The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-11-13
THE VICE OF READING.

No one would talk Of the "vice" OF
masticating, Of chewing food, OF eating
or breathing or inhaling pure atmosphere,
but when these occupations and exer-
cises are conducted for mere pleasure,
without any regard TO nourishment or
life or vigor, they are under suspicion,
and are very suggestive Of vices more or
less damaging. 1t is so that chewing
gum is spoken Of as idiotic and promoting
idiocy chewing and smoking tobacco as
dirty as we'll as poisonous and toddying
as a pernicious trihing with brain and
mind as we'll as stomach. The makeup
and furnishing Of man contemplates life
and the sustaining of it., intellect and the
Frightening Of it. sensiblity and the per-
lection Of 1t, vigor and power and the
keeping and increase of them. In all
these we find our delight and happiness
in health and growth and expansion and
exercise. The wise man delights in wis
com, the strong man in strength and the
good man in affections Of an honest and
loving heart. But they all imply society
and mutual services and mutual enjoy
ment and the general good.
The very best things that we can do, IL
they centre on ourselves and are purely
and merely selfish, disappoint themselves
and us. In selfshness our powers and
faculties and sensibilities merely wrap
themselves up in themselves and dry and
die. We are all members, one OF an
other, and work together as parts of one
BODY. So, when we use our teeth or our
jaws or our nostrils or our palates or
our tongues for our sole and mere SEN
sual pleasure or amusement we abuse
and abase them all.
All this applies with full force to the
exercise of our eyes and ears ana sensi-
bilities and intellects. In mere pleasure
or idleness we are wasting both strength
and vitality and time, bunting our APP
prehepsons and enfeebling our powers
Much reading is no more than intellectual
chewing and smoking, sentmentality is
craziness, and reading easily passes into
a silly vice-mere idleness. Men of bust
ness are not little jealous that there
shall be no papers lying about their
Offices. They want their employees TO have
their eyes and ears and wits about them
and their minds on their business. A
wise mans eyes are in his head. 1t is
said that when Alaric, the Visigoth, cap
tured the towns in Italy he took away
the war-like wearCns Of the people and
left them their Libraries TO stupefy them.
What a terrific burlesque is Gulliver's
account Of the people Of Laputal
This old State of ours abounds in men
that chew newspapers and books as they
supply material for idle gossip. And we
have great readers that are all the time
at it, and whose great accomplishment
is that they can talk about everything on
the face of the earth learnedly and volu-
bly,, and are of no earthly account; ever
learning, and never able to come to
knowledge Of the truth or a knowledge
and sense and duty-elaborst useless.
admire them, wise men use them. What
are known, for the most part. as literary
people are they that admire everything
in the shape of a book, count it a glory
to have read everything. and shame TO
be unacquainted with even the latest and
vilest trash from the hands OF the pub
Usher, and measure knowledge only by the
quantity. For real good they rank with
confectioners, milliners and fancy tailors
And yet, these cormorants are like great
eaters, that, in spite OF their huge de-
vourings, have fixed, lean, hungry and
unsatisfed look, as Unsuitable as the
grave. The more they know, the more
worthless they are. Ii is a grand, high.
manly accomplishment to know the differ
ence between books and how to use them
a discriminating Intellectual palate and