It is difficult to enumerate the several motives which procure to books
the honour of perusal: spite, vanity, and curiosity, hope and fear, love
and hatred, every passion which incites to any other action, serves at
one time or another to stimulate a reader.
Some are found to take a celebrated volume into their hands, because
they hope to distinguish their penetration by finding faults that have
escaped the public; others eagerly buy it in the first bloom of
reputation, that they may join the chorus of praise, and not lag, as
Falstaff terms it, in 'the rearward of the fashion'.
Some read for style, and some for argument: one has little care about
the sentiment, he observes only how it is expressed; another regards not
the conclusion, but is diligent to mark how it is inferred; they read
for other purposes than the attainment of practical knowledge, and are
no more likely to grow wise by an examination of a treatise of moral
prudence than an architect to inflame his devotion by considering
attentively the proportions of a temple.
Some read that they may embellish their conversation, or shine in
dispute; some that they may not be detected in ignorance, or want the
reputation of literary accomplishments: but the most general and
prevalent reason of study is the impossibility of finding another
amusement equally cheap or constant, equally independent of the hour or
the weather. He that wants money to follow the chase of pleasure through
her yearly circuit, and is left at home when the gay world rolls to Bath
or Tunbridge; he whose gout compels him to hear from his chamber the
rattle of chariots transporting happier beings to plays and assemblies,
will be forced to seek in books a refuge from himself.--S. JOHNSON.
_Adventurer_, 137.