TH01IAS HOOD ON THE BENEFITS OP READING. 



199 



quest the secretaries received 

 following characteristic reply : 

 " ST. JOHN'S WOOD, July 18, 1S43. 



(From my bed,) 17, Elm-tree Road. 



"Gentlemen, If my humble name 

 can be of the least use for your 

 purpose, it is heartily at your ser- 

 vice, with my best wishes for the 

 prosperity of the Manchester Athen- 

 aeum, and my warmest approval of 

 the objects of that institution. 



" I have elsewhere recorded my 

 own deep obligations to literature, 

 that a natural turn for reading 

 and intellectual pursuits probably 

 preserved me from the moral ship- 

 wreck, so apt to befall those who 

 are deprived in early life of the 

 paternal pilotage. At the very 

 least, my books kept me aloof from 

 the ring, the dog-pit, the tavern, 

 and the saloon, with their degrading 

 orgies. For the closet associate of 

 Pope and Addison the mind ac- 

 customed to the noble, though 

 silent, discourse of Shakspeare and 

 Milton will hardly seek, or put 

 up with, low company and slang. 

 The reading animal will not be con- 

 tent with the brutish wallowings 

 that satisfy the unlearned pigs of the 

 world. 



" Later experience enables me to 

 depose to the comfort, and blessing 

 that literature can prove in seasons 

 of sickness and sorrow how power- 

 fully intellectual pursuits can help 

 in keeping the head from crazing, 

 and the heart from breaking, nay, 

 not to be too grave, how generous 

 mental food can even atone for a 

 meagre diet rich fare on the paper 

 for short commons on the cloth. 



" Poisoned by the malaria of the 

 Dutch marshes, my stomach, for 

 many months, resolutely set itself 

 against fish, flesh, or fowl ; my ap- 

 petite had no -more edge than the 

 German knife placed before me. 

 But, luckily, the mental palate and 

 digestion were still sensible and 

 vigorous ; and whilst I passed un- 

 tasted every dish at the Ehenish 



the table d'hote, I could yet enjoy my 

 Peregrine Pickle, and the feast after 

 the manner of the ancients. There 

 was no yearning towards calf's head 

 a la tortue, or sheep's heart ; but I 

 could still relish Head alaBrunnen, 

 and the Heart of Mid-Lothian. 



"Still more recently, it was my 

 misfortune, with a tolerable appetite, 

 to be condemned to lenten fare, like 

 Sancho Panza, by my physician 

 to a diet, in fact, lower than any 

 prescribed by the poor-law com- 

 missioners ; all animal food, from a 

 bullock to a rabbit, being strictly 

 interdicted ; as well as all fluids 

 stronger than that which lays dust, 

 washes pinafores, and waters poly- 

 anthus. But 'the feast of reason, 

 and the flow of soul' were still mine. 

 Denied beef, I had .Cw^werand Cow- 

 per, forbidden mutton, there was 

 Lamb, and in lieu of pork, the great 

 Bacon or Hogg. 



" Then, as to beverage, it was 

 hard, doubtless, for a, Christian to 

 set his face like a Turk against the 

 juice of the grape. But, eschewing 

 wine, I had still my Butler ; and in 

 the absence of liquor, all the choice 

 spirits from Tom Browne to Tom 

 Moore. 



" Thus, though confined, physi- 

 cally, to the drink that drowns kit- 

 tens, I quaffed mentally, not merely 

 the best of our own home-made, 

 but the rich, racy, sparkling growths 

 of France and Italy, of Germany 

 and Spain the champagne of Mo- 

 liere, and the Monte Pulciano of 

 Boccaccio, the hock of Schiller, and 

 the sherry of Cervantes. Depressed 

 bodily by the fluid that damps 

 every thing, I got intellectually 

 elevated with Milton, a little merry 

 with Swift, or rather jolly with 

 Eabelais, whose Pautagruel, by the 

 way, is quite equal to the best gruel 

 with rum in it. 



" So far can literature palliate or 

 compensate for gastrouomical pri- 

 vations. But there are other evils, 

 great and small, in this world, which 



