A Course of English Reading; Adapted to Every Taste and Capacity With Literary Anecdotes - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1850. Excerpt: ... moving, never stop to ask whether they are in their latitude or out of it. So blindly do men run after all the imaginary prizes of life, and just as blindly do they pursue any one of them. Consider intellectual pursuits. Many young persons have said to me, "I should so like to possess general information, and to be well-informed, like our very amusing friend. Is it not strange that, amidst all the toils of a most engrossing profession, he can find time to acquire so much knowledge on every subject?" "Not at all strange; a few minutes a day, well employed, are quite enough." "Really I do not find it so. What I read rarely interests me; so I forget nearly as fast as I read, and grow more and more confused." "Too little interest, and too much confusion! Really you have enough to complain of. Do you know that this may constitute all the difference between your acquirements and those of our friend?" "But he is so clever." "Can he do as much in one hour as you in six?" "No! certainly not. I see your argument. You are going to remind me I have more than six times the number of hours to study." "Is there no one subject on which you feel your self his equal? Think of gardening, drawing, scriptural reading," &c. "True, but I am so fond of these subjects; for" "For,--you would say, your attention never flags, and your memory never fails." "Just so. But I am not so fond of certain other subjects, which still I very much wish to know." "But do you not remember a time when you were not so fond even of these favourite subjects?" "Certainly; you would infer therefore" "I would infer what I positively have experienced both in myself and others, that a fondness and interest for study may be acquired, and under good guidance it is hardly ever too late to begin." "And the ad...