College Reading.

A recent discussion of the best method to adopt, in the improvement of style in writing revives the subject of college reading. A well read college man is a rarety; almost an anomily. It is true that we cannot all with Mill read Thucydides in the cradle, nor do we care to read Pilgrims Progress until the trumpets do indeed "sound on the further side." But there is a mean which every earnest student can and ought to cultivate in the matter of reading beyond the narrow limit of his courses. As the two prime reasons for reading are that we may gain information, and at the same time form a style, those reasons ought to be considered in ones choice of reading. Someone has computed that an ordinarily busy man will read one new book every week, and will do this for fifty years. This will give him at the end of his days a sum of 25000 books digested and put behind him. "How immense the importance" adds the at least judiciously selected writer, "that those 25000 should be, if not the great standards of literature." The great readers, of course, run through their thousands of volumes, but the amount read by the ordinary man is strikingly small.

How then shall a man form the habit of reading? Perhaps the easiest means, and this is the means next generally advised, is simply to "browse" through the library. But this aimless wandering inculcates the habit of indiscriminate reading, a habit not to be classed with the custom of omnivorous reading, which is, perhaps, the only safe method to be pursued in a determined course of reading. An omnivorous reader is almost invariably a a thinker of acumen. There is something in being brought face to face with matured thoughts upon indiscriminate topics which is stimulating to a high degree. We hear again and again the cry that this is an over-read world, and that scholars are degenerating into book-worms. At times some peculiarly independent thinker decries reading as debilitating to the mind, and advocates a little more use of the brains. But these invectives are few and far between, for the growth of reading has become so universal that the habit of reading has become absolutely essential to a successful career. And it is safe to say that if this habit is not gained by college men during the years they spend at college they will never acquire it. "Read," said an old monk to Anselm in his boyhood; "read my son, for by reading only mayest thou attain success." And to this advice vigorously followed may be ascribed the marvelous acuteness of intellect and stern application to study which so distinguished this keenest of reasoners.

But to return to the discussion of style. Of the many circumstances which contribute to the formation of a style, reading is but one. Desultory reading, if care is not exercised, will almost invariably induce a looseness of handling in writing and a lack of distinct expression. A close study of the very first masters of English prose is, perhaps, the only means open to students who cannot afford to gain the cultivation offered by the composition courses. Even among standard authors a choice should be made. This is a point, however, which each student must exercise his individual taste. But upon his taste will depend, almost invariably, the character of his style.