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diff --git a/old/13430.txt b/old/13430.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93575eb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13430.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10426 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Librarian's Open Shelf, by Arthur E. Bostwick + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Librarian's Open Shelf + +Author: Arthur E. Bostwick + +Release Date: September 10, 2004 [EBook #13430] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LIBRARIAN'S OPEN SHELF *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Barbara Tozier and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +A LIBRARIAN'S OPEN SHELF + +ESSAYS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS + + +ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Ph.D. + + + + +1920 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The papers here gathered together represent the activities of a librarian +in directions outside the boundaries of his professional career, although +the influences of it may be detected in them here and there. Except for +those influences they have little connection and the transition of thought +and treatment from one to another may occasionally seem violent. It may, +however, serve to protect the reader from the assaults of monotony. + +A.E.B. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +DO READERS READ? + (_The Critic_, July, 1901, p. 67-70) + +WHAT MAKES PEOPLE READ? + (_The Book Lover_, January, 1904, p. 12-16) + +THE PASSING OF THE POSSESSIVE; A STUDY OF BOOK TITLES + (_The Book Buyer_, June, 1897, p. 500-1) + +SELECTIVE EDUCATION + (_Educational Review_, November, 1907, p. 365-73) + +THE USES OF FICTION + Read before the American Library Association, Asheville Conference, + May 28, 1907. (_A.L.A. Bulletin_, July, 1907, p. 183-7) + +THE VALUE OF ASSOCIATION + Delivered before the Library Associations of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, + Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, October 9-18, 1907. (_Library Journal_, + January, 1908, p. 3-9) + +MODERN EDUCATIONAL METHODS + (_Notes and News_, Montclair, N.J., July, 1908) + +SOME ECONOMIC FEATURES OF LIBRARIES + Read at the opening of the Chestnut Hill Branch, Philadelphia Free + Library, January 22, 1909. (_Library Journal_, February, 1909, p. + 48-52) + +SIMON NEWCOMB: AMERICA'S FOREMOST ASTRONOMER + (_Review of Reviews_, August, 1909, p. 171-4) + +THE COMPANIONSHIP OF BOOKS + Read before the Pacific Northwest Library Association, June, 1910. + (_P.N.W.L.A. Proceedings_, 1910, p. 8-23) + +ATOMIC THEORIES OF ENERGY + Read before the St. Louis Academy of Science. (_The Monist_, + October, 1912, p. 580-5) + +THE ADVERTISEMENT OF IDEAS + (_Minnesota Library Notes and News_, December, 1912, p. 190-7) + +THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, THE PUBLIC SCHOOL, AND THE SOCIAL CENTER MOVEMENT + Read before the National Education Association. (_N.E.A. + Proceedings_, 1912, p. 240-5) + +THE SYSTEMATIZATION OF VIOLENCE + (_St. Louis Mirror_, July 18, 1913) + +THE ART OF RE-READING + +HISTORY AND HEREDITY + Read before the New England Society of St. Louis. (_New England + Society of St. Louis_. _Proceedings_, 29th year, p. 13-20) + +WHAT THE FLAG STANDS FOR + A Flag Day address in St. Peter's church, St. Louis. (_St. Louis + Republic_, June 15, 1914) + +THE PEOPLE'S SHARE IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY + Read before the Chicago Women's Club, January 6, 1915. (_Library + Journal_, April, 1915, p. 227-32) + +SOME TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN THOUGHT + Read before the New York Library Association at Squirrel Inn, Haines + Falls, September 28, 1915. (_Library Journal_, November, 1915, p. + 771-7) + +DRUGS AND THE MAN + A Commencement address to the graduating class of the School of + Pharmacy, St. Louis, May 19, 1915. (_Journal of the American + Pharmaceutical Association_, August, 1915, p. 915-22) + +HOW THE COMMUNITY EDUCATES ITSELF + Read before the American Library Association, Asbury Park, N.J., + June 27, 1916. (_Library Journal_, August, 1916, p. 541-7) + +CLUBWOMEN'S READING + (_The Bookman_, January-March, 1915, p. 515-21, 642-7, 64-70) + +BOOKS FOR TIRED EYES + (_Yale Review_, January, 1917, p. 358-68) + +THE MAGIC CASEMENT + Read before the Town and Gown Club, St. Louis. + +A WORD TO BELIEVERS + Address at the closing section of the Church School of Religious + Instruction. + +INDEX + + + + +A LIBRARIAN'S OPEN SHELF + +ESSAYS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS + + + + +DO READERS READ? + + +Those who are interested in the proper use of our libraries are asking +continually, "What do readers read?" and the tables of class-percentages +in the annual reports of those institutions show that librarians are at +least making an attempt to satisfy these queries. But a question that is +still more fundamental and quite as vital is: Do readers read at all? This +is not a paradox, but a common-sense question, as the following suggestive +little incident will show. The librarian-in-charge of a crowded branch +circulating-library in New York City had occasion to talk, not long ago, +to one of her "star" borrowers, a youth who had taken out his two good +books a week regularly for nearly a year and whom she had looked upon as a +model--so much so that she had never thought it necessary to advise with +him regarding his reading. In response to a question this lad made answer +somewhat as follows: "Yes, ma'am, I'm doing pretty well with my reading. I +think I should get on nicely if I could only once manage to read a book +through; but somehow I can't seem to do it." This boy had actually taken +to his home nearly a hundred books, returning each regularly and borrowing +another, without reading to the end of a single one of them. + +That this case is not isolated and abnormal, but is typical of the way in +which a large class of readers treat books, there is, as we shall see, +only too much reason to believe. + +The facts are peculiarly hard to get at. At first sight there would seem +to be no way to find out whether the books that our libraries circulate +have been read through from cover to cover, or only half through, or not +at all. To be sure, each borrower might be questioned on the subject as he +returned his book, but this method, would be resented as inquisitorial, +and after all there would be no certainty that the data so gathered were +true. By counting the stamps on the library book-card or dating-slip we +can tell how many times a book has been borrowed, but this gives us no +information about whether it has or has not been read. Fortunately for our +present purpose, however, many works are published in a series of volumes, +each of which is charged separately, and an examination of the different +slips will tell us whether or not the whole work has been read through by +all those who borrowed it. If, for instance in a two-volume work each +volume has gone out twenty times, twenty borrowers either have read it +through or have stopped somewhere in the second volume, while if the first +volume is charged twenty times and the second only fourteen, it is certain +that six of those who took out the first volume did not get as far as the +second. In works of more than two volumes we can tell with still greater +accuracy at what point the reader's interest was insufficient to carry him +further. + +Such an investigation has been made of all works in more than one volume +contained in seven branches of the Brooklyn Public Library, and with very +few exceptions it has been found that each successive volume in a series +has been read by fewer persons than the one immediately preceding. What is +true of books in more than one volume is presumably also true, although +perhaps in a less degree, of one-volume works, although we have no means +of showing it directly. Among the readers of every book, then, there are +generally some who, for one reason or other, do not read it to the end. +Our question, "Do readers read?" is thus answered in the negative for a +large number of cases. The supplementary question, "Why do not readers +read?" occurs at once, but an attempt to answer it would take us rather +too deeply into psychology. Whether this tendency to leave the latter part +of books unread is increasing or not we can tell only by repeating the +present investigation at intervals of a year or more. The probability is +that it is due to pure lack of interest. For some reason or other, many +persons begin to read books that fail to hold their attention. In a large +number of cases this is doubtless due to a feeling that one "ought to +read" certain books and certain classes of books. A sense of duty carries +the reader part way through his task, but he weakens before he has +finished it. + +This shows how necessary it is to stimulate one's general interest in a +subject before advising him to read a book that is not itself calculated +to arouse and sustain that interest. Possibly the modern newspaper habit, +with its encouragement of slipshod reading, may play its part in producing +the general result, and doubtless a careful detailed investigation would +reveal still other partial causes, but the chief and determining cause +must be lack of interest. And it is to be feared that instead of taking +measures to arouse a permanent interest in good literature, which would in +itself lead to the reading of standard works and would sustain the reader +until he had finished his task, we have often tried to replace such an +interest by a fictitious and temporary stimulus, due to appeals to duty, +or to that vague and confused idea that one should "improve one's mind," +unaccompanied by any definite plan of ways and means. There is no more +powerful moral motor than duty, but it loses its force when we try to +apply it to cases that lie without the province of ethics. The man who has +no permanent interest in historical literature, and who is impelled to +begin a six-volume history because he conceives it to be his "duty" to +read it, is apt to conclude, before he has finished the second volume, +that his is a case where inclination (or in this instance disinclination) +is the proper guide. + +As a matter of fact, the formation of a cultivated and permanent taste for +good reading is generally a matter of lifelong education. It must be begun +when the child reads his first book. An encouraging sign for the future is +the care that is now taken in all good libraries to supervise the reading +of children and to provide for them special quarters and facilities. A +somewhat disheartening circumstance, on the other hand, is the +multiplication of annotated and abbreviated children's editions of all +sorts of works that were read by the last generation of children without +any such treatment. This kind of boned chicken may be very well for the +mental invalid, but the ordinary child prefers to separate his meat from +the "drumstick" by his own unaided effort, and there is no doubt that it +is better for him to do so. + +In the following table, the average circulation of first volumes, second +volumes, etc., is given for each of seven classes of works. The falling +off from volume to volume is noticeable in each class. It is most marked +in science, and least so, as might be expected, in fiction. Yet it is +remarkable that there should be any falling off at all in fiction. The +record shows that the proportion of readers who cannot even read to the +end of a novel is relatively large. These are doubtless the good people +who speak of Dickens as "solid reading" and who regard Thackeray with as +remote an eye as they do Gibbon. For such "The Duchess" furnishes good +mental pabulum, and Miss Corelli provides flights into the loftier regions +of philosophy. + + Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. + CLASS I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII IX. X. XI. XII. + + History 10.1 6.9 4.9 4.4 4.6 4.3 2.5 2.8 1.0 0.5 1.0 3.0 + Biography 7.2 5.1 3.0 2.3 1.6 1.0 1.6 1.2 1.0 2. + Travel 9.2 7.9 + Literature 7.3 5.9 3.5 3.8 5.3 6.6 19.0 15.0 21.0 + Arts 4.7 3.7 3.0 + Sciences 5.2 2.7 1.5 + Fiction 22.0 18.9 15.8 16. 26. 16. + +The figures in the table, as has been stated, are averages, and the number +of cases averaged decreases rapidly as we reach the later volumes, +because, of course, the number of works that run beyond four or five +volumes is relatively small. Hence the figures for the higher volumes are +irregular. Any volume may have been withdrawn separately for reference +without any intention of reading its companions. Among the earlier volumes +such use counts for little, owing to the large number of volumes averaged, +while it may and does make the figures for the later volumes irregular. +Thus, under History the high number in the twelfth column represents +one-twelfth volume of Froude, which was taken out three times, evidently +for separate reference, as the eleventh was withdrawn but once. +Furthermore, apart from this irregularity, the figures for the later +volumes are relatively large, for a work in many volumes is apt to be a +standard, and although its use falls rapidly from start to finish enough +readers persevere to the end to make the final averages compare unduly +well with the initial ones where the high use of the same work is averaged +in with smaller use of dozens of other first and second volumes. That the +falling off from beginning to end in such long works is much more striking +than would appear from the averages alone may be seen from the following +records of separate works in numerous volumes: + + VOLUMES + I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X + HISTORY + + Grote, "Greece" 11 6 5 2 1 0 1 1 1 0 + Bancroft, "United States" 22 10 6 8 10 8 + Hume, "England" 24 7 5 2 1 1 + Gibbon, "Rome" 38 12 7 3 4 6 + Motley, "United Netherlands" 7 1 1 1 + Prescott, "Ferdinand and + Isabella" 20 4 2 + Carlyle, "French Revolution" 18 10 8 + McCarthy, "Our Own Times" 27 8 11 + + BIOGRAPHY + + Bourienne, "Memoirs of + Napoleon" 19 18 9 7 + Longfellow's "Life" 6 4 2 + Nicolay and Hay, "Lincoln" 6 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 + Carlyle, "Frederick the + Great" 7 3 2 2 2 + + FICTION + + Dumas, "Vicomte de + Bragelonne" 31 30 24 22 21 16 + Dumas, "Monte Cristo" 27 17 18 + Dickens, "Our Mutual Friend" 5 4 1 0 + Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" 37 24 + +Of course, these could be multiplied indefinitely. They are sufficiently +interesting apart from all comment. One would hardly believe without +direct evidence that of thirty-one persons who began one of Dumas's +romances scarcely half would read it to the end, or that not one of five +persons who essayed Dickens's "Mutual Friend" would succeed in getting +through it. + +Those who think that there can be no pathos in statistics are invited to +ponder this table deeply. Can anyone think unmoved of those two dozen +readers who, feeling impelled by desire for an intellectual stimulant to +take up Hume, found therein a soporific instead and fell by the wayside? + +A curious fact is that the tendency to attempt to "begin at the beginning" +is so strong that it sometimes extends to collected works in which there +is no sequence from volume to volume. Thus we have the following: + + Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. + I. II. III. IV. V. VI. + + Chaucer, "Poetical Works" 38 9 5 + Milton, "Poetical Works" 19 8 + Longfellow, "Poetical Works" 14 15 2 10 3 3 + Emerson, "Essays" 48 13 + Ward, "English Poets" 13 2 6 + +There are of course exceptions to the rule that circulation decreases +steadily from volume to volume. Here are a few: + + Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. + I. II. III. IV. + + Fiske, "Old Virginia" 26 24 + Spears, "History of the Navy" 44 39 36 36 + Andrews, "Last Quarter Century" 8 8 + Kennan, "Siberia" 15 13 + +In the case of the two-volume works the interest-sustaining power may not +always be as great as would appear, because when the reader desires it, +two volumes are given out as one; but the stamps on the dating-slips show +that this fact counted for little in the present instances. + +I would not assume that the inferences in the present article are of any +special value. The statistical facts are the thing. So far as I know, no +one has called attention to them before, and they are certainly worthy of +all interest and attention. + + + + +WHAT MAKES PEOPLE READ? + + +Does the reading public read because it has a literary taste or for some +other reason? In the case of the public library, for instance, does a man +start with an overwhelming desire to read or study books and is he +impelled thereby to seek out the place where he may most easily and best +obtain them? Or is he primarily attracted to the library by some other +consideration, his love for books and reading acting only in a secondary +manner? The New York Public Library, for instance, carries on the registry +books of its circulating department nearly 400,000 names, and in the +course of a year nearly 35,000 new applications are made for the use of +its branch libraries, scattered over different parts of the city. What +brings these people to the library? This is no idle question. The number +of library users, large as it is, represents too small a fraction of our +population. If it is a good thing to provide free reading matter for our +people--and every large city in the country has committed itself to the +truth of this proposition--we should certainly try to see that what we +furnish is used by all who need it. Hence an examination into the motives +that induce people to make their first use of a free public library may +bring out information that is not only interesting but useful. To this end +several hundred regular users of the branches of the New York Public +Library were recently asked this question directly, and the answers are +tabulated and discussed below. In each of sixteen branch libraries the +persons interrogated numbered forty--ten each of men, women, boys and +girls. Thirty answers have been thrown out for irrelevancy or +defectiveness. The others are classified in the following table: + + A B C D E F G H I J K L Totals + + Men 6 64 10 .. .. .. 37 20 3 1 9 4 154 + Boys 38 63 28 .. 4 3 9 6 5 .. .. 3 159 + Women 12 67 14 4 .. .. 20 21 2 1 2 5 148 + Girls 33 69 34 .. .. .. 5 3 3 .. .. 2 149 + Total 89 263 86 4 4 3 71 50 13 2 11 14 610 + + Col. A: Sent or Told by Teacher + Col. B: Sent or Told by Friend + Col. C: Sent or Told by Relative + Col. D: Sent or Told by Clergyman + Col. E: Sent or Told by Library Assistant + Col. F: Through Reading Room + Col. G: Saw Building + Col. H: Saw Sign + Col. I: Saw Library Books + Col. J: Saw Bulletin + Col. K: Saw Article in Paper + Col. L: Sought Library + +It will be seen that the vast majority of those questioned were led to the +library by some circumstance other than the simple desire to find a place +where books could be obtained. Of more than six hundred persons whose +answers are here recorded only fourteen found the library as the result of +a direct search for it prompted by a desire to read. In a majority of the +other cases, of course, perhaps in all of them, the desire to read had its +part, but this desire was awakened by hearing a mention of the library or +by seeing it or something connected with it. These determining +circumstances fall into two classes, those that worked through the ear and +those that operated through the eye. + +Those who _heard_ of the library in some way numbered 449, while those who +_saw_ it or something connected with it were only 147--an interesting +fact, especially as we are told by psychologists that apprehension and +memory through sight are of a higher type than the same functions where +exercised through hearing. Probably, however, this difference was +dependent on the fact that the thing heard was in most cases a direct +injunction or a piece of advice, while the thing seen did not act with +similar urgency. There are some surprises in the table. For instance, only +four persons were sent directly to libraries by persons employed therein. +Doubtless the average library assistant wishes to get as far from "shop" +as possible in her leisure hours, but it is still disappointing to find +that those who are employed in our libraries exercise so little influence +in bringing persons to use them. The same thing is true of the influence +of reading rooms. In many of the branch libraries in New York there are +separate reading rooms to which others than card-holders in the library +are admitted, and one of the chief arguments for this has been that the +user of such a room, having become accustomed to resort to the library +building, would be apt to use the books. Apparently, however, such persons +are in the minority. No less disappointing is the slight influence of the +clergy. Only four persons report this as a determining influence and these +were all women connected with a branch which was formerly the parish +library of a New York church. + +The influence of the press, too, seems to amount to little, in spite of +the fact that the newspapers in New York have freely commented on the +valuable work of the branch libraries and have called attention to it both +in the news and editorial columns whenever occasion offered. Do the +readers of library books in New York shun the public-press, or do they pay +scant heed to what they read therein? + +Another somewhat noteworthy fact is that of the 449 persons who sought the +library by advice of some one, only 89 were sent by teachers. But perhaps +this is unfair. Of 265 boys and girls who thus came to the library, only +71 were sent by teachers. This is a larger percentage, but it is still not +so large as we might expect. + +The difference between adults and children comes out quite strikingly in a +few instances. We should have foreseen this of course in the case of +advice by teachers, which was reported by 71 children and only 18 adults +as a reason for visiting the library. Here we should not have expected +this reason to be given by adults at all. Doubtless these were chiefly +young men and women who had used the library since their school-days. In +like manner the advice or injunction of relatives was more patent with +children than with adults, the proportion here being 62 to 24. This +probably illustrates the power of parental injunction. In another case the +difference comes out in a wholly unexpected way. Of the 71 persons who +reported that they were attracted to the library by seeing the buildings, +57 were adults and only 14 children. The same is true of those who were +led in by seeing a sign, who numbered 41 adults to only 9 children. This +seems to show either that adults are more observant or that children are +more diffident in following out an impulse of this kind. It completely +negatives the ordinary impression among librarians, at least in New York, +where it has been believed that the sight of a library building, +especially where the work going on inside is visible from the street, is a +potent attraction to the young. Some of the new branch buildings in New +York have even been planned with a special view to the exercise of this +kind of attraction. + +The small number of persons who were attracted by printed matter, in +library or general publications, were entirely adults. The one instance +where age seems to exercise no particular influence is that of the advice +of friends, by which old and young alike seem to have profited. + +The influence of sex does not appear clearly, although among those who +followed the injunction of relatives the women and girls are slightly in +the majority, and the four who were sent by clergymen were all women. Of +those who were attracted by the buildings 46 were male and 25 female, +which may mean that men are somewhat more observant or less diffident than +women. + +A few of those questioned relate their experiences at some length. Says +one boy: "A boy friend of mine said he belonged to this library and he +found some very good books here. He asked me if I wanted to join; I said +yes. He told me I would have to get a reference. I got one, and joined +this library." Another one reports: "I saw a boy in the street and asked +him where he was going. He said he was going to the library. I asked him +what the library was and he told me; so I came up here and have been +coming ever since." + +Critical judgment is shown by some of the young people. One boy says: "I +heard all the other boys saying it was a good library and that the books +were better kept than in a majority of libraries." A girl says that +friends "told her what nice books were in this library." In one case a +boy's brother "told him he could get the best books here for his needs." + +The combination of man and book seems to be very attractive. One child +"saw a boy in school with a book, telling what a boy should know about +electricity; I wanted to read that book and joined the library." Others +"followed a crowd of little boys with books"; "saw children taking books +out of the building and asked them about joining"; "saw a boy carrying +books and asked if there was a library in the neighborhood." A woman "saw +a child with a library book in the park and asked her for the address of +the library." Sometimes the book alone does the work, as shown by the +following laconic report: "Found a book in the park; took it to the +library; joined it." A cause of sorrow to many librarians who have decided +ideas regarding literature for children will be the report of a boy who +exclaimed: "Horatio Alger did it!" On being asked to explain, he said that +a friend had brought one of Alger's books to his house and that he was +thereby attracted to the library. + +Among those who were brought in by relatives are children who were first +carried by their mothers to the library as infants and so grew naturally +into its use. Sometimes the influence works upward instead of downward, +for several adults report that their children brought them to the library +or induced them to visit it. One man reports that he "got married and his +wife induced him to come." + +Some of the reasons given are curious. A few are unconnected with the use +of books. One girl came to the library because "it was a very handy +library"; another, because she "saw it was a nice place to come to on a +rainy day." Still another frankly avows that "it was the fad among the +boys and girls of our neighborhood; we used to meet at the library." A +postman reported that he entered the library first in the line of his +duty, but was attracted by it and began to take out books. A clergyman had +his attention called to the library by requests from choir-boys that he +should sign their application blanks; afterwards thinking that he might +find books there for his own reading, he became a regular user. One user +came first to the library to see an exhibition of pictures of old New +York. A recent importation says: "When I came from Paris I found all my +cousins speaking English; 'well,' they said, 'go to the library and take +books'"--a process that doubtless did its share toward making an American +of the new arrival. In another case, the Americanizing process has not yet +reached the stage where the user's English is altogether intelligible. He +says: "Because I like to read the book. I ask the bakery lady to my +reference and I sing my neam" [sign my name?]. + +Here are some examples of recently acquired elegance in diction that are +almost baboo-like in their hopelessness: "Because it interest about the +countries that are far away. It gives knowledge to many of the people in +this country." "So as to obtain knowledge from them and by reading books +find out how the great men were in their former days and all about them +and the world and its people." It will be seen that the last two writers +were among those who misunderstood our questions and told why they read +books rather than how they were first led to the use of a library. + +These reports are far from possessing merely a passing interest for the +curious. For the public librarian, whose wish it is to reach as large a +proportion of the public as possible, they are full of valuable hints. +They emphasize, for instance, the urgent necessity of winning the good +will of the public, and they forcibly remind us that this is of more value +in gaining a foothold for the library than columns of notices in the +papers or thousands of circulars or cards distributed in the neighborhood. +It is even more potent than a beautiful building. Attractive as this is, +its value as an influence to secure new readers is vastly less than a +reputation for hospitality and helpfulness. + +In looking over the figures one rather disquieting thought cannot be kept +down. If the good will of the public is so potent in increasing the use of +the library, the ill will of the same public must be equally potent in the +opposite direction. Some of those who are satisfied with us and our work +are here put on record. How about the dissatisfied? A record of these +might be even more interesting, for it would point out weaknesses to be +strengthened and errors to be avoided--but that, as Kipling says, "is +another story." + + + + +THE PASSING OF THE POSSESSIVE: A STUDY OF BOOK-TITLES + + +If there is one particular advantage possessed by the Teutonic over the +Romance languages in idiomatic clearness and precision it is that +conferred by their ownership of a possessive case, almost the sole +remaining monument to the fact that our ancestors spoke an inflected +tongue. That we should still be able to speak of "the baker's wife's dog" +instead of "the dog of the wife of the baker" certainly should be regarded +by English-speaking people as a precious birthright. Yet, there are +increasing evidences of a tendency to discard this only remaining +case-ending and to replace its powerful backbone with the comparatively +limp and cartilaginous preposition. This tendency has not yet appeared so +much in our spoken as in our written language, and even here only in the +most formal parts of it. It is especially noticeable in the diction of the +purely formal title and heading. + +That the reader may have something beyond an unsupported assertion that +this is the case, I purpose to offer in evidence the titles of some recent +works of fiction, and to make a brief statistical study of them. + +The titles were taken from the adult fiction lists in the Monthly +Bulletins of the New York Free Circulating Library from November, 1895, to +March, 1897, inclusive, and are all such titles as contain a possessive, +whether expressed by the possessive case or by the preposition "of" with +the objective. Some titles are included in which the grammatical relation +is slightly different, but all admit the alternative of the case-ending +"'s" or "of" followed by the objective case. + +Of the 101 titles thus selected, 41 use the possessive case and 60 the +objective with the preposition. This proportion is in itself sufficiently +suggestive, but it becomes still more so by comparing it with the +corresponding proportion among a different set of titles. For this purpose +101 fiction titles were selected, just as they appeared in alphabetical +order, from a library catalogue bearing the date 1889; only those being +taken, as before, that contain a possessive. Of these 101, 71 use the +possessive case and 30 the objective with "of." In other words, where +eight years ago nearly three-quarters of such titles used the possessive +case, now only two-fifths use it, a proportionate reduction of nearly +one-half. + +The change appears still more striking when we study the titles a little +more closely. Of those in the earlier series there is not one that is not +good, idiomatic English as it stands, whichever form is used; we may even +say that there is not one that would not be made less idiomatic by a +change to the alternative form. Among the recent titles, however, while +the forms using the possessive case are all better as they are, of the 60 +titles that use the objective with "of" only 22 would be injured by a +change, and the reason why 8 of these are better as they are is simply +that change would destroy euphony. Among these eight are + + "The Indiscretion of the Duchess," + "The Flight of a Shadow," + "The Secret of Narcisse," etc., + +where the more idiomatic forms, + + "The Duchess's Indiscretion," + "Narcisse's Secret," + "A Shadow's Flight," etc., + +are certainly not euphonic. + +Of the others, 8 would not be injured by a change, and no less than 30 +would be improved from the standpoint of idiomatic English. It may be well +to quote these thirty titles. They are: + + "The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook," + "The Statement of Stella Maberly," + "The Shadow of John Wallace," + "The Banishment of Jessop Blythe," + "The Desire of the Moth," + "The Island of Dr. Moreau," + "The Damnation of Theron Ware," + "The Courtship of Morrice Buckler," + "The Daughter of a Stoic," + "The Lament of Dives," + "The Heart of Princess Osra," + "The Death of the Lion," + "The Vengeance of James Vansittart," + "The Wife of a Vain Man," + "The Crime of Henry Vane," + "The Son of Old Harry," + "The Honour of Savelli," + "The Life of Nancy," + "The Story of Lawrence Garthe," + "The Marriage of Esther," + "The House of Martha," + "Tales of an Engineer," + "Love-letters of a Worldly Woman," + "The Way of a Maid," + "The Soul of Pierre," + "The Day of Their Wedding," + "The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard," + "The Hand of Ethelberta," + "The Failure of Sibyl Fletcher," + "The Love-affairs of an Old Maid." + +Of course, in such a division as this, much must depend on individual +judgment and bias. Probably no two persons would divide the list in just +the same way, but it is my belief that the general result in each case +would be much the same. To me the possessive in every one of the +above-quoted titles would have been more idiomatic, thus: + + "Hilton Fernbrook's Shadow," + "Stella Maberly's Statement," + "John Wallace's Shadow," + "Morrice Buckler's Courtship," + "A Stoic's Daughter," + "Henry Vane's Crime," etc., etc. + +In one case, at least, this fact has been recognized by a publisher, for +"The Vengeance of James Vansittart," whose title is included in the list +given above, has appeared in a later edition as "James Vansittart's +Vengeance"--a palpable improvement. + +I shall not discuss the cause of this change in the use of the possessive, +though it seems to me an evident Gallicism, nor shall I open the question +of whether it is a mere passing fad or the beginning of an actual +alteration in the language. However this may be, it seems undeniable that +there is an actual and considerable difference in the use of the +possessive to-day and its use ten years ago, at least in formal titles and +headings. I have confined myself to book-titles, because that is the +department where the tendency presents itself to me most clearly; but it +may be seen on street signs, in advertisements, and in newspaper headings. +It is not to be found yet in the spoken language, at least it is not +noticeable there, but it would be decidedly unsafe to prophesy that it +will never appear there. Ten years from now we may hear about "the +breaking of the arm of John Smith" and "the hat of Tom," without a thought +that these phrases have not been part of our idiomatic speech since +Shakespeare's time. + + + + +SELECTIVE EDUCATION[1] + + [1] Read before the Schoolmen of New York. + + +Since Darwin called attention to the role of what he named "natural +selection" in the genesis and preservation of species, and since his +successors, both followers and opponents, have added to this many other +kinds of selection that are continually operative, it has become +increasingly evident that from one standpoint we may look on the sum of +natural processes, organic and inorganic, as a vast selective system, as +the result of which things are as they are, whether the results are the +positions of celestial bodies or the relative places of human beings in +the intellectual or social scale. The exact constitution of the present +population of New York is the result of a great number of selective acts, +some regular, others more or less haphazard. Selection is no less +selection because it occurs by what we call chance--for chance is only our +name for the totality of trivial and unconsidered causes. When, however, +we count man and man's efforts in the sum of natural objects and forces, +we have to reckon with his intelligence in these selective processes. I +desire to call attention to the place that they play in educative systems +and in particular to the way in which they may be furthered or made more +effective by books, especially by public collections of books. + +When we think of any kind of training as it affects the individual, we +most naturally regard it as changing that individual, as making him more +fit, either for life in general or for some special form of life's +activities. But when we think of it as affecting a whole community or a +whole nation, we may regard it as essentially a selective process. In a +given community it is not only desirable that a certain number of men +should be trained to do a specified kind of work, but it is even more +desirable that these should be the men that are best fitted to do this +work. When Mr. Luther Burbank brings into play the selection by means of +which he achieves his remarkable results in plant breeding he gets rid of +the unfit by destruction, and as all are unfit for the moment that do not +advance the special end that he has in view, he burns up plants--new and +interesting varieties perhaps--by the hundred thousand. We cannot destroy +the unfit, nor do we desire to do so, for from the educational point of +view unfitness is merely bad adjustment. There is a place for every man in +the world and it is the educator's business to see that he reaches it, if +not by formative, then by selective processes. This selection is badly +made in our present state of civilization. It depends to a large extent +upon circumstances remote from the training itself--upon caprice, either +that of the person to be trained or of his parents, upon accidents of +birth or situation, upon a thousand irrelevant things; but in every case +there are elements present in the training itself that aid in determining +it. A young man begins to study medicine, and he finds that his physical +repulsion for work in the dissecting-room can not be overcome. He abandons +the study and by doing so eliminates an unfit person. A boy who has no +head for figures enters a business college. He can not get his diploma, +and the community is spared one bad bookkeeper. Certainly in some +instances, possibly in all, technical and professional schools that are +noted for the excellence of their product are superior not so much because +they have better methods of training, but because their material is of +better quality, owing to selection exercised either purposely, or +automatically, or perhaps by some chance. The same is true of colleges. Of +two institutions with the same curriculum and equally able instructors, +the one with the widest reputation will turn out the best graduates +because it attracts abler men from a wider field. This is true even in +such a department as athletics. To him that hath shall be given. This is +purely an automatic selective effect. + +It would appear desirable to dwell more upon selective features in +educational training, to ascertain what they are in each case and how they +work, and to control and dispose them with more systematic care. Different +minds will always attach different degrees of importance to natural and +acquired fitness, but probably all will agree that training bestowed upon +the absolutely unfit is worse than useless, and that there are persons +whose natural aptitudes are so great that upon them a minimum of training +will produce a maximum effect. Such selective features as our present +educational processes possess, the examination, for instance, are mostly +exclusive; they aim to bar out the unfit rather than to attract the fit. +Here is a feature on which some attention may well be fixt. + +How do these considerations affect the subject of general education? Are +we to affirm that arithmetic is only for the born mathematician and Latin +for the born linguist, and endeavor to ascertain who these may be? Not so; +for here we are training not experts but citizens. Discrimination here +must be not in the quality but in the quantity of training. We may divide +the members of any community into classes according as their formal +education--their school and college training--has lasted one, two, three, +four, or more years. There has been a selection here, but it has operated, +in general, even more imperfectly than in the case of special training. +Persons who are mentally qualified to continue their schooling to the end +of a college course, and who by so doing would become more useful members +of the community, are obliged to be content with two or three years in the +lower grades, while others, who are unfitted for the university, are kept +at it until they take, or fail to take, the bachelor's degree. An ideal +state of things, of course, would be to give each person the amount of +general education for which he is fitted and then stop. This would be +difficult of realization even if financial considerations did not so often +interfere. But at least we may keep in view the desirability of preventing +too many misfits and of insisting, so far as possible, on any selective +features that we may discover in present systems. + +For instance, a powerful selective feature is the attractiveness of a +given course of study to those who are desired to pursue it. If we can +find a way, for example, to make our high school courses attractive to +those who are qualified to take them, while at the same time rendering +them very distasteful to those who are not so qualified, we shall +evidently have taken a step in the right direction. It is clear that both +parts of this prescription must be taken together or there is no true +selection. Much has been done of late years toward making educational +courses of all kinds interesting and attractive, but it is to be feared +that their attractiveness has been such as to appeal to the unfit as well +as to the fit. If we sugar-coat our pills indiscriminately and mix them +with candy, many will partake who need another kind of medicine +altogether. We must so arrange things that the fit will like while the +unfit dislike, and for this purpose the less sugar-coating the better. +This is no easy problem and it is intended merely to indicate it here, not +to propose a general solution. + +The one thing to which attention should be directed is the role that may +be and is played by the printed book in selective education. There is more +or less effort to discredit books as educative tools and to lay emphasis +on oral instruction and manual training. We need not decry these, but, it +must be remembered that after all the book contains the record of man's +progress; we may tell how to do a thing, and show how to do it, but we +shall never do it in a better way or explain the why and wherefore, and +surely transmit that ability and that explanation to posterity, without +the aid of a stable record of some kind. If we are sure that our students +could and would pick out only what they needed, as a wild animal picks his +food in the woods, we might go far toward solving our problem, by simply +turning them loose in a collection of books. Some people have minds that +qualify them to profit by such "browsing," and some of these have +practically educated themselves in a library. Even in the more common +cases where formal training is absolutely necessary, access to other books +than text-books is an aid to selection both qualitative and quantitative. +Books may serve as samples. To take an extreme case, a boy who had no +knowledge whatever of the nature of law or medicine would certainly not be +competent to choose between them in selecting a profession, and a month +spent in a library where there were books on both subjects would certainly +operate to lessen his incompetence. Probably it would not be rash to +assert that with free access to books, under proper guidance, both before +and during a course of training, the persons who begin that course will +include more of the fit and those who finish it will include less of the +unfit, than without such access. + +Let us consider one or two concrete examples. A college boy has the choice +of several different courses. He knows little of them, but thinks that one +will meet his needs. He elects it and finds too late that he is wasting +his time. Another boy, whose general reading has been sufficient to give +him some superficial knowledge of the subject-matter in all the courses, +sees clearly which will benefit him, and profits by that knowledge. + +Again, a boy, full of the possibilities that would lead him to appreciate +the best in literature, has gained his knowledge of it from a teacher who +looks upon a literary masterpiece only as something to be dissected. The +student has been disgusted instead of inspired, and his whole life has +been deprived of one of the purest and most uplifting of all influences. +Had he been brought up in a library where he could make literary friends +and develop literary enthusiasms, his course with the dry as dust teacher +would have been only an unpleasant incident, instead of the wrecking of a +part of his intellectual life. + +Still again, a boy on a farm has vague aspirations. He knows that he wants +a broader horizon, to get away from his cramped environment--that is about +all. How many boys, impelled by such feelings, have gone out into the +world with no clear idea of what they are fitted to do, or even what they +really desire! To how many others has the companionship of a few books +meant the opening of a peep-hole, thru which, dimly perhaps, but none the +less really, have been descried definite possibilities, needs, and +opportunities! + +To all of these youths books have been selective aids merely--they have +added little or nothing to the actual training whose extent and character +they have served to point out. Such cases, which it would be easy to +multiply, illustrate the value of books in the selective functions of +training. To assert that they exercise such a function is only another way +of saying that a mind orients itself by the widest contact with other +minds. There are other ways of assuring this contact, and these should not +be neglected; but only thru books can it approach universality both in +space and in time. How else could we know exactly what Homer and St. +Augustine and Descartes thought and what Tolstoi and Lord Kelvin and +William James, we will say, are even now thinking? + +It has scarcely been necessary to say all this to convince you of the +value of books as aids to education; but it is certainly interesting to +find that in an examination of the selective processes in education, we +meet with our old friends in such an important role. + +A general collection of books, then, constitutes an important factor in +the selective part of an education. Where shall we place this collection? +I venture to say that altho every school must have a library to aid in the +formative part of its training, the library as a selective aid should be +large and central and should preferably be at the disposal of the student +not only during the period of his formal training, but before and after +it. This points to the public library, and to close cooperation between it +and the school, rather than to the expansion of the classroom library. +This is, perhaps, not the place to dispute the wisdom of our Board of +Education in developing classroom libraries, but it may be proper to put +in a plea for confining them to books that bear more particularly on the +subjects of instruction. The general collection of books should be outside +of the school, because the boy is destined to spend most of his life +outside of the school. His education by no means ends with his graduation. +The agents that operate to develop and change him will be at work so long +as he lives, and it is desirable that the book should be one of these. If +he says good-by to the book when he leaves school, that part of his +training is likely to be at an end. If he uses, in connection with, and +parallel to, his formal education a general collection of books outside of +the school, he will continue to use it after he leaves school. And even so +far as the special classroom library is concerned, it must be evident that +a large general collection of books that may be drawn upon freely is a +useful supplement. For the teacher's professional use, the larger the +collection at his disposal the better. A sum of money spent by the city in +improving and making adequate the pedagogical section of its public +library, particularly in the department of circulation, will be expended +to greater advantage than many times the amount devoted to a large number +of small collections on the same subjects in schools. + +These are the considerations that have governed the New York Public +Library in its effort to be of assistance to the teachers and pupils in +the public schools of the city. Stated formally, these efforts manifest +themselves in the following directions: + +(1) The making of library use continuous from the earliest possible age, +thru school life and afterwards; + +(2) Cooperation with the teacher in guiding and limiting the child's +reading during the school period; + +(3) Aid within the library in the preparation of school work; + +(4) The supplementing of classroom libraries by the loan of books in +quantity; + +(5) The cultivation of personal relations between library assistants and +teachers in their immediate neighborhood; + +(6) The furnishing of accurate and up-to-date information to schools +regarding the library's resources and its willingness to place them at the +school's disposal; + +(7) The increase of the library's circulation collection along lines +suggested and desired by teachers; + +(8) The granting of special privileges to teachers and special students +who use the library for purposes of study. + +Toward the realization of these aims three departments are now +cooperating, each of them in charge of an expert in his or her special +line of work. + +(1) The children's rooms in the various libraries, now under the direction +of an expert supervisor. + +(2) The traveling library office. + +(3) The division of school work, with an assistant in each branch, under +skilled headquarters superintendence. + +When our plans, which are already in good working order, are completely +carried out, we shall be able to guarantee to every child guidance in his +reading up to and thru his school course, with direction in a line of +influence that will make him a user of books thruout his life and create +in him a feeling of attachment to the public library as the home and +dispenser of books and as a permanent intellectual refuge from care, +trouble, and material things in general, as well as a mine of information +on all subjects that may benefit or interest him. + +Some of the obstacles to the immediate realization of our plans in full +may be briefly stated as follows: + +(1) Lack of sufficient funds. With more money we could buy more books, pay +higher salaries, and employ more persons. The assistants in charge of +children's rooms should be women of the highest culture and ability, and +it is difficult to secure proper persons at our present salaries. +Assistants in charge of school work must be persons of tact and quickness +of perception, and they should have no other work to do; whereas at +present we are obliged to give this work to library assistants in addition +to their ordinary routine duties, to avoid increasing our staff by about +forty assistants, which our appropriation does not permit. + +(2) Misunderstanding on the part of the public, and also to some extent on +the part of teachers, of our aims, ability, and attitude. This I am glad +to say is continually lessening. We can scarcely expect that each of our +five hundred assistants should be thoroly imbued with the spirit of +helpfulness toward the schools or even that they should perfectly +understand what we desire and aim to do. Nor can we expect that our wish +to aid should be appreciated by every one of fifty thousand teachers or a +million parents. This will come in time. + +(3) A low standard of honesty on the part of certain users of the library. +It is somewhat disheartening to those who are laboring to do a public +service to find that some of those whom they are striving to benefit, look +upon them merely as easy game. To prevent this and at the same time to +withstand those who urge that such misuse of the library should be met by +the withdrawal of present privileges and facilities uses up energy that +might otherwise be directed toward the improvement of our service. Now, +like the intoxicated man, we sometimes refuse invitations to advance +because it is "all we can do to stay where we are." Here is an opportunity +for all the selective influences that we may bring to bear, and +unfortunately the library can have but little part in these. + +Have I wandered too far from my theme? The good that a public library may +do, the influence that it may exert, and the position that it may assume +in a community, depend very largely on the ability and tact with which it +is administered and the resources at its disposal. Its public services may +be various, but probably there is no place in which it may be of more +value than side by side with the public school; and I venture to think +that this is the case largely because education to be complete must select +as well as train, must compel the fit to step forward and the unfit to +retire, and must do this, not only at the outset of a course of training +but continuously thruout its duration. We speak of a student being "put +thru the mill," and we must not forget that a mill not only grinds and +stamps into shape but also sifts and selects. A finished product of a +given grade is always such not only by virtue of formation and adaptation +but also by virtue of selection. In human training one of the most potent +of these selective agencies is the individual will, and to train that will +and make it effective in the right direction there is nothing better than +constant association with the records of past aims and past achievements. +This must be my excuse for saying so much of libraries in general, and of +one library in particular, in an address on what I have ventured to give +the name of Selective Education. + + + + +THE USES OF FICTION[2] + + [2] Read before the American Library Association, Asheville + Conference, May 28, 1907. + + +Literature is becoming daily more of a dynamic and less of a static +phenomenon. In other days the great body of written records remained more +or less stable and with its attendant body of tradition did its work by a +sort of quiet pressure on that portion of the community just beneath +it--on a special class peculiarly subject to its influence. To-day we have +added to this effect that of a moving multitude of more or less ephemeral +books, which appear, do their work, and pass on out of sight. They are +light, but they make up for their lack of weight by the speed and ease +with which they move. Owing to them the use of books is becoming less and +less limited to a class, and more and more familiar to the masses. The +book nowadays is in motion. Even the classics, the favorites of other +days, have left their musty shelves and are moving out among the people. +Where one man knew and loved Shakespeare a century ago, a thousand know +and love him to-day. The literary blood is circulating and in so doing is +giving life to the body politic. In thus wearing itself out the book is +creating a public appreciation that makes itself felt in a demand for +reprinting, hence worthy books are surer of perpetuation in this swirling +current than they were in the old time reservoir. But besides these books +whose literary life is continuous, though their paper and binding may wear +out, there are other books that vanish utterly. By the time that the +material part of them needs renewing, the book itself has done its work. +Its value at that moment is not enough, or is not sufficiently +appreciated, to warrant reprinting. It drops out of sight and its place is +taken by another, fresh from the press. This part of our moving literature +is what is called ephemeral, and properly so; but no stigma necessarily +attaches to the name. In the first place, it is impossible to draw a line +between the ephemeral and the durable. "One storm in the world's history +has never cleared off," said the wit--"the one we are having now." Yet the +conditions of to-day, literary as well as meteorological, are not +necessarily lasting. + +We are accustomed to regard what we call standard literature as +necessarily the standard of innumerable centuries to come, forgetful of +the fact that other so-called standards have "had their day and ceased to +be." Some literature lasts a century, some a year, some a week; where +shall we draw the line below which all must be condemned as ephemeral? Is +it not possible that all literary work that quickly achieves a useful +purpose and having achieved it passes at once out of sight, may really +count for as much as one that takes the course of years to produce its +slow results? The most ephemeral of all our literary productions--the +daily paper--is incalculably the most influential, and its influence +largely depends on this dynamic quality that has been noted--the +penetrative power of a thing of light weight moving at a high speed. And +this penetrative power effective literature must have to-day on account of +the vastly increased mass of modern readers. + +Reading is no longer confined to a class, it is well-nigh universal, in +our own country, at least. And the habit of mind of the thoughtful and +intent reader is not an affair of one generation but of many. New readers +are young readers, and they have the characteristics of intellectual +youth. + +Narrative--the recapitulation of one's own or someone else's experience, +the telling of a story--is the earliest form in which artistic effort of +any kind is appreciated. The pictorial art that appeals to the young or +the ignorant is the kind that tells a story--perhaps historical painting +on enormous canvasses, perhaps the small genre picture, possibly something +symbolic or mythological; but at any rate it must embody a narrative, +whether it is that of the signing of a treaty, a charge of dragoons, a +declaration of love or the feeding of chickens. The same is true of music. +The popular song tells something, almost without exception. Even in +instrumental music, outside of dance rhythms, whose suggestion of the +delights of bodily motion is a reason of their popularity, the beginner +likes program music of some kind, or at least its suggestion. So it is in +literature. With those who are intellectually young, whether young in +years or not, the narrative form of expression is all in all. It is, of +course, in all the arts, a most important mode, even in advanced stages of +development. We shall never be able to do without narrative in painting, +sculpture, music and poetry; but wherever, in a given community, the +preference for this form of expression in any art is excessive, we may be +sure that appreciation of that form of art is newly aroused. This is an +interesting symptom and a good sign. To be sure, apparent intellectual +youth may be the result of intellectual decadence; there is a second as +well as a first childhood, but it is not difficult to distinguish between +them. In general, if a large proportion of those in a community who like +to look at pictures, prefer such as "tell a story," this fact, if the +number of the appreciative is at the same time increasing, means a newly +stimulated interest in art. And similarly, if a large proportion of those +persons who enjoy reading prefer the narrative forms of literature, while +at the same time their total numbers are on the increase, this surely +indicates a newly aroused interest in books. And this is precisely the +situation in which we find ourselves to-day. A very large proportion of +the literature that we circulate is in narrative form--how large a +proportion I daresay few of us realize. Not only all the fiction, adult +and juvenile, but all the history, biography and travel, a large +proportion of literature and periodicals, some of the sciences, including +all reports of original research, and a lesser proportion of the arts, +philosophy and religion, are in this form. It may be interesting to +estimate the percentage of narrative circulated by a large public library, +and I have attempted this in the case of the New York public library for +the year ending July 1, 1906. + + Class Per cent. Estimated per + Fiction cent. of narrative + Juvenile 26 + Adult 32 ........... 58 58 + History ................. 6 6 + Biography ............... 3 3 + Travel .................. 3 3 + Literature .............. 7 3 + Periodicals ............. 4 2 + Sciences ................ 9 3 + Arts .................... 3 1 + Philos. & Relig. ........ 2 1 + Foreign ................. 5 4 + --- -- + 100 84 + +In other words, if my estimates are not too much out of the way--and I +have tried to be conservative--only 16 per cent. of our whole circulation, +and 38 per cent. of our non-fiction, is non-narrative, despite the fact +that our total fiction percentage is low. + +I attach little importance in this regard to any distinction between true +and fictitious narrative, people who read novels do not enjoy them simply +because the subject matter is untrue. They enjoy the books because they +are interesting. In fact, in most good fiction, little beside the actual +sequence of the events in the plot and the names of the characters is +untrue. The delineation of character, the descriptions of places and +events and the statements of fact are intended to be true, and the further +they depart from truth the less enjoyable they are. Indeed, when one looks +closely into the matter, the dividing line between what we call truth and +fiction in narrative grows more and more hazy. + +In pictorial art we do not attempt to make it at all. Our museums do not +classify their pictures into true and imaginary. Our novels contain so +much truth and our other narrative works so much fiction, that it is +almost as difficult to draw the line in the literary as it is in the +pictorial arts. And in any case objections to a work of fiction, as well +as commendations, must be based on considerations apart from this +classification. + +To represent a fictitious story as real or an imaginary portrait as a true +one is, of course, a fault, but the story and the portrait may both be of +the highest excellence when the subjects are wholly imaginary. It should +be noted that the crime of false representation, when committed with +success, removes a work from library classification as fiction and places +it in one of the other classes. Indeed, it is probable that much more +lasting harm is done by false non-fiction than by fiction. The reader, +provided he uses literature temperately, has much less need to beware of +the novel, which he reads frankly for entertainment, than of the history +full of "things that are not so," of the biased biography, of science +"popularized" out of all likeness to nature, of absurd theories in +sociology or cosmology, of silly and crude ideas masquerading as +philosophy, of the out-and-out falsehood of fake travellers and +pseudo-naturalists. + +In what has gone before it has been assumed that the reader is temperate. +One may read to excess either in fiction or non-fiction, and the result is +the same; mental over-stimulation, with the resulting reaction. One may +thus intoxicate himself with history, psychology or mathematics--the +mathematics-drunkard is the worst of all literary debauchees when he does +exist--and the only reason why fiction-drunkenness is more prevalent is +that fiction is more attractive to the average man. We do not have to warn +the reader against over-indulgence in biography or art-criticism, any more +than we have to put away the vichy bottle when a bibulous friend appears, +or forbid the children to eat too many shredded-wheat biscuits. Fiction +has the fatal gift of being too entertaining. The novel-writer must be +interesting or he fails; the historian or the psychologist does not often +regard it as necessary--unless he happens to be a Frenchman. + +But with this danger of literary surfeit or over-stimulation, I submit +that the librarian has nothing to do; it is beyond his sphere, at least in +so far as he deals with the adult reader. We furnish parks and playgrounds +for our people; we police them and see that they contain nothing harmful, +but we cannot guarantee that they will not be used to excess--that a man +may not, for example, be so enraptured with the trees and the squirrels +that he will give up to their contemplation time that should be spent in +supporting his family. So in the library we may and do see that harmful +literature is excluded, but we cannot be expected to see that books which +are not in themselves injurious are not sometimes used to excess. + +I venture to suggest that very much of our feeling of disquietude about +the large use of fiction in the public library and elsewhere arises from +our misapprehension of something that must always force itself upon the +attention in a state of society where public education and public taste +are on the increase. In this case the growth will necessarily be uneven in +different departments of knowledge and taste, and in different localities; +so that discrepancies frequently present themselves. We may observe, for +instance, a quietly and tastefully dressed woman reading, we will say, +Laura Jean Libbey. We are disconcerted, and the effect is depressing. But +the discrepancy may arise in either of two ways. If we have here a person +formerly possessing good taste both in dress and reading, whose taste in +the latter regard has deteriorated, we certainly have cause for sadness; +but if, as is much more likely, we have one who had formerly bad taste of +both kinds and whose taste in dress has improved, we should rather +rejoice. The argument is the same whether the change has taken place in +the same generation or in more than one. Our masses are moving upward and +the progress along the more material lines is often more rapid than in +matters of the intellect. Or, on the contrary, intellectual progress may +be in advance of manners. Such discrepancies are frequently commented upon +by foreign travelers in the United States, who almost invariably +misinterpret them in the same way. Can we blame them, when we make the +same mistake ourselves? M. Jules Huret, in his recent interesting book "En +Amerique," notes frequently the lapses in manners and taste of educated +persons among us. He describes, for instance, the bad table-manners of a +certain clergyman. His thought is evidently, "How shocking that a +clergyman should act in this way!" But we might also put it: "How +admirable that professional education in this country is so easily +obtained that one of a class in which such manners prevail can secure it! +How encouraging that he should desire to enter the ministry and succeed in +doing so!" These are extreme standpoints; we need of course endorse +neither of them. But when I find that on the upper west side of New York, +where the patrons of our branch libraries are largely the wives and +daughters of business men with good salaries, whose general scale of +living is high, the percentage of fiction circulated is unduly great, I do +not say, as I am tempted to do "How surprising and how discouraging that +persons of such apparent cultivation should read nothing but fiction, and +that not of the highest grade!" I say rather: "What an evidence it is of +our great material prosperity that persons in an early stage of mental +development, as evidenced by undue preference for narrative in literature, +are living in such comfort or even luxury!" + +Is not this the right way to look at it? I confess that I can see no +reason for despairing of the American people because it reads more fiction +than it used to read, so long as this is for the same reason that a ten +year old boy reads more stories than a baby. Intellectual youth is at +least an advance over mental infancy so long as it is first childhood--not +second. It is undoubtedly our duty, as it is our pleasure, to help these +people to grow, but we cannot force them, and should not try. Complete +growth may take several generations. And even when full stature has been +obtained, literature in its narrative modes, though not so exclusively as +now, will still be loved and read. Romance will always serve as the +dessert in the feast of reason--and we should recollect that sugar is now +highly regarded as a food. It is a producer of energy in easily available +form, and, thinking on some such novels as "Uncle Tom," "Die Waffen +nieder" and shall we say "The jungle"? we realize that this thing is a +parable, which the despiser of fiction may well read as he runs. + + + + +THE VALUE OF ASSOCIATION[3] + + [3] An address delivered before the Library Associations of Iowa, + Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana and Ohio, October 9-18, 1907. + + +Man is a gregarious animal; he cannot think, act, or even exist except in +certain relations to others of his kind. For a complete description of +those relations we must go to a treatise on sociology; our present subject +is a very brief consideration of certain groups of individuals, natural or +voluntary, and the application of the laws that govern such groups to the +voluntary associations with which we are all familiar in library work. Men +have joined together to effect certain things that they could not +accomplish singly, ever since two savages found that they could lift a +heavy log or stone together, when neither one could manage it alone. Until +recently the psychology of human groups has received little study. Le Bon, +in his book on "The Crowd," gives the modern treatment of it. A group of +persons does not think and act precisely as each of its component +individuals would think or act. The very act of association, loose as it +may be, introduces a new factor. Even the two savages lifting the log do +not work together precisely as either would have worked singly. Their +co-operation affects their activity; and both thought and action may +likewise be affected in larger groupings even by the mere proximity of the +individuals of the group, where there is no stronger bond. + +But although the spirit that collectively animates a group of men cannot +be calculated by taking an arithmetical sum, it does depend on that +possessed by each individual in the group, and more particularly on what +is common to them all and on the nature of the bonds that connect them. +Even a chance group of persons previously unconnected and unrelated is +bound together by feelings common to all humanity and may be appealed to +collectively on such grounds. The haphazard street crowd thrills with +horror at the sight of a baby toddling in front of a trolley-car and +shouts with joy when the motorman stops just in time. But the same crowd, +if composed of newly-arrived Poles, Hungarians and Slovaks, would fail +utterly to respond to some patriotic appeal that might move an American +crowd profoundly. You may sway a Methodist congregation with a tale of +John Wesley that would leave Presbyterians or Episcopalians cold. Try a +Yale mob with "Boola" and then play the same tune at Princeton, and watch +the effect. + +Thus, the more carefully our group is selected the more particular and +definite are the motives that we can bring to bear in it, and the more +powerful will its activities be along its own special lines. The mob in +the street may be roused by working on elemental passions--so roused it +will kill or burn, but you cannot excite in it enthusiasm for Dante's +Inferno, or induce it to contribute money or labor toward the preparation +of a new annotated edition. To get such enthusiasm and stimulate such +action you must work upon a body of men selected and brought together for +this very purpose. + +Besides this, we must draw a distinction between natural and artificial +groups. The group brought together by natural causes and not by man's +contriving is generally lower in the scale of civilization when it acts +collectively than any one of its components. This is the case with a mob, +a tribe, even a municipal group. But an artificial or selected group, +where the grouping is for a purpose and has been specially effected with +that end in view may act more intelligently, and be, so far as its special +activities are concerned, more advanced in the scale of progress than its +components as individuals. There is the same difference as between a man's +hand and a delicate tool. The former is the result of physical evolution +only; the latter of evolution into which the brain of man has entered as a +factor. The tool is not as good for "all round" use as the hand; but to +accomplish its particular object it is immeasurably superior. + +If, then, we are to accomplish anything by taking advantage of the very +peculiar crowd or group psychology--owing to which a collected body of men +may feel as a group and act as a group, differently from the way in which +any one of its components would feel or act--we must see that our group is +properly selected and constituted. This does not mean that we are to go +about and choose individuals, one by one, by the exercise of personal +judgment. Such a method is generally inferior and unnecessary. If we +desire to separate the fine from the coarse grains in a sand-pile we do +not set to work with a microscope to measure them, grain by grain; we use +a sieve. The sieve will not do to separate iron filings from copper +filings of exactly the same size, but here a magnet will do the business. +And so separation or selection can almost always be accomplished by +choosing an agency adapted to the conditions; and such agencies often act +automatically without the intervention of the human will. In a voluntary +association formed to accomplish a definite purpose we have a +self-selected group. Such a body may be freely open to the public, as all +our library clubs and associations practically are; yet it is still +selective, for no one would care to join it who is not in some way +interested in its objects. On the other hand, the qualifications for +membership may be numerous and rigid, in which case the selection is more +limited. The ideal of efficiency in an association is probably reached +when the body is formed for a single definite purpose and the terms of +admission are so arranged that each of its members is eager above all +things to achieve its end and is specially competent to work for it, the +purpose of the grouping being merely to attain the object more surely, +thoroughly and rapidly. A good example is a thoroughly trained military +organization, all of whose members are enthusiastic in the cause for which +the body is fighting--a band of patriots, we will say--or perhaps a band +of brigands, for what we have been saying applies to evil as well as to +good associations. The most efficient of such bodies may be very +temporary, as when three persons, meeting by chance, unite to help each +other over a wall that none of them could scale by himself, and, having +reached the other side, separate again. The more clearly cut and definite +the purpose the less the necessity of retaining the association after its +accomplishment. The more efficient the association the sooner its aims are +accomplished and the sooner it is disbanded. Such groups or bodies, by +their very nature are affairs of small detail and not of large and +comprehensive purpose. As they broaden out into catholicity they +necessarily lose in efficiency. And even when they are accomplishing their +aims satisfactorily the very largeness of those aims, the absence of sharp +outline and clear definition, frequently gives rise to complaint. I know +of clubs and associations that are doing an immense amount of good, in +some cases altering for the better the whole intellectual or moral tone of +a community, but that are the objects of criticism because they do not act +in matters of detail. + +"Why don't they do something?" is the constant cry. And "doing something," +as you may presently discover, is carrying on some small definite, +relatively unimportant activity that is capable of clear description and +easily fixes the attention, while the greater services, to the public and +to the individual, of the association's quiet influences pass unnoticed. +The church that has driven out of business one corner-saloon gets more +praise than the one that has made better men and women of a whole +generation in one neighborhood; the police force that catches one +sensational murderer is more applauded than the one that has made life and +property safe for years in its community by quiet, firm pressure. + +There is no reason of course, why the broader and the more definite +activities may not be united, to some degree, in one organization. Either +smaller groups with related aims may federate for the larger purpose, or +the larger may itself be the primary group, and may subdivide into +sections each with its specified object. Both these plans or a combination +of the two may be seen in many of our large organizations, and it is this +combination that seems finally to have been selected as the proper form of +union for the libraries and the librarians of the United States. We have a +large organization which, as it has grown more and more unwieldy, has been +subdivided into smaller specialized sections without losing its continuity +for its broader and perhaps vaguer work. At the same time, specialized +bodies with related aims have been partially or wholly absorbed, until, by +processes partly of subdivision and partly of accretion, we have a body +capable of dealing alike with the general and the special problems of +library work. It should not be forgotten, however, that its success in +dealing with both kinds of problems is still conditioned by the laws +already laid down. The general association, as it grows larger, will be +marked less and less by the enthusiasm of the specialist, will be less and +less efficient, will move more slowly, will deliver its opinions with +reticence and will hesitate to act upon them. The smaller constituent +bodies will be affected by none of these drawbacks, but their purposes +appeal to the few and their actions, though more energetic, will often +seem to the majority of the larger group devoid of meaning. This is, of +course, the case with the National Educational Association, the American +Association for the Advancement of Science, and hosts of similar bodies +here and abroad. To state the difficulty is merely to confess that all +attempts hitherto have failed to form a group that is at once +comprehensive, powerful and efficient, both in the larger matters with +which it deals and in details. + +Probably the most successful attempt of this kind is formulated in the +Constitution of the United States itself and is being carried on in our +country from day to day, yet successful as it is, our history is witness, +and the daily press testifies, that the combination of general and local +governments has its weak points and is dependent for its smooth working on +the cordial consent and forbearance of the governed. This is true also of +smaller combinations. In our own organization it is easy to find fault, it +is easy to discover points of friction; only by the cordial effort of +every member to minimize these points can such an organization begin to +accomplish its aims. Failure is much more apt to be due to lack of +appreciation of this fact than to any defect in the machinery of +organization. This being the case we are thrown back upon consideration of +the membership of our institution. How should it be selected and how +constituted? + +The constitution of the association says that "Any person or institution +engaged in library work may become a member by paying the annual dues, and +others after election by the executive board." We have thus two classes of +members, those by their own choice and those by election. The annual lists +of members do not record the distinction, but among those in the latest +list we find 24 booksellers, 17 publishers, 5 editors, 9 school and +college officials, 8 government employees not in libraries, and 24 wives +and relatives of other members, while in the case of 132 persons no +qualification is stated in the list. We have or have had as our +associates, settlement workers, lawyers, lecturers, indexers, binders, and +so on almost indefinitely. Our membership is thus freely open to +librarians, interpreting this word very broadly, and to any others that we +may desire to have with us, which means, practically, any who have +sufficient interest in library work to come to the meetings. We must, +therefore, be classed with what may be called the "open" as opposed to the +"closed" professional or technical associations. The difference may be +emphasized by a reference to two well-known New York clubs, the Players +and the Authors. These organizations would appear by their names to be +composed respectively of actors and writers. The former, however, admits +also to membership persons interested in the drama, which may mean little +or much, while the Authors Club, despite repeated efforts to broaden it +out in the same way, has insisted on admitting none but _bona fide_ +authors. In advocacy of the first plan it may be said that by adopting it +the Players has secured larger membership, embracing many men of means. +Its financial standing is better and it is enabled to own a fine club +house. On the other hand, the Authors has a small membership, and owns +practically no property, but makes up in _esprit de corps_ what it lacks +in these other respects. It is another phase of the question of +specialization that we have already considered. The larger and broader +body has certain advantages, the smaller and more compact, certain others. +We have, doubtless been right in deciding, or rather in accepting what +circumstances seem to have decided for us, that our own association shall +be of the larger and less closely knit type, following the analogy of the +National Educational Association and the various associations for the +advancement of science, American, British and French, rather than that of +the Society of Civil Engineers, for instance, or the various learned +academies. Our body has thus greater general but less special influence, +just as on a question of general scientific policy a petition from the +American association might carry greater weight, whereas on a question of +engineering it would be incomparably inferior to an opinion of the civil +engineers. There is in this country, it is true, a general scientific body +of limited membership--the National Academy of Sciences, which speaks both +on general and special questions with expert authority. In the formation +of the American Library Institute it was sought to create some such +special body of librarians, but it is too soon to say whether or not that +expectation is to be fulfilled. The fact remains that in the American +Library Association we are committed to very nearly the broadest plan of +organization and work that is possible. We are united only by our +connection with library work or our interest in its success, and are thus +limited in our discussions and actions as a body to the most general +problems that may arise in this connection, leaving the special work to +our sections and affiliated societies, which are themselves somewhat +hampered by our size in the treatment of the particular subjects that come +before them, inasmuch as they are not separate groups whose freedom of +action no one can call in question. + +In illustration of the limitations of a general body of the size and scope +of our Association, I may perhaps be allowed to adduce the recent +disagreement among librarians regarding the copyright question, or rather +regarding the proper course to be followed in connection with the +conference on that question called by the Librarian of Congress. It will +be remembered that this conference was semi-official and was due to the +desire of members of Congress to frame a bill that should be satisfactory +to the large number of conflicting interests involved. To this conference +our Association was invited to send, and did send, delegates. It is +obvious that if these and all the other delegates to the conference had +simply held out for the provisions most favorable to themselves no +agreement would have been possible and the objects of the conference would +have been defeated. Recognizing this, all the bodies and interests +represented worked from the beginning to secure an agreement, striving +only that it should be such as would represent a minimum of concession on +all sides. This view was shared by the delegates of this Association. The +law as it stood was, it is true, most favorable to libraries in its +provisions regarding importation, and the retention of these provisions +might have been facilitated by withdrawal from the conference and +subsequent opposition to whatever new bill might have been framed. But the +delegates assumed that they were appointed to confer, not to withdraw, and +that if the Association had desired to hold aloof from the conference that +result would have been best attained by appointing no delegates at all. +The Association's delegates accordingly joined with their fellows in the +spirit of compromise to agree on such a bill as might be least +unacceptable to all, and the result was a measure slightly, but only +slightly, less favorable to libraries than the existing law. With the +presentation of this bill to the proper committees of Congress, and a +formal statement that they approved it on behalf of the Association, the +duties of the delegates ended. And here begins to appear the applicability +of this chapter from library history to what has preceded. The action of +the delegates was officially that of the Association. But it was +disapproved by very many members of the Association on the ground that it +seemed likely to result in lessening the importation privilege of +libraries. Whether these dissidents were in a majority or not it seemed +impossible to say. The Association's legislative body, the Council, twice +refused to disapprove or instruct the delegates, thus tacitly approving +their action, but the dissidents asserted that the Council, in this +respect, did not rightly reflect the opinion of the Association. The whole +situation was an instructive illustration of the difficulty of getting a +large body of general scope to act on a definite, circumscribed question, +or even of ascertaining its opinion or its wishes regarding such action. +Recognizing this, the dissidents properly and wisely formed a separate +association with a single end in view--the retention of present library +importation privileges, and especially the defeat of the part of the bill +affecting such privileges as drafted in the conference. The efforts of +this body have been crowned with success in that the bill as reported by +the committee contains a modified provision acceptable to the dissidents. +Thus a relatively small body formed for a definite purpose has quickly +accomplished that purpose, while the objects of the larger body have been +expressed but vaguely, and so far as they have been definitely formulated +have failed of accomplishment. There is a lesson in this both for our own +association and for others. + +It must not be assumed, however, that limitation of action along the lines +I have indicated means weakness of organization. On the contrary, foreign +observers have generally testified to the exceptional strength and +efficiency of societies and groups of all kinds in this country. It may be +interesting to quote here what a recent French writer on the United States +has to say of the part played by associations of all kinds in our national +life. And, in passing, he who is proud of his country nowadays should read +what is said of her by French and German, and even English writers. The +muck-raking is all on this side of the water. The writer from whom I +quote, M. Paul de Rousiers, author of "La Vie Americaine," does not +commend without discrimination, which makes what he has to say of more +value. He notes at the outset that "the spirit of free association is +widely extended in the United States, and it produces results of +surprising efficiency." There are two motives for association, he thinks, +the consciousness of weakness, which is generally operative abroad, and +the consciousness of strength, which is our motive here. He says: + + The need of association comes generally from the conscience of + one's own feebleness or indolence.... When such people join they + add together their incapacities; hence the failure of many + societies formed with great eclat. On the contrary, when men + accustomed to help themselves without depending on their neighbors + form an association, it is because they really find themselves + facing a common difficulty ... such persons add their capacities; + they form a powerful union of capables, the only one that has + force. Hence the general success of American associations. + +The radical difference in the motives for association here and in the old +world was noted long ago by De Tocqueville, who says: + + European societies are naturally led to introduce into their midst + military customs and formulas.... The members of such associations + respond to a word of command like soldiers in a campaign; they + profess the dogma of passive obedience, or rather, by uniting, + they sacrifice entirely, at a single stroke, their judgment and + free will.... In American associations, on the other hand, + individual independence finds its part; as in society every man + moves at the same time toward the same goal, but all are not + forced to go by the same road. No one sacrifices his will or his + reason, but applies them both toward the success of the common + enterprise. + +Commenting on this, De Rousiers goes on: + + This is not to say that the discipline necessary to the pursuit of + the common end is less exact than with us. As far as I can judge, + the members of an American association, on the contrary, take + their obligations more seriously than we, and precisely because + they have undertaken them very freely, without being forced into + them by environment or fashion, and also because the heads of the + association have not sought to make it serve their own interests. + In fine, their discipline is strong, but it is applied only to one + precise object; it may thus subsist intact and without tyranny, + despite the most serious divergences of view among the members + regarding objects foreign to its aim. These happy conditions--this + large and concrete mind, joined to the effective activity of the + Americans, have given rise to a multitude of groups that are + rendering the greatest service. + +De Rousiers enlarges on this point at great length and gives many +illustrations. He returns to it even when he appears to have gone on to +other subjects. In an account of a visit to a militia encampment in +Massachusetts, where he was inclined at the outset to scoff at the lack of +formal military training, but finally became enthusiastic over the +individual efficiency and interest of the militiamen, he ends by saying: + + What I have seen here resembles what I have seen everywhere + throughout the United States; each organism, each individual, + preserves all its freedom, as far as it can; hence the limited and + special character of the public authorities, to whom little is + left to do. This doubtless detracts from the massed effects that + we are in the habit of producing; we are apt to think that this + kind of liberty is only disorder; but individual efforts are more + energetic and when they converge toward a single end, by + spontaneous choice of each will, their power is incalculable. This + it is that makes the strength of America. + +An interesting and satisfactory summary. There is, however, another way of +looking at it. A well-known scientific man recently expressed to me his +conviction that an "American" association of any kind is destined to +failure, whether it be of scientific men, commercial travellers or +plumbers. By "American" here he meant continental in extent. There may +thus be, according to this view, a successful Maine hotel-keeper's +association, a New York bar association, or a Pennsylvania academy of fine +arts, but no such body truly representative of the whole United States. +Many such organizations are "American" or "National" in name only; for +instance, the "American" Academy of Sciences, which is a Boston +institution, or the "National" Academy of Fine Arts, which belongs to New +York City. Many bodies have attempted to obviate this trouble by the +creation of local sections in different parts of the country, and the +newly-formed Society of Illuminating Engineers has, I understand, in mind +the organization of perfectly co-ordinate bodies in various parts of the +country, without any attempt to create a central body having headquarters +at a definite place. This is somewhat as if the American Library +Association should consist of the federated state associations, perhaps +with a council consisting of a single representative from each. It would +seem to be a workable and rather attractive plan. We may remind ourselves +again that the United States itself is the classic example of an American +association, and that it has been fairly successful by adopting this very +system. Our recognition of the necessity of local divisions in our own +association and of close affiliation with the various state bodies is +shown by the recent resolution of the council providing for sectional +meetings and by the presence at this and several other state meetings in +the present month of an official representative of the American Library +Association. That these, or similar means of making our national body +continental in something more than name are necessary we may freely admit. +Possibly it may take some years of experimentation, ending perhaps in +appropriate constitutional revision, to hit upon the best arrangement. Too +much centralization is bad; but there must be some centralization. We must +have our capital and our legislative and administrative machinery, as the +United States has at Washington. For legislative purposes our Washington +is a shifting one. It is wherever the Association may hold its annual +meeting and wherever the Council may convene in the interim. For such +administrative and executive purposes as require a fixed location, our +Washington is for the present in Boston. Next year it may be elsewhere; +but whether it shall remain there or move to some other place would seem +to be a matter of small importance. Wherever it may be, it will be +inaccessible to a large majority of American librarians. If immediate +accessibility is a requisite, therefore, some of its functions may and +should be divided. It may not be too much to look forward to a sectional +headquarters in every state in the Union, related perhaps to the general +headquarters somewhat as branch libraries to a central library, or, +perhaps, carried on under the auspices of the state associations. At any +rate, it is encouraging to reflect that we are not insensible to the +obstacles in the way of making our own, or any other association truly +American in scope, and are experimenting toward obviating them. + +All these considerations appear to me to lead to one conclusion--the duty +of every librarian to become and remain a member of the American Library +Association. I do not desire to dwell on the direct advantages that +membership offers--these are not few, and they are sufficiently obvious. +Possibly most of those who are likely to be affected by them are already +members of the Association. I would recommend for consideration higher +grounds than these. Instead of asking the question, "What is there in it +for me?" I should inquire, "What is there in it for other people?" How +will it benefit the general status of library work, the general standing +of librarians in the community, the influence of libraries on those who +use or ought to use them--these and a hundred other elements of progress +that are closely bound up with the success of library effort, but that may +not add to the welfare of any one individual. + +There seems to be no doubt that the answers to these questions all point +toward increased membership. As we have chosen to work along the broader +lines and by the energy of mass rather than that of velocity--with the +sledge-hammer rather than the rifle bullet--it is surely our duty to make +that mass as efficient and as impressive as possible, which means that it +must be swelled to the largest possible proportions. Large membership may +be efficient in two ways, by united weight and by pervasiveness. An army +is powerful in the first way. Ten thousand men concentrated in one spot +may strike a sledge-hammer blow and carry all before them. Yet the same +ten thousand men may police a great city without even seeing one another. +Scattered about on different beats they are everywhere. Every block or two +one meets a patrol and the sense of security that they give is +overwhelming. It is in this way, it seems to me, that large membership in +the American Library Association may be effective. We meet together but +once a year, and even then we do not bring out our full force. We have no +intention of marching on Washington _en masse_ to secure legislation or +even of forcing our trustees to raise salaries by a general library +strike. But if we can make it an unusual thing for a librarian not to be a +member of the American Library Association; if wherever one goes he meets +our members and recognizes what they stand for, then, it seems to me, +public opinion of librarians and librarianship is sure to rise. Our two +savages, who band together for a few moments to lift a log, become by that +act of association marked men among their fellows; the mere fact that they +have intelligence enough to work together for any purpose raises them +above the general level. It is not alone that increasing numbers, +strength, and influence make for the glory of the Association itself; the +most successful bodies of this kind are those that exalt, not themselves +but the professions, localities or ideals that they represent. It is +because increasing our numbers and scattering our membership throughout +the land will increase the influence of the library and strengthen the +hands of those who work in it that I believe such increase a worthy object +of our effort. Associations and societies come and go, form and disband; +they are no more immortal than the men and women that compose them. Yet an +association, like a man, should seek to do the work that lies before it +with all its strength, and to keep that strength at its maximum of +efficiency. So doing, it may rest content that, be its accomplishment +large or small, its place in the history of human endeavor is worthy and +secure. + + + + +MODERN EDUCATIONAL METHODS + + +Those who complain that the average of general education has been lowered +are both right and wrong--right literally and wrong in the general +impression that they give. It is undoubtedly true that among young persons +with whom an educated adult comes intellectually in contact the average of +culture is lower than it was twenty years ago. This is not, however, +because the class of persons who were well educated then are to-day less +well trained, but rather because the class has been recruited from the +ignorant classes, by the addition of persons who were not educated at all +then, or educated very slightly, and who are now receiving a higher, +though still inadequate degree of training. In other words the average of +education among all persons in the community is higher, but the average +among educated persons is lower, because the educated class has been +enlarged by the addition of large numbers of slightly educated persons. + +This phenomenon is common to all stages of progress in all sorts of +things. It is true, for instance, in the general advance of the world in +civilization. The average degree of appreciation of art among persons who +know anything of art at all is less, for instance, than in the days of +ancient Greece, because the class of art-lovers throughout the world is +vastly larger and includes a very large number of persons whose +appreciation of art is slight and crude. There is, nevertheless, a greater +total amount of love for art, and a higher average of art education, +taking into account the world's entire population, than there was then. +Let us state the case mathematically: If, of one thousand persons, ten +have a hundred dollars each and the rest nothing, a gift of five dollars +each to five hundred others will raise the average amount owned by each of +the thousand, but will greatly lower the average amount held by the +property owners in the group, who will now number 510, instead of ten. + +"How do you demonstrate all this?" will probably be asked. I do not know +of any statistical data that will enable it to be proved directly, but it +is certain that education is becoming more general, which must increase +the number of partly educated persons having an imperfect educational +background--a lack of ancestral training and home influence. Thus, among +the persons with whom the educated adult comes in contact, he necessarily +meets a larger number of individuals than formerly who betray lack of +education in speech, writing or taste; and he wrongly concludes that the +schools are not doing their work properly. If the schools were not doing +their work properly, we should have direct statistical evidence of it, and +all the direct evidence I have seen goes to show that the schools are +accomplishing more to-day and accomplishing it by better methods, than +ever before. + +Similarly, I believe that the totality of teaching ability in the +profession has increased. The conspicuous failures are persons who are +unfit to be teachers and who have been drafted into service because of our +sudden increase in educational plant. The result in some cases has been a +curious aberration in disciplinary methods--a freakishness that is +inseparable from any sudden advance such as we are making. + +Our schools can and will advance much further in personnel, methods and +results; but they are by no means on the downward path now. One way in +which they may do better work is by greater appreciation of their +selective as well as their training function. + +Suppose we have twenty bushels of raspberries and the same quantity of +potatoes to be prepared for food. Our present educational methods are a +good deal like those of a cook who should try to make the whole into +either jam or Saratoga chips, or should divide the lot in some arbitrary +way unrelated to their fitness for one or the other operation. We are +giving in our educational institutions many degrees and many kinds of +training without proper selection of the persons to whom the training is +to be applied. Selection must be and is made, of course, but it is made on +arbitrary lines, or for reasons unrelated to fitness. One boy's education +lasts ten years, and another's two, not because the former is fitted to +profit by a longer period of training, but because his father happens to +have money and inclination to give it to him. One young man studies +medicine and another goes into business, not because these are the careers +for which they are specially fitted, but because one thinks that the +prefix "Doctor" would look well in front of his name and the other has a +maternal uncle in the dry-goods trade. + +I am not so foolish as to think that selection of this kind could ever be +made with unerring accuracy, but I do assert that an effort should be made +to effect it in a greater degree through our regular educational +institutions and to leave it less to chance. Our present methods are like +those of wild nature, which scatters seeds broadcast in the hope that some +may settle on favoring soil, rather than those of the skilled cultivator, +who sees that seed and soil are fitted for each other. + +In this and other particulars I look for great improvement in our +educational methods; but I do not think that, except in local and +unessential particulars, here and there, they are now retrograding. + + + + +SOME ECONOMIC FEATURES OF LIBRARIES[4] + + [4] Read at the opening of the Chestnut Hill Branch, Philadelphia + Free Library, January 22, 1909. + + +Of the three great divisions of economics--production, distribution and +consumption--the library has to do chiefly with the second, and it is as a +distributor of literature that I desire to speak of it, although it has +its share both in the production and consumption of books--more briefly, +in the writing and reading of them. Much writing of books is done wholly +in libraries and by their aid, and much reading is done therein. These +functions I pass by with this brief notice. + +A library distributes books. So does a bookseller. The functions of these +two distributors, however, should differ somewhat as do those of the two +producers of books--the author and the publisher. The author creates the +soul of the book and the publisher gives it a body. The former produces +the immaterial, possibly the eternal, part and the latter merely the +material part. Likewise, in our distribution we librarians should lay +stress upon what is in the book, upon the production of the author rather +than on that of the publisher, though we may not neglect the latter. We +are, however, eminently distributors of ideas rather than of mere +merchandise, and in so far as we lay stress on the material side of the +book--important as this is--and neglect what is in it, we are but traders +in books and not librarians. + +Among many of the great distributors of ideas--the magazine, the +newspaper, the school--it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any +that do not feel what I may call an anti-civic tendency. They have come to +be supported largely by other agencies than the public, and they are +naturally controlled by those agencies. As for the public, it has become +accustomed to paying less than cost for what it gets along these lines, +and is thus becoming intellectually pauperized. It is no more possible to +distribute ideas at a profit, as a commercial venture, nowadays, than it +would have been to run a circus, with an admission fee, in Imperial Rome. +Thus a literary magazine is possible only because it is owned by some +publisher who uses it as an advertising medium. He can afford to sell it +to the public for less than cost; the public would leave a publication +sold at a fair profit severely alone, hence such a venture is impossible. +A scientific magazine in like manner must have some one to back it--a firm +of patent-office brokers or a scientific society. The daily papers depend +almost wholly on their advertisements; the public would not buy a simple +compilation of the day's news at a fair profit. Even our great +institutions of higher education give their students more than the latter +pay for; the student is getting part of his tuition for nothing. A college +that depends wholly on tuition fees for its support is soon left without +students. Thus all these disseminators of ideas are not dependent on the +persons to whom they distribute those ideas, for whose interest it is that +the ideas shall be good and true and selected with discrimination. They +depend rather for support on outside bodies of various kinds and so tend +to be controlled by them--bodies whose interests do not necessarily +coincide with those of the public. This is not true of material things. +Their distributors still strive to please the public, for it is by the +public that they are supported. If the public wants raspberry jam, +raspberry jam it gets; and if, being aroused, it demands that this shall +be made out of raspberries instead of apples, dock-seeds and aniline, it +ultimately has its way. But if the department store were controlled by +some outside agency, benevolent or otherwise, which partly supported it +and enabled it to sell its wares below cost, then if this controlling +agency willed that we should eat dock-seeds and aniline--dock-seeds and +aniline we should doubtless eat. + +Not that the controlling powers in all these instances are necessarily +malevolent. The publisher who owns a literary magazine may honestly desire +that it shall be fearlessly impartial. The learned body that runs a +scientific periodical may be willing to admit to its pages a defense of a +thesis that it has condemned in one of its meetings; the page-advertiser +in a great daily may be able to see his pet policy attacked in its +editorial columns without yielding to the temptation to bring pressure to +bear; the creator of an endowed university may view with equanimity an +attack by one of its professors on the methods by which he amassed his +wealth. All these things may be; we know in fact that they have been and +that they are. But unfortunately we all know of cases where the effect of +outside control has been quite the contrary. The government of a +benevolent despot, we are told, would be ideal; but alas! rules for making +a despot benevolent and for ensuring that he and his successors shall +remain so, are not yet formulated. We have fallen back on the plan of +fighting off the despot--good though he may possibly be; would that we +could also abolish the non-civic control of the disseminators of ideas! + +Are there, then, no disseminators of ideas free from interference? Yes, +thank heaven, there are at least two--the public school and the public +library. Of these, the value of academic freedom to the public school is +slight, because the training of the very young is of its nature subject +little to the influences of which we have spoken. There is little +opportunity, during a grammar school or high school course, to influence +the mind in favor of particular government policies and particular +theories in science or literature or art. This opportunity comes later. +And it is later that the public library does its best work. Supported by +the public it has no impulse and no desire to please anyone else. No +suspicion of outside control hangs over it. It receives gifts; but they +are gifts to the public, held by the public, not by outsiders. It is +tax-supported, and the public pays cost price for what it gets--no more +and no less. The community has the power of abolishing the whole system in +the twinkling of an eye. The library's power in an American municipality +lies in the affections of those who use and profit by it. It holds its +position by love. No publisher may say to it: "Buy my books, not those of +my rival"; no scientist may forbid it to give his opponent a hearing; no +religious body may dictate to it; no commercial influence may throw a +blight over it. It is untrammeled. + +How long is it to remain thus? That is for its owners, the public, to say. +I confess that I feel uneasy when I realize how little the influence of +the public library is understood by those who might try to wield that +influence, either for good or for evil. Occasionally an individual tries +to use it sporadically--the poet who tries to secure undying fame by +distributing free copies of his verses to the libraries, the manufacturer +who gives us an advertisement of his product in the guise of a book, the +enthusiast who runs over our shelf list to see whether the library is well +stocked with works on his fad--socialism or Swedenborgianism, or the "new +thought." But, so far, there has been no concerted, systematic effort on +the part of classes or bodies of men to capture the public library, to +dictate its policy, to utilize its great opportunities for influencing the +public mind. When this ever comes, as it may, we must look out! + +So far as my observation goes, the situation--even the faintest glimmering +of it--is far from dawning on most of these bodies. Most individuals, when +the policy of the library suits them not, exhaust their efforts in an +angry kick or an epistolary curse; they never even think of trying to +change that policy, even by argument. Most of them would rather write a +letter to a newspaper, complaining of a book's absence, than to ask the +librarian to buy it. Organizations--civil, religious, scientific, +political, artistic--have usually let us severely alone, where their +influence, if they should come into touch with the library, would surely +be for good--would be exerted along the line of morality, of more careful +book selection, of judicial mindedness instead of one-sidedness. + +Let us trust that influences along this line--if we are to have influences +at all--may gain a foothold before the opposite forces--those of sordid +commercialism, of absurdities, of falsities, of all kinds of +self-seeking--find out that we are worth their exploitation. + +When it comes, as I expect it will some day--this general realization of +what only a few now understand--that the public library is worth trying to +influence and to exploit, our trouble will be that we shall be without any +machinery at all to receive it, to take care of it, to direct the good +into proper channels and to withstand the evil. We are occasionally +annoyed and disconcerted now by the infinitesimal amount of it that we +see; we wish people would mind their own business; we detest meddlers; we +should be able to do more work if it were not for the bores--and so on. +But what--what in heaven's name shall we do with the deluge when it comes? +With what dam shall we withstand it; through what sluices shall we lead +it; into what useful turbines shall we direct it? These things are worth +pondering. + +For the present then, this independence of the library as a distributor +may be regarded as one of its chief economic advantages. Another is its +power as a leveler, and hence as an adjunct of democracy. Democracy is a +result, not a cause, of equality. It is natural in a community whose +members resemble each other in ability, modes of thought and mental +development, just as it is unthinkable where great natural differences, +racial or otherwise, exist. If we wish to preserve democracy, therefore, +we must first maintain our community on something like a level. And we +must level it up, not down; for although a form of democracy may exist +temporarily among individuals equally ignorant or degraded, the advent of +a single person more advanced in the scale of ability, quickly transforms +it into absolutism. Similar inequalities may result in an aristocratic +regime. The reason why England, with its ancient aristocracy, on the +whole, is so democratic, is that its commoners are constantly recruited by +the younger sons of its nobility, so that the whole body politic is +continually stirred and kept more homogeneous than on the continent, where +all of a noble's sons and daughters are themselves noble. This stirring or +levelling process may be effected in many ways and along many lines, but +in no way better than by popular education, as we have well understood in +this country. This is why our educational system is a bulwark of our form +of government, and this is why the public library--the only continuous +feature of that system, exercising its influence from earliest childhood +to most advanced age--is worth to the community whatever it may cost in +its most improved form. There are enough influences at work to segregate +classes in our country, and they come to us ready-made from other +countries; we may be thankful that the public library is helping to make +Americans of our immigrants and to make uniformly cultivated and +well-informed Americans of us all. + +Another interesting light on the functions of the printed page, and hence +of the library, is shown by the recent biological theory that connects the +phenomena of heredity with those of habit and memory. The inheritance of +ancestral characteristics, according to this view, may be described as +racial memory. To illustrate, we may take an interesting study of a family +of Danish athletes, recently made and published in France. The members of +this family, adults and children, men and women, have all been gymnasts +for over three hundred years--no one of them would think of adopting any +other means of gaining a livelihood. It seems certain to the scientific +men who have been conducting the investigation, that not only the physical +ability to become an acrobat, but also the mental qualities that +contribute so much to success in this occupation--pride in the acrobatic +pre-eminence of the family, courage, love of applause, and so on--have +been handed down from one generation to another, and that it has cost each +generation less time and effort to acquire its skill than its predecessor. +In other words, we are told, members of this family are born with certain +predispositions--latent ancestral memories, we may say, of the occupations +of previous generations. To make these effective, it is necessary only to +awaken them, and this may be done simply by the sight of other persons +performing gymnastic feats. These they learn in weeks, where others, +without such ancestral memories, would require months or years. + +Evidently this may be applied much more widely than to mere physical +skill. Few of us can boast of gymnastic ancestry, but all of us have +inherited predispositions and have ancestral memories that make it easier +for us to learn certain things and to choose certain courses than we +should find it without them. Some of these are good; some bad. Some are +useful; some injurious. It is necessary only to awaken them to set going a +train of consequences; if not awakened, they may remain permanently +dormant. How important, therefore, are the suggestions that may serve as +such awakeners; how necessary to bring forward the useful, and to banish +the injurious ones! + +Now of all possible agencies that may bring these predispositions into +play--that may awaken our ancestral memories, if you choose to adopt this +theory--I submit that the book stands at the very head. For it is itself a +racial record; it may contain, in the form best suited to awaken our +predispositions, the very material which, long ages ago, was instrumental +in handing those predispositions down to us. It is in tune with our latent +memories, and it may set them vibrating more vigorously than any merely +contemporary agency. + +Does this not place in a new and interesting light the library and the +books of which it is composed? We have learned to respect them as the +records of the race and to recognize their value as teachers and their +power as energizers; in addition we now see that they may act as fingers +on invisible mental triggers. A slight impulse--altogether trivial +compared with its effect--and off goes the gun. The discharge may carry a +line to a wrecked ship, or it may sink her with all on board. + +We frequently hear it said of some book whose tendency is bad: "Well, it +can't hurt me, anyway; I'm immune." Are you quite sure? Have you gone +quite to the bottom of those ancestral memories of yours, and are you +certain that there are none that such a book may rouse, to your harm? + +On the other hand, does this not explain much that has always interested +the librarian; for instance, the vast popularity of fairy tales, +especially those that date back to our racial infancy? I need dwell no +further on the economic importance of the book as viewed from this +standpoint. + +But it has also a function almost diametrically opposed to that which we +have just considered; besides harking back to what is oldest it looks +forward to what is newest. It may stir us by awakening dim racial +recollections; but it may also thrill us by adding to the store of what is +already in the mind. In fact, we like to assimilate new ideas, to think +new thoughts, to do new acts; we like to read or hear something that we +could not have produced ourselves. When we are young and ignorant, +therefore, we like music or art or literature that appears trivial to us +as we grow older and have developed our own creative powers. A poem that +is no better than one a man might dash off himself he likes no longer; he +prefers to be confronted with something that is above and beyond his own +powers, though not above his comprehension. Thus, as he grows, his zone of +enjoyment shifts upward, and the library covers the whole moving field. +When Solomon John Peterkin, pen in hand, sat down to write a book, he +discovered that he hadn't anything to say. Happy lad! He had before him +all literature as a field of enjoyment, for all, apparently, was beyond +his creative efforts. + +Do those of you who are musicians remember when you first apprehended the +relations between the tonic and the dominant chords? I have heard a small +boy at a piano play these alternately for hours. Such a performance is +torture to you and me; it is the sweetest harmony to him, because it is +new and has just come into his sphere of creative power. When he is +thoroughly satisfied that he can produce the effect at will, he abandons +it for something newer and a little higher. The boy who discovers, without +being told, that the dominant chord, followed by the tonic, produces a +certain musical effect, is doing something that for him is on a par with +Wagner's searching the piano for those marvellous effects of his that are +often beyond technical explanation. + +The child who reads what you think is a trivial book, re-reads it, and +reads others like it, is doing this same thing in the domain of +literature--he is following the natural course that will bring him out at +the top after a while. + +When we distribute books, then, we distribute ideas, not only actual, but +potential. A book has in it not only the ideas that lie on its surface, +but millions of others that are tied to these by invisible chords, of +which we have touched on but a few--the invisible ancestral memories of +centuries ago, the foretastes of future thoughts in our older selves and +our posterity of centuries hence. When we think of it, it is hard to +realize that a book has not a soul. + +Gerald Stanley Lee, in his latest book, a collection of essays on +millionaires, sneers at the efforts of the rich mill owners to improve +their employees by means of libraries. Life in a modern mill, he thinks, +is so mechanical as to dull all the higher faculties. "Andrew Carnegie," +he says (and he apparently uses the name merely as that of a type), "has +been taking men's souls away and giving them paper books." + +Now the mills may be soul-deadening--possibly they are, though it is hard +to benumb a soul--but I will venture to say that for every soul that Mr. +Carnegie, or anyone else, has taken away, he has created, awakened and +stimulated a thousand by contact with that almost soul--that +near-soul--that resides in books. Mr. Lee's books may be merely paper; +mine have paper and ink only for their outer garb; their inner warp and +woof is of the texture of spirit. + +This is why I rejoice when a new library is opened. I thank God for its +generous donor. I clasp hands with the far-reaching municipality that +accepts and supports it. I wish good luck to the librarians who are to +care for it and give it dynamic force; I congratulate the public whose +privilege it is to use it and to profit by it. + + + + +SIMON NEWCOMB: AMERICA'S FOREMOST ASTRONOMER + + +Among those in all parts of the world whose good opinion is worth having, +Simon Newcomb was one of the best known of America's great men. +Astronomer, mathematician, economist, novelist, he had well-nigh boxed the +compass of human knowledge, attaining eminence such as is given to few to +reach, at more than one of its points. His fame was of the far-reaching +kind,--penetrating to remote regions, while that of some others has only +created a noisy disturbance within a narrow radius. + +Best and most widely known as an astronomer, his achievements in that +science were not suited for sensational exploitation. He discovered no +apple-orchards on the moon, neither did he dispute regarding the railways +on the planet Venus. His aim was to make still more exact our knowledge of +the motions of the bodies constituting what we call the solar system, and +his labors toward this end, begun more than thirty years ago, he continued +almost until the day of his death. Conscious that his span of life was +measured by months and in the grip of what he knew to be a fatal disease, +he yet exerted himself with all his remaining energy to complete his +monumental work on the motion of the moon, and succeeded in bringing it to +an end before the final summons came. His last days thus had in them a +cast of the heroic, not less than if, as the commander of a torpedoed +battleship, he had gone down with her, or than if he had fallen charging +at the head of a forlorn hope. It is pleasant to think that such a man was +laid to rest with military honors. The accident that he was a retired +professor in the United States Navy may have been the immediate cause of +this, but its appropriateness lies deeper. + +Newcomb saw the light not under the Stars and Stripes, but in Nova Scotia, +where he was born, at the town of Wallace on March 12, 1835. His father, a +teacher, was of American descent, his ancestors having settled in Canada +in 1761. After studying with his father and teaching for some little time +in his native province he came to the United States while yet a boy of +eighteen, and while teaching in Maryland in 1854-'56 was so fortunate as +to attract, by his mathematical ability, the attention of two eminent +American scientific men, Joseph Henry and Julius Hilgard, who secured him +an appointment as computer on the Nautical Almanac. The date of this was +1857, and Newcomb had thus, at his death, been in Government employ for +fifty-two years. As the work of the almanac was then carried on in +Cambridge, Mass., he was enabled to enter the Lawrence Scientific School +of Harvard University, where he graduated in 1858 and where he pursued +graduate studies for three years longer. On their completion in 1861 he +was appointed a professor of mathematics in the United States Navy, which +office he held till his death. This appointment, made when he was +twenty-six years old,--scarcely more than a boy,--is a striking testimony +to his remarkable ability as a mathematician, for of practical astronomy +he still knew little. + +One of his first duties at Washington was to supervise the construction of +the great 26-inch equatorial just authorized by Congress and to plan for +mounting and housing it. In 1877 he became senior professor of mathematics +in the navy, and from that time until his retirement as a Rear Admiral in +1897 he had charge of the Nautical Almanac office, with its large corps of +naval and civilian assistants, in Washington and elsewhere. In 1884 he +also assumed the chair of mathematics and astronomy in Johns Hopkins +University, Baltimore, and he had much to to do, in an advisory capacity, +with the equipment of the Lick Observatory and with testing and mounting +its great telescope, at that time the largest in the world. + +To enumerate his degrees, scientific honors, and medals would tire the +reader. Among them were the degree of LL.D. from all the foremost +universities, the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London +in 1874, the great gold Huygens medal of the University of Leyden, awarded +only once in twenty years, in 1878, and the Schubert gold medal of the +Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg. The collection of portraits of famous +astronomers at the Observatory of Pulkowa contains his picture, painted by +order of the Russian Government in 1887. He was, of course, a member of +many scientific societies, at home and abroad, and was elected in 1869 to +our own National Academy of Sciences, becoming its vice-president in 1883. +In 1893 he was chosen one of the eight foreign associates of the Institute +of France,--the first native American since Benjamin Franklin to be so +chosen. Newcomb's most famous work as an astronomer,--that which gained +him world-wide fame among his brother astronomers,--was, as has been said, +too mathematical and technical to appeal to the general public among his +countrymen, who have had to take his greatness, in this regard, on trust. +They have known him at first hand chiefly as author or editor of popular +works such as his "Popular Astronomy" (1877); of his text-books on +astronomy, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus; of his books on +political economy, which science he was accustomed to call his +"recreation"; and of magazine articles on all sorts of subjects not +omitting "psychical research," which was one of the numerous by-paths into +which he strayed. He held at one time the presidency of the American +Society for Psychical Research. + +The technical nature of his work in mathematical astronomy,--his +"profession," as he called it, in distinction to his "recreations" and +minor scientific amusements,--may be seen from the titles of one or two of +his papers: "On the Secular Variations and Mutual Relations of the Orbits +of the Asteroids" (1860); "Investigation of the Orbit of Neptune, with +General Tables of Its Motion" (1867); "Researches on the Motion of the +Moon" (1876); and so on. Of this work Professor Newcomb himself says, in +his "Reminiscences of an Astronomer" (Boston, 1903), that it all tended +toward one result,--the solution of what he calls "the great problem of +exact astronomy," the theoretical explanation of the observed motions of +the heavenly bodies. + +If the universe consisted of but two bodies,--say, the sun and a +planet,--the motion would be simplicity itself; the planet would describe +an exact ellipse about the sun, and this orbit would never change in form, +size, or position. With the addition of only one more body, the problem at +once becomes so much more difficult as to be practically insoluble; +indeed, the "problem of the three bodies" has been attacked by astronomers +for years without the discovery of any general formula to express the +resulting motions. For the actually existing system of many planets with +their satellites and countless asteroids, only an approximation is +possible. The actual motions as observed and measured from year to year +are most complex. Can these be completely accounted for by the mutual +attractions of the bodies, according to the law of gravitation as +enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton? In Newcomb's words, "Does any world move +otherwise than as it is attracted by other worlds?" Of course, Newcomb has +not been the only astronomer at work on this problem, but it has been his +life-work and his contributions to its solution have been very noteworthy. + +It is difficult to make the ordinary reader understand the obstacles in +the way of such a determination as this. Its two elements are, of course, +the mapping out of the lines in which the bodies concerned actually do +move and the calculations of the orbits in which they ought to move, if +the accepted laws of planetary motion are true. The first involves the +study of thousands of observations made during long years by different men +in far distant lands, the discussion of their probable errors, and their +reduction to a common standard. The latter requires the use of the most +refined methods of mathematical analysis; it is, as Newcomb says, "of a +complexity beyond the powers of ordinary conception." In works on +celestial mechanics a single formula may fill a whole chapter. + +This problem first attracted Newcomb's attention when a young man at +Cambridge, when by analysis of the motions of the asteroids he showed that +the orbits of these minor planets had not, for several hundred thousand +years past, intersected at a single point, and that they could not, +therefore, have resulted, during that period, from the explosion of a +single large body, as had been supposed. + +Later, when Newcomb's investigations along this line had extended to the +major planets and their satellites, a curious anomaly in the moon's motion +made it necessary for him to look for possible observations made long +before those hitherto recorded. The accepted tables were based on +observations extending back as far as 1750, but Newcomb, by searching the +archives of European observatories, succeeded in discovering data taken as +early as 1660, not, of course, with such an investigation as this in view, +but chiefly out of pure scientific curiosity. The reduction of such +observations, especially as the old French astronomers used apparent time, +which was frequently in error by quarter of an hour or so, was a matter of +great difficulty. The ancient observer, having no idea of the use that was +to be made of his work, had supplied no facilities for interpreting it, +and "much comparison and examination was necessary to find out what sort +of an instrument was used, how the observations were made, and how they +should be utilized for the required purpose." The result was a vastly more +accurate lunar theory than had formerly been obtained. + +During the period when Newcomb was working among the old papers of the +Paris Observatory, the city, then in possession of the Communists, was +beset by the national forces, and his studies were made within hearing of +the heavy siege guns, whose flash he could even see by glancing through +his window. + +Newcomb's appointment as head of the Nautical Almanac office greatly +facilitated his work on the various phases of this problem of planetary +motions. Their solution was here a legitimate part of the routine work of +the office, and he had the aid of able assistants,--such men as G.W. Hill, +who worked out a large part of the theory of Jupiter and Saturn, and +Cleveland Keith, who died in 1896, just as the final results of his work +were being combined. In connection with this work Professor Newcomb +strongly advocated the unification of the world's time by the adoption of +an international meridian, and also international agreement upon a uniform +system of data for all computations relating to the fixed stars. The +former still hangs fire, owing to mistaken "patriotism"; the latter was +adopted at an international conference held in Paris in 1896, but after it +had been carried into effect in our own Nautical Almanac, professional +jealousies brought about a modification of the plan that relegated the +improved and modernized data to an appendix. + +Professor Newcomb's retirement from active service made the continuance of +his great work on an adequate scale somewhat problematical, and his data +on the moon's motion were laid aside for a time until a grant from the +newly organized Carnegie Institution in 1903 enabled him to employ the +necessary assistance, and the work has since gone forward to completion. + +What is the value of such work, and why should fame be the reward of him +who pursues it successfully? Professor Newcomb himself raises this +question in his "Reminiscences," and without attempting to answer it +directly he notes that every civilized nation supports an observatory at +great annual expense to carry on such research, besides which many others +are supported by private or corporate contributions. Evidently the +consensus of public opinion must be that the results are worth at least a +part of what they cost. The question is included in the broader one of the +value of all research in pure science. Speaking generally, the object of +this is solely to add to the sum of human knowledge, although not seldom +some application to man's physical needs springs unexpectedly from the +resulting discoveries, as in the case of the dynamo or that of wireless +telegraphy. Possibly a more accurate description of the moon's motion is +unlikely to bring forth any such application, but those who applaud the +achievements of our experts in mathematical astronomy would be quick to +deny that their fame rests on any such possibility. + +Passing now to Professor Newcomb's "recreation," as he called, +it,--political economy, we may note that his contributions to it were +really voluminous, consisting of papers, popular articles and several +books, including "The A B C of Finance" (1877) and "Principles of +Political Economy" (1886). Authorities in the science never really took +these as seriously as they deserved, possibly because they regarded +Professor Newcomb as scarcely orthodox. Some of his distinctions, however, +are of undoubted value and will live; for instance, that between the fund +and the flux of wealth, on which he insists in his treatises on finance. +As to Professor Newcomb's single excursion into fiction, a romance +entitled "His Wisdom the Defender," it is perhaps sufficient to say that, +like everything he attempted, it is at least worth notice. It is a sort of +cross between Jules Verne and Bulwer Lytton's "Coming Race." + +Professor Newcomb's mind was comprehensive in its activity. One might have +thought that an intellect occupied to the last in carrying out one of the +most stupendous tasks ever attempted by a mathematical astronomer would +have had little time or little energy left for other things; but Newcomb +took his rest and pleasure in popular articles and interviews. Only a +short time before his death he published an essay on aeronautics that +attracted wide attention, drawing the conclusions that the aeroplane can +never be of much use either as a passenger-carrier or in war, but that the +dirigible balloon may accomplish something within certain lines, although +it will never put the railways and steamships out of business. In +particular, he treated with unsparing ridicule the panic fear of an aerial +invasion that so lately seized upon our transatlantic cousins. + +Personally, Newcomb was an agreeable companion and a faithful friend. His +success was due largely to his tenacity of purpose. The writer's only +personal contact with him came through the "Standard Dictionary,"--of +whose definitions in physical science Newcomb had general oversight. On +one occasion he came into the office greatly dissatisfied with the +definition that we had framed for the word "magnet."--a conception almost +impossible to define in any logical way. We had simply enumerated the +properties of the thing,--a course which in the absence of authoritative +knowledge of their causes was the only rational procedure. But Newcomb's +mind demanded a logical treatment, and though he must have seen from the +outset that this was a forlorn hope, his tenacity of purpose kept him, +pencil in hand, writing and erasing alternately for an hour or more. +Finally he confessed that he could do no better than the following pair of +definitions,--"_Magnet_, a body capable of exerting magnetic force," and +"_Magnetic Force_, the force exerted by a magnet." With a hearty laugh at +this beautiful _circulus in definiendo_ he threw down his pencil, and the +imperfect and illogical office definition was accepted. + +Logical as he was, however, he was in no sense bound by convention. His +economics, as has been said, was often unorthodox, and even in his +mathematical text-books he occasionally shocked the hide-bound. I well +remember an interesting discussion among members of the Yale mathematical +faculty just after the appearance of Newcomb's text-book of geometry, in +which he was unsparingly condemned by some because he assumed in certain +elementary demonstrations that geometrical figures could be removed from +the paper, turned over and laid down again,--the so-called "method of +superposition," now generally regarded as quite allowable. Of course, a +figure can be treated in this way only in imagination and for this season, +probably, the method was not employed by Euclid. Its use, however, leads +always to true results, as anyone may see; and it was quite characteristic +of Professor Newcomb that he should have taken it up, not having the fear +of the Greek geometers before him. + +Such was Newcomb; it will be long before American science sees his equal. +Mathematical genius is like an automobile,--it is looked upon in two +opposing fashions as one has it or has it not. A noted educator not long +ago announced his belief that the possession of a taste for mathematics is +an exact index of the general intellectual powers. Not much later, another +eminent teacher asserted that mathematical ability is an exotic,--that one +may, and often does, possess it who is in other respects practically an +imbecile. This is scarcely a subject in which a single illustration +decides, but surely Newcomb's career justifies the former opinion rather +than the latter; the amount and kind of his mental abilities along all +lines seemed to run parallel to his mathematical genius, to resemble it in +quantity and in kind. + +The great volumes of astronomical tables without which no astronomer may +now venture upon a computation are his best monument; yet the general +reader will longer remember, perhaps, the lucid expositor, the genial +essayist, the writer of one of the most readable autobiographies of our +day. + + + + +THE COMPANIONSHIP OF BOOKS[5] + + [5] Read before the Pacific Northwest Library Association, + June, 1910. + + +Are books fitted to be our companions? That depends. You and I read them +with pleasure; others do not care for them; to some the reading of any +book at all is as impossible as the perusal of a volume in Old Slavonic +would be to most of us. These people simply do not read at all. To a +suggestion that he supplement his usual vacation sports by reading a +novel, a New York police captain--a man with a common school +education--replied, "Well, I've never read a book yet, and I don't think +I'll begin now." Here was a man who had never read a book, who had no use +for books, and who could get along perfectly well without them. He is not +a unique type. Hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens might as well +be quite illiterate, so far as the use that they make of their ability to +read is concerned. These persons are not all uneducated; they possess and +are still acquiring much knowledge, but since leaving school they have +acquired it chiefly by personal experience and by word of mouth. Is it +possible that they are right? May it be that to read books is unnecessary +and superfluous? + +There has been some effort of late to depreciate the book--to insist on +its inadequacy and on the impracticality of the knowledge that it conveys. +"Book-learning" has always been derided more or less by so-called +"practical men". A recent series of comic pictures in the newspapers makes +this clear. It is about "Book-taught Bilkins". Bilkins tries to do +everything by a book. He raises vegetables, builds furniture, runs a +chicken farm, all by the directions contained in books, and meets with +ignominious failure. He makes himself, in fact, very ridiculous in every +instance and thousands of readers laugh at him and his absurd books. They +inwardly resolve, doubtless, that they will be practical and will pay no +attention to books. Are they right? Is the information contained in books +always useless and absurd, while that obtained by experience or by talking +to one's neighbor is always correct and valuable? + +Many of our foremost educators are displeased with the book. They are +throwing it aside for the lecture, for laboratory work, for personal +research and experiment. Does this mean that the book, as a tool of the +teacher, will have to go? + +What it all certainly does mean is that we ought to pause a minute and +think about the book, about what it does and what it can not do. This +means that we ought to consider a little the whole subject of written as +distinguished from spoken language. Why should we have two languages--as +we practically do--one to be interpreted by the ear and the other by the +eye? Could we or should we abandon either? What are the advantages and +what the limitations of each? We are so accustomed to looking upon the +printed page, to reading newspapers, books, and advertisements, to sending +and receiving letters, written or typewritten, that we are apt to forget +that all this is not part of the natural order, except in the sense that +all inventions and creations of the human brain are natural. Written +language is a conscious invention of man; spoken language is a +development, shaped by his needs and controlled by his sense of what is +fitting, but not at the outset consciously devised. + +We are apt to think of written language as simply a means of representing +spoken language to the eye; but it is more than this; originally, at least +in many cases, it was not this at all. The written signs represented not +sounds, but ideas themselves; if they were intended to correspond directly +with anything, it was with the rude gestures that signified ideas and had +nothing to do with their vocal expression. It was not until later that +these written symbols came to correspond to vocal sounds and even to-day +they do so imperfectly; languages that are largely phonetic are the +exception. The result is, as I have said, that we have two languages--a +spoken and a written. What we call reading aloud is translation from the +written to the spoken tongue; while writing from dictation is translation +from the spoken to the written. When we read, as we say, "to ourselves," +we sometimes, if we are not skilful, pronounce the spoken words under our +breath, or at least form them with our vocal organs. You all remember the +story of how the Irishman who could not read made his friend stop up his +ears while reading a letter aloud, so that he might not hear it. This +anecdote, like all good comic stories, has something in it to think about. +The skilful reader does not even imagine the spoken words as he goes. He +forgets, for the moment, the spoken tongue and translates the written +words and phrases directly into the ideas for which they stand. A skilful +reader thus takes in the meaning of a phrase, a sentence, even of a +paragraph, at a glance. Likewise the writer who sets his own thoughts down +on paper need not voice them, even in imagination; he may also forget all +about the spoken tongue and spread his ideas on the page at first hand. +This is not so common because one writes slower than he speaks, whereas he +reads very much faster. The swift reader could not imagine that he was +speaking the words, even if he would; the pace is too incredibly fast. + +Our written tongue, then, has come to be something of a language by +itself. In some countries it has grown so out of touch with the spoken +tongue that the two have little to do with each other. Where only the +learned know how to read and write, the written language takes on a +learned tinge; the popular spoken tongue has nothing to keep it steady and +changes rapidly and unsystematically. Where nearly all who speak the +language also read and write it, as in our own country, the written +tongue, even in its highest literary forms, is apt to be much more +familiar and colloquial, but at the same time the written and the spoken +tongue keep closer together. Still, they never accurately correspond. When +a man "talks like a book," or in other words, uses such language that it +could be printed word for word and appear in good literary form, we +recognize that he is not talking ordinary colloquial English--not using +the normal spoken language. On the other hand, when the speech of a +southern negro or a down-east Yankee is set down in print, as it so often +is in the modern "dialect story," we recognize at once that although for +the occasion this is written language, it is not normal literary English. +It is most desirable that the two forms of speech shall closely +correspond, for then the written speech gets life from the spoken and the +spoken has the written for its governor and controller; but it is also +desirable that each should retain more or less individuality, and +fortunately it is almost impossible that they should not do so. + +We must not forget, therefore, that our written speech is not merely a way +of setting down our spoken speech in print. This is exactly what our +friends the spelling reformers appear to have forgotten. The name that +they have given to what they propose to do, indicates this clearly. When a +word as written and as spoken have drifted apart, it is usually the spoken +word that has changed. Reform, therefore, would be accomplished by +restoring the old spoken form. Instead of this, it is proposed to change +the written form. In other words, the two languages are to be forced +together by altering that one of them that is by its essence the most +immutable. Where the written word has been corrupted as in spelling +"guild" for "gild," the adoption of the simpler spelling is a reform; +otherwise, not. + +Now is the possession of two languages, a spoken and a written, an +advantage or not? With regard to the spoken tongue, the question answers +itself. If we were all deaf and dumb, we could still live and carry on +business, but we should be badly handicapped. On the other hand, if we +could neither read nor write, we should simply be in the position of our +remote forefathers or even of many in our own day and our own land. What +then is the reasons for a separate written language, beyond the variety +thereby secured, by the use of two senses, hearing and sight, instead of +only one? + +Evidently the chief reason is that written speech is eminently fitted for +preservation. Without the transmittal of ideas from one generation to +another, intellectual progress is impossible. Such transmittal, before the +invention of writing, was effected solely by memory. The father spoke to +the son, and he, remembering what was said, told it, in turn, to the +grandson. This is tradition, sometimes marvellously accurate, but often +untrustworthy. And as it is without check, there is no way of telling +whether a given fact, so transmitted, is or is not handed down faithfully. +Now we have the phonograph for preserving and accurately reproducing +spoken language. If this had been invented before the introduction of +written language, we might never have had the latter; as it is, the device +comes on the field too late to be a competitor with the book in more than +a very limited field. For preserving particular voices, such as those of +great men, or for recording intonation and pronunciation, it fills a want +that writing and printing could never supply. + +For the long preservation of ideas and their conveyance to a human mind, +written speech is now the indispensable vehicle. And, as has been said, +this is how man makes progress. We learn in two ways: by undergoing and +reflecting on our own experiences and by reading and reflecting on those +of others. Neither of these ways is sufficient in itself. A child bound +hand and foot and confined in a dark room would not be a fit subject for +instruction, but neither would he reach a high level if placed on a desert +island far from his kind and forced to rely solely on his own experiences. +The experiences of our forebears, read in the light of our own; the +experiences of our forebears, used as a starting-point from which we may +move forward to fresh fields--these we must know and appreciate if we are +to make progress. This means the book and its use. + +Books may be used in three ways--for information, for recreation, for +inspiration. There are some who feel inclined to rely implicitly on the +information that is to be found in books--to believe that a book can not +lie. This is an unfortunate state of mind. The word of an author set down +in print is worth no more than when he gives it to us in spoken +language--no more and no less. There was, to be sure, a time when the +printed word implied at least care and thoughtfulness. It is still true +that the book implies somewhat more of this than the newspaper, but the +difference between the two is becoming unfortunately less. Now a wrong +record, if it purports to be a record of facts, is worse than none at all. +The man who desires to know the distance between two towns in Texas and is +unable to find it in any book of reference may obtain it at the cost of +some time and trouble; but if he finds it wrongly recorded, he accepts the +result and goes away believing a lie. If we are to use books for +information, therefore, it is of the utmost consequence that we know +whether the information is correct or not. A general critical evaluation +of all literature, even on this score alone, without going into the +question of literary merit, is probably beyond the possibilities, although +it has been seriously proposed. Some partial lists we have, and a few +lists of those lists, so that we may know where to get at them. There are +many books about books, especially in certain departments of history, +technology, or art, but no one place to which a man may go, before he +begins to read his book, to find out whether he may believe what he reads +in it. This is a serious lack, especially as there is more than one point +of view. Books that are of high excellence as literature may not be at all +accurate. How shall the boy who hears enthusiastic praise of Prescott's +histories and who is spellbound when he reads them know that the results +of recent investigation prove that those histories give a totally +incorrect idea of Mexico and Peru? How is the future reader of Dr. Cook's +interesting account of the ascent of Mount McKinley to know that it has +been discredited? And how is he to know whether other interesting and +well-written histories and books of travel have not been similarly proved +inaccurate? At present, there is no way except to go to one who knows the +literature of the subject, or to read as many other books on the subject +as can be obtained, weighing one against the other and coming to one's own +conclusions. Possibly the public library may be able to help. Mr. Charles +F. Lummis of the Los Angeles library advocates labelling books with what +he calls "Poison Labels" to warn the reader when they are inaccurate or +untrustworthy. Most librarians have hesitated a little to take so radical +a step as this, not so much from unwillingness to assume the duty of +warning the public, as from a feeling that they were not competent to +undertake the critical evaluation of the whole of the literature of +special subjects. The librarian may know that this or that book is out of +date or not to be depended on, but there are others about which he is not +certain or regarding which he must rely on what others tell him. And he +knows that expert testimony is notoriously one-sided. It is this fear of +acting as an advocate instead of as a judge that has generally deterred +the librarian from labelling his books with notes of advice or warning. + +There is, however, no reason why the librarian should take sides in the +matter. He may simply point out to the reader that there are other books +on the same subject, written from different points of view, and he may +direct attention to these, letting the reader draw his own conclusions. +There is probability that the public library in the future will furnish +information and guidance of this kind about books, more than it has done +in the past. + +And here it may be noted in passing that the library is coming out of its +shell. It no longer holds itself aloof, taking good care of its books and +taking little care of the public that uses them. It is coming to realize +that the man and the book are complementary, that neither is much without +the other, and that to bring them together is its duty. It realizes also +that a book is valuable, not because it is so much paper and ink and +thread and leather, but because it records and preserves somebody's ideas. +It is the projection of a human mind across space and across time and +where it touches another human mind those minds have come into contact +just as truly and with as valuable results as if the bodies that held them +stood face to face in actual converse. This is the miracle of written +speech--a miracle renewed daily in millions of places with millions of +readers. + +We have, in the modern library, the very best way of perpetuating such +relations as this and of ensuring that such as are preserved shall be +worth preserving. When the ancients desired to make an idea carry as far +as possible, they saw to the toughness and strength of the material object +constituting the record; they cut it in stone or cast it in metal, +forgetting that all matter is in a state of continual flux and change; it +is the idea only that endures. Stone and metal will both one day pass away +and unless some one sees fit to copy the inscription on a fresh block or +tablet, the record will be lost. It is, then, only by continual renewal of +its material basis that a record in written language can be made to last, +and there is no reason why this renewal should not take place every few +years, as well as every few centuries. There is even an advantage in +frequent renewal; for this ensures that the value of the record shall be +more frequently passed upon and prevents the preservation of records that +are not worth keeping. This preservation by frequent renewal is just what +is taking place with books; we make them of perishable materials; if we +want to keep them, we reprint them; otherwise they decay and are +forgotten. + +We should not forget that by this plan the reader is usually made the +judge of whether a book is worth keeping. Why do we preserve by continual +reprinting Shakespeare and Scott and Tennyson and Hawthorne? The +reprinting is done by publishers as a money-making scheme. It is +profitable to them because there is a demand for those authors. If we +cease to care for them and prefer unworthy writers, Shakespeare and Scott +will decay and be forgotten and the unworthy ones will be preserved. Thus +a great responsibility is thrown upon readers; so far they have judged +pretty well. + +Just now, however, we are confining ourselves to the use of books for +information; and here there is less preservation than elsewhere. +Especially in science, statements and facts quickly become out of date; +here it is not the old but the new that we want--the new based on the +accurate and enduring part of the old. + +Before we leave this part of the subject it may be noted that many persons +have no idea of the kinds of information that may be obtained from books. +Even those who would unhesitatingly seek a book for data in history, art, +or mathematics would not think of going to books for facts on plumbing, +weaving, or shoe-making, for methods of shop-window decoration or of +display-advertising, for special forms of bookkeeping suitable for +factories or for stock-farms--for a host of facts relating to trades, +occupations, and business in general. Yet there are books about all these +things--not books perhaps to read for an idle hour, but books full of meat +for them who want just this kind of food. If Book-taught Bilkins fails, +after trying to utilize what such books have taught him, it is doubtless +because he has previously failed to realize that books plus experience, +or, to put it differently, the recorded experience of others plus our own +is better than either could be separately. And the same is true of +information that calls for no physical action to supplement it. Books plus +thought--the thoughts of others plus our own--are more effective in +combination than either could be by itself. Reading should provoke +thought; thought should suggest more reading, and so on, until others' +thoughts and our own have become so completely amalgamated that they are +our personal intellectual possessions. + +But we may not read for information at all--recreation may be what we are +after. Do not misunderstand me. Many persons have an idea that if one +reads to amuse himself he must necessarily read novels. I think most +highly of good novels. Narrative is a popular form of literary expression; +it is used by those who wish to instruct as well as to amuse. One may +obtain plenty of information from novels--often in a form nowhere else +available. If we want exact statement, statistical or otherwise, we do not +go to fiction for it; but if we wish to obtain what is often more +important--accurate and lasting general impressions of history, society, +or geography, the novel is often the only place where these may be had. +Likewise, one may amuse himself with history, travel, science, or +art--even with mathematics. The last is rarely written primarily to amuse, +although we have such a title as "Mathematical recreations," but there are +plenty of non-fiction books written for entertainment and one may read for +entertainment any book whatever. The result depends not so much on the +book or its contents as on the reader. + +Recreation is now recognized as an essential part of education. And just +as physical recreation consists largely in the same muscular movements +that constitute work, only in different combinations and with different +ends in view, so mental recreation consists of intellectual exercise with +a similar variation of combinations and aims. + +Somebody says that "play is work that you don't have to do". So reading +for amusement may closely resemble study--the only difference is that it +is purely voluntary. Here again, however, the written language is only an +intermediary; we have as before, the contact of two minds--only here it is +often the lighter contact of good-fellowship. And one who reads always for +such recreation is thus like the man who is always bandying trivialities, +story-telling, and jesting--an excellent, even a necessary, way of passing +part of one's time, but a mistaken way of employing all of it. + +The best kind of recreation is gently stimulating, but stimulation may +rise easily to abnormality. There are fiction drunkards just as there are +persons who take too much alcohol or too much coffee. In fact, if one is +so much absorbed by the ideas that he is assimilating that the process +interferes with the ordinary duties of life, he may be fairly sure that it +is injuring him. If one loves coffee or alcohol, or even candy, so dearly +that one can not give it up, it is time to stop using it altogether. If a +reader is so fond of an exciting story that he can not lay it aside, so +that he sits up late at night reading it, or if he can not drop it from +his mind when he does lay it aside, but goes on thinking about the deadly +combat between the hero and Lord William Fitz Grouchy when he ought to be +studying his lessons or attending to his business, it is time to cut out +fiction altogether. This advice has absolutely nothing to do with the +quality of the fiction. It will not do simply to warn the habitual +drunkard that he must be careful to take none but the best brands; he must +drop alcohol altogether. If you are a fiction drunkard, enhanced quality +will only enslave you further. This sort of use is no more recreation in +the proper sense of the word than is gambling, or drinking to excess, or +smoking opium. + +And now we come to a use of books that is more important--lies more at the +root of things--than their use for either information or recreation--their +use for inspiration. One may get help and inspiration along with the other +two--reading about how to make a box may inspire a boy to go out and make +one himself. It is this kind of thing that should be the final outcome of +every mental process. Nothing that goes on in the brain is really complete +until it ends in a motor stimulus. The action, it is true, may not follow +closely; it may be the result of years of mental adjustment; it may even +take place in another body from the one where it originated. The man who +tells us how to make a box, and tells it so fascinatingly that he sets all +his readers to box-making, presumably has made boxes with his own hands, +but there may be those who are fitted to inspire action in others rather +than to undertake it themselves. And the larger literature of inspiration +is not that which urges to specific deeds like box-making, or even to +classes of deeds, like caring for the sick or improving methods of +transportation; rather does it include in its scope all good thoughts and +all good actions. It makes better men and women of those who read it; it +is revolutionary and evolutionary at the same time, in the best sense of +both words. + +What will thus inspire me, do you ask? It would be easy to try to tell +you; it would also be easy to fail. Many have tried and failed. This is a +deeply personal matter. I can not tell what book, or what passage in a +book, will touch the magic spring that shall make your life useful instead +of useless, that shall start your thoughts and your deeds climbing up +instead of grovelling or passively waiting. Only search will reveal it. +The diamond-miner who expects to be directed to the precise spot where he +will find a gem will never pick one up. Only he who seeks, finds. There +are, however, places to look and places to avoid. The peculiar clay in +which diamonds occur is well known to mineralogists. He who runs across +it, looks for diamonds, though he may find none. But he who hunts for them +on the rock-ribbed hills of New Hampshire or the sea-sands of Florida is +doing a foolish thing--although even there he may conceivably pick up one +that has been dropped by accident. + +So you may know where it is best to go in your search for inspiration from +books, for we know where seekers in the past have most often found it. He +who could read the Bible or Shakespeare without finding some of it is the +exception. It may be looked for in the great poets--Homer, Virgil, Dante, +Chaucer, Milton, Hugo, Keats, Goethe; or the great historians--Tacitus, +Herodotus, Froissart, Macaulay, Taine, Bancroft; or in the great +travellers from Sir John Mandeville down, or in biographies like Boswell's +life of Johnson, or in books of science--Laplace, Lagrange, Darwin, +Tyndall, Helmholtz; in the lives of the great artists; in the great novels +and romances--Thackeray, Balzac, Hawthorne, Dickens, George Eliot. Yet +each and all of these may leave you cold and you may pick up your gem in some +out-of-the-way corner where neither you nor anyone else would think of +looking for it. + +Did you ever see a car-conductor fumbling about in the dark with the +trolley pole, trying to hit the wire? While he is pulling it down and +letting it fly up again, making fruitless dabs in the air, the car is dark +and motionless; in vain the motorman turns his controller, in vain do the +passengers long for light. But sooner or later the pole strikes the wire; +down it flows the current that was there all the time up in the air; in a +jiffy the car is in motion and ablaze with light. So your search for +inspiration in literature may be long and unsuccessful; you are dark and +motionless. But the life-giving current from some great man's brain is +flowing through some book not far away. One day you will make the +connection and your life will in a trice be filled with light and instinct +with action. + +And before we leave this subject of inspiration, let us dwell for a moment +on that to be obtained from one's literary setting in general--from the +totality of one's literary associations and impressions, as distinguished +from that gained from some specific passage or idea. + +It has been said that it takes two to tell the truth; one to speak and one +to listen. In like manner we may say that two persons are necessary to a +great artistic interpretation--one to create and one to appreciate. And of +no art is this more true than it is of literature. The thought that we are +thus cooperating with Shakespeare and Schiller and Hugo in bringing out +the full effect of their deathless conceptions is an inspiring one and its +consideration may aid us in realizing the essential oneness of the human +race, so far as its intellectual life is concerned. + +Would you rather be a citizen of the United States than, we will say, of +Nicaragua? You might be as happy, as well educated, as well off, there as +here. Why do you prefer your present status? Simply and solely because of +associations and relationships. If this is sentiment, as it doubtless is, +it is the kind of sentiment that rules the world--it is in the same class +as friendship, loyalty, love of kin, affection for home. The links that +bind us to the past and the threads that stretch out into the future are +more satisfactory to us here in the United States, with the complexity of +its interests for us, than they would be in Nicaragua, or Guam, or +Iceland. + +Then of what country in the realm of literature do you desire to be a +citizen? Of the one where Shakespeare is king and where your familiar and +daily speech is with the great ones of this earth--those whose wise, +witty, good, or inspiring words, spoken for centuries past, have been +recorded in books? Or would you prefer to dwell with triviality and +banality--perhaps with Laura Jean Libbey or even with Mary J. Holmes, and +those a little better than these--or a little worse. + +I am one of those who believe in the best associations, literary as well +as social. And associations may have their effect even if they are +apparently trivial or superficial. + +When the open-shelf library was first introduced we were told that one of +its chief advantages was that it encouraged "browsing"--the somewhat +aimless rambling about and dipping here and there into a book. Obviously +this can not be done in a closed-shelf library. But of late it has been +suggested, in one quarter or another, that although this may be a pleasant +occupation to some, or even to most, it is not a profitable one. Opponents +of the open shelf of whom there are still one or two, here and there, find +in this conclusion a reason for negativing the argument in its favor, +while those of its advocates who accept this view see in it only a reason +for basing that argument wholly on other grounds. + +Now those of us who like a thing do not relish being told that it is not +good for us. We feel that pleasure was intended as an outward sign of +benefits received and although it may in abnormal conditions deceive us, +we are right in demanding proof before distrusting its indications. When +the cow absorbs physical nutriment by browsing, she does so without +further reason than that she likes it. Does the absorber of mental pabulum +from books argue wrongly from similar premises? + +Many things are hastily and wrongly condemned because they do not achieve +certain results that they were not intended to achieve. And in particular, +when a thing exists in several degrees or grades, some one of those grades +is often censured, although good in itself, because it is not a grade or +two higher. Obviously everything depends on what is required. When a +shopper wants just three yards of cloth, she would be foolish to buy four. +She would, of course, be even more foolish to imagine that, if she really +wished four, three would do just as well. But if a man wants to go to the +eighth story of a building, he should not be condemned because he does not +mount to the ninth; if he wishes a light lunch, he should not be found +fault with for not ordering a seven-course dinner. And yet we continually +hear persons accused of "superficiality" who purposely and knowingly +acquire some slight degree of knowledge of a subject instead of a higher +degree. And others are condemned, we will say, for reading for amusement +when they might have read for serious information, without inquiring +whether amusement, in this instance, was not precisely what they needed. + +It may be, therefore, that browsing is productive of some good result, and +that it fails to effect some other, perhaps some higher, result which its +critics have wrongly fixed upon as the one desirable thing in this +connection. + +When a name embodies a figure of speech, we may often learn something by +following up the figure to see how far it holds good. What does an animal +do, and what does it not do, when it "browses"? In the first place it eats +food--fresh, growing food; but, secondly, it eats this food by cropping +off the tips of the herbage, not taking much at once, and again, it moves +about from place to place, eating now here and now there and then making +selection, from one motive or another, but presumably following the +dictates of its own taste or fancy. What does it not do? First, it does +not, from choice, eat anything bad. Secondly, it does not necessarily +consume all of its food in this way. If it finds a particularly choice +spot, it may confine its feeding to that spot; or, if its owner sees fit, +he may remove it to the stable, where it may stand all day and eat what he +chooses to give it. The benefits of browsing are, first, the nourishment +actually derived from the food taken, coupled with the fact that it is +taken in small quantities, and in great variety; and secondly, the +knowledge of good spots, obtained from the testing of one spot after +another, throughout the whole broad pasture. + +Now I submit that our figure of speech holds good in all these +particulars. The literary "browser" partakes of his mental food from books +and is thereby nourished and stimulated; he takes it here and there in +brief quantities, moving from section to section and from shelf to shelf, +selecting choice morsels of literature as fancy may dictate. He does not, +if he is a healthy reader, absorb voluntarily anything that will hurt him, +and this method of literary absorption does not preclude other methods of +mental nourishment. He may like a book so much that he proceeds to devour +it whole, or his superiors in knowledge may remove him to a place where +necessary mental food is administered more or less forcibly. And having +gone so far with our comparison, we shall make no mistake if we go a +little further and say that the benefits of browsing to the reader are +twofold, as they are to the material feeder--the absorption of actual +nutriment in his own wilful, wayward manner--a little at a time and in +great variety; and the knowledge of good reading obtained from such a wide +testing of the field. + +Are not these real benefits, and are they not desirable? I fear that our +original surmise was correct and that browsing is condemned not for what +it does, but because it fails to do something that it could not be +expected to do. Of course, if one were to browse continuously he would be +unable to feed in any other way. Attendance upon school or the continuous +reading of any book whatever would be obviously impossible. To avoid +misunderstanding, therefore, we will agree at this point that whatever may +be said here in commendation of browsing is on condition that it be +occasional and not excessive and that the normal amount of continuous +reading and study proceed together with it. + +Having settled, therefore, that browsing is a good thing when one does not +occupy one's whole time with it, let us examine its advantages a little +more in detail. + +First: about the mental nourishment that is absorbed in browsing; the +specific information, the appreciation of what is good, the intellectual +stimulation--not that which comes from reading suggested or guided by +browsing, but from the actual process itself. I have heard it strenuously +denied that any such absorption occurs; the bits taken are too small, the +motion of the browser is too rapid, the whole process is too desultory. +Let us see. In the first place a knowledge of authors and titles and of +the general character of their works is by no means to be despised. I +heard the other day of a presumably educated woman who betrayed in a +conversation her ignorance of Omar Khayyam--not lack of acquaintance with +his works, but lack of knowledge that such a person had ever existed. If +at some period in her life she had held in her hand a copy of "The +Rubaiyat," and had glanced at its back, without even opening it, how much +embarrassment she might have been spared! And if, in addition, she had +glanced within for just ten seconds and had discovered that he wrote +poetry in stanzas of four lines each, she would have known as much about +Omar as do many of those who would contemptuously scoff at her ignorance. +With so brief effort may we acquire literary knowledge sufficient to avoid +embarrassment in ordinary conversation. Browsing in a good library, if the +browser has a memory, will soon equip him with a wide range of knowledge +of this kind. Nor is such knowledge to be sneered at as superficial. It is +all that we know, or need to know, about scores of authors. One may never +study higher mathematics, but it may be good for him to know that Lagrange +was a French author who wrote on analytical mechanics, that Euclid was a +Greek geometer, and that Hamilton invented quaternions. All this and +vastly more may be impressed on the mind by an hour in the mathematical +alcove of a library of moderate size. And it will do no harm to a boy to +know that Benvenuto Cellini wrote his autobiography, even if the +inevitable perusal of the book is delayed for several years, or that +Felicia Hemans, James Thomson, and Robert Herrick wrote poetry, +independently of familiarity with their works, or that "Lamia" is not +something to eat or "As you like it" a popular novel. Information of this +kind is almost impossible to acquire from lists or from oral statement, +whereas a moment's handling of a book in the concrete may fix it in the +mind for good and all. So far, we have not supposed that even a word of +the contents has been read. What, now, if a sentence, a stanza, a +paragraph, a page, passes into the brain through the eye? Those who +measure literary effect by the thousand words or by the hour are making a +great mistake. The lightning flash is over in a fraction of a second, but +in that time it may reveal a scene of beauty, may give the traveller +warning of the fatal precipice, or may shatter the farmer's home into +kindling wood. Intellectual lightning may strike the "browser" as he +stands there book in hand before the shelf. A word, a phrase, may sear +into his brain--may turn the current of his whole life. And even if no +such epoch-making words meet his eye, in how brief a time may he read, +digest, appreciate, some of the gems of literature! Leigh Hunt's "Jennie +kissed me" would probably take about thirty seconds; on a second reading +he would have it by heart--the joy of a life-time. How many meaty epigrams +would take as long? The whole of Gray's "Elegy" is hardly beyond the +browser's limit. + +In an editorial on the Harvard Classics in the "Chicago evening post", +(April 22), we read, "the cultural tabloid has very little virtue;... to +gain everything that a book has to give one must be submerged in it, +saturated and absorbed". This is very much like saying, "there is very +little nourishment in a sandwich; to get the full effect of a luncheon you +must eat everything on the table". It is a truism to say that you can not +get everything in a book without reading all of it; but it by no means +follows that the virtue of less than the whole is negligible. + +So much for the direct effect of what one may thus take in, bit by bit. +The indirect effect is even more important. For by sampling a whole +literature, as he does, he not only gets a bird's-eye view of it, but he +finds out what he likes and what he dislikes; he begins to form his +taste. Are you afraid that he will form it wrong? I am not. We are +assuming that the library where he browses is a good one; here is no +chance of evil, only a choice between different kinds of good. And even if +the evil be there, it is astonishing how the healthy mind will let it slip +and fasten eagerly on the good. Would you prefer a taste fixed by someone +who tells the browser what he ought to like? Then that is not the reader's +own taste at all, but that of his informant. We have too much of this sort +of thing--too many readers without an atom of taste of their own who will +say, for instance, that they adore George Meredith, because some one has +told them that all intellectual persons do so. The man who frankly loves +George Ade and can yet see nothing in Shakespeare may one day discover +Shakespeare. The man who reads Shakespeare merely because he thinks he +ought to is hopeless. + +But what a triumph, to stand spell-bound by the art of a writer whose name +you never heard, and then discover that he is one of the great ones of the +world! Nought is comparable to it except perhaps to pick out all by +yourself in the exhibition the one picture that the experts have chosen +for the museum or to be able to say you liked olives the first time you +tasted them. + +Who are your favorites? Did some one guide you to them or did you find +them yourselves? I will warrant that in many cases you discovered them and +that this is why you love them. I discovered DeQuincey's romances, Praed's +poetry, Beranger in French, Heine in German, "The Arabian nights", +Moliere, Irving's "Alhambra," hundreds of others probably. I am sure that +I love them all far more than if some one had told me they were good +books. If I had been obliged to read them in school and pass an +examination on them, I should have hated them. The teacher who can write +an examination paper on Gray's "Elegy", would, I firmly believe, cut up +his grandmother alive before the physiology class. + +And next to the author or the book that you have discovered yourself comes +the one that the discoverer himself--your boy or girl friend--tells you +about. _He_ knows a good thing--_she_ knows it! No school nonsense about +that; no adult misunderstanding. I found out Poe that way, and Thackeray's +"Major Gahagan", and many others. + +To go back to our old illustration and consider for a moment not the book +but the mind, the personality whose ideas it records, such association +with books represents association with one's fellowmen in society--at a +reception, in school or college, at a club. Some we pass by with a nod, +with some we exchange a word; sometimes there is a warm handgrasp; +sometimes a long conversation. No matter what the mental contact may be, +it has its effects--we are continually gaining knowledge, making new +friends, receiving fresh inspiration. The complexion of this kind of daily +association determines the cast of one's mind, the thoroughness of his +taste, the usefulness or uselessness of what he does. A man is known by +the company he keeps, because that company forms him; he gets from it what +becomes brain of his brain and soul of his soul. + +And no less is he formed by his mental associations with the good and the +great of all ages whom he meets in books and who talk to him there. More +rather than less; for into a book the writer puts generally what is best +in him, laying aside the pettiness, the triviality, the downright +wickedness that may have characterized him in the flesh. + +I have often heard the comment from one who had met face to face a writer +whose work he loved--"Oh! he disappointed me so!" How disappointed might +we be with Thackeray, with Dickens, even with Shakespeare, could we meet +them in the flesh! Now they can not disappoint us, for we know only what +they have left on record--the best, the most enduring part, purified from +what is gross and earthly. + +In and among such company as this it is your privilege to live and move, +almost without money and without price. Thank God for books; let them be +your friends and companions through life--for information, for recreation, +but above all for inspiration. + + + + +ATOMIC THEORIES OF ENERGY[6] + + [6] Read before the St. Louis Academy of Science. + + +A theory involving some sort of a discrete or discontinuous structure of +energy has been put forward by Prof. Max Planck of the University of +Berlin. The various aspects of this theory are discussed and elaborated by +the late M. Henri Poincare in a paper entitled "L'Hypothese des Quanta," +published in the _Revue Scientifique_ (Paris, Feb. 21, 1912). + +A paper in which a discontinuous or "atomic" structure of energy was +suggested was prepared by the present writer fifteen years ago but remains +unpublished for reasons that will appear later. Although he has no desire +to put in a claim of priority and is well aware that failure to publish +would put any such claim out of court, it seems to him that in connection +with present radical developments in physical theory the paper, together +with some correspondence relating thereto, has historical interest. +Planck's theory was suggested by thermodynamical considerations. In the +paper now to be quoted the matter was approached from the standpoint of a +criterion for determining the identity of two portions of matter or of +energy. The paper is as follows: + + +_Some Consideration on the Identity of Definite Portions of Energy_ + +It has been remarked recently that physicists are now divided into two +opposing schools according to the way in which they view the subject of +energy, some regarding it as a mere mathematical abstraction and others +looking upon it as a physical entity, filling space and continuously +migrating by definite paths from one place to another. It may be added +that there are numerous factions within these two parties; for instance, +not all of those who consider energy to be something more than a mere +mathematical expression would maintain that a given quantity of it retains +its identity just as a given quantity of matter does. In fact a close +analysis would possibly show that opinions are graded very closely and +continuously from a view hardly differing from that of Lagrange, who +clearly saw and freely used the mathematical considerations involving +energy before the word had been invented or its physical meaning +developed, up to that stated recently in its extreme form by Professor +Ostwald, who would replace what he terms a mechanical theory of the +universe by an "energetical" theory, and would dwell exclusively on energy +as opposed to its vehicles. + +Differences of opinion of this sort very frequently reduce to differences +of definition, and in this case the meaning of the word "identity" or some +similar word or phrase has undoubtedly much to do with the view that is +taken of the matter. It may be interesting, for instance, to look for a +moment at our ideas of the identity of matter and the extent to which they +are influenced by the accepted theory of its constitution. + +Very few persons would hesitate to admit that the matter that now +constitutes the universe is identical in amount with that which +constituted it one million years ago, and that any given portion of that +matter is identical with an equal amount of matter that then existed, +although the situations of the parts of that portion might be and probably +were widely different in the two classes. To assert this is of course a +very different thing from asserting that the identity of the two portions +or any parts thereof could have been practically shown by following them +during all their changes of location or state. That cannot be done even in +the case of some simple changes that are effected in a fraction of a +second. For instance, if water from the pail A be mixed with water from +the pail B there is no possible way of telling which pail any given +portion of the mixture came from or in what proportions, yet it is certain +that such portion is identical with a portion of equal mass that recently +occupied part of one or both pails. + +How far our certainty as to this is influenced by our ideas regarding the +ultimate constitution of the water is worthy of investigation. All who +accept the molecular theory, for instance, will regard our inability to +trace the elements of a mixture as due to purely physical limitations. A +set of Maxwell's "demons" if bidden to watch the molecules of the water in +pail A, one demon being assigned to each molecule, would be able to tell +us at any time the precise proportions of any given part of the mixture. +But if we should not accept the molecular theory and believe for instance, +that water is a continuum, absolutely homogeneous, no matter how small +portions of it be selected, then our demons would be as powerless as we +ourselves now are to trace the constituents in the mixture. + +We are now in a position to ask the question: Is the matter in a mixture +of two continua identical with that of its constituents? The identity +certainly seems of a different kind or degree from that which obtains in +the first case, for there is no part, however small, that was derived from +one pail alone. The mixture is something more than a mere juxtaposition of +elements each of which has retained its identity; it is now of such nature +that no part of it is identical with any part of A alone or of B alone, +nor of A+B, where the sign + denotes simple juxtaposition. It is +identical, to be sure, with a perfect mixture of certain parts of A and B, +but this is simply saying that it is identical with what it is now, that +is, with itself, not with something that went before. + +Probably no one now believes that water or any other kind of matter is a +continuum, but the bearing of what has been said may be seen when we +remember that this is precisely the present stage of our belief regarding +energy. + +No one, so far as I know, has ventured to suggest what may be termed a +molecular theory of energy, a somewhat remarkable fact when we consider +the control now exercised over all thought in physics by molecular +theories of matter. While we now believe, for instance, that a material +body, say a crystal, can by no possibility increase continuously in mass, +but must do so step by step, the minimum mass of matter that can be added +being the molecule, we believe on the contrary that the energy possessed +by the same body can and may increase with absolutely perfect continuity, +being hampered by no such restriction. + +It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss whether we have grounds for +belief that there is such a thing as a minimum quantity, or atom, of +energy, that does not separate into smaller parts, no matter what changes +it undergoes. Suffice it to say that there appears to be no _a priori_ +absurdity in such an idea. At first sight both matter and energy appear +non-molecular in structure. But we have been forced to look upon the +gradual growth of a crystal as a step-by-step process, and we may some +day, by equally cogent considerations, be forced to regard the gradual +increase of energy of an accelerating body as also a step-by-step process, +although the discontinuity is as invisible to the eye in the latter case +as in the former. + +Without following this out any farther, however, the point may be here +emphasized that it is hardly possible for one who, like the majority of +physicists, regards matter as molecular and energy as a continuum, to hold +the same ideas regarding the identity of the two. Efforts to show that +definite portions of energy, like definite portions of matter, retain +their identity have hitherto been made chiefly on the lines of a +demonstration that energy travels by definite and continuous paths in +space just as matter does. This is very well, but it would appear to be +necessary to supplement it with evidence to show that the lines +representing these paths do not form at their intersections continuous +blurs that not only forbid any practical attempt at identification on +emergence, but make it doubtful whether we can in any true sense call the +issuing path identical with the entering one. Otherwise the identity of +energy can be admitted to be only that kind of identity that could be +preserved by matter if its molecular structure did not exist. One who can +admit that this sort of identity is the same sort that can be preserved by +molecular matter may be able to hold the identity of energy in the present +state of the evidence, but the present attitude of physicists would seem +to show that, whether they realize the connection of the two subjects or +not, they cannot take this view. In other words, modern views of the +identity of matter seem closely connected with modern views of its +structure, and the same connection will doubtless hold good for energy. + +Regarding the probable success of an attempt to prove that energy has a +"structure" analogous to the molecular structure of matter, any prediction +would doubtless be rash just now. The writer has been unable, up to the +present time, to disprove the proposition, but the subject is one of +corresponding importance to that of the whole molecular theory of matter +and should not be entered upon lightly. + + * * * * * + +The writer freely acknowledges at present that the illustrations in the +foregoing are badly chosen and some of the statements are too strong, but +it still represents essentially his ideas on the subject. No reputable +scientific journal would undertake to publish it. The paper was then sent +to Prof. J. Willard Gibbs of Yale, and elicited the following letter from +him: + + "NEW HAVEN, JUNE 2, 1897. + + "MY DEAR MR. BOSTWICK: + + "I regret that I have allowed your letter to lie so long + unanswered. It was in fact not very easy to answer, and when one + lays a letter aside to answer, the weeks slip away very fast. + + "I do not think that you state the matter quite right in regard to + the mixture of fluids if they were continuous. The mixing of water + as I regard it would be like this, if it were continuous and not + molecular. Suppose you should take strips of white and red glass + and heat them until soft and twist them together. Keep on drawing + them out and doubling them up and twisting them together. It would + soon require a microscope to distinguish the red and white glass, + which would be drawn out into thinner and thinner filaments if the + matter were continuous. But it would be always only a matter of + optical power to distinguish perfectly the portion of red and + white glass. The stirring up of water from two pails would not + really mix them but only entangle filaments from the pails. + + "To come to the case of energy. All our ideas concerning energy + seem to require that it is capable of gradual increase. Thus the + energy due to velocity can increase continuously if velocity can. + Since the energy is as the square of the velocity, if the velocity + can only increase discontinuously by equal increments, the energy + of the body will increase by unequal increments in such a way as + to make the exchange of energy between bodies a very awkward + matter to adjust. + + "But apart from the question of the increase of energy by + discontinuous increments, the question of relative and absolute + motion makes it very hard to give a particular position to energy, + since the 'energy' we speak of in any case is not one quantity but + may be interpreted in a great many ways. Take the important case + of two equal elastic balls. One, moving, strikes the other at + rest, we say, and gives it nearly all its energy. But we have no + right to call one ball at rest and we can not say (as anything + absolute) which of the balls has lost and which has gained energy. + If there is such a thing as absolute energy of motion it is + something entirely unknowable to us. Take the solar system, + supposed isolated. We may take as our origin of coordinates the + center of gravity of the system. Or we may take an origin with + respect to which the center of gravity of the solar system has any + (constant) velocity. The kinetic energy of the earth, for example, + may have any value whatever, and the principle of the conservation + of energy will hold in any case for the whole solar system. But + the shifting of energy from one planet to another will take place + entirely differently when we estimate the energies with reference + to different origins. + + "It does not seem to me that your ideas fit in with what we know + about nature. If you ask my advice, I should not advise you to try + to publish them. + + "At best you would be entering into a discussion (perhaps not in + bad company) in which words would play a greater part than precise + ideas. + + "This is the way I feel about it. + + "I remain, + "Yours faithfully, + "J.W. GIBBS." + +Professor Gibbs's criticism of the illustration of water-mixture is +evidently just. Another might well have been used where the things mixed +are not material--for instance, the value of money deposited in a bank. If +A and B each deposits $100 to C's credit and C then draws $10, there is +evidently no way of determining what part of it came from A and what from +B. The structure of "value", in other words, is perfectly continuous. +Professor Gibbs's objections to an "atomic" theory of the structure of +energy are most interesting. The difficulties that it involves are not +overstated. In 1897 they made it unnecessary, but since that time +considerations have been brought forward, and generally recognized, which +may make it necessary to brave those difficulties. + +Planck's theory was suggested by the apparent necessity of modifying the +generally accepted theory of statistical equilibrium involving the so +called "law of equipartition," enunciated first for gases and extended to +liquids and solids. + +In the first place the kinetic theory fixes the number of degrees of +freedom of each gaseous molecule, which would be three for argon, for +instance, and five for oxygen. But what prevents either from having the +six degrees to which ordinary mechanical theory entitles it? Furthermore, +the oxygen spectrum has more than five lines, and the molecule must +therefore vibrate in more than five modes. "Why," asks Poincare, "do +certain degrees of freedom appear to play no part here; why are they, so +to speak, 'ankylosed'?" Again, suppose a system in statistical +equilibrium, each part gaining on an average, in a short time, exactly as +much as it loses. If the system consists of molecules and ether, as the +former have a finite number of degrees of freedom and the latter an +infinite number, the unmodified law of equipartition would require that +the ether should finally appropriate all energy, leaving none of it to the +matter. To escape this conclusion we have Rayleigh's law that the radiated +energy, for a given wave length, is proportional to the absolute +temperature, and for a given temperature is in inverse ratio to the fourth +power of the wave-length. This is found by Planck to be experimentally +unverifiable, the radiation being less for small wave-lengths and low +temperatures, than the law requires. + +Still again, the specific heats of solids, instead of being sensibly +constant at all temperatures, are found to diminish rapidly in the low +temperatures now available in liquid air or hydrogen and apparently tend +to disappear at absolute zero. "All takes place," says Poincare, "as if +these molecules lost some of their degrees of freedom in cooling--as if +some of their articulations froze at the limit." + +Planck attempts to explain these facts by introducing the idea of what he +calls "quanta" of energy. To quote from Poincare's paper: + +"How should we picture a radiating body? We know that a Hertz resonator +sends into the ether Hertzian waves that are identical with luminous +waves; an incandescent body must then be regarded as containing a very +great number of tiny resonators. When the body is heated, these resonators +acquire energy, start vibrating and consequently radiate. + +"Planck's hypothesis consists in the supposition that each of these +resonators can acquire or lose energy only by abrupt jumps, in such a way +that the store of energy that it possesses must always be a multiple of a +constant quantity, which he calls a 'quantum'--must be composed of a whole +number of quanta. This indivisible unit, this quantum, is not the same for +all resonators; it is in inverse ratio to the wave-length, so that +resonators of short period can take in energy only in large pieces, while +those of long period can absorb or give it out by small bits. What is the +result? Great effort is necessary to agitate a short-period resonator, +since this requires at least a quantity of energy equal to its quantum, +which is great. The chances are, then, that these resonators will keep +quiet, especially if the temperature is low, and it is for this reason +that there is relatively little short-wave radiation in 'black +radiation'... The diminution of specific-heats is explained similarly: +When the temperature falls, a large number of vibrators fall below their +quantum and cease to vibrate, so that the total energy diminishes faster +than the old theories require." + +Here we have the germs of an atomic theory of energy. As Poincare now +points out, the trouble is that the quanta are not constant. In his study +of the matter he notes that the work of Prof. Wilhelm Wien, of Wuerzburg, +leads by theory to precisely the conclusion announced by Planck that if we +are to hold to the accepted ideas of statistical equilibrium the energy +can vary only by quanta inversely proportional to wave-length. The +mechanical property of the resonators imagined by Planck is therefore +precisely that which Wien's theory requires. If we are to suppose atoms of +energy, therefore, they must be variable atoms. There are other objections +which need not be touched upon here, the whole theory being in a very +early stage. To quote Poincare again: + +"The new conception is seductive from a certain standpoint: for some time +the tendency has been toward atomism. Matter appears to us as formed of +indivisible atoms; electricity is no longer continuous, not infinitely +divisible. It resolves itself into equally-charged electrons; we have also +now the magneton, or atom of magnetism. From this point of view the quanta +appear as _atoms_ of _energy_. Unfortunately the comparison may not be +pushed to the limit; a hydrogen atom is really invariable.... The +electrons preserve their individuality amid the most diverse vicissitudes, +is it the same with the atoms of energy? We have, for instance, three +quanta of energy in a resonator whose wave-length is 3; this passes to a +second resonator whose wave-length is 5; it now represents not 3 but 5 +quanta, since the quantum of the new resonator is smaller and in the +transformation the number of atoms and the size of each has changed." + +If, however, we replace the atom of energy by an "atom of action," these +atoms may be considered equal and invariable. The whole study of +thermodynamic equilibrium has been reduced by the French mathematical +school to a question of probability. "The probability of a continuous +variable is obtained by considering elementary independent domains of +equal probability.... In the classic dynamics we use, to find these +elementary domains, the theorem that two physical states of which one is +the necessary effect of the other are equally probable. In a physical +system if we represent by _q_ one of the generalized coordinates and by +_p_ the corresponding momentum, according to Liouville's theorem the +domain [double integral]_dpdq_, considered at given instant, is invariable +with respect to the time if _p_ and _q_ vary according to Hamilton's +equations. On the other hand _p_ and _q_ may, at a given instant take all +possible values, independent of each other. Whence it follows that the +elementary domain is infinitely small, of the magnitude _dpdq_.... The new +hypothesis has for its object to restrict the variability of _p_ and _q_ +so that these variables will only change by jumps.... Thus the number of +elementary domains of probability is reduced and the extent of each is +augmented. The hypothesis of quanta of action consists in supposing that +these domains are all equal and no longer infinitely small but finite and +that for each [double integral]_dpdq_ equals _h_, _h_ being a constant." + +Put a little less mathematically, this simply means that as energy equals +action multiplied by frequency, the fact that the quantum of energy is +proportional to the frequency (or inversely to the wave-length as stated +above) is due simply to the fact that the quantum of action is constant--a +real atom. The general effect on our physical conceptions, however, is the +same: we have a purely discontinuous universe--discontinuous not only in +matter but in energy and the flow of time. M. Poincare thus puts it: "A +physical system is susceptible only of a finite number of distinct states; +it leaps from one of these to the next without passing through any +continuous series of intermediate states." + +He notes later: + +"The universe, then, leaps suddenly from one state to another; but in the +interval it must remain immovable, and the divers instants during which it +keeps in the same state can no longer be discriminated from one another; +we thus reach a conception of the discontinuous variation of time--the +atom of _time_." + +I quote in conclusion, Poincare's final remarks: + +"The present state of the question is thus as follows: the old theories, +which hitherto seemed to account for all the known phenomena, have met +with an unexpected obstacle. Seemingly a modification becomes necessary. A +hypothesis has presented itself to M. Planck's mind, but so strange a one +that one is tempted to seek every means of escaping it; these means, +however, have been sought vainly. The new theory, however, raises a host +of difficulties, many of which are real and not simply illusions due to +the indolence of our minds, unwilling to change their modes of thought.... + +"Is discontinuity to reign through out the physical universe, and is its +triumph definitive? Or rather shall we find that it is but apparent and +hides a series of continuous processes?... To try to give an opinion just +now on these questions would only be to waste ink." + +It only remains to call attention again to the fact that this conception +of the discontinuity of energy, the acceptance of which Poincare says +would be "the most profound revolution that natural philosophy has +undergone since Newton" was suggested by the present writer fifteen years +ago. Its reception and serious consideration by one of the first +mathematical physicists of the world seems a sufficient justification of +its suggestion then as a legitimate scientific hypothesis. + + + + +THE ADVERTISEMENT OF IDEAS + + +Writing is a device for the storage of ideas--the only device for this +purpose prior to the invention of the phonograph, and not now likely to be +generally superseded. A book consists of stored ideas; sometimes it is +like a box, from which the contents must be lifted slowly and with more or +less toil; sometimes like a storage battery where one only has to make the +right kind of contact to get a discharge. At any rate, if we want people +to use books or to use them more, or to use them better, or to use a +different kind from that which they now use, we must lose sight for a +moment of the material part of the book, which is only the box or the lead +and acid of the storage battery, and fix our attention on the stored +ideas, which are what everybody wants--everybody, that is, except those +who collect books as curiosities. The subject of this lecture is thus only +library advertising, about which we have heard a good deal of late, but we +shall try to confine its applications to this inner or ideal substance +which it is our special business as librarians to purvey. And first, in +considering the matter, it may be worth while to say a word about +advertising in general. Practically an advertisement is an announcement by +somebody who has something to distribute. Announcements of this kind may +be classified, it seems to me, as economic, uneconomic and illegitimate. + +The most elementary form is that of the person who tells you where you can +get something that you want--a simple statement that someone is a barber +or an inn-keeper, or gives music lessons, or has shoes for sale. This may +be accompanied by an effort to show that the goods offered are of +specially good quality or have some feature that makes them particularly +desirable, either to consumers in general or to those of a certain class. +This is all surely economic, so long as nothing but the truth is told. +Next we have an effort not only to supply existing wants and to direct +them into some particular channel, but to create a new field, to make +people realize a lack previously not felt; in other words to make people +want something that they need. This may be done simply by exhibiting or +describing the article or it may require long and skillful presentation of +the matter. All this is still economic. But it requires only a step to +carry us across the line. Next the enthusiastic advertiser strives to make +someone want that which he does not need. As may be seen, the line here is +difficult to determine, but this sort of advertising is surely not +economic. So long as the thing not needed is not really injurious, +however, the advertising cannot be called illegitimate. It is simply +uneconomic. The world would be better off without it, but we may look for +its abolition only to the increase of good judgment and intelligence among +consumers. When an attempt however, is made to cause a man to want +something that is really injurious, then the act becomes illegitimate and +should be prevented. Another class of illegitimate advertising is that +which would be perfectly allowable if it were truthful and becomes +objectionable only because its representations are false. It may be +ostensibly of any of the types noted above. + +As we have already noted, the material objects distributed by the +librarian are valued not for their physical characteristics but for a +different reason altogether, the fact that they contain stored ideas. +Ideas which, according to some, are merely the relative positions of +material particles in the brain, and which are indisputably accompanied +and conditioned by such positions, here subsist in the form of peculiar +and visible arrangements of particles of printer's ink upon paper, which +are capable under certain conditions of generating in the human brain +ideas precisely similar to those that gave them birth. And although the +book cannot think for itself, but must merely preserve the idea intrusted +to it, without change, it is vastly superior in stability to the brain +that gave it birth, so that thousands of years after that brain has +mouldered into dust it is capable of reproducing the original ideas in a +second brain where they may germinate and bear fruit. How familiar all +this is, and yet how perennially wonderful! The miracle of it is +sufficient excuse for this digression. + +Now books, beside this modern form of distribution by loan, are widely +distributed commercially both by loan and by sale, and especially in the +latter form advertisement is now very extensively used in connection with +the distribution. In fact we have all the different types specified +above--economic, uneconomic and illegitimate, both through +misrepresentation and the harmful character of the subject matter. The +reason for all illegitimate forms of advertising is of course not a desire +to misrepresent or to do harm per se, but to make money, the profit to the +distributor being proportioned to the amount of distribution done and not +at all dependent on its economic value. Distribution by public officers is +of course not open to this objection, nor are the distributors subject to +temptation, since their compensation does not depend on the amount of +distribution. If they are capable and interested, furthermore, they are +particularly desirous to increase the economic value of the work that they +are doing. Since this is so and since the danger of uneconomic or harmful +forms of advertising is thus reduced to a minimum, there would seem to be +special reason why the economic forms should be employed very freely. But +the fact is that they have been used sparingly, and by some librarians +shunned altogether. + +Let us see what library advertising of the economic types may mean. In the +first place it means telling those who want books where they may get them. +This simple task is rarely performed completely or satisfactorily. It is +astonishing how many inhabitants of a large town do not even know where +the public library is. Everyone realizes this who has ever tried to find a +public library in a strange place. I once asked repeatedly of passers-by +in a crowded city street a block distant from a library (in this case not +architecturally conspicuous) before finding one who knew its whereabouts; +in another city I inquired in vain of a conductor who passed the building +every few hours in his car. In the latter case the library was a beautiful +structure calculated to move the curiosity of a less stolid citizen. In +New York inquiry would probably cause you to reach the nearest branch +library, anything more remote than that being beyond the local +intelligence. Sometimes I think we had better drop all our far-reaching +plans for civic betterment and devote our time for a few years to causing +citizens, lettered and unlettered alike to memorize some such simple +formula as this: "There is a Public Library. It is on Blank street. We may +borrow books there, free." + +You will notice that I have inserted in this formula one item of +information that pertains to use, not location. For of those who know of +the existence and location of the Public Library there are many whose +ideas of its contents and their uses, and of the conditions and value of +such uses, are limited and crude. The advertising that succeeds in +bettering this state of things is surely doing an economic service. All +these things the self-respecting citizen should know. But beyond and above +all this there is the final economic service of advertising--the causing a +man to want that which he needs but does not yet desire. Every man, woman +and child in every town and village needs books in some shape, degree, +form or substance. And yet the proportion of those who desire them is yet +outrageously small, though encouragingly on the increase. Here no +memorizing of a formula, even could we compass it, could suffice. This +kind of advertising means the realization of something lacking in a life. +Is the awakening of such a realization too much for us? Are we to stand by +and see our neighbors all about us awakening to the undoubted fact that +they need telephones in their houses, and electric runabouts, and +mechanical fans in hot weather, and pianolas, and new kinds of breakfast +food, while we despair of awakening them to their needs of books--quite as +undoubted? Are we to admit that personal gain, which was the victorious +motive that spurred on the commercial advertisers in these and countless +other instances, is to be counted more mighty than the desire to do a +service to our fellowmen and to fulfill the duties of our positions--which +should spur us on? + +I am not foolish enough to suppose that by placarding the fences with the +words "Books! Books!" as the patent medicine man does with "Curoline! +Curoline!" we shall make any progress. The patent medicine man is right; +he wants to excite curiosity and familiarize the public with the name of +his nostrum. They all know what a book is--and alas the name is not even +unknown and mysterious--would that it were! It calls up in many minds +associations which, if we are to be successful we must combat, overthrow, +and replace by others. To many--sad it is to say it--a book is an +abhorrent thing; to more still, it is a thing of absolute indifference. To +some a book is merely a collection of things, having no ascertainable +relationships, that one is required to memorize; to others it is a +collection of statements, difficult to understand, out of which the +meaning must be extracted by hard study; to very few indeed does the book +appear to be what it really is--a message from another mind. People will +go to a seance and listen with thrills to the silliest stuff purporting to +proceed from Plato or Daniel Webster or Abraham Lincoln, when in the +Public Library, a few blocks away are important and authentic messages +from those same persons, to which they have never given heed. Such a +message derives interest and significance from circumstances outside +itself. Very few books create their own atmosphere unaided. They +presuppose a system of abilities, opinions, prejudices, likes and +dislikes, intellectual connections and what not, that is little less than +appalling, if we try to follow it up. Dislike of books or indifference +toward them is often simply the result of a lack of these things or of +some component part of them. We must supply what is lacking if we are to +arouse a desire for books in those who do not yet possess it. I say that +such a labor is difficult enough to interest him whose pleasure it is to +essay hard tasks; it is noble enough to attract him who loves his +fellow-man; success in it is rare enough and glorious enough to stimulate +him who likes to succeed where others have failed. Advertising may be good +or bad, noble or ignoble, right or wrong, according to what is advertised +and our methods of advertising it. He who would scorn to announce the +curative powers of bottled spring-water and pink aniline dye; he who +regards it as a commonplace task to urge upon the spendthrift public the +purchase of unnecessary gloves and neckties, may well feel a thrill of +satisfaction and of anticipation in the task of advertising ideas and of +persuading the unheeding citizen to appropriate what he has been +accustomed to view with indifference. + +To get at the root of the matter, let us inquire why it is that so many +persons do not care for books. We may divide them, I think, into two +classes--those who do not care, or appear not to care for ideas at all, +whether stored in books or not; and those who do care for ideas but who +either do not easily get them out of storage or do not realize that they +can be and are stored in books. Absolute carelessness of ideas is, it +seems to me, rather apparent than real. It exists only in the idiot. There +are those to be sure that care about a very limited range of ideas; but +about some ideas they always care. + +We must, in our advertisement of ideas, bear this in mind--the necessity +of offering to each that which he considers it worth his while to take. If +I were asked what is the most fundamentally interesting subject to all +classes, I should unhesitatingly reply "philosophy." Not, perhaps, the +philosophy of the schools, but the individual philosophy that every man +and woman has, and that is precisely alike in no two of us. I have heard a +tiny boy, looking up suddenly from his play, ask "Why do we live?" This +and its correlative "Why do we die?" Whence come we and whither do we go? +What is the universe and what are our relations to it--these questions in +some form have occurred to everyone who thinks at all. They are discussed +around the stove at the corner grocery, in the logging camp, on the ranch, +in clubs and at boarding-house tables. Sometimes they take a theological +turn--free will, the origin and purpose of evil, and so on. I do not +purpose to give here a catalogue of the things in which an ordinary man is +interested, and I have said this only to remind you that his interest may +be vivid even in connection with subjects usually considered abstruse. +This interest in ideas we may call the library's raw material; anything +that tends to create it, to broaden it, to extend it to new fields and to +direct it into paths that are worth while is making it possible for the +library to do better and wider work--is helping on its campaign of +publicity. This establishes a web of connecting fibers between the library +and all human activity. The man who is getting interested in his work, +debaters at a labor union, students at school and college, the worker for +civic reform, the poetic dreamer--all are creating a demand for ideas that +makes it easier for the library to advertise them. Those who object to +some of the outside work done by modern libraries should try to look at +the whole matter from this standpoint. The library is taking its place as +a public utility with other public utilities. Its relations with them are +becoming more evident; the ties between them are growing stronger. As in +all cases of such growth it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify +the boundaries between them, so fast and so thoroughly do the activities +of each reach over these lines and interpenetrate those of the others. And +unless there is actual wasteful duplication of work, we need not bother +about our respective spheres. These activities are all human; they are +mutually interesting and valuable. A library need be afraid of doing +nothing that makes for the spread of interest in ideas, so long as it is +not neglecting its own particular work of the collection, preservation and +distribution of ideas as stored in books, and is not duplicating others' +work wastefully. + +When we observe those who are already interested in ideas, however, we +find that not all are interested in them as they are stored up in books. +Some of these cannot read; their number is small with us and growing +smaller; we may safely leave the schools to deal with them. Others can +read, but they do not easily apprehend ideas through print. Some of these +must read aloud so that they may get the sound of the words, before these +really mean anything to them. These persons need practice in reading. They +get it now largely through the newspapers, but their number is still +large. A person in this condition may be intellectually somewhat advanced. +He may be able to discuss single-tax with some acumen, for instance. It is +a mistake to suppose that because a person understands a subject or likes +a thing and is able to talk well about it, he will enjoy and appreciate a +book on that subject or thing. It may be as difficult for him to get at +the meat of it as if it were a half-understood foreign tongue. You who +know enough French to buy a pair of gloves or sufficient German to inquire +the way to the station, may tackle a novel in the original and realize at +once the hazy degree of such a person's apprehension. He may stick to it +and become an easy reader, but on the other hand your well-meant publicity +efforts may place in his hands a book that will simply discourage and +ultimately repel him, sending him to join the army of those to whom no +books appeal. + +Next we find those who understand how to read and to read with ease, but +to whom books--at any rate certain classes of books--are not interesting. +Now interest in a subject may be so great that one will wade through the +driest literature about it, but such interest belongs to the few--not to +the many. I have come to the conclusion that more readers have had their +interest killed or lessened by books than have had it aroused or +stimulated. This is a proportion that it is our business as librarians to +reverse. More of this unfortunate and heart-breaking, interest-killing +work than I like to think of goes on in school. Not necessarily; for the +name of those is legion who have had their eyes opened to the beauties of +literature by good teachers. This makes it all the more maddening when we +think how many poor teachers, or good teachers with mistaken methods, or +indifferent teachers, have succeeded in associating with books in the +minds of their pupils simply burdensome tasks--the gloom and heaviness of +life rather than its joy and lightness. Such boys and girls will no more +touch a book after leaving school than you or I would touch a scorpion +after one had stung us. + +Perhaps it is useless to try to change this; possibly it is none of our +business, though we have already seen that there are reasons to the +contrary. But we can better matters, and we are daily bettering them, by +our work with children. If a child has once learned to love books and to +associate them powerfully with something else than a burdensome task, then +the labors of the unskillful teachers will create no dislike of the book +but only of the teacher and his methods; while those of the good teacher +will be a thousand times more fruitful than otherwise. + +So much for the ways in which interesting books are sometimes made +uninteresting. Now for the books that are uninteresting _per se_--and how +many there are! When a man has something to distribute commercially for +personal gain, the thing that he tries above all to do is to interest his +public--to make them want what he has to sell. His success or failure in +doing this, means the success or failure of his whole enterprise. He does +not decide what kind of an entertainment his clients ought to attend and +then try to make them go to it, or what kind of neckties they ought to +wear and then try to make them wear them. Of ten promoters, if nine +proceeded on this principle and one on the plan of offering something +attractive and interesting, who would succeed? It is one of the marvels of +all time that this never seems to have occurred to writers of books. We +are almost forced to conclude that they do not care whether their volumes +are read or not. In only one class of books, as a rule, do the writers +endeavor to interest the reader first and foremost; you all know that I +refer to fiction. What is the result? The writers of fiction are the ones +read by the public. More fiction is read, as you very well know, than all +the other classes of literature put together. The library that is able to +show a fiction percentage of 60, points to it with pride, while there are +plenty with percentages between 70 and 80. Now this is all to the credit +of the fiction writers. I refuse to believe that their readers are any +more fundamentally interested in the subjects of which they treat than in +others. They simply follow the line of least resistance. They want +something interesting to read and they know from experience where to go +for it. Of course this brings on abuses. Writers use illegitimate methods +to arouse interest--appeals perhaps, to unworthy instincts. We need not +discuss that here, but simply focus our attention on the fact that writers +of fiction always try to be interesting because they must; while writers +of history, travel, biography and philosophy do not usually try, because +they think it unnecessary. This is simply a survival. It used to be true +that readers of these subjects read them because of their great antecedent +interest in them--an interest so great that interesting methods of +presentation became unnecessary. No one cared about the masses, still less +about what they might or might not read. Things are changed now; we are +trying to advertise stored ideas to persons unfamiliar with them and we +are suddenly awakening to the fact that our stock is not all that it +should be. We need history, science and travel fascinatingly presented--at +least as interestingly as the fiction-writer presents his subjects. This +is by no means impossible, because it has been done, in a few instances. +We are by no means in the position of the Irishman who didn't know whether +or not he could play the piano, because he had never tried. Some of our +authors have tried--and succeeded. No one after William James can say that +philosophy cannot be made interesting to the ordinary reader. Tyndall +showed us long ago that physics could interest the unlearned, and there +are similarly interesting writers on history and travel--more perhaps in +these two classes than any other. But it remains true that the vast +majority of non-fiction books do not attract, and were not written with +the aim of attracting, the ordinary reader such as the libraries are now +trying to reach. The result is that the fiction writers are usurping the +functions of these uninteresting scribes and are putting history, science, +economics, biology, medicine--all sorts of subjects, into fictional +form--a sufficient answer to any who may think that the subjects +themselves, as distinguished from the manner in which they are presented, +are calculated to repel the ordinary reader. Fiction is thus becoming, if +it has not already become, the sole form of literary expression, so far as +the ordinary reader is concerned. This is interesting; it justifies the +large stock of fiction in public libraries and the large circulation of +that stock. It does not follow that it is commendable or desirable. For +one thing it places truth and falsehood precisely on the same plane. The +science or the economics in a good novel may be bad and that in a poor +novel may be good. Then again, it dilutes the interesting matter with +triviality. It is right that those who want to know how and when and under +what circumstances Edwin and Angelina concluded to get married should have +an opportunity of doing so, but it is obviously unfair that the man who +likes the political discussions put into the mouth of Edwin's uncle, or +the clever descriptions of country-life incident to the courtship, should +be burdened with information of this sort, in which he has little +interest. + +To those who are interested in the increase of non-fiction percentages I +would therefore say: devise some means of working upon the authors. These +gentry are yet ignorant of the existence of a special library public. Some +day they will wake up, and then fiction will be relieved from the burden +that oppresses it at present--of carrying most of the interesting +philosophy, religion, history and social science, in addition to doing its +own proper work. + +Meanwhile the librarian, who is interested in advertising ideas, must do +what he can with his material. There is still a saving remnant of +interesting non-fiction, and there is a goodly body of readers whose +antecedent interest in certain subjects is great enough to attract them to +almost any book on those subjects. I have purposely avoided the discussion +here of the details of library publicity, which has been well done +elsewhere; but I cannot refrain from expressing my opinion that the +ordinary work of the library and its stock of books if properly displayed, +are more effective than any other means that can be used for the purpose. +From a series of articles entitled "How to Start Libraries in Small Towns" +by A.M. Pendleton, I quote the following, which appears in The Library +Journal for May 13, 1877: + +"Plant it [the library] among the people, where its presence will be seen +and felt,... Other things being equal, it is better to have it upon the +first floor, so that passers-by will see its goodly array of books and be +tempted to inspect them." + +Excellent advice; we might take it if we had not built our libraries as +far away from the street as possible and lifted them up on as high a +pedestal as our money would buy. Who, passing by a modern library +building, branch or central, can by any possibility see through the +windows enough of the interior to tell whether it is a library rather than +a postoffice, a bank, or an office? + +Before moving into its new home the St. Louis Public Library occupied +temporarily a business building having a row of six large plate-glass +windows on one side, directly on the sidewalk, enabling passers-by to see +clearly all that went on in the adult lending-delivery room. The effect on +the circulation was noteworthy. During the last months of our occupancy we +went further and utilized each of the windows for a book display. This was +in charge of a special committee of the staff, and its results were beyond +expectation. In one window we had a shelfful of current books, open to +attractive pictures, with a sign reminding wayfarers that they might be +taken out by cardholders and that cards were free. In another we had +standard works, without pictures, but open at attractive pages. In another +we had children's books; in another, open reference or art books in a +dust-proof case--and so on. Each of these windows was seldom without its +contingent of gazers, and the direct effect on library circulation was +noticed by all. At the end of the year we moved into our great +million-and-a-half-dollar building; and beautiful as it is--satisfactory +as are its arrangements--we have had--alas--to give up our show windows. +We can, it is true, have show cases in the great entrance hall, but we +want to attract outsiders, not insiders. Some of our enthusiastic staff +want to build permanent show cases on the sidewalk. What we may possibly +do is to rent real show windows opposite. What we do not desire, is to +abandon our publicity plan altogether. But when, oh when, shall we have +libraries (branches at any rate, if our main buildings must be monumental) +that will throw themselves open to the public eye, luring in the wayfarer +to the joys of reading, as the commercial window does to the delights of +gumdrops or neckties? + +One of the greatest steps ever taken toward the advertisement of ideas was +the adoption, on a large scale, of the open shelf. This throws the books +of a library, or many of them, open to public inspection and handling; it +encourages "browsing"--the somewhat aimless rambling about and dipping +here and there into a volume. + +If we are to present ideas to our would-be readers in great variety, +hoping that among them there may be toothsome bait, surely there could be +no better way than this. The only trouble is that it appeals only to those +who are already sufficiently interested in stored ideas to enter the +library. + +We must remember, however, that by our method of sending out books for +home use we are making a great open-shelf of the whole city. While the +number of volumes in any one place may be small, the books are constantly +changing so that the non-reader has a good chance of seeing in his +friend's house something that may attract him. That this may affect the +use of the library it is essential that he who sees a library book on the +table or in the hands of a fellow passenger on a car must be able to +recognize its source at once, so that, if attracted, he may be led thither +by the suggestion. Nothing is better for this purpose than the library +seal, placed on the book where all may see it; and that all may recognize +it, it should also be used wherever possible, in connection with the +library--on letter heads, posters, lists, pockets and cards, so that the +public association between its display and the work of the library shall +become strong. + +This making the whole outstanding supply of circulating books an agency in +our publicity scheme for ideas is evidently more effective as the books +better fit and satisfy their users; for in that case we have an unpaid +agent with each book. The adaptation of book to user helps our +advertisement of ideas, and that in turn aids us in adapting book to user. +When a dynamo starts, the newly arisen current makes the field stronger +and that in turn increases the current. Only here we must have just a +little residual magnetism in the field magnet to start the whole process. +In the library's work the residual magnetism is represented by the latent +interest in ideas that is present in every community. And I can do no +better, in closing, than to emphasize the fact that everything that +advertises ideas, even if totally unconnected with their recorded form in +books, helps the library and pushes forward its work. + +Itself a product of the great extension of intellectual activity to +classes in which it was formerly bounded by narrow limits, the library is +bound to widen those limits wherever they can be stretched, and every +movement of them reacts to help it. Surely advertisement on its part is an +evangel--a bearing of good intellectual tidings into the darkness. We are +spiritualistic mediums in the best sense--the bearers of authentic +messages from all the good and great of past or present time; only with +us, no turning on of the light, no publicity however glaring, will break +the spell or do otherwise than aid, for whether we succeed or fail, +whether we live or die, those messages, recorded as they are in books, +will stand while humanity remains. + + + + +THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, THE PUBLIC SCHOOL, AND THE SOCIAL CENTER MOVEMENT[7] + + [7] Read before the National Education Association. + + +The center of a geometrical figure is important, not for its size and +content, but for its position--not for what it is in itself, but for its +relations to the other elements of the figure. And words used with derived +meanings are used best when their original significations are kept in +mind. The business center of a city does not contain all of that city's +commercial activity; when we speak of the church as a religious center, we +do not mean that there is to be no religious activity in the home or in +other walks of life; as for the center of population of a large and +populous country, it may be out in the prairie where neither man nor his +dwellings are to be seen. All these centers are what they are because of +certain relationships. It is so with a social center. But social +relationships cover a wide field. The relationships of business, of +religion, even of mere co-existence, are all social. May we have a center +for so wide a range of activities? Even the narrower relations of business +or of religion tend to form subsidiary groups and to multiply subsidiary +centers. In a large city we may have not only a general business center +but centers of the real estate business, of the hardware or textile +trades, and so on. Our religious affiliations condense into denominational +centers. + +In the district of a large city where newly arrived foreign immigrants +gather, you will be shown the group of blocks where the Poles or the +Hungarians have segregated themselves from the rest, and even within +these, the houses where dwell families from a particular province or even +from one definite city or village. Man is social but he is socially +clannish, and the broadest is not so much he who refuses to recognize +these clan or caste relationships as he who enters into the largest number +of them--he who keeps in touch with his childhood home, has a wide +acquaintance among those of his own religious faith and of his chosen +business or profession, keeps up his old college friendships, is +interested in collecting coins or paintings and knows all the other +collectors, is active in civic and charitable societies, takes an interest +in education and educators, and so on. The social democracy that should +succeed in abolishing all these groups or leveling them--that should +recognize no relationships but the broader ones that underly all human +effort and feeling--the touches of nature that make the whole world +kin--would be barren indeed. + +We cannot spare these fundamentals; we could not get rid of them if we +would; but civilization advances by building upon them, and to do away +with these additions would be like destroying a city to get at its +foundation, in the vain hope of securing some wide-reaching result in +economics or aesthetics. Occupying a foremost place among these groupings +is the large division embracing our educational activities. And these are +social not only in the broad sense, but also in the narrower. The +intercourse of student with student in the school and even of reader with +reader in the library, especially in such departments as the children's +room, is so obviously that of society that we need dwell on it no further. + +This intercourse, while a necessary incident of education in the mass, is +only an incident. It is sufficiently obtrusive, however, to make it +evident that any use of school or library building for social purposes is +fit and proper. There is absolutely nothing new nor strange about such +use. In places that cannot afford separate buildings for these purposes, +the same edifice has often served for church, schoolhouse, public library, +and as assembly room for political meetings, amateur theatricals, and +juvenile debating societies. The propriety of all this has never been +questioned and it is difficult to see why it should not be as proper in a +town of 500,000 inhabitants as in one of 500. The incidence of the cost is +a matter of detail. Why should such purely social use of these educational +buildings--always common in small towns--have been allowed to fall into +abeyance in the larger ones? It is hard to say; but with the recent great +improvements in construction, the building of schools and libraries that +are models of beauty, comfort, and convenience, there has arisen a not +unnatural feeling in the public that all this public property should be +put to fuller use. Why should children be forced to dance on the street or +in some place of sordid association when comfortable and convenient halls +in library or school are closed and unoccupied? Why should the local +debating club, the mothers' meeting--nay, why should the political ward +meeting be barred out? Side by side with this trend of public opinion +there has been an awakening realization on the part of many connected with +these institutions that they themselves might benefit by such extended +use. + +Probably this realization has come earlier and more fully to the library, +because its educational function is directed so much more upon adults. The +library is coming to be our great continuation school--an institution of +learning with an infinity of purely optional courses. It may open its +doors to any form of adult social activity. + +There are forms of activity proper to a social center that require special +apparatus or equipment. These may be furnished in a building erected for +the purpose, as are the Chicago fieldhouses. Here we have swimming-pools, +gymnasiums for men and for women, and all the rest of it. A branch library +is included and some would house the school also under the same roof. We +may have to wait long for the general adoption of such a composite social +center. Our immediate problem is to supply an immediate need by using +means directly at our disposal. And it is remarkable how many kinds of +neighborhood activity may take place in a room unprovided with any special +equipment. A brief glance over our own records for only a few months past +enables me to classify them roughly as athletic or outdoor, purely social, +educational, debating, political, labor, musical, religious, charitable or +civic, and expository, besides many that defy or elude classification. + +The athletic or outdoor organizations include the various turning or +gymnastic clubs and the Boy and Girl Scouts; the social organizations +embrace dancing-classes, "welfare" associations, alumni and graduate clubs +of schools and colleges, and dramatic clubs; the educational, which are +very numerous, reading circles, literary clubs galore, free classes in +chemistry, French, psychology, philosophy, etc., and all such +organizations as the Jewish Culture Club, the Young People's Ethical +Society, the Longan Parliamentary Class, and the Industrial and Business +Women's Educational leagues. Religious bodies are parish meetings, +committees of mission boards, and such organizations as the Theosophical +Society; charitable or civic activities include the National Conference of +Day Nurseries, the Central Council of Civic Agencies, the W.C.T.U., +playground rehearsals for the Child Welfare Exhibit, and the Business +Men's Association; and the Advertising Men's League; musical organizations +embrace St. Paul's Musical Assembly, the Tuesday Choral Club, etc. Among +exhibitions are local affairs such as wild flower shows, an exhibit of +bird-houses, collections from the Educational Museum, the Civil League's +Municipal Exhibit, selected screens from the Child Welfare Exhibit, and +the prize-winners from the St. Louis Art Exhibit held in the art room of +our central library. Then we have the Queen Hedwig Branch, the Clay School +Picnic Association, the Aero Club, the Lithuanian Club, the Philotechne +Club, the Fathers' Club, and the United Spanish War Veterans. + +I trust you will not call upon me to explain the objects of some of these, +as such a demand might cause me embarrassment--not because their aims are +unworthy, but because these are skilfully obscured by their names. If +anyone believes that there is a limit to the capacity of the human race +for forming groups and subgroups on a moment's notice, for any reason or +for no reason at all, I would refer him to our assembly room and clubroom +records; and he would find, I think, that these are typical of every large +library offering the use of such rooms somewhat freely. + +It will be noted that the library takes no part in organizing or operating +any of these activities; it does not have to do so. + +The successful leader is he who repairs to a hill and raises his standard, +knowing that at sight of it followers will flock around him. When you drop +a tiny crystal into a solution, the atoms all rush to it naturally: there +is no effort or compulsion except that of the aptitudes that their Creator +has implanted in them. So it is with all centers, business or religious or +social. No one instituted a campaign to locate the business center of a +city at precisely such a square or corner. Things aggregate, and the point +to which they tend is their center; they make it, it does not make them. +The leader on a hill is a leader because he has followers; without them he +would be but a lone warrior. The school or the library that says proudly +to itself, "Go to; I will be a social center," may find itself in the same +lonely position. It can offer an opportunity: that is all. It can offer +houseroom to clubs, organizations, and groups of all kinds, whether +permanent or temporary, large or small, but its usefulness as a social +center depends largely on the existence of these and on their desire for a +meeting place. We have in St. Louis six branch libraries with assembly +rooms and clubrooms--in all a dozen or so. I have before me the calendar +for a single week and I find 55 engagements, running from 24 at one branch +down thru 13, 8, 6, and 3 to one. If I had before me only the largest +number I should conclude that branch libraries as social centers were a +howling success; if only the smallest, I should say that they were dismal +failures. Why the difference? For the same reason that the leader who +displays his standard may or may not be surrounded with eager "flocking" +followers. There may be no one within earshot, or they may have no stomach +for the war, or they may not be interested in the cause that he +represents. Or again, he may not shout loud or persuasively enough, or his +standard may not be attractive enough in form or color, or mounted on a +sufficiently high staff. + +I have said that all we can offer is opportunity; to change our figure, we +can furnish the drinking-fountain--thirst must bring the horse to it. But +we must not forget that we offer our opportunity in vain unless we are +sure that everyone who might grasp it realizes our offer and what it +means. + +Here is the chance for personal endeavor. If the young people in a +neighborhood continue to hold their social meetings over a saloon when the +branch library or the school is perfectly willing to offer its assembly +room, it is pretty certain that they do not understand that offer, or that +they mistrust its sincerity, or that there is something wrong that might +be remedied by personal effort. In the one of our branches that is most +used by organizations there is this personal touch. But I should hesitate +to say that the others do not have it too. There are plenty of +organizations near this busiest library and there are no other good places +for them to meet. In the neighborhood of some other branches there are +other meeting-places, and elsewhere, perhaps, the social instinct is not +so strong, or at any rate the effort to organize is lacking. Should the +librarian step out and attempt to stimulate this social instinct and to +guide this organizing effort? There is room for difference of opinion +here. + +Personally I think that he should not do it directly and officially as a +librarian. He may do it quietly and unobtrusively like any other private +citizen, but he needs all his efforts, all his influence, to bring the +book and the reader together in his community. Sometimes by doing this he +can be doing the other too, and he can always do it vicariously. He should +bear in mind that the successful man is not he who does everything +himself, but he who can induce others to do things--to do them in his way +and to direct them toward his ends. Even in the most sluggish, the most +indifferent community there are these potential workers with enthusiasms +that need only to be awakened to be let loose for good. The magic key is +often in the librarian's girdle, and his free offer of house room and +sympathy, with good literature thrown in, will always be of powerful +assistance in this kind of effort. He will seldom need to do more than to +make clear the existence and the nature of the opportunity that he offers. +I know that there are some librarians and many more teachers who hesitate +to open their doors in any such way as this; who are afraid that the +opportunities offered will be misused or that the activities so sheltered +will be misjudged by the public. It has shocked some persons that a young +people's dancing-class has been held, under irreproachable auspices, in +one of our branch libraries; others have been grieved to see that +political ward meetings have taken place in them, and that some rather +radical political theories have been debated there. These persons forget +that a library never takes sides. It places on its shelves books on the +Civil War from the standpoint of both North and South, histories of the +great religious controversies by both Catholics and Protestants, ideas and +theories in science and philosophy from all sides and at all angles. It +may give room at one time to a young people's dancing-class and at another +to a meeting of persons who condemn dancing. Its walls may echo one day to +the praises of our tariff system and on another to fierce denunciations of +it. + +These things are all legitimate and it is better that they should take +place in a library or a school building than in a saloon or even in a +grocery store. The influence of environment is gently pervasive. I may be +wrong, but I cannot help thinking that it is easier to be a gentleman in a +library, whether in social meeting or in political debate, than it is in +some other places. In one of our branches there meets a club of men who +would be termed anarchists by some people. The branch librarian assures me +that the brand of anarchism that they profess has grown perceptibly milder +since they have met in the library. It is getting to be literary, +academic, philosophic. Nourished in a saloon, with a little injudicious +repression, it might perhaps have borne fruit of bombs and dynamite. + +In this catholicity I cannot help thinking that the library as an +educational institution is a step ahead of the school. Most teachers would +resent the imputation of partisanship on the part of the school, and yet +it is surely partisan--in some ways rightly and inevitably so. One cannot +well explain both sides of any question to a child of six and leave its +decision to his judgment. This is obvious; and yet I cannot help thinking +that there is one-sided teaching of children who are at least old enough +to know that there is another side, and that the one-sided teaching of +two-sided subjects might be postponed in some cases until two-sided +information would be possible and proper. Where a child is taught one side +and finds out later that there is another, his resentment is apt to be +bitter; it spoils the educational effect of much that he was taught and +injures the influence of the institution that taught him. My resentment is +still strong against the teaching that hid from me the southern viewpoint +concerning slavery and secession, the Catholic viewpoint of what we +Protestants call the Reformation--dozens of things omitted from textbooks +on dozens of subjects because they did not happen to meet the approval of +the textbook compiler. I am no less an opponent of slavery--I am no less a +Protestant--because I know the other side, but I think I am a better man +for knowing it, and I think it a thousand pities that there are thousands +of our fellow citizens, on all sides of all possible lines, from whom our +educative processes have hid even the fact that there is another side. +This question, as I have said, does not affect the library, and +fortunately need not affect it. And as we are necessarily two-sided in our +book material so we can open our doors to free social or neighborhood use +without bothering our heads about whether the users are Catholics, +Protestants, or Jews; Democrats, Republicans, or Socialists; Christian +Scientists or suffragists. The library hands our suffrage and +anti-suffrage literature to its users with the same smile, and if it hands +the anti-suffrage books to the suffragist, and vice versa, both sides are +certainly the better for it. + +I have tried to make it clear in what I have said that in this matter of +social activity, public institutions should go as far as they can in +furnishing facilities without taking upon themselves the burden of +administration. I believe fully in municipal ownership of all kinds of +utilities, but rarely in municipal operation. Municipal ownership +safeguards the city, and private or corporate operation avoids the +numerous objections to close municipal control of detail. So the library +authorities may retain sufficient control of these social activities by +the power that they have of admitting them to the parts of the buildings +provided for them, or of excluding them at any time. These activities +themselves are better managed by voluntary bodies, and, as I have said, +there is no indication that the formation of such bodies is on the wane. +The establishment and operation of a musical or athletic club, a debating +society, or a Boy Scouts company, are surely quite as educational as the +activities themselves in which their members engage. Do not let us +arrogate to ourselves such opportunities as these. I should be inclined to +take this attitude also with regard to the public playgrounds, were they +not somewhat without the province of this paper; and I take it very +strongly with regard to the public school. Throw open the school buildings +as soon as you can, and as freely as you can to every legitimate form of +social activity, but let your relationship to this activity be like that +of the center to the circle--in it and of it, but embracing no part of its +areal content. So, I am convinced, will it be best for all of us--for +ourselves, the administrators of public property, and for the public, the +owning body which is now demanding that it should not be barred out by its +servants from that property's freest and fullest use. + + + + +THE SYSTEMATIZATION OF VIOLENCE + + +The peace propaganda has suffered much from the popular impression that +many of those engaged in it are impractical enthusiasts who are assuming +the possibility of doing away with passions and prejudices incident to our +very humanity, and of bringing about an ideal reign of love and good will. +Whether this impression is or is not justified we need not now inquire. It +is the impression itself that is injuring the cause of peace, and will +continue to injure it until it is removed. + +It may at least be lessened by allowing the mind to dwell for a time on +another aspect of the subject in which the regime of peace that would +follow the discontinuance of all settlement of disputes by violence will +appear to consist not so much in the total disappearance of violence from +the earth as in the use of it for a different purpose, namely, the +preservation of the peaceful status quo, by a systematic and lawful use of +force, or at any rate, the readiness to employ it. + +A state of peace, whether between individuals or nations, whether without +or within a regime of law, always partakes of the nature of an armed +truce: under one regime, however, the arms are borne by the possible +contestants themselves; under the other, by the community whose members +they are. If there is a resort to arms, violence ensues under both +regimes; in both cases it tends ultimately to restore peace, but the +action is more certain and more systematic when the violence is exerted by +the community. + +These laws may apply indifferently to a community of individuals or to one +of nations. The most cogent and the most valid argument at the disposal of +the peace advocate is the fact that we no longer allow the individual to +take the law into his own hand, and that logically we should equally +prohibit the nation from doing so. This is unanswerable, but its force has +been greatly weakened by the assumption, which it requires no great +astuteness to find unwarranted, that the settlement of individual quarrels +by individual force has resulted from--or at least resulted in--the +discontinuance of violence altogether, or in the dawn of a general era of +good-will, man to man. On the contrary, it is very doubtful whether there +is less violence to-day than there would be if the operation of law were +suspended altogether; the difference, is that the violence has shifted its +incidence and altered its aim--it is civic and social and no longer +individual. + +If we are to introduce the regime of law among nations as among +individuals, our first step must be similarly to shift the incidence of +violence. In so doing we may not decrease it, we may, indeed, increase +it--but we shall none the less be taking that step in the only possible +direction to achieve our purpose. + +Among individuals, custom, crystallizing into law, generally precedes the +enforcement of that law by the community. Hence, a somewhat elaborate code +may exist side by side with the settlement of disputes, under that code, +by personal combat. We have among nations such a code, and we yet admit +the settlement of disputes by war, because the incidence of violence has +not yet completely shifted. We have established a tribunal to act, in +certain cases, on behalf of the community of nations, but we have not yet +given that tribunal complete jurisdiction and we have given it no power +whatever to enforce its decrees. It is on this latter point that I desire +to dwell. In a community of individuals, there are two ways of using +violence to enforce law--by the professional police force and by the posse +of citizens. The former is more effective, but the latter is often readier +and more certain in particular instances, especially in primitive +communities. To give it force we must have readiness on the part of every +citizen to respond to a call from the proper officer, and ability to do +effective service, especially by the possession of arms and skill in their +use. These requisites are not generally found in more advanced +communities. + +In like manner, the decrees of an international tribunal might be enforced +either by the creation of an international army or by calling upon as many +of the nations as necessary to aid in coercing the non-law-abiding member +of the international community. Each nation is already armed and ready. + +Whatever may be thought of the ultimate possibility of an international +army, it must be evident that the principle of the posse must serve us at +the outset. An international army would always consist in part of members +of the nation to be coerced, whereas, in selecting a posse those furthest +in race and in sympathy from the offender might always be chosen, just as +members of a hostile clan would make up the best posse to arrest a +Highlander for sheep-stealing. + +Moreover, the posse has been used internationally more than once, as when +decrees have been pronounced by a general European Congress and some +particular nation or nations have been charged with their execution. + +When a frontier community that has been a law unto itself gets its first +sheriff, the earliest visible result is not impossibly a sudden increase, +instead of a decrease, of violence. There is a war of the community, +represented by the sheriff and the good citizens, against all the bad +ones. Even so it may be expected that among the first results of an +effective agreement to enforce the decrees of an international tribunal, +would be an exceptionally great and violent war. Sooner or later some +nation would be sure to take issue with an unpopular decree and refuse to +obey it. This would probably be one of the larger and more powerful +nations, for a weaker power would not proceed to such lengths in protest. + +Not improbably other nations might join the protesting power. The result +would be a war; it might even be the world war that we have been fearing +for a generation. It might conceivably be the greatest and the bloodiest +war that the world has yet seen. Yet it would be far the most glorious war +of history, for it would be a struggle on behalf of law and order in the +community of nations--a fight to uphold that authority by whose exercise +alone may peace be assured to the world. The man who shudders at the +prospect of such a war, who wants peace, but is unwilling to fight for it, +should cease his efforts on behalf of a universal agreement among nations, +for there is no general agreement without power to quell dissension. + +This is not the place to discuss the details of an international agreement +to enforce the decrees of an international tribunal. It may merely be said +that if the most powerful and intelligent communities of men that have +ever existed cannot devise machinery to do what puny individuals have long +been successfully accomplishing, they had better disband and coalesce in +universal anarchy. + +My object here is neither to propose plans nor to discuss details, but +merely to point out that not the abandonment, but the systematization of +violence is the goal of a rational peace propaganda, and that when this is +once acknowledged and universally realized, an important step will have +been taken toward winning over a class of persons who now oppose a +world-peace as impractical and impossible. + +These persons disapprove of disarmament: and from the point of view here +advocated, a general disarmament would be the last thing to be desired. +The possible member of a posse must bear arms to be effective. Armaments +may have to be limited and controlled by international decree, but to +disarm a nation would be as criminal and foolish as it would be to take +away all weapons from the law-abiding citizens of a mining town as a +preliminary to calling upon them to assist in the arrest of a notorious +band of outlaws. + +Again: a common objection to the peace propaganda is that without war we +shall have none of the heroic virtues that war calls into being. This +objection fails utterly when we consider that what we shall get under a +proper international agreement is not the abolition of war, but simply an +assurance that when there is a war it will be one in which every good +citizen can take at once the part of international law and order--a +contest between the law and the law-breaker, and not one in which both +contestants are equally lawless. Thus the profession of arms will still be +an honorable one--it will, in fact, be much more honorable than it is +to-day, when it may at any moment be prostituted to the service of greed +or commercialism. + + + + +THE ART OF RE-READING + + +"I have nothing to read," said a man to me once. "But your house seems to +be filled with books." "O, yes; but I've read them already." What should +we think of a man who should complain that he had no friends, when his +house was thronged daily with guests, simply because he had seen and +talked with them all once before? Such a man has either chosen badly, or +he is himself at fault. "Hold fast that which is good" says the Scripture. +Do not taste it once and throw it away. To get at the root of this matter +we must go farther back than literature and inquire what it has in common +with all other forms of art to compel our love and admiration. Now, a work +of art differs from any other result of human endeavor in this--that its +effect depends chiefly on the way in which it is made and only secondarily +upon what it is or what it represents. Were this not true, all statues of +Apollo or Venus would have the same art-value; and you or I, if we could +find a tree and a hill that Corot had painted, would be able to produce a +picture as charming to the beholder as his. + +The way in which a thing is done is, of course, always important, but its +importance outside of the sphere of art differs from that within. The way +in which a machine is constructed makes it good or bad, but the thing that +is aimed at here is the useful working of the machine, toward which all +the skill of the maker is directed. What the artist aims at is not so much +to produce a likeness of a god or a picture of a tree, as to produce +certain effects in the person who looks at his complete work; and this he +does by the way in which he performs it. The fact that a painting +represents certain trees and hills is here only secondary; the primary +fact is what the artist has succeeded in making the on-looker feel. + +While Sorolla is painting a group of children on the beach, I may take a +kodak picture of the same group. My photograph may be a better likeness +than Sorolla's picture, but it has no art-value. Why? Because it was made +mechanically, whereas Sorolla put into his picture something of himself, +making it a unique thing, incapable of imitation or of reproduction. + +The man who has a message, one of those pervasive, compelling messages +that are worth while, naturally turns to art. He chooses his subject not +as an end, but as a vehicle, and he makes it speak his message by his +method of treatment, conveying it to his public more or less successfully +in the measure of his skill. + +We have been speaking of the representative arts of painting and +sculpture, but the same is true of art in any form. In music, not a +representative art, in spite of the somewhat grotesque claims of so-called +program music, the method of the composer is everything, or at least his +subject is so vague and immaterial that no one would think of exalting it +as an end in itself. There is, however, an art in which the subject stands +forth so prominently that even those who love the art itself are +continually in danger of forgetting the subject's secondary character. I +mean the art of literature. Among the works of written speech the +boundaries of art are much more ill-defined than they are elsewhere. There +is, to be sure, as much difference between Shelley's "Ode to a Skylark" +and Todhunter's "Trigonometry" as there is between the Venus de Milo and a +battleship; and I conceive that the difference is also of precisely the +same kind, being that by which, as we have seen above, we may always +discriminate between a work of art and one of utility. But where art-value +and utility are closely combined, as they are most frequently in +literature, it is, I believe, more difficult to divide them mentally and +to dwell on their separate characteristics, than where the work is a +concrete object. This is why we hear so many disputes about whether a +given work does or does not belong to the realm of "pure literature," and +it is also the reason why, as I have said, some, even among those who love +literature, are not always ready to recognize its nature as an art, or +mistakenly believe that in so far as its art-value is concerned, the +subject portrayed is of primary importance--is an aim in itself instead of +being a mere vehicle for the conveyance of an impression. + +Take, if you please, works which were intended by their authors as works +of utility, but have survived as works of art in spite of themselves, such +as Walton's "Compleat Angler" and White's "Natural History of Selborne." +Will anyone maintain that the subject-matter of those books has much to do +with their preservation, or with the estimation in which they are now +held? Nay; we may even be so bold as to enter the field of fiction and to +assert that those fictional works that have purely literary value are +loved not for the story they tell, but for the way in which the author +tells it and for the effect that he thereby produces on the reader. + +I conceive that pure literature is an art, subject to the rules that +govern all art, and that its value depends primarily on the effect +produced on the reader--the message conveyed--by the way in which the +writer has done his work, the subject chosen being only his vehicle. Where +a man who has something to say looks about for means to say it worthily, +he may select a tale, a philosophical disquisition, a familiar essay, a +drama or a lyric poem. He may choose badly or well, but in any case it is +his message that matters. + +My excuse for dwelling on this matter must be that unless I have carried +you with me thus far what I am about to say will have no meaning, and I +had best fold my papers, make my bow, and conclude an unprofitable +business. For my subject is re-reading, the repetition of a message; and +the message that we would willingly hear repeated is not that of utility +but of emotion. It is the word that thrills the heart, nerves the arm, and +puts new life into the veins, not that which simply conveys information. +The former will produce its effect again and again, custom can not stale +it. The latter, once delivered, has done its work. I see two messengers +approaching; one, whom I have sent to a library to ascertain the +birth-date of Oliver Cromwell, tells me what it is and receives my thanks. +The other tells me that one dear to my heart, long lying at death's door, +is recovering. My blood courses through my veins; my nerves tingle; joy +suffuses me where gloom reigned before. I cry out; I beg the bearer of +good tidings to tell them again and again; I keep him by me, so that I may +ask him a thousand questions, bringing out his message in a thousand +variant forms. But do I turn to the other and say, "O, that blessed date! +was Cromwell truly born thereon? Let me, I pray, hear you recite it again +and again!" I trow, not. + +The message that we desire to hear again is the one that produces its +effect again and again; and that is the message of feeling, the message of +art--not that of mere utility. This is so true that I conceive we may use +it as a test of art-value. The great works of literature do not lose their +effect on a single reading. One makes response to them the hundredth time +as he did the first. Their appeal is so compelling that there is no +denying it--no resisting it. There are snatches of poetry--and of prose, +too--that we have by heart; that we murmur to ourselves again and again, +sure that the response which never failed will come again, thrilling the +whole organism with its pathos, uplifting us with the nobility of its +appeal, warming us with its humor. There is a little sequence of homely +verse that never fails to bring the tears to my eyes. I have tested myself +with it under the most unfavorable circumstances. In the midst of +business, amid social jollity, in the mental dullness of fatigue, I have +stopped and repeated to myself those three verses. So quickly acts the +magic of the author's skill that the earlier verses grip the fibers of my +mind and twist them in such fashion that I feel the pathos of the last +lines just as I felt them for the first time, years ago. You might all +tell similar stories. I believe that this is a characteristic of good +literature, and that all of it will bear reading, and re-reading, and +reading again. + +But I hear someone say, "Do you mean to tell me that those three little +verses that bring the tears to your eyes, will bring them also to mine and +my neighbor's? I might listen to them appreciatively but dry-eyed; my +neighbor might not care for them enough to re-read them once. All about us +we see this personal equation in the appreciation of literature. Unless +you are prepared, then, to maintain that literature may be good for one +and bad for another, your contention will scarcely hold water." + +Even so, brother. The messenger who told me of the safety of my dear one +did not thrill your heart as he did mine. She was dear to me, not to you, +and the infinitely delicate yet powerful chain of conditions and relations +that operated between the messenger's voice and my emotional nature did +not connect him with yours. Assuredly, the message that reaches one man +may not reach another. It may even reach a man in his youth and fall short +in manhood, or vice versa. It may be good for him and inoperative on all +the rest of the world. We estimate literature, it is true, by the +universality of its appeal or by the character of the persons whom alone +that appeal reaches. The message of literature as art may thus be to the +crowd or to a select few. I could even imagine intellect and feeling of +such exquisite fineness, such acknowledged superiority, that appeal to it +alone might be enough to fix the status of a work of art, though it might +leave all others cold. Still, in general I believe, that the greatest +literature appeals to the greatest number and to the largest number of +types. I believe that there are very few persons to whom Shakespeare, +properly presented, will not appeal. In him, nevertheless, the learned and +those of taste also delight. There are authors like Walter Pater who are a +joy to the few but do not please the many. There are others galore, whom +perhaps it would be invidious to name, who inspire joy in the multitude +but only distaste in the more discriminating. We place Pater above these, +just as we should always put quality above quantity; but I place +Shakespeare vastly higher, because his appeal is to the few and the many +at once. + +But we must, I think, acknowledge that an author whose value may not +appeal to others may be great to one reader; that his influence on that +reader may be as strong for good as if it were universal instead of +unique. We may not place such a writer in the Walhalla, but I beseech you, +do not let us tear him rudely from the one or two to whom he is good and +great. Do not lop off the clinging arms at the elbow, but rather skilfully +present some other object of adoration to the intent that they may +voluntarily untwine and enfold this new object more worthily. + +The man who desires to own books but who can afford only a small and +select library can not do better than to make his selection on this +basis--to get together a collection of well-loved books any one of which +would give him pleasure in re-reading. Why should a man harbor in his +house a book that he has read once and never cares to read again? Why +should he own one that he will never care to read at all? We are not +considering the books of the great collectors, coveted for their rarity or +their early dates, for their previous ownership or the beauty of their +binding--for any reason except the one that makes them books rather than +curiosities. These collections are not libraries in the intellectual or +the literary sense. Three well thumbed volumes in the attic of one who +loves them are a better library for him than those on which Pierpont +Morgan spent his millions. + +This advice, it will be noted, implies that the man has an opportunity to +read the book before he decides whether to buy it or not. Here is where +the Public Library comes in. Some regard the Public Library as an +institution to obviate all necessity of owning books. It should rather be +regarded from our present standpoint as an institution to enable readers +to own the books that they need--to survey the field and make therefrom a +proper and well-considered selection. That it has acted so in the past, +none may doubt; it is the business of librarians to see that this function +is emphasized in the future. The bookseller and the librarian are not +rivals, but co-workers. Librarians complain of the point of view of those +publishers and dealers who regard every library user as a lost customer. +He is rather, they say, in many cases a customer won--a non-reader added +to the reading class--a possible purchaser of books. But have not +librarians shared somewhat this mistaken and intolerant attitude? How +often do we urge our readers to become book-owners? How often do we give +them information and aid directed toward this end? The success of the +Christmas book exhibitions held in many libraries should be a lesson to +us. The lists issued in connection with these almost always include +prices, publishers' names, and other information intended especially for +the would-be purchaser. But why should we limit our efforts to the holiday +season? True, every librarian does occasionally respond to requests for +advice in book-selection and book-purchase, but the library is not yet +recognized as the great testing field of the would-be book owner; the +librarian is not yet hailed as the community's expert adviser in the +selection and purchase of books, as well as its book guardian and book +distributor. That this may be and should be, I believe. It will be if the +librarian wills it. + +Are we straying from our subject? No; for from our present standpoint a +book bought is a book reread. My ideal private library is a room, be it +large or small, lined with books, every one of which is the owner's +familiar friend, some almost known by heart, others re-read many times, +others still waiting to be re-read. + +But how about the man whose first selection for this intimate personal +group would be a complete set of the works of George Ade? Well, if that is +his taste, let his library reflect it. Let a man be himself. That there is +virtue in merely surrounding oneself with the great masters of literature +all unread and unloved, I can not see. Better acknowledge your poor taste +than be a hypocrite. + +The librarian can not force the classics down the unwilling throats of +those who do not care for them and are perhaps unfitted to appreciate +them. There has been entirely too much of this already and it has resulted +disastrously. Surely, a sane via media is possible, and we may agree that +a man will never like Eschylus, without assuring him that Eschylus is an +out-of-date old fogy, while on the other hand we may acknowledge the +greatness of Homer and Milton without trying to force them upon unwilling +and incompetent readers. After all it is not so much a question of Milton +versus George Ade, as it is of sanity and wholesomeness against vulgarity +and morbidity. And if I were to walk through one city and behold +collections of this latter sort predominating and then through another, +where my eyes were gladdened with evidences of good taste, of love for +humor that is wholesome, sentiment that is sane, verse that is tuneful and +noble, I should at once call on the public librarian and I should say to +him, "Thou art the man!" The literary taste of your community is a +reflection of your own as shown forth in your own institution--its +collection of books, the assistants with which you have surrounded +yourself, your attitude and theirs through you toward literature and +toward the public. + +But, someone asks, suppose that I am so fortunate and so happy as to sit +in the midst of such a group of friendly authors; how and how often shall +I re-read? Shall I traverse the group every year? He who speaks thus is +playing a part; he is not the real thing. Does the young lover ask how and +how often he shall go to see his sweetheart? Try to see whether you can +keep him away! The book-lover reopens his favorite volume whenever he +feels like it. Among the works on his shelves are books for every mood, +every shade of varying temper and humor. He chooses for the moment the +friend that best corresponds to it, or it may be, the one that may best +woo him away from it. It may be that he will select none of them, but +occupy himself with a pile of newcomers, some of whom may be candidates +for admission to the inner group. The whole thing--the composition of his +library, his attitude toward it, the books that he re-reads oftenest, the +favorite passages that he loves, that he scans fondly with his eye while +yet he can repeat them by heart, his standards of admission to his inner +circle--all is peculiarly and personally his own. There is no other +precisely like it, just as there is no other human being precisely like +its owner. There is as much difference between this kind of a library and +some that we have seen as there is between a live, breathing creature with +a mind and emotions and aspirations, and a wax figure in the Eden Musee. + +Thus every book lover re-reads his favorites in a way of his own, just as +every individual human being loves or hates or mourns or rejoices in a way +of his own. + +One can no more describe these idiosyncrasies than he can write a history +of all the individuals in the world, but perhaps, in the manner of the +ethnological or zoological classifier, it may interest us to glance at the +types of a few genera or species. + +And first, please note that re-reading is the exact repetition of a dual +mental experience, so far at least as one of the minds is concerned. It is +a replica of mind-contact, under conditions obtainable nowhere else in +this world and of such nature that some of them seem almost to partake of +other-worldliness. My yesterday's interview with Smith or Jones, trivial +as it is, I can not repeat. Smith can not remember what he said, and even +if he could, he could not say it to me in the same way and to the same +purpose. But my interview with Plato--with Shakespeare, with Emerson; my +talk with Julius Caesar, with Goethe, with Lincoln! I can duplicate it +once, twice, a hundred times. My own mind--one party to the contact--may +change, but Plato's or Lincoln's is ever the same; they speak no "various +language" like Byrant's nature, but are like that great Author of Nature +who has taken them to Himself, in that in them "is no variableness, +neither shadow of turning." To realize that these men may speak to me +today, across the abyss of time, and that I can count on the same message +tomorrow, next year and on my death bed, in the same authentic words, +producing the same effect, assures me that somewhere, somehow, a miracle +has been wrought. + +I have said that one of the minds that come thus into contact changes not, +while the other, the reader's, is alterable. This gives him a sort of +standard by which he can measure or at least estimate, the changes that go +on within him, the temporary ones due to fluctuations in health, strength +or temper, the progressive ones due to natural growth or to outside +influences. + +In his "Introduction to Don Quixote," Heine tells us how that book, the +first that he ever read, was his mental companion through life. In that +first perusal knowing not "how much irony God had interwoven into the +world," he looked upon the luckless knight as a real hero of romance and +wept bitterly when his chivalry and generosity met with ingratitude and +violence. A little later, when the satire dawned upon his comprehension, +he could not bear the book. Still later he read it with contemptuous +laughter at the poor knight. But when in later life, he lay racked on a +bed of pain his attitude of sympathy returned. "Dulcinea del Toboso," he +says "is still the most beautiful woman in the world; although I lie +stretched upon the earth, helpless and miserable, I will never take back +that assertion. I can not do otherwise. On with your lances, ye Knights of +the Silver Moon; ye disguised barbers!" + +So every reader's viewpoint shifts with the years. + +Our friend who welcomes George Ade to his inner sanctuary may find as the +years go on that his reaction to that contact has altered. I should not +recommend that the author be then be cast into outer darkness. Once a +favorite, always a favorite, for old sake's sake even if not for present +power and influence. Our private libraries will hold shelf after shelf of +these old-time favorites--milestones on the intellectual track over which +we have wearily or joyously traveled. + +There will always be a warm spot in my heart and a nook on my private +shelf for Oliver Optic and Horatio Alger. Though I bar them from my +library (I mean my Library with a big L) I have no right to exclude them +from my private collection of favorites, for once I loved them. I scarcely +know why or how. If there had been in those far-off days of my boyhood, +children's libraries and children's librarians, I might not have known +them; as it is, they are incidents in my literary past that can not be +blinked, shameful though they may be. The re-reading of such books as +these is interesting because it shows us how far we have traveled since we +counted them among our favorites. + +Then there is the book that, despite its acknowledged excellence, the +reader would not perhaps admit to his inner circle if he read it now for +the first time. It holds its place largely on account of the glamour with +which his youth invested it. It thrills him now as it thrilled him then, +but he half suspects that the thrill is largely reminiscent. I sometimes +fancy that as I re-read Ivanhoe and my heart leaps to my mouth when the +knights clash at Ashby, the propulsive power of that leap had its origin +in the emotions of 1870 rather than those of 1914. And when some of +Dickens' pathos--that death-bed of Paul Dombey for instance--brings the +tears again unbidden to my eyes, I suspect, though I scarcely dare to put +my suspicion into words, that the salt in those tears is of the vintage of +1875. I am reading Arnold Bennett now and loving him very dearly when he +is at his best; but how I shall feel about him in 1930 or how I might feel +if I could live until 2014, is another question. + +Then there is the book that, scarce comprehended or appreciated when it +was first read, but loved for some magic of expression or turn of thought, +shows new beauties at each re-reading, unfolding like an opening rose and +bringing to view petals of beauty, wit, wisdom and power that were before +unsuspected. This is the kind of book that one loves most to re-read, for +the growth that one sees in it is after all in oneself--not in the book. +The gems that you did not see when you read it first were there then as +they are now. You saw them not then and you see them now, for your mental +sight is stronger--you are more of a man now than you were then. + +Not that all the changes of the years are necessarily for the better. They +may be neither for better nor for worse. As the moving train hurries us +onward we may enjoy successively the beauties of canyon, prairie and lake, +admiring each as we come to it without prejudice to what has gone before. +In youth we love only bright colors and their contrasts--brilliant sunsets +and autumn foliage; in later life we come to appreciate also the more +delicate tints and their gradations--a prospect of swamp-land and distant +lake or sea on a gray day; a smoky town in the fog; the tender dove colors +of early dawns. So in youth we eagerly read of blood and glory and wild +adventure; Trollope is insufferably dull. Jane Austen is for old maids; +even such a gem as Cranford we do not rate at its true value. But in after +life how their quiet shades and tints come out! There is no glory in them, +no carnage, no combat; but there is charm and fascination in the very +slowness of their movement, the shortness of their range, their lack of +intensity, the absence of the shrill, high notes and the tremendous bases. + +Then there is the re-reading that accuses the reader of another kind of +change--a twist to the right or the left, a cast in the mental eye, or +perhaps the correction of such a cast. The doctrines in some book seemed +strange to you once--almost abhorrent; you are ready to accept them now. +Is it because you then saw through a glass darkly and now more clearly? Or +is your vision darker now than it was? Your rereading apprizes you that +there has been a change of some sort. Perhaps you must await corroborative +testimony before you decide what its nature has been. Possibly you read +today without a blush what your mind of twenty years ago would have been +shocked to meet. Are you broader-minded or just hardened? These questions +are disquieting, but the disturbance that they cause is wholesome, and I +know of no way in which they can be raised in more uncompromising form +than by re-reading an old favorite, by bringing the alterable fabric of +your living, growing and changing mind into contact with the stiff, +unyielding yardstick of an unchangeable mental record--the cast of one +phase of a master mind that once was but has passed on. + +Here I can not help saying a word of a kind of re-reading that is not the +perusal of literature at all with most of us--the re-reading of our own +words, written down in previous years--old letters, old lectures, +articles--books, perhaps, if we chance to be authors. Of little value, +perhaps, to others, these are of the greatest interest to ourselves +because instead of measuring our minds by an outside standard they enable +us to set side by side two phases of our own life--the ego of 1892, +perhaps, and that of 1914. How boyish that other ego was; how it jumped to +conclusions; how ignorant it was and how self-confident! And yet, how +fresh it was; how quickly responsive to new impressions; how unspoiled; +how aspiring! If you want to know the changes that have transformed the +mind that was into the very different one that now is, read your own old +letters. + +I have tried to show you that pure literature is an art and like other +arts depends primarily upon manner and only secondarily upon matter. That +the artist, who in this case is the author, uses his power to influence +the reader usually through his emotions or feelings and that its effects +to a notable extent, are not marred by repetition. That on this account +all good literature may be re-read over and over, and that the pleasure +derived from such re-reading is a sign that a book is peculiarly adapted +in some way to the reader. Finally, that one's private library, especially +if its size be limited, may well consist of personal favorites, often +re-read. + +When the astronomer Kepler had reduced to simple laws the complicated +motions of the planets he cried out in ecstacy: "O God! now think I Thy +thoughts after Thee!" Thus when a great writer of old time has been +vouchsafed a spark of the divine fire we may think his divine thoughts +after him by re-reading. And Shakespeare tells us in that deathless speech +of Portia's, that since mercy is God's attribute we may by exercising it +become like God. Thus, by the mere act of tuning our brains to think the +thoughts that the Almighty has put into the minds of the good and the +great, may it not be that our own thoughts may at the last come to be +shaped in the same mould? + +"Old wine, old friends, old books," says the old adage; and of the three +the last are surely the most satisfying. The old wine may turn to vinegar; +old friends may forget or forsake us; but the old book is ever the same. +What would the old man do without it? And to you who are young I would +say--you may re-read, you first must read. Choose worthy books to love. As +for those who know no book long enough either to love or despise it--who +skim through good and bad alike and forget page ninety-nine while reading +page 100, we may simply say to them, in the words of the witty Frenchman, +"What a sad old age you are preparing for yourself!" + + + + +HISTORY AND HEREDITY[8] + + [8] Read before the New England Society of St. Louis. + + +In one of his earlier books, Prof. Hugo Munsterberg cites the growing love +for tracing pedigrees as evidence of a dangerous American tendency toward +aristocracy. There are only two little things the matter with this--the +fact and the inference from it. In the first place, we Americans have +always been proud of our ancestry and fond of tracing it; and in the +second place, this fondness is akin, not to aristocracy but to democracy. +It is not the purpose of this paper to prove this thesis in detail, so I +will merely bid you note that aristocratic pedigree-tracers confine +themselves to one line, or to a few lines. Burke will tell you that one of +the great-great-grandfathers of the present Lord Foozlem was the First +Baron; he is silent about his great-grandfather, the tinker, and his +great-grandfather, the pettifogging country lawyer. Americans are far more +apt to push their genealogical investigations in all directions, because +they are prompted by a legitimate curiosity rather than by desire to prove +a point, American genealogical research is biological, while that of +Europe is commercial. + +An obvious advantage of interest in our ancestors is that it ought to make +history a more vital thing to us; for to them, history was merely current +events in which they took part, or which, at least, they watched. This +linking up of our personal ancestral lines with past events is done too +seldom. Societies like the New England Society are doing it, and it is for +this reason that I have chosen to bring the subject briefly before you. + +It has been noted that our historical notions of the Civil War are now, +and are going to be in the future, more just and less partisan than those +of the Revolution. This is not because we are nearer the Civil War; for +nearness often tends to confuse historical ideas rather than to clear them +up. It is because the descendants of those who fought on both sides are +here with us, citizens of our common country, intermarrying and coming +into contact in a thousand ways. We are not likely to ignore the Southern +standpoint regarding the rights of secession and the events of the +struggle so long as the sons and daughters of Confederate soldiers live +among us. Nor shall we ever forget the Northern point of view while the +descendants of those who fought with Grant and Sherman are our friends and +neighbors. + +It is otherwise with the Revolution. We are the descendants only of those +who fought on one side. Of the others, part went back to their homes in +England, the rest, our old neighbors and friends, we despoiled of their +lands and drove across our northern border with execrations, to make new +homes in a new land and view us with a hatred that has not yet passed +away. If you doubt it, discuss the American Revolution for fifteen minutes +with one of the United Empire Loyalists of Toronto. It will surprise you +to know that your patriot ancestors were thieves, blacklegs and +scoundrels. I do not believe that they were; but possibly they were not +the impossible archangels of the school histories. + +Of one thing I am sure; that if the descendants of those who fought +against us in '76 had been left to mingle with our own people, the +historical recollections of the struggle would have been surer and truer +on both sides than they are today. Here is a case where ancestry has +perverted history, but simply because there has been an unnatural +segregation of descendants. Let me note another where we have absolutely +forgotten our ancestral predilections and have gone over to the other +side, simply because the other side made the records. When we read a Roman +account of encounters between the legions and the northern tribes, where +do we place ourselves in imagination, as readers? Always with the Roman +legions. But our place is not there; it is with our hardy and brave +forefathers, fighting to defend their country and their firesides against +the southern intruders. How many teachers of history try to utilize +race-consciousness in their pupils to make them attain a clearer knowledge +of what it all meant? Should we not be proud that we are of the blood of +men who withstood the self-styled rulers of the world and won their +freedom and their right to shape their own personal and civic development? + +I should like to see a book tracing the history and development of an +imaginary Anglo-Saxon American line of ancestry, taking it from the +forests of Northern Germany across to Britain, through the Norman conquest +and down the stream of subsequent English history across seas to +America--through savage wars and Revolution, perhaps across the +Alleghenies, to settle finally in the great West. I would try to make the +reader realize that here was no fairy tale--no tale of countries and races +with which we have naught to do, but the story of our own fathers, whose +features and whose characteristics, physical and mental, have been +transmitted by heredity to us, their sons and daughters of the year 1913. + +It is unfortunate perhaps, for our perceptions of racial continuity, that +we are rovers by disposition. Who runs across the sea, says the Latin +poet, changes his sky but not his mind. True enough, but it is difficult +for some of us to realize it. It is hard for some of us to realize that +our emigrant ancestors were the same men and women when they set foot on +these shores as when they left the other side some weeks before. Our +trans-Atlantic cousins labor under the same difficulties, for they assure +us continually that we are a "new" country. We have, they say, the faults +and the advantages of "youth." It would be interesting to know at just +what point in the passage the education and the habits and the prejudices +of the incoming Englishman dropped off. Change of environment works +wonders with habits and even with character; we must of course recognize +that; but it certainly does not make of the mind a _tabula rasa_, on which +the fresh surroundings may absolutely work their will. + +I must say that our migrations within the limits of our own continent have +not been productive of so much forgetfulness. I have been struck, for +instance, since I came to St. Louis, with what I may call the +source-consciousness of our western population. Everyone, whether he is +particularly interested in genealogy or not, knows that his people came +from Vermont or Virginia or Pennsylvania. He may not be able to trace his +ancestry, or even to name his great-grandfather; but with the source of +that ancestry he is always acquainted. I believe this to be the case +throughout the Middle West. From this point of view the population is not +so well mixed as it is in the East. No one in Massachusetts or Connecticut +can point out to you, offhand, the families that came from particular +counties in England. And yet in England, a migration from one county to +another is always recognized and remembered. A cousin of mine, visiting on +an English estate, was casually informed by his host, "Our family are +newcomers in this county. We moved in only about 300 years ago." From this +point of view we are all newcomers in America. It is to be hoped that as +the years go on, the elements of our western population will not so +thoroughly lose sight of their sources as have the Easterners. It is not +likely that they will, for those sources are more accessible. We have +Virginia families who still keep up friendly intercourse with the old +stock; Vermont families who spend each summer on the old homestead; and so +on. The New Englander did not and could not keep up similar relations with +Old England. Even the Southerner, who did it for a time, had to drop it. +Our inter-communication with Europe has grown enormously in volume, but +little of it, if any, is due to continuous ancestral interest, although a +revived general interest has sprung up and is to be commended. + +I fear, however, that the greater part of this interest in sources, where +it exists, is very far from an intelligent connection with the body of +historical fact. When a man is proud of the fact that an ancestor took +part in the famous Boston Tea Party, has he taken any pains to ascertain +what actually took place on that occasion? If he claims descent from +Pocahontas, can he tell us just how much of what we currently believe of +her is fact and how much is myth? If he knows that his family came from +Cheshire, England, and was established and well-known there for centuries, +what does he know of the history of Cheshire and of the connection of his +ancestors with it? Our interest, when it exists, is concentrated too much +on trivial happenings. We know and boast that an ancestor came over in the +Mayflower without knowing of the family doings before and after that +event. Of course, connection with some one picturesque event serves to +stimulate the imagination and focus the interest, but these events should +serve as starting points for investigation rather than resting points +where interest begins and ends. Historical students are beginning to +realize that it is not enough to know about the battle of Hastings without +understanding the causes and forces that led to it and proceeded from it, +and the daily lives and thoughts of those who took part in it, from +captain to spearman. + +This failure to link up family history with general history is responsible +for many sad losses of historical material. Many persons do not understand +the value of old letters and diaries; many who do, keep them closely in +the family archives where they are unknown and unappreciated. Old letters +containing material that bears in any way on the events, customs or life +of the time, should be turned over to the local historical society. If +they contain private matter, seal up the packet and require that it shall +remain sealed for a century, if you wish; but do not burn it. The feeling +that destroys such documents is simply evidence that we are historically +valuing the individual and the family above the community, just as we +still are in so many other fields of thought. I cannot tolerate the idea +that we shall ultimately think only in terms of the common good; the +smaller units, the man, the family must not lose their influence, but the +connection between them and the general welfare must be better understood +and more generally recognized; and this must be done, in the first place, +in all that relates to their historical records and to our historical +consciousness. + +Ancestral feeling should, in this way, always be historical, not +individual. A man is right to be personally proud of his own achievements, +but it is difficult to see how he can properly take the same kind of pride +in that of others, whether related to him by blood or not. But there are +other kinds of legitimate pride--family pride, racial pride, group pride +of all sorts, where the feeling is not personal. If any member of a +family, a profession or any association, has so conducted himself that +credit is gained for the whole body, it is proper that this kind of group +pride should be felt by each member of the body, and in the case of a +family, where the bond is one of blood, the group feeling should be +stronger and the group pride, if it is proper to feel it at all, may be of +peculiar strength, provided it be carefully distinguished from the pride +due to personal achievement. And when the member of the family in whom one +takes pride is an ancestor, this means, as I have said, that feeling +should be historical, not individual. And anything that tends to lift our +interest from the individual to the historical plane--to make us cease +from congratulating ourselves personally on some connection with the good +and great and substitute a feeling of group pride shared in common by some +body to which we all belong, is acting toward this desirable end. The body +may be a family; it may be the community or the state; it may be as broad +as humanity itself, for we may all be proud of the world's greatest. Or it +may be a body like our own, formed to cherish the memories of forebears in +some particular line of endeavor, in some particular place or at some +particular era. Our ancestry is part of our history; so long as our regard +for it is properly interwoven with our historical sense, no one can +properly charge us with laying the foundation for aristocracy. We are +rather making true democracy possible, for such is the case only when the +elements of a community are closely united by ties of blood, interest and +knowledge--by pride in those who have gone before and by determination +that the standard set by these men and women of old shall be worthily +upheld. + + + + +WHAT THE FLAG STANDS FOR[9] + + [9] An address on Flag Day made in St. Peter's Church, St. Louis. + + +The most important things in the world are ideas. We are so familiar with +the things that are the material embodiment of ideas--buildings, roads, +vehicles and machines--that we are prone to forget that without the ideas +that gave them birth all these would be impossible. A house is a mass of +wood, stone and metal, but all these substances, collected in a pile, do +not suffice to make a house. + +A locomotive is made of steel and brass, but although the ancient Romans +had both the metal and the alloy, they had no locomotives. + +The vital thing about the house--the thing that differentiates it from +other masses of the same materials--is the idea--the plan--that was in the +architect's mind while wood and stone and iron were still in forest, +quarry and mine. The vital thing about the locomotive is the builder's +idea or plan, which he derived, in turn, from the inventor. + +The reason why there were no locomotives in ancient Rome is that in those +days the locomotive had not yet been invented, and when we say this we +refer not to the materials, which the Romans had in abundance, but to the +idea or plan of the locomotive. So it is with the whole material world +about us. The things that result, not from man's activities, but from the +operations of nature, are no exceptions; for, if we are Christians, we +believe that the idea or plan of a man, or a horse, or a tree, was in the +mind of the great architect, the great machinist, before the world began, +and that this idea is the important thing about each. + +A man, a house, an engine--these are ideas that lead to things that we can +feel, and see and hear. But there are other ideas that have nothing of the +kind to correspond to them--I mean such ideas as charity, manliness, +religion and patriotism--what sometimes are called abstract qualities. +These are real things and their ideas are even more important than the +others, but we cannot see nor feel them. + +Now, man likes to use his senses, and it is for this reason that he is +fond of using for these abstract ideas, symbols that he can see and feel. +We of St. Louis should appreciate this to the full just now, for we have +just set before the world the greatest assemblage of symbolic images and +acts, portraying our pride in the past and our hope and confidence for the +future, that any city on this earth ever has been privileged to present or +to witness.[10] Whether we were actors or spectators; whether we camped +with the Indians, marched with De Soto or La Salle and felled the forests +of early St. Louis with Laclede and Chouteau, or whether we were part of +that great host on the hillside, we can say no longer that we do not +understand the importance of the idea, or the value and cogency of the +visible symbols that fix it in the memory and grip it to the heart. + + [10] The Pageant and Masque of St. Louis, 1915. + +The Church of Christ always has understood and used this property of the +visible and tangible symbol to enforce the claims of the abstract idea. + +We revere the cross, not because there is anything in its shape or +substance to make us venerate it, but because it is the symbol of the +Christian religion--of all that it has done for the world in the past and +all that it may do in the future. That is why we love and honor the +flag--not because it is a piece of cloth bearing certain figures and +colors, but because it is to us the symbol of all that our country has +meant to our fathers; all it means to us and all that it may mean to our +children, generation after generation. + +A nation's flag did not always mean all this to those who gazed upon it. +In very old times the flag was for the soldier alone and had no more +meaning for the ordinary citizen than a helmet or a spear. When the +soldier saw it uplifted in the thick of the battle he rallied to it. Then +the flag became the personal emblem of a king or a prince, whether in +battle or not; then it was used to mark what belonged to the government of +a country. It is still so used in many parts of Europe, where the display +of a flag on a building marks it as government property, as our flag does +when it is used on a post office or a custom-house. Nowhere but in our own +country is the flag used as the general symbol of patriotic feeling and +displayed alike by soldier and citizen, by Government office and private +dwelling. So it comes about that the stars and stripes means to us all +that his eagles did to the Roman soldier; all that the great Oriflamme did +to the medieval Frenchman; all that the Union Jack now means to the Briton +or the tri-color to the Frenchman--and more, very much more, beside. + +What ideas, then, does the flag stand for? First, it stands for union. It +was conceived in union, it was dipped in blood to preserve union, and for +union it still stands. Its thirteen stripes remind us of that gallant +little strip of united colonies along the Atlantic shore that threw down +the gage of battle to Britain a century and a half ago. Its stars are +symbols of the wider union that now is. Both may be held to signify the +great truth that in singleness of purpose among many there is effective +strength that no one by himself can hope to achieve. Our union of States +was formed in fear of foreign aggression; we have need of it still though +our foes be of our own household. If we are ever to govern our cities +properly, hold the balance evenly betwixt capital and labor, develop our +great natural resources without undue generosity on the one hand or +parsimony on the other--solve the thousand and one problems that rise to +confront us on every hand--we shall never accomplish these things by +struggling singly--one man at a time or even one State at a time, but by +concerted, united effort, the perfect union of which our flag is a symbol, +and which we need to-day even more than we did in 1776 or 1861. + +We stand on the threshold of an effort to alter our city government. +Whether that effort should or should not succeed, every citizen must +decide for himself, with the aid of such intelligence and judgment as it +has pleased God to give him. But if he should decide in its favor, be +certain that his individual vote at the polls will go a very little way +toward bringing his desires to pass. We are governed by majorities, and a +majority is a union of many. He who would win must not only vote, but +work. Our flag, with its assemblages of stripes and stars, is a perpetual +reminder that by the union of the many, and not merely by the rectitude of +the individual, are policies altered and charters changed. + +Again, our flag stands for love. It is a beautiful flag and it stands for +a beautiful land. We all love what is our own, if we are normal men and +women--our families, our city, our country. They are all beautiful to us, +and it is right that they should be. + +I confess that the movement that has for its motto "See America First" has +my hearty sympathy. Not that the Rockies or the Sierras are necessarily +more beautiful than the Alps or the Missouri fairer than the Danube; we +should have no more to do here with comparisons than the man who loves his +children. He does not, before deciding that he will love them, compare +them critically with his neighbors'. If we do not love the Grand Canyon +and the Northern Rockies, the wild Sierras and the more peaceful beauties +of the Alleghenies or the Adirondacks, simply because leaving these all +unseen we prefer the lakes and mountains of foreign lands, we are like a +man who should desert his own children, whom he had never seen, to pass +his time at a moving-picture show, because he believed that he saw there +faces and forms more fair than those of his own little ones. When we sing +in our hymn of "America" + + I love thy rocks and rills + Thy woods and templed hills, + +we should be able to do it from the heart. + +It is indeed fitting that we should love our country, and thrill when we +gaze at the old flag that symbolizes that love. Does this mean that when +our country makes an error we are to shut our eyes to it? Does it require +us to call wrong right and black white? + +There is a sentiment with which you are all familiar, "My country, may she +ever be right; but, right or wrong, my country!" + +Understood aright, these are the noblest and truest of words, but they are +commonly misinterpreted, and they have done much harm. To love and stand +by a friend who has done wrong is a fine thing; but it would be very +different to abet him in his wrong-doing and assure him that he had done +right. We may dearly love a son or a brother who is the worst of sinners, +without joining him in sin or persuading him that he is righteous. + +So we may say, "Our country, right or wrong" without forfeiting the due +exercise of our judgment in deciding whether she is right or wrong, or the +privilege of exerting our utmost power to make her do right. + +If she is fighting for an unrighteous cause, we should not go over to the +enemy, but we should do our best to make her cease and to make amends for +the wrong she has done. + +Another thing for which the flag stands is freedom or liberty. We all are +familiar with the word. It means different things to different persons. +When hampering conditions press hard upon a man, all that he thinks of for +the moment is to be rid of them. Without them he deems that he will be +free. The freedom of which our fathers thought, for which they fought and +which they won, was freedom from government by what had become to them a +foreign power. The freedom that the black man longed for in the sixties +was freedom from slavery. + +To-day men and women living in intolerable industrial conditions are +panting for freedom--the freedom that seems to them just now more +desirable than aught else in the world. All this the flag stands for, but +it stands for much more. Under its folds we are entitled to live our own +lives in the fullest way compatible with the exercise of the same +privilege by others. This includes political freedom, industrial freedom, +social freedom and all the rest. Despite much grumbling and some denials, +I believe that it is all summed up under political freedom, and that we +have it all, though we may not always take advantage of it. The people who +groan under an industrial yoke do so because they do not choose to exert +the power given them by law, under the flag, to throw it off. The +boss-ridden city is boss-ridden only because it is satisfied to be so. The +generation that is throttled by trusts and monopolies may at any time +effect a peaceful revolution. The flag gives us freedom, but even a man's +eternal salvation cannot be forced upon him against his will. + +Another thing for which the flag stands is justice--the "square deal," as +it is called by one of our Presidents. To every man shall come sooner or +later, under its folds, that which he deserves. This means largely "hands +off," and is but one of the aspects of freedom, or liberty, since if we do +not interfere with a man, what happens to him is a consequence of what he +is and what he does. If we oppress him, or interfere with him, he gets +less than he merits; and if, on the contrary we coddle him and give him +privileges, he may get more than his due. + +Give a man opportunity and a free path and he will achieve what is before +him in the measure of his strength. That the American Flag stands for all +this, thousands will testify who have left their native shores to live +under its folds and who have contributed here to the world's progress what +the restraints and injustice of the old world forbade then to give. + +This sense of the removal of bonds, of sudden release and the entry into +free space, is well put by a poet of our own, Henry Van Dyke, when he +sings, + + So it's home again, and home again, America for me! + My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be, + In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars, + Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. + + I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack: + The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back, + But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free-- + We love our land for what she is and what she is to be. + + Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me! + I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling sea, + To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, + Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. + +Finally, the flag stands for the use of physical force where it becomes +necessary. + +This simple statement of facts will grieve many good people, but to omit +it would be false to the truth and dishonorable to the flag that we honor +today. + +Its origin, as we have seen, was in its service as a rallying point in +battle. We are still battling, and we still need it. And at times our +contests still inevitably take the physical form. One may earnestly pray +for peace; one may even pay his dues to the Peace Society and still +realize that to preserve peace we may have to use the sword. + +Northward, across the Canadian border, good men[11] are striving even now +to keep us in peace and to assure peace to a neighbor severely torn by +internal conflict. Can any of us doubt that our good friend and +fellow-citizen--nay, can anyone doubt that our neighbors of the Southern +Continent--are doing their best to save human lives, to preserve our young +men and the young men of Mexico to build and operate machines, to raise +crops and to rebuild and beautify cities, instead of sending them to fill +soldiers' graves, as our bravest and best did in the "sixties?" And yet, +should they succeed, as God grant they may, who can doubt that what will +give strength and effect to their decisions will be the possibility of +force, exerted in a righteous cause, symbolized by the flag? Who can be +sorry that back of the flag there are earnest men; nay, that there are +ships there, and guns? One need not be a Jingo; one can hate war and love +peace with all one's heart and yet rejoice that the flag symbolizes +authority--the ability to back up a decision without which the mind itself +cannot decide in calmness and impartiality. + + [11] United States and "A-B-C" Commissions on the State of Mexico. + +Surely, to say that the flag stands for the exertion of force, is only to +say that it stands for peace; for it is by force only, or by the +possibility of it, that peace is assured and maintained. + +These are a few of the many things for which our flag of the Stars and +Stripes stands. We are right to doff our hats when it passes; we are right +to love it and to reverence it, for in so doing we are reverencing union, +patriotism, liberty and justice. That it shall never become an empty +symbol; that it shall never wave over a land disunited, animated by hate, +shackled by indifference and feebleness, permeated by injustice, unable to +exert that salutary strength which alone can preserve peace without and +within--this is for us to see and for our children and grandchildren. We +must not only exercise that "eternal vigilance" of which the fathers +spoke, but we must be eternally ready, eternally active. The Star-Spangled +Banner! Long may it wave over a land whose sons and daughters are both +free and brave--free because they are brave, and brave because they are +free, and both because they are true children of that eternal father +without whom both freedom and bravery are but empty names. + + + + +THE PEOPLE'S SHARE IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY[12] + + [12] Read before the Chicago Woman's Club. January 6, 1915. + + +The change that has come over the library in the last half century may be +described, briefly but comprehensively, by saying that it has become +predominantly a social institution; that is, that its primary concern is +now with the service that it may render to society--to the people. Books, +of course, were always intended to be read, and a library would have no +meaning were it never to be used; yet in the old libraries the collection +and preservation of the books was primary and their use secondary, whereas +the modern institution exists primarily for public service, the collection +of the books, their preservation, and whatever is done to them being +directed to this end. To a social institution--a family, a school, a club, +a church or a municipality--the persons constituting it, maintaining it, +or served by it are all-important. A family without parents and children, +a school without pupils, a club without members, a church with no +congregation, a city without citizens--all are unthinkable. We may better +realize the change in our conception of the public library by noting that +it has taken its place among bodies of this type. A modern library with no +readers is unthinkable; it is no library, as we now understand the word; +though it be teeming with books, housed in a palace, well cataloged and +properly manned. + +It is no longer possible to question this view of the library as a social +institution--a means of rendering general service to the widest public. We +have to deal not with theories of what the library ought to be, but, with +facts indicating what it actually is; and we have only to look about us to +realize that the facts give the fullest measure of support to what I have +just said. The library is a great distributing agency, the commodities in +which it deals being ideas and its customers the citizens at large, who +pay, through the agency of taxation, for what they receive. This +democratic and civic view of the public library's functions, however, does +not commend itself to those who are not in sympathy with democratic +ideals. In a recent address, a representative librarian refers to it as +"the commercial traveler theory" of the library. The implication, of +course, is that it is an ignoble or unworthy theory. I have no objection +to accepting the phrase, for in my mind it has no such connotation. The +commercial traveler has done the world service which the library should +emulate rather than despise. He is the advance guard of civilization. To +speak but of our own country and of its recent years, he is responsible +for much of our improvement in transit facilities and hotel +accommodations. Personally, he is becoming more and more acceptable. The +best of our educated young men are going into commerce, and in commerce +to-day no one can reach the top of the ladder who has not proved his +efficiency "on the road." Would that we could place men of his type at the +head of all our libraries! + +We need not think, however, that there is anything new in the method of +distribution by personal travel. Homer employed it when he wished his +heroic verse to reach the great body of his countrymen. By personal travel +he took it to the cross-roads--just as the distributor of food and +clothing and labor-saving appliances does to-day; just as we librarians +must do if we are to democratize all literature as Homer democratized a +small part of it. Homer, if you choose to say so, adopted the +"commercial-traveler theory" of literary distribution; but I prefer to say +that the modern public library, in laying stress on the necessity of +distributing its treasures and in adopting the measures that have proved +effective in other fields, is working on the Homeric method. + +Now, without the people to whom he distributed his wares, Homer would have +been dead long ago. He lives because he took his wares to his audience. +And without its public, as we have already said, the public library, too, +would soon pass into oblivion. It must look to the public for the breath +of life, for the very blood in its veins, for its bone and sinew. What, +then, is the part that the community may play in increasing the efficiency +of a public institution like the public library? Such an institution is, +first of all, a medium through which the community does something for +itself. The community employs and supports it, and at the same time is +served by it. To use another homely illustration, which I am sure will not +please those who object to comparing great things with small, this type of +relationship is precisely what we find in domestic service. A cook or a +housemaid has a dual relation to the mistress of the house, who is at the +same time her employer and the person that she directly serves. This sort +of relation does not obtain, for instance, in the case of a railroad +employe, who is responsible to one set of persons and serves another. The +public library is established and maintained by a given community in order +that it may perform certain service for that same community directly. It +seems to me that this dual relationship ought to make for efficiency. If +it does not, it is because its existence and significance are not always +realized. The cook knows that if she does not cook to suit her mistress +she will lose her job--the thing works almost automatically. If the +railroad employe does not serve the public satisfactorily there is no such +immediate reaction, although I do not deny that the public displeasure may +ultimately reach the railroad authorities and through them the employe. In +most public institutions the reaction is necessarily somewhat indirect. +The post office is a public institution, but public opinion must act on it +generally through the channels of Congressional legislation, which takes +time. Owing to this fact, very few postmen, for instance, realize that the +persons to whom they deliver letters are also their employers. In all +libraries the machinery of reaction is not the same. In St. Louis, for +instance, the library receives the proceeds of a tax voted directly by the +people; in New York City it receives an appropriation voted by the Board +of Apportionment, whose members are elected by the people. The St. Louis +Public Library is therefore one step nearer the control of the people than +the New York Public Library. If we could imagine the management of either +library to become so objectionable as to make its abolition desirable, a +petition for a special election could remove public support in St. Louis +very soon. In New York the matter might have to become an issue in a +general election, at which members of a Board of Apportionment should be +elected under pledge to vote against the library's appropriation. +Nevertheless, in both cases there is ultimate popular control. Owing to +this dual relation, the public can promote the efficiency of the library +in two ways--by controlling it properly and by its attitude toward the +service that is rendered. Every member of the public, in fact, is related +to the library somewhat as a railway stockholder, riding on a train, is +related to the company. He is at once boss and beneficiary. Let us see +first what the public can do for its library through its relation of +control. Besides the purse-strings, which we have seen are sometimes held +directly by the public and sometimes by its elected representatives, we +must consider the governing board of the institution--its trustees or +directors. These may be elected by the people or appointed by an elected +officer, such as the mayor, or chosen by an elected body, such as the city +council or the board of education. + +Let us take the purse-strings first. Does your public library get enough +public money to enable it to do the work that it ought to do? What is the +general impression about this in the community? What does the library +board think? What does the librarian think? What do the members of his +staff say? What has the library's annual report to say about it? It is not +at all a difficult matter for the citizen to get information on this +subject and to form his own opinion regarding it. Yet it is an unusual +thing to find a citizen who has either the information or a +well-considered opinion. The general impression always seems to be that +the library has plenty of money--rather more, in fact, than it can +legitimately use. It is probably well for the library, under these +circumstances, that the public control of its purse-strings is indirect. +If the citizens of an average American city had to go to the polls +annually and vote their public library an appropriation, I am sure that +most libraries would have to face a very material reduction of their +income. + +The trouble about this impression is that it is gained without knowledge +of the facts. If a majority of the citizens, understanding how much work a +modern public library is expected to do and how their own library does it, +should deliberately conclude that its management was extravagant, and that +its expenditure should be cut down, the minority would have nothing to do, +as good citizens, but submit. The citizens have nothing to say as directly +as this, but the idea, so generally held, that libraries are well off, +does operate in the long run to limit library appropriations and to +prevent the library from doing much useful work that it might do and ought +to do. + +It is then, every citizen's business, as I conceive it, to inform himself +or herself of the work that the public library is doing, of that which it +is leaving undone, and of the possibilities of increased appropriations. +If the result is a realization that the library appropriation is +inadequate, that realization should take the form of a statement that will +sooner or later reach the ears, and tend to stimulate the action, of those +directly responsible. And it should, above all, aid in the formation of a +sound public opinion. Ours is, we are told, a government of public +opinion. Such government will necessarily be good or bad as public opinion +is based on matured judgment or only on fleeting impressions. + +Inadequacy of support is responsible for more library delinquency than the +average citizen imagines. Many a librarian is deservedly condemned for the +unsatisfactory condition of his institution when his fault is not, as his +detractors think, failure to see what should be done, or lack of ability +to do it, so much as inability to raise funds to do it with. This is +doubtless a fault, and its possessor should suffer, but how about the +equally guilty accessories? How about the city authorities who have failed +to vote the library adequate support? How about the board of trustees who +have accepted such a situation without protest? And what is more to our +purpose here, how about the citizens who have limited their efforts to +pointing out the cracks in the edifice, with not a bit of constructive +work in propping it up and making possible its restoration to strength and +soundness? + +In conversation with a friend, not long ago, I referred to the financial +limitations of our library's work, and said that we could add to it +greatly and render more acceptable service if our income were larger. He +expressed great surprise, and said: "Why, I thought you had all the money +you want; your income must be all of $100,000 a year." Now, our income +actually is about $250,000, but how could I tell him that? I judiciously +changed the subject. + +Let us look next, if you please, at the library board and examine some of +its functions. There appears to be much public misapprehension of the +duties of this body, and such misapprehension assumes various and opposing +forms. Some appear to think that the librarian is responsible for all that +is done in the library and that his board is a perfunctory body. Others +seem to believe that the board is the direct administrative head of the +library, in all of its working details and that the librarian is its +executive in the limited sense of doing only those things that he is told +to do. Unfortunately there are libraries that are operated in each of +these ways, but neither one relationship nor the other, nor any +modification of either, is the ideal one between a librarian and his +board. The board is supreme, of course, but it is a body of non-experts +who have employed an expert to bring about certain results. They ought to +know what they want, and what they have a right to expect, and if their +expert does not give them this, the relation between him and them should +terminate; but if they are men of sense they will not attempt to dictate +methods or supervise details. They are the delegated representatives of +the great public, which owns the library and operates it for a definite +purpose. It is this function of the board as the representative of the +public that should be emphasized here. Has the public a definite idea of +what it wants from the public library, and of what is reasonable for it to +ask? If so, is it satisfied that it is represented by a board that is of +the same mind? The citizens may be assured that the composition of the +library board rests ultimately upon its will. If the board is elective, +this is obvious; if appointive, the appointing officer or body would +hardly dare to go counter to the expressed desire of the citizens. + +What has been said above may be put into a very few words. The public +library is public property, owned and controlled by the citizens. Every +citizen, therefore, should be interested in setting standards for it and +playing his part toward making it conform to them--in seeing that its +governing body represents him in also recognizing those standards and +trying to maintain them--in laboring for such a due apportionment of the +public funds as shall not make an attempt to live up to such standards a +mere farce. + +So much for the things that the citizen can and should do in his capacity +of library boss. His possibilities as a beneficiary are still more +interesting and valuable. + +Perhaps you remember the story of the man who attempted to board the +warship and, on being asked his business, replied, "I'm one of the +owners." One version of the tale then goes on to relate how the sailor +thus addressed picked up a splinter from the deck, and, handing it to the +visitor, remarked: "Well, I guess that's about your share. Take it and get +out!" + +I have always sympathized with the sailor rather than with his visitor. +Most of us librarians have had experiences with these bumptious "owners" +of public property. The fact has already been noted that in a case like +this the citizen is both an owner and a beneficiary. He has duties and +privileges in both capacities, but he sometimes acts the owner in the +wrong place. The man on the warship was doubtless an owner, but at that +particular moment he was only a visitor, subject to whatever rules might +govern visitors; and he should have acted as such. Every citizen is a part +owner of the public library; he should never forget that fact. We have +seen how he may effectively assert his ownership and control. But when he +enters the library to use it his role is that of beneficiary, and he +should act as such. He may so act and at the same time be of the greatest +service to the institution which he, as a member of the public, has +created and is maintaining. + +I know of no way in which a man may show his good citizenship or the +reverse--may either demonstrate his ability and willingness to live and +work in community harness, or show that he is fit for nothing but +individual wild life in the woods--better than in his use of such a public +institution as a library. The man who cannot see that what he gets from +such an institution must necessarily be obtained at the price of +sacrifice--that others in the community are also entitled to their share, +and that sharing always means yielding--that man has not yet learned the +first lesson in the elements of civic virtue. And when one sees a thousand +citizens, each of whom would surely raise his voice in protest if the +library were to waste public money by buying a thousand copies of the +latest novel, yet find fault with the library because each cannot borrow +it before all the others, one is tempted to wonder whether we really have +here a thousand bad citizens or whether their early education in +elementary arithmetic has been neglected. + +Before the present era there were regulations in all institutions that +seemed to be framed merely to exasperate--to put the public in its place +and chasten its spirit. There are now no such rules in good libraries. He +who thinks there are may find that there is a difference of opinion +between him and those whom he has set in charge of the library regarding +what is arbitrary and what is necessary; but at any rate he will discover +that the animating spirit of modern library authority is to give all an +equal share in what it has to offer, and to restrain one man no more than +is necessary to insure to his brother the measure of privilege to which +all are equally entitled. + +Another way in which the citizen, in his capacity of the library's +beneficiary, can aid it and improve its service is his treatment of its +administrators. Librarians are very human: they react quickly and surely +to praise or blame, deserved or undeserved. Blame is what they chiefly +get. Sometimes they deserve it and sometimes not. But the occasions on +which some citizen steps in and says, "Well done, good and faithful +servant," are rare indeed. The public servant has to interpret silence as +praise; so sure is he that the least slip will be caught and condemned by +a vigilant public. No one can object to discriminating criticism; it is a +potent aid to good administration. Mere petulant fault-finding, however, +especially if based on ignorance or misapprehension, does positive harm. +And a little discriminating praise, now and then, is a wonderful +stimulant. No service is possible without the men and women who render it; +and the quality of service depends, more than we often realize, on the +spirit and temper of a staff--something that is powerfully affected, +either for good or for evil, by public action and public response. + +Years ago, at a branch library in a distant city, a reader stood at the +counter and complained loudly because the library would not send her a +postal reserve notice unless she defrayed the cost, which was one cent. +The assistant to whom she was talking had no option in the matter and was +merely enforcing a rule common, so far as I know, to all American public +libraries; but she had to bear the brunt of the reader's displeasure, +which she did meekly, as it was all in the day's work. The time occupied +in this useless business spelled delay to half a dozen other readers, who +were waiting their turn. Finally, one of them, a quiet little old lady in +black, spoke up as follows: "Some of us hereabouts think that we owe a +great debt of gratitude to this library. Its assistants have rendered +service to us that we can never repay. I am glad to have an opportunity to +do something in return, and it therefore gives me pleasure to pay the cent +about which you are taking up this young lady's time, and ours." So +saying, she laid the coin on the desk and the line moved on. I have always +remembered these two points of view as typical of two kinds of library +users. Their respective effects on the temper and work of a library staff +need, I am sure, no explanation. + +In what I have said, which is such a small fraction of what might be said, +that I am almost ashamed to offer it to you, I have in truth only been +playing the variations on one tune, which is--Draw closer to the library, +as it is trying to draw closer to you. There is no such thing, physicists +tell us, as a one-sided force. Every force is but one aspect of a stress, +which includes also an equal and opposing force. Any two interacting +things in this world are either approaching each other or receding from +each other. So it should be with library and public. A forward movement on +the one hand should necessarily involve one to meet it. + +The peculiarity of our modern temper is our hunger for facts--our +confidence that when the facts are known we shall find a way to deal with +them, and that until the facts are known we shall not be able to act--not +even to think. Our ancestors thought and acted sometimes on premises that +seem to us frightfully flimsy--they tried, as Dean Swift painted them in +his immortal satire, to get sunbeams from cucumbers. There are some +sunbeam-chasers among us to-day, but even they recognize the need of real +cucumbers to start with; the imaginary kind will not do. I recently heard +a great teacher of medicine say that the task of the modern physician is +merely to ascertain the facts on which the intelligent public is to act. +How different that sounds from the dicta of the medicine of a past +generation! It is the same everywhere: we are demanding an accurate +survey--an ascertainment of the facts in any field in which action, based +on inference and judgment, is seen to be necessary. Now the library is +nothing more nor less than a storehouse of recorded facts. It is becoming +so more truly and more fully every day, thereby adjusting itself to the +modern temper of which I have already spoken. The library and its users +are coming more closely together, in sympathy, in aims and in action, than +ever before--partly a result and partly a justification for that Homeric +method of popularizing it which has been characterized and condemned as +commercial. The day when the librarian, or the professor, or the clergyman +could retire into his tower and hold aloof from the vulgar herd is past. +The logical result of such an attitude is now being worked out on the +continent of Europe. Not civilizations, as some pessimists are lamenting, +but the forces antagonistic to civilization are there destroying one +another, and there is hope that a purified democracy will arise from the +wreckage. May our American civilization never have to run the gantlet of +such a terrible trial! Meanwhile, there can be no doubt that the hope for +the future efficiency of all our public institutions, including the +library, lies in the success of democracy, and that depends on the +existence and improvement of the conditions in whose absence democracy +necessarily fails. Foremost among these is the homogeneity of the +population. The people among whom democracy succeeds must have similar +standards, ideas, aims and abilities. Democracy may exist in a pack of +wolves, but not in a group that is half wolves and half men. Either the +wolves will kill the men or the men the wolves. This is an extreme case, +but it is true in general that in a community made up of irreconcilable +elements there can be no true democracy. And the same oneness of vision +and purpose that conduces to the success of democracy will also bring to +perfection such great democratic institutions as the library, which have +already borne such noteworthy fruit among us just because we are +homogeneous beyond all other nations on the earth. And here progress is by +action and reaction, as we see it so often in the world. The unity of aims +and abilities that makes democracy and democratic institutions possible is +itself facilitated and increased by the work of those institutions. The +more work the library does, the more its ramifications multiply, and the +further they extend, the more those conditions are favored that make the +continuance of the library possible. In working for others, it is working +for itself, and every additional bit of strength and sanity that it takes +on does but enable it to work for others the more. And if the democracy +whose servant it is will but realize that it has grown up as a part of +that American system to which we are all committed--to which we owe all +that we are and in which we must place all our hopes for the future--then +neither democracy nor library will have aught to fear. Democracy will have +its "true and laudable" service from the library, and the library in its +turn will have adequate sympathy, aid and support from the people. + +It is no accident that I make this appeal for sympathy and aid to a club +composed of women. The bonds between the modern public library and the +modern woman's club have been particularly strong in this country. The two +institutions have grown up together, making their way against suspicion, +contempt and hostility, aided by the same public demand, and now, when +both are recognized as elements in the intellectual strength of our +nation, they are rendering mutual service. The club turns to the library +daily. Hitherto the library has turned to the club only in some +emergency--a bill to be passed, an appropriation to be made, an +administration to be purified. I have tried to show you how, apart from +these great services, which no one would think of minimizing, the women of +this country, as citizens, can uphold the hands of the library daily. Ours +is a government of public opinion, and in the formation of that opinion +there is no more powerful element than the sentiment of our women, +especially when organized in such bodies as yours. + +"To be aristocratic in taste and democratic in service," says Bliss Perry, +"is the privilege and glory of the public library." In appealing thus to +both your aristocracy and your democracy, I feel, then, that I have not +gone astray. + + + + +SOME TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN THOUGHT[13] + + [13] Read before the New York Library Association at Squirrel Inn, + Haines Falls, September 28, 1915. + + +The modern American mind, like modern America, itself, is a melting pot. +We are taking men and women of all races and fusing them into Americans. +In the same way we are taking points of view, ideas, standards and modes +of action from whatever source we find them, combining them and fusing +them into what will one day become American thoughts and standards. We are +thus combining the most varied and opposing things--things that it would +seem impossible to put together. Take our modern American tendency in +government, for instance. Could there be two things more radically +different than despotism and democracy?--the rule of the one and the rule +of the many? And yet I believe that we are taking steps toward a very +successful combination of the two. Such a combination is essentially +ancient. No despotism can hold its own without the consent of the +governed. That consent may be unwilling and sooner or later it is then +withheld, with the result that a revolution takes place and the despot +loses his throne--the oldest form of the recall. Every despotism is thus +tempered by revolution, and Anglo-Saxon communities have been ready to +exercise such a privilege on the slightest sign that a despotic tendency +was creeping into their government. + +It is not remarkable, then, that our own Federal government, which is +essentially a copy of the British government of its day, should have +incorporated this feature of the recall, which in England had just passed +from its revolutionary to its legal stage. It was beginning to be +recognized then that a vote of the people's representatives could recall a +monarch, and the English monarchy is now essentially elective. But to make +assurance doubly sure, the British government, in its later evolution, has +been practically separated from the monarch's person, and any government +may be simply overthrown or "recalled" by a vote of lack of confidence in +the House of Commons, followed, if need be, by a defeat in a general +election. We have not yet adopted this feature. Our President is still the +head of our government, and he and all other elected Federal officers +serve their terms out, no matter whether the people have confidence in +them or not. But the makers of our Constitution improved on the British +government as they found it. They made the term of the executive four +years instead of life and systematized the "recall" by providing for +impeachment proceedings--a plan already recognized in Britain in the case +of certain administrative and judicial officers. + +As it stands at present we have a temporary elective monarch with more +power, even nominally, than most European constitutional monarchs and more +actually than many so-called absolute monarchs such as the Czar or the +Sultan. In case he should abuse the power that we have given him, he may +be removed from office after due trial, by our elected representatives. + +In following out these ideas in later years, we are gradually evolving a +form of government that is both more despotic and more democratic. We are +combining the legislative and executive power in the hands of a few +persons, hampering them very little in their exercise of it, and making it +possible to recall them by direct vote of the body of citizens that +elected them. I think we may describe the tendency of public thought in +governmental matters as a tendency toward a despotism under legalized +democratic control. It may be claimed, I think, that the best features of +despotism and democracy may thus be utilized, with a minimum of the evils +of each. + +It was believed by the ancients, and we frequently see it stated today, +that the ideal government would be government by a perfectly good despot. +This takes the citizens into account only as persons who are governed, and +not as persons who govern or help to govern. It is pleasant, perhaps, to +have plenty of servants to wait upon one, but surely health, physical, +mental and moral, waits on him who does most things for himself. I once +heard Lincoln Steffens say: "What we want is not 'Good Government'; it is +_Self_-Government." But is it not possible to get the advantage of +government by a few, with its possibilities of continuous policy and its +freedom from "crowd-psychology," with its skillful utilization of expert +knowledge, while admitting the public to full knowledge of what is going +on, and full ultimate control of it? We evidently think so, and our present +tendencies are evidence that we are attempting something of the kind. Our +belief seems to be that if we elect our despot and are able to recall him +we shall have to keep tab on him pretty closely, and that the knowledge of +statecraft that will thus be necessary to us will be no less than if we +personally took part in legislation and administration--probably far more +than if we simply went through the form of delegating our responsibilities +and then took no further thought, as most of us have been accustomed to do. + +Whether this is the right view or not--whether it is workable--the future +will show; I am here discussing tendencies, not their ultimate outcome. +But it would be too much to expect that this or any other eclectic policy +should be pleasing to all. + +"The real problem of collectivism," says Walter Lippmann, "is the +difficulty of combining popular control with administrative power.... The +conflict between democracy and centralized authority ... is the line upon +which the problems of collectivism will be fought out." + +In selecting elements from both despotism and democracy we are displeasing +the adherents of both. There is too much despotism in the plan for one +side and too much democracy for the other. We constantly hear the +complaint that concentrated responsibility with popular control is too +despotic, and at the same time the criticism that it is too democratic. To +put your city in the hands of a small commission, perhaps of a city +manager, seems to some to be a return to monarchy; and so perhaps it is. +To give Tom, Dick and Harry the power to unseat these monarchs at will is +said to be dangerously socialistic; and possibly it is. Only it is +possible that by combining these two poisons--this acid and this +alkali--in the same pill, we are neutralizing their harmful qualities. At +any rate this would seem to be the idea on which we are now proceeding. + +We may now examine the effects of this tendency toward eclecticism in +quite a different field--that of morals. Among the settlers of our country +were both Puritans and Cavaliers--representatives in England of two moral +standards that have contended there for centuries and still exist there +side by side. We in America are attempting to mix them with some measure +of success. This was detected by the German lady of whom Mr. Bryce tells +in his "American Commonwealth," who said that American women were +"_furchtbar frei und furchtbar fromm_"--frightfully free and frightfully +pious! In other words they are trying to mix the Cavalier and Puritan +standards. Of course those who do not understand what is going on think +that we are either too free or too pious. We are neither; we are trying to +give and accept freedom in cases where freedom works for moral efficiency +and restraint where restraint is indicated. We have not arrived at a final +standard. We may not do so. This effort at mixture, like all our others, +may fail; but there appears to be no doubt that we are making it. To take +an obvious instance, I believe that we are trying, with some success, to +combine ease of divorce with a greater real regard for the sanctity of +marriage. We have found that if marriage is made absolutely indissoluble, +there will be greater excuse for disregarding the marriage vow than if +there are legal ways of dissolving it. + +Americans are shocked at Europeans when they allude in ordinary +conversation to infractions of the moral code that they treat as trivial. +They on the other hand are shocked when we talk of divorce for what they +consider insufficient causes. In the former case we seem to them +"frightfully pious"; in the latter, "frightfully free." They are right; we +are both; it is only another instance of our tendency towards eclecticism, +this time in moral standards. + +In some directions we find that this tendency to eclecticism is working +toward a combination not of two opposite things, but of a hundred +different ones. Take our art for instance, especially as manifested in our +architecture. A purely native town in Italy, Arabia, or Africa, or Mexico, +has its own atmosphere; no one could mistake one for the other any more +than he could mistake a beaver dam for an ant hill or a bird's nest for a +woodchuck hole. + +But in an American city, especially where we have enough money to let our +architects do their utmost, we find streets where France, England, Italy, +Spain, Holland, Arabia and India all stand elbow to elbow, and the +European visitor knows not whether to laugh or to make a hasty visit to +his nerve-specialist. It seems all right to us, and it _is_ all right from +the standpoint of a nation that is yet in the throes of eclecticism. And +our other art--painting, sculpture, music--it is all similarly mixed. Good +of its kind, often; but we have not yet settled down to the kind that we +like best--the kind in which we are best fitted to do something that will +live through the ages. + +We used to think for instance that in music the ordinary diatonic major +scale, with its variant minor, was a fact of nature. We knew vaguely that +the ancient Greeks had other scales, and we knew also that the Chinese and +the Arabs had scales so different that their music was generally +displeasing to us. But we explained this by saying that our scale was +natural and right and that the others were antiquated, barbaric and wrong. +Now we are opening our arms to the exotic scales and devising a few of our +own. We have the tonal and the semi-tonal scales and we are trying to make +use of the Chinese, Arabic and Hindu modes. We are producing results that +sound very odd to ears that are attuned to the old-fashioned music, but +our eclecticism here as elsewhere is cracking the shell of prejudice and +will doubtless lead to some good end, though perhaps we can not see it +yet. + +How about education? In the first place there are, as I read the history +of education, two main methods of training youth--the individual method +and the class method. No two boys or girls are alike; no two have like +reactions to the same stimulus. Each ought to have a separate teacher, for +the methods to be employed must be adapted especially to the material on +which we have to work. This means a separate tutor for every child. + +On the other hand, the training that we give must be social--must prepare +for life with and among one's fellow beings, otherwise it is worthless. +This means training in class, with and among other students, where each +mind responds not to the teacher's alone but to those of its fellow +pupils. + +Here are two irreconcilable requirements. In our modern systems of +education we are trying to respond to them as best we may, teaching in +class and at the same time giving each pupil as much personal attention as +we can. The tutorial system, now employed in Princeton University, is an +interesting example of our efforts as applied to the higher education. + +At the same time, eclecticism in our choice of subjects is very manifest, +and at times our success here seems as doubtful as our mixture of +architectural styles. In the old college days, not so very long ago, +Latin, Greek, and mathematics made up the curriculum. Now our boys choose +from a thousand subjects grouped in a hundred courses. In our common +schools we have introduced so many new subjects as to crowd the +curriculum. Signs of a reaction are evident. I am alluding to the matter +here only as another example of our modern passion for wide selection and +for the combination of things that apparently defy amalgamation. + +What of religion? Prof. George E. Woodberry, in his interesting book on +North Africa, says in substance that there are only two kinds of religion, +the simple and the complex. Mohammedanism he considers a simple religion, +like New England Puritanism, with which he thinks it has points in common. +Both are very different from Buddhism, for instance. Accepting for the +moment his classification I believe that the facts show an effort to +combine the two types in the United States. Many of the Christian +denominations that Woodberry would class as "simple"--those that began +with a total absence of ritual, are becoming ritualized. Creeds once +simple are becoming complicated with interpretation and comment. On the +other hand we may see in the Roman Catholic Church and among the so-called +"High Church" Episcopalians a disposition to adopt some of the methods +that have hitherto distinguished other religious bodies. Consider, for +example, some of the religious meetings held by the Paulist Fathers in New +York, characterized by popular addresses and the singing of simple hymns. +As another example of the eclectic spirit of churches in America we may +point to the various efforts at combination or unity, with such results as +the Federation of the Churches of Christ in America--an ambitious name, +not yet justified by the facts--the proposed amalgamation of several of +the most powerful Protestant bodies in Canada, and the accomplished fact +of the University of Toronto--an institution whose constituent colleges +are controlled by different religious denominations, including the Roman +Catholic Church. I may also mention the present organization of the New +York Public Library, many of whose branch libraries were contributions +from religious denominations, including the Jews, the Catholics and the +Episcopalians. All these now work together harmoniously. I know of nothing +of this kind on any other continent, and I think we shall be justified in +crediting it to the present American tendency to eclecticism. + +Turn for a moment to philosophy. What is the philosophical system most +widely known at present as American? Doubtless the pragmatism of William +James. No one ever agreed with anyone else in a statement regarding +philosophy, and I do not expect you to agree with me in this; but +pragmatism seems to me essentially an eclectic system. It is based on the +character of results. Is something true or false? I will tell you when I +find out whether it works practically or not. Is something right or wrong? +I rely on the same test. Now it seems to me that this is the scheme of the +peasant in later Rome, who was perfectly willing to appeal to Roman Juno +or Egyptian Isis or Phoenician Moloch, so long as he got what he wanted. +If a little bit of Schopenhauer works, and some of Fichte; a piece of +Christianity and a part of Vedantism, it is all grist to the mill of +pragmatism. Any of it that works must of necessity be right and true. I am +not criticizing this, or trying to controvert it; I am merely asserting +that it leads to eclecticism; and this, I believe, explains its vogue in +the United States. + +It would be impossible to give, in the compass of a brief address, a list +of all the domains in which this eclecticism--this tendency to select, +combine and blend--has cropped out among us Americans of today. I have +reserved for the last that in which we are particularly interested--the +Public Library, in which we may see it exemplified in an eminent degree. +The public library in America has blossomed out into a different thing, a +wider thing, a combination of more different kinds of things, than in any +other part of the world. Foreign librarians and foreign library users look +at us askance. They wonder at the things we are trying to combine under +the activities of one public institution; they shudder at our +extravagance. They wonder that our tax-payers do not rebel when they are +compelled to foot the bills for what we do. But the taxpayers do not seem +to mind. They frequently complain, but not about what we are doing. What +bothers them is that we do not try to do more. When we began timidly to +add branch libraries to our system they asked us why we did not build and +equip them faster; when we placed a few books on open shelves they +demanded that we treat our whole stock in the same way; when we set aside +a corner for the children they forced us to fit up a whole room and to +place such a room in every building, large or small. We have responded to +every such demand. Each response has cost money and the public has paid +the bill. Apparently librarians and public are equally satisfied. We +should not be astonished, for this merely shows that the library is +subject to the same laws and tendencies as all other things American. + +Hence it comes about that whereas in a large library a century ago there +were simply stored books with no appliances to do anything but keep them +safe, we now find in library buildings all sorts of devices to facilitate +the quick and efficient use of the books both in the building and in the +readers' homes, together with other devices to stimulate a desire to use +books among those who have not yet felt it; to train children to use and +love books; to interest the public in things that will lead to the use of +books. This means that many of the things in a modern library seem to an +old-fashioned librarian and an old-fashioned reader like unwarranted +extensions or even usurpations. In our own Central building you will find +collections of postal cards and specimens of textile fabrics, an index to +current lectures, exhibitions and concerts, a public writing-room, with +free note-paper and envelopes, a class of young women studying to be +librarians, meeting places for all sorts of clubs and groups, civic, +educational, social, political and religious; a bindery in full operation, +a photographic copying-machine; lunch-rooms and rest-rooms for the staff; +a garage, with an automobile in it, a telephone switchboard, a paintshop, +a carpenter-shop, and a power-plant of considerable capacity. Not one of +these things I believe, would you have found in a large library fifty +years ago. And yet the citizens of St. Louis seem to be cheerful and are +not worrying over the future. We are eclectic, but we are choosing the +elements of our blend with some discretion and we have been able, so far, +to relate them all to books, to the mental activities that are stimulated +by books and that produce more books, to the training that instils into +the rising generation a love for books. The book is still at the +foundation of the library, even if its walls have received some +architectural embellishment of a different type. + +When anyone objects to the introduction into the library of what the +colleges call "extra-curriculum activities," I prefer to explain and +justify it in this larger way, rather than to take up each activity by +itself and discuss its reasonableness--though this also may be undertaken +with the hope of success. In developing as it has done, the Library in the +United States of America has not been simply obeying some law of its own +being; it has been following the whole stream of American development. You +can call it a drift if you like; but the Library has not been simply +drifting. The swimmer in a rapid stream may give up all effort and submit +to be borne along by the current, or he may try to get somewhere. In so +doing, he may battle with the current and achieve nothing but fatigue, or +he may use the force of the stream, as far as he may, to reach his own +goal. I like to think that this is what many American institutions are +doing, our libraries among them. They are using the present tendency to +eclecticism in an effort toward wider public service. When, in a +community, there seems to be a need for doing some particular thing, the +library, if it has the equipment and the means, is doing that thing +without inquiring too closely whether there is logical justification for +linking it with the library's activities rather than with some others. +Note, now, how this desirable result is aided by our prevailing American +tendency toward eclecticism. Suppose precisely the same conditions to +obtain in England, or France, or Italy, the admitted need for some +activity, the ability of the library and the inability of any other +institution, to undertake it. I submit that the library would be extremely +unlikely to move in the matter, simply from the lack of the tendency that +we are discussing. That tendency gives a flexibility, almost a fluidity, +which under a pressure of this kind, yields and ensures an outlet for +desirable energy along a line of least resistance. + +The Englishman and the American, when they are arguing a case of this +kind, assume each the condition of affairs that obtains in his own +land--the rigidity on the one hand, the fluidity on the other. They assume +it without stating it or even thoroughly understanding it, and the result +is that neither can understand the conclusions of the other. The fact is +that they are both right. I seriously question whether it would be right +or proper for a library in a British community to do many of the things +that libraries are doing in American communities. I may go further and say +that the rigidity of British social life would make it impossible for the +library to achieve these things. But it is also true that the fluidity of +American social life makes it equally impossible for the library to +withstand the pressure that is brought to bear on it here. To yield is in +its case right and proper and a failure of response would be wrong and +improper. + +It is usually assumed by the British critic of American libraries that +their peculiarities are due to the temperament of the American librarian. +We make a similar assumption when we discuss British libraries. I do not +deny that the librarians on both sides have had something to do with it, +but the determining factor has been the social and temperamental +differences between the two peoples. Americans are fluid, experimental, +eclectic, and this finds expression in the character of their institutions +and in the way these are administered and used. + +Take if you please the reaction of the library on the two sides of the +water to the inevitable result of opening it to home-circulation--the +necessity of knowing whether a given book is or is not on the shelves. The +American response was to open the shelves, the British, to create an +additional piece of machinery--the indicator. These two results might have +been predicted in advance by one familiar with the temper of the two +peoples. It has shown itself in scores of instances, in the front yards of +residences, for instance--walled off in England and open to the street in +the United States. + +I shall be reminded, I suppose, that there are plenty of open shelves in +English libraries and that the open shelf is gaining in favor. True; +England is becoming "Americanized" in more respects than this one. But I +am speaking of the immediate reaction to the stimulus of popular demand, +and this was as I have stated it. In each case the reaction, temporarily +at least, satisfied the demand; showing that the difference was not of +administrative habit alone, but of community feeling. + +This rapid review of modern American tendencies, however confusing the +impression that it may give, will at any rate convince us, I think, of one +thing--the absurdity of objecting to anything whatever on the ground that +it is un-American. We are the most receptive people in the world. We "take +our good things where we find them," and what we take becomes "American" +as soon as it gets into our hands. And yet, if anything new does not +happen to suit any of us, the favorite method of attack is to denounce it +as "un-American." Pretty nearly every element of our present social fabric +has been thus denounced, at one time or another, and as it goes on +changing, every change is similarly attacked. + +The makers of our Constitution were good conservative Americans--much too +conservative, some of our modern radicals say--yet they provided for +altering that Constitution, and set absolutely no limits on the +alterations that might be made, provided that they were made in the manner +specified in the instrument. We can make over our government into a +monarchy tomorrow, if we want, or decree that no one in Chicago shall wear +a silk hat on New Year's Day. It was recently the fashion to complain that +the amendment of the Constitution has become so difficult as to be now +practically a dead letter. And yet we have done so radical a thing as to +change absolutely the method of electing senators of the United States; +and we did it as easily and quietly as buying a hat--vastly more easily +than changing a cook. The only obstacle to changing our Constitution, no +matter how radically and fundamentally, is the opposition of the people +themselves. As soon as they want the change, it comes quickly and simply. +Changes like these are not un-American if the American people like them +well enough to make them. They, and they alone, are the judges of what +peculiarities they shall adopt as their own customs and characteristics. +So that when we hear that this or that is un-American, we may agree only +in so far as it is not yet an American characteristic. That we do not care +for it today is no sign that we may not take up with it tomorrow, and it +is no legitimate argument against our doing so, if we think proper. + +And now what does this all mean? The pessimist will tell us, doubtless, +that it is a sign of decadence. It does remind us a little of the later +days of the Roman empire when the peoples of the remotest parts of the +known world, with their arts, customs and manners, were all to be found in +the imperial city--when the gods of Greece, Syria and Egypt were +worshipped side by side with those of old Rome, where all sorts of exotic +art, philosophy, literature and politics took root and flourished. That is +usually regarded as a period of decadence, and it was certainly a +precursor of the empire's fall. When we consider that it was +contemporaneous with great material prosperity and with the spread of +luxury and a certain loosening of the moral fiber, such as we are +experiencing in America today, we can not help feeling a little perturbed. +Yet there is another way of looking at it. A period of this sort is often +only a period of readjustment. The Roman empire as a political entity went +out of existence long ago, but Rome's influence on our art, law, +literature and government is still powerful. Her so-called "fall" was +really not a fall but a changing into something else. In fact, if we take +Bergson's view-point--which it seems to me is undoubtedly the true one, +the thing we call Rome was never anything else but a process of change. At +the time of which we speak the visible part of the change was +accelerated--that is all. In like manner each one of you as an individual +is not a fixed entity. You are changing every instant and the reality +about you is the change, not what you see with the eye or photograph with +the camera--that is merely a stage through which you pass and in which you +do not stay--not for the thousand millionth part of the smallest +recognizable instant. So our current American life and thought is not +something that stands still long enough for us to describe it. Even as we +write the description it has changed to another phase. And the phenomena +of transition just now are particularly noticeable--that is all. We may +call them decadent or we may look upon them as the beginnings of a new and +more glorious national life. + +"The size and intricacy which we have to deal with," says Walter Lippmann, +"have done more than anything else, I imagine, to wreck the simple +generalizations of our ancestors." + +This is quite true, and so, in place of simplicity we are introducing +complexity, very largely by selection and combination of simple elements +evolved in former times to fit earlier conditions. Whether organic +relations can be established among these elements, so that there shall one +day issue from the welter something well-rounded, something American, +fitting American conditions and leading American aspirations forward and +upward, is yet on the knees of the gods. We, the men and women of America, +and may I not say, we, the Librarians of America, can do much to direct +the issue. + + + + +DRUGS AND THE MAN[14] + + [14] A Commencement address to the graduating class of the School + of Pharmacy, St. Louis, May 19, 1915. + + +The graduation of a class of technically trained persons is an event of +special moment. When we send forth graduates from our schools and colleges +devoted to general education, while the thought of failure may be +disquieting or embarrassing, we know that no special danger can result, +except to the man who has failed. The college graduate who has neglected +his opportunities has thrown away a chance, but he is no menace to his +fellows. Affairs take on a different complexion in the technical or +professional school. The poorly trained engineer, physician or lawyer, is +an injury to the community. Failure to train an engineer may involve the +future failure of a structure, with the loss of many lives. Failure to +train a doctor means that we turn loose on the public one who will kill +oftener than he will cure. Failure to train a lawyer means wills that can +be broken, contracts that will not hold, needless litigation. + +Congressman Kent, of California, has coined a satisfactory word for this +sort of thing--he calls it "mal-employment." Unemployment is a bad thing. +We have seen plenty of it here during the past winter. But Kent says, and +he is right, that malemployment is a worse thing. All these poor engineers +and doctors and lawyers are busily engaged, and every thing on the surface +seems to be going on well. But as a matter of fact, the world would be +better off if each one of them should stop working and never do another +stroke. It would pay the community to support them in idleness. + +I have always considered pharmacy to be one of the occupations in which +malemployment is particularly objectionable. If you read Homer badly it +affects no one but yourself. If you think Vera Cruz is in Italy and that +the Amazon River runs into the Arctic Ocean, your neighbor is as well off +as before; but if you are under the impression that strychnine is aspirin, +you have failed in a way that is more than personal. + +I am dwelling on these unpleasant possibilities partly for the reason that +the Egyptians displayed a skeleton at their banquets--because warnings are +a tonic to the soul--but also because, if we are to credit much that we +see in general literature, including especially the daily paper and the +popular magazine, _all_ druggists are malemployed. And if it would really +be better for the community that you should not enter upon the profession +for which you have been trained, now, of course, is the time for you to +know it. + +There seems to be a widespread impression--an assumption--that the day of +the drug is over--that the therapeutics of the future are to be concerned +along with hygiene and sanitation, with physical exercise, diet, and +mechanical operations. The very word "drug" has come to have an +objectionable connection that did not belong to it fifty years ago. Even +some of the druggists themselves, it seems to me, are a little ashamed of +the drug part of their occupation. Their places of business appear to be +news-agencies, refreshment parlors, stationery stores--the drugs are "on +the side," or rather in the rear. Sometimes, I am told, the proprietors of +these places know nothing at all about pharmacy, but employ a prescription +clerk who is a capable pharmacist. Here the druggist has stepped down from +his former position as the manager of a business and has become a servant. +All of which looks to me as if the pharmacist himself might be beginning +to accept the valuation that some people are putting upon his services to +the community. + +Now these things affect me, not as a physician nor as a pharmacist, for I +am neither, but they do touch me as a student of physics and chemistry and +as one whose business and pleasure it has been for many years to watch the +development of these and other sciences. The fact that I am addressing you +this evening may be taken, I suppose, as evidence that you may be +interested in this point of view. The action of most substances on the +human organism is a function of their chemical constitution. Has that +chemical constitution changed? It is one of the most astonishing +discoveries of our age that many, perhaps all, substances undergo +spontaneous disintegration, giving rise to the phenomena now well known as +"radio-activity." No substances ordinarily known and used in pharmacy, +however, possess this quality in measurable degree, and we have no reason +to suppose that the alkaloids, for instance, or the salts of potash or +iron, differ today in any respect from those of a century ago. How about +the other factor in the reaction--the human organism and its properties? +That our bodily properties have changed in the past admits of no doubt. We +have developed up to the point where we are at present. Here, however, +evolution seems to have left us, and it is now devoting its attention +exclusively to our mental and moral progress. Judging from what is now +going on upon the continent of Europe, much remains to be accomplished. +But there is no reason to believe that if Caesar or Hannibal had taken a +dose of opium, or ipecac, or aspirin, the effect would have been different +from that experienced today by one of you. This is what a physicist or a +chemist would expect. If the action of a drug on the organism is chemical, +and if neither the drug nor the organism has changed, the action must be +the same. If we still desire to bring about the action and if there is no +better way to do it, we must use the drug, and there is still need for the +druggist. As a matter of fact, the number of drugs at your disposal today +is vastly greater than ever before, largely owing to the labor, and the +ingenuity, of the analytical chemist. And there are still great classes of +compounds of whose existence the chemist is assured, but which he has not +even had time to form, much less to investigate. Among these may lurk +remedies more valuable than any at our disposal today. It does not look, +at any rate, as if the druggist were going to be driven out of business +from lack of stock, whether we regard quantity or variety. To what, then, +must we attribute the growth of the feeling that the treatment of disease +by the administration of drugs is on the decline? From the standpoint of a +layman it seems to be due to two facts, or at least to have been strongly +affected by them: (1) The discovery and rapid development of other +therapeutic measures, such as those dependent on surgical methods, or on +the use of immunizing serums, or on manipulations such as massage, or on +diet, or even on mental suggestion; and (2) the very increase in the +number and variety of available drugs alluded to above, which has +introduced to the public many new and only partially tried substances, the +results of whose use has often been unexpectedly injurious, including a +considerable number of new habit-forming drugs whose ravages are becoming +known to the public. + +The development of therapeutic measures that are independent of drugs has +been coincident with popular emancipation from the mere superstition of +drug-administration. The older lists of approved remedies were loaded with +items that had no curative properties at all, except by suggestion. They +were purely magical--the thumb-nails of executed criminals, the hair of +black cats, the ashes of burned toads and so on. Even at this moment your +pharmacopoeia contains scores of remedies that are without effect or that +do not produce the effects credited to them. I am relying on high +therapeutical authority for this statement. Now when the sick man is told +by his own physician to discard angleworm poultices, and herbs plucked in +the dark of the moon, on which he had formerly relied, it is any wonder +that he has ended by being suspicious also of calomel and ipecac, with +which they were formerly classed? And when the man who believed that he +received benefit from some of these magical remedies is told that the +result was due to auto-suggestion, is it remarkable that he should fall an +easy prey next day to the Christian Scientist who tells him that the +effects of calomel and ipecac are due to nothing else than this same +suggestion? The increased use and undoubted value of special diets, +serums, aseptic surgery, baths, massage, electrical treatment, +radio-therapeutics, and so on, makes it easy for him to discard drugs +altogether, and further, it creates, even among those who continue to use +drugs, an atmosphere favorable to the belief that they are back numbers, +on the road to disuse. Just here comes in the second factor to persuade +the layman, from what has come under his own observation, that drugs are +injurious, dangerous, even fatal. Newly discovered chemical compounds with +valuable properties, have been adopted and used in medicine before the +necessary time had elapsed to disclose the fact that they possessed also +other properties, more elusive than the first, but as potent for harm as +these were for good. Many were narcotics or valuable anesthetics, local or +otherwise, which have proved to be the creators of habits more terrible +than the age-long enemies of mankind, alcohol and opium. When the man +whose wife takes a coal-tar derivative for headache finds that it stills +her heart forever, the incident affects his whole opinion of drugs. When +the patient for whom one of the new drugs has been prescribed by a +practitioner without knowledge of his idiosyncrasies reacts to it fatally, +it is slight consolation to his survivors that his case is described in +print under the heading, "A Curious Case of Umptiol Poisoning." When a +mother sees her son go to the bad by taking cocaine, or heroin, or some +other drug of whose existence she was ignorant a dozen years ago, she may +be pardoned for believing that all drugs, or at least all newly discovered +drugs, are tools of the devil. + +And this feeling is intensified by one of our national faults--the +tendency to jump at conclusions, to overdo things, to run from one evil to +its opposite, without stopping at the harmless mean. We think we are +brighter and quicker than the Englishman or the German. They think we are +more superficial. Whatever name you give the quality it causes us to +"catch on" sooner, to work a good thing to death more thoroughly and to +drop it more quickly for something else, than any other known people, +ancient or modern. Somebody devises a new form of skate roller that makes +roller-skating a good sport. We find it out before anyone else and in a +few months the land is plastered from Maine to California with huge +skating halls or sheds. Everybody is skating at once and the roar of the +rollers resounds across the oceans. We skate ourselves out in a year or +two, and then the roar ceases, the sheds decay and roller-skating is once +more a normal amusement. Then someone invents the safety bicycle, and in a +trice all America, man, woman and child, is awheel. And we run this good +horse to death, and throw his body aside in our haste to discover +something new. Shortly afterward someone invents a new dance, or imports +it from Spanish America, and there is hardly time to snap one's finger +before we are all dancing, grandparents and children, the cook in the +kitchen and the street-cleaner on the boulevard. + +We display as little moderation in our therapeutics. We can not get over +the idea that a remedy of proved value in a particular case may be good +for all others. Our proprietary medicines will cure everything from +tuberculosis to cancer. If massage has relieved rheumatism, why should it +not be good also for typhoid? The Tumtum Springs did my uncle's gout so +much good; why doesn't your cousin try them for her headaches? And even +so, drugs must be all good or bad. Many of us remember the old household +remedies, tonics or laxatives or what not, with which the children were +all dosed at intervals, whether they were ill or not. That was in the days +when all drugs were good: when one "took something" internally for +everything that happened to him. Now the pendulum has swung to the other +side--that is all. If we can ever settle down to the rational way of +regarding these things, we shall discover, what sensible medical men have +always known, and what druggists as well as mere laymen can not afford to +neglect, that there is no such thing as a panacea, and that all rational +therapeutics is based on common sense study of the disease--finding out +what is the cause and endeavoring to abate that cause. The cause may be +such that surgery is indicated, or serum, or regulation of diet, or change +of scene. It may obviously indicate the administration of a drug. I once +heard a clever lawyer in a poisoning case, in an endeavor to discredit a +physician, whom we shall call Dr. Jones, tell the following anecdote: (Dr. +Jones, who had been called in when the victim was about to expire, had +recommended the application of ice). Said the lawyer: + +"A workman was tamping a charge of blasting-powder with a crowbar, when +the charge went off prematurely and the bar was driven through the +unfortunate man's body, so that part of it protruded on either side: A +local physician was summoned, and after some study he pronounced as +follows: 'Now, if I let that bar stay there, you'll die. If I pull it out, +you'll die. But I'll give you a pill that may melt it where it is!' In +this emergency," the lawyer went on to say, "Dr. Jones doubtless would +have prescribed _ice_." + +Now the pill to melt the crowbar may stand for our former excessive and +absurd regard for drugs. The application of ice in the same emergency may +likewise represent a universal resort to hydrotherapy. Neither of them is +logical. There is place for each, but there are emergencies that can not +be met with either. Still, to abandon one method of treatment simply +because additional methods have proved to be valuable, would be as absurd +as to give up talking upon the invention of writing or to prohibit the +raising of corn on land that will produce wheat. + +No: we shall doubtless continue to use drugs and we shall continue to need +the druggist. What can he do to make his business more valued and +respected, more useful to the public and more profitable to himself? For +there can be no doubt that he will finally succeed in attaining all these +desirable results together, or fail in all. Here and there we may find a +man who is making a fortune out of public credulity and ignorance, or, on +the other hand, one who is giving the public more service than it pays for +and ruining himself in the process; but in general and on the average +personal and public interest run pretty well hand in hand. Henry Ford +makes his millions because he is producing something that the people want. +St. Jacob's Oil, once the most widely advertised nostrum on the continent, +cost its promoters a fortune because there was nothing in it that one +might not find in some other oil or grease. + +What then, I repeat, must the pharmacist do to succeed, personally and +professionally? I welcome this opportunity to tell you what I think. My +advice comes from the outside--often the most valuable source. I have so +little to do with pharmacy, either as a profession or as a business that I +stand far enough away to get a bird's-eye view. And if you think that any +advice, based on this view, is worthless, it will be a consolation to all +of us to realize that no force on earth can compel you to take it. + +It is doubtless too late to lament or try to resist the course of business +that has gone far to turn the pharmacy into a department store. But let me +urge you not to let this tendency run wild. There are side-lines that +belong properly to pharmacy, such as all those pertaining to hygiene or +sanitation; to the toilet, to bodily refreshment. I do not see why one +should not expect to find at his pharmacist's, soap, or tooth-brushes, or +sponges. I do not see why the thirsty man should not go there for mineral +water as well as the dyspeptic for pills. But I fail to see the connection +between pharmacy and magazines, or stationery or candy. By selling these +the druggist puts himself at once into competition with the department +stores. There can be no doubt about who will win out in any such +competition as that. But I believe there is still a place in the community +for any special line of business if its proprietor sticks to his specialty +and makes himself a recognized expert in it. The department store spreads +itself too thin--there is no room for intensive development at any point +of its vast expanse. Its general success is due to this very fact. I am +not now speaking of the rural community where there is room only for one +general store selling everything that the community needs. But my +statement holds good for the city and the large town. + +Let me illustrate by an instance in which we librarians are professionally +interested--the book store. Once every town had its book-store. Now they +are rare. We have few such stores even in a city of the size of St. Louis. +Every department store has its book-section. They are rarely satisfactory. +Everybody is lamenting the disappearance of the old book-store, with its +old scholarly proprietor who knew books and the book-market; who loved +books and the book-business. Quarts of ink have been wasted in trying to +account for his disappearance. The Public Library, for one thing, has been +blamed for it. I have no time now to disprove this, though it is very +clear to me that libraries help the book trade instead of hindering it. I +shall simply give you my version of the trouble. The book-dealer +disappeared, as soon as he entered into competition with the department +store. He put in side lines of toys, and art supplies, and cameras and +candy. He began to spread himself thin and had no time for expert +concentration on his one specialty. Thus he lost his one advantage over +the department store--his strength in the region where it was weak; and of +course he succumbed. If you will think for a moment of the special +businesses that have survived the competition of the department store, you +will see that they are precisely the ones that have resisted this +temptation to spread themselves and have been content to remain experts. +Look at the men's furnishing stores. Would they have survived if they had +begun to sell cigars and lawn-mowers? Look at the retail shoe stores, the +opticians, the cigar stores, the bakers, the meat markets, the +confectioners, the restaurants of all grades! They have all to compete +with the department stores, but their customers realize that they have +something to offer that can be offered by no department store--expert +service in one line, due to some one's life-long training, experience and +devotion to the public. + +I do not want the pharmacist to go the way of the book dealers. Already +some of the department stores include drug departments. I do not see how +these can be as good as independent pharmacies. But I do not see the +essential difference between a drug department in a store that sells also +cigars and stationery and confectionery, and a so-called independent +pharmacy that also distributes these very things. + +I am assuming that the druggist is an expert. That is the object of our +colleges of pharmacy, as I understand the matter. As a librarian I want to +deal with a book man who knows more of the book business than I do. I want +to ask his advice and be able to rely on it. When I have printing to be +done, I like to give it to a man who knows more about the printed page +than I do. When I buy bread, or shoes, or a house, or a farm I like to +deal with recognized experts in these articles. How much more when I am +purchasing substances where expert knowledge will turn the balance between +life and death. I have gossiped with pharmacists enough to know that all +physicians do not avoid incompatibles in their prescriptions, and that +occasionally a combination falls into the prescription clerk's hands, +which, if made up as he reads it would produce a poisonous compound, or +perhaps even an explosive mixture. Two heads are better than one, and if +my physician ever makes a mistake of this kind I look to my pharmacist to +see that it shall not reach the practical stage. + +I recognize the great value and service of the department store, but I do +not go there for my law or medicine; neither do I care to resort thither +for my pharmacy. I want our separate drug stores to persist, and I want +them to remain in charge of experts. + +And when the store deals in other things than purely therapeutic +preparations--which I have already said I think probably unavoidable,--I +want it to present the aspect of a pharmacy that deals also in toilet +preparations and mineral water, not of an establishment for dispensing +soda-water and soap, where one may have a prescription filled on the side, +in an emergency. And when the emergency does arise, I should have the +pharmacy respond to it. It is the place where we naturally look in an +emergency--the spot to which the victim of an accident is carried +directly--the one where the lady bends her steps when she feels that she +is going to faint. In hundreds of cases the drug store is our only +standby, and it should be the druggist's business to see that it never +fails us. There are pharmacies where a telephone message brings an +unfailing response; there are others to which one would as soon think of +sending an inquiry regarding a Biblical quotation. To which type, do you +think, will the public prefer to resort? + +Then there are those little courtesies that no retail business is obliged +to offer, but that the public has been accustomed to expect from the +druggist--the cashing of checks, the changing of bills, the furnishing of +postage stamps, the consultation of the city directory. There can be no +reason for resorting to a drug store for all these favors except that the +pharmacist has an enviable reputation as the man who is most likely to +grant them. And yet I begin to hear druggists complaining of the results +of this reputation, of which they ought to be proud; I see them pointing +out that there is no profit on postage stamps and no commission for +changing a bill. They intimate, further, that although it may be proper +for them to put themselves out for regular customers, it is absurd for +strangers to ask for these courtesies. I marvel when I hear these +sentiments. If this popular impression regarding the courtesy of the +druggist did not exist, it would be worth the expenditure of vast sums and +the labor of a lifetime to create it. To deliberately undo it would be as +foolish as to lock the door in the face of customers. + +I do not believe that in St. Louis the pharmaceutical profession is +generally averse to a reputation for generous public service, and I base +my belief on some degree of personal knowledge. The St. Louis Public +Library operates about sixty delivery stations in various parts of the +city. These stations are all in drug stores. The work connected with them, +though light, is by no means inconsiderable, and yet not one of the +druggists who undertake it charges the library a cent for his space or his +services. Doubtless they expect a return from the increased attractiveness +of their places to the public. I hope that they get it and I believe that +they do. At any rate we have evidence here of the pharmacist's belief that +the bread of public service, cast upon the waters, will sooner or later +return. + +You will notice that I am saying nothing about advertising. One would +think from the pharmaceutical papers, with which I am not unfamiliar, that +the druggist's chief end was to have a sensational show window of some +kind. These things are not unimportant, but I do not dwell on them because +I believe that if a druggist realizes the importance of his profession; if +he makes himself a recognized expert in it; if he sticks to it and +magnifies it; if he makes his place indispensable to the community around +him, the first point to which the citizens resort for help in an +emergency, an unfailing center of courtesy and favor--he may fill his +window with toilet soap, or monkeys, or with nothing at all--there will +still be a trodden path up to his door. + +Gentlemen, you have chosen as your life work a profession that I believe +to be indispensable to human welfare--one of enviable tradition and honor +and with standing and reputation in the community that set it apart, in +some degree from all others. And while I would not have you neglect the +material success that it may bring you, I would urge you to expect this as +a result rather than strive for it as an immediate end. I would have you +labor to maintain and develop the special knowledge that you have gained +in this institution, to hold up the standard of courtesy and helpfulness +under which you can best do public service, confident that if you do these +things, business standing and financial success will also be added unto +you. + + + + +HOW THE COMMUNITY EDUCATES ITSELF[15] + + [15] Read before the American Library Association, Asbury Park, + N.J., June 27, 1916. + + +In endeavoring to distinguish between self-education and education by +others, one meets with considerable difficulty. If a boy reads Mill's +"Political Economy'" he is surely educating himself; but if after reading +each chapter he visits a class and answers certain questions propounded +for the purpose of ascertaining whether he has read it at all, or has read +it understandingly, then we are accustomed to transfer the credit for the +educative process to the questioner, and say that the boy has been +educated at school or college. As a matter of fact, I think most of us are +self-educated. Not only is most of what an adult knows and can do, +acquired outside of school, but in most of what he learned even there he +was self-taught. His so-called teachers assigned tasks to him and saw that +he performed them. If he did not, they subjected him to discipline. Once +or twice in a lifetime most of us have run up against a real teacher--a +man or a woman that really played a major part in shaping our minds as +they now are--our stock of knowledge, our ways of thought, our methods of +doing things. These men have stood and are still standing (though they may +have joined the great majority long ago) athwart the stream of sensation +as it passes through us, and are determining what part shall be stored up, +and where; what kind of action shall ultimately result from it. The +influence of a good teacher spreads farther and lasts longer than that of +any other man. If his words have been recorded in books it may reach +across the seas and down the ages. + +There is another reason why the distinction between school education and +self-education breaks down. If the boy with whom we began had any teacher +at all it was John Stuart Mill, and this man was his teacher whether or +not his reading of the book was prescribed and tested in a class-room. I +would not have you think that I would abolish schools and colleges. I wish +we had more of the right kind, but the chief factor in educative +acquirement will still be the pupil. + +So when the community educates itself, as it doubtless does and as it must +do, it simply continues a process with which it has always been familiar, +but without control, or under its own control. Of all the things that we +learn, control is the most vital. What we are is the sum of those things +that we do not repress. We begin without self-repression and have to be +controlled by others. When we learn to exercise control ourselves, it is +right that even our education should revert wholly to what it has long +been in greater part--a voluntary process. + +This does not mean that at this time the pupil abandons guidance. It means +that he is free to choose his own guides and the place and method of using +them. Some rely wholly on experience; others are wise enough to see that +life is too short and too narrow to acquire all that we need, and they set +about to make use also of that acquired by others. Some of these wiser +ones use only their companions and acquaintances; others read books. The +wisest are opportunists; they make use of all these methods as they have +occasion. Their reading does not make them avoid the exchange of ideas by +conversation, nor does the acquirement of ideas in either way preclude +learning daily by experience, or make reflection useless or unnecessary. + +He who lives a full life acquires ideas as he may, causes them to combine, +change and generate in his own mind, and then translates them into action +of some kind. He who omits any of these things cannot be said to have +really lived. He cannot, it is true, fail to acquire ideas unless he is an +idiot; but he may fail to acquire them broadly, and may even make the +mistake of thinking that he can create them in his own mind. + +He may, however, acquire fully and then merely store without change or +combination; that is, he may turn his brain into a warehouse instead of +using it as a factory. + +And the man who has acquired broadly and worked over his raw material into +a product of his own, may still stop there and never do anything. Our +whole organism is subsidiary to action and he who stops short of it has +surely failed to live. + +Our educative processes, so far, have dwelt heavily on acquirement, +somewhat lightly on mental assimilation and digestion, and have left +action almost untouched. In these two latter respects, especially, is the +community self-educated. + +The fact that I am saying this here, and to you, is a sufficient guaranty +that I am to lay some emphasis on the part played by books in these +self-educative processes. A book is at once a carrier and a tool; it +transports the idea and plants it. It is a carrier both in time and in +space--the idea that it implants may be a foreign idea, or an ancient +idea, or both. Either of its functions may for the moment be paramount; a +book may bring to you ideas whose implantation your brain resists, or it +may be used to implant ideas that are already present, as when an +instructor uses his own text book. Neither of these two cases represents +education in the fullest sense. + +You will notice that I have not yet defined education. I do not intend to +try, for my time is limited. But in the course of my own educative +processes, which I trust are still proceeding, the tendency grows stronger +and stronger to insist on an intimate connection with reality in all +education--to making it a realization that we are to do something and a +yearning to be able to do it. The man who has never run up against things +as they are, who has lived in a world of moonshine, who sees crooked and +attempts what is impossible and what is useless--is he educated? I used to +wonder what a realist was. Now that I am becoming one myself I begin dimly +to understand. He certainly is not a man devoid of ideals, but they are +real ideals, if you will pardon the bull. + +I believe that I am in goodly company. The library as I see it has also +set its face toward the real. What else is meant by our business branches, +our technology rooms, our legislative and municipal reference departments? +They mean that slow as we may be to respond to community thought and to do +our part in carrying on community education, we are vastly more sensitive +than the school, which still turns up its nose at efforts like the Gary +system; than the stage, which still teaches its actors to be stagy instead +of natural; even than the producers of the very literature that we help to +circulate, who rarely know how even to represent the conversation of two +human beings as it really is. And when a great new vehicle of popular +artistic expression arises, like the moving picture, those who purvey it +spend their millions to build mock cities instead of to reproduce the +reality that it is their special privilege to be able to show. And they +hire stage actors to show off their staginess on the screen--staginess +that is a thousand times more stagy because its background is of waving +foliage and glimmering water, instead of the painted canvas in front of +which it belongs. The heart of the community is right. Its heroine is Mary +Pickford. It rises to realism as one man. The little dog who cannot pose, +and who pants and wags his tail on the screen as he would anywhere else, +elicits thunderous applause. The baby who puckers up its face and cries, +oblivious of its environment, is always a favorite. But the trend of all +this, these institutions cannot see. We librarians are seeing it a little +more clearly. We may see it--we shall see it, more clearly still. + +The self-education of a community often depends very closely on bonds of +connection already established between the minds of that community's +individual members. Sometimes it depends on a sudden connection made +through the agency of a single event of overwhelming importance and +interest. Let me illustrate what I mean by connection of this kind. For +many years it was my duty to cross the Hudson river twice daily on a +crowded ferry-boat, and it used to interest me to watch the behavior of +the crowds under the influence of simple impulses affecting them all +alike. I am happy to say that I never had an opportunity of observing the +effect of complex impulses such as those of panic terror. I used +particularly to watch, from the vantage point of a stairway whence I could +look over their heads, the behavior of the crowd standing in the cabin +just before the boat made its landing. Each person in the crowd stood +still quietly, and the tendency was toward a loose formation to ensure +comfort and some freedom of movement. At the same time each was ready and +anxious to move forward as soon as the landing should be made. Only those +in front could see the bow of the ferryboat; the others could see nothing +but the persons directly in front of them. When those in the front rank +saw that the landing was very near they began to move forward; those just +behind followed suit and so on to the rear. The result was that I saw a +wave of compression, of the same sort as a sound-wave in air, move through +the throng. The individual motions were forward but the wave moved +backward. No better example of a wave of this kind could be devised. Now +the actions and reactions between the air-particles in a sound wave are +purely mechanical. Not so here. There was neither pushing nor pulling of +the ordinary kind. Each person moved forward because his mind was fixed on +moving forward at the earliest opportunity, and because the forward +movement of those just in front showed him that now was the time and the +opportunity. The physical link, if there was one, properly speaking, +between one movement and another was something like this: A wave of light, +reflected from the body of the man in front, entered the eye of the man +just behind, where it was transformed into a nerve impulse that readied +the brain through the optic nerve. Here it underwent complicated +transformations and reactions whose nature we can but surmise, until it +left the brain as a motor impulse and caused the leg muscles to contract, +moving their owner forward. All this may or may not have taken place +within the sphere of consciousness; in the most cases it had happened so +often that it had been relegated to that of unconscious cerebration. + +I have entered into so much detail because I want to make it clear that a +connection may be established between members of a group, even so casual a +group as that of persons who happen to cross on the same ferry boat, that +is so real and compelling, that its results simulate those of physical +forces. In thin case the results were dependent on the existence in the +crowd of one common bond of interest. They all wanted to leave the ferry +boat as soon as possible, and by its bow. If some of them had wanted to +stay on the boat and go back with it, or if it had been a river steamboat +where landings were made from several gangways in different parts of the +boat the simple wave of compression that I saw would not have been set up. +In like manner the ordinary influences that act on men's minds tend in all +sorts of directions and their results are not easily traced. Occasionally, +however, there occurs some event so great that it turns us all in the same +direction and establishes a common network of psychical connections. Such +an event fosters community education. + +We have lately witnessed such a phenomenon in the sudden outbreak of the +great European War. Probably no person in the community as we librarians +know it remained unaffected by this event. In most it aroused some kind of +a desire to know what was going on. It was necessary that most of us +should know a little more than we did of the differences in racial +temperament and aim among the inhabitants of the warring nations, of such +movements as Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism, of the recent political +history of Europe, of modern military tactics and strategy, of +international law, of geography, of the pronunciation of foreign +placenames, of the chemistry of explosives--of a thousand things regarding +which we had hitherto lacked the impulse to inform ourselves. This sort of +thing is going on in a community every day, but here was a catastrophe +setting in motion a mighty brain-wave that had twisted us all in one +direction. Notice now what a conspicuous role our public libraries play in +phenomena of this kind. In the first place, the newspaper and periodical +press reflects at once the interest that has been aroused. Where man's +unaided curiosity would suggest one question it adds a hundred others. +Problems that would otherwise seem simple enough now appear complex--the +whole mental interest is intensified. At the same time there is an attempt +to satisfy the questions thus raised. The man who did not know about the +Belgian treaty, or the possible use of submarines as commerce-destroyers, +has all the issues put before him with at least an attempt to settle them. +This service of the press to community education would be attempted, but +it would not be successfully rendered, without the aid of the public +library, for it has come to pass that the library is now almost the only +non-partisan institution that we possess; and community education, to be +effective, must be non-partisan. The press is almost necessarily biassed. +The man who is prejudiced prefers the paper or the magazine that will +cater to his prejudices, inflame them, cause him to think that they are +reasoned results instead of prejudices. If he keeps away from the public +library he may succeed in blinding himself; if he uses it he can hardly do +so. He will find there not only his own side but all the others; if he has +the ordinary curiosity that is our mortal heritage he cannot help glancing +at the opinions of others occasionally. No man is really educated who does +not at least know that another side exists to the question on which he has +already made up his mind--or had it made up for him. + +Further, no one is content to stop with the ordinary periodical +literature. The flood of books inspired by this war is one of the most +astonishing things about it. Most libraries are struggling to keep up with +it in some degree. Very few of these books would be within the reach of +most of us were it not for the library. + +I beg you to notice the difference in the reaction of the library to this +war and that of the public school as indicative of the difference between +formal educative processes, as we carry them on, and the self-education of +the community. I have emphasized the freedom of the library from bias. The +school is necessarily biassed--perhaps properly so. You remember the story +of the candidate for a district school who, when asked by an examining +committee-man whether the earth was round or flat, replied, "Well, some +says one and some t'other. I teach either round or flat, as the parents +wish." + +Now, there are books that maintain the flatness of the earth, and they +properly find a place on the shelves of large public libraries. Those who +wish to compare the arguments pro and con are at liberty to do so. Even in +such a _res adjudicata_ as this the library takes no sides. But in spite +of the obliging school candidate, the school cannot proceed in this way. +The teaching of the child must be definite. And there are other subjects, +historical ones for instance, in which the school's attitude may be +determined by its location, its environment, its management. When it is a +public school and its controlling authority is really trying to give +impartial instruction there are some subjects that must simply be skipped, +leaving them to be covered by post-scholastic community education. This is +the school's limitation. Only the policy of caution is very apt to be +carried too far. Thus we find that in the school the immense educational +drive of the European War has not been utilized as it has in the community +at large. In some places the school authorities have erected a barrier +against it. So far as they are concerned the war has been non-existent. +This difference between the library and the school appears in such reports +as the following from a branch librarian: + +"Throughout the autumn and most of the winter we found it absolutely +impossible to supply the demand for books about the war. Everything we had +on the subject or akin to it--books, magazines, pamphlets--were in +constant use. Books of travel and history about the warring countries +became popular--things that for years had been used but rarely became +suddenly vitally interesting. + +"I have been greatly interested by the fact that the high school boys and +girls never ask for anything about the war. Not once during the winter +have I seen in one of them a spark of interest in the subject. It seems so +strange that it should be necessary to keep them officially ignorant of +this great war because the grandfather of one spoke French and of another +German." + +Another librarian says: + +"The war again has naturally stimulated an interest in maps. With every +turn in military affairs, new ones are issued and added to our collection. +These maps, as received, have been exhibited for short periods upon +screens and they have never lacked an appreciative line of spectators, +representing all nationalities." + +One noticeable effect of the war in libraries has been to stimulate the +marking of books, periodicals and newspapers by readers, especially in +periodical rooms. Readers with strong feelings cannot resist annotating +articles or chapters that express opinions in which they cannot concur. +Pictures of generals or royalties are especially liable to defacement with +opprobrious epithets. This feeling extends even to bulletins. Libraries +receive strenuous protests against the display of portraits and other +material relating to one of the contesting parties without similar +material on the other side to offset it. + +"Efforts to be strictly neutral have not always met with success, some +readers apparently regarding neutrality as synonymous with suppression of +everything favorable to the opposite side. One library reports that the +display of an English military portrait called forth an energetic protest +because it was not balanced by a German one." + +Such manifestations as these are merely symptoms. The impulse of the war +toward community education is a tremendous one and it is not strange that +it should find an outlet in all sorts of odd ways. The German sympathizer +who would not ordinarily think of objecting to the display of an English +portrait, and in fact would probably not think of examining it closely +enough to know whether it was English or Austrian, has now become alert. +His alertness makes him open to educative influences, but it may also show +itself in such ways as that just noted. + +Keeping the war out of the schools is of course a purely local phenomenon, +to be deprecated where it occurs. The library can do its part here also. + +"G. Stanley Hall believes that the problem of teaching the war is how to +utilize in the very best way the wonderful opportunity to open, see and +feel the innumerable and vital lessons involved." Commenting on this a +children's librarian says: "The unparalleled opportunity offered to our +country, and the new complex problems presented by these new conditions +should make the children's librarian pause and take heed. + +"Can we do our part toward using the boy's loyalty to his gang or his +nine, his love of his country, his respect for our flag, his devotion to +our heroes, in developing a sense of human brotherhood which alone can +prevent or delay in the next generation another such catastrophe as the +one we face to-day?" + +Exclusion of the war from the schools is partly the outcome of the general +attitude of most of our schoolmen, who object to the teaching of a subject +as an incidental. Arithmetic must be studied for itself alone. To absorb +it as a by-product of shop-work, as is done in Gary, is inadmissible. But +it is also a result of the fear that teaching the war at all would +necessarily mean a partisan teaching of it--a conclusion which perhaps we +cannot condemn when we remember the partisan instruction in various other +subjects for which our schools are responsible. + +Again, this exclusion is doubtless aided by the efforts of some pacifists, +who believe that, ostrich-like, we should hide our heads in the sand, to +avoid acknowledging the existence of something we do not like. "Why war?" +asks a recent pamphlet. Why, indeed? But we may ask in turn "Why fire?" +"Why flood?" I cannot answer these questions, but it would be foolish to +act as if the scourges did not exist. Nay, I hasten to insure myself +against them, though the possibility that they will injure me is remote. +This ultra-pacifist attitude has gone further than school education and is +trying to put the lid on community education also. Objection, for +instance, has been made to an exhibit of books, prints and posters about +the war, which was displayed in the St. Louis Public Library for nearly +two months. We intended to let it stand for about a week, but the public +would not allow this. The community insists on self-education even against +the will of its natural allies. The contention that we are cultivating the +innate blood-thirstiness of our public, I regard as absurd. + +What can we do toward generating or taking advantage of other great +driving impulses toward community education? Must we wait for the horrors +of a great war to teach us geography, industrial chemistry and +international law? Is it necessary to burn down a house every time we want +to roast a pig? Certainly not. But just as one would not think of bringing +on any kind of a catastrophe in order to utilize its shock for educational +purposes, so also I doubt very much whether we need concern ourselves +about the initiation of any impulse toward popular education. These +impulses exist everywhere in great number and variety and we need only to +select the right one and reinforce it. Attempts to generate others are +rarely effective. When we hear the rich mellow tone of a great organ pipe, +it is difficult to realize that all the pipe does is to reinforce a +selected tone among thousands of indistinguishable noises made by the air +rushing through a slit and striking against an edge. Yet this is the fact. +These incipient impulses permeate the community all about us; all we have +to do is to select one, feed it and give it play and we shall have an +"educational movement." This fact is strongly impressed upon anyone +working with clubs. If it is desired to foster some movement by means of +an organization, it is rarely necessary to form one for the purpose. Every +community teems with clubs, associations and circles. All that is needed +is to capture the right one and back it up. Politicians well understand +this art of capture and use it often for evil purposes. In the librarian's +hands it becomes an instrument for good. Better than to offer a course of +twenty lectures under the auspices of the library is it to capture a club, +give it house-room, and help it with its program. I am proud of the fact +that in fifteen public rooms in our library, about four thousand meetings +are held in the course of the year; but I am inclined to be still prouder +of the fact that not one of these is held formally under the auspices of +the library or is visibly patronized by it. To go back to our thesis, all +education is self-education; we can only select, guide and strengthen, but +when we have done these things adequately, we have done a very great work +indeed. + +What is true of assemblies and clubs is also true of the selection and use +of books. A book purchased in response to a demand is worth a dozen bought +because the librarian thinks the library ought to have them. The +possibilities of free suggestion by the community are, it seems to me, far +from realized, yet even as it is, I believe that librarians have an +unexampled opportunity of feeling out promising tendencies in this great +flutter of educational impulses all about us, and so of selecting the +right ones and helping them on. + +Almost while I have been writing this I have been visited by a delegate +from the foundrymen's club--an organization that wants more books on +foundry practice and wants them placed together in a convenient spot. Such +a visit is of course a heaven-sent opportunity and I suppose I betrayed +something of my pleasure in my manner. My visitor said, "I am so glad you +feel this way about it; we have been meaning for some time to call on you, +but we were in doubt about how we should be received." Such moments are +humiliating to the librarian. Great heavens! Have we advertised, +discussed, talked and plastered our towns with publicity, only to learn at +last that the spokesman of a body of respectable men, asking legitimate +service, rather expects to be kicked downstairs than otherwise when he +approaches us? Is our publicity failing in quantity or in quality? + +Whatever may be the matter, it is in response to demands like this that +the library must play its part in community education. Here as elsewhere +it is the foundrymen who are the important factors--their attitude, their +desires, their capabilities. Our function is that of the organ pipe--to +pick out the impulse, respond to it and give it volume and carrying power. +The community will educate itself whether we help or not. It is permeated +by lines of intelligence as the magnetic field is by lines of force. +Thrust in a bit of soft iron and the force-lines will change their +direction in order to pass through the iron. Thrust a book into the +community field, and its lines of intelligence will change direction in +order to take in the contents of the book. If we could map out the field +we should see great masses of lines sweeping through our public libraries. + +All about us we see men who tell us that they despair of democracy; that +at any rate, whatever its advantages, democracy can never be "efficient." +Efficient for what? Efficiency is a relative quality, not absolute. A big +German howitzer would be about as inefficient a tool as could be imagined, +for serving an apple-pie. Beside, democracy is a goal; we have not reached +it yet; we shall never reach it if we decide that it is undesirable. The +path toward it is the path of Nature, which leads through conflicts, +survivals, and modifications. Part of it is the path of community +education, which I believe to be efficient in that it is leading on toward +a definite goal. Part of Nature is man, with his desires, hopes and +abilities. Some men, and many women, are librarians, in whom these desires +and hopes have definite aims and in whom the corresponding abilities are +more or less developed. We are all thus cogs in Nature's great scheme for +community education; let us be intelligent cogs, and help the movement on +instead of hindering it. + + + + +CLUBWOMEN'S READING + + +I--_The Malady_ + +A well-dressed woman entered the Art Department of a large public library. +"Have you any material on the Medici?" she asked the custodian. "Yes; just +what kind of material do you want?" "Stop a minute," cried the woman, +extending a detaining hand; "before you get me anything, just tell me what +they are!" Librarians are trained not to laugh. No one could have detected +the ghost of a smile on this one's face as she lifted the "M" volume of a +cyclopedia from a shelf and placed it on the table before the seeker after +knowledge. "There; that will tell you," she said, and returned to her +work. + +Not long afterward she was summoned by a beckoning finger. "I can't tell +from this book," said the perplexed student, "whether the Medici were a +family or a race of people." The Art Librarian tried to untie this knot, +but it was not long before another presented itself. "This book doesn't +explain," said the troubled investigator, "whether the Medici were +Florentines or Italians." Still without a quiver, the art assistant +emitted the required drop of information. "Shan't I get you something more +now?" she asked. "Oh, no; this will be quite sufficient," and taking out +pencil and paper the inquirer began to write rapidly with the cyclopedia +propped before her. Presently, when the Art Librarian looked up, her guest +had disappeared. But she was on hand the next morning. "May I see that +book again?" she asked sweetly. "There are some words here in my copy that +I can't quite make out." + +On another occasion a reader, of the same sex, wandered into the +reading-room and began to gaze about her with that peculiar sort of +perplexed aimlessness that librarians have come to recognise instinctively +as an index to the wearer's state of mind. "Have you anything on American +travels?" she asked. + +"Do you mean travels in America, or travels by Americans in foreign +countries?" + +"Well; I don't know--exactly." + +"Do you want books like Dickens's _American Notes_, that give a +foreigner's impression of this country?" + +"Ye-es--possibly." + +"Or books like Hawthorne's _Note Book_, telling how a foreign country +appears to an American?" + +"We-ell; perhaps." + +"Are you following a programme of reading?" + +"Yes." + +"May I see it? That may give me a clue." + +"I haven't a copy here." + +"Can you give me the name of the person or committee who made it?" + +"Oh, I _made_ it _myself_." + +This was a "facer"; the librarian seemed to have brought up against a +stone wall, but she waited, knowing that a situation, unlike a knot, will +sometimes untie itself. + +The seeker after knowledge also waited for a time. Then she broke out +animatedly: + +"Why, I just wanted American travels, don't you know? Funny little stories +and things about the sort of Americans that go abroad with a bird-cage!" + +Just what books were given to her I do not know; but in due time her +interesting paper before the Olla Podrida Club was properly noticed in the +local papers. + +In another case a perplexed club-woman came to a library for aid in making +a programme of reading. "Have you some ideas about the subject you want to +take up?" asked the reference assistant. + +"Well, we had thought of England, or perhaps Scotland; and some of us +would like the Elizabethan Period." + +The assistant, after some faithful work, produced a list of books and +articles on each of these somewhat comprehensive subjects and sent them to +the reader for selection. "Which did you finally take?" she asked when the +inquirer next visited the library. + +"Oh, they were so good, we decided to use all of them this year!" + +The writer is no pessimist. These stories which are as true, word for +word, as any tales not taken down by a stenographer (and far more so than +some that are) seemed to throw the persons who told them into a sort of +dumb despair, but I hastened to reassure them. I pointed out that the +inquirers after knowledge had, beyond all doubt, obtained some modicum of +what they wanted. If the lady in the first tale, for instance, had +mistakenly supposed that the Medici were a new kind of dance or something +to eat, she surely has been disabused. And her cyclopedia article was +probably as well written as most of its kind, so that a literal transcript +of it could have done no harm either to the copyist or to her clubmates. +And the paper on "American Travels," and the combined lists on England, +Scotland and the Elizabethan Period; did not those who laboured on them, +or with them, acquire information in the process? Most assuredly! + +Still, I must confess that, in advancing these arguments, I feel somewhat +like an _advocatus diaboli_. It is all very well to treat the puzzled +clubwoman as a joke. When a man slips on a banana-peel and goes down, we +may laugh at his plight; but suppose the whole crowd of passers-by began +to pitch and slide and tumble! Should we not think that some horrible +epidemic had laid its hand on us? The ladies with their Medici and their +Travels are not isolated instances. Ask the librarians; they know, but in +countless instances they do not tell, for fear of casting ridicule upon +the hundreds of intelligent clubwomen whom they are proud to help. In many +libraries there is a standing rule against repeating or discussing the +errors and slips of the public, especially to the ever hungry reporter. I +break this rule here with equanimity, and even with a certain degree of +hope, for my object is to awaken my readers to the knowledge that part of +the reading public is suffering from a malady of some kind. Later I may +try my hand at diagnosis and even at therapeutics. And I am taking as an +illustration chiefly the reading done by women's clubs, not because men do +not do reading of the same kind, or because it is not done by individuals +as well as by groups; but because, just at the present time, women in +general, and clubwomen in particular, seem especially likely to be +attacked by the disease. It must be remembered also that I am writing from +the standpoint of the public library, and I here make humble +acknowledgement of the fact that many things in the educational field, +both good and bad, go on quite outside of that institution and beyond its +ken. + +The intellectual bonds between the library and the woman's club have +always been close. Many libraries are the children of such clubs; many +clubs have been formed in and by libraries. If any mistakes are being made +in the general policies and programmes of club reading, the librarian +would naturally be the first to know it, and he ought to speak out. He +does know it, and his knowledge should become public property at once. +But, I repeat, although the trouble is conspicuous in connection with the +reading of women's clubs, it is far more general and deeply rooted than +this. + +The malady's chief symptom, which is well known to all librarians, is a +lack of correspondence between certain readers and the books that they +choose. Reading, like conversation, is the meeting of two minds. If there +is no contact, the process fails. If the cogs on the gearwheels do not +interact, the machine can not work. If the reader of a book on algebra +does not understand arithmetic; if he tackles a philosophical essay on the +representative function without knowing what the phrase means; if he tries +to read a French book without knowing the language, his mind is not fitted +for contact with that of the writer, and the mental machinery will not +move. + +In the early days of the Open Shelf, before librarians had realised the +necessity of copious assignments to "floor duty," and before there were +children's librarians, I saw in a branch library a small child staggering +under the weight of a volume of Schaff's _History of the Christian +Church_, which he had taken from the shelves and was presenting at the +desk to be charged. "You are not going to read that, are you?" said the +desk assistant. + +"It isn't for me; it's for me big brudder." + +"What did your big brother ask you to get?" + +"Oh, a Physiology!" + +Nowadays, our well-organised children's rooms make such an occurrence +doubtful with the little ones, but apparently there is much of it with +adults. + +Too much of our reading--I should rather say our attempts at reading--is +of this character. Such attempts are the result of a tendency to regard +the printed page as a fetich--to think that if one knows his alphabet and +can call the printed words one after another as his eye runs along the +line, some unexplained good will result, or at least that he has performed +a praiseworthy act, has "accumulated merit" somehow or somewhere, like a +Thibetan with his prayer-wheel. + +It is probably a fact that if a man should meet you in the street and say, +"In beatific repentance lies jejune responsibility," you would stare at +him and pass him by, or perhaps flee from him as from a lunatic; whereas +if you saw these words printed in a book you might gravely study them to +ascertain their meaning, or still worse, might succeed in reading your own +meaning into them. The words I have strung together happen to have no +meaning, but the result would be the same if they meant something that was +hidden from the reader by his inability to understand them, no matter what +the cause of that inability might be. + +This malady is doubtless spontaneous in some degree, and dependent on +failings of the human mind that we need not discuss here, but there are +signs that it is being fostered, spread, and made more acute by special +influences. Probably our educational methods are not altogether blameless. +The boy who trustfully approached a Reference Librarian and said, "I have +to write a composition on what I saw between home and school; have you got +a book about that?" had doubtless been taught that he must look in a book +for everything. The conscientious teacher who was now trying to separate +him from his notion may have been the very one who, perhaps unconsciously, +had instilled it; if so, her fault had thus returned to plague her. + +The boy or girl who comes to attach a sacredness or a wizardry to the book +in itself will naturally believe, after a little, that whether he +understands what is in it matters little--and this is the malady of which +we have been complaining. + +A college teacher of the differential calculus, in a time now happily long +past, when a pupil timidly inquired the reason for this or that, was wont +to fix the interrogator with his eye and say, "Sir; it is so because the +book says so!" Even in more recent days a well-known university teacher, +accustomed to use his own text-book, used to say when a student had +ventured to vary its classic phraseology, "It can not be expressed better +than in the words of the book!?" These instances, of course, are taken +from the dark ages of education, but even to-day I believe that a false +idea of the value of a printed page merely as print--not as the record of +a mind, ready to make contact with the mind of a reader--has impressed +itself too deeply on the brains of many children at an age when such +impressions are apt to be durable. Not that the schools are especially at +fault; we have all played our part in this unfortunate business. It might +all fade, at length; we all know that many good teachings of our childhood +do vanish; why should not the bad ones occasionally follow suit? + +But now come in all the well-meaning instructors of the adult--the +Chautauquans, the educational extensionists, the lecturers, the +correspondence schools, the advisers of reading, the makers of booklists, +the devisers of "courses." They deepen the fleeting impression and +increase its capacity for harm, while varying slightly the mechanism that +produced it. As the child grows into a man, his childish idea that a book +will produce a certain effect independently of what it contains is apt to +yield a little to reason. The new influences, some of which I have named +above, do not attempt directly to combat this dawning intelligence; they +utilise it to complete the mental discomfiture of their victims. They +admit the necessity of comprehending the contents of the book, but they +persuade the reader that such comprehension is easier than it really is. +And they often administer specially concocted tabloids that convince one +that he knows more than he really does. Thus the unsuspecting adult goes +on reading what he does not understand, not now thinking that it does not +matter, but falsely persuaded that he has become competent to understand. + +Every one of the agencies that I have named aims to do good educational +work; every one is competent to do such work; nearly every one does much +of it. I am finding fault with them only so far as they succeed in +persuading readers that they are better educated than they really are. In +this respect such agencies are precisely on a par with the proprietary +medicine that is an excellent laxative or sudorific, but is offered also +as a cure for tuberculosis or cancer. + +I once heard the honoured head of a famous body that does an enormous +amount of work of this sort deliver an _apologia_, deserving of all +attention, in which he complained that his institution had been falsely +accused of superficiality. It was, he said, perfectly honest in what it +taught. If its pupils thought that the elementary knowledge they were +gaining was comprehensive and thorough, that was their fault--not his. And +vet, at that moment, the institution was posing before its pupils as a +"university" and using the forms and nomenclature of such a body to +strengthen the idea in their minds. We cannot acquit it, or any of the +agencies like it, of complicity in the causation of the malady whose +symptoms we are discussing. + +It is not the fault of the women's clubs that they have fallen into line +in such an imposing procession as this. Their formation and work +constitute one of the most interesting and important manifestations of the +present feminist movement. Their role in it is partly social, partly +educational; and as they consist of adults, elementary education is of +course excluded from their programme. We therefore find them committed, +perhaps unconsciously, to the plan of required or recommended reading, in +a form that has long been the bane of our educational systems both in +school and out. + +One of the corner-stones of this system is the idea that the acquisition +of information is valuable in itself, no matter what may be the +relationship between it and the acquiring mind, or what use of it may be +made in the future. According to this idea, if a woman can once get into +her head that the Medici were a family and not "a race of people," it +matters little that she is unfitted to comprehend why they are worth +reading about at all, or that the fact has nothing to do with what she has +ever done or is likely to be called upon to do in the future. + +That the members of these clubs are willing to pursue knowledge under +these hampering conditions is of course a point in their favour, so far as +it goes. A desire for knowledge is never to be despised, even when it is +not entertained for its own sake. And a secondary desire may often be +changed into a primary one, if the task is approached in the right way. +The possibility of such a transformation is a hopeful feature of the +present situation. + +The reading that is done by women in connection with club work is of +several different types. In the simplest organisations, which are reading +clubs pure and simple, a group of books, roughly equal in number to the +membership, is taken and passed around until each person has read them +all. There is no connection between them, and each volume is selected +simply on some one's statement that it is a "good book." A step higher is +the club where the books are on one general subject, selected by some one +who has been asked to prescribe a "course of reading." By easy gradations +we arrive at the final stage, where the reading is of the nature of +investigation and its outcome is an essay. A subject is decided on at the +beginning of the season. The programme committee selects several phases of +it and assigns each to a member, who prepares her essay and reads it to +the club at one of the stated meetings. In this case the reading to be +done in preparation for writing the essay may or may not be guided by the +committee. In many cases, where the local public library cooperates +actively with the clubs, a list may be made out by the librarian and +perhaps printed, with due acknowledgment, in the club's year book. No one +can doubt, in looking over typical programmes and lists among the +thousands that represent the annual reading of the women's clubs +throughout the United States, that a serious and sustained effort is being +made to introduce the intellect, as an active factor, into the lives of +thousands of women--lives where hitherto it has played little part, +whether they are millionaires or near paupers, workers or idlers. With +this aim there must be frill measure of sympathy, but I fear we can +commend it only in the back-handed fashion in which a great authority on +sociology recently commended the Socialists. "If sympathy with what they +are trying to do, as opposed to the way in which they are trying to do it, +makes one a Socialist," said the Professor, "then I am a Socialist." Here +also we may sympathise with the aim, but the results are largely dependent +on the method; and that method is the offspring of ignorance and +inefficiency. The results may be summed up in one word--superficiality. I +have elsewhere warned readers not to think that this word means simply a +slight knowledge of a subject. A slight knowledge is all that most of us +possess, or need to possess, about most subjects. I know a little about +Montenegro for instance--something of its origin and relationships, its +topography, the names and characteristics of a city or two, the racial and +other peculiarities of its inhabitants. Yet I should cut a poor figure +indeed in an examination on Montenegrin history, geography or government. +Is my knowledge "superficial"? It could not properly be so stigmatised +unless I should pose as an authority on Montenegro, or unless my +opportunities to know about the country had been so great that failure to +take advantage of them should argue mental incapacity. The trouble with +the reading-lists and programmes of our women's clubs, inherited in some +degree from our general educational methods, is that they emphasise their +own content and ignore what they do not contain, to such an extent that +those who use them remain largely in ignorance of the fact that the former +bears a very small proportion indeed to the latter. + +It was once my duty to act as private tutor in algebra and geometry to a +young man preparing for college. He was bright and industrious, but I +found that he was under the impression that when he had gone to the end of +his text-books in those two subjects he would have mastered, not only all +the algebra and geometry, but all the mathematics, that the world held in +store. And when this story has been told in despair to some very +intelligent persons they have commented: "Well, there isn't much more, is +there?" + +The effort of the text-book writer, as well as that of the maker of +programmes, lists, and courses, appears to have been to produce what he +calls a "well-rounded" effect; in other words, to make the student think +that the whole subject--in condensed form perhaps, but still the +whole--lies within what he has turned out. Did you ever see a chemistry +that gave, or tried to give, an idea of the world of chemical knowledge +that environs its board cover? One has to become a Newton before he feels, +with that sage, like a child, playing on the sands, with the great, +unexplored ocean of knowledge stretching out before him. Most students are +rather like ducks in a barn-yard puddle, quite sure that they are familiar +with the whole world and serene in that knowledge. + +Most writers of text-books would indignantly deny that this criticism +implies a fault. It is none of their business, they would say, to call +attention to what is beyond their scope. So be it. Unfortunately, every +one feels in the same way and so the horizon of our women's clubs is that +of the puddle instead of the ocean. + +It is a most interesting fact in this connection that there exist certain +organisations which make a business of furnishing clubwomen with +information for their papers. I have heard this service described as a +"godsend," to clubs in small places where there are no libraries, or where +the libraries are poorly equipped with books and _personnel_. But, if I am +correctly informed, the service does not stop with the supply of raw +material; it goes on to the finished product, and the perplexed lady who +is required to read a paper on "Melchisedek" or on "Popular Errors +Regarding the Theory of Groups," may for an adequate fee, or possibly even +for an inadequate one, obtain a neatly typewritten manuscript on the +subject, ready to read. + +This sort of thing is not at all to be wondered at. It has gone on since +the dawn of time with college theses, clergymen's sermons, the orations +and official papers of statesmen. Whenever a man is confronted with an +intellectual task that he dare not shirk, and yet has not the intellect or +the interest to perform, the first thing he thinks of is to hire some one +to do it for him, and this demand has always been great enough and +widespread enough to make it profitable for some one to organise the +supply on a commercial basis. What interests us in the present case is the +fact that its existence in the woman's club affords an instant clue to the +state of mind of many of its members. They have this in common with the +plagiarising pupil, clergyman, or statesman--they are called upon to do +something in which they have only a secondary interest. The minister who +reads a sermon on the text "Thou Shalt Not Steal," and considers that the +fact that he has paid five dollars for it will absolve him from the charge +of inconsistency, does not--cannot--feel any desire to impress his +congregation with a desire for right living--he wants only to hold his +job. The university student who, after ascertaining that there is no +copyable literature in the Library on "Why I Came to College," pays a +classmate a dollar to give this information to the Faculty, cares nothing +about the question; but he does care to avoid discipline. So the clubwoman +who reads a purchased essay on "Ireland in the Fourteenth Century," has +not the slightest interest in the subject; but she does want to remain a +member of her club, in good and regular standing. It is the same +substitution of adventitious for natural motives and stimuli that works +intellectual havoc from the mother's knee up to the Halls of Congress. + +When I assert boldly that at the present time the majority of vague and +illogical readers are women, and that women's clubs are responsible for +much of that kind of reading, I shall doubtless incur the displeasure of +the school of feminists who seem bent on minimising the differences +between the two sexes. Obvious physical differences they have not been +able to explain away, and to deny that corresponding mental differences +exist is to shut one's eyes to all the teachings of modern physiology. The +mental life is a function, not of the brain alone, but of the whole +nervous system of which the brain is but the principal ganglion. Cut off a +man's legs, and you have removed something from his mental, as well as +from his physical equipment. That men and women should have minds of the +same type is a physiological impossibility. A familiar way of stating the +difference is to say that in the man's mind reason predominates, in the +woman's, intuition. There is doubtless something to be said for this +statement of the distinction, but it is objectionable because it is +generally interpreted to mean--quite unnecessarily--that a woman's mind is +inferior to a man's--a distinction about as foolish as it would be to say +the negative electricity is inferior to positive, or cold to heat. The +types are in most ways supplementary, and a combination of the two has +always been a potent intellectual force--one of the strongest arguments +for marriage as an institution. When we try to do the work of the world +with either type alone we have generally made a mess of it. And the +outcome seems to make it probable that the female type is especially prone +to become the prey of fallacies like that which has brought about the +present flood of useless, or worse than useless, reading. + +I shall doubtless be asked whether I assert that one type of mind belongs +always to the man and one to the woman. By no means. I do not even lay +emphasis on the necessity of naming the two types "male" and "female." All +I say is that the types exist--with those intermediate cases that always +bother the classifier--and that the great majority of men possess one type +and the great majority of women the other. It is possible that differences +of training may have originated or at least emphasised the types; it is +possible that future training may obliterate the lines that separate them, +but I do not believe it. I am even afraid of trying the experiment, for +there is reason to believe that its success in the mental field might +react unfavourably on those physical differences on which the future of +the race depends. We may have gone too far in this direction already; else +why the feverish anxiety of the girls' colleges to prove that their +graduates are marrying and bearing children? + +The fact is that the problem of the education of the sexes is not yet +solved. Educating one sex alone didn't work; neither, I believe, does the +present plan of educating both alike, whether in the same institution, or +separately. + + +II--_A Diagnosis_ + +Reading, like conversation, is, or ought to be, a contact between two +minds. The difference is that while one may talk only with his +contemporaries and neighbours one may read the words of a writer far +distant both in time and space. It is no wonder, perhaps, that the printed +word has become a fetish, but fetishes of any kind are not in accordance +with the spirit of the age, and their veneration should be discouraged. +Reading in which the contact of minds is of secondary importance, or even +cuts no figure at all, is meaningless and valueless. + +In a previous paper, reasons have been given for believing that reading of +this kind is peculiarly prevalent among the members of women's clubs. The +value of these organisations is so great, and the services that they have +rendered to women, and through them to the general cause of social +betterment, are so evident, that it seems well worth while to examine the +matter a little more closely, and to complete a diagnosis based on the +study of the symptoms that have already presented themselves. As most of +the reading done in connection with clubs is in preparation for the +writing and reading of papers, we may profitably, perhaps, direct our +attention to this phase of the subject. + +Most persons will agree, probably, that the average club paper is not +notably worth while. It is written by a person not primarily and vitally +interested in the subject, and it is read to an assemblage most of whom +are similarly devoid of interest--the whole proceeding being more or less +perfunctory. Could it be expected that reading done in connection with +such a performance should be valuable? + +This is worth pondering, because it is a fact that almost all the vital +informative literature that is produced at first hand sees the light in +connection with clubs and associations--bodies that publish journals, +"transactions" or "proceedings" for the especial purpose of printing the +productions of their members. + +This literature, for the most part, does not come to the notice of the +general reader. The ordinary books on the technical subjects of which it +treats are not raw material, but a manufactured product--compilations from +the original sources. And the pity of it is that very many of them, often +the best of them from a purely literary point of view, are so +unsatisfactory, viewed from the point of view of accomplishment. They do +not do what they set out to do; they are full of misunderstandings, +misinterpretations, interpolations and omissions. It is the old story; +those who know won't tell and the task is assumed by those who are +eminently able to tell, but don't know. The scientific expert despises the +public, which is forced to get its information through glib but ignorant +expounders. This is a digression, but it may serve to illuminate the +situation, which is that the authoritative literature of special subjects +sees the light almost wholly in the form of papers, read before clubs and +associations. Evidently there is nothing in the mere fact that a paper is +to be read before a club, to make it trivial or valueless. Yet how much +that is of value to the world first saw the light in a paper read before a +woman's club? How much original thought, how much discovery, how much +invention, how much inspiration, is put into their writing and emanates +from their reading? + +There must be a fundamental difference of some kind between the +constitution and the methods of these two kinds of clubs. A study of this +difference will throw light on the kind of reading that must be done in +connection with each and may explain, in great part, why the reading done +for women's club-papers is what it is. + +A scientific or technical society exists largely for the purpose of +informing its members of the original work that is being done by each of +them. When anyone has accomplished such work or has made such progress +that he thinks an account of what he has done would be interesting, he +sends a description of it to the proper committee, which decides whether +it shall be read and discussed at a meeting, or published in the +Proceedings, or both, or neither. The result depends on the size of the +membership, on its activity, and on the value of its work. It may be that +the programme committee has an embarrassment of riches from which to +select, or that there is poverty instead. But in no case does it arrange a +programme. The Physical Society, if that is its name and subject, does not +decide that it will devote the meetings of the current season to a +consideration of Radio-activity and assign to specified members the +reading of papers on Radio-active springs, the character of Radium +Emanation, and so on. If it did, it would doubtless get precisely the same +results that we are complaining of in the case of the Woman's Club. A man +whose specialty is thermodynamics might be told off to prepare a paper on +Radio-active Elements in Rocks--a subject in which he is not interested. +He could have nothing new nor original to say on the subject and his paper +would be a mere compilation. It would not even be a good compilation, for +his interest and his skill would lie wholly in another direction. The good +results that the society does get are wholly dependent on the fact that +each writer is full of new information that he desires, above all things, +to communicate to his fellow-members. + +In the preparation of such a paper, one needs, of course, to read, and +often to read widely. Much of the reading will be done in connection with +the work described, or even before it is begun. No one wishes to undertake +an investigation that has already been made by someone else, and so the +first thing that a competent investigator does is to survey his field and +ascertain what others have accomplished in it. This task is by no means +easy, for such information is often hidden in journals and transactions +that are difficult to reach, and the published indexes of such material, +though wonderfully advanced on the road toward perfection in the past +twenty years, have yet far to travel before they reach it. Not only the +writer's description of what he has done or ascertained, but the character +of the work itself; the direction it takes--the inferences that he draws +from it, will be controlled and coloured by what he reads of others' work. +And even if he finds it easy to ascertain what has been done and to get at +the published accounts and discussions of it, the mass may be so great +that he has laid out for him a course of reading that may last many +months. + +But mark the spirit with which he attacks it! He is at work on something +that seems to him supremely worth while. He is labouring to find out +truth, to dissipate error, to help his fellow-men to know something or to +do something. The impulse to read, and to read much and thoroughly, is so +powerful that it may even need judicious repression. The difference +between this kind of reading and that done in the preparation of a paper +to fill a place in a set programme hardly needs emphasis. + +The preparation of papers for professional and technical societies has +been dwelt upon at such length, because I see no reason why the impulse to +reading that it furnishes cannot also be placed at the disposal of the +woman's club; and I shall have some suggestions toward this end in a +future article. + +Meanwhile, I shall doubtless be told that it is unfair to compare the +woman's club, with its didactic aim, and the scientific association of +trained and interested investigators. It is true that we have plenty of +clubs--some of men alone, some of both sexes--whose object is to listen to +interesting and instructive papers on a set subject, often forming part of +a pre-arranged programme. These, however, need our attention here only so +far as the papers are prepared by members of the club, and in this case +they are in precisely the same class as the woman's club. In many cases, +however, the paper is merely the excuse for a social gathering, perhaps at +a dinner or a luncheon. Of course if the paper or lecture is by an expert +invited to give it, the case falls altogether outside of the region that +we are exploring. + +I am condemning here all clubs, formed for an avowed educational or +cultural purpose, that adopt set programmes and assign the subjects to +their own members. I am deploring the kind of reading to which this leads, +the kind of papers that are prepared in this way, and the kind of thought +and action that are the inevitable outcome. + +It would seem that the women's clubs now form an immense majority of all +organisations of this kind and that there are reasons for warning women +that they are specially prone to this kind of mistake. + +The diversity of interests of the average man, the wideness of his +contacts--the whole tradition of his sex--tends to minimise the injury +that may be done to him, intellectually and spiritually, by anything of +this kind. The very fact that he is the woman's inferior spiritually, and +in many cases, in intellect, also--although probably not at the +maximum--relieves him, in great part, of the odium attaching to the error +that has been described. Women are becoming keenly alive to the +deficiencies of their sex-tradition; they are trying to broaden their +intellectual contacts--that is the great modern feminist movement. Some of +those who are active in it are making two mistakes--they are ignoring the +differences between the sexes and they are trying to substitute revolution +for evolution. In this latter error they are in very good company--hardly +one of the great and the good has not made it, at some time and in some +way. Revolution is always the outcome of a mistake. The mistake may be +antecedent and irrevocable, and the revolution therefore necessary, but +this is rarely the case. The revolutionist runs a risk common to all who +are in a hurry--he may break the object of his attention instead of moving +it. When he wants to hand you a dish he hits it with a ball-bat. Taking a +reasonable amount of time is better in the long run. + +That there is no royal road to knowledge has long been recognised. The +trouble with most of us is that we have interpreted this to mean that the +acquisition of knowledge must always be a distasteful process. On the +contrary, the vivid interest that is the surest guide to knowledge is also +the surest smoother of the path. Given the interest that lures the student +on, and he will spend years in surmounting rocks and breaking through +thorny jungles, realising their difficulties perhaps, but rejoicing the +more when those difficulties prove no obstacles. + +The fact that the first step toward accomplishment is to create an +interest has long been recognised, but attempts have been made too often +to do it by devious ways, unrelated to the matter in hand. Students have +been made to study history or algebra by offering prizes to the diligent +and by threatening the slothful with punishment. More indirect rewards and +punishments abound in all our incitements to effort and need not be +mentioned here. They may often be effective, but the further removed they +are from direct personal interest in the subject, the weaker and the less +permanent is the result. You may offer a boy a dollar to learn certain +facts in English history, but those facts will not be fixed so well or so +lastingly in his mind as those connected with his last year's trip to +California, which he remembers easily without offer of reward or threat of +punishment. + +The interest in the facts gathered by reading in connection with the +average club paper is merely the result of a desire to remain in good +standing by fulfilling the duties of membership; and these duties may be +fulfilled with slight effort and no direct interest, as we have already +seen. + +If interest were present even at the inception of the programme, something +would be gained; but in too many cases it is not. The programme committee +must make some kind of a programme, but what it is to be they know little +and care less. + +Two women recently entered a branch library and asked the librarian, who +was busy charging books at the desk, what two American dramatists she +considered "foremost." This was followed by the request, "Please tell me +the two best plays of each of them." A few minutes later the querists +returned and asked the same question about English dramatists, and still +later about German, Russian, Italian and Spanish writers of the drama. +Each time they eagerly wrote down the information and then retired to the +reading-room for a few minutes' consultation. + +Finally they propounded a question that was beyond the librarian's +knowledge, and then she asked why they wanted to know. + +"We are making out the programme for our next year's study course in the +Blank Club," was the answer. + +"But you mustn't take my opinion as final," protested the scandalised +librarian. "You ought to read up everything you can find about dramatists. +I may have left out the most important ones." + +"This will do nicely," said the club-woman, as she folded her sheets of +paper. And it did--whether nicely or not deponent saith not? but it +certainly constituted the club programme. + +On another occasion a clubwoman entered the library and said with an air +of importance, "I want your material on Susanna H. Brown." + +The librarian had never heard of Susanna, but experience had taught her +modesty and also a certain degree of guile, so she merely said, "What do +you want to know about her, particularly?" + +"Our club wishes to discuss her contributions to American literature." + +Now the Brown family has been active in letters, from Charles Brockden +down to Alice, but no one seems to know of Susanna H. The librarian +contrived to put off the matter until she could make some investigations +of her own, but, all the resources of the central reference room proving +unequal to the task, she timidly asked the clubwoman, at her next visit, +to solve the problem. + +"Oh, we don't know who Susanna H. Brown was; that is why we came to you +for information!" + +"But where did you find the name?" + +"Well, I don't know exactly; but one of our members, in a conversation +with some one who knows a lot about literature--I forget just who it +was--was told that Susanna H. Brown had rendered noteworthy services to +American literature. We've got to find out, for her name is already +printed on the programme!" + +I don't know what was said of Miss, or Mrs. Brown at the meeting; but my +opinion is that this particular item on the programme had to be omitted. + +Another lady entered a library abruptly and said "I want your books on +China." + +"Do you mean the country of that name? or are you looking up porcelain?" + +First perplexity and then dismay spread over the lady's face. "Why, I +don't know," she faltered. "The program just said China!" + +A university professor was once asked by one of these program committees +for a list of references on German folklore--a subject to which it had +decided that its club should devote the current season. The list, as +furnished, proved rather stiff, and the astonished professor received +forthwith the following epistle (quoted from memory): + +"DEAR PROFESSOR-- + +"Thank you so much for the folk-lore; but we have changed our minds and +have decided to study the Chicago Drainage Canal instead." + +This hap-hazard method of programme-making is not confined to club papers, +as the following anecdote will show: + +An officer of a woman's club entered a library and said that she thought +it would be nice to vary the usual literary programme by the introduction +of story-telling, and she asked for aid from the library staff. It was a +busy season and as the librarian hesitated the clubwoman added hastily +that the whole programme need not occupy more than half an hour. "We want +the very simplest things, told in a few words, so that it will really be +no trouble at all." + +Pressed to be more specific, she went on: "Well--no story must take more +than three minutes, and we want Little Nell, Louis IX, Moses in the +Bulrushes, the Princes in the Tower, Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk, +the Holy Night and Louis XI. + +"You see that allowing three minutes apiece would bring them all within +twenty-four minutes--less than half an hour, just as I said. + +"And--oh, yes! we want the storyteller to sit on a platform, and just in +front of her we will pose a group of little girls, all in white frocks. +Won't that be nice?" + +The making of programmes has in many cases been influenced by the fact +that some subjects are considered more "high-toned" than others. The drama +is at present a particularly high-toned subject. The fine arts are always +placed in the first class. Apparently anything closely related to the +personal lives, habits and interests of those concerned is under a ban. +The fine arts, for instance, are not recognised as including the patterns +of wall-paper or curtains, or the decoration of plates or cups. Copying +from one programme to another is a common expedient. The making of these +programmes betrays, all through its processes and their inevitable result, +lack of originality, blind adherence to models, unquestioning imitation of +something that has gone before. I do not believe these to be +sex-characteristics, and there are signs that the sex is growing out of +them. If they are not sex characteristics they must be the results of +education, for ordinary heredity would quickly equalise the sexes in this +respect. I have already stated my belief that the physical differences +between the sexes are necessarily accompanied by mental differences, and I +think it probable that the characteristics noted above, although not +proper to sex, spring from the fact that we are expecting like results +from the same educational treatment of unlike minds. When we have learned +how to vary our treatment of these minds so as to produce like results--in +those cases where we want the results to be alike, as in the present +instance--we shall have solved the problem of education, so far as it +affects sex-differences. + +It has long been recognised that whenever woman does show a deviation from +standards she is apt to deviate far and erratically. So far, however, she +has shown no marked tendency so to deviate in the arts and a very slight +one in the sciences. There have been lately some marked instances of her +upward deviation in the field of science. In literature, no age has been +wanting in great woman writers, though there have been few of them. I look +eventually to see woman physicists as eminent as Helmholtz and Kelvin, +woman painters as great as Raphael and Velasquez, woman musicians as able +as Bach and Beethoven. That we have had none yet I believe to be solely +the fault of inadequate education. Of this inadequacy our imitative, +arbitrary and uninspiring club programmes are a part--the very fact that +our clubwomen pin their faith to programmes of any kind is a consequence +of it. The substitution of something else for these programmes, with the +accompanying change in the interests and reading of clubwomen, will be one +step toward the rationalisation of education--for all processes of this +kind are essentially educative. + +We need not despair of finding ultimately the exact differences in method +which, applied in the education of the sexes, will minimise such of the +present mental differences as we desire to obliterate. Problems of this +sort are solved usually by the discovery of some automatic process. In +this case the key to such a process is the fact that the mental +differences between the sexes manifest themselves in differences of +interest. + +Every parent of boys and girls knows that these differences begin early to +show themselves. We have been too prone to disregard them and to +substitute a set of imagined differences that do not really exist. We go +about the moral training of the boy and the girl in precisely the same +way, although their moral points of view and susceptibilities differ in +degree and kind; and then we marvel that we do not get precisely similar +moral products. But we assume that there is some natural objection to the +climbing of trees by girls, while it is all right for boys--an imaginary +distinction that has caused tears and heart-burnings. We are outgrowing +this particular imaginary distinction, and some others like it. Possibly +we may also outgrow our systems of co-education, so far as this means the +subjection of the male and the female mind to exactly the same processes +of training. The training of the sexes in the same institution, with its +consequent mental contact between them, has nothing to do with this, +necessarily, and has advantages that cannot be overlooked. + +Whatever we do in school, our subsequent education, which goes on at least +as long as we inhabit this world, must be in and through social contact, +men and women together. But if each sex is not true to itself and does not +live its own life, the results cannot be satisfactory. Reactions that are +sought in an effort made by women to conform their instincts, aspirations +and mental processes to those of men will be feeble or perverted, just as +they would be if men should seek a similar distortion. The remedy is to +let the woman's mind swing into the channel of least resistance, just as +the man's always has done. Then the clubs, and the clubwomen, their +exercises, their papers and their preparatory reading will all be released +from the constraint that is now pinching them and pinning them down and +will bud and blossom and grow up to normal and valuable fruition. + +We have started with the fact that the reading done by the members of +women's clubs, especially in connection with club papers, is often +trivial, superficial, devoid of intelligence and lacking in judgment. +Treating this as a symptom; we have, I think, traced the cause to a total +lack of interest due to arbitrary, perfunctory and unintelligent +programme-making. The disease may be diagnosed, I think, as acute +programitis and the physician is in a position to consider what +therapeutic measures may be indicated. We shall endeavor to prescribe some +simple remedies. + + +III--_The Remedy_ + +When we have once discovered the cause of a malady, we may proceed in two +ways to combat it; either we may destroy the cause or we may render the +possible victims immune. To put it a little differently, we may eliminate +either of the two elements whose conjunction causes the disease. To grow +weeds, there must co-exist their seeds and a favourable soil. They may be +exterminated either by killing the seeds or sterilising the soil. Either +of these methods may be used in dealing with the disease that prevails +among readers, or, if you prefer the other metaphor, with the rank +vegetation that has choked the fertile soil of their minds, making any +legitimate mental crop impossible. We have seen that the conditions +favorable to the disease are a lack of interest and a fallacious idea that +there is something inherent in the printed page _per se_ that makes its +perusal valuable whether the reader is interested or not--somewhat as a +charm is supposed to work even when it is in a language that the user does +not understand. + +We are considering only the form of the disease that affects clubwomen, +and this we have diagnosed as _programitis_--the imposition of a set +programme of work--which, as an exciting cause, operates on the mental +soil prepared by indifference and fetichism to produce the malady from +which so many are now suffering. + +I think physicians will generally agree that where the exciting cause can +be totally removed that method of dealing with the disease is far more +effective than any attempt to secure immunity. I believe that in most +cases it is so in the present instance. + +In other words, my prescription is the abandonment, in nine cases out of +ten, of the set programme, and the substitution of something that is +interesting primarily to each individual concerned. This is no new +doctrine. Listen to William James: + + Any object not interesting in itself may become interesting + through becoming associated with an object in which an interest + already exists. The two associated objects grow, as it were, + together: the interesting portion sheds its quality over the + whole; and thus things not interesting in their own right borrow + an interest which becomes as real and as strong as that of any + natively interesting thing.... If we could recall for a moment our + whole individual history, we should see that our professional + ideals and the zeal they inspire are due to nothing but the slow + accretion of one mental object to another, traceable backward from + point to point till we reach the moment when, in the nursery or in + the schoolroom, some little story told, some little object shown, + some little operation witnessed, brought the first new object and + new interest within our ken by associating it with some one of + those primitively there. The interest now suffusing the whole + system took its rise in that little event, so insignificant to us + now as to be entirely forgotten. As the bees in swarming cling to + one another in layers till the few are reached whose feet grapple + the bough from which the swarm depends; so with the objects of our + thinking--they hang to each other by associated links, but the + original source of interest in all of them is the native interest + which the earliest one once possessed. + +If we are to exorcise this spirit of indifference that has settled down +like a miasma upon clubdom we must find James's original germ of +interest--the twig upon which our cluster of bees is ultimately to hang. +Here we may introduce two axioms: Everyone is deeply interested in +something; few are supremely interested in the same thing. I shall not +attempt to prove these, and what I shall have to say will be addressed +only to those who can accept them without proof. But I am convinced that +illustrations will occur at once to everyone. Who has not seen the man or +woman, the boy or girl who, apparently stupid, indifferent and able to +talk only in monosyllables, is suddenly shocked into interest and +volubility by the mere chance mention of some subject of +conversation--birds, or religion, or Egyptian antiquities, or dolls, or +skating, or Henry the Eighth? There are millions of these electric buttons +for galvanising dumb clay into mental and spiritual life, and no one of +them is likely to act upon more than a very few in a given company--the +theory of chances is against it. That is why no possible programme could +be made that would fit more than a very small portion of a given club. We +have seen that many club-programmes are made with an irreducible minimum +of intelligence; but even a programme committee with superhuman intellect +and angelic goodwill could never compass the solution of such a problem as +this. Nor will it suffice to abandon the general programme and endeavour +to select for each speaker the subject that he would like best to study +and expound. No one knows what these subjects are but the owners of the +hearts that love them. + +We have seen how the scientific and technical societies manage the matter +and how well they succeed. They appoint a committee whose duty it is to +receive contributions and to select the worthiest among those presented. +The matter then takes care of itself. These people are all interested in +something. They are finding out things by experimentation or thought; by +induction or deduction. It is the duty and the high pleasure of each to +tell his fellows of his discoveries. It is in this way that the individual +gives of his best to the race--the triumph of the social instinct over +selfishness. As this sort of intellectual profit-sharing becomes more and +more common, the reign of the social instinct will extend and strengthen. +To do one's part toward such an end ought to be a pleasure, and this is +one reason why this course is commended here to the women's clubs. + +Everyone, I repeat, is deeply interested in something. I am not talking of +idiots; there are no such in women's clubs. I have been telling some odd +stories of clubwomen, in which they are represented as doing and saying +idiotic things. These stories are all true, and if one should take the +time to collect and print others, I do not suppose, as the sacred writer +says, "that all the world could contain the books that should be written." +Things quite as idiotic as these that I have reported are said and done in +every city and every hamlet of these United States every day in the year +and every hour in the day--except possibly between three and five A.M., +and sometimes even then. Yet those who say and do these things are not +idiots. When your friend Brown is telling you his pet anecdote for the +thirty-fifth time, or when Smith insists that you listen to a recital of +the uninteresting accomplishments of his newly-arrived infant, you may +allow your thoughts to wander and make some inane remark, yet you are not +an idiot. You are simply not interested. You are using most of your mind +in another direction and it is only with what is left of it that you hear +Brown or Smith and talk to him. Brown or Smith is not dealing with your +personality as a whole, but with a residuum. + +And this is what is the matter with the clubwomen who read foolishly and +ask foolish questions in libraries. They are residual personalities. Not +being at all interested in the matter in hand, they are devoting to it +only a minimum part of their brains; and what they do and say is +comparable with the act of the perambulating professor, who, absorbed in +mathematical calculation, lifted his hat to the cow. + +The professor was perhaps pardonable, for his mind was not wandering--it +was suffering, on the contrary, from excessive concentration--but it was +not concentrated on the cow. In the case of the clubwomen, the role of the +cow is played by the papers that they are preparing, while, in lieu of the +mathematical problems, we have a variety of really absorbing subjects, +more or less important, over which their minds are wandering. What we must +do is to capture these wandering minds, and this we can accomplish only by +enlisting their own knowledge of what interests them. + +If you would realise the difference between the mental processes of a mere +residue and those of the whole personality when its vigour is concentrated +on one subject, listen first to one of those perfunctory essays, culled +from a collection of cyclopaedias, and then hear a whole woman throw her +whole self into something. Hear her candid opinion of some person or thing +that has fallen below her standard! Hear her able analysis of the case at +law between her family and the neighbours! Hear her make a speech on woman +suffrage--I mean when it is really to her the cause of causes; there are +those who take it up for other reasons, as the club-women do their papers, +with not dissimilar results. In all these cases clearness of presentation, +weight of invective, keenness of analysis spring from interest. None of +these women, if she has a feminine mind, treats these things as a man +would. We men are very apt to complain of the woman's mental processes, +for the same reason that narrow "patriots" always suspect and deride the +methods of a foreigner, simply because they are strange and we do not +understand them. But what we are compelled to think of the results is +shown by the fact that when we are truly wise we are apt to seek the +advice and counsel of the other sex and to act upon it, even when we +cannot fathom the processes by which it was reached. + +All the more reason this why the woman should be left to herself and not +forced to model her club paper on the mental processes of a man, used with +many necessary elisions and sometimes with very bad workmanship, in the +construction of the cyclopaedia article never intended to be employed for +any such purpose. + +Perhaps we can never make the ordinary clubwoman talk like Susan B. +Anthony, or Anna Shaw, or Beatrice Hale, or Fola La Follette; any more +than we can put into the mouth of the ordinary business man the words of +Lincoln, or John B. Gough, or Phillips Brooks, or Raymond Robins--but get +somehow into the weakest of either sex the impulses, the interests, the +energies that once stood or now stand behind the utterances of any one of +these great Americans, and see if the result is not something worth while! +An appreciative critic of the first paper in this series, writing in _The +Yale Alumni Weekly_, gives it as his opinion that these readers are in the +first stage of their education--that of "initial intellectual interest." +He says: "Curiosity, then suspicion, come later to grow into individual +intellectual judgment." + +I wish I could agree that what we have diagnosed as a malady is only an +early stage of something that is ultimately to develop into matured +judgment. But the facts seem clearly to show that, far from possessing +"initial intellectual interest," these readers are practically devoid of +any kind of interest whatever, properly speaking. Such as they have is not +proper to the subject, but simply due to the fact that they desire to +retain their club membership, to fulfil their club duties, and to act in +general as other women do in other clubs. To go back to our recent simile, +it is precisely the same interest that keeps you listening, or pretending +to listen, to a bore, while you are really thinking of something else. If +you were free to follow your impulses, you would insult the bore, or throw +him downstairs, or retreat precipitately. You are inhibited by your sense +of propriety and your recognition of what is due to a fellow-man, no +matter how boresome he may be. The clubwoman doubtless has a strong +impulse to throw the encyclopaedia out of the window, or to insult the +librarian (occasionally she does) or even to resign from the club. She is +prevented, in like manner, by her sense of propriety, and often, too, we +must admit, by a real, though rudimentary, desire for knowledge. But such +inhibitions cannot develop into judgment. They are merely negative, while +the interest that has a valuable outcome is positive. + +Another thing that we shall do well to remember is that no condition or +relation one of whose elements or factors is the human mind can ever be +properly considered apart from that mind. Shakespeare's plays would seem +to be fairly unalterable. Shakespeare is dead and cannot change them, and +they have been written down in black and white this many a year. But the +real play, so far as it makes any difference to us to-day, is not in the +books; or, at least, the book is but one of its elements. It is the effect +produced upon the auditor, and of this a very important element is the +auditor's mental and spiritual state. Considered from this standpoint, +Shakespeare's plays have been changing ever since they were written. +Environment, physical and mental, has altered; the language has developed; +the plain, ordinary talk of Shakespeare's time now seems to us quaint and +odd; every-day allusions have become cryptic. It all "ain't up to date," +to quote the Cockney's complaint about it. Probably no one to-day can +under any circumstances get the same reaction to a play of Shakespeare as +that of his original audience, and probably no one ever will. + +Anecdotes possess a sort of centripetal force; tales illustrative of the +matter at hand have been flying to me from all parts of the country. From +the Pacific Northwest comes this, which seems pertinent just here. A good +clubwoman, who had been slaving all day over a paper on Chaucer, finally +at its close threw down her pen and exclaimed, "Oh, dear! I wish Chaucer +were _dead_!" She had her wish in more senses than the obvious one. Not +only has Chaucer's physical body long ago given up its substance to earth +and air, but his works have to be translated for most readers of the +present day; his language is fast becoming as dead as Latin or Greek. But, +worse still, his very spirit was dead, so far as its reaction on her was +concerned. Poetry, to you and me, is what we make of it; and what do you +suppose our friend from Oregon was making of Chaucer? Our indifference, +our failure to react, is thus more far-reaching than its influence on +ourselves--it is, in some sense, a sin against the immortal souls of those +who have bequeathed their spiritual selves to the world in books. And this +sin the clubs are, in more cases than I care to think, forcing +deliberately upon their members. + +A well-known cartoonist toiled long in early life at some uncongenial task +for a pittance. Meanwhile he drew pictures for fun, and one day a +journalist, seeing one of his sketches, offered him fifty dollars for +it--the salary of many days. "And when," said the cartoonist, "I found I +could get more money by playing than by working, I swore I would never +work again--and I haven't." + +When we can all play--do exactly what we like--and keep ourselves and the +world running by it, then the Earthly Paradise will be achieved. But, +meanwhile, cannot we realize that these clubwomen will accomplish more if +we can direct and control their voluntary activity, backed by their whole +mental energy, than when they devote some small part of their minds to an +uncongenial task, dictated by a programme committee? + +I shall doubtless be reminded that the larger clubs are now generally +divided into sections, and that membership in these sections is supposed +to be dictated by interest. This is a step in the right direction, but it +is an excessively short one. The programme, with all its vicious +accompaniments and lamentable results, persists. What I have said and +shall say applies as well to an art or a domestic science section as to a +club _in toto_. + +To bring down the treatment to a definite prescription, let us suppose +that the committee in charge of a club's activities, instead of marking +out a definite programme for the season, should simply announce that +communications on subjects of personal interest to the members, embodying +some new and original thought, method, idea, device, or mode of treatment, +would be received, and that the best of these would be read and discussed +before the club, after which some would appear in print. No conditions +would be stated, but it would be understood that such features as length +and style, as well as subject matter, would be considered in selecting the +papers to be read. Above all, it would be insisted that no paper should be +considered that was merely copied from anything, either in substance or +idea. It is, of course, possible to constitute a paper almost entirely of +quotations and yet so to group and discuss these that the paper becomes an +original contribution to thought; but mere parrot-like repetition of +ascertained facts, or of other people's thoughts, should not be tolerated. + +Right here the first obstacle would be encountered. Club members, +accustomed to be assigned for study subjects like "The Metope of the +Parthenon" or "The True Significance of Hyperspace," will not easily +comprehend that they are really desired to put briefly on paper original +ideas about something that they know at first hand. Mrs. Jones makes +better sponge cake than any one in town; the fact is known to all her +friends. If sponge cake is a desirable product, why should not the woman +who has discovered the little knack that turns failure into success, and +who is proud of her ability and special knowledge, tell her club of it, +instead of laboriously copying from a book--or, let us say, from two or +three books--some one else's compilation of the facts ascertained at +second or third hand by various other writers on "The Character of the +Cid"? Why should not Mrs. Smith, who was out over night in the blizzard of +1888, recount her experiences, mental as well as physical? Why should not +Miss Robinson, who collects coins and differs from the accepted +authorities regarding the authenticity of certain of her specimens, tell +why and how and all about it? Why should not the member who is crazy about +begonias and the one who thinks she saw Uncle Hiram's ghost, and she who +has read and re-read George Meredith, seeing beauties in him that no one +else ever detected--why should not one and all give their fellows the +benefit of the really valuable special knowledge that they have acquired +through years of interested thinking and talking and doing? + +But there will be trouble, as I have said. The thing, simple as it is, +would be too unaccustomed to comprehend. And then a real article in a real +cyclopaedia by a real writer is Information with a big "I." My little +knowledge about making quince jelly, or darning stockings, or driving an +auto, or my thoughts about the intellectual differences between Dickens +and Thackeray, or my personal theories of conduct, or my reasons for +preferring hot-water heat to steam--these are all too trivial to mention; +is it possible that you want me to write them down on paper? + +It may thus happen that when the committee opens its mail it may +find--nothing. What, then? Logically, I should be forced to say: Well, if +none of your members is interested enough in anything to have some +original information to tell about it, disband your club. What is the use +of it? Even three newsboys, when they meet on the street corner, begin at +once to interchange ideas. Where are yours? + +Possibly this would be too drastic. It might be better to hold a meeting, +state the failure, and adjourn for another trial. It might be well to +repeat this several times, in the hope that the fact that absence of +original ideas means no proceedings might soak in and germinate. If this +does not work, it might be possible to fight the devil with fire, by going +back to the programme method so far as to assign definitely to members +subjects in which they are known to be deeply interested. This, in fact, +is the second method of treatment mentioned at the outset, namely, the +endeavour to secure immunity where the germ cannot be exterminated. We +shall probably never be able to rid the world of the _bacillus +tuberculosis_; the best we can do is to keep as clear of it as we can and +to strengthen our powers of resistance to it. So, if we cannot kill the +programme all at once, let us strive to make it innocuous and to minimise +its evil effects on its victims. + +Let us suppose, now, that in one way or another, it is brought about that +every club member who reads a paper is reporting the result of some +personal experience in which her interest is vivid--some discovery, +acquisition, method, idea, criticism or appreciation that is the product +of her own life and of the particular, personal way in which she has lived +it. + +What a result this will have on that woman's reading--on what she does +before she writes her paper and on what she goes through after it! If her +interest is as vivid as we assume it to be, she will not be content to +recount her own experiences without comparing them with those of others. +And after her paper has been read and the comment and criticism of other +interested members have been brought out--of some, perhaps, whose interest +she had never before suspected, then she will feel a fresh impulse to +search for new accounts and to devour them. There is no longer anything +perfunctory about the matter. She can no longer even trust the labour of +looking up her references to others. She becomes an investigator; she +feels something of the joy of those who add to the sum of human knowledge. + +And lo! the problem of clubwomen's reading is solved! The wandering mind +is captured; the inane residuum is abolished by union with the rest to +form a normal, intelligent whole. No more idiotic questions, no more +cyclopaedia-copying, no more wool-gathering programmes. Is it too much to +expect? Alas, we are but mortal! + +I trust it has been made sufficiently clear that I think meanly neither of +the intellectual ability of women nor of the services of women's clubs. +The object of these papers is to give the former an opportunity to assert +itself, and the latter a chance to profit by the assertion. The woman's +club of the future should be a place where original ideas, fed and +directed by interested reading, are exchanged and discussed. Were I +writing of men's clubs, I should point out to them the same goal. And +then, perhaps, we may look forward to a time when a selected group of men +and women may come together and talk of things in which they both, as men +and women, are interested. + +When this happens, I trust that in the discussion we shall not heed the +advice of some modern feminists and forget that we are as God made us. Why +should each man talk to a woman "as if she were another man"? I never +heard it advised that each woman should talk to each man "as if he were +another woman"; but I should resent it if I did. Why shut our eyes to the +truth? I trust that I have not been talking to the club-women "as if they +were men"; I am sure I have not meant to do so. They are not men; they +have their own ways, and those ways should be developed and encouraged. We +have had the psychology of race, of the crowd and of the criminal; where +is the investigator who has studied the Psychology of Woman? When she +(note the pronoun) has arrived, let us make her president of a woman's +club. + +It is with diffidence that I have outlined any definite procedure, +because, after all, the precise manner in which the treatment should be +applied will depend, of course, on the club concerned. To prescribe for +you most effectively, your physician should be an intimate friend. He +should have known you from birth--better still, he should have cared for +your father and your grandfather before you. Otherwise, he prescribes for +an average man; and you may be very far from the average. The drug that he +administers to quiet your nerves may act on your heart and give you the +smothers--it might conceivably quiet you permanently. Then the doctor +would send to his medical journal a note on "A Curious Case of Umptiol +Poisoning," but you would still be dead, even if all his readers should +agree with him. + +I have no desire to bring about casualties of this kind. Let those who +know and love each particular club devote themselves to the task of +applying my treatment to it in a way that will involve a minimum shock to +its nerves and a minimum amount of interference with its metabolic +processes. It will take time. Rome was not built in a day, and a +revolution in clubdom is not going to be accomplished over night. + +I have prescribed simple remedies--too simple, I am convinced, to be +readily adopted. What could be simpler than to advise the extermination of +all germ diseases by killing off the germs? Any physician will tell you +that this method is the very acme of efficiency; yet, the germs are still +with us, and bid fair to spread suffering and death over our planet for +many a long year to come. So I am not sanguine that we shall be able all +at once to kill off the programmes. All that may be expected is that at +some distant day the simplicity and effectiveness of some plan of the sort +will begin to commend itself to clubwomen. If, then, some lover of the +older literature will point out the fact that, back in 1915, the gloomy +era when fighting hordes were spreading blood and carnage over the fair +face of Europe, an obscure and humble librarian, in the pages of THE +BOOKMAN, pointed out the way to sanity, I shall be well content. + + + + +BOOKS FOR TIRED EYES + + +The most distinctive thing about a book is the possibility that someone +may read it. Is this a truism? Evidently not; for the publishers, who +print books, and the libraries, which store and distribute them, have +never thought it worth their while to collect and record information +bearing on this possibility. In the publisher's or the bookseller's +advertising announcements, as well as on the catalogue cards stored in the +library's trays, the reader may ascertain when and where the book was +published, the number of pages, and whether it contains plates or maps; +but not a word of the size or style of type in which it is printed. Yet on +this depends the ability of the reader to use the book for the purpose for +which it was intended. The old-fashioned reader was a mild-mannered +gentleman. If he could not read his book because it was printed in +outrageously small type, he laid it aside with a sigh, or used a +magnifying lens, or persisted in his attempts with the naked eye until +eyestrain, with its attendant maladies, was the result. Lately however, +the libraries have been waking up, and their readers with them. The +utilitarian side of the work is pushed to the front; and the reader is by +no means disposed to accept what may be offered him, either in the content +of the book or its physical make-up. The modern library must adapt itself +to its users, and among other improvements must come an attempt to go as +far as possible in making books physiologically readable. + +Unfortunately the library cannot control the output of books, and must +limit itself to selection. An experiment in such selection is now in +progress in the St. Louis Public Library. The visitor to that library will +find in its Open Shelf Room a section of shelving marked with the words +"Books in large type." To this section are directed all readers who have +found it difficult or painful to read the ordinary printed page but who do +not desire to wear magnifying lenses. It has not been easy to fill these +shelves, for books in large type are few, and hard to secure, despite the +fact that artists, printers, and oculists have for years been discussing +the proper size, form, and grouping of printed letters from their various +standpoints. Perhaps it is time to urge a new view--that of the public +librarian, anxious to please his clients and to present literature to them +in that physical form which is most easily assimilable and least harmful. + +Tired eyes belong, for the most part, to those who have worked them +hardest; that is, to readers who have entered upon middle age or have +already passed through it. At this age we become conscious that the eye is +a delicate instrument--a fact which, however familiar to us in theory, has +previously been regarded with aloofness. Now it comes home to us. The +length of a sitting, the quality, quantity, and incidence of the light, +and above all, the arrangement of the printed page, become matters of +vital importance to us. A book with small print, or letters illegibly +grouped, or of unrecognizable shapes, becomes as impossible to us as if it +were printed in the Chinese character. + +It is an unfortunate law of nature that injurious acts appear to us in +their true light only after the harm is done. The burnt child dreads the +fire after he has been burned--not before. So the fact that the +middle-aged man cannot read small, or crooked, or badly grouped type means +simply that the harmfulness of these things, which always existed for him, +has cumulated throughout a long tale of years until it has obtruded itself +upon him in the form of an inhibition. The books that are imperative for +the tired eyes of middle age, are equally necessary for those of +youth--did youth but know it. Curiously enough, we are accustomed to +begin, in teaching the young to read, with very legible type. When the +eyes grow stronger, we begin to maltreat them. So it is, also, with the +digestive organs, which we first coddle with pap, then treat awhile with +pork and cocktails, and then, perforce, entertain with pap of the second +and final period. What correspond, in the field of vision, to pork and +cocktails, are the vicious specimens of typography offered on all sides to +readers--in books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers--typography that +is slowly but surely ruining the eyesight of those that need it most. + +Hitherto, the public librarian has been more concerned with the minds and +the morals of his clientele than with that physical organism without which +neither mind nor morals would be of much use. It would be easy to pick out +on the shelves of almost any public library books that are a physiological +scandal, printed in type that it is an outrage to place before any +self-respecting reader. I have seen copies of "Tom Jones" that I should be +willing to burn, as did a puritanical British library-board of newspaper +notoriety. My reasons, however, would be typographic, not moral, and I +might want to add a few copies of "The Pilgrim's Progress" and "The +Saint's Everlasting Rest," without prejudice to the authors' share in +those works, which I admire and respect. Perhaps it is too much to ask for +complete typographical expurgation of our libraries. But, at least, +readers with tired eyes who do not yet wear, or care to wear, corrective +lenses, should be able to find, somewhere on the shelves, a collection of +works in relatively harmless print--large and black, clear in outline, +simple and distinctive in form, properly grouped and spaced. + +The various attempts to standardize type-sizes and to adopt a suitable +notation for them have been limited hitherto to the sizes of the type-body +and bear only indirectly on the size of the actual letter. More or less +arbitrary names--such as minion, bourgeois, brevier, and nonpareil,--were +formerly used; but what is called the point-system is now practically +universal, although its unit, the "point," is not everywhere the same. +Roughly speaking, a point is one-seventy-second of an inch, so that in +three-point type, for example, the thickness of the type-body, from the +top to the bottom of the letter on its face, is one-twenty-fourth of an +inch. But on this type-body the face may be large or small--although of +course, it cannot be larger than the body,--and the size of the letters +called by precisely the same name in the point notation may vary within +pretty wide limits. There is no accepted notation for the size of the +letters themselves, and this fact tells, more eloquently than words, that +the present sizes of type are standardized and defined for compositors +only, not for readers, and still less for scientific students of the +effect upon the readers' eyes of different arrangements of the printed +page. + +What seems to have been the first attempt to define sizes of type suitable +for school grades was made fifteen years ago by Mr Edward R. Shaw in his +"School Hygiene"; he advocates sizes from eighteen-point in the first year +to twelve-point for the fourth. "Principals, teachers, and school +superintendents," he says, "should possess a millimetre measure and a +magnifying glass, and should subject every book presented for their +examination to a test to determine whether the size of the letters and the +width of the leading are of such dimensions as will not prove injurious to +the eyes of children." To this list, librarians might be well added--not +to speak of authors, editors, and publishers. In a subsequent part of his +chapter on "Eyesight and Hearing," from which the above sentence is +quoted, appears a test of illumination suggested by "The Medical Record" +of Strasburg, which may serve as a "horrid example" in some such way as +did the drunken brother who accompanied the temperance lecturer. According +to this authority, if a pupil is unable to read diamond +type--four-and-one-half-point--"at twelve-inch distance and without +strain," the illumination is dangerously low. The adult who tries the +experiment will be inclined to conclude that whatever the illumination, +the proper place for the man who uses diamond type for any purpose is the +penitentiary. + +The literature upon this general subject, such as it is, is concerned +largely with its relations with school hygiene. We are bound to give our +children a fair start in life, in conditions of vision as well as in other +respects, even if we are careless about ourselves. The topic of +"Conservation of Vision," in which, however, type-size played but a small +part, was given special attention at the Fourth International Congress of +School Hygiene, held in Buffalo in 1913. Investigations on the subject, so +far as they affect the child in school, are well summed up in the last +chapter of Huey's "Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading." In general, the +consensus of opinion of investigators seems to be that the most legible +type is that between eleven-point and fourteen-point. Opinion regarding +space between lines, due to "leading," is not quite so harmonious. Some +authorities think that it is better to increase the size of the letters; +and Huey asserts that an attempt to improve unduly small type by making +wide spaces between lines is a mistake. + +As to the relative legibility of different type-faces, one of the most +exhaustive investigations was that made at Clark University by Miss +Barbara E. Roethlin, whose results were published in 1912. This study +considers questions of form, style, and grouping, independently of mere +size; and the conclusion is that legibility is a product of six factors, +of which size is one, the others being form, heaviness of face, width of +the margin around the letter, position in the letter-group, and shape and +size of adjoining letters. For "tired eyes" the size factor would appear +of overwhelming importance except where the other elements make the page +fantastically illegible. In Miss Roethlin's tables, based upon a +combination of the factors mentioned above, the maximum of legibility +almost always coincides with that of size. These experiments seem to have +influenced printers, whose organization in Boston has appointed a +committee to urge upon the Carnegie Institution the establishment of a +department of research to make scientific tests of printing-types in +regard to the comparative legibility and the possibility of improving some +of their forms. Their effort, so far, has met with no success; but the +funds at the disposal of this body could surely be put to no better use. + +With regard to the improvement of legibility by alteration of form, it has +been recognized by experiments from the outset that the letters of our +alphabet, especially the small, or "lower-case" letters, are not equally +legible. Many proposals for modifying or changing them have been made, +some of them odd or repugnant. It has been suggested, for instance, that +the Greek lambda be substituted for our _l_, which in its present form is +easily confused with the dotted _i_. Other pairs of letters (_u_ and _n_, +_o_ and _e_, for example) are differentiated with difficulty. The +privilege of modifying alphabetic form is one that has been frequently +exercised. The origin of the German alphabet and our own, for instance, is +the same, and no lower-case letters in any form date further back than the +Middle Ages. There could be no well-founded objection to any change, in +the interests of legibility, that is not so far-reaching as to make the +whole alphabet look foreign and unfamiliar. It may be queried, however, +whether the lower-case alphabet had not better be reformed by abolishing +it altogether. There would appear to be no good reason for using two +alphabets, now one and now the other, according to arbitrary rules, +difficult to learn and hard to remember. That the general legibility of +books would benefit by doing away with this mediaeval excrescence appears +to admit of no doubt, although the proposal may seem somewhat startling to +the general reader. + +In 1911, a committee was appointed by the British Association for the +Advancement of Science "to inquire into the influence of school-books upon +eyesight." This committee's report dwells on the fact that the child's eye +is still in process of development and needs larger type than the fully +developed eye of the adult. In making its recommendation for the +standardization of school-book type, which it considers the solution of +the difficulty, the committee emphasizes the fact that forms and sizes +most legible for isolated letters are not necessarily so for the groups +that need to be quickly recognized by the trained reader. It dwells upon +the importance of unglazed paper, flexible sewing, clear, bold +illustrations, black ink, and true alignment. Condensed or compressed +letters are condemned, as are long serifs and hair strokes. On the other +hand, very heavy-faced type is almost as objectionable as that with the +fine lines, the ideal being a proper balancing of whites and blacks in +each letter and group. The size of the type face, as we might expect, is +pronounced by the committee "the most important factor in the influence of +books upon vision"; it describes its recommended sizes in millimetres--a +refinement which, for the purposes of this article, need not be insisted +upon. Briefly, the sizes run from thirty-point, for seven-year-old +children, to ten-point or eleven-point, for persons more than twelve years +old. Except as an inference from this last recommendation, the committee, +of course, does not exceed its province by treating of type-sizes for +adults; yet it would seem that it considers ten-point as the smallest size +fit for anyone, however good his sight. This would bar much of our +existing reading matter. + +A writer whose efforts in behalf of sane typography have had practical +results is Professor Koopman, librarian of Brown University, whose plea +has been addressed chiefly to printers. Professor Koopman dwells +particularly on the influence of short lines on legibility. The eye must +jump from the end of each line back to the beginning of the next, and this +jump is shorter and less fatiguing with the shorter line, though it must +be oftener performed. Owing largely to his demonstration, "The Printing +Art," a trade magazine published in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has changed +its make-up from a one-column to a two-column page. It should be noted, +however, that a uniform, standard length of line is even more to be +desired than a short one. When the eye has become accustomed to one length +for its linear leaps, these leaps can be performed with relative ease and +can be taken care of subconsciously. When the lengths vary capriciously +from one book, or magazine, to another, or even from one page to another, +as they so often do, the effort to get accustomed to the new length is +more tiring than we realize. Probably this factor, next to the size of +type, is most effective in tiring the middle-aged eye, and in keeping it +tired. The opinion may be ventured that the reason for our continued +toleration of the small type used in the daily newspapers is that their +columns are narrow, and still more, that these are everywhere of +practically uniform width. + +The indifference of publishers to the important feature of the physical +make-up of books appears from the fact that in not a single case is it +included among the descriptive items in their catalogue entries. Libraries +are in precisely the same class of offenders. A reader or a possible +purchaser of books is supposed to be interested in the fact that a book is +published in Boston, has four hundred and thirty-two pages, and is +illustrated, but not at all in its legibility. Neither publishers nor +libraries have any way of getting information on the subject, except by +going to the books themselves. Occasionally a remainder-catalogue, +containing bargains whose charms it is desired to set forth with unusual +detail, states that a certain book is in "large type," or even in "fine, +large type," but these words are nowhere defined, and the purchaser cannot +depend on their accuracy. An edition of Scott, recently advertised +extensively as in "large, clear type," proved on examination to be printed +in ten-point. + +In gathering the large-type collection for the St. Louis Library +fourteen-point was decided upon as the standard, which means, of course, +types with a face somewhere between the smallest size that is usually +found on a fourteen-point body, even if actually on a smaller body, and +the largest that this can carry, even if on a larger body. The latter is +unusually large, but it would not do to place the standard below +fourteen-point, because that would lower the minimum, which is none too +large as it is. The first effort was to collect such large-type books, +already in the library, as would be likely to interest the general reader. +In the collection of nearly 400,000 volumes, it was found by diligent +search that only 150 would answer this description. Most octavo volumes of +travel are in large type, but only a selected number of these was placed +in the collection to avoid overloading it with this particular class. This +statement applies also to some other classes, and to certain types of +books, such as some government reports and some scientific monographs, +which have no representatives in the group. The next step was to +supplement the collection by purchase. All available publishers' +catalogues were examined, but after a period of twelve months it was found +possible to spend only $65.00 in the purchase of 120 additional books. A +circular letter was then sent to ninety-two publishers, explaining the +purpose of the collection and asking for information regarding books in +fourteen-point type, or larger, issued by them. To these there were +received sixty-three answers. In twenty-nine instances, no books in type +of this size were issued by the recipients of the circulars. In six cases, +the answer included brief lists of from two to twelve titles of large-type +books; and in several other cases, the publishers stated that the labor of +ascertaining which of their publications are in large type would be +prohibitive, as it would involve actual inspection of each and every +volume on their lists. In two instances, however, after a second letter, +explaining further the aims of the collection, publishers promised to +undertake the work. The final result has been that the Library now has +over four hundred volumes in the collection. This is surely not an +imposing number, but it appears to represent the available resources of a +country in which 1,000 publishers are annually issuing 11,000 volumes--to +say nothing of the British and Continental output. In the list of the +collection and in the entries, the size of the type, the leading, and the +size of the book itself are to be distinctly stated. The last-mentioned +item is necessary because the use of large type sometimes involves a heavy +volume, awkward to hold in the hand. The collection for adults in the St. +Louis Library, as it now exists, may be divided into the following +classes, according to the reasons that seem to have prompted the use of +large type: + +1. Large books printed on a somewhat generous scale and intended to sell +at a high price, the size of the type being merely incidental to this +plan. These include books of travel, history, or biography in several +volumes, somewhat high-priced sets of standard authors, and books intended +for gifts. + +2. Books containing so little material that large type, thick paper, and +wide margins were necessary to make a volume easy to handle and use. These +include many short stories of magazine length, which for some inscrutable +reason are now often issued in separate form. + +3. Books printed in large type for aesthetic reasons. These are few, +beauty and artistic form being apparently linked in some way with +illegibility by many printers, no matter what the size of the type-face. + +The large-type collection is used, not only by elderly persons, but also +in greater number by young persons whose oculists forbid them to read fine +print, or who do not desire to wear glasses. The absence of a wide range +in the collection drives others away to books that are, doubtless, in many +cases bad for their eyes. Some books that have not been popular in the +general collection have done well here, while old favorites have not been +taken out. Such facts as these mean little with so limited a collection. +Until readers awake to the dangers of small print and the comfort of large +type there will not be sufficient pressure on our publishers to induce +them to put forth more books suitable for tired eyes. It is probably too +much to expect that the trade itself will try to push literature whose +printed form obeys the rules of ocular hygiene. All that we can reasonably +ask is that type-size shall be reported on in catalogues, so that those +who want books in large type may know what is obtainable and where to go +for it. + +It has often been noted that physicians are the only class of professional +men whose activities, if properly carried on, tend directly to make the +profession unnecessary. Medicine tends more and more to be preventive +rather than curative. We must therefore look to the oculists to take the +first steps towards lessening the number of their prospective patients by +inculcating rational notions about the effects of the printed page on the +eye. Teachers, librarians, parents, the press--all can do their part. And +when a demand for larger print has thus been created the trade will +respond. Meanwhile, libraries should be unremitting in their efforts to +ascertain what material in large type already exists, to collect it, and +to call attention to it in every legitimate way. + + + + +THE MAGIC CASEMENT[16] + + [16] Read before the Town and Gown Club, St. Louis. + + +Anyone who talks or writes about the "movies" is likely to be +misunderstood. There is little to be said now about the moving picture as +a moving picture, unless one wants to discuss its optics or mechanics. The +time is past when anyone went to see a moving picture as a curiosity. It +was once the eighth wonder of the world; it long ago abdicated that +position to join its dispossessed brothers the telephone, the X-ray, the +wireless telegraph and the phonograph. What we now go to see is not the +moving picture, but what the moving picture shows us; it is no more than a +window through which we gaze--the poet's "magic casement" opening +(sometimes) "on the foam of perilous seas." We may no more praise or +condemn the moving picture for what it shows us than we may praise or +condemn a proscenium arch or the glass in a show window. + +The critic who thinks that the movies are lowering our tastes, or doing +anything else objectionable, as well as he who thinks they are educating +the masses, is not of the opinion that the moving pictures are doing these +things because they show moving objects on a screen, but because of the +character of what is photographed for such exhibition. + +Thoughts on the movies, therefore, must be rather thoughts on things that +are currently shown us by means of the movies; thoughts also on some of +the things that we might see and do not. I have compared the screen above +to a proscenium arch and a show window, but both of these are selective: +the screen is as broad as the world. It is especially adapted to show +realities; through it one may see the coast of Dalmatia as viewed from a +steamer, the habits of animals in the African jungle, or the play of +emotion on the faces of an audience at a ball game in Philadelphia. I am +pleased to see that more and more of these interesting realities are shown +daily in the movie theatres. There has been a determined effort to make +them unpopular by calling them "educational," but they seem likely to +outlive it. One is educated, of course, by everything that he sees or +does, but why rub it in? The boy who thoroughly likes to go sailing will +get more out of it than he who goes because he thinks it will be "an +educational experience." As one who goes to the movies I confess that I +enjoy its realities. Probably they educate me, and I take that with due +meekness. Some of these realities I enjoy because they are unfamiliar, +like the boiling of the lava lake in the Hawaiian craters and the changing +crowds in the streets of Manila; some because they are familiar, like a +college foot-ball game or the movement of vessels in the North River at +New York. + +I like the realities, too, in the dramatic performances that still occupy +and probably will continue to occupy, most of the time at a movie theatre. +Here I come into conflict with the producer. Like every other adapter he +can not cut loose from the old when he essays the new. We no longer wear +swords, but we still carry the buttons for the sword belt, and it is only +recently that semi-tropic Americans gave up the dress of north-temperate +Europe. So the movie producer can not forget the theatre. Now the theatre +has some advantages that the movie can never attain--notably the use of +speech. The movie, on the other hand, has unlimited freedom of scene and +the use of real backgrounds. We do not object to a certain amount of what +we call "staginess" on the stage--it is a part of its art; as the pigment +is part of that of the painter. We are surrounded by symbols; we are not +surprised that costume, gesture and voice are also symbolic instead of +purely natural. But in the moving picture play it is, or should be, +different. The costume and make-up, the posture and gesture, that seem +appropriate in front of a painted house or tree on a back-drop, become so +out-of-place as to be repulsive when one sees them in front of a real +house and real trees, branches moving in the wind, running water--all the +familiar accompaniments of nature. The movie producers, being unable to +get away from their stage experience, are failing to grasp their +opportunity. Instead of creating a drama of reality to correspond with the +real environment that only the movie can offer, they are abandoning the +unique advantages of that environment, to a large degree. They build fake +cities, they set all their interiors in fake studio rooms, where +everything is imitation; even when they let us see a bit of outdoors, it +is not what it pretends to be. We have all seen, on the screen, bluffs 200 +feet high on the coast of Virginia and palm trees growing in the borough +of the Bronx. And they hire stage actors to interpret the stagiest of +stage plots in as stagy a way as they know how. I am taking the movie +seriously because I like it and because I see that I share that liking +with a vast throng of persons with whom it is probably the only thing I +have in common--persons separated from me by differences of training and +education that would seem to make a common ground of any kind well-nigh +impossible. With some persons the fact that the movie is democratic puts +it outside the pale at once. Nothing, in their estimation, is worth +discussing unless appreciation of it is limited to the few. Their attitude +is that of the mother who said to the nurse: "Go and see what baby is +doing, and tell him he musn't." "Let us," they say, "find out what people +like, and then try to make them like something else." To such I have +nothing to say. We ought rather, I believe, to find out the kind of thing +that people like and then do our best to see that they get it in the best +quality--that it is used in every way possible to pull them out of the +mud, instead of rubbing their noses further in. + +On the other hand, some capable critics, like Mr. Walter Pritchard Eaton, +decry the movies because they are undemocratic--because they are offering +a form of entertainment appealing only to the uneducated and thus +segregating them from the educated, who presumably all attend the regular +theatre, sitting in the parquet at two dollars per. One wonders whether +Mr. Eaton has attended a moving-picture theatre since 1903. I believe the +movie to be by all odds the most democratic form of intellectual (by which +I mean non-physical) entertainment ever offered; and I base my belief on +wide observation of audiences in theatres of many different grades. Now +this democracy shows itself not only in the composition of audiences but +in their manifestations of approval. I do not mean that everyone in an +audience always likes the same thing. Some outrageous "slap-stick" comedy +rejoices one and offends another. A particularly foolish plot may satisfy +in one place while it bores in another. But everywhere I find one thing +that appeals to everybody--realism. Just as soon as there appears on the +screen something that does not know how to pose and is forced by nature to +be natural--an animal or a young child, for instance--there are immediate +manifestations of interest and delight. + +The least "stagy" actors are almost always favorites. Mary Pickford stands +at the head. There is not an ounce of staginess in her make-up. She was +never particularly successful on the stage. Some of her work seems to me +ideal acting for the screen--simple, appealing, absolutely true. Of course +she is not always at her best. + +To the stage illusions that depend on costume and make-up, the screen is +particularly unfriendly. Especially in the "close-ups" the effect is +similar to that which one would have if he were standing close to the +actor looking directly into his face. It is useless to depend on ordinary +make-up under these circumstances. Either it should be of the description +used by Sherlock Holmes and other celebrated detectives (we rely on +hearsay) which deceives the very elect at close quarters, or else the +producer must choose for his characters those that naturally "look the +parts." In particular, the lady who, although long past forty, continues +to play _ingenue_ parts and "gets away with it" on the stage, must get +away _from_ it, when it comes to the screen. The "close up" tells the sad +story at once. The part of a sixteen-year-old girl must be played by a +real one. Another concession to realism, you see. And what is true of +persons is true of their environment. I have already registered my +disapproval of the "Universal City" type of production. It is almost as +easy for the expert to pick out the fake Russian village or the pasteboard +Virginia court-house as it is for him to spot the wrinkles in the +countenance of the school girl who left school in 1892. Next to a fake +environment the patchwork scene enrages one--the railway that is +double-track with 90-pound rails in one scene and single-track with +streaks of rust in the next; the train that is hauled in quick succession +by locomotives of the Mogul type, the Atlantic and the wood-burning +vintage of 1868. There is here an impudent assumption in the producer, of +a lack of intelligence in his audience, that is quite maddening. The same +lack of correspondence appears between different parts of the same street, +and between the outside and inside of houses. I am told by friends that I +am quite unreasonable in the extent to which I carry my demands for +realism in the movies. "What would you have?" they ask. I would have a +producing company that should advertise, "We have no studio" and use only +real backgrounds--the actual localities represented. "Do you mean to tell +me," my friend goes on, "that you would carry your company to Spain +whenever the scene of their play is laid in that country? The expense +would be prohibitive." I most certainly should not, and this because of +the very realism that I am advocating. Plays laid in Spain should be acted +not only in Spain but by Spaniards. The most objectionable kind of fake is +that in which Americans are made to do duty for Spaniards, Hindus or +Japanese when their appearance, action and bearing clearly indicate that +they were born and brought up in Skowhegan, Maine or Crawfordsville, +Indiana. I have seen Mary Pickford in "Madame Butterfly", and I testify +sadly that not even she can succeed here. No; if we want Spanish plays let +us use those made on Spanish soil. Let us have free interchange of films +between all film-producing countries. All the change required would be +translating the captions, or better still, plays might be produced that +require no captions. This might mean the total reorganization of the +movie-play business in this country--a revolution which I should view with +equanimity. Speaking of captions, here again the average producer appears +to agree with Walter Pritchard Eaton that he is catering only to the +uneducated. The writers of most captions seem, indeed, to have abandoned +formal instruction in the primary school. Why should not a movie caption +be good literature? Some of them are. The Cabiria captions were fine: +though I do not admire that masterpiece. I am told that D'Annunzio +composed them with care, and equal care was evidently used in the +translation. The captions of the George Ade fables are uniformly good, and +there are other notable exceptions. Other places where knowledge of +language is required are inadequately taken care of. Letters from eminent +persons make one want to hide under the chairs. These persons usually sign +themselves "Duke of Gandolfo" or "Secretary of State Smith." Are grammar +school graduates difficult to get, or high-priced? I beg you to observe +that here again lack of realism is my objection. + +But divers friends interpose the remark that the movies are already too +realistic. "They leave nothing to the imagination." If this were so, it +were a grievous fault--at any rate in so far as the moving-picture play +aims at being an art-form. All good art leaves something to the +imagination. As a matter of fact, however, the movie is the exact +complement of the spoken play as read from a book. Here we have the words +in full, the scene and action being left to the imagination except as +briefly sketched in the stage direction. In the movie we have scene and +action in full, the words being left to the imagination except as briefly +indicated in the captions. Where captions are very full the form may +perhaps be said to be complementary to the novel, where besides the words +we are given a written description of scene and action that is often full +of detail. The movie leaves just as much to the imagination as the novel, +but what is so left is different in the two cases. Do I think that +everyone in a movie audience makes use of his privilege to imagine what +the actors are saying? No; neither does the novel-reader always image the +scene and action. This does not depend on ignorance or the reverse, but on +imaging power. Exceptional visual and auditive imaging power are rarely +present in the same individual. I happen to have the former. I +automatically see everything of which I read in a novel, and when the +descriptions are not detailed, this gets me into trouble. On a second +reading my imaged background may be different and when the earlier one +asserts itself there is a conflict that I can compare only to hearing two +tunes played at once. Persons having already good visual imaging power +should develop their auditive imaging power by going to the movies and +hearing what the actors say; these with deficient visual imagery should +read novels and see the scenery. But to say that the movies allow no scope +for the imagination is absurd. As I said at the outset, the movie play is +just a play seen through the medium of a moving picture. It is like seeing +a drama near enough to note the slightest play of feature and at the same +time so far away that the actors can not be heard--somewhat like seeing a +distant play through a fine telescope. The action should therefore differ +in no respect from what would be proper if the words were intended to be +heard. Doubtless this imposes a special duty upon both the author of the +scenario and the producer, and they do not always respond to it. Action is +introduced that fails to be intelligible without the words, and to clear +it up the actors are made to use pantomime. Pantomime is an interesting +and valuable form of dramatic art, but it is essentially symbolic and +stagy and has, I believe, no place in the moving picture play as we have +developed it. If owing to the faulty construction of the play, or a lack +of skill on the part of producer or actors, all sorts of gestures and +grimaces become necessary that would not be required if the words were +heard, the production can not be considered good. Sometimes, of course, +words are _seen_; though not heard. The story of the deaf mutes who read +the lips of the movie actors, and detected remarks not at all in +consonance with the action of the play, is doubtless familiar. It crops up +in various places and is as ubiquitous as Washington's Headquarters. It is +good enough to be true, but I have never run it to earth yet. Even those +of us who are not deaf-mutes, however, may detect an exclamation now and +then and it gives great force to the action, though I doubt whether it is +quite legitimate in a purely picture-play. + +I beg leave to doubt whether realism is fostered by a method of production +said to be in vogue among first rate producers; namely keeping actors in +ignorance of the play and directing the action as it goes on. + +"Come in now, Mr. Smith; sit in that chair; cross your legs; light a +cigar; register perplexity; you hear a sound; jump to your feet"--and so +on. This may save the producer trouble, but it reduces the actors to +marionettes; it is not thus that masterpieces are turned out. + +Is there any chance of a movie masterpiece, anyway? Yes, but not in the +direction that most producers see it. What Vachell Lindsay calls +"Splendor" in the movies is an interesting and striking feature of +them--the moving of masses of people amid great architectural +construction--sieges, triumphs, battles, mobs--but all this is akin to +scenery. Its movements are like those of the trees or the surf. One can +not make a play entirely of scenery, though the contrary seems to be the +view of some managers, even on the stage of the regular theatre. So far, +the individual acting and plot construction in the great spectacular +movies has been poor. It was notably so, it seems to me in the Birth of a +Nation and not much better in Cabiria. Judith of Bethulia (after T.B. +Aldrich) is the best acted "splendor" play that I have seen. Masterpieces +are coming not through spending millions on supes, and "real" temples, and +forts; but rather by writing a scenario particularly adapted to +film-production, hiring and training actors that know how to act for the +camera, preferably those without bad stage habits to unlearn, cutting out +all unreal scenery, costume and make-up and keeping everything as simple +and as close to the actual as possible. The best movie play I ever saw was +in a ten-cent theatre in St. Louis. It was a dramatization of Frank +Norris's "McTeague." I have never seen it advertised anywhere, and I never +heard of the actors, before or since. But most of it was fine, sincere +work, and seeing it made me feel that there is a future for the movie +play. + +One trouble is that up to date, neither producers nor actors nor the most +intelligent and best educated part of the audience take the movies +seriously. Here is one of the marvels of modern times; something that has +captured the public as it never was captured before. And yet most of us +look at it as a huge joke, or as something intended to entertain the +populace, at which we, too are graciously pleased to be amused. It might +mend matters if we could have every day in some reputable paper a column +of readable serious stuff about the current movie plays--real criticism, +not simply the producer's "blurb." + +Possibly, too, a partnership between the legitimate stage and the movie +may be possible and I shall devote to a somewhat wild scheme of this sort +the few pages that remain to me. To begin with, the freedom enjoyed by the +Elizabethan dramatists from the limitations imposed by realistic scenery +has not been sufficiently insisted upon as an element in their art. Theirs +was a true _drame libre_, having its analogies with the present attempts +of the vers-librists to free poetry from its restrictions of rhyme and +metre. But while the tendency of poetry has always been away from its +restrictions, the _mise-en-scene_ in the drama has continually, with the +attempts to make it conform to nature, tightened its throttling bands on +the real vitality of the stage. + +Those who periodically wonder why the dramatists of the Elizabethan +age--the greatest productive period in the history of the English +stage--no longer hold the stage, with the exception of Shakespeare, and +who lament that even Shakespeare is yielding his traditional place, have +apparently given little thought to this loss of freedom as a contributing +cause. While the writers of _vers libre_ have so far freed themselves that +some of them have ceased to write poetry at all, it is a question whether +the scenic freedom of the old dramatists may not have played such a vital +part in the development of their art, that they owed to it at least some +of their pre-eminence. + +Shakespeare's plays, as Shakespeare wrote them, read better than they act. +Hundreds of Shakespeare-lovers have reached this conclusion, and many more +have reached it than have dared to put it into words. The reason is, it +seems to me, that we can not, on the modern stage, enact the plays of +Shakespeare as he intended them to be acted--as he really wrote them. + +If we compare an acting edition of any of the plays with the text as +presented by any good editor, this becomes increasingly clear. Shakespeare +in his original garb, is simply impossible for the modern stage. + +The fact that the Elizabethan plays were given against an imaginary +back-ground enabled the playwright to disregard the old, hampering unity +of place more thoroughly than has ever been possible since his time. His +ability to do so, was the result not of any reasoned determination to set +his plays without "scenery," but simply of environment. As the scenic art +progressed, the backgrounds became more and more realistic and less and +less imaginary. The imagination of the audience, however, has always been +more or less requisite to the appreciation of drama, as of any other art. +No stage tree or house has ever been close enough to its original to +deceive the onlooker. He always knows that they are imitations, intended +only to aid the imagination, and his imagination has always been obliged +to do its part. In Shakespeare's time the imagination did all the work; +and as imaginary houses and trees have no weight, the services of the +scene-shifter were not required to remove them and to substitute others. +The scene could be shifted at once from a battlefield in Flanders to a +palace in London and after the briefest of dialogues it could change again +to a street in Genoa--all without inconveniencing anyone or necessitating +a halt in the presentation of the drama. Any reflective reader of +Shakespeare will agree, I think, that this ability to shift scenes, which +after all, is only that which the novelist or poet has always possessed +and still possesses, enables the dramatist to impart a breadth of view +that was impossible under the ideas of unity that governed the drama of +the Ancients. Greek tragedy was drama in concentration, a tabloid of +intense power--a brilliant light focussed on a single spot of passion or +exaltation. The Elizabethan drama is a view of life; and life does not +focus, it is diffuse--a congeries of episodes, successive or +simultaneous--something not re-producible by the ancient dramatic methods. + +Today, while we have not gone back to the terrific force of the Greek +unified presentation, we have lost this breadth. We strive for it, but we +can no longer reach it because of the growth of an idea that realism in +_mise-en-scene_ is absolutely necessary. Of course this idea has been +injurious to the drama in more ways than the one that we are now +considering. The notable reform in stage settings associated with the +names of Gordon Craig, Granville Barker, Urban, Hume and others, arises +from a conviction that _mise-en-scene_ should inspire and reflect a +mood--should furnish an atmosphere, rather than attempt to reproduce +realistic details. To a certain extent these reforms also operate to +simplify stage settings and hence to make a little more possible the quick +transitions and the play of viewpoint which I regard as one of the glories +of the Elizabethan drama. This simplification, however, is very far from a +return to the absolute simplicity of the Elizabethan setting. Moreover, it +is doubtful whether the temper of the modern audience is favorable to a +great change in this direction. We live in an age of realistic detail and +we must yield to the current, while using it, so far as possible, to gain +our ends. + +This being the case, it is certainly interesting to find that, entirely +without the aid or consent of those who have at heart the interests of the +drama, a new dramatic form has grown up which caters to the utmost to the +modern desire for realistic detail--far beyond the dreams of ordinary +stage settings--and at the same time makes possible the quick transitions +that are the glory of the Elizabethan drama. Here, of course, is where we +make connection with the moving picture, whose fascinating realism and +freedom from the taint of the footlights have perhaps been sufficiently +insisted upon in what has been already said. In the moving picture, with +the possibility of realistic backgrounds such as no skill, no money, no +opportunity could build up on the ordinary stage--distant prospects, +marvels of architecture, waving trees and moving animals--comes the +ability of passing from one environment to another, on the other side of +the globe perhaps, in the twinkling of an eye. The transitions of the +Elizabethan stage sink into insignificance beside the possibilities of the +moving-picture screen. Such an alternation as is now common in the film +play, where two characters, talking to each other over the telephone, are +seen in quick succession, would be impossible on the ordinary stage. The +Elizabethan auditor, if his imagination were vivid and ready, might +picture such a background of castle or palace or rocky coast as no +photographer could produce; but even such imagination takes time to get +under way, whereas the screen-picture gets to the brain through the retina +instantly. + +It is worth our while, I think, to consider whether this kind of scenery, +rich in detail, but immaterial and therefore devoid of weight, could not +be used in connection with the ordinary drama. There are obstacles, but +they do not appear insuperable. The ordinary moving-picture, of course, is +much smaller than the back drop of a large stage. Its enlargement is +merely a matter of optical apparatus. Wings must be reduced in number and +provided each with its own projection-machine, or replaced with drops +similarly provided. Exits and entrances must be managed somewhat +differently than with ordinary scenery. All this is surely not beyond the +power of modern stagecraft, which has already surmounted such obstacles +and accomplished such wonders. The projection, it is unnecessary to say, +must be from behind, not from before, to avoid throwing the actors' +shadows on the scenery. There must still, of course, be lighting from the +front, and the shadow problem still exists, but no more than it does with +ordinary scenery. Its solution lies in diffusing the light. No spotlight +could be used, and its enforced absence would be one of the incidental +blessings of the moving scene. + +The advantages of this moving-picture scenery would be many and obvious. +Prominent among them of course are fidelity to nature and richness of +detail. The one, however, on which I desire to lay stress here is the +flexibility in change of scene that we have lost with the introduction of +heavy material "scenery" on our stages. This flexibility would be regained +without the necessity of discarding scenery altogether and going back to +the Elizabethan reliance on the imagination of the audience. + +Of course, moving scenery would not be required or desired in all dramatic +productions--only in those where realistic detail combined with perfect +flexibility and rapidity of change in scene seems to be indicated. The +scenery should of course be colored, and while we are waiting for the +commercial tri-chroic picture with absolutely true values, we may get +along very well with the di-chroic ones, such as those turned out with the +so-called Kinemacolor process. Those who saw the wonderful screen +reproduction of the Indian durbar, several years ago, will realize the +possibilities. + +And more than all else, may we not hope that these new backgrounds may +react on the players who perform their parts in front of them? Not +necessarily; for we have seen that it does not always do so in the present +movie play. But I am confident that the change will come. Little by little +the necessities of the case are developing actors who act naturally. One +may pose in a canoe on a painted rapid; but how can he do so in the real +water course, where every attitude, every play of the muscles must be +adapted to the real propulsion of the boat? + +In short, the movie may ultimately require its presenters to be real, and +so may come a school of realism in acting that may have its uses on the +legitimate stage also. + +Who will be the first manager to experiment with this new adjunct to the +art of the stage? + + + + +A WORD TO BELIEVERS[17] + + [17] Address at the closing session of the Church School of + Religious Instruction, St. Louis. + + +People may be divided into a great many different classes according to +their attitude toward belief and beliefs--toward the meaning and value of +belief in general--toward their own beliefs and those of their neighbors. +We have the man who does not know what "belief" means, and who does not +care; the man whose idea of its meaning is perverse and wrong; the man who +thinks his own beliefs are important and those of his neighbors are +unimportant; the man who thinks it proper to base belief on certain +considerations and not on others--the man, for instance, who will say he +believes that two plus two equals four, but can not believe in the +existence of God because the grounds for such belief can not be stated in +the same mathematical symbols. These are only a few of the classes that +might be defined, using this interesting basis of classification. But +before we can take up the question of instruction in the church's beliefs, +about which I have been asked to address you this evening, we must +recognize the existence of these classes, and possibly the fact that you +yourselves are not all in accord in the way in which you look at the +subject. + +What I shall say is largely personal and you must not look upon me as +representing anybody or anything. I may even fail to agree with some of +the instruction that you have received in this interesting and valuable +course. But I do speak, of course, as one who loves our church and as a +loyal and I hope a thoughtful layman. + +First, what is belief? We surely give the word a wide range of values. A +man says that he believes in his own existence, which the philosopher +Descartes said was the most sure thing in the world--"_Cogito, ergo sum_." +He also says that he believes it will rain to-morrow. What can there be in +common between these two acts of faith? Between a certainty and a fifty +per cent chance, or less? This--that a man is always willing to act on his +beliefs; if not, they are not beliefs within the meaning of this address. +If you believe it will rain, you take an umbrella. Your doing so is quite +independent of the grounds for your belief. There may really be very +little chance of its raining; but it is your belief that causes your +action, no matter whether it is justified or not. You could not act more +decisively if you were acting on the certainty of your own existence. It +is this willingness to act that unifies our beliefs--that gives them +value. If I heard a man declare his belief that a fierce wild animal was +on his track, and if I then saw him calmly lie down and go to sleep on the +trail, I should know that he was either insane or a liar. + +I have intimated above that belief may or may not be based on mathematical +certainty. Fill up a basket with black and white pebbles and then draw out +one. Let us create a situation that shall make it imperative for a person +to declare whether a black or a white pebble will be drawn. For instance, +suppose the event to be controlled by an oriental despot who has given +orders to strike off the man's head if he announces the wrong color. Of +course, if he has seen that only white pebbles went into the basket he +says boldly "White." That is certainty. But suppose he saw one black +pebble in the mass. Does he any the less say "White"? That one black +pebble represents a tiny doubt; does it affect the direction of his +enforced action? Suppose there were two black pebbles; or a handful. +Suppose nearly half the pebbles were black? Would that make the slightest +difference about what he would do? If you judge a man's belief by what he +does, as I think you should do, that belief may admit of a good deal of +doubt before it is nullified. Are your beliefs all based on mathematical +certainties? I hope not; for then they must be few indeed. + +That many of our fellow men have a wrong conception of belief is a very +sad fact. The idea that it must be based on a mathematical demonstration +of certainty, or even that it must be free from doubt is surely not +Christian. Our prayers and our hymns are full of the contrary. We are +beset not only by "fightings" but by "fears"--"within; without;" by "many +a conflict, many a doubt"; we pray to be delivered from this same doubt. +The whole body of Christian doctrine is permeated with the idea that the +true believer is likely to be beset by doubts of all kinds, and that it is +his duty, despite all this, to believe. + +And yet there are many who will not call themselves Christians so long as +they can not construct a rigid demonstration of every Christian doctrine. +There are many thoughtful men who call themselves Agnostics just because +they can not be mathematically sure of religious truth. Some of these men +are better Christians than many that are so named. That they hold aloof +from Christian fellowship is due to their mistaken notion of the nature of +belief. The more is the pity. Now let us go back for a moment to our +basket of pebbles. We have seen that the action of the guesser is based to +some extent on his knowledge of the contents of the basket. In other +words, he has grounds for the belief by which his act is conditioned. +Persons may act without grounds; it may be necessary for them so to do. +Even in this case there may be a sort of blind substitute for belief. A +man, pursued by a bear, comes to a fork in the road. He knows nothing +about either branch; one may lead to safety and one to a jungle. But he +has to choose, and choose at once; and his choice represents his bid for +safety. There is plenty of action of this sort in the world; if we would +avoid the necessity for it we must do a little preliminary investigation; +and if we can not find definitely where the roads lead, we may at least +hit upon some idea of which is the safest. + +But with all our investigation we shall find that we must rely in the end +on our trust in some person; either ourselves or someone else. Even the +certainty of the mathematical formula depends on our confidence in the +sanity of our own mental processes. The man who sees the basket filled +with white pebbles must trust the accuracy of his eyesight. If he relies +for his information on what someone else told him, he must trust not only +that other's eyesight, but his memory, his veracity, his friendliness. And +yet one may be far safer in trusting another than in relying on his own +unaided powers. _Securus judicat orbis terrarum_, says the old Latin. "The +world's judgment is safe." We have learned to modify this, for we have +seen world judgments that are manifestly incorrect. The world thought the +earth was flat. It thought there were witches, and it burned them. Here +individuals simply followed one another like sheep; and all, like sheep, +went astray. But where there is a real, independent judgment on the part +of each member of a group, and all agree, that is better proof of its +correctness than most individual investigations could furnish. My watch, +of the best make and carefully regulated, indicates five o'clock, but if I +meet five friends, each of whom tells me, independently, that it is six, I +conclude that my watch is wrong. There was never a more careful scientific +investigation than that by which a French physicist thought he had +established the existence of what he called the "N ray"--examined its +properties and measured its constants. He read paper after paper before +learned bodies as his research progressed. He challenged the interest of +his brother scientists on three continents. And yet he was entirely wrong: +there never was any "N ray." The man had deceived himself. The failure of +hundreds to see as he did weighed more than his positive testimony that he +saw what he thought he saw. Here as elsewhere our view of what may be the +truth is based on trust. If you trust the French physicist, you will still +believe in the "N ray." Creeds, we are told, are outworn, and yet we are +confronted, from birth to death, with situations that imperiously require +action of some sort. Every act that responds must be based on belief of +some kind. Creeds are only expressions of belief. The kind of Creed that +_is_ outworn (and this is doubtless what intelligent persons mean when +they make this statement) is the parrot creed, the form of words without +meaning, the statement of belief without any grounds behind it or any +action in front of it. For this the modern churchman has no use. + +And if he desires to avoid the parrot creed, he must surely inform himself +regarding the meaning of its articles and the grounds on which they are +held. More; he must satisfy himself of the particular meaning that they +have for him and the personal grounds on which he is to hold them. This is +the reason why such a course as that which you complete to-night is +necessary and valuable. I have heard instruction of this kind deprecated +as likely to bring disturbing elements into the mind. One may doubtless +change from belief to skepticism by too much searching. It used to be a +standing joke in Yale College, when I was a student there, that a +well-known professor reputed to be an Atheist, had been perfectly orthodox +until he had heard President Porter's lectures on the "Evidences of +Christianity." But seriously, this objection is but another phase of the +fallacy at which we have already glanced--that doubts are fatal to belief. +I am certain that the professor in question might have examined in detail +every one of President Porter's "Evidences," and found them wanting, only +to discover clearer and stronger grounds of belief elsewhere--in his mere +confidence in others, perhaps. Or he might have turned pragmatist and +believed in Christianity because it "worked"--a valid reason in this case +doubtless, but not always to be depended on; because the Father of Lies +sometimes makes things "work" himself--at least temporarily. + +But if examining into the grounds of his belief makes a man honestly give +up that belief, then I bid him God-speed. I may weep for him, but I cannot +help believing that he stands better with his Maker for being honest with +himself than if he had gone on with his parrot belief that meant +absolutely nothing. I can not feel that the Aztecs who were baptized by +the followers of Cortes were any more believers in Christianity after the +ceremony than they were before. It seems to me, however that a Christian, +examining faithfully the grounds of his belief, will usually have that +belief strengthened, and that a churchman, examining the doctrines of the +church will be similarly upheld. + +Not that church instruction should be one-sided. The teaching that tends +to make us believe that every intelligent man thinks as we do reacts +against itself. It is like the unfortunate temperance teaching that +represents the liking for wine as always acquired. When the pupil comes to +taste wine and finds that he likes it at once, he concludes that the whole +body of instruction in the physiology of alcohol is false and acts +accordingly. When a boy is taught that there is nothing of value beyond +his own church, or nothing of value outside of Christianity, he will think +less of his church, and less of Christianity when he finds intelligent, +upright, lovable outsiders. I look back with horror on some of the books, +piously prepared under the auspices of the S.P.C.K. in London, that I used +to take home from Sunday School. In them we were told that a good man +outside the church was worse than a bad man in it. If that was not the +teaching in the book, it was at least the form in which it took lodgment +in my boyish brain. Thank God it never found permanent foothold there. +Instead, I hold in my memory the Eastern story of God's rebuke to Abraham +when he expelled the Fire Worshipper from his tent. "Could you not bear +with him for one hour? Lo! I have borne with him these forty years!" + +I have always thought that a knowledge of what our neighbors believe is an +excellent balance-wheel to our own beliefs and that our own beliefs, so +balanced, will be saner and more restrained. It would be well, I think, if +we could have a survey of the world's religions, setting down in parallel +columns all the faiths of mankind. If this is too great a task we might +begin with a survey of Christianity, set down in the same way. I believe +that the results of such a survey might surprise us, showing, as I think +it would do, the many fundamentals that we hold in common and the trivial +nature of some of the barriers that appear to separate us. + +In your course, just completed, you have had such a survey, I doubt not, +of the beliefs of our own beloved church. Where her divines have differed, +you have had the varying opinions spread before you. You have not been +told that the mind of every churchman has always been a replica of the +mind of every other churchman. Personally, I feel grateful that this has +not been the case. As I say my creed and begin "I believe in God, the +Father Almighty," I realize that the aspect of even such a basic belief as +this, is the same in no two minds; that it shifts from land to land and +from age to age. I know that God, as he is, is past human knowledge and +that until we see Him face to face we can not all mean just the same thing +when we repeat this article of belief. But I realize also that this is not +due to the mutability of the Almighty but to man's variability. The Gods +of St. Jerome, of Thomas Carlyle and of William James are different; but +that is because these men had different types of minds. Behind their human +ideas stands God himself--"the same yesterday, to-day and forever." So we +may go through the creed; so we may study, as you have been doing, the +beliefs of the church. Everywhere we see the evidences of the working, +upon fallible human minds of a dim appreciation of something beyond full +human knowledge-- + + "That one far-off divine event + Toward which the Whole Creation moves." + +We have a wonderful church, my friends. It is a church to live with; a +church to be proud of. Those who miss what we are privileged to enjoy are +missing something from the fulness of life. We have not broken with the +historic continuity of the Christian faith: there is no chasm, filled with +wreckage, between us and the fathers of the church. Above all we have +enshrined our beliefs in a marvellous liturgy, which is ever old and ever +new, and which had the good fortune to be put into English at a day when +the force of expression in our Mother tongue was peculiarly virile, yet +peculiarly lovely. I know of nothing in the whole range of English +literature that will compare with the collects as contained in our Book of +Common Prayer, for beauty, for form, for condensation and for force. They +are a string of pearls. And indeed, what I have said of them applies to +the whole book. When I see Committees of well-meaning divines trying to +tamper with it, I shudder as I might if I witnessed the attempt of a guild +of modern sculptors to improve the Venus of Milo by chipping off a bit +here and adding something there. Good reasons exist for changes, +doubtless; but I feel that we have here a work of art, of divine art; and +art is one of God's ways of reaching the human heart. We are proud that we +have not discarded it from our church buildings, from our altars, from the +music of our choirs. Let us treat tenderly our great book of Common +Prayer, like that other great masterpiece of divine literary art, the King +James version of the Bible. There are plenty of better translations; there +is not one that has the same magic of words to fire the imagination and +melt the heart. + +These are all trite things to say to churchmen: I have tried, on occasion, +to say them to non-churchmen, but they do not seem to respond. There are +those who rejoice in their break with historic continuity, who look upon a +written form of service with horror. It is well, as I have said, for us to +realize that our friends hold these opinions. One can not strengthen his +muscles in a tug of war unless some one is pulling the other way. The +savor of religion, like that of life itself, is in its contrasts. I thank +God that we have them even within our own Communion. We are high-church +and low-church and broad-church. We burn incense and we wear Geneva gowns. +This diversity is not to be condemned. What is to be deprecated is the +feeling among some of us that the diversity should give place to +uniformity--to uniformity of their own kind, of course. To me, this would +be a calamity. Let us continue to make room in our church for +individuality. God never intended men to be pressed down in one mold of +sameness. In the last analysis, each of us has his own religious beliefs. +The doctrines of our church, or of any church are but a composite portrait +of these beliefs. But when one takes such a portrait throughout all lands +and in all time, and the features keep true, one can not help regarding +them as the divine lineaments. + +This is how I would have you regard the beliefs of our church, as you have +studied them throughout this course--as our particular composite +photograph of the face of God, as He has impressed it on the hearts and +minds of each one of us. I commend this view to those who have no +reverence for beliefs, particularly when they are formulated as creeds. +These persons mean that they have no regard for group beliefs but only for +those of the individual. Each has his own beliefs, and he must have +confidence in them, for they are the grounds on which he acts, if he is a +normal man. Even the faith of an Agnostic is based on a very positive +belief. As for me, I feel that the churchman goes one step beyond him: he +even doubts Doubt. Said Socrates: "I know nothing except this one thing, +that I know nothing. The rest of you are ignorant even of this." Socrates +was a great man. If he had been greater still, he might have said +something like this: "I freely acknowledge that a mathematical formula can +not satisfy all the cases that we discuss. But neither can it be stated +mathematically that they are all unknowable. I am not even sure that I +know nothing." Surely, under these circumstances, we may give over looking +for mathematical demonstrations and believe a few things on our own +account--that our children love us--that our eyes do not deceive us; that +the soul lives on; that God rules all. We may put our faith in what our +own church teaches us, even as a child trusts his father though he can not +construct a single syllogism that will increase that trust. + +This does not mean that we shall not benefit by examining the articles of +our faith; by learning what they are, what they mean and what others have +thought of them. The churchman must combine, in his mental habits, all +that is best of the Conservative and the Radical. While holding fast that +which is good he must keep an open mind toward every change that may serve +to bring him nearer to the truth or give him a clearer vision of it. + +How we can insure this better than by such an institution as the Church +School for Religious Instruction I am sure I do not see. May God guide it +and aid it in its work! + + + + +INDEX + + +Abraham, Story of, 335 + +Action, test of belief, 332 + +Ade, George, 110, 170; + fables in picture plays, 319 + +Adults and children, compared, 14 + +Advertisement of ideas, 127 + +Aldrich, T.B., 322 + +Alger, Horatio, 16, 174 + +America, Fluid customs in, 224 + +"America", hymn, 191 + +American Academy of Sciences, 57 + +American ancestry, 179; + architecture, 218; + art, 217; + music, 218; + philosophy, 220; + religion, 219; + thought, tendencies of, 213 + +American Association for the Advancement of Science, 50 + +American Library Association, 51 + +American Library Institute, 52 + +American readers, 42 + +Americanization, 17, 73 + +Americanization of England, 225 + +Ancestry, American, 179 + +Anglo-Saxon ancestry, 181 + +Architecture, American, 218 + +Archives, family, 184 + +Army, international, 159 + +Art, American, 217; + effect of, 163 + +Art, Early forms of, 37 + +Association, value of, 45 + +Atoms of energy and action, 122 + +Attractiveness a selective feature, 26 + +Austen, Jane, 176 + +Author, Function of, 67 + +Authors Club, N.Y., 51 + +Auto-suggestion in drugs, 233 + +Aviation, Newcomb's opinion of, 86 + + + +Belief, What is?, 339 + +Bennett, Arnold, 175 + +Bible, King James Version, 337 + +Birth of a nation; picture play, 322 + +Book-stores, disappearance of, 238 + +Books in selective education, 27 + +"Book-Taught Bilkins", 89, 98 + +Book-titles, Possessive case in, 19 + +Boston tea-party, 183 + +Branch libraries, Reasons given for using, 11 + +British Association, 307 + +Brooklyn Public Library, 4 + +Brown, Susannah H., who was she? 281 + +Browsing, 27; + uses of, 104 + +Bryce, James, quoted, 216 + +Buildings, Monumental, 141 + +Bulwer-Lytton, E.G.E.L., 86 + +Burbank, Luther, 24 + + + +Cabiria; motion picture play, 319, 322 + +Captions in motion pictures, 318 + +Carnegie, Andrew, 77 + +Carnegie Institution, 85, 306 + +Cartoonist, Anecdote of, 294 + +Centre, What is a?, 145 + +Centralized associations, 58 + +Certainty and belief, 330 + +Chaucer, 293 + +Chautauqua, 265 + +Chemistry, New drugs from, 232 + +Chicago Evening Post, quoted, 109 + +Chicago, Field houses in, 148 + +Chicago Women's Club, Paper before, 197 + +Children's editions, 6; + rooms, 31 + +Christian Science and drugs, 233 + +Christianity, 331 + +Christmas book shows, 170 + +Church School of religious instruction, 329 + +Church, Use of symbols by, 188 + +Churches of Christ in America, Federation of, 220 + +Circulation by volumes, 6; + publicity value of, 142; + tables, 7, 8 + +Circulation, Publicity, 142 + +Civil Engineers, Society of, 52 + +Civil War, Notions of, 180 + +Classroom libraries, 29 + +Clergy, Slight influence of, 13 + +"Close-ups" in motion pictures, 317 + +Clubs that meet in libraries, 148 + +Clubwomen's reading, 259 + +Colloquial speech, 92 + +Color-photography in motion pictures, 327 + +Combat, Settlement by, 158 + +Commercial travellers, 198 + +Commission government, 216 + +Constitution, United States, 50, 214; + amendment of, 226 + +Continuum, 116 + +Cook, Dr. Frederick, 95 + +Copyright conference, 53 + +Courses of reading, 268 + +Court, International, 159 + +Creeds, Uses of, 333 + +Crowd-psychology on a ferry, 247 + + + +Dante, 46 + +D'Annunzio, G., 322 + +Delivery stations in drug stores, 241 + +Democracy a result, 72; + and ancestry, 186; + and despotism, 213; + conditions of, 209 + +Department stores, 238 + +Despotism and democracy, 213 + +Dickens, pathos of, 175 + +Disarmament, 161 + +Discontinuity of the universe, 124 + +Distribution of books, 67, 129 + +Distributor, Library as a, 198 + +Divorce, Freedom of, 217 + +Don Quixote, Heine on, 173 + +Drug-addiction, 234 + +Drugs and the man, 229 + + + +Eaton, Walter Pritchard, quoted, 316 + +Eclecticism in America, 213 + +Economic advertising, 130 + +Economic writings of Newcomb, 86 + +Education, American, 218; + in recreation, 100; + modern methods of, 63; + of the community, 243; + of the sexes, 273; + post-scholastic, 30; + selective, 23, 65; + through books, 90 + +Efficiency in association, 48; + What is? 257 + +Elizabethan drama, 323 + +Energetics, Theory of, 114 + +Energy, Atomic theories of, 113 + +England an elective monarchy. 214; + rigid customs in, 224; + source consciousness in, 182 + +Ephemeral, Meaning of, 36 + +Episcopalians, 220 + +Eyes, injured by small type, 302 + + + +Fairy tales, 75 + +Falsity in books, 39 + +Feminist movement, 267 + +Flag, what it stands for, 187 + +Fiction, 39; + interest in, 137; + intoxication by, 40, 100; + uses of, 35 + +Fluids, Mixture of, 118 + +Force symbolized by flag, 194 + +Ford, Henry, 237 + +Freedom, What is? 192 + + + +Gallicism in book-titles, 22 + +Gary system, 246 + +Genealogy, American, 179 + +Gibbs, J. Willard, quoted, 118 + +Good-will, Influence of, 17 + +Government, Federal, 213 + +Gravitation, Law of, 83 + +Gray's Elegy, 111 + +Greek tragedy, 324 + +Group-action, 45; + on a ferry, 247 + + + +Hall, G. Stanley, quoted, 253 + +Harvard Classics, 109 + +Heine, Heinrich, quoted, 173 + +Henry, Joseph, 80 + +Heredity, and memory, 73; + History and, 179 + +Hertzian waves, 121 + +Hilgard, Julius, 80 + +Hill, G.W., 84 + +Holmes, Mary J., 104 + +Homer, Methods of, 198 + +Honesty, Lack of, 32 + +Huey, Book by, 305 + +Hunt, Leigh, 109 + +Huret, Jules, 41 + + + +Identity, Meaning of, 114 + +Impeachment, 214 + +Indicator, in English libraries, 225 + +Indifference to books, 133 + +Information in books, 94 + +Inspiration from books, 101 + +Intemperance in reading, 40, 100 + +Interest, Importance of, 287, 289; + Necessity of, 5, 137 + +International agreements in science, 85 + +Internationalism, 159 + +Intoxication by fiction, 40, 100 + +Ivanhoe, 175 + + + +James, William, 138; + founder of pragmatism, 221; + quoted, 287 + + + +Keith, Cleveland, 84 + +Kent, William, quoted, 229 + +Kepler, quoted, 177 + +Kinemacolor process, 327 + +Kinetic theory, 120 + +Koopman, H.L., 308 + + + +Lagrange, 114 + +Languages, written and spoken, 90 + +Large type, Books in, 301 + +Law, Enforcement of, 158 + +Le Bon, Gustave, 45 + +Lee, Gerald Stanley, 77 + +Legibility of type, 306 + +Libbey, Laura Jean, 41, 104 + +Libraries, Economic features of, 67 + +Library associations. 49; + Non-partisanship of, 70, 96, 152; + Private basis of, 169 + +Lindsay, Vachell, 321 + +Lines, Length of on printed page, 309 + +Liouville's theorem, 123 + +Lippmann, Walter, quoted, 216, 228 + +Literature an art, 165; + evaluation of, 95; + static and dynamic, 35 + +Los Angeles Public Library, 96 + +Lower-case letters. 307 + +Loyalists, United Empire, 180 + +Lummis, Chas. F., 96 + +Lunar theory, 84 + + + +Magazines, Support of, 68 + +Magical remedies, 233 + +Magnet, Definition of, 87 + +Make-up in motion pictures, 317 + +Malemployment, 229 + +Maxwell Jas. Clerk, 115 + +Mayflower, The, 183 + +Medical Record, Strasburg, 305 + +Meetings in libraries, 147 + +Memory, Latent, 74 + +Meredith, Geo., 110 + +Mexican commission, 194 + +Military associations, 48 + +Mill, John Stuart, 243, 244 + +Mind, Male and female types, 272 + +Moderation, Lack of in America, 235 + +Mohammedanism, 219 + +Molecular theory, 115 + +Moon's motion, 84 + +Morals, Eclecticism in, 216 + +Morgan, J.P., 169 + +Motives of library users, 11 + +Moving pictures, 313 + +Municipal ownership and operation, 154 + +Music, American, 218 + + +N-ray, 333 + +Narrative, earliest literary form, 37 + +National Academy of Fine Arts, 57 + +National Academy of Science, 52 + +National Education Association, 50; + Address before, 145 + +Nautical Almanac, 80 + +New country, What is? 182 + +New England Society, 179 + +New York, Free Circulating Library, 19 + +New York, Library support in, 200; + West side readers, 42 + +New York Public Library, 11, 30, 220 + +Newcomb, Simon, Sketch of, 79 + +Newspapers, 36 + +Newton, Isaac, 83 + +Non-partisanship of library, 250 + +Norris, Frank, 322 + + + +Omar Khayyam, 108 + +Open shelves, 104; + Origin of, 225 + +Optic, Oliver, 174 + +Ostwald, Wilhelm, 114 + + + +Pacifism, 157 + +Pageant of St. Louis, 188 + +Pantomime in the motion picture, 320 + +Papers, Ready-made, for clubs, 270; + scientific, 275 + +Pater, Walter, 168 + +Paulist fathers, 220 + +Pauperization, intellectual, 68 + +Pendleton, A.M., quoted, 140 + +Perry, Bliss, quoted, 211 + +Pharmacy, School of, address to, 229 + +Philadelphia Free Library, Address at, 67 + +Philosophy, an interesting subject, 133, 138; + in America, 220 + +Phonograph, Uses of, 94 + +Physics made interesting, 138 + +Pickford, Mary, 247, 317 + +Planck, Max, 113, 120 + +Planets, Orbits of, 83 + +Players' Club, N.Y., 51 + +Pocahontas, 183 + +Poincare, Henri, 113, 120 + +"Poison labels" for books, 96 + +Porter, Noah, 334 + +Posse, International, 159 + +Possessive case, Use of, 19 + +Pragmatism in America, 221 + +Prayer Book as literature, 337 + +Prescott, William H., 95 + +Press, Slight influence of, 13 + +Pride, Personal and group, 185 + +Princeton University, 219 + +Printing Art, magazine, 308 + +Programitis, club disease, 286 + +Programmes, Club, 268, 280, 295 + +Public as library owners, 205 + +Public Library, 169; + eclecticism of, 221; + people's share in, 197 + +Publicity, Library, 140 + +Publisher, Function of, 67 + +Puritanism, 219 + + + +Quanta, 121; + hypothesis of, 113 + + + +Race-record, Library as a, 74 + +Radio-activity, 231 + +Rayleigh's Law, 120 + +Readers, Do they read? 3 + +Reading, mechanism of, 91; + skill in, 135 + +Realism in education, 246; + in motion pictures, 314 + +Recall, earliest form of, 213 + +Records, varieties of, 94 + +Recreation through books, 99 + +Religion in America, 219 + +Renewal, Preservation by, 97 + +Repetition a test of art, 166 + +Reprinting, Use of, 98 + +Re-reading, Art of, 163 + +Residual personality, 290 + +Resonators, 121 + +Revolution, American, notions of, 180; + versus evolution, 279 + +Revue Scientifique, 113 + +Roethlin, Barbara E., 306 + +Roman Catholic Church, 220 + +Roman viewpoint in history, 181 + +Rome, decadence of, 227 + +Rousiers, Paul de., quoted, 55, 56, 57 + + + +St. Louis Academy of Science, paper before, 113 + +St. Louis, library tax in, 200 + +St. Louis Public Library, 140, 254, 302; + meetings in, 150 + +Sampling books, 110 + +Scenery in motion pictures, 317; + in Elizabethan drama, 323; + made of motion pictures, 327 + +School libraries, 29 + +School, Non-partisanship of, 70; + Community use of, 155 + +Schoolmen of N.Y., Paper before, 23 + +Scientific societies, 52 + +"See America First" movement, 191 + +Selection In nature, 23; + mechanical, 47 + +Selective education, 65 + +Sex in library use, 15 + +Sexes, differences of, 272 + +Shakespeare, 178; + changes in, 293; + rank of, 168; + unavailable for stage, 323 + +Shaw, Edw. R., 304 + +Social Centre movement, 145 + +Society for Psychical Research, 82 + +Society of Illuminating Engineers, 57 + +Socrates, quoted, 338 + +Sorolla, 164 + +Southern views of Civil War, 180 + +Spelling reform, 93 + +Staginess of the theatre, 315 + +Standard Dictionary, 87 + +Standards in literature, 36 + +Statistics of reading, actual, 4 + +Story-telling, 37; + extraordinary, 282 + +Structure of energy, 118 + +Superficiality, meaning of, 105; 269 + +Swift, Dean, 208 + +Symbols, Use of, 188 + + + +Taste, literary, 171; + origin of, 4 + +Tax, library, 200 + +Teacher, influence of, 13, 243 + +Text-books, Defects of, 270 + +Therapeutics, Changes in, 230 + +Tocqueville, de., quoted, 56 + +Toronto, University of, 220 + +Trade-literature, 98 + +Tradition, Uses of, 93 + +Travel, Foreign, in United States, 41 + +Trollope, Anthony, 176 + +Tutorial system, 219 + +Tyndall, John, 138 + +Type sizes, Standardization of, 304 + + + +Un-American, what is? 226 + +Unfitness, Elimination of, 24 + +Union, symbolized by flag, 189 + +Unity of place on the stage, 324 + +Universal City, 317 + + + +Value, Structure of, 119 + +Van Dyke, Henry, quoted, 193 + +Verne, Jules, 86 + +Violence, systematization of, 157 + +Vision, Conservation of, 305 + +Volumes, Statistics by, 4 + + + +Walton, Isaac, 165 + +War, European, 209, 249; status of, 158 + +Wesley, John, 46 + +West, source-consciousness of, 182 + +White, Gilbert, 165 + +Wien, Wilhelm, 122 + +Women's Clubs, 210; reading of, 259 + +Woodbury, George E., quoted, 219 + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Librarian's Open Shelf, by Arthur E. 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