On reading for pleasure and for profit

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1926
• Weight: 292 KB
• Volume: 45
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0368-4075
• DOI: 10.1002/jctb.5000451902

✦ Synopsis

In a scientific journal such a topic shoudcl bc treated in a scicnt.ific Inanxicr. There arc three main occasions when we read boolcs : first, when we have a little leisure and a dcsire to read a piecc of rcal literaturc. Such a t,ask is not t o be attempted hurriedly ; one must give one's mind to the rending and not bc distractcd citlicr by idle chatter in the rooin or by n desire t o iinprove one's niind or any other such base motive. lieat literature must be read for siniplc enjoyment-a purely selfish lmrsuit like listening to good music or drinliing good wine. Inferior wines may scrve to quench our thirst ; t,he best wine and t,he best boolts arc to bo enjoyed. Addison, Lamb, Milton, Theocritus, l.'ercncc, AIoliGre and the othcr really grcat writers wrote litcrat.urc t o be t r p t e d with such love. Who wishes to lcarn anything useful out of Kinglultc's '' Eotlmi " ?

You might just as ivctl try and irnprovc your niind by listening to " The Magic Flute." They arc bits of pure joy, untainted by t,raccs of utility. For n similar reason graceful .poetry is to be preferred to tho didactic ; tlic vcrscs of Prior, Withcr, Herricli, Landor, aiid Robert Bridges have a chann and a swcetncw which lift tliciu abovc the instructivc writings of Browning and Walt Whitman. How delightful it is t o read tlic pocins.of Andrew JIarvell in, say, tlic Augustan Books of English Poetry, caskets of jcwcls gold, aliuost ~)rcscntctl, to the public by a' ~~ublishcr who enn sink so low as to sell clicniical books at far I1i4ier prices. i17hy s ~i o u ~t ~ wc sppnc~ n pounc1 on tbc'' Clicniistry of tlic