The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-12-18
THE ART OF READING.
The Practice and Patience Necessary to
Its Requirement..


Its Requirement.
There is an art of reading, although
many who read never masterit; an art
to be acquired, as all arts are acquired,
by long and patient practice. Those
who learn this art not only read books,
but remember them; not only gain the
enjoyment of the first keen impression
of writer's style and thought, but
make his thinking part of their own
intellectual possession forever after.
There are people who are continually
making the casual acquaintance OF
books, but never establish relations of
enduring friendship and intimacy with
them. They recall books as they them
from time to time, but they do not re.
call what they once knew of them.
Phere is contact, but no cohesion,
between such reader and the books that
have passed under his eye. This kind
of superficial knowledge with literary
works is not without its advantages, but
it misses entirely the deeper and richer
results of reading; it retains vague
recollection instead of the vitality, inn
pulse and power of another'S mental
struggles and achievements.
The art of reading for mastery of
what one reads lies in concentration of
attention. The trained reader fluids no
difficulty in abstracting himself from.
the noise and crowd of the horse car
and putting all his mind on the printed
page before him. For the moment.
More's utopia" or the marvellous
| island where Prospero works his spells
is more real to him than the people or
the scene actually about him. Every
body who frequents bookstores has no.
tced men who have fallen on some
curious or unfam liar book and are
straightway obvious of every thing else.
They have for the moment escaped
from the rush of the tides of life around
them, and found a quiet of thought, at
once restful and inspiring. All the
great scholars have mastered this art OF
! Concentration; it is the secret Of their
achievements. No one can read Ben
Jonson's PLAYS and Mosques, 50 full of
ailusQn and the resource of scholar
ship; or Millions splendid prose, en-
rched with the spoils of all ages; or
Gray's few but lasting contributions to
English verse, so peryaded with the
scholars spirit, without recognizing be-
hind these noblest achievements of mind
and art train nc so sustained and pro-
longed as to add a certain nobility OF
character to the work of the magma
ton.
70 acquire this art of concentration,
commence with the first good book that
comes to hand Read and re-read its
pages until you find yourself absorbed
in them; until you have forgotten that
there is any thing in the world but the
book and its reader. Your thought
will probably wander at the start and
for a long time after. Your attention
will be diverted by trihes around you
the least noise or mot on viii lift you
eye from the line before it; so it ha,
, been with every one who began TO Learn
how to abstract himself from his sur
rCuldings and to concentrate hlmsel
upon the thing in hand, and so it vii
be TO the very end of time. The trained
mind is separated from these first irres
olute and feeble efforts by one thint
only-practice. To learn the art o
concentration one must concentrate hi
mind again and again, patiently an
resolutely, until, little by little, his Ell
fort becomes habit. When the habit /
formed the mind has received its I'M
pulse, and will do its work with increaS
ing ease and efficiency, until one is IL
longer consc Gus of effort or resolutio
: or labor. 49, Christian Union.