meaning with the greatest
clearness in a little space. The art of reading is to skip judiciously.
Whole libraries may be skipped in these days, when we have the results
of them in our modern culture without going over the ground again. And
even of the books we decide to read, there are almost always large
portions which do not concern us, and which we are sure to forget the
day after we have read them. The art is to skip all that does not
concern us, whilst missing nothing that we really need. No external
guidance can teach us this; for nobody but ourselves can guess what the
needs of our intellect may be. But let us select with decisive firmness,
independently of other people's advice, independently of the authority
of custom. In every newspaper that comes to hand there is a little bit
that we ought to read; the art is to find that little bit, and waste no
time over the rest.

Some studies permit the exercise of selection better than others do. A
language, once undertaken, permits very little selection indeed, since
you must know the whole vocabulary, or nearly so, to be able to read and
speak. On the other hand, the natural sciences permit the most prudent
exercise of selection. For example, in botany you may study as few
plants as you choose.

In writing, the art of selection consists in giving the utmost effect to
expression in the fewest words; but of this art I say little, for who
can contend against an inevitable trade-necessity? Almost every author
of ordinary skill could, when pressed for time, find a briefer
expression for his thoughts, but the real difficulty in fulfilling
literary engagements does not lie in the expression of the thought, it
lies in the sufficiently rapid production of a certain quantity of copy.
For this purpose I fear that selection would be of very little use--of
no more use, in fact, than in any other branch of manufacture where (if
a certain standard is kept up to) quantity in sale is more important
than quality of material.

LETTER V.

TO A FRIEND WHO, THOUGH HE HAD NO PROFESSION, COULD NOT FIND TIME FOR
HIS VARIOUS INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS.

Compensations resulting from the necessity for time--Opportunity only
exists for us so far as we have time to make use of it--This _or_
that, not this _and_ that--Danger of apparently unlimited
opportunities--The intellectual training of our ancestors--Montaigne
the Essayist--Reliance upon the compensations.

It has always seemed