The Ways of Readers

Levin Daily Chronicle, 17 March 1917, Page 1

The Ways of Readers

"It is strange," Johnson once remarked to Burke, "that there is so little reading in the world." Yet in Johnson's day 'there ' were ' many confirmed readers, and the thing to wonder at is their resolution in "allowing nothing to interfere with their pursuit. "History, poetry and philosophy," Johnson's Wesley, has recorded, "I commonly read on horseback, having other em-', ployment at other times." This is certainly startling, but Wesley justifies his practice by equestrian as well as literary reasons:— "I asked myself, How is it no v horse stumbles' when lam reading? ' No account can possibly be given but this: because I throw $fie reinson his back. I flieh' fiet' Inyself K to observe; and 'I aver that in N riding about one hundred tliousand miles I scarce remember any horse (except that two that 'would ;; fall over heels anyway) to fall or \ -to make a considerable stumble while I rode with a slack rein." Ambulatory readers are not so ven-; turesome as those who .read on horseback, though they, too, can be said to read dangerously. Shelley had many collisions with other pedestrians be-' cause his eyes were fastened upon his' book. In one of Southey's letters there is a formidable list of ibooke ranging from "the Nibelungen in "its. original old German" to "a batch'-of volumes relating the events of the last ten years in Spain." "Some of them," he tells his correspondent, "I read after supper, some while taking my daily walk." Crab Robinson was fond of reading while he walked. "I then walked in the rain to Clapton, reading by the way the 'Indicator' "; "I liad an- agreeable walk home, reading on my way Roper's 'Life of.Sir Thomas More'"; "I walked then to Clapton, reading Lord Byron"—such statements as these are sprinkled through his "Diary." But Crabb Robinson read on every possible ocoasion. 'He speaks of having read three books of tihe "Odyssey" and several of Burke's speeches during one ride on horseback, and another favorite occupation of liis was reading on top of a stage coach. ■Let anybody who wishes to rival this latter pastime try to read on top of a motor omnibus. I believe he will regret the experiment.' Lamb declared himself not much of a friend to outdoor reading, though he records his admiration at the sight of a Unitarian minister whose practice it was to study a volume of Liardner as he "did his morning's walk. "I used to admire how he sidled along, keeping clear of , secular contacts.