translated from the German by THOMAS CONANT, in all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is confuted, - ART. VI. - The School Library, Published under the sanction of 3. Lives of Eminent Individuals, celebrated in American 4. Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons: by Rev. H. DUNCAN. Louis on the Yellow Fever. Translated by G. C. Shattuck, jr. 409 The Lecturess; a Tale; by the author of 'My Cousin Mary,' 410 THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SEPTEMBER, 1839. ART. I.-ON READING. THE subject of this Essay is Reading. This is, to speak technically, the great school of modern manhood. It is the continuation of that school, in which it is the privilege of our children to be brought up. Of our own country, in particular, we may say, speaking for the mass of the people, that it is the great reading country of the world. It is high time that we should enter into some serious consideration of the means by which this reading privilege may be turned to the best account. It occupies too much time to be left out of the moral account of life. Great indeed is the privilege; and when we think of nations where few of the mass of the people can read; when we think of the ages, when almost none of any class could find anything on the pages of a book but hyeroglyphics, dark as those of the Egyptian obelisks; when we think of the many heavy hours that must pass in houses where a book never enters; we cannot too highly prize our advantage. But that, which constitutes the signal advantage of modern times, is not an advantage only. It is an opportunity also; and an opportunity for what? This question I shall attempt in some meas ure to answer. There are two kinds of reading, which need to be carefully distinguished, and each to have its proper place assigned to it. There is reading for improvement, and reading for entertainment; reading as a mental task, and reading as a mental recreation; reading with thought, and reading without thought. In the one case, a man takes a book to aid his inquiries or his VOL. XXVII. 3D s. VOL. IX. NO. I. 1 reasonings, to obtain information, or to assist his mind in coming to some conclusion. In the other, he resorts to a book only for amusement. This distinction, I admit, is very general. But I think it will be found, without being very accurate, to answer the practical purpose which I have in view. Reading, doubtless, may combine both instruction and amusement, and the reader may seek both. In history, biography, and travels, he may often find both. But every one must be aware, that there is a great deal of reading among us, merely for entertainment. Novels are commonly read with no other view or thought. On the other hand, I wish it to be considered, that there is a kind of reading which is of a far higher character. A man may take a book with the express intent to think over it. His purpose is not passively to receive what the book communicates, but to think, to examine what the book says; to give his mind a task; to strengthen his powers. His mind is a crucible; and what he takes into it, is to be melted, and moulded into a form that makes it his own; makes it his own, not by reception, but by re-formation; not by simple transfusion, but by thorough transmutation. And no mind is worth much, without something, more or less, of this habit. This is the essential characteristic of an original mind. It is not, as many seem to suppose, that its thoughts are absolutely new; that no such thoughts ever entered the human mind before; but that it re-forms, re-arranges old thoughts, and presents them in new aspects and applications. I dwell upon this point a moment, for in this new country, where we are apt to suppose that many things are new, which are old enough, it is needful that this matter be understood. Sciolists, dreamers, fanciful and extravagant men, may have conceptions so strange, that it may seem to them and to others, that nobody ever thought the like before; and in some sense, it is very possible that nobody ever did; one may hope so, at least; but the truly comprehensive and original mind knows that it is working with materials as old as the creation; and that not its materials, but only its method of working, can be new, or peculiar to itself. All true progress is but the reproduction of the old, aye, and commonly of the well known and familiar, in new forms. But let us proceed. I say, and I will dwell upon this general distinction a moment longer, that there is a reading for the sake of thinking; for the sake of independent analysis and in vestigation; where the book is not leaned upon as a mere support, much less as a mere cushion for repose, but is handled as an instrument, used as a material; where the book, in other words, is not master, but a mere servant. I must venture to express my apprehension, that this is but a rare kind of reading. We all, I suppose, read too much, and think too little. If, to the making of many books there is no end, - (and what would Solomon have thought of it in our days?) —yet the multiplication of them threatens to bring one thing to an end, and that is, the very thing for which they ought to be made, to wit, thinking, earnest and strenuous thinking. I am certain that the library of fifty or a hundred volumes a century ago more favored thought, than the library of a thousand volumes now, to say nothing of the floating five thousand in public and circulating libraries, and the ocean of newspapers beside. Then, men studied their books perforce; they were obliged to read them over and over again; and their readings naturally fell into a kind of critical and thorough study. Then, too, from familiarity with the best models, they acquired a style of writing, not to say of thinking. But how a man is to acquire a style of any sort, who is reading something new every day, I see not. It is likely enough to make a very heterogeneous and incongruous style of a man. In short, the multiplication of books has its evils and dangers, as well as its advantages. Men little suspect, I believe, how dependent are their mental processes upon printed pages. Let a man lose the use of his eyes for two or three years, and attempt to pursue independent trains of reasoning or reflection, and he may find that it will take a year or two to learn to think. But, while I speak thus, I do not intend to deprecate reading merely for amusement, in its place. There is a place for both kinds of reading; and he who has never made this distinction in his mind or practice has scarcely, as I conceive, commenced in any proper manner the business of intellectual improvement. To be always reading for amusement, and for nothing else, is not to have begun yet to put the mind into any lofty training. Still, I repeat, reading for amusement has its place. Let us attempt to define it. Its place, then, in general, is to minister recreation or relief to the mind, when its powers are exhausted by effort, or enfeebled by disease, and are not equal to the task of thought. Relief and recreation, I say, should mark the boundaries of what is called light reading. When neither is wanted, as a general rule, I aim at no particular rigor of statement, when, I say, neither relief nor recreation is wanted, then, light reading, -stories, milk for babes, should give place to strong meat, for men. And by recreation, now, I mean, of course, sedentary recreation; that is, the recreation which the book supplies. But it is not the only recreation, nor always that which is most needed. Many persons, and especially women, and men of the studious classes, are lounging over useless books, in close and confined apartments, often in bed, too, who ought to be seeking recreation abroad in the fields and streets. But, when active exercise is not needed, and the mind, being weary, requires some quiescent and passive enjoyment, then and there the light book, the story, the novel,—has its place. Such, at least in my view, is the strictness of discrimination and of principle, that is to be applied to our leisure reading. But, I expect that this strictness will be controverted on various grounds. I hear one say, " let the people read; there can be no great harm in reading. Let people read what, and when, and where they please. There is no danger that they will read too much, or know too much. The mass of mankind have for ages been buried in profound ignorance. At length, the great reading age of the world has come; the best, the brightest, the most promising age, in its long and weary annals. Let it be welcomed without stint or fear. Let the people read." I must venture to reply, that the very strain of these remarks shows the importance and pertinency of the point I am discussing. It shows that we have arrived at that very period, when there is likely to be a want of due discrimination. Reading, for the mass of the people, is so new a pleasure and advantage, that, like food after a famine, it is liable, through eagerness and incaution, to do hurt as well as good. After the long famine of knowledge, we can scarcely suspect any harm, either in the abundance or variety of intellectual food, or in anything that has the appearance of such food. Reading, it is thought, must be good any how. Since the manuscript has got a free and glorious "imprimatur," - let it be printed, put upon it, we think that the book should have an equally free "legatur," let it be read, put upon it. It is yet to be learnt, as it would seem, that we may eat and not be satisfied, and drink and not be refreshed; that we may read much and be not a whit the wiser; nay, that the mind, like the body, may be |