As regards _reading_, to require that a man shall retain everything he has ever read, is like asking him to carry about with him all he has ever eaten. The one kind of food has given him bodily, and the other mental, nourishment; and it is through these two means that he has grown to be what he is. The body assimilates only that which is like it; and so a man retains in his mind only that which interests him, in other words, that which suits his system of thought or his purposes in life. If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited. _Repetitio est mater studiorum_. Any book that is at all important ought to be at once read through twice; partly because, on a second reading, the connection of the different portions of the book will be better understood, and the beginning comprehended only when the end is known; and partly because we are not in the same temper and disposition on both readings. On the second perusal we get a new view of every passage and a different impression of the whole book, which then appears in another light. A man's works are the quintessence of his mind, and even though he may possess very great capacity, they will always be incomparably more valuable than his conversation. Nay, in all essential matters his works will not only make up for the lack of personal intercourse with him, but they will far surpass it in solid advantages. The writings even of a man of moderate genius may be edifying, worth reading and instructive, because they are his quintessence--the result and fruit of all his thought and study; whilst conversation with him may be unsatisfactory. So it is that we can read books by men in whose company we find nothing to please, and that a high degree of culture leads us to seek entertainment almost wholly from books and not from men. ON CRITICISM. The following brief remarks on the critical faculty are chiefly intended to show that, for the most part, there is no such thing. It is a _rara avis_; almost as rare, indeed, as the phoenix, which appears only once in five hundred years. When we speak of _taste_--an expression not chosen with any regard for it--we mean the discovery, or, it may be only the recognition, of what is _right aesthetically_, apart from the guidance of any rule; and this, either because no rule has as yet been extended to the matter in question, or else because, if existing, it is unknown to the artist, or the critic, as the case may be. Instead of _taste_, we might use the expression _aesthetic sense_, if this were not tautological.