2. At the English universities, a hard student, nearly equivalent to READING MAN.
Most of the Cantabs are late readers, so that, supposing one of them to begin at seven, he will not leave off before half past eleven.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 21.
READERSHIP. In the University of Oxford, the office of a reader or lecturer on scientific subjects.—Lyell.
READING. In the academic sense, studying.
One would hardly suspect them to be students at all, did not the number of glasses hint that those who carried them had impaired their sight by late reading.—Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 5.
READING MAN. In the English universities, a reading man is a hard student, or one who is entirely devoted to his collegiate studies.—Webster.
The distinction between "reading men" and "non-reading men" began to manifest itself.—Alma Mater, Vol. I. p. 169.
We might wonder, perhaps, if in England the "[Greek: oi polloi]" should be "reading men," but with us we should wonder were they not.—Williams Quarterly, Vol. II. p. 15.
READING PARTY. In England, a number of students who in vacation time, and at a distance from the university, pursue their studies together under the direction of a coach, or private tutor.
Of this method of studying, Bristed remarks: "It is not impossible to read on a reading-party; there is only a great chance against your being able to do so. As a very general rule, a man works best in his accustomed place of business, where he has not only his ordinary appliances and helps, but his familiar associations about him. The time lost in settling down and making one's self comfortable and ready for work in a new place is not inconsiderable, and is all clear loss. Moreover, the very idea of a reading-party involves a combination of two things incompatible, —amusement and relaxation beyond the proper and necessary quantity of daily exercise, and hard work at books.