Judge Hobart has it. If you read it, be sure to make yourself
mistress of all the terms. But, if you continue your Gibbon, it will
find you in employment for some days. When you are weary of soaring
with him, and wish to descend into common life, read the Comedies of
Plautus. There is a tolerable translation in the City Library. Such
books give the most lively and amusing, perhaps much the most just
picture, of the manners and degree of refinement of the age in which
they were written. I have agreed with Popham for his share in the City
Library.
The reading of one book will invite you to another. I cannot, I fear,
at this distance, advise you successfully; much less can I hope to
assist you in your reading. You bid me be silent as to my
expectations; for the present I obey. Your complaint of your memory,
even if founded in fact, contains nothing discouraging or alarming. I
would not wish you to possess that kind of memory which retains with
accuracy and certainty all names and dates. I never knew it to
accompany much invention or fancy. It is almost the exclusive blessing
of dullness. The mind which perceives clearly adopts and appropriates
an idea, and is thus enlarged and invigorated. It is of little moment
whether the book, the time, or the occasion be recollected.
I am inclined to dilate on these topics, and upon the effects, of
reading and study on the mind; but this would require an essay, and I
have not time to write a letter.
Pages:
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378