library.'[18]

'No man, it appears to me, can tell another what he ought to read. A man's reading, to be of any value, must depend upon his power of association, and that again depends upon his tendencies, his capacities, his surroundings, and his opportunities.'[19]

I am fully convinced that the above passages condense all that is best worth knowing upon the 'Art of Reading.'

Next in importance is what to read. Be very careful about reading books which are recommended, because they are books of the hour. Fools step in and say read this and that without thinking to put themselves in your place. Because a book suits one person, it is only a rare chance that it will suit a friend equally.

Before recommending a book to another with assurance, you must know the book well, and the friend to whom it is recommended you must know much better. Read the book which suggests something responsive and sympathetic. No one can tell you this as well as you can find it for yourself. Practice will teach you to choose a book, as practice has taught you to choose a friend. You will almost be able to choose it in the dark. There are affinities for books as for people, but this does not come at once.

The proper appreciation of the great books of the world is the reward of lifelong study. You must work up to them, and unconsciously you will become trained to find great qualities in what the world has decided is great. Novel reading is not a part of the intellectual life, it is a part of the fashionable life.

Lamb says that Bridget Elia 'was tumbled early, by accident or design, into a spacious library of good old English reading, without much selection or prohibition, and browsed at will upon that fair and wholesome pasturage.' And he adds, 'Had I twenty girls they should be brought up exactly in this fashion.'

Ruskin says, 'there need be no choosing at all. Keep the modern magazine and novel out of your girl's way; turn her loose into the old library every wet day, and let her alone. She will find out what is good for her.'

Mr. Ruskin notwithstanding, there will ever be a large public who will read nothing unless it has a story in it.

Nearly all readers of books may be divided into two classes, those who read as students towards some definite end, and those who read for amusement. The latter class are greatly in the majority, and I have no hesitation in saying that a love of fiction will always predominate over a love of research, even in its light form. The student class, among whom are many critics, usually fail to understand the position of the fiction lovers, with the result that the fiction readers and fiction itself get a great many jibes and taunts. To open this question would involve a long argument, and would bring about no good. All experience goes to prove that a very large section of the public, not being students, loves to read the books of the hour, and great pleasure may be got therefrom. The smaller section, trained to different habits, and regarding books in a more serious light, put their collection of books to different purposes, and, I know, get great pleasure therefrom. The two classes can run parallel together, and one class should not try to exterminate the other.[20] In country houses the books in billiard-rooms and in the bedrooms should appropriately be fiction. Not many guests at a house-party are in the frame of mind to take up serious books, nor are there the opportunities given for application which such would require. I think where the general house library is (as is very often the case) not a living room, there is then much more reason for separating fiction and light literature, and placing them in a very accessible position. It will often be found advisable, as fiction accumulates, to weed out and decide what volumes shall be bound and what rejected or placed in the servants' library. Shelves should therefore be reserved for books which are thus going through a period of probation.[21]

A fiction library may be made very interesting if it is so arranged as to represent the history of France or of England, or any country. From the boundless stores of fiction writers—in fact, from Scott alone almost—a sequence of volumes may be arranged which, if read in proper order, would make a very excellent romance history. Almost every interesting episode of history has had its story woven into romance. Thus there are, I believe, about eighteen historical romances relating to the Monmouth rebellion alone.

'Much of love,' said Lord Bowen, 'has only been learned under the instruction of some woman who has herself only learned it from a book. Authoresses, indeed, have not unfrequently betrayed the key to some of their sex's secrets. Were it not for Northanger Abbey and Miss Austen, some of the old mysteries of girlish friendship would have remained untold, and we should never have known or understood the curiosity which may lurk in a refined bosom at seventeen. Man would scarcely have guessed but for Jane Eyre the impression which can be made, it seems, upon a heart by a middle-aged gentleman with the manners of a bear and the composure of a prig. Furthermore, it is through women's novels that we have had brought home to us most adequately what women who have tasted it, or seen it, can best relate, the despicable egotism of a weak man. Anzoleto in Consuelo, Tito in Romola.'[22]

It is important for every one to fix upon a time for everyday study, and remember to read when you have a disposition so to do. Do not think that spare moments not spent in reading are lost. Some spare time must be kept for thinking. If you have 'nerves,' it is no good to read then; read when the mind is quiet and receptive. This will probably be when dressing in the morning, or at night before going to bed. Keep a small bookcase in your dressing-room; in so doing you will learn the art of going to bed well. Read at any time when curiosity is aroused as to any person, place, or subject, and keep reference books at hand to answer questions intelligently. Napoleon read all the new novels in a travelling carriage, and pitched them out of the window as each was finished. Active minds, to read advantageously, should seek a quiet sanctum of their own.

A very admirable suggestion was made a short time since, I think by Dr. Ernest Hart, that it should be more a custom to have bookcases in bedrooms. Many persons, and, I believe, notably Mr. Gladstone, read before going to bed. I think all bedrooms should have a selection of favourite books, and I do not think that novels are nearly so suitable as books of short essays and sketches. Few people would sit up sufficiently long to read a novel through, and many would therefore not begin what they knew they would be unable