BOOKS.
Books have an influence on life and conduct the extent of which it is
impossible to estimate. "The precepts they inculcate, the lessons they
exhibit, the ideals of life and character which they portray, root
themselves in the thoughts and imaginations of young men. They seize
them with a force which, in after years, appears scarcely possible."
These words of Principal Tulloch will not appear too strong to any one
who can look back over a long period of life. Such must ever feel that
books have had a powerful effect in making them all that they are.
There are many considerations that go to show the importance of books.
Books are the accumulated treasures of generations.--They are to man
what memory is to the individual. If all the libraries in the world
were burned and all the books in the world destroyed, the past would be
little more than a blank. It would be a calamity corresponding to that
of a man losing by a stroke the memory of past years. The literature
of the world is the world's memory, the world's experience, the world's
failures. It teaches us where we came from. It tells us of the paths
we have travelled. Almost all we know of the history of this world in
which God has placed us we know from books. "In books," as Carlyle
says, "lie the creative Phoenix ashes of the whole past--all that men
have desired, discovered, done, felt, or imagined, lie recorded in
books, wherein whoso has learned the mystery of spelling printed
letters may find it and appropriate it."
Books open to us a society from which otherwise we would be
excluded.--They introduce us into a great human company. They enable
us, however humble we may be, to hold converse with the great and good
of past ages and of the present time--the great philosophers,
philanthropists, poets, divines, travellers. We know their thoughts,
we hear their words, we clasp their hands. The chamber of the solitary
student is peopled with immortal guests. He has friends who are always
steadfast, who are never false, who are silent when he is weary, who go
forth with him to his work, who await his return. In the literature of
the world a grand society is open to all who choose to enter it.
Books are the chief food of our intellectual life.--There are men that
have, indeed, done great things who have read but little. These have
had their want of mental training compensated by their powers of
observation and experience of life. But they have been for the most
part exceptional men, and it is possible they might have done better if
they had studied more. To the great majority of men books are the
great teachers, the chief ministers to self-culture. Books in a
special manner represent intellect to those who can appreciate them.
We cannot estimate in this aspect their importance. They are in regard
to self-culture what Montaigne calls "the best viaticum for the journey
of life." When we think of what we owe to them, we may enter into the
feelings of Charles Lamb, who "wished to ask a grace before reading
more than a grace before meat."
In regard to books, the practical questions that present themselves
are, what we should read, and how we should read. The first question
cannot be answered in any definite manner. (_a_) The enormous number
of books in the world forbids this. Let any one enter a library of
even moderate size, and he will feel how almost hopeless it would be,
even if it were profitable, to draw out a practicable list of what may
be advantageously chosen for reading and what may well be cast aside.
(_b_) Still more does the infinite variety of tastes, circumstances:
and talents, forbid the laying down of definite rules. Reading that
might be profitable for one might not be so for another. Reading that
would be pleasant to one would be to another weariness. Every class of
mind seeks naturally its own proper food, and the choice of books must
ultimately depend upon a man's own bias--on his natural bent and the
necessities of his life. There are, however, one or two directions
that may be given, and which may be profitable to young men.
_First_, We should read, as far as possible, _the great books of the
world_. In the kingdom of literature there are certain works that
stand by themselves and tower in their grandeur above all others. They
are referred to by Bacon, in his weighty way, when he says: "Some books
are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, some few to be chewed and
digested." This last class of books may be still spoken of as few.
Various lists have lately been published of the best hundred books,
according to the opinion of some of the greatest men of our time.
There is considerable agreement among the writers as to what they
consider the best books, and there is considerable difference also. It
is easy to see how those who compiled these lists have been largely
influenced in making their selection by their own peculiar tastes and
fancies. Probably there is not one of their lists which any young man
would care to follow out in its entirety. We give elsewhere the one
which seems most likely to be useful to those into whose hands this
text-book may probably come,[1] though it is evident that many young
men might profitably leave out some of the books mentioned and
substitute others. Still one thing is clear, that it is possible to
make a selection of outstanding works in literature. After
consultation with others better informed than himself, a young man can
make a list suitable to his capacities and tastes, of books that really
are _great_ books, and in this way he may acquire knowledge that is
worth having, and which will furnish a good and solid foundation for
his intellectual culture. It is with books of this kind that he should
begin, and a few such books thoroughly mastered will probably do him
more good than all others that he may afterwards read.
It is hardly necessary to say that there is _one_ book that may be
termed specially great, and which all young men should make the special
subject of their study. (_a_) The Bible, even as a means of
intellectual culture, stands alone and above all others. "In the
poorest cottages," says Carlyle, "is one book wherein for several
thousands of years the spirit of man has found light and nourishment,
and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in him." No man
can be regarded as an educated man unless he is familiar with this
book. To understand its history and position in the world is in itself
a liberal education. Those who have been indifferent to its spiritual
power and divine claims have acknowledged its great importance in
regard to self-culture. "Take the Bible," says Professor Huxley, "as a
whole, make the severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate
for shortcomings and for positive errors, and there still remains in
this old literature a vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur; and
then consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this
book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in
English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, and
is familiar to noble and simple from John o' Groat's house to Land's
End; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds
in exquisite beauties of a mere literary form; and finally, that it
forbids the merest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of
the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of a
great past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the oldest
nations of the world. By the study of what other book could children
be so much humanized?" In these words we have a noble tribute to the
intellectual greatness of the Bible. (_b_) But it has other claims
upon us than its power to stimulate mental culture. It is inspired by
God. "It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness." It is man's guide through the
perplexities of life to the glory of heaven, "Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word."
Read then the great books of the world, and this book, the greatest of
all.
_Second_, Another suggestion that we may make in regard to the use of
books is that _we should read from some centre or standpoint_. A
person takes a house in the country. This he makes the centre of many
excursions. One day he climbs the mountain, another day he walks by
winding stream, on another he sails along the shore. In this way he
explores the surrounding country by degrees, coming back each night to
the place he started from. We may do much the same thing with profit
in our excursions among books. For instance, we may take the
starting-point of our _profession_, and read all we can in regard to
it. A farmer should read about farming, a lawyer about law, a divine
about theology. Or we may take the starting-point of our _physical
frame_, and read steadily all we can as to our bodily organisation and
its laws; or we may take as our starting point the _land_ we dwell in,
or even the locality where we live, and seek to learn all we can
regarding its history. In this way distinct lines of study are opened
up to us, and we are saved the evil of desultory reading, which too
often fills the mind only with a jumble of facts undigested and
unarranged, and therefore of but little value. The writer knew a young
minister in a Scottish manse who had among the few books in his library
the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. In this work he took up distinct
courses of reading--a course of biography, a course of history, a
course of geography--and in this way he acquired knowledge well
systematized, which was of great value to him in his after life. We
should endeavor, according to some such method as we have indicated, to
carry on our reading. "Every man and every woman who can read at all
should adopt some definite purpose in their reading, should take
something for the main stem and trunk of their culture, whence branches
might grow out in all directions, seeking air and light for the parent
tree, which it is hoped might end in becoming something useful and
ornamental, and which at any rate all along will have had life and
growth in it." These words of Sir Arthur Helps put very tersely the
point on which we have been insisting.
_Third_, We should read books _on the same principle as we associate
with men_. We only admit to our society those whom we deem worthy of
our acquaintance, and from whose intercourse we are likely to derive
benefit. We should do the same in regards to books. There are people
who read books which, if they took to themselves bodily form and became
personified, would be kicked out of their houses. Readers often
associate in literature with what is vile and contemptible, who would
never think of associating with people possessing a similar character.
Yet the society of a weak or bad book is just as harmful to us in its
way, and should be as little tolerated by us as the society of a weak
or bad man. Indeed, between an author and a careful reader there is an
intimacy established even closer than is possible in the intercourse of
life, and evil books poison the springs of thought and feeling much
more thoroughly than an evil acquaintanceship could do. We cannot be
too strict, therefore, in applying to books the rules we follow in
regard to society, and refusing our acquaintance to those books
unworthy of it. (_a_) Such books may be known by reputation. We would
not associate with a man of bad reputation, neither should we read a
book of which the reputation is evil. (_b_) They may be judged of also
by very slight experience. Very little tells us whether a man is
worthy to be admitted to companionship, and very slight acquaintance
with a book is sufficient to tell us whether it is worth reading.
(_c_) But especially by beginning with those great authors that are
beyond doubt high toned, "the master-spirits of all time," we shall
acquire a power of discrimination. We shall no more care to read foul,
impure, and unwholesome literature than a man brought up in the society
of honorable men would choose to cast in his lot with thieves and
blacklegs and the offscourings of society.
We have anticipated much that might be said in answer to the question
_how_ to read, and only a few words need be written in regard to it.
(1) Read with interest. Unless a book interests us we do not attend to
it, we get no benefit whatever from it, and may as well throw it aside.
(2) Read actively, not passively, putting the book under
cross-examination as we go along--asking questions regarding it,
weighing arguments. Mere passive reading may do no more good than the
stream does to the iron pipe through which it flows. Novel-readers are
often mere passive recipients of the stories, and thus get no real
benefit from them. (3) Read according to some system or method. (4)
Read not always for relaxation, recreation, and amusement, but chiefly
to enable you to perform the duties to which God has called you in
daily life.
[1] See Appendix.