The Guide to Reading | Page 4

study of
matter that repels or even bores the student. You may be a devout
believer and Herbert Spencer repellent. Nevertheless, if you are
studying you may need to master Herbert Spencer. But if you are
reading, read what interests you. If Scott does not interest you and
Dickens does, drop Scott and read Dickens. You need not be any one's
enemy; but you need not be a friend with everybody. This is as true of
books as of persons. For friendship some agreement in temperament is
quite essential.
Henry Ward Beecher's application of this principle struck me as
interesting and unique. He did a great deal of his reading on the train in
his lecture tours. His invariable companion was a black bag and the
black bag always contained some books. As I am writing from
recollection of a conversation with him some sixty years ago my
statement may lack in accuracy of detail, but not, I think, in essential
veracity. He selected in the beginning of the year some four
departments of reading, such as Poetry, History, Philosophy, Fiction,
and in each department a specific course, such as Greek Poetry,
Macaulay's History, Spencer's Philosophy, Scott's Novels. Then he read
according to his mood, but generally in the selected course: if poetry,
the Greek poets; if history, Macaulay; if philosophy, Spencer; if fiction,
Scott. This gave at once liberty to his mood and unity to his reading.
One may read either for acquisition or for inspiration. A gentleman
who has acquired a national reputation as a popular lecturer and
preacher, formed the habit, when in college, of always subjecting
himself to a recitation in all his serious reading. After finishing a
chapter he would close the book and see how much of what he had read

he could recall. One consequence is the development of a quite
marvelous memory, the results of which are seen in frequent and
felicitous references in his public speaking to literature both ancient
and modern.
He who reads for inspiration pursues a different course. If as he reads, a
thought expressed by his author starts a train of thought in his own
mind, he lays down his book and follows his thought wherever it may
lead him. He endeavors to remember, not the thought which the author
has recorded, but the unrecorded thought which the author has
stimulated in his own mind. Reading is to him not an acquisition but a
ferment. I imagine from my acquaintance with Phillips Brooks and
with his writings that this was his method.
I have a friend who says that he prefers to select his authors for himself,
not to have them selected for him. But he has money with which to buy
the books he wants, a room in which to put them, and the broad culture
which enables him to make a wise selection. Most of us lack one at
least of these qualifications: the money, the space, or the knowledge.
For most of us a library for the home, selected as this Pocket Library
has been has three great advantages: the cost is not prohibitive; the
space can easily be made in out home for the books; and the selection is
more wisely made than any we could make for ourselves. For myself I
should be very glad to have the editors of this series come into my
library, which is fairly large but sadly needs weeding out, give me a
literary appraisal of my books, and tell me what volumes in their
respective departments they think I could best dispense with to make
room for their betters, and what their betters would be.
To these considerations in favor of such a home library as this, may be
added the fact that the books are of such a size that one can easily put a
volume in his pocket when he is going on a train or in a trolley car. For
busy men and women often the only time for reading is the time which
too many of us are apt to waste in doing nothing.
Perhaps the highest use of good books is their use as friends. Such a
wisely selected group of friends as this library furnishes is an
invaluable addition to any home which receives it and knows how to

make wise use of it. I am glad to have the privilege of introducing it
and hope that this introduction may add to the number of homes in
which it will find a welcome.

THE PURPOSE OF READING
BY JOHN MACY
Why do we read books is one of those vast questions that need no
answer. As well ask, Why ought we to be good? or, Why do we believe
in a God? The whole universe of wisdom answers. To attempt an