apparel, and the implicit obedience paid to his orders; and whilst employed in providing banquets of pleasure for his voluptuous guests, he seldom neglected his opportunities of carving plenteously for himself.-Beau Nash, enjoyed what is called pleasure, for

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