The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-04-02
About Reading.

There is good old saw about Judging a man
by the company he keeps, and as saws 60 it is
pretty sound doctrine. Books are companions
to many of us. men and women. but if you I'M
dertake to Judge us by. the books we read you
will have occasion to ,lse your best discretion
People take their books so differently Some of
us do not exercise our minds enough in our daily
toll, and we like when read to read books
substantial enough to sharpen our faculties.
Others of us come home with tired wits and
want easy books that will rest and amuse us. If
the book which you read when you are tired is
strong enough food for my mind when its ener-
gies are fresh. it must mean that your mind and
my mind lack a good deal of being mates.
And besides. there are people to whom it
comes natural to read. and there are others.
even in these days of newspapers and schools,
to whom reading comes hard. | have seen, as
most of us have, so many thoroughly worthless
persons who were great readers. that when
meet thoroughly worthy and intelligent per-
son who doesn't read, it fills me with admira-
ton and respect. do meet such persons now
and then. They are apt to be quick and ac-
curate observers. good takers, people of action.
OF course they do read little something every
day. the newspaper if nothing more. but reading
is not necessity to them. They don't count on
it as an amusement or depend upon it as an ex-
ercise of the mind. To the habitual reader,
reading becomes as necessary as alcohol to the
dram drinker. 1t doesn't seem to make any
violent amount of difference what he reads, but
he must sit in a chair a certain length OF time
every day and rest his eyes and his mind on a
printed page. You can no more Judge such a
person by the bOok-company he keeps than you
can Judge a lunatic by the qualities of his keep
ers. His reading is habit. 1t never turns to
energy; never influences action. He sleeps bet
ter after it, that is al.-Scribner's.
Good habits of reading are as important as
good habits of thinking. etwO are coordinate,
one depending upon the other. The memory
more than any function of the mind, suffers from
careless habits of reading. By an exercise of the
will the attention is capable of being directed in
any given channel; not easily at first, but by
practice the power of concentration gains
strength and grows. The careless reader per
mits attention to wander, thus missing many
valuable points and but vaguely experimenting
others in the narrative argument. This accounts
for the fact that many people, though they
read much, are ill informed. One good book at
tentively read and the argument well thought
out is of more value to the intellect than &
of months. The careful perusal and digestion
of one editorial paragraph or news item in {
newspaper is of more value as mind Stimulan
than the careless and hasty skimming of col
umns of printed matter. In a word. be wei
read not much read-Troy Press.
For my own part believe I have never go
any good from a book that did not read law
lessly and wilfully. out of all leading and fol
lowing, and merely because wanted to read it
and l here make bold to praise that way o
doing. The book which you read from a sense
of duty, or because for any reason you must
does not commonly make friends with you. 1
may happen that it will yield you an unexpected
delight, but this will be in it's own unentreatet
way and in spite of your good intentions. Lttl'
of the book read for purpose stays with thu
reader, and this is one reason why reading fo
review is so vain and Improbable. The read
ing that does one good, and lasting good. is thu
reading that one does for pleasure, and simply
and unselfshly, as children do. Art will still
withhold herself from thrift, and she does we'll
for nothing but love has any right to her.-W. d
Howells in my Literary Passions