Page:Letters to Mothers (1839).djvu/194

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

be better for most of us, if we read less? The periodical publications of the day, act as a stimulant to the mental appetite, provoking it beyond its capacity of digestion. "Nothing, says Dugald Stewart, has such a tendency to weaken, not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as extensive reading, without reflection. Mere reading books, oppresses, enfeebles, and is with many, a substitute for thinking."

That we read too much, and reflect too little,