The diversions of reading, though they are not always of the strongest
kind, yet they generally leave a better effect than the grosser
satisfactions of sense: for, if they are well chosen, they neither dull
the appetite nor strain the capacity. On the contrary, they refresh the
inclinations, and strengthen the power, and improve under experiment:
and, which is best of all, they entertain and perfect at the same time;
and convey wisdom and knowledge through pleasure. By reading a man does
as it were antedate his life, and makes himself contemporary with the
ages past. And this way of running up beyond one's nativity is much
better than Plato's pre-existence; because here a man knows something of
the state and is the wiser for it; which he is not in the other.
In conversing with books we may choose our company, and disengage
without ceremony or exception. Here we are free from the formalities of
custom and respect: we need not undergo the penance of a dull story from
a fop of figure; but may shake off the haughty, the impertinent, and the
vain, at pleasure. Besides, authors, like women, commonly dress when
they make a visit. Respect to themselves makes them polish their
thoughts, and exert the force of their understanding more than they
would or can do in ordinary conversation: so that the reader has as it
were the spirit and essence in a narrow compass; which was drawn off
from a much larger proportion of time, labour, and expense. Like an
heir, he is born rather than made rich; and comes into a stock of sense,
with little or no trouble of his own. 'Tis true, a fortune in knowledge
which descends in this manner, as well as an inherited estate, is too
often neglected and squandered away; because we do not consider the
difficulty in raising it.
Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support
us under solitude, and keep us from being a burthen to ourselves. They
help us to forget the crossness of men and things; compose our cares and
our passions; and lay our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of
the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness,
pride, or design in their conversation. However, to be constantly in the
wheel has neither pleasure nor improvement in it. A man may as well
expect to grow stronger by always eating, as wiser by always reading.
Too much overcharges Nature, and turns more into disease than
nourishment. 'Tis thought and digestion which makes books serviceable,
and gives health and vigour to the mind. Neither ought we to be too
implicit or resigning to authorities, but to examine before we assent,
and preserve our reason in its just liberties. To walk always upon
crutches is the way to lose the use of our limbs. Such an absolute
submission keeps us in a perpetual minority, breaks the spirits of the
understanding, and lays us open to imposture.
But books well managed afford direction and discovery. They strengthen
the organ and enlarge the prospect, and give a more universal insight
into things than can be learned from unlettered observation. He who
depends only upon his own experience has but a few materials to work
upon. He is confined to narrow limits both of place and time: and is not
fit to draw a large model and to pronounce upon business which is
complicated and unusual. There seems to be much the same difference
between a man of mere practice and another of learning as there is
between an empiric and a physician. The first may have a good recipe,
or two; and if diseases and patients were very scarce, and all alike, he
might do tolerably well. But if you inquire concerning the causes of
distempers, the constitution of human bodies, the danger of symptoms,
and the methods of cure, upon which the success of medicine depends, he
knows little of the matter. On the other side, to take measures wholly
from books, without looking into men and business, is like travelling in
a map, where, though countries and cities are well enough distinguished,
yet villages and private seats are either overlooked, or too generally
marked for a stranger to find. And therefore he that would be a master
must draw by the life, as well as copy from originals, and join theory
and experience together.