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