The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-06

serve to ourselves. We must not
linger where the places are to US de-
sert. Bancroft said that he would no
more think of reading all of book
than of going into his garden and
eating all the apples on tree. We
should sight what we want as the
eagle his food. While our author
teaches us, we are to ask him to cease
talking for some moments that we
may think and make ours what he
says. If in the silence we think many
thoughts of our own inspired by his
presence, it is well. We do thus but
emphasize our claim to his compan-
ionship. Better if we put the book
aside at times and write. We do not
forget then that there are two of us.
1t is not enough to mark, as We ad
vance, passages which strike us.
When we pass that way again we
may pause and sit in judgment upon
ourselves. But we shall doubtless
see as we retrace the grounds with
clever writer that the very finest
things he wrote had not been marked
by US. And some authors, as Emer
son, Swing, Bagehot, might tempt us
to make continuous line from top to
bottom of each page. Coleridge used
to scribble all over the margins COM
menting on what he read, and the
comment outweighed in cases the
text. Phillips Brooks annotated
books which he read. The amplitude
of ones thought is reached only by
expression, and the helpfulness of an
author shall depend much upon what
he inspires us to think or gives us to
see. And we must remember, too,
that his helpfulness to us goes in
equal step with our co operation with
him.
Mr.. Mabie has observed that ''in
every audience there are listeners
who have almost as much to do with
the speakers felicity and eloquence
as he has himself; they are persons
who listen actively, not passively.
There are readers" he continued,
"who hang like dead weights on the
skirts of writer, and there are those
who walk beside him buoyant with
his strength, eager with his energy
of spirit, and kindled with the glow
of his thought. These are the read
ers who make true exchange with
the writer, who are not weakened by
many books, who select the best
and become companions of the heart
as we'll as of the mind"
The habit of thinking, of pausing
to note our thought, of turning truth
into the channel of the mind, and
bringing its power into the soul
shall be restriction upon quantity
and this is greatly needed now We
are in danger of oyerfeeding in the
matter of reading today. The bill of
fare is too long and too cheap. Pa
pers are flying from the press at a
penny a piece, magazines are served
at ten cents meal, and books are
becoming garbage. A paragraph in
a late number of Scribner's Magazine
is pertinent ''In primitive times"
it runs, "when men wandered about
in the woods and roasted in trees at
night, they ate what they could find
wherever and whenever they found
it. As food grew more plentiful they
only ate when they were hungry, and
gradually they got the habit of being
hungry at stated intervals. Then, as
the variety of yictuals increased, they
developed the civilized practice of
using certain kinds of food for par
ticular meals, and came gradually TO
the sophisticated method of having
things served by courses, and vary
ing their diet according to the hour
of the day and the state of the
market.
No civilized New Yorker complains
because there are more kinds of fish
in Fulton market than his palate can
test or his stomach accommodate. If
he has smelts for his breakfast and
salmon after his soup at dinner he is
thankful and tries not to eat over
much Of either of them. He must
teach himself to take his literature
in the same enlightened manner,
reading according to his appetite
and his necessities, as he would eat;
not gorging himself because the mar
ket is generous; not eating a pie for
breakfast nor beginning his dinner
with coffee, but taking things as they
ought to come"
A newspaper ought never to make
other than light luncheon for us.
We want to spend little time with it.
A magazine may be taken as a picnic
repast. History, philosophy, essays,