The Lost Art of Reading #251209

The tendency of our time is to make reading difficult, and those who do not read are begin ning to decry the habit as a mean and degrading vice. In a current magazine a brilliant novelist has an article entitled The Vice of Reading. In another paper I find an argument controvert ing Bacon's saying that reading makes the full man. Even among men who live by writing, reading goes out of fashion. If you will permit me to relate a personal experience, I will say that while in London I am constantly impressed by the brilliance and versatility of many men of letters. Yet I find few among them who read much. A very moderately read man will be constantly humbled by the superior talents of his contemporaries, but if I may venture to say so, he will be seldom impressed by the extent of their reading.