The habit of reading to excess and without discrimination is the subject of a decidedly interesting chapter—one of many such—in Mr. Thomas Sharnol's book entitled: "Originality. A popular study of the creative mind.' Students are so vastly outnumbered by mere readers that, if the view of the author quoted is correct, a little knowledge—real, exact knowledge—is more rare than dangerous. It is, we imagine, characteristic of that well known person, "the general reader," to wince a little at the suggestion that hard study and serious application to books is a desirable thing. 'Courses of study" are not popular among the tribe, and system' is anathema. Mr, Sharnol's reference to the reading of the average man, his inquiry as to how far it is a help or a hindrance to originality, is worth quoting, as well for the interest of the matter as that it may direct some readers a volume which is admirably written and full of entertaining matter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.