Excerpt from Right Reading: Words of Good Counsel on the Choice and Use of Books Selected From the Writings of Ten Famous Authors
I ask them, Is it not mainly dependent upon chance? The professional man, wearied with the cares and labours of his office or employment, when he comes home, takes up whatever book may happen to be the reading of his wife, or mother, or daughters: and they, for women are often edu cated in a way to avoid method and intellectual strength of any kind, are probably contented with what the circulating library afi’ords, and read ac cording to the merest rumour and fashion of the present hour. Again, what is called light litera ture (how it has obtained or maintained that name is surprising), criticisms, scraps, tales, and the like, is nearly the sole intellectual food of many intelligent persons. Now, without under valuing this kind of literature, which improved as it would be if addressed to a class of persons who were wont to read with wisdom and method, would be very serviceable to those persons; we cannot say but that to make such literature the staple of the mind is unworthy and frivolous in the extreme.
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