3 NOVEMBER 1883, Page 15

READING FOR READING'S SAKE.

I To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")

SIR,—,1 propos of Lord Justice Fry's strictures on reading for mere amusement, may I ask you to find room for the following pregnant extract, from the " Diary of Alexandre Vint "P It offers a test which solitary reading would probably be better able to meet than any reading society :—" La lecture me suffit moins que jamais. J'y reconnais toujours plus la paresse qui cherche a se faire illusion. J'en suis venn a reconnattre qu'un Byre est d'autant meilleur, gull me force plus tAt et plus im- periensement I le quitter pour penser, on pour composer sur rid& gull a fait surgir en moi." How admirably descriptive is that simple phrase, "/a paresse qui cherche a se faire illusion"! —I am, Sir, &c.,