ossess a talisman, which shall
enable us unerringly to detect the true from the false. Mrs. Knowles
said of Dr. Johnson, 'He knows how to read better than any one; he gets
at the substance of a book directly; he tears the heart out of it.' This
faculty, which was exhibited in a marvellous degree also in Southey and
Macaulay, is as rare as it is enviable; but there are not a few who
erroneously suppose themselves to be possessed of it. The hurried,
careless, method of reading is one of the chief dangers a student should
guard against. In studying a work of biography, for example--but above
all in studying the classics--the first requisite, and one which is, as
we have said, sadly overlooked in public school teaching, is the
acquisition of a simple, general outline of the period to which the work
relates. In the fashionable phrase of the day, the books so read are
frequently not in correspondence with their environment. To him whose
views of Roman history are but a shapeless mist, if not an absolute
void, Virgil and Horace are sealed books; nor can any one who is
ignorant of Scotland and her traditions penetrate beyond the husk of
'Waverley' or 'Old Mortality.' To the young beginner a few judicious
words of explanation at the commencement of a book may serve to awaken
that interest without which reading is useless, and to make darkness
light; and, similarly, a few words of discussion, when the book is
completed, will have the effect of consolidating the floating ideas to
which the perusal has given rise. The habit of casting aside a book as
soon as the last page is read, without pondering over its contents and
recalling the argument and refreshing the memory where it has failed, or
allowing the 'frenzied current of the eye to be stopped for many moments
of calm reflection or thought,' is apt to render worthless all the
previous effort. Lord Erskine, we are told, was in the habit of making
long extracts from Burke, and Lord Eldon is said to have copied out
'Coke upon Littleton' twice with his own hand. 'Writing an analysis,'
says Archibishop Whately,[102] 'or table of contents, or index, or
notes, is very important for the study, properly so called, of any
subject. And so also is the practice of previously conversing or writing
on the subject you are about to study.' Reading can produce a beneficial
result only in proportion to the extent and accuracy of information
previously stored in the mind of the reader. Such informati