ame
out, and his only idea of a holiday was to go up to London and get
lists of books from a bookseller. That is, of course, an extreme case;
and I cannot help feeling that he would have been nearly as usefully
employed if he had confined himself to counting the number of words in
the books he read. But, after all, he was interested and amused, and a
perfectly contented man.

As to the intellectual motive for reading, it hardly needs discussing;
the object is to get clear conceptions, to arrive at a critical sense
of what is good in literature, to have a knowledge of events and
tendencies of thought, to take a just view of history and of great
personalities; not to be at the mercy of theorists, but to be able to
correct a faulty bias by having a large and wide view of the progress
of events and the development of thought. One who reads from this point
of view will generally find some particular line which he tends to
follow, some special region of the mind where he is desirous to know
all that can be known; but he will, at the same time, wish to acquaint
himself in a general way with other departments of thought, so that he
may be interested in subjects in which he is not wholly well-informed,
and be able to listen, even to ask intelligent questions, in matters
with which he has no minute acquaintance. Such a man, if he steers
clear of the contempt for indefinite views which is often the curse of
men with clear and definite minds, makes the best kind of talker,
stimulating and suggestive; his talk seems to open doors into gardens
and corridors of the house of thought; and others, whose knowledge is
fragmentary, would like to be at home, too, in that pleasant palace.
But it is of the essence of such talk that it should be natural and
attractive, not professional or didactic. People who are not used to
Universities tend to believe that academical persons are invariably
formidable. They think of them as possessed of vast stores of precise
knowledge, and actuated by a merciless desire to detect and to ridicule
deficiencies of attainment among unprofessional people. Of course,
there are people of this type to be found at a University, just as in
all other professions it is possible to find uncharitable specialists
who despise persons of hazy and leisurely views. But my own impression
is that it is a rare type among University Dons; I think that it is far
commoner at the University to meet men of great attainments combined
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