" Your friend would be gratified with so perfect
a figure of speech, and he would never call you "superficial." That is
real experience. It is not theory. A book has little value to a man
until he has read it at least twice. He has then labeled and
pigeon-holed it, and really needs to possess it.
A MAN OUGHT TO READ
his favorite portions of Shakspeare a thousand times--of the Bible a
million times. Reading is much more like painting than we think. Go into
a palace car. Do you think this polish was put on the wood with one
application of the brush--with two, three, four? No; it would possibly
be cheaper to cover it with silk plush than to go over it as the skilled
workmen have done. Let us buy less ephemeral stuff, to be set adrift
and stove in when we have skimmed over it. Let us season our reading,
polish it, grain it, varnish it, repolish it and revarnish it, until we
are just like it ourselves--clear, concise, intelligent. How enjoyable
it is to meet an intelligent person!
WHAT A CHARM
there is about a comrade who can understand what you say, and who can
swap ideas with you "even Steven!" It cannot be done without books.
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