Which excerpt from "How Should One Read a Book?” best states the author’s purpose? Most commonly we come to books with blurred a
nd divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Thus to go from one great novelist to another—from Jane Austen to Hardy, from Peacock to Trollope, from Scott to Meredith—is to be wrenched and uprooted; to be thrown this way and then that. But a glance at the heterogeneous company on the shelf will show you that writers are very seldom “great artists”; far more often a book makes no claim to be a work of art at all.
"B<span>ut if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. "
This sentence best shows the author's purpose because it is instructing the reader that they should go into reading a book with an open mind. This is the "how" of how a person should read a book. The author also gives the reader an idea of how amazing the experience can be if they just open their minds.</span>
He shows that just being educated and knowing how things work does not mean that you truly and deeply understand and enjoy nature. Scientific explanations remove the magic that nature can have and explaining a star can never be as great as observing stars during a night. That is what Whitman is trying to say.
