One loses, in fact, that power to distinguish the important from the trivial which is one of the functions of a sound literary taste.
Now, a study of the minor writing of the past is, of course, well worth a reader's pains.

Pamphlets, chronicle histories, text-books and the like have an historical importance; they give us glimpses of the manners and habits and modes of thought of the day.

They tell us more about the outward show of life than do the greater books.

If you are interested in social history, they are the very thing.

But the student of literature ought to beware of them, nor ought he to touch them till he is familiar with the big and lasting things.