in excess, unfits his
wife for the realities and duties of everyday existence. It came as a
surprise to many to learn from Tennyson's "Life" that the author of "In
Memoriam" was a great novel reader. But clearly in his case the novel
produced no weakening of the mental fiber. President Garfield advised
the student to mingle with his heavier reading a judicious proportion of
fiction. The novel may rank in the highest department of literature and
may render the inestimable service of broadening and quickening our
sympathies. In this case it belongs to the class of the best books. But
I have introduced it here as the most prominent representative of what
we may call the literature of recreation. There is a further
representative of this class that is peculiarly well fitted to bring
refreshment and cheer to the weary and dispirited, and that is humor,
which is often also the soundest philosophy.

If the reader does not at the outset make provision in his daily reading
for the best books, the days and the months will go by, and the unopened
volumes will look down upon him from his shelves in dumb reproof of his
neglect and reminder of his loss. In truth it is all a matter of the
balance of gain. What we rate highest we shall find room for. If we
cannot have our spiritual food and satisfy all our other wants, perhaps
we shall find that some of our other wants can do with less
satisfaction. That we should neglect the material side of life for the
spiritual I do not say. But for our encouragement let me quote another
estimate of what may be accomplished by persistent reading, and my
authority shall be the late Professor William Mathews, the essayist, an
author whose graceful style bears lightly as a flower a weight of
learning that would appall, if it did not so delight us. Says Dr.
Mathews:

Did you ever think of the sum total of knowledge that may be
accumulated in a decade, or score of years, or a lifetime by
reading only 10 pages a day? He who has read but that small
amount daily, omitting Sundays, has read in a year 3130
pages, which is equal to six volumes of 521 pages each,
enough to enable one to master a science. In five years he
will have read 15,650 pages, equivalent to 30 large volumes,
or to 60 of the average size. Now, we do not hesitate to say
that 30 volumes of 521 pages each of history, biography,
science, and literature, well chosen, well read, and well