s Woodstock; there are also diaries, such as those by Evelyn,
Pepys, and Burton; and there are memoirs, such as those of Col.
Hutchinson; while the last two have been imitated in scores of fictions.
There are poems, such as those of Andrew Marvell, Milton, and Dryden.
There are also shoals of political tracts and pamphlets, of handbills and
caricatures.

We name these various descriptions of works and classes of reading, not
because we suppose all of them are accessible to those readers who live at
a distance from large public libraries, or because we would advise
everyone who may have access to such libraries, to read all these books
and classes of books as a matter of course, but because we would
illustrate how great is the variety of books and reading matter that are
grouped around a single topic, and are embraced within a single period.

Every person must judge for himself how long a time he can bestow upon any
single subject, or how many and various are the books in respect to it
which it is wise to read; but of this everyone may be assured, that it is
far easier, far more agreeable, and far more economical of time and
energy, to concentrate the attention upon a single subject at a time than
to extend it to half a score, and that six books read in succession or
together upon a single topic, are far more interesting and profitable than
twice as many which treat of topics remotely related. A lady well known to
the writer, of the least possible scholarly pretensions or literary
notoriety, spent fifteen months of leisure, snatched by fragments from
onerous family cares and brilliant social engagements, in reading the
history of Greece as written by a great variety of authors and as
illustrated by many accessories of literature and art.

Nor should it be argued that such rules as these, or the habits which they
enjoin, are suitable for scholars only, or for people who have much
leisure for reading. It should rather be urged that those who can read the
fewest books and who have at command the scantiest time, should aim to
read with the greatest concentration and method; should occupy all of
their divided energy with single centers of interest, and husband the few
hours which they can command, in reading whatever converges to a definite,
because to a single, impression.

CXXXVIII. ODE TO MT. BLANC. (462)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, was born in Devonshire, England, and
was educated at Christ's Hospital and