in its turn the central subject of our reading. There is little danger of weariness or monotony from the workings of such a rule. Most single topics admit or require a considerable variety of books, each different from the other and each supplementing the other. Hence it is one of the best of practices in prosecuting a course of reading, to read every author who can cast any light upon the subject which we have in hand. For example if we are reading the history of the Great Rebellion in England, we should read if we can, not a single author only, as Clarendon, but a half-dozen or a half-score, each of whom writes from his own point of view, supplies what another omits, or corrects what he under or overstates. But, besides the formal histories of the period, there are the various novels, the scenes and characters of which are placed in those times, such as Scott's Woodstock; there are also diaries, such as those by Evelyn, Pepys and Burton; and there are memoirs, such as those of Col. Hutchinson, while the last twó have been imitated in scores of fictions. There are poems, such as those of Andrew Marvel,. Milton and Dryden. There are also shoals of political tracts and pamphlets, of hand-bills and caricatures. We name these various descriptions of works and classes of reading, not because we suppose all of them are accessible to those readers who live at a distance from large public libraries, or because we would advise every one who may have access to such libraries, to read all these books and classes of books as a matter of course, but because we would illustrate how great is the variety of books and reading matter that are grouped around a single topic and are embraced within a single period. Every person must judge for himself how long a time he can bestow upon any single subject, or how many and various are the books in respect to it which it is wise to read; but of this every one may be assured, that it is far easier, far more agreeable and far more economical of time

and energy, to concentrate the attention upon a single subject at a time than to extend it to half a score, and that six books read in succession or together upon a single topic, are far more interesting and profitable than twice as many which treat of topics remotely related. A lady well known to the writer, of the least possible scholarly pretensions or literary notoriety, spent fifteen months of leisure snatched by fragments from onerous family cares and brilliant social engagements, in reading the history of Greece as written by a great variety of authors and as illustrated by many accessories of literature and art. Nor should it be argued that such rules as these or the habits which they enjoin are suitable for scholars only or for people who have much leisure for reading. It should rather be urged, that those who can read the fewest books and who have at command the scantiest time, should aim to read with the greatest concentration and method; should occupy all of their divided energy with single centres of interest, and husband the few hours which they can command, in reading whatever converges to a definite because to a single impression.

6. Special efforts should be made to retain what is gathered from reading, if any such efforts are required. Some persons read with an interest so wakeful and responsive, and an attention so fixed and energetic as to need no appliances and no efforts in order to retain what they read. They look upon a page and it is imprinted upon the memory. They follow the thoughts and trace the words and understand the sentences of their author and these remain with them as permanent possessions. Images, descriptions, eloquent passages, well sounding and rhythmic lines in poetry or prose, can all be spontaneously and accurately reproduced; or if words and illustrations are forgotten and lost, principles, truths and impressions will remain and cannot be effaced. Every book which such persons read

enters into the structure of their being-it is taken up and assimilated into the very substance of their living selves. Every paragraph in a newspaper with every fact which it records or truth which it illustrates, is turned to some permanent account and remains as a lasting acquisition.

But there are others who read only to lose and to forget. Facts and truths, words, and thoughts are alike evanescent. We shall not attempt to explain here the nature of these differences. We are concerned only to devise the remedy: we insist that those who labor under these difficulties should use special appliances to avoid or overcome them. But that upon which we insist most of all, is that what we read we should seek to make our own, only in the manner and after the measure of which we are capable. Each reader should follow the natural bent and aptitudes of his own individual nature. If we have not a good verbal memory, it is almost in vain that we seek to remember choice phrases and sentences, happy turns of expression, admirable bits of eloquent speech, or striking stanzas and lines of inspiring or moving poetry. We may read them again and again, we may admire them with increasing fervor, we may return to them with an ever augmented interest, but we shall make little progress in remembering them so as to be able to recite them. If we have a feeble capacity for the retention of dates and facts as such, unless they interest our feelings or illustrate principles, the utmost pains-taking will do little to help us to retain facts when isolated or uninteresting, or numbers when they signify nothing but so many figures. We do not advise a man laboring under these inaptitudes to fight against nature or to fall into a querulous, discouraged or fretful quarrel with himself, because, as he says, he cannot remember what he reads. Nor when we enjoin upon him to use special efforts to remember, do we intend that he shall be more interested in his efforts to remember than he is interested in what he is to remember.

We advise just the opposite. But we contend that when a man reads he should put himself into the most intimate intercourse with his author, so that all his energies of apprehension, judgment and feeling may be occupied with and aroused by what his author furnishes, whatever it may be. If repetition or review will aid him in this, as it often will, let him not disdain or neglect frequent reviews. If the use of the pen in brief or full notes, in catch-words or other symbols will aid him, let him not shrink from the drudgery of the pen and the common-place book. If he is aided to discern and retain the logical connections of an argument or a discourse by drawing them out in a complete skeleton or analysis, let him prosecute the dissection without flinching. If a re-survey of the parts will give him a comprehensive view of the method of the whole let him complete his analyses with the utmost care and arrange their products in a new and symmetrical order. But there is no charm or efficacy in such mechanism by itself. It is only valuable as a means to an end, and that end is to quicken the intellectual energies by arousing and holding the attention. It is by awakening and energizing the reason-by concentrating and arousing the feelings that it can serve any very useful purpose. To remember what we read we must make it our own: we must think with the author, rethinking his thoughts, following his facts, assenting to or rejecting his reasonings, and entering into the very spirit of his emotions and purposes.

CHAPTER V.

THE RELATIONS OF THE READER TO HIS AUTHOR.

THE considerations presented already as well as the fundamental conceptions of books and reading with which we set off in our search of rules and methods, enforce upon us the truth that effective reading depends most of all on the relations in which the reader finds himself, or into which he can bring himself, with respect to his author. If these relations are those of incongruity or of repellency, they will be more or less fatal to all profitable reading. The fault may be in the reader, or the fault may be in the author, or it may lie partly with the one and partly with the other, but if the fault exists, it will go far to defeat the best results which might otherwise follow. Accordingly, our interest in and our attention to what we read, and therefore our success in reading depend very largely on the authors whom we read. A book which is very suitable for one person may for this reason be entirely unfitted for another. The same book which is suitable at one time, or at a certain age, or with a certain degree of development or culture, may be entirely unsuitable to the same person in another mood, at another age, and after greater progress and culture. Thus the consideration of the manner in which we should read, in a certain sense depends upon what we read. The discussion of how we may read with effect, depends largely upon what we read, and involves the consideration of the principles and rules by which we should select our authors. Upon this topic we observe:

1. That in order to read with interest and attention we