amended, as to indicate how, in our opinion, it might have been made
to serve some practical purpose.

'Books have brought some men to knowledge and some to madness. As
fulness sometimes hurteth the stomach more than hunger, so fareth it
with arts; and as of meats, so likewise of books, the use ought to be
limited according to the quality of him that useth them.' Thus wrote
Petrarch, and the comparison between the bodily and mental digestion, if
trite, is very far from being a mere superficial analogy.

Those who are blessed with a judicial friend, quite competent to make a
diagnosis of their literary capacity and prescribe a diet, are indeed
fortunate--'sua si bona norint.' Such prescriptions have been long since
made, and handed down to us. That written out by Doctor Johnson, for his
friend the Rev. Mr. Astle of Ashbourne, is brief enough, and savours of
the drastic remedies fashionable in the last century.[99] If on glancing
over the Doctor's list our readers are inclined to assume that the Rev.
Mr. Astle was possessed of a very healthy digestion, we would remind
them that solid joints and heavy folios were more in vogue at that time
than in these days of French cookery and periodical literature.

In later times Comte also, among others, has furnished a catalogue, or
syllabus of books for general reading; but even his faithful follower
Mr. Harrison admits, half apologetically, that it 'has no special
relation to current views of education, to English literature, much less
to the literature of the day. It was drawn up thirty years ago by a
French philosopher, who passed his life in Paris, and who had read no
new book for twenty years.'

'What shall I read?' There are few questions more frequently asked than
this; few, perhaps, to which a thoughtless answer is more frequently
given. Coming from one of that large class to which Lord Iddesleigh has
given the name of 'indolent readers,' it might be assumed to be lightly
asked, and might be as lightly answered by the recommendation of some
three-volume novel, or the more fashionable shilling's-worth of gruesome
mystery; but if the enquirer be a young book-lover, a worthy answer is
far to seek. The diagnosis and opinion of the physician do not present
greater difficulties, and in many cases are not attended by more
momentous results. To turn a juvenile adrift in Sir John Lubbock's list
would be to prescribe an exclusive diet of richly seasoned dishes and
rare wines to a