ON READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9703, 28 January 1910, Page 4

ON READING.

Whether greater advantage is taken of free libraries in the United States than in New .Zealand —a point on which Mr Baillie, in his address to the Wellington school teachers, laid some stress—it probably of less importance than Jthe manner in which the books themselves are read. While reading was never before so universal, or books so cheap and accessible, it may be doubted whether the number of what used to be called "well read" people had correspondingly increased. How many, for instance, have read the hundred best books in the English language? Most of us read without method or system. We take what comes in our way. We dip into current literature, we skim the magazines, we glance through the newspapers, but we do not read with any fixed purpose or according to any clearly defined plan. Gladstone always read with a pencil in his hand, with which to mark special passages, or write marginal notes. Macaulay read and re-read tha great writers over and over again until his mind was saturated with their thoughts. Johnson devoured books as he devoured veal pies. All reading to be of lasting benefit must be taken seriously. It must involve concentration, reflection, and industry. When it is regarded as a mere idle pastime, an easy and convenient mode of filling a vacant hour or zwo, it misses its true purpose, and is little better than mental dissipation. It is better to have read a few books well than to have skimmed a whole library.