READING 



4937 



READING 



After graduating from Magdalen College, Ox- 

 ford, in 1835, he became dean of arts, and later 

 vice-president of his own college. In 1843 he 

 was called to the bar, and from that time he 

 lived in London. His first play appeared in 

 1851, and his first novel, an expansion of a play 

 written in collaboration with Tom Taylor, in 

 1853. He had a most vivid imagination, and 

 while never a great writer his plots were always 

 so cleverly constructed that his books have 



enjoyed great popularity. He wrote, generally, 

 with a purpose in view, attacking current social 

 abuses, as in Never Too Late to Mend, which 

 exposed the English prison system ; Hard Cash, 

 attacking the cruelties then practiced in many 

 insane asylums ; and A Woman-Hater, advocat- 

 ing women's rights. 



His best-known and most interesting novel 

 is The Cloister and the Hearth, the story of the 

 youth of the parents of Erasmus. 



THE STORY OF READING 



IAD 'ING. "Reading," says Addison, 

 "is to the mind what exercise is to the body. 

 As by the one health is preserved, strengthened 

 and invigorated, by the other virtue (which is 

 the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished 

 and confirmed." Henry Ward Beecher likened 

 books to "windows of the soul, through which 

 the mind looks out. Without books not only 

 would schools, colleges and universities disap- 

 pear, but everything which we call culture 

 would vanish, and society would lapse at once 

 into barbarism." What is true of society is 

 true of the individual, and he who does not 

 read, and read systematically, soon finds him- 

 self to be out of touch with the world and lack- 

 ing in sympathy with the social, political and 

 scientific movements of his time. Everyone 

 should read for the following reasons: 



1. To keep himself informed upon affairs of 

 the times. 



understand the reason for many of the 

 great movements for the benefit of society. 



3. To keep himself informed upon the progress 

 in the fields of science and invention. 



4. To store his mind with the thoughts of the 

 great Intellects of all aces. 



6. To enable him to keep up with the progress 



is vocation 

 6. For recreation. 



Every one knows that he should read, and 

 practically every one does read to a greater or 

 leas extent, but the question is does each get 

 the greatest value possible from his reading? 

 It is the purpose of this article to offer a few 

 suggestions that may be helpful to the reader. 



The subject naturally divides itself into the 

 following subdivisions: what to read; how to 

 read; when to read; reading aloud. These are 

 treated in the following paragraphs. 



What to Read. The selection of reading 

 matter must be left very largely to the needs 

 and taste of the reader. There is, however, a 

 certain line of reading that is necessary to the 

 person who wishes to lay a good foundation for 

 his growth in knowledge. First of all, he should 

 subscribe for a good daily paper, or for the 

 weekly edition of some great metropolitan 

 daily. He should also subscribe for a weekly 

 or monthly publication which gives a reliable 

 rrvirw of the world's events. To these he 

 should add a good magazine. These periodicals 

 may constitute the beginning of one's library. 

 Items in the daily paper may be clipped, and 

 the other journals may be pn >t T\ <! and bound. 



One living near a good public library will 

 need to purchase only a few books. Some 

 books, howoY< i. :uv indispensable, even when 

 the library is close at hand. These are a good 

 dictionary and a work of general reference. 

 While an unabridged dictionary is desirable, 

 it is not indispensable, since the college edition 

 of tho pn-at dictionaries usually satisfies nil thr 

 demands of the average reader. Neither is a 

 large and expensive work of general reference 

 necessary A medium-sized work which states 

 facts in a clear and concise manner, without 

 pivinp long, scientific dxnissions that are of in- 

 terest only to specialists, will meet all rcquire- 



