Next to a friend's discourse, no morsel is more delicious than a ripe
book, a book whose flavor is as refreshing at the thousandth tasting
as at the first. Books when friends weary, conversation flags, or
nature fails to inspire. The best books appeal to the deepest in us and
answer the demand. A book loses if wanting the personal element, gains
when this is insinuated, or comes to the front occasionally, blending
history with mythology.
My favorite books have a personality and complexion as distinctly
drawn as if the author's portrait were framed into the paragraphs and
smiled upon me as I read his illustrated pages. Nor could I spare
them from my table or shelves, though I should not open the leaves
for a twelvemonth;--the sight of them, the knowledge that they are
within reach, accessible at any moment, rewards me when I invite their
company. Borrowed books are not mine while in hand. I covet ownership
in the contents, and fancy that he who is conversant with these is the
rightful owner, and moreover, that the true scholar owes to scholars a
catalogue of his chosen volumes, that they may learn from whence his
entertainment during leisure moments. Next to a personal introduction,
a list of one's favorite authors were the best admittance to his
character and manners. His library were not voluminous. He might
specify his favorites on his fingers, and spare the printer's type.
"Books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose
them." And without Plutarch, no library were complete.
Can we marvel at his fame, or overestimate the surpassing merits of his
writings? It seems as I read as if none before, none since, had written
lives, as if he alone were entitled to the name of biographer,--such
intimacy of insight is his, laying open the springs of character,
and through his parallels portraying his times as no historian had
done before: not Plato, even, in the livelier way of dialogue with
his friends. Then his morals are a statement of the virtues for all
times. And I read the list of his lost writings, not without a sense
of personal wrong done to me, with emotions akin to what the merchant
might feel in perusing the bill of freight after the loss of his
vessel. Hercules, Hesiod, Pindar, Leonidas, Scipio, Augustus, Claudius,
Epaminondas, minds of mark, all these and other precious pieces gone
to the bottom: his books on the Academy of Plato, The Philosophers,
and many more of this imperial freight, to be read by none now. Still,
there remains so much to be grateful for; so many names surviving to
perpetuate virtue and all that is splendid in fame, with his own. I for
one am his debtor, not for noble examples alone, but for portraits of
the possibilities of virtue, and all that is dearest in friendship, in
his attractive pages. It is good exercise, good medicine, the reading
of his books,--good for to-day, as in times it was preceding ours,
salutary reading for all times.
Montaigne also comes in for a large share of the scholar's regard.
Opened anywhere, his page is sensible, marrowy, quotable. He may be
taken up, too, and laid aside carelessly without loss, so inconsequent
is his method, and he so careless of his wealth. Professing nature
and honesty of speech, his page has the suggestions of the landscape,
is good for striking out in any direction, suited to any mood, sure
of yielding variety of information, wit, entertainment,--not to be
commanded, to be sure, without grave abatements, to be read with good
things growing side by side with things not such and tasting of the
apple. Still, with every abatement, his book is one of the ripest and
mellowest, and, bulky as it is, we wish there were more of it. He
seems almost the only author whose success warrants in every stroke of
his pen his right to guide it: he of the men of letters, the prince
of letters; since writing of life, he omits nothing of its substance,
but tells all with a courage unprecedented. His frankness is charming.
So his book has indescribable attractions, being as it were a Private
Book,--his diary self-edited, and offered with an honesty that wins
his readers, he never having done bestowing his opulent hospitalities
on him, gossiping sagely, and casting his wisdom in sport to any who
care for it. Everywhere his page is alive and rewarding, and we are
disappointed at finding his book comes to an end like other books.
Lord Herbert's Autobiography is a like example of sincerity and
naturalness. If he too often play the cavalier, and is of a temper
that brooks not the suspicion of insult, he is equally eager to defend
when friendship or humanity render it a duty. The brothers, Edward
and George, were most estimable characters. To George how largely are
we in debt for his sacred verses, the delight and edification of the
saints wherever they are known. Add Vaughan and Crashaw. And making
due allowance for the time when Herrick's verses were written, his
temptation to suit the tastes of courtiers and kings, his volumes
contain much admirable poetry, tempered with religious devotion. He
wrote sweet and virtuous verse, with lines here and there that should
not have been written. But he is an antidote to the vice in his lines,
and may well have place in the scholar's library with Donne, Daniel,
Cowley, Shakespeare, and contemporaries.
If one would learn the titles and gain insight into the contents of the
best books in our literature, let him track Coleridge in his readings
and notes as these have been collected and published in his Literary
Remains and Table Talk. He explored the wide field of literature and
philosophy, and brought to light richer spoils than any scholar of his
time, or since. His reading was not only choice, but miscellaneous.
Nothing of permanent value appears to have escaped his searching
glance, and his criticisms on books are among the most valuable
contributions to British letters. He knew how to read to get and give
the substance of the book in sprightly comment and annotation on the
text. His judgments are final and exhaustive. To follow him were an
education in itself.
One's diary is attractive reading, and productive, if he have the art
of keeping one.