Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-29
oliver wendell uoImr. ON Reading.

Al the recent annual meeting ot the SOcle-
ty to Encourage Studies at Home, at the
house of the late Mr. George Ticknor the
students and others present had the good for
tune 10 listen to some remarks made by DIR.
Oliver Wendell Holmes in his unfailing style
of speaking, humor and suggestion. We give
our readers some passages Of this address
Shall we read-that is, shall we make a
serious business of reading? This seems a
strang,. question to ask, but let me give some
meaning to it. 1t was at the hospitable
board of this very house that heard the late
Mr. Edward Everett tell story of Lord Pal
mcrslon which | have never forgotten and
often repeated. Some one asked him, Have
you read a certain book = naming it, L new
er read printed books, was Lord Palmerston's
answer. Mr.. Everett did not explain or nc
count for this answer so far as | remember.
but | suppose he meant that he had enough
to do with reading written documents, news
papers, the faces and characters of men, and
listening to their conversation to find ont
what they meant-Perhaps quite Ms often
what they did not mean.
Some persons need reading much more
than others. One of the best preachers l
have known read comparatively little. But
he talked and listened, and kept his mind suf-
ficiently nourishei, without overburdening it.
On the other hand. one Of the most brilliant
men have known was always reading. He
read more than his mind could fairly digest,
aud, brilliant as h. was, his conversation had
too much the character of those patchwork
quilts one sees at country cattle shows, so
variegated was it with all sorts of quotations.
"The first time | ever visited Theodore
Parker he was not quite thirty years old, and
his reputation as scholar had not reached
me- In looking round his library saw up
on his shelves the great series of quartos
which knew by their title only, if at all
Brucker's Historic Critica PhilosophD. You
have hardly read that I suppose, | said, not
thinking that any student, in these degener-
ate days grappled with these megatherinl
monsters Of primitive erudition. oh, yes, |
have, he answered very quietly; and then |,
who thought | was dealing with modest
young divine of the regulation pattern took
another look at the massive head of the young
man whom Mr.. Wendell Phillips has lately
spoken Of as the Jupiter of the pulpit
Somewhere between these two extremes
most of rs find ourselves. But we must
member the French saying, z dppetH cent
en- mdHgccpt, or, as Hamlet would phrase it,
increase of appetite grows by what it feeds
on and if We do not love books enough nat
urally, We must acquire the habit of loving
them, if possible, rs people acquire bad hab-
its, that Of intoxication or opium eating, be-
ginning with little, aud trusting that by and
by We shall thirst for more.
what shall We read? am very thankful
that it does not fall to my lot to answer this
question. l do honestly assure you l had
rather ask this question Of the ladies and gen
tlcInen who have undertaken to direct the
home studies Of those who are fortunate
enough to be under their guidance than to
answer it, What infinite waste of labor might
not such guidance have saved me, could
have had it, and have had wisdom and good
sense to profit by it, ut a certain period of
my life / congratulate you most sincerely
and deeply that the thoroughly cultivated in
tellgence of the scholars who surround Inc
has been made tributary to your advancement
in sound knowledge and wholesome training,
1t is a task of great difficulty to point out the
proper course for so many minds of different
natural aptitudes and different stages of edu-
cation. In this inundation of literature
have spoken of most young minds will be
overpowered by some Aood or other.
'"rhe daughters of Danaus are not all dead
yet on the contrary, their number is legion.
All those young women who pass their days
and nights reading endless story books-nov-
els so called doubtless from their want of
novelty-what are they doing but pouring
water into buckets whose bottoms are as full
of holes as a cullender, and which would have
nothing to show if Niagara had been emptied
into them?
"How shall we read must answer this
question very briefly. I believe in reading,
in a large proportion, by subjects rather than
by authors. Some books must be read tast-
ing rs it were, every word. Tennyson will
bear that as Milton would as Gray would
for they tasted every word themselves, as
Ude or Cartme would taste pOtdge meant
f,- n MT haaoYna fn
milar with Il subject so rs to know what you
wish to learn about it, and you can read
page as a flash of lightning reads it. Learn
a lesson from Houdin aud his sons practice,
of looking in at a shop window and remem-
bering all they saw. Learn to read page in
the shortest possible time, and to stand n
thorough examination on its contents"