I am not much a friend to out-of-doors reading. I cannot settle my
spirits to it. I knew a Unitarian minister, who was generally to be seen
upon Snow-hill (as yet Skinner's-street _was not_), between the hours of
ten and eleven in the morning, studying a volume of Lardner. I own this
to have been a strain of abstraction beyond my reach. I used to admire
how he sidled along, keeping clear of secular contacts. An illiterate
encounter with a porter's knot, or a bread basket, would have quickly
put to flight all the theology I am master of, and have left me worse
than indifferent to the five points.--C. LAMB. _Detached Thoughts on
Books and Reading._