What would bring someone to read this? Why should someone spend his time plowing through some text? Before someone’s eyes pass over these words, prior to the effort necessary for comprehension, of turning squiggles into symbols, is the consent of the will to the act. No one will seek what he doesn’t wish to find. No one will come here and read unless he is already possessed of some inclination to do so.

Follow up:

What brings someone to investigate a subject? There is so much to read that one must be selective. Someone who nurtures a keen interest in gardening may turn to a gardening journal; someone else will not. The former will expand his knowledge of gardening (if the journal is of value), the latter will not. Obviously, one has found some value in gardening; something worth his effort. He believes he spends his time profitably. The other places a lower value on gardening or perhaps disregards it altogether. Is it not plausible to maintain any of these positions? One’s interests change with time. What fascinated at ten bores at twenty, and one’s interests at forty will be different yet. A gardener at twenty may not even water a plant at thirty.

Often attributed to Herbert Spenser is the quote “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” No one investigates what he doesn’t feel worth investigating. No one listens to what he doesn’t think worth listening to. Tautological as this is, the underlying principle is worth unearthing. What brings a man to value some particular thing, to think it worth his time and effort? What brings a man to hold one principle and not another?

If one thinks a particular author has nothing to say, he will not bother to pick him up and read him. If this action is founded on sound judgment, then time has been saved. If this judgment is in error, however, then there is loss. The loss possible even in trivial matters can be great. Consider that failure to know something even as intellectually undemanding as the rules of the road may result in catastrophic mishap.

No man seeks what he believes he already has. No one will seek sound judgment if he already believes he possesses it, and it is our judgment which directs our wills. Easily one can enter a prison of himself, bounded by walls formed of his own judgments. It is a prison from which one does not wish to escape; all the more insidious for it.