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 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,