VOL 10.
MAY 29, 1908.
NO. 49
How To Read
What To Read
In order to cultivate the mind it is
necessary to read, but one must read
with a purpose. Random reading will
not produce the results most desir
able. In order. to cultivate the mind to,
the greatest possible extent a man or: wo
man must be a student always and dis
criminate in the boo ss they read. In
regard to this matter a recent issue of
the Oregonian contained the following
excerpt which merits the serious con
sideration of all readers, young and old :
It is to be feared that the worship of
Shakespeare, Milton, Gibbon and their
compeers has done much harm in check
ing the reading habit. People in general
cannot enjoy these authors. To read
them is a task unless the mind has been
prepared for it by long training in the
appreciation of style, sublime thought
and intricate argument. Here and there
an exceptional person is born to read
Mich authors with pleasure,'. but not the
common man. If he reads at all it must
be something else. Still, when he asks
for advice about buying books he is told
to begin with The Decline and Fall and
follow that up with Paradise Lost. Now
this is a calamity. He ought to be told
to begin with some author of his own
generation who is aglow with the ideas
of the times.
Literature is a living thing. Each
generation produces its own books, just
as each spring produces its own flowers.
The blossoms of this May are not so
beautiful, perhaps, as those of the Mays
which Dante saw on the hills of Flor
ence, but they are our own, and we must
take the best of them. For everybody
but exceptional persons the rule ought to
be to begin by reading living authors
and gradually work back to the past.
How much about living writers is
taught in the schools? What do pupils,
or teachers, either, know about the
men who are. thinking the thoughtsjbf our
day and, therefor, moulding the world
for the future?
The beneficiary is never the one who
complains of the cost of life insurance.
It is almost as bad to support a friend
for office as tt is to run yourself.
'. You never learn what church some
men belong to until their funerals occur.