The best rule of reading will be a method from nature, and not a
mechanical one of hours and pages. It holds each student to a pursuit of
his native aim, instead of a desultory miscellany. Let him read what is
proper to him, and not waste his memory on a crowd of mediocrities. As
whole nations have derived their culture from a single book,--as the
Bible has been the literature as well as the religion of large portions
of Europe,--as Hafiz was the eminent genius of the Persians, Confucius
of the Chinese, Cervantes of the Spaniards; so, perhaps, the human mind
would be a gainer, if all the secondary writers were lost--say, in
England, all but Shakespeare, Milton, and Bacon--through the profounder
study so drawn to those wonderful minds. With this pilot of his own
genius, let the student read one, or let him read many, he will read
advantageously....
The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are,--1. Never
read any book that is not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed books.
3. Never read any but what you like; or, in Shakespeare's phrase,
No profit goes where is no pleasure ta'en:
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.
Montaigne says, 'Books are a languid pleasure;' but I find certain books
vital and spermatic, not leaving the reader what he was: he shuts the
book a richer man. I would never willingly read any others than
such.--R. W. EMERSON. _Books._