LIBRARIES AND THE CARE OF BOOKS.
We do not get the most out of a book unless we own it; we cannot take
a personal interest in borrowed books, and, although it pleases Mr.
Augustine Birrell to think of the thousands of thumbs that have turned
over its pages with delight, it is difficult really to know a library
book with its soiled pages, battered cover and the date when it must be
returned impending like the Day of Judgment.
There is the same difference between a book that you own and a library
book that there is between a home and a hotel; the one is stamped
with the individuality of its owner, the other is common property. It
is pleasant to have a feeling of proprietorship in the great men of
the past and to speak of _my_ Homer or _my_ Shakespeare. How close
it brings us to a man when we possess a book with his autograph or
book-plate in it, or which, better still, he has read and marked. If
for instance, we owned Lowell’s _Don Quixote_ with the notes written on
its margin in repeated readings from which he drew the material for his
famous address, what an inspiration it would be.
The books that you skim you may borrow. If you buy them they will take
up room on your shelves that may be more profitably employed; but the
books that you wish to read again and again, to ponder over and to
study you must own.
You may have a library full of books, but what you really are is
determined by that part of them which you have read and laid to heart.
Yet the unconscious tuition of books has a real value, we learn to
love them by having them about us. Merely to surround ourselves with
great books and with the portraits of those who have written them has
a refining influence as constant as it is unnoticed. That the essay of
Emerson or the poem of Longfellow is where you can lay your hand on it,
that the kindly faces of the writers look down on you from the wall,
associations such as these sweeten and elevate life.
Although there is a luxurious beauty about an elegant edition that is
not to be lightly esteemed, there is a satisfaction in knowing that we
can derive as much food for thought from a cheap Shakespeare as from
a first folio. The truest book-lovers are those who love the thoughts
that the books contain. Complete editions of standard authors are the
best to own. The print should be large and the books easy to hold and
to open. If edited at all, the work should be done by a competent
scholar. It takes a great deal of editing to spoil a classic, but
nowadays there is too much editing, too much thinking is done for us.
Dr. Johnson thought that books that you may carry to the fire and hold
readily in your hand are the most useful.
The durability of the letter as well as the spirit of a book is
nowadays too often disregarded. Publishers recognize how much a
striking exterior has to do with the sale of a book and pay more
attention to making it attractive than durable. In former times men
had more respect for books. The vellum bound volumes of three hundred
years ago will be in good condition long after the books of to-day have
come to pieces and been thrown away.
If it be true that the degree of civilization of a people may be
measured by its respect for its dead, it is no less true that the
refinement of a household may be estimated by its care for its
books. Some men of letters, however, have been remarkable for their
ill-treatment of books. The poet Young turned down the leaf where there
was a passage that interested him, so that many of his books would not
shut. Voltaire noted his likes and dislikes in books with little regard
to whether they belonged to him or not, while Coleridge said you might
as well turn a bear into a tulip garden as let Wordsworth loose in your
library; and in his _Literary Reminiscences_ DeQuincey records a story
which makes every book-lover shudder, that Wordsworth cut pages of
Burke with a knife that had been used to butter toast.
Mr. Spofford gives some admirable directions for the care of books.
One should never draw books out from the shelf by their head-bands,
or by pulling at the binding, but by placing the finger firmly on the
top of the book, next to the binding and pressing down while drawing
out the volume. Do not wedge books tightly together; do not pile them
on top of each other; do not lay open books down upon their faces,
or place weights upon open books. Books should be kept dry, but not
too warm; if moist they mildew, if too warm they warp. No sensible
person would press plants in any book of value. Do not mark the place
by cards or letters. It weakens the binding. Use thin paper. Do not
touch the engravings in books. Remember that even clean hands may soil
dusty books. Those who follow the injunction of the _Prayer Book_ to
read and mark should be sure that they do so in their own books only.
The suggestion not to wet the fingers in turning the leaf would seem
needless did not observation show that there are persons with whom this
clownish custom still obtains.
A private library should be a growth. It marks the stages of progress
of the mind of its owner; no other property that a man leaves behind
him shows what he really was so fully as his books.
There are few hobbies a man can adopt from which as much enjoyment and
instruction may be derived as from the gradual acquisition of a lot of
books on some subject of special interest. Emerson’s advice “buy in the
line of your genius” is weighty and should be heeded. A man of moderate
means may gradually get together a more complete collection on his
specialty than the richest man could secure at short notice, and his
satisfaction in the growth of such a library can never be experienced
by the wealthy book collector who employs others to do the work for
him. All that is needed is steady attention to buying such books, as
opportunity presents itself. Many of the rarest and most valuable works
cannot be procured on demand and must be bought when found, or the
chance of securing them is gone, perhaps forever.
The gathering of such a collection may be made an education in itself,
and instead of leaving his books to be scattered at his death, as has
been the fate of so many libraries, a prudent man would provide that
they should be kept together and given to a permanent library. Many
an institution would be glad to add to a good private collection on a
particular subject its own books on the subject and make a memorial
alcove to the donor which would prove a far more sensible monument
than a shaft in the cemetery. Now that men have learned to respect
books public libraries are as nearly immortal as any human institution
can be. A great library is the only human institution that can take
all knowledge for its province. Such libraries are mines from which
knowledge may be quarried, and where the ideas of the past may be
adapted to the needs of the present.
In a collection of books on the same subject each adds value to the
other. Many libraries are an ill-assembled throng as useless as the
vast army of Darius.
There is such a thing as an embarrassment of riches. If you have too
many books about you, you may be bewildered so that you do not read
to advantage. “Successful work,” said Lowell, “is the result of a
due proportion between the task and the instrument. Southey, whose
literary industry was so remarkable within the range of his own
library, said ‘that he never should have accomplished anything, if his
energies had been buried under the vast stores of the British Museum.’”
As a workshop the public library may supplement, but it can rarely
take the place of the private library. DeQuincey said that for mere
purposes of study your own library is far preferable to the Bodleian
or the Vatican, and Emerson thought that the best of the Harvard
University library was in his study at home. That was the best for his
own use, because when a man is working in a special line of thought he
accumulates in time a collection of books on that subject that is more
complete than any but the largest library can supply, and he can work
with more facility with books that are familiar to him and ready to
his hand. Emerson’s books, however, would have been of little use to a
Civil Engineer or to an American Historian, while a public library must
provide for the needs of all students in whatever lines of research.
But Emerson was under constant indebtedness to the Harvard library,
in fact, that noble collection of books has played no small part in
the literary development of Boston as well as of the great University.
“The true University of these days,” said Carlyle, “is a collection of
books, and all education is to teach us how to read.”
* * * * *
Read in order that you may know more, be more, do more: books will help
you to accomplish all these things and these things make up the sum of
life, here and hereafter.
Transcriber’s Notes
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Small capitals are changed to all capitals.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected
after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and
consultation of external sources. Except for those changes noted below,
all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have
been retained.
The following corrections have been applied to the text (before/after):
(p. 23)
... pilot with out eyes. ...
... pilot without eyes. ...
(p. 27)
... distracted with thoughs of ...
... distracted with thoughts of ...
(p. 28)
... and first, and last ...
... and first and last ...
(p. 29)
... difficulty in re membering what ...
... difficulty in remembering what ...
(p. 30)
... kind of re-active behavior ...
... kind of reactive behavior ...
(p. 31)
... THE ABUSE OF BOOKS
... THE ABUSE OF BOOKS.
(p. 31)
... first-class houses stay at ...
... first-class houses, stay at ...
(p. 38)
... Schopenhauer calls, “bad books, ...
... Schopenhauer calls “bad books, ...
(p. 38)
... of their readings
... of their readings.
(p. 42)
... ‘It is of paramount ...
... “It is of paramount ...
(p. 44)
... receive the companship and sympathy ...
... receive the companionship and sympathy ...
(p. 46)
... “In studies whatsoever ...
... “In studies, whatsoever ...
(p. 50)
... “Books,’ said Dryden, ...
... “Books,” said Dryden, ...
(p. 50)
... useful qualities Some books ...
... useful qualities. Some books ...
(p. 55)
... mental nourisment of the greater ...
... mental nourishment of the greater ...
(p. 59)
... connect them selves with ...
... connect themselves with ...
(p. 61)
... with a wild surprise--
... with a wild surmise--
(p. 63)
... among mankind To these ...
... among mankind. To these ...
(p. 64)
... opportunity abides n the obvious ...
... opportunity abides in the obvious ...
(p. 66)
... principles operative, and he ...
... principles operative,” and he ...
(p. 67)
... like Browning present ...
... like Browning, present ...
(p. 67)
... high character This is ...
... high character. This is ...
(p. 69)
... past aspiration, Concrete ...
... past aspiration. Concrete ...
(p. 75)
... says Ruskin, to attribute ...
... says Ruskin, “to attribute ...
(p. 83)
... to the moern; French history ...
... to the modern; French history ...
(p. 88)
... it posses should ...
... it possesses should ...
(p. 88)
... Dickens, Thackery and George Eliot. ...
... Dickens, Thackeray and George Eliot. ...
(p. 92)
... borrow. if you ...
... borrow. If you ...
(p. 93)
... scholar. If takes a ...
... scholar. It takes a ...
(p. 93)
The durablity of the ...
The durability of the ...
(p. 99)
... here and hereafter,
... here and hereafter.