11-13-1928

29-43

PREFACE

IN this age, when one has the wealth of the past to draw from as well as the tremendous output of presentday writers, the problem of selecting essays is not so much that of choosing the best as that of putting aside the equally good. Despite the vast amount of material to tempt the compiler, a collection of essays chosen by one man necessarily represents his personal judgment and, to a certain extent, his individual interests. Adventures in Essay Reading cannot, however, claim that element of unity. Instead, it reflects in a composite way the judgments and interests of a large staff of instructors. Each member of the Department of Rhetoric of the University of Michigan was asked to place in the hands of a committee a list of the ten essays he would select for his first-year students. Naturally the total list was long and varied. The essays most frequently mentioned were given first consideration by the committee of editors, but inability in many cases to secure the reprinting privilege from authors and owners of copyrights made it impossible to include all the favorites.

The dominant questions in the mind of each instructor as he made his selections were probably: Will this essay appeal to college students? Will it prompt them to read more from the same author? Will it give them a taste of the joy of thinking? One may assume that the idea of selecting pieces which would serve as models for writing was present, but incidentally.

Authors and publishers have been generous in allowing the inclusion of modern copyrighted essays.

OF STUDIES 1

FRANCIS BACON

STUDIES serve for pastimes, for ornaments, and for abilities. Their chief use for pastime is in privateness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse, and for ability is in judgment. For expert men can execute, but learned men are fittest to judge or censure.

To spend too much time in them is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar.

They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience. Crafty men contemn them, simple men admire them, wise men use them, for they teach not their own use, but that there is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation.

Read not to contradict, nor to believe, but to weigh and consider.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read but cursorily, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. And therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read 1 First published in 1597.