7156. READING, Passion for.—
My repugnance
to the writing table becomes daily and
hourly more deadly and insurmountable. In
place of this has come on a canine appetite for
reading. And I indulge in it, because I see in it
a relief against the tœdium senectutis; a lamp
to lighten my path through the dreary wilderness
of time before me, whose bourne I see not.
Losing daily all interest in the things around
us, something else is necessary to fill the void.
With me it is reading, which occupies the mind
without the labor of producing ideas from my
own stock.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vii, 104.
Ford ed., x, 108.
(M.
1818)
