Early History of Land-holding among the Germans,_The World's Best Books : A Key to the Treasures of Literature

Ross; etc.

=Malthusianism=.--To take a smaller example. Suppose the student wishes

to make a thorough study of the doctrine of Malthusius in regard to

population, he will have to refer to Macaulay's "Essay on Sadler," and

the works on Political Economy of Ricardo, Chalmers, Roscher, etc., in

support of Malthus, and to George's "Progress and Poverty," Spencer's

"Biology" (Vol. II.), Sadler's "Law of Population," and the works of

Godwin, Greg, Rickards, Doubleday, Carey, Alison, etc., against him.

For an example of a very different kind, cluster about the myth of Cupid

the poems "Cupid and my Campaspe," by Lilly; "The Threat of Cupid,"

translated by Herrick; "Cupid Drowned," by Leigh Hunt; and "Cupid

Stung," by Moore.

A great deal depends on selecting some department of thought and

exhausting it. To know something of everything and everything of

something is the true aim. If a child displays fine musical or artistic

ability, among the books given it ought to be many that bear upon music

and art,--the "Autobiography of Rubenstein;" the Lives of Beethoven,

Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn; and Rocksho's "History of Music,"

Upton's "Woman in Music," Clayton's "Queens of Song," Lillie's "Music

and the Musician," Haweis' "Music and Morals," Jameson's "Lives of the

Painters," Crowest's "Tone Poets," Clement's "Painting and Sculpture,"

Mereweather's "Semele, or the Spirit of Beauty," etc.

Probably these examples, with those to be found in the notes to Table

I., are amply sufficient to show what is meant by grouping the lights of

literature about a single point so as to illuminate it intensely; but

one more specimen will be given, because of the interest the subject has

for us now and is likely to have for many years.

=The Tariff Question= may be studied in Ely's "Problems of To-day,"

Greeley's "Political Economy," Carey's "Principles of Social Science,"

E. P. Smith's "Manual of Political Economy," Byles's "Sophisms of Free

Trade," Thompson's "Social Science and National Economy," Bastiat's

"Sophisms of Protection," Mill's "Political Economy," Sumner's "Lectures

on the History of Protection in the United States," Fawcett's "Free

Trade and Protection," Mongredien's "History of the Free Trade

Movement," Butt's "Protection Free Trade," Walters' "What is Free

Trade," "The Gladstone-Blaine Debate," etc.

TABLE V.

_Showing the Distribution of the Best Literature in Time and Space, with

a Parallel Reference to some of the World's Great Events._

[It was impossible to get the writers of the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries into the unit space. The former fills a

space twice the unit width, and the latter, when it is

complete, will require five units.]

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 900 | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 800 | | Rome founded |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| AEsop | 700 | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 300 | | Wars of Rome |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 200 | | Greece becomes a |

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 200 | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 300 | | Under Constantine |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 400 | | Angles and Saxons |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 500 | | Christianity |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | 900 | | Chivalry begins |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | Nameh | 1066. |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | 1900 | | |

+-------------------------------+------+----------------+-------------------+

REMARKS ON TABLE V.

=Definitions and Divisions=.--Literature is life pulsing through life

upon life; but only when the middle life imparts new beauty to the first

is literature produced in any true and proper sense. The last life is

that of the reader; the middle one that of the author; the first that of

the person or age he pictures. Literature is the past pouring itself

into the present. Every great man consumes and digests his own times.

Shakspeare gives us the England of the 16th century, with the added

qualities of beauty, ideality, and order. When we read Gibbon's "Rome,"

it is really the life of all those turbulent times of which he writes

that is pouring upon us through the channels of genius. Dante paints

with his own sublime skill the portraits of Italy in the 14th century,

of his own rich, inner life, and of the universal human soul in one

composite masterpiece of art. In one of Munchausen's stories, a bugler

on the stage-top in St. Petersburg was surprised to find that the bugle

stopped in the middle of the song. Afterward, in Italy, sweet music was

heard, and upon investigation it was found that a part of the song had

been frozen in the instrument in Russia, and thawed in the warmer air of

Italy. So the music of river and breeze, of battle and banquet, was

frozen in the verse of Homer nearly three thousand years ago, and is

ready at any time, under the heat of our earnest study, to pour its

harmony into our lives.

It is the fact that beauty is added by the author which distinguishes

_Literature_ from the pictures of life that are given to us by newspaper

reporters, tables of statistics, etc. Literature is not merely life,--it

is life _crystallized in art_. This is the first great line dividing the

Literary from the Non-Literary. The first class is again divided into

Poetry and Prose. In the first the form is measured, and the substance

imagery and imagination. In the latter the form is unmeasured, and the

substance direct. Imagery is the heart of poetry, and rhythm its body.

The thought must be expressed not in words merely, but in words that

convey other thoughts through which the first shines. The inner life is

pictured in the language of external Nature, and Nature is painted in

the colors of the heart. The poet must dip his brush in that eternal

paint-pot from which the forests and fields, the mountains, the sky, and

the stars were painted. He must throw human life out upon the world, and

draw the world into the stream of his own thought. Sometimes we find the

substance of the poetic in the dress of prose, as in Emerson's and in

Ingersoll's lectures, and then we have the prose poem; and sometimes we

find the form of poetry with only the direct expression, which is the

substance of prose, or perhaps without even the substance of _literary_

prose, as in parts of Wordsworth, Pope, Longfellow, Homer, Tennyson,

and even sometimes in Shakspeare; see, for example, Tennyson's "Dirge."

=Tests for the Choice of Books=.--In deciding which of those glorious

ships that sail the ages, bringing their precious freight of genius to

every time and people, we shall invite into our ports, we must consider

the nature of the crew, the beauty, strength, and size of the vessel,

the depth of our harbor, the character of the cargo, and our own wants.

In estimating the value of a book, we have to note (1) the kind of life

that forms its material; (2) the qualities of the author,--that is, of

the life through which the stream comes to us, and whose spirit is

caught by the current, as the breezes that come through the garden bear

with them the perfume of flowers that they touch; (3) the form of the

book, its music, simplicity, size, and artistic shape; (4) its merits,

compared with the rest of the books in its own sphere of thought; (5)

its fame; (6) our abilities; and (7) our needs. There result several

tests of the claims of any book upon our attention.

I. What effect will it have upon character? Will it make me more

careful, earnest, sincere, placid, sympathetic, gay, enthusiastic,

loving, generous, pure, and brave by exercising these emotions in me,

and more abhorrent of evil by showing me its loathsomeness; or more

sorrowful, fretful, cruel, envious, vindictive, cowardly, and false,

less reverent of right and more attracted by evil, by picturing good as

coming from contemptible sources, and evil as clothed with beauty? Is

the author such a man as I would wish to be the companion of my heart,

or such as I must study to avoid?

II. What effect will the book produce upon the mind? Will it exercise

and strengthen my fancy, imagination, memory, invention, originality,

insight, breadth, common-sense, and philosophic power? Will it make me

bright, witty, reasonable, and tolerant? Will it give me the quality of

intellectual beauty? Will it give me a deeper knowledge of human life,

of Nature, and of my business, or open the doorways of any great temple

of science where I am as yet a stranger? Will it help to build a

standard of taste in literature for the guidance of myself and others?

Will it give me a knowledge of what other people are thinking and

feeling, thus opening the avenues of communication between my life and

theirs?

III. What will be the effect on my skills and accomplishments? Will it

store my mind full of beautiful thoughts and images that will make my

conversation a delight and profit to my friends? Will it teach me how to

write with power, give me the art of thinking clearly and expressing my

thought with force and attractiveness? Will it supply a knowledge of the

best means of attaining any other desired art or accomplishment?

IV. Is the book simple enough for me? Is it within my grasp? If not, I

must wait till I have come upon a level with it.

V. Will the book impart a pleasure in the very reading? This test alone

is not reliable; for till our taste is formed, the trouble may not be in

it but in ourselves.

VI. Has it been superseded by a later book, or has its truth passed into

the every-day life of the race? If so, I do not need to read it. Other

things equal, the authors nearest to us in time and space have the

greatest claims on our attention. Especially is this true in science, in

which each succeeding great book sucks the life out of all its

predecessors. In poetry there is a principle that operates in the

opposite direction; for what comes last is often but an imitation, that

lacks the fire and force of the original. Nature is best painted, not

from books, but from her own sweet face.

VII. What is the relation of the book to the completeness of my

development? Will it fill a gap in the walls of my building? Other

things equal, I had better read about something I know nothing of than

about something I am familiar with; for the aim is to get a picture of

the universe in my brain, and a full development of my whole nature. It

is a good plan to read everything of something and something of

everything. A too general reader seems vague and hazy, as if he were fed

on fog; and a too special reader is narrow and hard, as if fed on

needles.

VIII. Is the matter inviting my attention of permanent value? The

profits of reading what is merely of the moment are not so great as

those accruing from the reading of literature that is of all time. To

hear the gossip of the street is not as valuable as to hear the lectures

of Joseph Cook, or the sermons of Beecher and Brooks. On this principle,

most of our time should be spent on classics, and very little upon

transient matter. There is a vast amount of energy wasted in this

country in the reading of newspapers and periodicals. The newspaper is a

wonderful thing. It brings the whole huge earth to me in a little brown

wrapper every morning. The editor is a sort of travelling stage-manager,

who sets up his booth on my desk every day, bringing with him the

greatest performers from all the countries of the world, to play their

parts before my eyes. Yonder is an immense mass-meeting; and that mite,

brandishing his mandibles in an excited manner, is the great Mr.

So-and-So, explaining his position amid the tumultuous explosions of an

appreciative multitude. That puffet of smoke and dust to the right is a

revolution. There in the shadow of the wood comes an old man who lays

down a scythe and glass while he shifts the scenes, and we see a bony

hand reaching out to snatch back a player in the midst of his part, and

even trying to clutch the showman himself. For three dollars a year I

can buy a season ticket to this great Globe theatre, for which God

writes the dramas, whose scene-shifter is Time, and whose curtain is

rung down by Death.[1] But theatre-going, if kept up continuously, is

very enervating. 'T is better far to read the hand-bills and placards

at the door, and only when the play is great go in. Glance at the

head-lines of the paper always; read the mighty pages seldom. The

editors could save the nation millions of rich hours by a daily column

of _brief but complete_ statements of the paper's contents, instead of

those flaring head-lines that allure but do not satisfy, and only lead

us on to read that Mr. Windbag nominated Mr. Darkhorse amid great

applause, and that Mr. Darkhorse accepted in a three-column speech

skilfully constructed so as to commit himself to nothing; or that Mr.

Bondholder's daughter was married, and that Mrs. So-and-So wore cream

satin and point lace, with roses, etc.

[1] Adapted from Lowell.

=Intrinsic Merit=.--It must be noted that the tests of intrinsic merit

are not precisely the same as the tests for the choice of books. The

latter include the former and more. Intrinsic merit depends on the

character impressed upon the book by its subject-matter and the author;

but in determining the claims of a book upon the attention of the

ordinary English reader, it is necessary not only to look at the book

itself, but also to consider the needs and abilities of the reader. One

may not be able to read the book that is intrinsically the best, because

of the want of time or lack of sufficient mental development. Green's

"Short History of England" and Dickens' "Child's History of England" may

not be the greatest works in their department, but they may have the

_greatest claims on the attention_ of one whose time or ability is

limited. A chief need of every one is to know what others are thinking

and feeling. To open up avenues of communication between mind and mind

is one of the great objects of reading. Now it often happens that a book

of no very high merit artistically considered--a book that can never

take rank as a classic--becomes very famous, and is for a time the

subject of much comment and conversation. In such cases all who would

remain in thorough sympathy with their fellows must give the book at

least a hasty reading, or in some way gain a knowledge of its contents.

Intrinsically "Robert Elsmere" and "Looking Backward" may not be worthy

of high rank (though I am by no means so sure of this as many of the

critics seem to be); but their fame, joined as it is with high motive,

entitles them to a reading.

It is always a good plan, however, to endeavor to ascertain the absolute

or intrinsic merit of a book first, and afterward arrive at the relative

value or claim upon the attention by making the correction required by

the time and place, later publications in the same department, the

peculiar needs and abilities of readers, etc.

In testing intrinsic worth we must consider--

Motive.

Magnitude.

Unity.

Universality.

Suggestiveness.

Expression.

=Motive=.--The purpose of the author and the emotional character of the

subject matter are of great importance. A noble subject nobly handled

begets nobility in the reader, and a spirit of meanness brought into a

book by its subject or author also impresses itself upon those who come

in contact with it. Kind, loving books make the world more

tender-hearted; coarse and lustful books degrade mankind. The nobility

of the sentiment in and underlying a work is therefore a test of prime

importance.