which he adopted in his youth, | ideas unconnected with the subject

and to which he constantly ad- it treats; I pursue these ideas and hered, was this:-He divided all quit my proposed plan of reading." books that he chose to read into Thus in the midst of Homer he two classes-those for study, and read Longinus; a chapter of Lonthose for amusement. The second ginus led to an epistle of Pliny; class, by far the more numerous of and having finished Longinus, he the two, comprehended all the followed the train of his ideas of the works which he wished to know sublime and beautiful in the inquiry something of, and which he merely of Burke, and concluded with comskimmed, or read once through. paring the ancient with the modern The first consisted of those which Longinus. Of all our popular wrihe meant to study, to read over ters, the most experienced reader again, or to consult as long as he was Gibbon, and he offers importlived; these he took up continu- ant advice to an author engaged on ally, one after another, in the order a particular subject: "I suspended which he had ranged them, unless my perusal of any new book on the upon occasions when he only wanted subject till I had reviewed all that to verify, to quote, or to imitate I knew, or believed, or had thought some passage. He had five lib- on it, that I might be qualified to raries absolutely alike, and com- discern how much the authors added posed of the same books-at Pots- to my original stock." dam, at old Sans Souci, at Berlin, at Charlottenburg, and at Breslau. When he removed from one of these residences to another, he had only to note how far he had got in a book, and on his arrival, he could proceed as though he were on the same spot. Hence he always bought five copies of every

book that he wished to have. To the five libraries above-mentioned were afterwards added another in the new palace of Sans Souci, and a travelling library for the review time. The books belonging to all these libraries were uniformly bound in red morocco, with gilt leaves. Each book had its particular place, and on the cover was a letter, denoting the library to which it belonged.

METHODICAL READING.

KNOWING AND JUDGING.

Pope says that from fourteen to twenty, he read only for amusement; from twenty to twenty-seven, for improvement and instruction; that in the first part of his time he desired only to know, and in the second he endeavoured to judge.

A MOTHER'S ADVICE. Sir William Jones, when a mere child, was very inquisitive. His mother was a woman of great inher for the information which he telligence, and he would apply to desired; but her constant reply was,

Read, and you will know." This gave him a passion for books, which was one of the principal means of making him what he was.

THE BENEFITS OF READING.

Gibbon, the celebrated author of THOMAS HOOD THE HUMOURIST ON the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has furnished a new idea in The secretaries of the Manchester the art of reading. "We ought,” Athenæum bazaar committee adsays he, "not to attend to the order dressed to Thomas Hood a request of our book, so much as of our that he would allow his name to be thoughts. The perusal of a parti- placed on the list of patrons of an cular work gives birth, perhaps, to approaching bazaar. To this re

THOMAS HOOD ON THE BENEFITS OF READING.

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quest the secretaries received the table d'hôte, I could yet enjoy my following characteristic reply

"ST. JOHN'S WOOD, July 18, 1843. (From my bed,) 17, Elm-tree Road. "Gentlemen,—Ifmy humble name can be of the least use for your purpose, it is heartily at your service, with my best wishes for the prosperity of the Manchester Athenæum, and my warmest approval of the objects of that institution.

Peregrine Pickle, and the feast after the manner of the ancients. There was no yearning towards calf's head à la tortue, or sheep's heart; but I could still relish Head à la Brunnen, and the Heart of Mid-Lothian.

"Still more recently, it was my misfortune, with a tolerable appetite, to be condemned to lenten fare, like Sancho Panza, by my physician— "I have elsewhere recorded my to a diet, in fact, lower than any own deep obligations to literature, prescribed by the poor-law com-that a natural turn for reading missioners; all animal food, from a and intellectual pursuits probably bullock to a rabbit, being strictly preserved me from the moral ship-interdicted; as well as all fluids wreck, so apt to befall those who stronger than that which lays dust, are deprived in early life of the washes pinafores, and waters polypaternal pilotage. At the very anthus. But 'the feast of reason least, my books kept me aloof from and the flow of soul' were still mine. the ring, the dog-pit, the tavern, Denied beef, I had Bulwer and Cowand the saloon, with their degrading per,-forbidden mutton, there was orgies. For the closet associate of Lamb,-and in lieu of pork, the great Pope and Addison-the mind ac- Bacon or Hogg. customed to the noble, though silent, discourse of Shakspeare and Milton-will hardly seek, or put up with, low company and slang. The reading animal will not be content with the brutish wallowings that satisfy the unlearned pigs of the world.

"Later experience enables me to depose to the comfort and blessing that literature can prove in seasons of sickness and sorrow-how powerfully intellectual pursuits can help in keeping the head from crazing, and the heart from breaking,-nay, not to be too grave, how generous mental food can even atone for a meagre diet-rich fare on the paper for short commons on the cloth.

66

Then, as to beverage, it was hard, doubtless, for a Christian to set his face like a Turk against the juice of the grape. But, eschewing wine, I had still my Butler; and in the absence of liquor, all the choice spirits from Tom Browne to Tom Moore.

66

Thus, though confined, physically, to the drink that drowns kittens, I quaffed mentally, not merely the best of our own home-made, but the rich, racy, sparkling growths of France and Italy, of Germany and Spain-the champagne of Moliére, and the Monte Pulciano of Boccaccio, the hock of Schiller, and the sherry of Cervantes. Depressed bodily by the fluid that damps every thing, I got intellectually elevated with Milton, a little merry with Swift, or rather jolly with Rabelais, whose Pantagruel, by the way, is quite equal to the best gruel with rum in it.

"Poisoned by the malaria of the Dutch marshes, my stomach, for many months, resolutely set itself against fish, flesh, or fowl; my appetite had no more edge than the German knife placed before me. But, luckily, the mental palate and "So far can literature palliate or digestion were still sensible and compensate for gastronomical privigorous; and whilst I passed un-vations. But there are other evils, tasted every dish at the Rhenish great and small, in this world, which

a

try the stomach less than the head, not be reconciled to a few little the heart, and the temper-bowls ones? that will not roll right-well-laid Many, many a dreary, weary schemes that will 'gang aglee'-and hour have I got over-many ill winds that blow with the perti- gloomy misgiving postponed—many nacity of the monsoon. Of these, a mental or bodily annoyance forProvidence has allotted me a full gotten, by help of the tragedies and share; but still, paradoxical as it comedies of our dramatists and may sound, my burden has been novelists! Many a trouble has been greatly lightened by a load of books. soothed by the still small voice of The manner of this will be best un- the moral philosopher-many a derstood from a feline illustration. dragon-like care charmed to sleep Everybody has heard of the two by the sweet song of the poet; for all Kilkenny cats, who devoured each which I cry incessantly, not aloud, other; but it is not so generally but in my heart, Thanks and honour known that they left behind them to the glorious masters of the pen, an orphan kitten, which, true to the and the great inventors of the press! breed, began to eat itself up, till it "Such has been my own experiwas diverted from the operation by ence of the blessing and comfort of a mouse. Now, the human mind, literature and intellectual pursuits ; under vexation, is like that kitten, and of the same mind, doubtless, for it is apt to prey upon itself, unless was Sir Humphry Davy, who went drawn off by a new object; and for consolations in Travel,' not to none better for the purpose than a the inn or the posting house, but to book; for example, one of Defoe's; his library and his books. I am, for who, in reading his thrilling gentlemen, yours, very truly, History of the Great Plague, would |

"THOS. HOOD."

REPORTING AND REPORTERS.

WILBERFORCE AND MORGAN
O'SULLIVAN.

A certain popular debate, which was about English labourers, being one evening unusually dull, Jack Finnarty, who had but a short time before been imported from Tipperary, said to the only other reporter in the gallery at the time, that he felt very drowsy, and that he would be after taking a little bit of a nap, if he would tell him when he awoke anything which might take place. The other agreed, and Jack, in a moment, was fast locked in the arms of Morpheus. An hour elapsed, and after half a dozen yawns, Jack opened his eyes.

"Has anything happened?" was his first question to his friend.

"To be sure there has," said the

other, whose name was Morgan O'Sullivan.

"Has there, by the powers?" exclaimed Jack, pricking up his ears in the plenitude of his anxiety to learn what it was.

"Yes, Jack, and very important, too."

"And why don't you be after telling it me at once? What was it about?"

"About the virtue of the Irish potato, Jack."

"Was it the Irish potato, you said, Morgan ?"

"The Irish potato, and a most eloquent speech it was."

"Thunder and lightning, then, and why don't you tell it me?"

"I'll read it from my note-book, Jack, and you'll take it down as Í go on," said Morgan.

WILBERFORCE AND MORGAN O'SULLIVAN.

"Och, it's myself, sure, that's! ready at any time to write what any mimber says about our praties. Are you ready to begin?"

It was proposed by some members to call the printers of the different papers in which the speech appeared to the bar of the house, for a breach of privilege; but the matter was eventually allowed to drop.

THE HUMOROUS REPORTER MARK

SUPPLE.

best possible condition for judging asylum. It is for the dignity of of the probability of Mr. Wilber- this house that I feel concerned; force delivering such a speech, they for if honourable members were repaired to their respective offices, capable of listening to such nonand actually gave a copy of it into sense, supposing me capable of the hands of the printer. Next giving expression to it, it were morning it appeared in all the pa- much more appropriate to call this pers, except the one with which a theatre for the performance of Morgan O'Sullivan was connected. farces, than a place for the legislaThe sensation and surprise it tive deliberations of the represencreated in town exceeded every-tatives of the nation." thing. Had it only appeared in one or two of the papers, persons of ordinary intelligence must at once have concluded that there was some mistake about the matter. But its appearing in all the journals except one forced, as it were, people to the conclusion that it must have been actually spoken. The inference was plain. Everybody, while regretting that the necessity should exist, saw that no other course was left but to put Mr. Wilberforce at once into a strait jacket, and provide him with a keeper. In the evening, the house met as usual, and Mr. Wilberforce, on the speaker taking the chair, rose and begged the indulgence of the house for one moment to a matter which concerned it, as well as himself, personally. "Every honourable member," he observed, "has doubtless read the speech of their metamorphosis, and fatherwhich I am represented as having made on the previous night. With the permission of the house, I will read it. (Here the honourable member read the speech amidst deafening roars of laughter.) I can assure honourable members that no one could have read this speech with more surprise than I myself did this morning, when I found the paper on my breakfast table. For myself, personally, I care but little about it, though, if I were capable of uttering such nonsense as is here put into my mouth, it is high time that, instead of being a member of this house, I were an inmate of some lunatic

Mark took his wine frequently at Bellamy's, and then went up into the gallery, and reported like a gentleman and a man of genius. The members hardly knew their own speeches again; but they admired his free and bold manner of dressing them up. None of them ever went to the printing-office of the Morning Chronicle, to complain that the tall Irishman had given a lame sneaking version of their sentiments. They pocketed the affront

ed speeches they had never made. His way was the hyperbole; a strong spice of Orientalism, with a dash of the bogtrotter. His manner seemed to please, and he presumed upon it. One evening, as he sat at his post in the gallery, waiting the issue of things, and a hint to hang his own tropes and figures upon, a dead silence happened to prevail in the house. It was when Mr. Addington was speaker. The bold leader of the press-gang was never bent upon serious business much, and at this time he was particularly full of meat and wine.

Delighted, therefore, with the pause, but thinking that some