Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-05

The London correspondent of the Boston Al
Vnrtisnr saws.

The London correspondent of the Boston Adj
vertiser says:
We have not had the last yet of "a. X. H. B."
In October he gives us Seaside Musings on
Sundays and Week Days" | wonder if we shall
have any more such musings" as flor cxample)
that he cannot for the life Of him see anything
TO admire in the writings of Thomas CARLYLE,
81 tried" he says, "to read Sartor ReSartus,'
and could not do it, | confess further that |
would rather read Mr. Helps than Milton"
Possibly Mr.. Boyd remembered Lord Chester
deld But what will you say" writes my lord
'when tell you truly that | cannot possibly
read our countryman, Milton, through? Keep
this secret for me; for if it should be known, /
should be abused by every tasteless pedant and
every solid divine in Europe" No doubt there
are many who willingly join in expressing ven
Grafton Tor works which they would think it a
heavy burthen to read from beginning to
end. Herr Professor TeufeSdrockh explain
ing the phenomenon OF some notable
parsonage being wOrshipped because lie
Is worshipped-one idolater, sheep-li G. running
after him, because many have already run
adds Shrewdly, NAY, on what other principle
but this, hast thou, q reader (f thou be not
one Of thousaDd) read, for example, thy Ho-
mer, and found some joy therein ?" Mr.. Lewes
says that Homer is a somewhat tedious as well
as very difficult author. "This is the reason
OF his being so little read; for we must not be
deceived by the many editions" Often men
rarely read, except by prolesSed scholars and
critics. "Men Of culture usually attack a da-
lOgue or two out of curiosity. Their curiosity
seldom nspirits them to further PROGRESS"
Chaucer again: GIN what terms some speak of
hlml' eXclaims Tom Moore; ''whie confess
find him unbearable," and it comiorted Moore
to find LORD LandsdOwne glad to hear him say
so, as he had always in silence felt the same
Macauay charged upon Sponsors Faerie Oueepe
as peryading the whole Oft cone objectionable
fault, the fault Of tediouSness." We become
sick, he protests, of cardinal virtues, and dead
ly sins, and long for the society of plain
men and women. OF the persons who
read the first canto, not one in ten, by
his reckoning, ever reaches the end OF the
first book, and not one in a hundred perseveres
to the end of the poem. Every few and very
weary are those who are in at tine death of the
Blatant Beast" An eminent reviewer affirms of
Glbbon that the way to reverence him is not to
read him at all, but look at him from the out
side, in the bookcase, and think how much there
Is within. What course of events, what Il
muster roll of names, what a steady, solemn
sound! "You will not like TO take the book
down, but you will think how much you could
be delighted if you would" The late Rev. John
Eagles testified to having seen in the window of
the largest bookseller in large city the follow
ing temptations for any aspirants to knowl-
edge: "Hurd's Horace vols; Harwoods Clas-
sizes, vols; ShenstOne's Poems, vols. These
books will be given away to any one who will
undertake to read them" Godwin's est Leon"
and two others on the same terms, and "eght
vols. of The Spectator followed Captain Cut
tie made it a point of duty to read none but
very large books on Sunday, because this had
a more stad appearance; and he bargained
years ago Tor prodiglOus volume at book
stall, five lines of which conlounded him at any
time-insomuch that he has not vet ascertained
OF what subject it treated.