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THE GUARDIAN .
N60 .
be no book well written, but what muſt neceffa
rily improve the underſtanding of the reader, even in the very profeffion to which he applies himſelf. For to reaſon with ſtrength, and ex
preſs himſelf with propriety, muſt equally con cern the divine, the phyſician, and the lawyer.
My own coạrſe of looking into books has occa fioned theſe reflections, and the following ac count may ſuggeſt more. • Having been bred up under a relation that
had a pretty large ſtudy of books, it became my province once a week to duft them .
In the per
formance of this my duty, as I was obliged to
take down every particular book, I thoughtthere was no way to deceive the toil of myjourney through the different abodes and habitations of
theſe authors but by reading ſomething in every one of them ; and in this manner to make my
paffage eaſy from the comely folio in the upper ſhelf or region, even through the crowd of duo decimos in the lower.
By frequent exerciſe I
became ſo great a proficient in this tranſitory ap plication to books, that I could hold open half
a dozen ſmall authors in my hand, graſping them with as ſecure a dexterity as a drawer doth his glaſſes, and feaſting my curious eye with all of them at the ſame inſtant, Through theſe me thods the natural irreſolution of my youth was
much ſtrengthened, and having no leiſure, if I had had inclination, to make pertinent obferva
tions in writing, I was thus confirmed a very early wanderer. When I was ſent to Oxford , my
chiefeſt expence run upon books, and my only conſideration in ſuch expence upon numbers, ſo
