nly as she
knows will be of use read out by one's wife at breakfast. And this does
not mean that the mental discomforts of the newspaper are relegated to
one's better-half, for women are usually interested in the smaller
details of everyday life.

No wonder that a large number of 'city men' live out their lives without
ever opening a book that is worth reading meditatively; for
newspaper-reading in course of time must completely undermine one's
mental stability. After a few years, a book that is not composed of
headlines, short chapters, small paragraphs and ejaculatory sentences, is
unreadable without mental effort. So that long before he is middle-aged
the city man has acquired the habit of 'glancing at' a news-sheet or
magazine whenever he has nothing to do for a few minutes: a kind of
reading that is about as advantageous to the mind as that which we
indulge in when fingering the antique periodicals in the dentist's
waiting-room. In later years he may or he may not overcome the repugnance
he has acquired to anything deep or 'solid' (by which he generally means
'unparagraphed'): but I venture to think that, having once taken the
plunge, there must be moments when he marvels at his foolishness in not
having entered, years before, the City of the golden streets.

Perhaps it is unwise to use the word 'education' in speaking of the
benefits to be derived from reading the great books, for to many people
the term is synonymous with 'school,' where one is obliged frequently to
do things against one's will. Good books, that is the books that 'live,'
are no mere education, they are steps up the path of civilisation itself.
They are just as necessary for the advancement of knowledge as are the
letters and numerals which we learnt at school. The greatest books of the
world do _not_ teach us; _they help us to teach ourselves_, a very
different matter. 'They are masters who instruct us without rod or
ferule,' wrote an early book-lover[24]; 'if you approach them they are
not asleep; if you inquire of them they do not withdraw themselves; they
never chide when you make mistakes; they never laugh if you are
ignorant.' And the books which would be available to him would be chiefly
the works of the Early Fathers, professedly books of moral instruction.
But the books of our library 'are so many faithful and serviceable
friends, gently teaching us everything through their persuasive and wise
experience.'[25]

And that is precisely th