intelligently one does it, the farther and more easily one can go. In
the best reading--that is, the most thoughtful reading of the most
thoughtful books--attention is necessary. It is even necessary that we
should read some works, some passages, so often and with such close
application that we commit them to memory. It is said that the habit of
learning pieces by heart is not so prevalent as it used to be. I hope
that this is not so. What! have you no poems by heart, no great songs,
no verses from the Bible, no speeches from Shakespeare? Then you have
not begun to read, you have not learned how to read.

We have said enough, perhaps, of the theories of reading. The one
lesson that seems most obvious is that we must come close to
literature.




HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT
OF BOOKS

By RICHARD LE GALLIENNE


One is sometimes asked by young people panting after the waterbrooks of
knowledge: "How shall I get the best out of books?" Here indeed, is one
of those questions which can be answered only in general terms, with
possible illustrations from one's own personal experience. Misgivings,
too, as to one's fitness to answer it may well arise, as wistfully
looking round one's own bookshelves, one asks oneself: "Have I myself
got the best out of this wonderful world of books?" It is almost like