Reading is the action of reading, a process one learns through the aid of practice.

This process once learned is done using the eyes or aloud. The first only requires the knowledge of letters, of their sounds, and their assembly; it becomes quick through exercise and is sufficient for the scholar. The other manner demands, in order to flatter the ear of the listener, much more than knowing how to read for oneself; it requires, to please those who listen, a perfect comprehension of the things that one reads, a harmonious sound, a distinct pronunciation, a happy flexibility of the vocal organs, as much for the change of tones as for the necessary pauses.

But, whatever the talent of the reader, it never produces the same sentiment of pleasure as keen as that which is born of declamation. When an actor speaks, he animates you, he fills you with his thoughts, and he transfers to you his passions; he presents to you, not an image, but a figure, the object itself. In the action everything is alive, everything moves; the sound of the voice, the beauty of the gesture, in a word everything conspires to give grace or force to the discourse. Reading is devoid of all that strikes the senses; it borrows nothing from that which can shake the mind, it lacks soul and life.

On the other hand, one judges more soundly by reading; what one hears passes quickly, what one reads is digested at leisure. One can comfortably come back to the same places, and discuss, so to speak, each sentence.

We know so well that declamation, recitation, imposes on our judgment; we defer pronouncing on the merit of a work until we finish our reading , as one says, the eye on the paper. The experience we have from our own senses, thus teaches us that the eye is a more severe censor and scrutinizes much more closely than the ear. Yet the book one hears recited, which one hears read agreeably, seduces more than the work one reads oneself in a cold office. It is also in this last way that reading is the most useful; because to reap the whole fruit, it takes silence, rest, and meditation.

I will not showcase the advantages born in droves from reading . Suffice it to say that reading is essential to adorn life and form judgment; without it, the most natural beauty dries up and withers.

However, reading is a punishment for the majority of men; the military men who neglected it in their youth, are incapable of enjoying it at a mature age. Gamblers want a deck of cards and dice to occupy their souls, without requiring that they contribute to their pleasure by continued attention. Financiers, always agitated by their love of interest, are insensitive to the cultivation of their minds. The ministers, the men charged with business of state, do not have the time to read, or if they read now and then, it is, if I may make use of an image from Plato, like runaway slaves who fear their masters.