XI
SERIOUS READING
Novels are excluded from "serious reading," so that the man who, bent1 on self-improvement, has been deciding to devote ninety minutes three times a week to a complete study of the works of Charles Dickens will be well advised to alter his plans. The reason is not that novels are not serious—some of the great literature of the world is in the form of prose fiction—the reason is that bad novels ought not to be read, and that good novels never demand any appreciable2 mental application on the part of the reader. It is only the bad parts of Meredith's novels that are difficult. A good novel rushes you forward like a skiff down a stream, and you arrive at the end, perhaps breathless, but unexhausted. The best novels involve the least strain. Now in the cultivation3 of the mind one of the most important factors is precisely4 the feeling of strain, of difficulty, of a task which one part of you is anxious to achieve and another part of you is anxious to shirk; and that feeling cannot be got in facing a novel. You do not set your teeth in order to read "Anna Karenina." Therefore, though you should read novels, you should not read them in those ninety minutes.
Imaginative poetry produces a far greater mental strain than novels. It produces probably the severest strain of any form of literature. It is the highest form of literature. It yields the highest form of pleasure, and teaches the highest form of wisdom. In a word, there is nothing to compare with it. I say this with sad consciousness of the fact that the majority of people do not read poetry.
I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted with the alternatives of reading "Paradise Lost" and going round Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would choose the ordeal5 of public ridicule6. Still, I will never cease advising my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything.
If poetry is what is called "a sealed book" to you, begin by reading Hazlitt's famous essay on the nature of "poetry in general." It is the best thing of its kind in English, and no one who has read it can possibly be under the misapprehension that poetry is a mediaeval torture, or a mad elephant, or a gun that will go off by itself and kill at forty paces. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the mental state of the man who, after reading Hazlitt's essay, is not urgently desirous of reading some poetry before his next meal. If the essay so inspires you I would suggest that you make a commencement with purely7 narrative8 poetry.
There is an infinitely9 finer English novel, written by a woman, than anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which perhaps you have not read. Its title is "Aurora10 Leigh," and its author E.B. Browning. It happens to be written in verse, and to contain a considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to read that book through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is fine poetry. Read it simply for the story and the social ideas. And when you have done, ask yourself honestly whether you still dislike poetry. I have known more than one person to whom "Aurora Leigh" has been the means of proving that in assuming they hated poetry they were entirely11 mistaken.
Of course, if, after Hazlitt, and such an experiment made in the light of Hazlitt, you are finally assured that there is something in you which is antagonistic12 to poetry, you must be content with history or philosophy. I shall regret it, yet not inconsolably. "The Decline and Fall" is not to be named in the same day with "Paradise Lost," but it is a vastly pretty thing; and Herbert Spencer's "First Principles" simply laughs at the claims of poetry and refuses to be accepted as aught but the most majestic13 product of any human mind. I do not suggest that either of these works is suitable for a tyro14 in mental strains. But I see no reason why any man of average intelligence should not, after a year of continuous reading, be fit to assault the supreme15 masterpieces of history or philosophy. The great convenience of masterpieces is that they are so astonishingly lucid16.
I suggest no particular work as a start. The attempt would be futile17 in the space of my command. But I have two general suggestions of a certain importance. The first is to define the direction and scope of your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a single author. Say to yourself: "I will know something about the French Revolution, or the rise of railways, or the works of John Keats." And during a given period, to be settled beforehand, confine yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure to be derived18 from being a specialist.
The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their sole object being motion. They will tell you how many books they have read in a year.
Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing19 reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, your ninety minutes of a night are chiefly wasted. This means that your pace will be slow.
Never mind.
Forget the goal; think only of the surrounding country; and after a period, perhaps when you least expect it, you will suddenly find yourself in a lovely town on a hill.
1 bent [bent] 第7级 | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的;v.(使)弯曲,屈身(bend的过去式和过去分词) | |
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2 appreciable [əˈpri:ʃəbl] 第8级 | |
adj.明显的,可见的,可估量的,可觉察的 | |
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3 cultivation [ˌkʌltɪˈveɪʃn] 第8级 | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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4 precisely [prɪˈsaɪsli] 第8级 | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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5 ordeal [ɔ:ˈdi:l] 第8级 | |
n.苦难经历,(尤指对品格、耐力的)严峻考验 | |
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6 ridicule [ˈrɪdɪkju:l] 第8级 | |
vt.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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7 purely [ˈpjʊəli] 第8级 | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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8 narrative [ˈnærətɪv] 第7级 | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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9 infinitely [ˈɪnfɪnətli] 第7级 | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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10 aurora [ɔ:'rɔ:rə] 第11级 | |
n.极光 | |
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11 entirely [ɪnˈtaɪəli] 第9级 | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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12 antagonistic [ænˌtægəˈnɪstɪk] 第11级 | |
adj.敌对的 | |
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13 majestic [məˈdʒestɪk] 第8级 | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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14 tyro [ˈtaɪrəʊ] 第10级 | |
n.初学者;生手 | |
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15 supreme [su:ˈpri:m] 第7级 | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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16 lucid [ˈlu:sɪd] 第8级 | |
adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的 | |
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17 futile [ˈfju:taɪl] 第8级 | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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