To James Craven

With regard to reading, I would advise you to confine yourself rigorously to a certain course for a certain period.¹ I have wasted a great deal of time in allowing my thoughts to be diffused over too many subjects at once. We get very little profit by such a method of study – it completely annuls the power of concentration. Above all things, remember this – that the number of books you read is no index to the amount of benefit you derive from reading. I know one or two most extensive readers who could talk for half a century about various systems of Philosophy, and can tell you the opinions of this and that great man upon such and such subjects; and yet the intellectual power of these readers is truly contemptible. They are merely so many conduit pipes through which information from some other spring finds a passage – throw them into circumstances which demand the exercise of original power, and they get instantly tangled and helpless. This comes from their having contented themselves with driving a retail trade in the opinions of other men, without enquiring into the reasons of these opinions.

The best way of reading is, I imagine, the following: – Don’t spend too much time in unravelling the difficulties of your book during the first perusal – give yourself a general acquaintance with it first. Then commence afresh, and go over it chapter by chapter, looking at the question in all possible lights, and noting down your observations in writing – thus proceed, till you complete your treaties; you will sometimes perhaps find that towards the end you understand the subject better than the author. This may seem tedious, but if the book be worth reading at all it is worth understanding, and the means I have here described, I imagine, are the best to this end. Once master of this subject, it does not lie like a crudity upon your intellect – you go forth with fresh strength to meet the next difficulty.

There is a temptation to which many young men of brilliant parts are exposed – the temptation to appear learned in society. When asked ‘Have you read so-and-so?’ you don’t like to say no, and thus, when you find books talked of, you are tempted to read them merely for the purpose of saying you have read them. If you allow yourself to be overcome in this way, there is no end to your task – and what is worse, there is no profit – you defraud yourself of your own manhood, and convert yourself into a kind of hamper basket for stowing away the products of braver minds. Take time with your reading – let your patience be inexhaustible, and instead of being led away by the goose-cackle of society, think that your mission is to lead society, not to follow it. Now, are you tired of me? I don’t think you are, for if I did I should not have written so much. I have a kind of faith that what I say to you you will not reject. I reckon upon your diligence, for I feel a personal interest in your progress. We shall probably meet in after years. Let me see you a man.

RI MS JT/2/Hirst Journal/86-87 Hirst Journal Transcript Only