Counsel Upon the Reading of Books (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Counsel Upon the Reading of Books

When it comes to making a book out of lectures of this kind, I must frankly confess that the enterprise has its disadvantages. It adds another volume to Shelves which are already overcrowded. It necessarily loses one of the best factors in the delivery of the lectures: the personality of the speakers. However much books may do for us, living teachers, of the right kind, can always do more. SO far as my own part in the vol ume is concerned, it has a very superfluous aspect, a preface to an introduction, a porch to a portico.

Yet I suppose there are some advantages in the publication of such a volume. And I am sure that the proper line to be followed by the person who has to write the preface is to point out these advantages as clearly as he can.

First of all, then, it seems to me a matter of some interest to Observe that the lecturers look at the subject from different sides. The difference arises not merely from the fact that each lecturer has a distinct and specific theme. It is a difference of temper ament, of method, of the point of View.

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