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TUB POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and manufacturing towns have begun to feel the 

 want of books. And the desire is still feeble, 

 and has spread but a little way. Some eighty or 

 ninety cities and towns, I believe, in all Great 

 Britain, have adopted, in whole or in part, Mr. 

 Ewart's act. There is still a very large number 

 of towns with a population over three thousand 

 who have not yet felt the want of a public library. 

 Your city, always forward where enterprise can 

 go, and where educational matters are in ques- 

 tion, stands first, or only second to Manchester, 

 in apprehending the public importance of a com- 

 plete outfit of books. 



So much on the book-supply. I go on to the 

 question, What is the stimulus which makes men 

 ask for books ? Why do English men and women 

 of the present day read ? 



There are people, I believe, who read books 

 that they may be able to talk about them. Read- 

 ing from any motive is better than satisfied ig- 

 norance ; but, surely this motive is both morally 

 and intellectuals unsound. Morally, it is an os- 

 tentation, an affectation of an interest you do not 

 feel. Intellectually, it is on a par with cram ; it 

 is no more knowledge than what is got up for the 

 purpose of an examination is knowledge. What 

 is read for the sake of reproducing in talk has 

 neither gone to the head nor the heart. When 

 any one says to me in company, " Have you read 

 so-and-so ? " I always feel an inclination to an- 

 swer, " No, I never read anything," for I know 

 the next question will be, " Did you like it ? " 

 and there an end. Those who most read books 

 don't want to talk about them. The conversa- 

 tion of the man who reads to any purpose will 

 be flavored by his reading ; but it will not be 

 about his reading. The people who read in order 

 to talk about it, are people who read the books 

 of the season because they are the fashion — books 

 which come in with the season and go out with 

 it. " When a new book comes out I read an old 

 one," said the poet Rogers. And Lord Dudley — 

 the great Lord Dudley, not the present possessor 

 of the title — writes to the Bishop of Llandaff : " I 

 read new publications unwillingly. In literature 

 I am fond of confining myself to the best com- 

 pany, which consists chiefly of my old acquaint- 

 ance with whom I am desirous of becoming more 

 intimate. I suspect that nine times out of ten it 

 is more profitable, if not more agreeable, to read 

 an old book over again than to read a new one 

 for the first time. . . . Is it not better to try to 

 elevate .and endow one's mind by the constant 

 study and contemplation of the great models, than 

 merely to know of one's own knowledge that such 



a book a'nt worth reading ? " — (" Lord Dudley's 

 Letters.") We wear clothes of a particular cut 

 because other people are wearing them. That is 

 so. For to differ markedly in dress and behavior 

 from other people is a sign of a desire to attract 

 attention to yourself, and is bad taste. Dress is 

 social, but intellect is individual : it has special 

 wants at special moments. The tendency of edu- 

 cation through books is to sharpen individuality, 

 and to cultivate independence of mind, to make 

 a man cease to be " the contented servant of the 

 things that perish." 



Dr. Halley used to recommend reading on 

 medical grounds. He said close study prolonged 

 life by keeping a man out of harm's way. But 

 I never met with any one who acted upon Dr. 

 Halley's advice, and chose to read hard that he 

 might live long. And is there not truth in the 

 opposite doctrine, which Mortimer Collins (" Se- 

 cret of Long Life," page 136) inculcates, that 

 "the laziest men live longest ? " 



I have not, remember, raised the question, 

 Why should we read ? This is the most im- 

 portant question of all those which can be raised 

 about books. But I am not to-night presuming 

 to advise you as to what you should do. I am 

 only observing our ways with books — recording 

 facts, not exhorting to repentance. Why do men 

 read ? What is the motive power which causes 

 the flow of that constant supply of new books 

 which flows over at those literary drinking-foun- 

 tains, Smith's book-stalls ? 



Making exception of the specialty books — 

 those which we get in order to learn some special 

 subject — there is one, and one only, motive of all 

 this reading — the desire of entertainment. Books 

 are in our day the resource of our leisure ; we 

 turn to them in default of better amusement. Of 

 course, you will think immediately of the many 

 exceptions which there are to this general state- 

 ment. But, as I said before, the character of 

 the books offered in the book-market is deter- 

 mined by the nature of the general demand. And 

 it is the character of the general literature of the 

 day which fixes our attention at this moment. 



In taking the Smith and Mudie counter as 

 the standard of the literature consumed by the 

 English public, I do so because the class of book 

 they supply is the best average class of book 

 going — of "new book." I do not forget how 

 small a fraction, after all, of the 34,000,000 

 Britons the consumers of books of this class 

 are. W r e sometimes speak of the readers of this 

 class of book as "the reading public." But I 

 do not forget that there exists a wider " reading 



