Arizona republican., 1905-06-12

uurlnS the past two years. The list was astounding in its extent and va riety, yet no one would be quite so hardy as to suggest that Theodore Roosevelt is not a busy man. That great activity in business and public affairs may coexist with the fullest enjoyment of a taste for reading and literature was shown in the life of the late Senator Quay It is related that on one occasion a famous English man was sent to Pennsylvania to inter view the senator with a view to an article on Americas foremost political boss. He found Quay seated on his piazza reading a book. He was cor dially received and the conversation almost immediately took a literary turnl Later the guest was shown into one of the finest private libraries in the state where the conversation was resumed and continued until late in the day. After taking leave of the senator the Englishman proceeded to the nearest telegraph station and sent the following dispatch to his employer: T have failed to locate the political boss but I have discovered the fore most literary critic in America"
 WHAT AND HOW TO READ.
 Reading is not so much a virtue as it
 
 crets. One of these is that the pleasure. its exercise affords is in the exact pro- portion that it is free from conscious effort and to the extent that our inter est is enlisted is reading made easy. The true reader reads from the neces- sity of his intellectual life for mental stimulant and nourishment, and from the prOmptings of his mind to find play and exercise amid congenial surround 1hgs. He is never a mechanical reader. Unlike Opie Reid's famous character. he rarely reads book from "kiver to kiVer." He knows how to skip. He uses no bOokmark. He can begin in the middle of a book and read both ways He is never a task reader He doesn't read by rule. He doesn't pride himself on the number of books he has read, nor does he make it a point to read so much history, so much poetry, so much fiction, in the course of a year. He is catholic in his taste and doesn't make the mistake of confining his read ing to some one subject. I know a man who, years ago, read a book on Eso- teric Buddhism. Since then his read ing has been largely of books on occult subjects, so that his mind has become a perfect stOrehouse of ghosts. He
 
 true reader is a selective reader. He doesn't feel it necessary to ready every book he hears talked about. His iudg- ment of book is his own, and not bor- rowed. Its value to him is largely in its power to arouse his own powers of thought and imagination. Suggestive ness is his test of it's value. He does not hesitate to wander into any attrac- tive avenue of thought, even though it should take him away from the high- way the author travels.
 The mental faculties which are es . pecially gratified in reading are the imagination and curiosity. If a book ddes not appeal to our imagination or gratify our curiosity to know things, it Is of little or no value to us. Any book which gives us pleasure or arouses an interest in any subject, historical, sci entifc or literary, has its value.
 Pope's adage that "a little learning is dangerous thing" is only a half truth after all. It is not nearly so dangerous as ignorance, as the history of the world abundantly shows. Yer satility is sometimes a sign of weak ness, but I doubt if it be the cause of inefficiency. Because we may know a little of many things it does not follow
 
 thing. It is doubtful if we can know any subject thoroughly without an ex- tensive knowledge of other things I have never yet known a lawyer whose efficiency in the law was not betteIed by wide reading and an acquaintance with other branches of learning.
 Knowledge cannot be rightfully clas- sified into the useful and the useless. The Greek loved knowledge for its own sake. He rather disdained the prac- ttcal, yet all the arts and sciences which in modern times have been de- veloped into agencies of material and practical use are by-products of Gre clan thought and speculation. In the broadest sense, nothing which contrib utes to intellectual enjoyment or. grat- flies natural curiosity is unworthy the attention of an educated man. It is these things that distinguish an in tellectual being. The animal is only concerned about that which he may eat or which, possibly, may eat him. < desire to understand nature, man, his . tory, art, science and beauty are prod ucts of civilization and excite emotions which do not diminish, but increase, with knowledge and cultivation. To the true lover of books, no department Of hllONASuSC llcGd ISIlldlll ClOSGu. 1nSIe c is no thought or mood or emotion which may not be nourished at the cost of opening the pages of some book. The wisdom of the ages, the acquaintance of the choicest spirits of all time, ars ours for the asking if only it be our happy fortune to love. for their own sake, the knowledge, the beauty and pleasure to be had from books. To be a good reader is a splendid thing; to be a poor reader is a personal misfortune.
 NATURE STUDY.
 Next, I mention the cultivation of the love for nature at first hand "a taste for the study of the phenomena of the physical world. Nature study in the schools and nature books are un- doubtedly helpful stimuli in arous- ing an intelligent interest in the won ders of nature as displayed in its mani fold activities through the infinite va riety of plant and animal life which everywhere abound on land, in air, and