The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1888-05-19
LITERARY yoLUPTUARIEs.
Reading for Pleasure as Against
Reading for study...Coquetting
With Books.

-~DAS<SSNAtG
With Books.
Perhaps the greatest pleasure in life
is an ill-regulated passion for reading,
Books are the best Of friends, the most
! complacent of companions. Unlike
, their authors, they have no suscepti-
bilities to be rufiled. You may toss
them aside in q passing fit Of impa-
tience, to find yourself on as pleasant
terms as ever with them when your
humor changes. In that silent, though
eloquent and vivacious company; there
can be no monotony, as there arc no
jealousles; and, indeed, Inconsistency be-.
comes duty and virtue, as with the
sage King Solomon among his hundreds
Of wives. We may talk Of tossing
cherished volumes aside. for The liter.
ary voluptuary has nothing in common
with the luxurious collector. The pas
sion for equlslte Elzevirs, for sumptu-
GUS editions in superb bindings. is al
most invariably antipathetical TO the
love of reading. The collector is curl.
GUS about margins, Typography and cas-
lngs, but comparatively Indifferent TO
contents. a library got together re-
gardless Of expense can seldom be a
place of real enjoyment to any one,
least of all to its posscssor. The books
, one loves will be there-nay, you are
bothered by an embarrassment Of rich
es-but you scarcely recognize your
most familiar friends in their court
dresses, and you approach them with for
/ mality in fear and trembling. Having
no claims to the genius OF a johnson or
/ q DE Quincy, you dare not make free
with them in tlleir flnery as those dis
| tlnguished scholars would have done.
On the other hand, the voluptuarJ
! with rare exceptions, has little in com.
mon with the scholars who read with
purpose and drudge on severe system.
/ Drudgery and method Of all kinds are
! inexpressibly distasteful to him. All is
-iish that comes 10 his net; he is grateful
to the men who have been laboring to
please him, for sometimes, although
not very often, the hardest work makes
, the lighrest reading. But admiration
, Or gratitude does not lead linn to imita.
| tion, even If he have the memory, the
i mental grasp and the style of q Macau-
lay. Yet, for the free-and~easy fashion
! of his self-indulgence he can quote emf,
.nent pAecedents. DR.. Johnson himself
laid down the law that reading should
be done s.s inclination prompt, one; he
was in the habit Of dipping and SKIM
ming himself, as he tore over the pages
with knife or finger; he resented being
asked if he had read book through,
saying that he had read it as zone does
read such books.'' Scott had accumu-
lated h1s rich and miscellaneous stores
by casual studies Of congenlal subjects;
it was only when he was beggared ana
| shaving for his creditors that the author
of "Waverly" and editor Of Swift con,
sented to ''cram" for his life Of Buo-
naparte.;" There is something pitiful
in his rueful praise Of the magnificent
notions Of Constable. who kept crush
Ing the enslaved genius Of the night
lamp under piles Of contemporary trea~
tises and ponderous files Of the "Moni-
teur."' But Southey was perhaps the
most melancholy example Of the liter
airy voluptuary broken into harness.
lie could seldom write except on sub
jects that pleased him. In the face Of
| disappointments lie fondly believed in
fame and a future as an English class
ic, lie bequeathed to the more kindly
ppreciation Of posterity the poems that
: had scarcely cleared the publishing cx-
/, penses. lie devoted valuable time and
untold trouble to unpopular histories
Of the Brazils and abstrusc annotations
of Spanish literature; and labor.ng in
!, lefatgably all the time to maintain his
! family, he only managed to make the
two ends meet by more paying pot
boilers" for the periodicals. Leading
the existence Of q Woodworking hermit
among the Cumberland hills, he was
compelled to surround himself with 4
costly library. Yet for tho life Of him.
unless for special purposes when tho
, collar was chatting, he could spare no
:, time to the books in Which he could
have .reveled; and when the literary
Tantalus died, worn out the collection
, was dispersed which had never been
employed.
Design OF Belgian Coma,