The worst of it is that other people can never read a paper for us. Most people don't try; they put us off.
If ever a La Rochefoucauld compiles the sententiæ of the breakfast-room he must include such apophthegms as these:—
Even the most determined opponent of journalism becomes alert and prehensile on the arrival of the paper.
He is a poor master of a house who does not insist upon the first sight of the paper.
He is a poor master of a house who, on being asked if there is any news of-day, replies in the affirmative.
No papers require so much reading as those with "nothing in them."
He is a poor citizen who could not edit a paper better than its editor.
Into what La Rochefoucauld would say when he came to deal not with the readers of papers but with papers themselves, I cannot enter. That is a different and a vaster matter. But certainly he should include this pensée:—
He is a poor editor who does not know more than the Prime Minister.