The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-03-18
Rapid Readers.
From the Augusta Chronicle.

The death of Justice Lamar recalls a
trait or faculty which he possessed in a
remarkable degree 1t has been said of
him that he was able to read a newspaper
article or page of book at what seemed
to the observer to be but glance. Mani
festly this faculty or capacity gave him
great advantage over ordinary men.
He was able to devour books as if he were
literary glutton, with the difference that
his powerful memory enabled him to digest
at leisure what he had absorbed in haste.
Macaulay possessed the same faculty
perhaps in yet higher degree He
would take up volume for aH evenings
intellectual enjoyment, and before he re-
tired had the contents fully impressed
upon his marvellous mind. Dickens was
another Of those remarkably rapid readers.
George Eliots "Adam Bede'' came to him
one day. Before his ordinary bedtime he
had read it, and had pronounced this re-
markable dictum "That book was writ
ten by woman" Others required days
of leisure TO read it, and the question of
authorship was the riddle of the time in
literary circles Charles Sumner was
another man who possessed this happy
faculty.
A book, whether it was volume of law
or of diplomatic correspondence or work
of fiction, passed under his eyes as if by
quick succession of glances. 1t was the
same with Daniel Webster. who himself
stated to friend that when in college he
read "Don Quixote' in single night In
the case of both these distinguished men
what they read in this way reappeared in
a new dress in their speeches aud in their
writings OF course a retentive memory
was necessary to render the results of this
rapid reading available, but it is plain that
in their capacity to read rapidly they pos
sessed an enormous advantage over their
fellow men, and the question arises, is it
possible to develop this faculty and make
it more generally useful in the vast multi
plication of books? 1t is impossible for
the average reader to keep pace with the
production merely Of the best, to say
nothing of turning backward to the wealth
of the past Indeed, in the hurry of
modern life it is scarcely possible for the
business man, for the society woman, or
the more modest housewife to keep pace
with the newspapers and snatch an occa-
sional hour for the magazines. To all of
these it would be an inestimable boon if
they had the faculty of grasping sentences,
paragraphs, aud perhaps pages, at little
more than glance. No one but the most
illiterate now pays attention to the letters
of which a word is composed.
Is it not possible that by cultivation the
average reader might catch words and
sentences as letters are now caught by the
most Indifferent readers A vast deal of
energy is now devoted to teaching pupils
to read more or less effectively in public.
There is careful attention paid to articula-
ton, to moderation, infection, emphasis
all tending toward slowness rather than
rapidity in reading. What would be the
result of changing the aim, and conse-
quently deliberately modify the process in
our public schools Is it not possible
that with proper training in the more ad-
vanced grades perhaps in the very lowest
children might be sent forth from the
schools with something Of the capacity
which gave Macauley, Dickens, Sumner,
Webster and Lamar their tremendous ad-
vantage over others to grasp the meaning
and the thought of an author without
dwelling upon the separate words which
expressed that thought ? It is certainly
something worth thinking Of and discuss
ing seriously, Tho burden of the best
literature alone is already something
almost beyond the capacity Of the mind.
Life is short and cares are pressing Is
not there something that can be done for
the men and women who are to come after
us, even though we have missed what
few rare minds possessed by accident
The subject is at least worth the considera-
ton of educators, and it has heretofore
been almost wholly ignored.