With the exception of one line of thought, to which I will return, all philosophies require their students to engage in ceaseless reading and writing, as if there were always some extra point of value to learn or to add. Something very similar happens in some branches of the humanities that we would be wary of honouring with the term "philosophy", though they too certainly have their philosophies. English, or History, for example require an immersion in words before a degree is granted. Give the rule (Constable's Rule), that the importance of literature to a society is in inverse proportion to the number of books available, where the number is always more than zero, we should be cautious of paying much attention to the widely read, or being more than courteous to writers. Once a society has found a few texts by which to live there is no reason why it should not cease to produce more, except that societal change renders obsolete any adopted canon. Individuals may do better, but tend to be tormented with the suspicion that they do not have quite the best available; in intellectual matters we tend to prefer a lifetime of one-night stands to marriage, or, better still, a marriage supplemented by an indefinite number of affairs. Since the total eradication of the printed word is unlikely, and more than should be hoped for, there is one option: Chastity in a marriage to Scepticism, the great exception to which we all return for reinnoculation, deinfestation, and antibiosis.