easy now when I am handling a thought until I have bounded it north,
and bounded it south, and bounded it east, and bounded it west." And
so to enter into what one reads, means that he will master the thought.
The most that a university can do for one is to teach him to read. Who
has learned how to read has secured a liberal education, however or
wherever he may have learned it.

Then, one should learn to scan an author. This means to take a rapid
observation of his thoughts. Much of one's common reading matter
should be scanned. All local news, much magazine literature, and
many books should be used in this way. It is mental sloth and waste
of time to pore over a newspaper or a book of light fiction, as one
would a philosophy of history or a work of science. As Bacon aptly
puts it, "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and
some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be
read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few
to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also
may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others." One's
mind is like a horse, it soon learns its master. Feed it well, groom it
well, treat it gently, you may expect much from it. It is reported of
Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis that he has read a book a day for over
twenty years. He has learned to squeeze the thought out of a book at
a grasp, as one of us would squeeze the juice from an orange. Take
a glimpse into his library. Five hundred volumes of sociological
literature, four hundred volumes of history, two hundred of cyclopedias,
gazetteers, books of reference; four hundred volumes of pure science,
one hundred volumes of travels, two hundred and fifty volumes of
biography; one hundred volumes of art and art history; a section on
psychology, ethics, philosophy, and the relation between science and
religion, and a thousand volumes of literature, pure and simple.