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diff --git a/45959.txt b/45959.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2579dd3..0000000 --- a/45959.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3325 +0,0 @@ - OPEN THAT DOOR! - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: Open That Door! -Author: Robert Sturgis Ingersoll -Release Date: June 13, 2014 [EBook #45959] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OPEN THAT DOOR! *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - OPEN THAT DOOR! - - - BY - - ROBERT STURGIS INGERSOLL - - - - PHILADELPHIA & LONDON - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - 1916 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - - PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1916 - - - - PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS - PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. - - - - - *CONTENTS* - -CHAPTER - - I. Walled In - II. An Open Door - III. Reading Fiction with an Eye on Life - IV. History and Your Vote - V. Clio's Vintage - VI. The Poet and the Reader - VII. The Children of Pan - VIII. Men Behind Books - IX. Keeping up with Life - - - - - *OPEN THAT DOOR!* - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - *WALLED IN* - - -The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his -own works.--CERVANTES - - -An author is of necessity a rather egotistical sort of a fellow, or else -he would not trumpet abroad his name upon the title-page of a book. If -we should measure this egotism by the size of the audience to which he -hopes to appeal, we fear that the sponsor of this little book should -make humble apologies in behalf of his phrenological egocentric bump. -He who writes upon how to grow fat, modestly limits his audience to -those who, from pride of appearance, or upon doctor's orders, desire to -add to their avoirdupois. There is a similar modesty upon the part of -those who limit their audiences by writing cook-books for the cooks, -temperance appeals for the drunkards, novels for the seminary ladies, -war books for the valiant, peace books for the pacificists. We -(notwithstanding the fact that he fears to call himself "I" in the first -chapter) acknowledge no such modesty. Every one wants to get the best -of life. This general statement is as true as the more specific ones -that every one wants to enjoy his dinner, his work, his family, and his -friends. The desire to obtain satisfaction through the passing of the -years is the prime motive in the actions of the male and the female, the -fat and the thin, the long and the short, the stupid and the wise, the -railroad president and the ditch digger. It is for this cosmopolitan, -democratic crowd of you and myself and every one else that there is, or -is not, a message in the following pages. - - -One of the most stimulating thoughts to which mankind is heir is the -realization of the handicaps under which we are all laboring. This is a -great thought in that it is so universal, so levelling, so powerful in -making us truly appreciate that we are all brothers one unto another. -The millionaire is a slave to his money; another man is embittered by -poverty, a third carries the burden of an unsound body, a fourth of a -selfish nature, a fifth of an unhappy family life, a sixth is -overwhelmed by his own stupidity, a seventh by his sense of duty towards -others, an eighth by a sense of duty towards himself, and so it goes -through the rank and file, the humble and the mighty. How many of us -take the bit in our teeth, and have a glorious revel in enjoying every -furlong of life's race-course? To run such a race is a hard task, as -there is always some handicap hanging on our shoulders. We are afraid -to knock it off. Oftentimes the burden is terrifically hard for the man -who carries it to define, and yet, when you look into your inmost self -you realize that the precious hours of life are slipping by without your -cramming into them all the good things that you feel should be offered -by a world in which there is the romance of other people's lives, the -blue of the sky, the play of the sunlight, the success of your rivals. -There seems too often a wall between ourselves and that romance, that -sky, that sunlight and that success. There is indeed this wall between -us and our ideal. If we break through it, there is another one that -dares our courage to the assault and capture of our greater, enlarged -ideal. This is stimulating and comforting, as each man and woman has to -make his own assault; there is no one so lucky as to get the prizes of -life without a fight, and no one so unlucky as to be without the desire, -no matter how deeply it may be buried in his nature, to make that fight. - -In what direction are you going, and what are you going to do when you -get there? Are you plugging against an impassable barrier, or is there -a way through for the man who does his best? Some lie down in the -traces and quit. They have three satisfactory meals a day, work that is -not too arduous, a warm bed at night, and, taking it all in all, that is -sufficient; at any rate, they think it better than the attempt to break -down any more walls. Perhaps they bruised their knuckles at the first: -"George Washington, Thomas Edison, and the other heroes were not afraid -of the blows at the first or at the score that followed, but we all -cannot be great, and I am willing to subside with what is already my -portion." Yes, that is the attitude of the slackers. They are in every -walk of life--the stupidly content. - -There are many others who say that if they could only lift the mortgage -off their house, or buy an automobile, or get into society, or get -promoted, they could pass untouched through the barrier that crushes -them, and be ready to tackle the second with unheard-of power. They are -sadly suffering under an illusion. When you take the spur from a -laggard steed, you do not make him a thoroughbred. - - -Two thousand years ago Christ told us that unless we become as little -children we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That was a tremendous -statement, and one of infinite truth. To find the reasons for our -struggles and the means of carrying our burdens we must go to the boy of -ten. - -He is having a splendid time! Are you? From the moment he leaves his -bed with a whoop and a hurrah, until the evening when he sinks to sleep -exhausted but happy, he has lived in a turmoil of adventure, wild -dreams, and imaginings. The world has been a magic pleasure dome from -which there were countless doors to be opened and beckoning passages to -be explored. We have our troubles and sulk under their weight, he longs -for them and so invents the game of Cowboys and Indians and glories in -the battle; we become bored with a routine existence, he scorns such an -attitude and fears that he will miss a great excitement if he but close -an eye. If rainy weather or a particular mother prevents him from -organizing a military campaign, fraught with danger and hardship, -against the enemies in the next block, he stays at home and reads of -battling with dragons. The world is forever a thing of wonder, a -tremendous feast from which he is forever called before he has had -sufficient courses. Hungry for life, he cannot find within the -twenty-four half enough hours to fulfil his demands. A fishing-rod in -his eyes is a magic thing with an incarnate life and power of its own; -the dark pool contains a possible catfish, and what, by all the stars, -could be more wonderful, more inexplicable, more mysterious and awe -inspiring than a bearded catfish! Every new friend, old or young, is a -peculiar individual of which he must ask a thousand questions to find -out whether he be an engineer, a policeman, or a fireman, or whether he -can spin a top or owns a collection of postage stamps. - -What a lesson in the way of life is a lad of ten! He sees in life an -opportunity, a vast opportunity for everything. No specialist is -he--within the month he decides that his career shall lie in any one of -a dozen, from that of the man upon the back of the ice wagon, to that of -the President of the United States. - -Why are the young so superior to their elders? Why, indeed, do we have -to cast off our years to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Ponce de Leon, in -search of the Fountain of Youth, journeyed from Spain to the New World, -and, weary of the quest, left his body to rot in the American -wilderness. He need not have gone so far upon his travels, as in the -point of view of the last boy whom he met before embarking from the -shores of Spain there was this very Fountain which he sought. To break -down all the barriers which hedge us in, to open a thousand doors -entering upon undiscovered countries of ambition and delight, to forget -time, to forget everything but the joy of living, to experience the -thrill of carrying heavy burdens and the overcoming of obstacles, all we -have to do is to see the world through the eyes of the boy of ten. It -is the youth's relation to the world as he finds it that makes him -superior to, and a more worthy inheritor of the Kingdom than is his -father. The former's outlook is that of perpetual wonderment, of -endless romance, of intensive interest, and wide horizons; the latter's -too often is that of a blind man in a picture gallery. A lad lives -acutely, never lets an hour "slip by," is ever willing for an assault -against any battlement, and in that lies the secret of life. - -Most things, to be sure, are "easier said than done," but after having -found that the proper door to open is that which leads to the world of -fervid expectancies, experienced by the boy, we may at least _attempt_ -to find the key that fits the lock. Perhaps you have already found it! -This is a good personal test--do you feel that your mind is a-tingle -with the music that is played by the world in which you live? - -It has been said that you can tell a man by the company he keeps--but -there are far better methods! Find out his experiences when he walks -along a city street, rubbing elbows with the crowd, dodging motors at -the crossings, with every step he takes passing faces, human faces, -passing windows behind which are woven the webs of human happiness and -grief. What are his innermost sensations? Does he feel the throbbing -pulse of men and women, or is his heart and soul dead and forbidding? -Or else go with him upon a walk into the country--Spring or Fall--Winter -or Summer--his talk and expression will show the stuff that is in him. -Is he alive to the multifarious beauties of color, life, and movement -that are about him, or is he the same gnarled, twisted parody of man -who, when in the office, always thinks himself imposed upon, or in his -home appears a misfit, uncomfortable piece of furniture? - -Yes, there is a sublime religion in the joy of jostling your fellows in -the workaday streets, there is a sublime possibility of growth in the -soul of him who, when upon a journey in the country, breathes a deep and -lasting draught of the joyousness of life. And yet, why does this -religion slip from us, why at times do we refuse to grow? Why do we -lose the tingle of living which is the very essence of the boy's sense -of life? - -One man will tell you that he is in a rut. He has worked until his -youth is passed, and there is no further chance of promotion. A second -has lost his money, and he is bitter against the world that took it from -him. A third misses the companions whom he used to know, and with them -went the color and the value of the world. A fourth has gambled with -life's good things: has wasted his body and mind in his lust for women, -wine, or food, or in his greed for gold. Perhaps, although not -admitted, with the satisfaction of his desires women have lost their -beauty, wine and food their taste, and gold has proved tarnished metal. - -What is, at bottom, the matter with them all? And what is the matter -with the men and women who have had worldly success, who have had all -the exterior things that life could give them, and yet feel that this -Earth is an unsatisfactory sort of pasture in which to graze? Why -should there be sighs of discontent when above us the sky is blue, and -in the world about us children are born of women, heroic deeds are -accomplished, and tragedies met and defeated by the courage and love of -our human kind? - -The answer is in the fact that many of us lose the blessed heritage that -was part of our youth: our sense of wonderment, our breadth of sympathy. -To the youth, every moment of every day meant an awakening to new -things, an introduction to strange, exciting mysteries, whereas there -are no such awakenings for the man who finds not the wonder in the -windows bordering and the faces passing on the crowded city streets, or -feels not, in the country, the subtle magic of Nature's workings. - -You say the world grows stale; it is not the world grown stale that -takes the lustre from life, it is your own sleepiness, the profound -drunkenness of the lazy and the cold heart. It is the loss of a -personal sympathy with God and man. - -A loss of sympathy is a horrible thing. The loss of that sympathy which -holds your heart engripped, and makes you feel part and parcel of this -great, moving, turbulent, sorrowing thing we call the World, is as -grievous a loss as can befall any man. It is worse than a separation -from money, friends or family--it is the loss of an individual's -personal stake in the world. And yet, we see men who have lost and are -losing it. In them we see die that spark of life which has made them an -integral part of all that lives. We see smothered the divine fire of -humanity and godliness. If we consider Nature, including man, as one -great spirit, we feel that those who have lost an embracing sympathy are -apart from that great spirit, are drifting off into the barren deserts -of bewilderment and decay. If we consider men as individual souls -plotting their own destinies, we must see in those who have lost their -intimate touch with the surge of their fellows' labors, and their -sympathy to the power of beauty, pariahs, true outcasts, apart and -alone. - - -How great is your appetite for life? How great is your willingness to -break the shell of your prison and liquidate your heart? What prevents -you from throwing open your arms to the universe, accepting and -welcoming the embrace? The embrace of humanity is a glorious thing! It -is the nectar of the gods. Be one with the world, be not a pariah; be -part of the great wave, be not a stagnant pool. - -But one hears answers, "I can't," "I don't want to," "I'm apart and will -not mingle." Why can't you? Why won't you? Why are you apart? Is it -because you are old and mummified? Have you lost your vision, have you -lost your heart, has the world beaten you back, and does life roll too -fast a pace? Has your understanding become blunted? Are you a snob -upon a pedestal of derision? Are your eyes blind to the colors, your -ears deaf to the music, your voice bitter in your companions' hearing? - -Ah, let there be a way out of the prison--there is a door that will lead -you to your youth. Within a man there is always the spark that can be -made to brighten and to break into living flame. There is no -understanding so dense, no spirit so sordid that it cannot be stirred to -awaken to that sympathy for man and nature that is the pass word to the -Kingdom of Life. - -"The Kingdom of Life." Those are perhaps hackneyed words, and yet how -many of us seem to be the inheritors of the Kingdom of Death. Live -bodies find no value in dead souls, so let us make our souls aflame and -attain to a realization of life. Where is the match to strike the -light, the key to open the door? - -Through all the ages there has been a medium through which the hearts of -men have been revealed. There has been one cauldron into which the -riches of our richest and most godlike minds have been poured. It is -the melting pot that has purified the sorrows and joys of men, since man -had wit enough to know his pangs and jubilations. There is a vehicle -which will bring us to a universal sympathy, if not an understanding, of -our human kindred. There is a powerful tool, welded by man, with which -we can awaken ourselves to an appreciation of our universe, from which -we can obtain consolation in our difficulties, stimulus for our -ambitions, tonic for our depressions. The medium, the cauldron, the -vehicle, the tool is Literature. - -Some men are afraid of books, and some are afraid of life; some do not -understand books, and some do not sympathize with, nor care to -understand life. Literature is the key to the door of life for those -who wish to open! There is no wall cramping the ambitions, blinding the -eyes, deafening the ears of those who seek their nutriment in the -spiritual messages and solemn understandings of the greatest minds of -the ages. The symbol of a man walking down the street with no heart to -feel, nor mind to understand the happenings about him, is the -relationship between two stones. To our knowledge there is no known -communication between one and the other. Literature is the great -communicator, the powerful disseminator of sympathies, the magnificent -doorway through which we can pass to other men's hearts, and obtain -warmth for our own in case ours are cold and comfortless. - -God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Perhaps there is -not enough, for we all walk in partial darkness, but the tremendous -sunburst that is here to lighten and revive is the lasting, printed -word, handed on from generation to generation. - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - *AN OPEN DOOR* - - - This world's no blot for us, -Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good: -To find its meaning is my meat and drink. - FRA LIPPO LIPPI - - -There is the Rub! Of how many of us can it be said that the World -"means intensely and means good"? Do we unsatisfactorily stutter, and -stumble, and barely exist through the three score years and ten that is -our portion, or do we find in life a splendid activity that gladdens our -heart and fills us full of the thorough-going ecstasy of living? - -I have a friend who is a great athlete,--an oarsman, mountain climber, -big game hunter. He exults in a life of action, of doing big things, -and yet withal, he is a tremendous reader and one of exquisite taste and -wide knowledge in books and authors. I asked him of the value of -reading. - -"Every time I read a great book," he answered, "I feel as if I had -punched a hole through the wall," and so saying he crashed his large -fist against a buttress of reinforced concrete. "I feel that my world -has been made larger; where before I had only seen a blank space, now I -see a new world, the world in which the author lived. I am that much -more alive to my own." - -He applied his reading to his daily life, and the world became for him a -richer, more exciting place in which to live. No one wants to plod -through the world in a blind, sleepy fashion. We all want to live as -keenly, as vitally as possible. The roots of the present are buried -deep in the past--to appreciate and have understanding of the present -you must appreciate and have understanding of the past--to realize how -small and one-sided is your own point of view, you must appreciate the -thousand and one viewpoints that have appeared through the ages to the -eyes of other men and women. - -In beginning to form the habit of reading, the first thing to be -realized is that books are intimately connected with the world in which -we live. Their true value does not come from the pleasure you -experience during the actual hours in which you are turning the pages, -but (and this point cannot too vividly be borne in mind) in the reaction -of you upon the world and the world upon you after having read them. If -a book does not influence your point of view towards God, your fellow -men, and your daily tasks and ambitions, you may feel assured either -that the book is one of little worth, or that you have not absorbed its -true meaning. When you hear someone say that reading is an excellent -way to pass the time, you may feel sure that he knows little about -books. The poem, the novel, the history, the philosophy are not to pass -the time, they are to make more vital the hours of life. A book that is -a book becomes part and parcel of your being, and you must of necessity -make it part of your life. - -Authors are not for the library, they are for the street, the railroad -train, the office, the open fields. Read them in the library, or even -in bed, but live them in the city thoroughfares, or country roads or -workaday places in which you make your life. No man can read the -Journals of that mystic, nature lover, Henry David Thoreau, without -having his next trip to the country one of greater pleasure. The colors -and the sounds of the fields, the woodlands and the brooks will bring a -new joy to his spirit. No man can read the novels of some great gobbler -of life, such as eighteenth century Tobias Smollett, without finding the -city life of our twentieth century more human, more satisfying, more -exciting. No man can seriously read a religious poet such as Whitman or -Wordsworth without becoming more deeply religious, more keenly conscious -of the wonders of God and Man. And the Bible--surely no one can read the -magic beauty and truth in the Prophecies of the Old Testament without -feeling that he has met and talked with giants. These books bear -directly on life--they make us think, love and experience in a way that -we have never done before. The world becomes more thoroughly a magic -place in which there are a thousand things to make life one glorious -escapade, through which we may be thankful for the opportunity of -living. - -As some people believe reading to be a pleasant method of passing the -time (without realizing that time is in truth passing them), so others -believe that being "well read" is some sort of a social advantage. It -is difficult to determine which is the more stupid and superficial point -of view, that of regarding books as time-killers or as useful topics of -conversation. The latter is probably the worst, as, in addition to its -superficial aspect, there is its insincerity. The man or woman who -reads a great book because it is "the thing to do" is not only a weak -follower of fashion but a waster of valuable time. It is far better -never to have read a book than to have read it stupidly and begrudgingly -with the thought in mind that it will be a feather in your cap to be -able to boast of having read it. Needless as it may seem to make a -point of this, it is, nevertheless, the idea in the mind of many a man -in college, and many a woman who joins a reading circle. - -Some misguided supporters of the study of the ancient classics use as a -plea that "every gentleman should read Greek." The insincerity of this -defence can only be compared to the sighs of the woman who attempts to -convince her neighbors that the beauty of a sunset appeals to her as it -does to no one else, or the ecstatic murmurings of the young man at the -art exhibition, who is arousing within himself a false enthusiasm, for -some artistic cult that in truth means nothing to him. - -We see this type of man or woman all too often. They are usually -gushing about their latest emotional experience, when in fact they are -incapable of having any. It is an insincere attempt to be the highest -of the high-brows. Let us have none of this! Let us realize that -education and culture are splendid things to be highly prized, but only -in that they make the individual who possesses them a richer, deeper, -more sympathetic person. - -A hobby, which has to-day become a fashion, is bird study. Far be it -from me to disparage the movement seemingly alive in all our suburban -districts, but let us make short shift with those who ogle knowingly -through field glasses, when the motive behind the action is that in -select company it is considered "the thing." - -It is a safe warning never to read a book because it is fashionable. -Never read a book because you think it will form an engaging topic of -conversation; always read because you want to derive a sincere -inspiration, an enlarged point of view. Within a library is encased the -soul of the past, the meaning of the present, the promise of the future. -From it we derive the entire tradition of which we are inheritors, the -deeper movements of which we are a part, the prophecies of the future in -which we and ours will live. This treasure is more worthy of respect -than to be treated as the devourer of an idle hour, or the means whereby -to keep "in the swim." - -The cultured man is a man of broad understanding, of deep sympathies. A -fisherman who knows his boat, his line and the bay in which he makes his -livelihood may be a cultured man. He may have derived from his way of -life and the tools of his trade the solemn truths that give him an -understanding of the ways of men and the needs of the human heart; but -another man who has gone through the University, "machinely made, -machinely crammed," may be totally without culture in that he has never -drunk at those well-springs of living which teach the mind the great -underlying sentiments that rule the world. One may well be educated and -yet uncultured, "well-read" and yet without the vision that may be -derived from books. It is not the word but the spirit of the word that -must be taken to heart and lived. - -Matthew Arnold defined culture as a knowledge of the best that has been -done and said by man--but the one who _opens that door_ must have more -than that knowledge. It is not enough to cram away facts in the corners -of your brain. These facts must have a direct bearing upon your life. -To have knowledge of the best that has been written, you must not only -read a great poem but you must allow the thought or fancy to sink into -and become part of your personality; of the best that has been done you -must not only have knowledge of the courage and wisdom of the early -Americans who broke the yoke of Great Britain, but you must apply their -courage and wisdom to your daily life; of the best that has been said -you must not only read one of Abraham Lincoln's great speeches, but -absorb the quiet spirituality of the man who uttered them, and allow his -personality to become part of yours. - -Farcical moving-picture shows and talking-machine rag-time surely have -their place, but can they enter the soul of man as can "the best that -has been written, done and said"? The plays of Euripides and the words -of Marcus Aurelius have for many centuries given deeper understandings -and wider horizons to a multitude of readers, and it is probable that -the intensity with which they have acted upon the individual is -commensurate with the length of time that they have acted upon the mass. -We do not believe that this can be said of the time-killing "movie" or -the rag-time song of yesterday. - -Let us enter the world of living through the world of books. It is from -the printed page that we can best equip ourselves for a rich life of -value to ourselves, our family and our neighbors. If you do not believe -it, read some book that the world has acknowledged great. Having read -it, live it in your eternal self, and you will have passed through the -Open Door. - -It is a rainy day at the seashore; I am writing in the reading room of a -summer hotel. Without, the rain is sweeping across the bathing beach, -the tennis courts are flooded, the golf course, without a doubt, is a -swampy morass. It is a dreary sight for one who looks through the -window pane. Our little world is upon a vacation, and all but the few -who wish to tramp the beach in raincoats and gum boots must stay -in-doors. And yet there is happiness, and I believe greater promise of -the morrow. In one corner of the room there is a stripling of about -thirteen, curled in a chair, absorbed in his book, which from the cover -I know to be "Treasure Island." He is with Old Pew, John Silver, and -the cut-throat buccaneers. On the morrow the sand-dunes for that boy -will be places of mystery where weird and exciting fairy deeds might -have been accomplished. The commonplace bathing beach will have new -mysteries, as the waters that splash at his feet are the same that -surround some sunbaked, South Sea Treasure Isle. - -At the desk opposite me, a student with furrowed brow reads a calf-skin -volume. I have noted the title: "The Speeches of Henry Clay." Perhaps -this fellow is a young lawyer or an aspiring politician. He wishes to -absorb the ideas of the silver-tongued "Harry of the West," the popular -idol of seventy years ago, and to consider their bearing upon the tariff -questions of to-day. He must agree with Napoleon Bonaparte: "Read and -reflect on history; it is the only true philosophy." And there is a -girl reading the poetry of Alfred Noyes, and a bespectacled, bearded old -man with a volume of Pope. They have both turned to poetry to find the -beauty and truth those poets have seen. How much will their spirits be -affected, the one by the lyric note of our contemporary singer, the -other by the didactic moralizing of the philosopher wit? - -So it goes! The boy sees visions of pirates and adventure, the old man -dreams dreams and seeks new truth; the young man desires armor for his -life's battle, the girl finds beauty, a refreshing and invigorating -draught. It rains to-day but they will all be more richly endowed to -welcome the sun and sea breezes of the morrow. - - - - - *CHAPTER III* - - *READING FICTION WITH AN EYE ON LIFE* - - -The world and life's too big to pass for a dream, - * * * * * - you've seen the world-- -The beauty and the wonder and the power, -The shapes of things, their colors, lights and shades, -Changes, surprises,--and God made it all! - FRA LIPPO LIPPI - - -Our good Brother, Lippo Lippi, has started off two of my chapters, and -it is well that he should, as no artist had a keener appetite for life -than had he. He grasped all there was of the best in life--color, love, -work--and he enjoyed it. - -Librarians, booksellers, and blatant advertisements assure us that we -are a novel-reading public. The number of copies sold of this and that -best seller are at first sight staggering, and even more so after having -read the book! A certain novel becomes the fashion in the same -inconsequential manner as does an especially uncomfortable type of -collar--another season both are forgotten and something new is taken up. -The writing, publishing and advertising of such books have become a -purely commercialized art upon the part of the authors and booksellers. -"Where are the snows of yesteryear?" sighed Francois Villon, "Where are -the masterpieces of last summer?" sighs the meditative consumer of -fiction. Almost every novel which has those qualities which publishers -believe will appeal to an idle, amusement-loving populace is proclaimed -in display advertising as "the greatest novel of the decade," "the great -American novel," or in some other equally false manner. The author, the -publisher, and even the readers know that such statements are utter -falsities and yet the sale goes up into the hundreds of thousands. I -often wonder what has become of the stupendous number of copies of a -certain book the World was reading some ten years ago. It is never -mentioned; it is never read; it is seldom seen on anyone's bookshelves, -yet the material volumes must be lying about somewhere. Perhaps such -books are indeed as "the snows of yesteryear" and melt away when their -day is done. One who wishes seriously to acquire the riches there are in -books might well make it a rule never to read a novel until it has stood -the test of time. What, bye the bye, is the use of reading, unless you -mean to get the best out of it? Walking is better exercise, -conversation more sociable, gambling more risky and therefore more full -of zest! Any story worth reading this summer must surely be worth -reading five years from now. Life is too short, there are too many great -books that are eminently worth reading, to spend our time wading through -the ruck of tastefully bound, hurriedly illustrated, widely advertised -novels that greet us every season. I repeat--Do not read a book that you -may be in the swing of up-to-date conversation. If you do, you prove -yourselves the gull of everyone concerned. Let time do your winnowing, -and if after five years the people of taste are still talking of the -book, you may turn to it and probably find something of true merit. You -may say that with such a plan you will read but few modern novels. -Quite true, there will be but few that stand the test of even five -years, but how much better it is to conserve your energies and time for -reading the great works of fiction that have stood the test of -generations. - -As in all other reading, novels should awaken you to a new life. You -should choose those that have the truest effect upon your goings and -comings after you have put them aside. You must agree that those -treating of an impossible, untrue social condition, as some -money-grabbing manufacturer of stories pretends to see it, will not have -this effect. Neither will those of untrue chivalry and sentiment in -which untrue ladies weep unnatural tears, and untrue heroes do -impossible deeds. Such trivial falsities merely chew up the all too few -hours allotted mortals upon this good ship, the Earth. Which then are -those novels that are to be read not for the purpose of passing the -time, but of holding up the time, and of making every minute more real, -more full of meaning,--for that is the function of all great books? - -There is a poem of John Keats beginning, - - Lo--I must tell a tale of chivalry; - For large white plumes are dancing in mine eye. - - -Perhaps these lines to every one do not carry the same magic beauty and -promise of long-dreamed-of things that they do to me. The poem was -never finished, and I, for one, deeply regret it, as surely we would -have had a tale to set our hearts afire with the clangor of the -mediaeval tournament, or the lone quest of a golden armored knight. - -Sir Walter Scott told such tales in prose and his novels are of the -greatest in literature. Honore de Balzac told stories of French life in -which there is nothing specially chivalric, nothing in that sense -bewitching, and yet his tales, too, are of the greatest in literature. -The terms Realism and Romanticism are used to describe two different -aspects of art, music and literature. We will use them in considering -the relation of novels to life. - -Balzac is considered the father of modern realism. This is partly due -to the fact that he presented in a forceful manner the principles upon -which he worked. He desired to put the life of France, city, -provincial, military and official, within the covers of his books. It -is interesting to remember that he wrote at a period in which men were -perhaps more interested in the reason and purpose of human life than -they had ever been before. Those scientific discoveries, which were -finally to lead the way to our present theories of evolution, were -bringing men to a realization that the religious dogmas upon which they -had founded their faith were weakening. It was difficult for a thinking -man to believe that the world had been made out of whole cloth, but a -few thousand years before. Science was in the air; faiths were -shattered. Balzac turned to man to determine anew his nature. His was -the huge task of presenting man in all his loves and hates, purposes and -motives, works and joys. He attempted it, and there has been a great -army of writers following in his footsteps. Their aim has been to give -a realistic cross section of certain aspects of life, allowing the -reader to draw inferences as to its meaning and his personal relation to -it. - -This is realism. It is most unfortunate that in our country the word -has become synonymous with books of a sordid and erotic nature. Realism -in literature should show us life as it is, and as life is neither all -sordid nor all erotic, neither should literature present only those -aspects. The function of this type of literature is a great and -important one. - -The supreme realist has a God-given power of seeing and feeling the -forces and emotions that make up human living. He sees and examines -life as if under a microscope, and with this peculiar power he must have -the faculty of expression. You may ask how we can apply the words -contained in such a novel to our own life? We all feel that there is a -great advantage in "understanding life." We try to analyze our own and -our friends' ways of living. Let us go to great novels and see what we -find there. - -Was it a child who said, when going through the British Museum, that he -liked the sculpture better than the paintings because he could walk -around the sculpture? He spoke more wisely than he knew. The same -simile may be applied to the realistic novel. In reading it we may walk -about and examine life. From day to day, as we live things happen so -rapidly, the world is passing before us so fast that, unless you have a -supreme intellect, it is impossible to examine the pageant but from one -point of view. You can but look at the front of the picture. It is -flat, there is but little perspective. - -The genius with the gift for fiction such as had Tolstoy, Balzac or -Smollett can encase civilization within the covers of a book. You may -read and understand. There is something static. You live a thousand -lives by proxy, you enter a hundred homes and have converse with the -hearts of men and women. Instead of seeing but the front of things, we -walk behind and take in life from every angle. The characters in the -drama of life are under a microscope through which we are privileged to -look. Tolstoy presents life as it was in Russia forty years ago, but -human hearts that are cosmopolitan and eternal, Balzac, the France of -the forties, Smollett, England of the eighteenth century. We learn the -ideals, the struggles, the way of life of different civilizations, of -different ages. - -We find that our point of view is a narrow one, that our place in the -Sun is perhaps a very small corner, and our hearts and minds are -enlarged to a deeper sympathy with all men, a finer understanding of all -ideals and practices. - -Instead of living in the little village of our own outlook, instead of -weighing all experience and action by our own, we arrive at a higher, -more cosmopolitan point of view. Whereas we might think that ours is -the only century in which people flock to the cities and live material -lives of rush and money-grabbing, we find the same thing true of -Smollett's England of one hundred and fifty years ago; instead of -condemning the woman who cannot get along with her husband we have a -broader sympathy for having followed the career of the splendid Anna -Karenina in Tolstoy's novel of that name. We break the shell of our -petty selves which has made for so many misunderstandings and -prejudices. We must not pride ourselves upon our own motives and -civilization, until we have at least made an attempt to understand those -of others. - -Since the days when Nathaniel Hawthorne condensed the spiritual aspects -of New England in his immortal "Scarlet Letter," there has been a -scarcity of American novels of any high realistic calibre. Ernest Poole -has recently done brilliant work in "The Harbor," in which he presents -the ideals that have guided a young man of our day and generation. Yet, -here we are, in a strange world indeed--the greatest spirits hurling -themselves into the strife of ninety-mile-an-hour living, only to be -tossed aside to make way for younger and harder workers, more efficient -thinkers. The strange growling beast of a great American city, the wide -acres of efficient irrigated farming, with the workers in each, have yet -even partially to be interpreted by the genius of fiction. When it has -been done by the great seers, we will find answered many questions which -puzzle us to-day. Not the mirror but the cosmic microscope must be used -as the tool. It will not be done by one man; it will take a literary -army--let the advance guard come with our generation! - -And of Romance--what will we say of the tales which take us away from -the dusty world of every-day duties and responsibilities, into a magic -turmoil of brave deeds and devoted lovers? We must not forever be -muddling about in the mundane sphere in which we make our bread and -butter--we must at times for wealth and happiness gaze through - - Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam - Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. - - -We of the Anglo-Saxon race have a glorious heritage in the Waverley -Novels. Sometimes, we are told that Sir Walter Scott is becoming a -memory, and that of the past generation; but many feel, and I am of that -number, that the author of "Ivanhoe," "Kenilworth," "Quentin Durward" -and the score of other yarns which have charmed youth and age for now -well-nigh a century has a permanent place in our literature, perhaps -only surpassed by William Shakespeare. Lucky is the boy or girl who has -grown up, and the older persons who still sojourn with the Knights and -Ladies, the Kings and Queens, the Highland Fairies, the human serfs who -march in an endless, enduring procession through the pages of the Prince -of story tellers. For such readers the Past is hallowed with a magic -circle that defies tawdriness. How pleasant it is for one who lives in a -roaring city to be able by reaching to the book-shelf to forget the -affairs of the day and to live in the pomp and pageantry, the heroics -and devotions of the Past. The lover of Romance may well say to the -reader of modern realism, "Why read of slums, of offices, and city -suburbs when you may ride out with Prosper l'Gai in Hewlett's 'Forest -Lovers' or be partner in countless intrigues of love and swordsmanship -through a dozen of Alexander Dumas' yarns'?" Why indeed?--we sometimes -wonder. - -It is a marvellous gift, that of the man who can look back into the past -and make it alive and breathing for the readers of the present. It is -dangerous to take Dumas and Scott for our guides to true history, as -they have too often twisted the facts in order to spin a good tale, but -as revealers of the atmosphere of history, they are unsurpassed even by -the greatest historians, and if we have the atmosphere we have a rich -and splendid background in which to place the facts. We may sojourn in -ancient Carthage by reading Flaubert's "Salammbo," in Rome by -Sienkiewicz's "Quo Vadis," in Pompeii by Bulwer Lytton's "The Last Days -of Pompeii," in early England by Scott's "Ivanhoe." Even those scornful -individuals who pride themselves upon being "men of the world" have -something to learn if they have only studied their own time as it goes -fleeting past. For facts let us turn to the scientific historians, but -for life to the historic romances. - -Let us find justification of each tale, not in its historical accuracy, -but in the fact that "it helps the ear to listen when the horns of -Elf-land blow." It is for this that we will read them,--that we may -awake refreshed as from a plunge in the springs of Mount Olympus. If -they do not revivify our jaded senses, and awake our tired vision to the -beauties of character and nature of the world in which we live, we may -lay them aside and be sure that the author does not measure up to the -proper standard. The love of a story is deeply ingrained in the human -heart. The baby, before he can read, listens, fascinated, to the -paraphrase of some classic fairy tale related by his mother; the -minnesinger of old in the mediaeval castle charmed the tired fighters -with tales of greater love and chivalry; the medicine man recounted to -the savage tribe the sagas of their ancestral struggles and triumphs; we -all love to hear the man talk who has been to strange lands and seen -strange peoples. It is the cry of human nature for accounts of the -doings of men in worlds in which we live not that makes the tremendous -demand for the novels of the day. Let us remember, however, that the -old story tellers, the medicine men and the mothers with their infants -at their knees told tales that really fed souls in warming the hearts -and awakening the intellects of their eager listeners. The plumed -knight buckled on his armor with more vigor, and attempted, the next -day, to outdo the deeds of the minnesinger's hero; the child lived in -fairyland and found a background for his playing and dreaming; the -savage warrior felt more keen to go upon the warpath to uphold the -tradition of his ancestors who were watching him from their places in -the Happy Hunting Ground. - -These stories were of the staff of life to their hearers. How many of -the novels you read bring nothing but the means of wasting an hour? -Grown people to-day must find their stories in books: there do not -frequently come in our way travellers who have been overcome with the -mystery of far-off places; we have no longer medicine men who sing of -the glories of our ancestors; we perforce must turn for our minnesinger -to the printed page. - -Let that page be worth while! Insist upon reading a story that means -something; either that gives you a more sympathetic understanding of -your fellow men, or an inspiration and refreshment by allowing a glimpse -through that "magic casement" which opens to the world of Kings and -Princes, Castles and Feudal Keeps, or to the mountain where dwelt the -Giant or to the seas upon which sailed the Pirates of your boyhood. - -When novels reveal unknown vistas of beauty and delight, or present -ideas that jog our thoughtless complacency, they are of the stuff that -intensifies and glorifies existence. They keep a man's mind from being -commonplace and mongrel. Let us all be Kentucky thoroughbreds in the -way we look upon the world. Chafe at your bit, stamp the ground and be -eager to get away at the front when the barrier goes up. Anyone can be -an "also ran." A good story is often tonic enough to turn an "also ran" -into a winner! - - - - - *CHAPTER IV* - - *HISTORY AND YOUR VOTE* - - -We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, -and not what they ought to do.--BACON - - -One of the greatest evils into which a democracy may inadvertently slide -is an indifference upon the part of the populace to the political issues -of the day. We have upon several occasions in our history passed -through periods of almost unlimited commercial prosperity during which -everyone has been too much absorbed in the pursuit of power and riches -to give a thought to the affairs of government, with the result that our -state and national affairs have lapsed into disgraceful conditions of -inefficiency and moral laxity. Such periods have paved the way to -corrupt boss rule and throttling machine politics. - -Ignorance, which always comes with indifference, and yet is most -pernicious when most active, is another extreme and vital danger. It -must be evident to every thinking man or woman, that a nation whose -political destinies are in the hands of the people with their almost -universal franchise should be made up of voters who are alive and -thinking. "Read and reflect on history; it is the only true -philosophy," wrote Napoleon Bonaparte in his instructions pertaining to -the education of his only son, the King of Rome. The great Emperor must -have realized that his phenomenal success in ruling men and establishing -law had as an important part of its foundation his knowledge of the -affairs of men in the past. Without suggesting that we should all be -Napoleons, it seems true that our political fabric would be infinitely -more stable, if the rank and file of American citizens should feel it a -duty "to read and reflect on history." - -With our ever-increasing number of ignorant Southern European -immigrants, who have come from countries where republican forms of -government are practically unknown, it seems that our inherited -tradition of a republican democracy will be undermined through -ignorance, unless, indeed, these new citizens be given an understanding -of our history and the meaning of our systems. - -To-day many specious types of radicalism, that are for the most part -pleasant Utopian dreams of the future, standing upon no foundation and -drawing no nutriment from the past, are thundered about most seriously. -In life and in statecraft there is one great teacher,--Experience. A -man weighs the advisability of a certain step by his past experience, -and this must be the basis of thought when determining matters of -political science. A reader of American History may find food for -thought in comparing the manner in which the half-baked political -theorists of to-day come to their conclusions with that of the great -American statesmen of the past. To-day we are opportunists. Instead of -weighing experience and testing the future, we jump helter-skelter at -what seems of temporary value. In dreaming of the future you must -remember the past or your dreams are futile. Emerson somewhere tells -us, that when you are drawn into an argument upon moral values, you -should always ask your opponent whether he has carefully digested his -Plato. If he has not, you may placidly refuse to continue the -altercation, as he to whom Plato is unknown is unfit to talk with a -thinking man upon problems of higher morality. I believe that in like -manner we could close the mouths of many trumpeters of social uplift -through sumptuary legislation. Ask them if they have carefully read -their histories. If they have not, and probably the accent will be on -the "not," you may safely snub them, by insisting that they turn to the -past, before they have the right to ask people to listen to their talk -of the present and the future. - -At the time of the founding of our Republic, in Thomas Jefferson, James -Madison, and Alexander Hamilton we had three supreme _students_ of -government. Perhaps more than to any other one cause the success of our -"American Experiment" is due to the profound knowledge and scholarly -attainment of those three men. Upon them rested the responsibility of -founding a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people" -that would neither be subverted by the wiles of a demagogue or the power -of an oligarchy, nor become chaotic through the unrestrained influences -of the proletarian populace. To Jefferson we owe the Declaration of -Independence, to Madison a great part of the thought and the wording of -the Constitution, to Hamilton the body of the Federalist Papers. Their -thought was not the thought of the minute, but of all time. In all -their writings we can see their thorough grasp of the faults and virtues -of the governments of almost every nation in past ages. They knew, as -too few of our public men know, that the future cannot be made out of -whole cloth, but must evolve from the past. They had studied men and the -political needs and powers of men. The result has been the -establishment of a government that has stood the shock of almost a -century and a half, a period during which almost all other civilized -governments have been the prey not to peaceful but to violent evolution. -Upon the passing of the great Revolutionary triumvirate we were -fortunate in having men of the intellectual calibre of John C. Calhoun, -Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster. They were thinkers as well as great -orators, students of the past as well as guardians of the present. - -It is a profitable study to read of the youth of great statesmen. -Almost invariably you will find them as young men such as would to-day -be sneered at as "book-worms." Napoleon, Pitt, Gladstone, Cavour, -Mirabeau, the great Americans and many, many others before they entered -public life were profound followers of the goddess of learning. It is -not surprising to find that many of them obtained wisdom and enthusiasm -from the pages of Plutarch's "Lives of the Ancient Greeks and Romans." -It was in Greece and Rome that we find the origins of most of our laws -and institutions, and in the lives of the men who helped to establish -them we may read of the tests and needs in their development. -Considering the studies of great men it is always amusing to read the -calendar which, upon the request of Mr. Madison, Senior, it is said, -Jefferson arranged for the working hours of James Madison, Junior. -Please note that Madison's health broke down from overstudy while at -Princeton, and it is not to be wondered at, for here is the schedule: -until eight in the morning he should confine himself to natural -philosophy, morals and religion; from eight until twelve, read law and -condense cases, "never using two words where one will do"; from twelve -to one, read politics in Montesquieu, Locke, Priestley, Malthus, and the -Parliamentary Debates; in the afternoon relieve his mind with history, -and when the evening closes in, regale himself with literature, -criticism, rhetoric, and oratory. - -In those days they indeed believed in thoroughly equipping themselves -for public life! - -A few years ago there was an agitation afoot in favor of establishing -the systems of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. In the North, -the South, the East, and the West it was hailed by the spellbinders as -the cure-all for corrupt legislation and undesirable laws. It was -argued that citizens, who did not have enough political acumen to elect -honest and efficient representatives, would have enough to become their -own law-makers. In the height of the political campaign Nicholas Murray -Butler, the President of Columbia University, published a small book -entitled "Why Should We Change Our Form of Government?" The author -presented the hazardous risk that our profoundly important -representative system would run of being subverted into a chaotic -absolute democracy by instituting laws that would deprive the executive, -legislative, and judicial departments of their independence and -prestige. The republican forms would lapse back two thousand years to -those democratic systems of the Grecian states that too invariably paved -the way to the despotism of tyrants or the chaos of mob rule. - -The title of the essay was rather startling to those who had been -advocating the new measures without having thoroughly analyzed their -true meaning and import. The distinguished scholar brought clear -thinking to bear upon the situation, whereas before it had been befogged -in the spread-eagle oratory of demagogues, and the catch-as-catch-can -subtleties of ignorant theorists. Clear thinking, President Butler's -and that of others, won the day and the measures are now well-nigh -forgotten. I mention this as but an instance of the value to our nation -of men who have political and historical knowledge with the ability to -think clearly upon the important points of our social progress. - -I heard President Wilson, some months before he entered upon his -distinguished political career, address in an informal manner a group of -University students. He said in part (my quotation is rather a -paraphrase, as I would not dare to transcribe from memory the words of -the most perfect stylist of our time): "Gentlemen, in many European -countries in times of national crises and disturbances the nation looks -to the Universities and the question is asked, 'What do the young men of -the Universities think?' In America unfortunately this question is -rarely asked, as all realize that the men at the Universities _do not -think_." - -This is a bitter arraignment of the intellectual life at our -universities, and if the speaker's conclusion was correct the same must -to a great degree be said of the intellectual life of our nation. The -public's antipathy to broad political matters is the most dangerous vice -that can undermine a republic, and it is the one that is most seriously -affecting ours. It would be extraordinary, if it were not so pathetic, -the way in which, without taking toll of the experience of the past, -without drawing analogies nor seeking wisdom, we go muddling, blundering -on into the future. - -That there is nothing new under the sun is perhaps more true in matters -pertaining to political problems than in any other branch of affairs. -History repeats itself, repeats itself, repeats itself, as if it never -grew tired of begging the world to learn true lessons. In proportion as -the number of our citizens appreciate that truism and sincerely pursue -its corollaries, we will have a sound political condition. - -When Aristotle, a wise man in his generation, said that it was in the -nature of human institutions to decay, he knew whereof he spoke. It is -painfully apparent to the student of history and governments. What were -the seeds of decay that smouldered and finally undermined the Grecian -democracies, the power of Carthage and of Tyre, the world-embracing -Roman Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, proud Spain -of Charles V, and France of the seventeenth century? Has the English -Empire run its course to make way for the more vital power of the -Germanic People? In each and every one of these decadences, if we wish -our national life to retain its pristine spirit, there are lessons to be -learned by the United States of America. Our experiment has not -necessarily met the test of time. Our nation is not liable to be the -exception from those that have slid down the path to ruin. There is a -Germany, despotic yet powerful, that perhaps must some day be met in -mortal combat; if the danger lies not there, perhaps it will be another. -In any case our loins must be girt with power and strength, our -citizenship must be hardy, our political fabric solid. - -To retain our virtues, to preserve our national life from decay, is the -responsibility upon the shoulders of our generation. It is for this -that we must "read and reflect on history" and apply it directly to -life. What an analogy may be drawn between the Roman Usurpers in the -time of the Empire's decadence throwing money at the street crowds to -obtain their support, and our modern politicians bidding for the old -soldier vote by passing absurdly extravagant pension bills! This mulct -of the treasury is now on the wane, but is the new power in politics, -the labor unions, going to obtain legislation and favors because it can -poll a large vote upon election day? Such things are signs of -decadence. Must we not learn from the French Revolution that its -failure as a constructive force was due to an attempt to legislate -morality into existence--and yet we continue to pass as laws measures -that have truly been dubbed "amendments to the Ten Commandments." How -many of the great nations and institutions have had their backs broken -through too excessive centralization, yet, to-day there are but few -individuals and no political party that stand in opposition to our -ever-increasing tendency towards federalism, in contradistinction to -community government. Until the outbreak of the World War, England, -Germany and Russia each had a terrible internal problem: England -attempting to Anglicize Ireland, Russia to Russianize Poland, Germany to -Germanize Alsace and Lorraine. There was this thorn in the side of each -nation: by brute force they were trying to denationalize another -country. England was failing after three hundred years of wasted men -and resources, Russia was covering a volcano that had smouldered for -generations, after over forty years Germany had as ugly a wound to nurse -as in the beginning. Yet with these examples, good Americans, with -confident smiles, for three years have been laughing at the Democratic -administration on account of their Mexican policy. "Conquer Mexico," -the wiseacres say. Yes, conquer Mexico the way England has tried and -failed to conquer Ireland! - -The political value of history lies in its disclosures of the defects -that have brought on decay, and the stumbling blocks that make trouble. -In reading history we must keep our eyes on the present. It is -unreasonable to believe that our government is an infallible one, or -that our national existence, maintained with the most stable -governmental authority, combined with the widest possible latitude for -the liberty of men, is any more infallible than the many other systems -that have met with disaster in the past. The reading of history is -valuable, in that it enables us to have those visions of the future that -will be fruitful in that they are moulded by our experiences in the -past. Such visions, inculcating power of judgment, are never more -requisite than in these days in which the blind pacifist, the quack -reformer, the misguided theorist, and the wide-promising demagogue are -abroad in the land. We must study our lessons of the past that we may -spurn those governmental cure-alls evolved, according to Alexander -Hamilton, "in the reveries of those political doctors, whose sagacity -disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction." - -American history properly forms the most fruitful subject of study for -Americans, and yet one must have a wide background to obtain the proper -crop. One must soon be led to the investigation of our legislative, -executive and judicial functions as they developed through the evolution -of constitutional government in England. The democratic models traced to -the Grecian states, the seeds of "sans-culotte" philosophy that -Jefferson and Tom Paine brought from France, the thought of political -scientists such as Plato, Machiavel, Locke, and Montesquieu open fields -in which every reader may learn lessons that will guide his judgment in -the ever-important problems of the day. - -A citizenship educated to a knowledge of the past is a bulwark that will -defend the integrity of our nation. Such a citizenship is in truth an -ideal in that it is unobtainable, but it is a splendid ideal and one -that should be our guiding star. In a government such as ours it is -intolerable that an educated man should cast his vote by habit, and yet -how often do we hear the opinion expressed that such and such a man -would vote the straight Democratic or Republican ticket no matter what -the platform, no matter who the candidate? This study of political -parties is itself fruitful. One hundred years ago the Democratic party -was the party of decentralization and "laissez-faire," but to-day, since -the Bryan influence has had such sway, it eclipses the Republican party -as the exponent of centralization and paternalism. There are, however, -thousands of voters who continue to vote the straight Democratic ticket, -believing that the party stands for the same principles as it did when -their fathers first voted. This is but an incident of man becoming an -indifferent, incapable political animal. Too much of such indifference -is a fatal disease to a country of universal franchise. - -History has no business in the closet! "History and your Vote," -gentlemen,--and now, in several states, you of the fairer sex,--is a -phrase worth remembering upon election day. - - - - - *CHAPTER V* - - *CLIO'S VINTAGE* - - -History after all is the true poetry.--CARLYLE - - -To the one who drinks of the wisdom of Clio, the Muse of history, there -will come manifold riches other than the accrued satisfaction of -well-weighed political judgment. A knowledge of history, in its -broadest sense, may well be said to be the essential foundation of all -cultural education. The movements in science, philosophy, music, -literature and the plastic arts are all inseparably intertwined, and -they have as their controlling background the political actions of men -and the economic forces that move peoples. - -It is as impossible to thoroughly understand the poetry of Wordsworth, -Shelley or Byron without having an appreciation of the political and -economic events of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era, as it is to -conceive of the Epics of Homer without the Trojan War. The music of -Bach and Haydn has as its foundation the reasonableness in religion, -philosophy and political thought of the eighteenth century, as the music -of Wagner and Chopin the unreason and rampant individualism of the early -nineteenth. The books of the Cromwellian period reflect the -illiberality and severity of the Puritan parliaments: the books of the -Restoration reflect the French upbringing of Charles II. Wars and -rumors of war, famine and years of plenty, new discoveries and great -invasions make up the life of the world, and it is of this life that -literature and music are made. We could indefinitely cite instances of -the influence that history has had upon the arts, but in this chapter -let us consider history as an art, history as literature. - -No historian who deserves the name should write "dry" histories. The -greatest historian is he who has an inspired passion for delving into -the past, and the ability to interpret it in its living, human aspects. -The "scientific" student who considers his mission that of arriving at -the precise facts is not an historian but a "dry-as-dust" recorder. He -is useful, however, in providing the material that will enable the true -historian to cast illuminating spotlights upon the centuries that have -gone before. Mr. William Roscoe Thayer, one of the most distinguished of -our American historical writers, tells us that "Hi'_story_'--let us not -forget--is five-sevenths _story_." The historians whom we want to read -are those who tell us the dramatic _story_ of the past. Two-sevenths of -their ability should, perhaps, be their infinite patience and -intellectual honesty in gathering, sorting and weighing documents and -other sources of information, but the other five-sevenths must be that -ability which is the genius of the story teller. Someone has said that -every historian must be his own "dry-as-dust," his own bespectacled -investigator of authentic facts,--if the rest of him is an impassioned -teller of tales we have a supreme historian. Gibbon, before the days of -elaborately prepared source books, before the days of thoroughly indexed -libraries, ransacked the learned treasuries of Europe and Asia Minor for -information; to this infinite patience there was added in his character -the gifts of the artist and the dreamer. The result, after ceaseless -labor, was the monumental, yet fascinating and comparatively reliable, -"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," a book that is acknowledged -the acme of historical perfection. - -A few months ago, a woman of intellect, a wide traveller, an omnivorous -reader, a mother of a large family, an efficient manager in whatever she -undertook, was asked the name of the book that had made the most -impression upon her life. Without a moment's hesitation she replied, -Carlyle's "History of the French Revolution." Upon questioning her, we -found that she had read the two large volumes three times, and with each -rereading there had awakened in her the sentiments aroused by the -greatest dramatic tragedy, the most intense human story. - -Carlyle was not a scientific historian, he did not write histories for -other historians; he wrote as one whom God directed to put upon pages of -flame the characters, the drama, the magnificent incidents, the -cruelties, the braveries, the cowardices, the heroisms of "the truth -that is stranger than fiction." It is indeed more interesting to read -of what men have done as depicted by the historian, than what they might -have done as depicted by the second-rate novelist! - -If you have not read the "French Revolution," read it at once! The -author has taken the most dramatic period in modern times and he has -treated it as it deserves. It has the power of tragedy, whose mission -is, according to Aristotle, "to purify the soul through fear and -terror." Your soul will be enlightened, you will be made to feel, as -all great history makes you feel, that life is played upon a wondrous -highway, and that the sights and works upon the way are of the sort to -make you live in a trembling condition of wonder and expectancy. The -city crowds will have new meaning: men and women, for having once been -participants in the terrible cataclysm of one hundred and twenty year -ago, are still of the stuff to accomplish strange deeds, and to fulfil -undreamed-of destinies. - -Has it occurred to you what a relatively small and insignificant number -of familiar acquaintances we are able in our daily life to have? How -many men and women do you know who have guided the destinies of nations, -led great armies into the field, or are to meet death in their attempts -to overthrow the tyranny of a despot or a bigot? In history we may meet -them, and become acquainted with their problems and struggles. The past -is a select drawing-room into which we all may enter. We may derive -inspiration from the same wells that prompted the Crusaders to set out -time after time in their well-nigh fatal effort to drive the Moslems -from Jerusalem; we may absorb the spirit that moved Cromwell's -Ironsides; we may appreciate the pettiness of our own weaknesses and -vexations in comparison with the odds against which some of History's -heroes have fought and conquered. It is pleasant to live in the court -of Louis XIV and to talk with kings and princes through the pages of St. -Simon's "Memoirs"; it is a spiritual tonic and excitement to follow the -careers of the Indian Missionaries through Parkman's glowing pages! It -is in truth more downright "fun" than doing most things! - -Undoubtedly it is true that Napoleon's ruthless ambition brought -devastation to the lands that he conquered, and sorrow to the nation -whose young men he led to the cannon's mouth, and yet I sometimes think -that greater than the Code Napoleon, which he instituted, is the -inspiration that his career has been to the young men of all countries. -How many boys have dreamed their vision of the future when following the -work of the little Corsican, who at the age of twenty-seven led the -armies of France across the Alps to crumple in a series of whirlwind -campaigns the proud power of Austria. And there was William Pitt, the -Younger, who at twenty-four became Prime Minister of England, one-armed -and half-blind Nelson at Trafalgar Bay, Lincoln, the rail-splitting -President, Olive, Garibaldi, Hampden, and how many another has been a -light that beckons our future soldiers and statesmen? - -In every epoch of history we will find new horizons opened that will -enrich and broaden our daily life; in every vital struggle we will find -individuals and peoples who have acted in such a way that we should hope -to be guided by them in our struggles and ambitions; in the failures of -the past we may obtain moral lessons for the present and the future; in -cooerdinating our forces and forming our judgments we will obtain a -training for our minds which will be of use to every man in carrying out -the enterprises in which he is engaged. - -Dr. Johnson well said that the traveller brings from his journeys that -which he brings to them. It is indeed pitiful to be in Paris and to see -countless American tourists rushing about "seeing Paris." What a -difference there is between those who bring to the storied city on the -Seine a familiarity with her past, and those who bring nothing but time -and money to spend. For the first, there are human dramas lurking in -the shadows of Notre Dame; Quasimodo, the strange dwarf in Hugo's great -romance, still swings on the bells of the belfry; the narrow streets and -turbulent cafes may still contain the instigators of the Reign of Terror -and their shouting mobs of "sans culottes"; Camille Desmoulins may still -be visualized in the Cafe Royal plucking the leaves to make his tricolor -cockade. At every turn, in every ancient building, there are rich -historic memories that may feed the traveller who has prepared himself. - -And the others, to whom history is a closed book! How barren and -incompetent are their wanderings in Paris, London, Vienna, or any other -old world city! To think that one can appreciate the historic gathering -places of the human race without having knowledge of their past is as -absurd as to believe one knows the woods when one cannot appreciate the -beauty and wonder of the wild life that makes of the woods its dwelling -place. Go among the trees some day with one who has studied and -absorbed "the woodnotes varied"! Wander about the Quais of Paris, or -the Temple Inns of London, with a man who has read history with a human -interpretation, and consider upon your return the increased wealth, you -carry in your mind! - -We cannot all be travellers, but it is always safe to store up material -against a possible future; although I have never read far into the -history of China, and though there is little possibility of my ever -visiting the land of ancient civilizations, I am sure I could derive -much pleasure and obtain a better understanding of our Occident if I -followed a course of reading upon the varied fortunes of the different -dynasties that have ruled the richly storied Eastern nation. - -Our history books teach us valuable lessons in the art of living,--and -this is assuredly the most important of the arts! As a man who brings -something upon his travels besides his pocket-book and luggage comes -home with rich experiences and memories, so does the man who approaches -life with something more than a hungry stomach obtain from life more -than he otherwise would. The greater variety of experiences we have, -the more we know of the affairs of men, the richer our understanding of -the forces that have ruled the world, the more replete with ecstatic -living is our daily life. If the best of life is to be won by living in -the world keen and alive to everything that moves, or thinks, or -glitters, a great share of riches must go to the man who has studied and -thought in other realms than those which immediately surround his own -dwelling house. - -In Philadelphia I sometimes watch the hurrying crowds of business men go -scurrying underneath the shadow of Independence Hall. I wonder if these -crowds are in any true sense aware of the important and heroic deeds -that were accomplished in that building. I am sure that if they did -their movements beneath that shadow would be rich in living experience. -At political conventions, I sometimes wonder whether the delegates are -aware of the vast consequence of the long governmental tradition which -they, as delegates, have been called upon to uphold, and I feel sure -that those who do, fulfil their responsibilities with a quickened sense -of their weight and human moment. - -On the observation car of a twentieth-century flyer the road-bed is so -smooth, the rails so even, the power so terrific, that the past as an -industrial development that has cast aside the stage coach, the prairie -schooner, the pony express, makes one alive to the romance of the -present. Down on the beach of a popular New Jersey summer resort when -the water is dotted black with bobbing civilized bathers, look out over -the waves and wonder at the change of but four hundred years. In a -moment your mind can travel back to the Spanish castle and see Columbus -begging the gold that would enable him to equip his ships to sail -westward into the unknown sea. Romance cannot be dead so long as men -work, and strive, and play. - -There is an art in reading history as there is an art in writing it. -The writer who tells us of a battle with the same lack of imagination as -the recorder who prepares mortality statistics must be compared to the -reader who crams his mind full of dates and uncooerdinated facts without -drawing from them the riches and lessons of experience. The true -historian and the proper reader of history must find in the past a world -of enlightenment, an enrichment that magnifies, clarifies, and makes -living the present. It is better to have studied a minute epoch, the -history of your county or town, with a human understanding than to have -unintelligently digested the careers of a hundred heroes, the military -movements in fifty campaigns. - -Do not turn from the eight bulky volumes of Gibbon's masterpiece with -the fear that they are dry and useless, but begin them with the -determination of finding an enlightenment to your vision of inestimable -value in "the art of living." The dates of battles, the names of -individuals, the data about which life revolved, are only of value in -that they are the framework upon which you can hang the true meaning of -the past--the evolving germ of the present. The Song of Solomon is not -to be read because it is the Bible, but rather because it is a love song -of which the world can never grow weary; Motley's "History of the Dutch -Republic" is not to be read because it is recommended in the schools and -colleges, but because in it you will find the unrolling of a human drama -that will quicken your pulse and strengthen your faith in men. - -Read the record of the past with the desire of obtaining a deeper -understanding, an enlarged vision, an inspired ideal, a rich experience, -and you will have become proficient in the art of reading history. You -must have often thought upon the difficulty of determining exactly what -you want. What do you desire life and your exertions to give you? In -reading history perhaps you will be helped by finding out what Christ -wanted when he died upon the cross, what the Pilgrims wanted when they -left comfort and sailed to strange lands, what Stanley wanted when he -buried himself in darkest Africa. Clio has had many wooers, from -Thucydides to Carlyle and George Trevelyan, and their offerings form a -treasure trove which must not be neglected. - - - - - *CHAPTER VI* - - *THE POET AND THE READER* - - -I myself but write one or two indicative words for - the future, - -I but advance a moment, only to wheel and hurry - back in the darkness. - -I am a man who, sauntering along, without fully - stopping, turns a casual look upon you, and then - averts his face, - -Leaving it to you to prove and define it, - -Expecting the main things from you. - WALT WHITMAN - - -What is poetry to you or me, as we rush to make the trolley car or -suburban train? To get to the office on time seems the main chance, and -yet returning home in the evening are we so tired that the funny page of -the evening paper fulfils our entire intellectual and spiritual need? -In asking this let me ask another question. Day in and day out, in work -and play, in sorrow and anxiety, in pleasure and enthusiasm, what is -life worth to you and me? We Americans are not much given to -philosophizing about life, we prefer to live it. Whereas the -intelligent Russian argues about the reason for and the meaning of -action, Americans are prone without thought to throw themselves into the -mill of violent living, to go at top speed until the gears break down, -and then sometimes to say with Kipling's Galley Slave, - - --whate'er comes after, I have lived and toiled with Men! - -Our answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?" is simply "The -living of it." "Work while you work, and play while you play" may be -considered our national motto. In short, for every minute of our -existence we want to have "sixty seconds' worth of distance run." To -live acutely is our pleasure, to work our hearts out and revel in the -doing of it is our end. It is thus, to use an expressive phrase of the -vernacular, that "we prove something." And it is this fact which -strengthens the paradox that the American, the man of action and bustle, -must draw his greatest source of living in the realization of the spirit -of singers. - -The poet is he who has drunk more deeply at the well of experience than -has his fellow men. Many a profound poet never writes a verse, for when -a man of temperament is deeply moved he writes a poem within his own -heart. It is for some to transcribe their emotions into words whereby -their feelings may be communicated from one man to another; but it is -for others to be without the gift of verbal expression and the poems -must remain within. How many times in life is your soul afire with -enthusiasm, drunk with beauty, stricken with sadness, or overflowing -with the meaning or portent of experience? At those times you are a -poet, whether or not you transcribe the reflection of your heart upon -the written page. The man who sings within is a singer whether or not -he gives his song verbal utterance. These hours of poetic ecstasy make -life a thing to be cherished. The sources of such ecstasy are -manifold--the love of man and woman, or parent and children, religious -communion with the Spirit, comradeship, work, pursuance of duty, speed, -health, beauty, the joy of the builder or artist, attainment to a higher -understanding, sadness, hope,--from such springs come the bubbles of the -wine of life, heartening the cherished hours. Our greatest poems are -those that have never been written--true experience is poetry, and -experience is an open door to life. - - Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough - Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades - For ever and for ever when I move. - - -The poetry found in books is experience, directly or indirectly, through -the agency of verbal expression, transferred to the printed page. The -great writers of poems are those who have undergone spiritual -experiences of greater intensity than those which come within the range -of us lesser mortals. In their poems we partake of their life, of their -ecstasy in the presence of beauty, of the richness of their imaginings, -of the depth of their spiritual natures. - -You and I, when we hear the wood thrush sing, are moved with the music -of the notes, and are possibly carried away into the bosky woods where -the richly patterned bird in his evening song pours his heart to Heaven; -but when Keats hears the melody of the nightingale, his nature so -acutely attuned to the harmony, the message of peace and solitude, is -swept away in such an ecstasy of heartfelt longing for that same peace, -that same solitude, that his own heart pours forth his song, in words no -less musical, in cadences no less rich than the notes of the feathered -songster. His experience is preserved for us in "The Ode to a -Nightingale" and we may read and derive the same fascination that he -felt. - -Matthew Arnold somewhere tells us that all great poetry has one or both -of two attributes: "Natural Magic" and "Moral Profundity." Whatever -these two phrases may mean upon first sight, after examining their true -import it will be appreciated that the greatest English critic did not -consider poetry a thing for the closet, or sentimental matter only to be -read by the melancholy lovelorn to his sentimental maid. The effect of -the natural magic of a summer's night, of the sea breaking upon the -wind-swept coast, of the sea gull's flight, is apparent and valued by -everyone. What are most holidays other than periods during which we -absorb appearances and sensations, that enter our personalities and -remain part of ourselves during the succeeding year of work? "Natural -Magic" is that which acts upon us as a holiday influence, compounded -perhaps of beauty, mystery, fear or sentiment, which for the moment or -for eternity gives our minds entrance into a realm of new and -pleasurable things. Read Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and you -will find the essence of natural magic. You enter a realm, indeed, of -magic and witchery, for - - In Xanadu did Kubla Khan - A stately pleasure-dome decree: - Where Alph, the sacred river, ran - Through caverns measureless to man - Down to a sunless sea. - -Do those lines charm you? They charm most of us and the cadence of the -words, the confused picture of Xanadu, have become our own,--riches with -which we would not care to part. - -Every time I read them the blunt edge of life is worn off, living -regains its sharpness, I have to an extent experienced an ecstasy, taken -a holiday. - -It is hard to define the exhilaration of a canter across the meadows -upon a crisp October day, or the impulse that surges through you as you -look to the ocean breathing the sea breeze, or the sense of religious -comradeship that grips you when in the midst of a crowd, great with a -single purpose,--but this is all of the true stuff of Natural Magic. -Your sensations are not of the minute, but of all time, as they have -vivified your soul and become part and parcel of your personality. - -It is so with the poets who sing you a song or breathe a sentiment that -is not oral, not didactic, not purposeful, but of the stuff that thrills -the spirit of man,--their charm is impossible to define, it must be -felt, and for having felt it, your spirit is of a color different from -what it was before. As Corot's landscapes painted in the forest of -Fontainebleau are said to express the emotion of the painter when in the -presence of nature, so does the lyric poet of magical gift express his -feelings, lay bare his soul with its emotions and vacillations. The -sadness and sensuous mystery of Edgar Allan Poe, the marvellous ability -of Tennyson to fit the most exquisite words to the most subtle -incantations of beauty, the thrill of romance in Shakespearean England -as depicted by our contemporary, Alfred Noyes, the appetite for sensuous -delights of Keats, the tuneful, heartfelt songs of the Cavalier -poets--these are of natural magic, of delight to the human soul, of the -spirit of art. - -When Shakespeare wrote, - - Where the bee sucks, there suck I: - In a cowslip's bell I lie, - -he had no moral to expound, he merely sung from his heart with the -beauties of nature and the ways of fairy-land as an open book before -him. If we wish (and there is no rightful reason why we should not) to -drain the very dregs of living for the richest drops of wine, let us -enrich, make more virile our enjoyment by seeking nourishing draughts of -experience from the poets who have expressed those sweetest joys on -earth in poems that have cleansed the souls of men for generation upon -generation. - -There is the other phrase of Matthew Arnold, "Moral Profundity." It is -when we seek wisdom from the poets that we find this attribute. When -the greatest of them give us their innermost thought, not the record of -experiences, but the essential deductions from all their experiences, we -have their true wisdom. When Wordsworth in "The Lines Composed a Few -Miles Above Tintern Abbey." wrote the words, - - Therefore am I still - .....well pleased to recognize, - In Nature and the language of the sense, - The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, - The guide, the guardian, of my heart, and soul - Of all my moral being; - -or when, in his "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality," he wrote, - - Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: - The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, - Hath had elsewhere its setting, - And cometh from afar: - Not in entire forgetfulness, - And not in utter nakedness, - But trailing clouds of glory do we come - From God, who is our home: - -and when Shelley wrote, - - We look before and after, - And pine for what is not: - Our sincerest laughter - With some pain is fraught; - Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. - -or when Tennyson, in "Locksley Hall," wrote, - - This is truth the poet sings, - That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things. - -those men formulated in exquisite language truths that have never been -more intensively expressed. - -Probably most readers of poetry have already considered these two -phrases, and those who have, I feel sure, will agree that they are -useful in making for a clearer understanding in our estimation of -values. To read intelligently, to get the most out of our books, we -should certainly attempt to formulate the various aspects of life the -different poets represent, their relation to the time in which they -live, and their excellencies when they stand before the bar of the -reader's judgment. - -Very few great poets produce poetry of but a single aspect. Shakespeare -wrote the magical fairy jingles and yet created the stupendously -profound character of "woe-entangled Hamlet"; Tennyson composed many a -lilting tune in words, yet as a moralist he presented the most sincere -thought of his generation. When we feel philosophic and thoughtful, we -turn to the poems containing solemn truths; when weary, jaded, and off -color, we turn to the honey of romance, the witcheries of sensuous -beauty,--and regain our lost edge. - -A single phrase may have natural magic, and yet may express a thought -for which during years of our life we have been vainly groping. The -poetry of thoughtful content is probably that which has meant the most -to men, as upon the philosophy of such religious poets as Dante or -Whitman many a man has braced his faith; yet we must remember that much -of the wisdom of sages is expressed in as magical language as we have in -our cherished heritage. - -Let us not, however, be academic about our poets, let us not balance one -against the other, let us not be carping about metre, subject matter and -critical phrases, let us go to them for what they can give towards -making this world a more marvellous place in which to dwell. - -If Kipling makes you feel the glory of work, of the hard, terrific work -in which we rejoice, if he gives you the call of the road, the -wanderlust, and you hear, - - --the song--how long! how long! - Pull out on the trail again! - -if Bobbie Burns with his songs of Scotia gives you a human sympathy with -mankind, an appreciation that for all his foibles and impossibilities "a -man's a man for a' that"; if Byron fills your heart with the divine -discontent that in a sweep of glory lands you above and beyond the -commonplaces of every-day existence; if Wordsworth makes you see Nature -as you have never seen her before, if he makes a meadow of buttercups -appear in a new light, with unsuspected meaning, with hitherto unseen -color and grace; if Keats attunes your heart to a deeper appreciation of -a form, a fragrance, a musical harmony; if Milton's solemn cadences -inspire you with the depth of that great Puritan's spirit; if -Shakespeare unbares your own character in revealing the inner springs of -his eternal heroes; if Longfellow in "My Lost Youth" brings back to you -the home of your boyhood, and you see again - - The sheen of the far-surrounding seas, - And islands that were the Hesperides - Of all my boyish dreams;-- - -if you can say with Walt Whitman, - - Logic and sermons never convince; - The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul; - -or if there is a man unknown except for one poem that still stirs you -with the sentiments that you love and honor--if these, I say, have thus -met your requirements, each and all of them are _great_ poets to you, -they have opened a door to a life richer in content, deeper in import, -more vastly worth living. - -There is no danger that the poets will ever be in need of readers. The -musical expression of thought or sentiment is as old and fundamental as -is human nature. The sailors singing their chants as they pull in their -anchor, the negro laborers whom we have seen singing a song as they -unload the railroad ties, or put the heavy rails in place, the Western -range rider calming the steers, and quieting his own nerves through the -lone night watches, the sagas and harvest songs of simple people in all -lands, are facts that establish the part that poetry plays in the -workings of the human heart. In reading poetry you will obtain no -credit for upholding a tradition, as the tradition will stand of its own -vitality; but in _not_ reading it you will miss one of the most -bounteous sources of inspiration, you will pass by the richest treasure -house, you will neglect the supreme opportunity for a thorough life that -the art of man has put within your reach. When you do read, do it for -all time, not for a moment. If the muse is to give you of her best, you -must feel after sharing her store as did Wordsworth when he heard the -Highland Reaper singing, - - For old, unhappy, far-off things, - And battles long ago: - -as he tells us, - - The music in my heart I bore, - Long after it was heard no more. - - -The poem but begins after you have read it--the experiences that come -after are the ones that count. Let us remember the simile and hold the -music in our hearts as a reservoir of powerful beauty that will carry us -over the stupid, the heavy, the unpoetic bumps of the days' doings. - - - - - *CHAPTER VII* - - *THE CHILDREN OF PAN* - - -For I'd rather be thy child -And pupil, in the forest wild, -Than be the king of men elsewhere, -And most sovereign slave of care; -To have one moment of thy dawn, -Than share the city's year forlorn. - THOREAU - - -The enthusiastic nature poetry of James Thompson, called "The Seasons," -came as a shock to that inbred lover of the city streets, the taverns -and town activities, Doctor Samuel Johnson. In these poems, the Doctor -found that natural objects which before had hardly been worthy of -attention were made to appear beautiful. We must believe that after -having read "Spring," "Summer," "Autumn," and "Winter," upon his -infrequent excursions beyond the environs of the great metropolis he saw -new beauties in the hitherto common-place landscapes, responded to the -color in the fields and hedgerows, became interested in fantastic cloud -effects, heard music in the streams, the waterfalls and in the songs of -birds. For how many of us have arisen new sources of joy in Nature's -beauteous wonderland at the instigation of poets, essayists and -novelists who have seen and read with loving eyes - - Of this fair volume which we World do name. - - -In an ardent conversation upon the power of certain poets a friend told -me that the Anglo-Saxon world looked at Nature through Wordsworth's -spectacles. He maintained that the reaction of nature upon even those -who have never read a poem by this poet was influenced by his poetry; -Wordsworth's interpretation of Nature had so permeated nineteenth -century religion and literature that it was impossible for even the -casual newspaper reader to escape it. We do not directly acknowledge -our debt, but the garden clubs, the bird-study societies, the -surburbanite who throughout the year will spend an hour and a half in -the train, in order, on the way to the station in the early morning, to -obtain the pleasures of Nature's awakening, and her retirement upon his -return at twilight, and the Saturday afternoon golfer who, after holing -his ball, looks beyond the course at the green whispering woods and -rolling hills, expands his chest and murmurs "This is the life," are all -unconsciously paying part tribute to the poet who wrote, - - The world is too much with us; late and soon, - Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: - Little we see in Nature that is ours. - - -We need a love of nature to-day, as we have never needed it before. In -the terrific complexity and speed of our external existence we crave the -quiet, internal stimulus to meditation and dreams that comes from the -Great Mother's intricate, manifold, yet untempestuous method of doing -things. From the close hatches of the city where the noise, the smells, -and the turmoil seem all man-made, we must get away to the fields and -blossoming pastures to find our souls alone with ourselves and the Great -God Pan. To those who answer the call of the wild, or even the call of -the suburban garden, there come new strength and new conceptions of -beauty, to apply to the work of the world to which we have lent our -hand. The call is being answered,--man goes back to his own. We see it -on every side: no one in any walk of life seems so humble or satisfied -not to desire some day to own a farm; most summer resorts where there -were formerly many a "flanneled fool" have now become "Adamless Edens," -for our young men have answered the call of the Red Gods, and have -packed their kits for the trail that leads to the tall timbers of -solitude, of balsam, of camp fires and dreams. - -Any book or poem that gives you a keener appreciation of the crimson of -the sumach, the whispers of the wild things, the glory of the sunrise or -of the all-embracing broadmindness of Nature, will have done its part -towards bringing literature into perfect accord with life. If my friend -speaks truly in saying that Wordsworth has influenced two nations' -outlook upon the world, those poems, laughed at by some for their quiet -simplicity, have indeed arisen to the highest realm of literature and -have become soul of our soul, mind of our mind, flesh of our flesh. - -There are others--Wordsworth is not alone in his glory. - -Henry David Thoreau, the perfect child of a cross country ramble, is my -favorite. To write immortal words, it is said that a man must have an -immortal passion, whether it be for beauty, or his God, his neighbor, -his country, his lady, or himself. Thoreau sunk the love of all else in -his passionate devotion to Nature. His Journals, kept year by year with -ever a spontaneous freshness, are little else than an ecstatic love song -dedicated to his mate,--the lake, the woods, the fields, the apple -orchards, the winds, the colors, the birds, and all that lived and grew -about his haunts near Walden. A lover sees a beauty in his lady's eye -to which all the world is blind, and Thoreau senses a magic in an -awakening Spring to which the senses of us lesser mortals are -comparatively blunt. - -His sincerity of appreciation was one with his marvellous power of -observation. He did not have the scientific attitude of mind as had -that fascinating Frenchman, Fabre, who wrote the biographies of insects -in a way that makes you tremble at the wonders that go into the making -of the life of a fly. Thoreau would have scorned the aquarium and cage -methods of Fabre, not because of the lack of interest in the results, -but rather on account of his love of Nature, naked, wild, and free. -Upon the shortest ramble he saw myriad happenings, from the unusual -frost crystal upon the web of a spider to the most subtle changing with -the varying temperature of a bird's note; but it is all discovered -without the microscope, without thought of entomological or -ornithological records. A man should be afraid to say that the woods -are a dreary place in which to walk upon a winter's day--let him read a -page from the Winter Journal of our author and he will find that the -book of Nature is never closed for him who has an eye in focus for her -mystic letterings. - -I say that Thoreau is my favorite and how could I deny it, since there -is many a winter's day in the city when I am sick of the asphalt and the -bricks, and yet unable to leave them, that I can turn to any one of his -pages and be carried by his words to my favorite woods or stream, to the -longed-for fields and roadways? And in other seasons when time is more -prodigal, and nature so bounteous that there seems to be a glut upon the -market, my senses, that might grow befogged, are given a tonic in a -paragraph that makes the drowsy summer atmosphere seem pregnant with -beauty and fascination. If you are cooped among the chimneys and -elevated trains, Thoreau will bring you to the country--if in the -country, he will multiply the pleasures of your walk, your ride, or -fishing trip. He stimulates the best of life that is in you, and that -is all we can ask of any literature. - -Nature from one point of view or another has always been one of the -chief inspirations of the poets. If you examine the literature of the -human race since the days when Solomon sang "And the voice of the turtle -is heard through the land," you will find the various aspects of the -seasons, the songs of the individual birds, the beauty and sentiment of -flowers, and even the habits of the different species of fish, -continually reflected in prose and verse. America has been especially -blest with men we must term literary naturalists. We have spoken of -Thoreau, but there are also Audubon, Wilson and our elderly -contemporary, John Burroughs. - -Wilson and Audubon are especially famous for their magnificent colored -plates of the birds of North America, but I ask all nature lovers to go -to a public library and secure the prose works of these two great -ornithologists. There you will find as interesting reading as will come -to your hand in many a day. They were both pioneers in science, art and -exploration; both children of nature, more at home in the forest than in -the city; both enthusiastic, thrilled worshippers of their feathered -friends whom they have so brilliantly preserved in their cherished -portfolios. Because their work was accomplished one hundred years ago, -before our birds were charted and when journeys of scientific -exploration, even into the mountains of Pennsylvania, were made with -almost the same difficulty as is now caused in the exploration of the -most jungled South American river, the naive spirit of the explorer, of -the elemental pioneer, is in their every page. There is ever the -surprise, the uncertainty, the joy of life and study among unknown and -untrammelled things. Theirs was the joy of children who for the first -time discover a blackbird's nest in the far-off meadow and their joy is -communicated to us; we become children of delight, as when lying upon -bur backs on the edge of a flowery field of clover we watch with -fascination the darts of kingbirds dashing from the top of the nearby -chestnut after the myriad insects. - -John Burroughs, whose essays have been a joy upon many an evening and a -stimulating remembrance upon many a tramp, with a similar freshness and -unworldliness carried on the tradition of the earlier men. From his -fruit farm upon the Hudson he continually sends us messages to forget -our tea parties, our moving pictures, our country clubs, and really to -find ourselves in the discoveries of beauties and life in the growing, -nesting, and flowering things about us. One of the happy thoughts that -we derive from him is the knowledge that to obtain the beneficence to -soul and mind we (poor suburbanites tied to the necessity of earning our -daily bread in the city) need not follow the "Long Trail" to the ends of -the world of the furious globe trotter, Rudyard Kipling, but must only -take store of the things at hand, find the same happiness in the quiet, -civilized, thoroughbred-cattled meadow as we would hope to find up -against a rugged blow in the Northern Seas off the coast of which -"you've lost the chart of overside." You do not have to go so far from -home to know the world. Thoroughly know the garden that you cultivate, -study all that happens along the hedgerow upon the way to the station, -and you will be richer than he who has racketed with half blind eyes -from the Yukon to Patagonia, - - Or East all the way into Mississippi Bay, - Or West to the Golden Gate. - - -In conjunction with the reflection of nature in books, I mentioned our -scaly friends, the fish, without paying due homage to the king of all -philosophic fishermen, Izaak Walton. How many devotees of the gentle -art of angling have made of their own the wisdom, the beauty, the -thoughtful content of the fisherman's classic, "The Compleat Angler"? A -man once said to me that the next best thing to taking a walk was to -read the accounts of Walt Whitman's rambles upon Timber Creek. I -answered that upon the days you could not go a-fishing, you had best -read "The Compleat Angler." I hold to this! Will not the men who stand -by the trout, the bass, the salmon, the weak fish, or the gallant tuna -and tarpon, and the boys who put their faith in the catfish, the sucker, -the eel, or the perch, fall in together and be one in believing as the -Venerable Izaak believed, - - O the gallant fisher's life, - It is the best of any! - 'Tis full of pleasure, void of strife, - And 'tis beloved by many; - Other joys - Are but toys; - Only this - Lawful is; - For our skill - Breeds no ill, - But content and pleasure. - - -There is many another writer who opens the door to the traveller who -wishes to enrich his enjoyment of Nature as it is to be seen along -life's highway. I mention but a few who may give you new worlds for -which you would not trade a mint of silver. Have you ever gone with -Stevenson upon his walking trips? If not, do so, and perhaps you will -agree with him that it is pleasant to have a companion upon your -journeys; as Lawrence Sterne expresses it: "Let me have a companion of -my way were it but to remark how the shadows lengthen as the sun -declines." If you prefer to be alone, Hazlitt will tell you that no -companion is necessary, as thoughts need no companions: "I want to see -my vague notions float like the down of the thistle before the breeze, -and not to have them entangled in the briars and thorns of controversy." - -Or have you read the books of the Homer of the Insects, the Frenchman I -have mentioned, Fabre? There is a treat ahead of you--he wrote of the -crawling, burrowing and flying things of his beloved Provence, and if -there is anything in this realm more interesting than his records of -observing the daily lives of the House Fly, the Praying Mantis, and many -another beetle, cricket and creeper, I have yet to find it. To say that -you must immediately line your room with aquariums, jars, and boxes, in -which to preserve and watch the births, loves and deaths of all the -spiders, whirligigs, and butterflies that come within your reach is -relating the result in its mildest form that this author has had upon -me. Such books introduce you to a thousandfold intensity of existence, -as every great book must. - -Intensive agriculture is heralded as the saving factor of human -progress. Let us make a plea for truly intensive living. As the crops -that come from a rich, well-cultivated soil are bountiful, so is the -life that is the product of a fertile mind. A poor crop is a -superficial existence of discontented pleasures and shallow unhappiness; -a rich crop is a life in which the heart and mind are at least attune to -the joy which may be derived from the living of it,--brave when courage -is needed, patient when patience is a virtue. The word "culture" is -sometimes derided as a synonym for pretentious high-browism, but let us -remember that the farmer respects the word "cultivate," as he knows that -it is necessary if he wishes to make the harvest a season of happiness -and rich reward. A man's harvest season is his every minute of -existence--his bounty is the depth and pleasure of that existence. Our -future life is or is not a "great perhaps," but our present life is -assuredly a reality. It is _here_--what are you going to do with it? -If you can make every day a day of intense interest you have won the -greatest battle! You have stormed the world's richest citadel! The -Children of Pan, who have loved and written of Nature, charm and -transport you to a world of infinite interest. They offer rich -fertilizer that gives promise of a bumper crop--Open that Door into -their Realm. - - - - - *CHAPTER VIII* - - *MEN BEHIND BOOKS* - - -Every word man's lips have uttered -Echoes in God's Skies. - ADELAIDE A. PROCTER - - -Books contain the accumulated store of human thought and scientific -attainment--this is a treasure without which there would be no -civilization--yet in addition, we may say that the most potent -inheritance, that books vouchsafe, is the personalities of the great -authors who have inscribed their souls within them. Personal character -affects our lives as does nothing else. In the back of the mind of -every one there are men and women who, we appreciate, have been the -makers of our souls. Most often it is a mother or a father, sometimes a -teacher of our youth, or a friend and fellow worker of whose nature we -realize we have absorbed a part. Contact between human personalities is -the most profound mover for good and evil. A preacher may declaim -against sin for ever and a day, but you know that your great friend who -scorns sin has infinitely more influence upon you. The greatest doers of -good are men and women who lead others by the examples of their own -lives. It is unfortunately not given to many to come into intimate -personal contact with the most supreme human souls, but fortunate we are -that many have extended their personalities without limit into the -future, by truly encasing themselves in books that will remain as the -leaven and inspiration of all ages and all peoples. - -I have a number of volumes upon my shelves that I choose to consider not -as books, but as men. Instead of printed pages, cloth bindings, and -labels, they are living personalities with whom I can pass an evening. -The reading is over, and I have within me the character of a great human -being. As have my Mother and Father and the old fisherman, whose -knowledge of the sea and storm beaten coast fed my boyish spirit, they -have become part of me. The greatest books are those that present the -greatest men. It is not the artistry of telling a story or writing a -poem that really counts; the sincerity and intensity with which a man, -whom we may call our "guide, philosopher and friend," is revealed forms -the most cherished treasure of our bookshelf. In sorrow, in dejection, -in need of mental or spiritual sustenance, when the joy of living is -blunted, when lazy, discouraged or annoyed, you can go to these great -fellows, converse with them and return again to the world with a -bird's-eye view, an enlarged vision, a quickened spirit. - -Have you read Walt Whitman? _There_ is a glorious human being--so -magnificent, so all-embracing in his love, so turbulent, so large in his -personality that to know him, to feed upon him, you must become -submerged in his book, his soul,--"The Leaves of Grass." Of this volume -containing his poems he himself said, - - This is no book; - Who touches this, touches a man. - -You do indeed touch a man! A great spirit who saw in all things God; a -Democrat who saw in all men the spark of the divine; a leader who raced -out to the farthest reaches of the soul and beckons and begs you to -follow; a lover who embraced all, the prostitute, the poet, the lowly, -the exultant, Christ himself, in a spirit of human fellowship; a -physical giant who gloried in his sex and makes you consider sacred the -relationship of the sexes; a nurse who brought upon himself paralysis by -caring for the wounded in the Civil War; a prophet who could no more -believe that the spirit of an individual man could die than that it had -never been born. Perhaps you think I write extravagantly--I do not--I -but attempt to present what the personality of Walt Whitman has meant to -me, and to many, many others. I but ask that you go to the "Leaves of -Grass," and come in contact with that man to whom so many look and -say--"A great part of myself is you, Walt Whitman! My life has been -renewed since first I touched your hand." - -Tolstoy! There is another one who believed in humanity and God,--there -is another who has put a huge, rugged, loving soul within books. -Probably no one has so influenced the humanitarianism of our day as did -this bearded old warrior from Russia; but it was the deep human sympathy -of the actual living Tolstoy that moved the world, not the arguments he -deduced nor the warnings he gave. He was always a moralist,--even in -his masterpiece "Anna Karenina" it is not the story he tells, but the -human love which he reveals that has made the eternal monument. Afraid -of nothing,--the Czar, convention, hatred, oppression,--he lived his -life according to the dictates of his own conscience, the most punishing -conscience that has ever been the attribute of a master soul. If you do -not know him, read his short story "Master and Man." There you will -find enunciated, in a manner as poignant, as powerful, as even that of -the Sermon on the Mount, the doctrine of happiness found in living your -life for others. Selfishness, pride, materialism, the sins that spoil -the world, cannot stand in the way of the burning words of Tolstoy. -Your conscience will receive a stiffening medicine, your sympathies for -the sins and sufferings of your neighbors will deepen to bed rock, and -your life will become proportionately more true, more happy, more -Christian. Six years ago in the lowly hut near the Caucasus, when the -mighty soul of Tolstoy left the body, the World missed a leader, a -lover, a prophet--but his word still remains, and the doctrine as told -by him of universal betterment through love and human sympathy will -reach mankind whilst there are men left to read, and to communicate. - -We all know the poems of Robert Burns, most of us know something of his -life. His life and character are revealed in his poetry. He too was a -lover, but a weak rather than a rugged one. We love him for his very -weakness. His heart was his strength and his undoing. He loved until -his heart would break, ruthlessly and impetuously, and of his -sufferings, his remorses, regrets, and forlorn hopes he sang. In this -cruel world, where might so often makes right, what a benediction it is -to read a poem written from the depth of a simple, sorrowing, yet deeply -human heart upon the suffering that he has caused the "wee sleekit, -cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" in turning up her nest with the plowshare. -As with all the personalities that are "great" in the deepest sense, his -was one that felt a companionship for all that lives upon the earth, and -from his sympathy for the drunken, the heart-broken, and the meadow -mice, and his joy in patriotism, true lovers, and beauteous roses, we -derive a depth of sentiment that needs must mellow our hearts. A brave -spirit in a weak body had Bobbie Burns--he drank and was unfaithful, but -he felt deeply. We love him for his depth, we sympathize with him in -his weaknesses. As a friend he purifies rather than stimulates our -souls, but he is a true friend and a loving one. - -Francois Villon, the greatest ballad singer of all time, the tavern -lover, the vagabond, the heavy-hearted sorrower, the lighted-hearted -laugher, the bosom companion of thieves, cut-throats, chattering -grisettes, old courtesans, rioters, and brawlers of the narrow streets, -Cathedral shadows, Seine banks of mediaeval Paris, was another of those -great-hearted human lovers who had the gift of telling his heart secrets -in words of wondrous beauty. By twentieth century standards Villon's -actions, thieveries, and suspected murder, would have been neither moral -nor proper, but by the standard of all ages, in all true hearts, his -feelings towards the people among whom he moved will stand the test of -the most austere morality. He loved all men and women for the best that -was in them, he did not scorn them for the worst. He was unselfish and -true to his friends, and more than that we cannot desire. Where there -is hypocrisy there is vice; where there is selfishness there is lack of -Christianity and humanity; our tavern poet, Francois Villon, had neither -of these, and if you want a friend who will make you see the good in the -bad, the beautiful in the ugly, go to your bookshelf and become -acquainted with the fervid soul of this ancient ballad singer. - -When you are too contented, when your mind feels squidgy with good -living, or sultry from the summer heat, go to another man,--George -Gordon, Lord Byron. They say that Byron (with Scott) is nowadays out of -fashion. "They" are mistaken. The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan -will never be truly out of fashion, so long as there is a flare in -youthful hearts, a discontent in ambitious minds. He is the poet of a -great revolt, a kicker at the traces, and then again he is the singer of -the bleeding heart, of lost causes; he hurries you across the seas upon -his speeding bark; he tops the crags of human loneliness and leaves you -desolate. His songs are of the rollicking wine of life with its -excitements, its depressions, its sentiments of hatred, beauty, joy. -For youth he is the poet of liberty, of intense individualism; for age -the poet of thwarted desires, for everyone he has a chestnut burr to put -beneath dull content; his mockery is for stupidity, dryness, stagnation. -Get under the crust of his effusive egotism and you will meet a sombre, -lonely, sensitive individual, who needs you as a friend and who will be -to you a hypodermic stimulative. - -How different a one from this poet is his contemporary, the essayist, -Charles Lamb. The essays we love the best are those that reveal the -point of view, the little personalities of the writer, and no man of -letters ever had a more magnetic personality, or knew better how to -preserve himself in little literary gems, than did the author of "The -Essays of Elia." Lamb spent his days in the South Sea Counting House -transferring figures from one great ledger to another. But his evenings -with his books, his family and his friends! Ah!--there was a companion! -A booklover whose enthusiasm, for musty duodecimos has become a classic -allusion, a punster whose puns are sometimes good and sometimes bad, but -always original, a relisher of good conversation, a man of many petty -weaknesses, a lover of good food, with a taste for old wine, and with an -infinite appreciation of the fads and foibles of himself and others, he -seems to have been altogether the most lovable individual with whom it -would be possible to scrape up an acquaintance. Read but one hundred -pages of his essays and he becomes your chuckling, appreciative, -inimitable companion. Every old book shop, every roast pig, every glass -of rich wine, every threadbare clerk stooping over his ledger--these and -many such will take on fresh and romantic aspects for the friend of -Elia. - -Thomas Carlyle was an historian and philosopher who wrote his name over -every page of his work. His was the voice and the soul of the Old -Testament prophets, who railed at men from the depths of their bitter -yet anxious hearts. The Preacher of the Nineteenth Century, when he -spoke the world listened! Have you read "Sartor Resartus"? Among his -works this is even the most personal. It is rough and jagged in style, -turbulent and confused in arrangement, but behind it all, or rather -under it all, is revealed the spiritual message to his age. The message -is Carlyle's own personality: his bravery, his sincerity, his fine -hatred of muddle-headed thinking, of credulity, of cant; his love and -admiration for the fundamental greatnesses of human nature, his belief -in an omnipotent God. He wished men to believe, and the thunder he -bellowed in his endeavor still resounds. His soul was a battery of -twelve-inch guns directed against the forces of ignorance and hypocrisy. -It is to the reading of "Sartor Resartus" that many men point as the -turning stake in their spiritual lives. It was not in the book that -they found their spiritual bulwarks, but in the soul of the great -Scotchman with whom they came in contact. - -There is our own Emerson, whose admiration for Carlyle was probably only -outdone by Carlyle's admiration for him! "Self Realization," "The -American Scholar," "Friendship," "Politics"--how many of his essays have -become part and parcel of America's loftiest thought and action. The -metallic acuteness of his personality was not of the kind with which you -can become familiar, but its very aloofness holds our respect and -devotion. The austerity of George Washington in public life can only be -compared with the cold distance at which this philosopher holds us, and -yet upon their pedestals we recognize them as men from whom the best in -American character has derived nourishment. In every sentence of his -every essay, we feel the soul at peace, the intellect enthroned, the -power of will predominant. - -A man without friends is a man without life, and I have but told you of -some of my boon companions. Never to have shared in the fellowship of -the great spirits who are preserved for us in books is to cut one's self -off from the most rewarding of human relationships. The chums of our -boyhood, our companions at college, too often drift away to distant -parts, or diverge from us in pursuits other than our own; although -remembrances of our times together are sacred and of sweet recalling, -too often they are of the past and renewal forever impossible. The -friends of our books, however, are forever with us, they cannot die, -they cannot depart, they remain fresh and vigorous, hearty sojourners -upon our road, forever willing to lend a hand over the rocks and bumpy -places. Without disparaging those with whom I sit before the fire, and -chat, and smoke, I must confess that I value equally with them the -friends of eternal character that exist there in the book-case. They -lighten the path of life; they are ready for converse when my spirit -calls. - -Go to the greatest books for your most enduring friends, but upon having -formed their friendship do not leave them in the study, but carry them -within your spirit to your business and the marts of men, and in holding -their confidences burning in your heart you will find yourself a more -thorough human being. - - - - - *CHAPTER IX* - - *KEEPING UP WITH LIFE* - - -Reading is the key which admits us to the whole world of thought and -fancy and imagination, to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest -and wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moments. It enables us to see -with the keenest eyes, to hear with the finest ears, and to listen to -the sweetest voices of all time. - -JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL - - -If in the minds of some readers this little book has helped to break -down the futile distinctions and to show the real relation between the -man who reads and the one who enjoys life, between the thinker and the -man of action, it has done all that the author dared hope. Let us look -upon our library not as an end in itself, but as a means to an end. It -is a mistaken ambition to read as many books as possible within a year, -or to attempt religiously to read the complete works of a number of -authors. The man who buries himself in his library and exists only in -the books therein is an unsocial, stagnant creature; but the one who -reads as a means of attaining to a more productive life among his fellow -men is the one who has gained the true riches of literature. - -The world is a world for workers, not idlers. We live in America in the -twentieth century, and we are of but little use to the general machinery -if our minds are forever sojourning with the mediaeval knights or -gossiping in the by-ways of London with Charles Lamb and his -contemporaries. Literature for you and me who live, and toil, and hope -to obtain joy in the doing of it, must be vivifying nourishment to apply -to our living and toiling. Great books and all true education provide -this nourishment or else they would not be worth the price of a comic -supplement. - -Poetry, fiction, philosophy and history are not alone for old maids and -retired business men who desire comforting, amusing solace to while away -the hours until the race is run, nor alone for college professors and -writers whose business it is to read, abstract, and judge,--they are -truly, have been, and always will be for the minds of men and women who -need and use the spirit of them in their work, their play, their -sorrows, and their joys. - -When Francis Bacon wrote "Reading maketh a full man," he did not mean -"full" to imply a great accumulation of facts and dry-as-dust learning. -Bacon was a philosopher, scientist, essayist, of the first order in -each, and yet a leading statesman in his age. His mind was "full" in -that he had probably as had no other man in England absorbed all the -literature and science of all the centuries that had preceded him; his -was the fulness of the reservoir from which could be drawn an endless -stream of resource with which to undertake new political enterprises, of -strength to maintain his position and of philosophy in the face of -losing it. He was a literary man in that he knew the literature of the -world, a man of letters--he wrote masterpieces, a man of action--he -virtually ruled Great Britain. This is the threefold thread of life -that we may all have as our ambition,--the connoisseur, the creative -artist, the productive worker. - -After having considered the bearing the reading of books has upon life, -let us consider the bearing that living has upon reading and writing. -Elbert Hubbard carried out this thought in his little book upon William -Morris, the English poet. Morris, as you may know, was a weaver, a -blacksmith, a wood-carver, a painter, a dyer, a printer, a furniture -manufacturer, a musician, and withal a great poet. Hubbard said: -"William Morris thought literature should be the product of the ripened -mind." We have looked at Bacon as one whose literary output must have -been the product of a mind that had manfully grappled with worldly -affairs, and here is a further list that the Roycrofter gives us: -"Shakespeare was a theatre manager, Milton a secretary, Bobbie Burns a -farmer, Lamb a bookkeeper, Wordsworth a Government employee, Emerson a -lecturer, Hawthorne a custom-house inspector, and Whitman a clerk." - -The professional man of letters, except in rather rare instances, is by -no means the man who erects the most enduring literary monuments. -Literature must come from elemental life to have the true relationship -to the affairs of men. We could increase Elbert Hubbard's list to an -almost indefinite length--the author of the Gettysburg address had the -weight of a nation upon his shoulders, Thoreau was more interested in -observing the changing seasons than he was in writing books, Tolstoy was -a soldier, an economist and farmer, Balzac an unsuccessful publisher, -Bunyan a preacher, Pepys a high government official, Oliver Wendell -Holmes a doctor, and countless novelists and poets of the nineteenth and -twentieth centuries hard-working, hard-driven newspaper men. - -Leisure does not make great literature,--all that is effective must come -from interior or exterior experiences, and acute observations. The most -effectual reading is that which is done in the light of personal -experience, with one's eye upon unliterary activity. There is an -endless chain, of which the links are the subject, the artist, the -reader and his life as reflected by the author's treatment. To live in -a world of books and to have as their profession the spinning of other -volumes is the life of too many of our writers. On the other side of -the shield, we of course see readers whose lives are entirely absorbed -in the volumes they read without an outlet to the practical activities -of existence. How tiresome it is to have a bustling man or woman tell us -that they have not the time or that they are not literary enough to read -great books. They of course, being good Americans, have plenty of time -to go through stacks of worthless novels, and absorb a half dozen -continuous serial stories in our monthly magazines. I say it is -tiresome, and it is foolish, as with a moment's thought we can realize -that books are essentially for the man or woman who is most deeply -immersed in life. - -Break down the barrier between literature and life?--there is none! I -have a certain friend who has more to do within the twenty-four hours of -the day than has anyone else I know. Politics, municipal corporations, -railroads--these are apparently his life--absorbed in men and affairs. -And yet if I run across a book that especially appeals to me, I go to -him and ask his ideas upon it. He has probably read it and with his -greater experience in the actual turmoil of living than I have had, he -can enlighten me with a dozen new points of view upon the book under -consideration. He interprets it in the light of his experience, as the -author had written in the light of his. - -It was said that during President Wilson's first winter in the White -House, society in Washington was much exercised as to how he passed his -evenings. It later developed that those evenings in which he was not -absorbed in official business were spent in reading poetry, preferably -Wordsworth, to his family. Washington stood amazed! Perhaps there is no -truth in this story, but the ingredients are certainly there, which, if -brought into conjunction, would make a true yarn. The active helmsman -of the ship of state, with innumerable matters weighing upon him, -seeking wisdom and spiritual fibre from a great poet; Washington -society, without much to do, yet frightfully busy, amazed at his wasting -or dreamily passing his hours of possible recreation! - -Many another great public man has well appreciated that books are not -for the closet but for life. Theodore Roosevelt is the apostle of -strenuosity, statesman, ranchman, hunter, and yet a writer upon a wide -range of subjects and an omnivorous reader. The plays of Shakespeare -were the school books and college education of our rail splitter, -Abraham Lincoln. A great English liberal, Charles James Fox, would -charm the House of Commons for hours with his oratory, go to Brooks' and -lose a fortune at cards, and then home to his bed to read the Plays of -Euripides,--probably to absorb wisdom and courage for his thinking and -gaming upon the following evening. Of the men and women to whom books -mean life, we could go on with our list indefinitely, not only through -the ranks of kings and queens, soldiers and statesmen, financiers and -merchants, but sea captains, mechanics, farmers, clerks, and coal -miners. In every walk of life we find the true philosophers, the true -adepts in the art of living, seeking sustenance from the printed page. - -Go into a public library, and study the faces of those who are reading -there--ambition, inspiration, delight will be expressed by those who -have found _the open door_, the way to riches and plenty. Observe the -homes of your acquaintances! Cicero said that books are the soul of a -room, and we may expand this epigram in saying that the use of books in -a family brings all the members into a communion with each other, -creating an atmosphere far removed from that of the home in which books -are infrequent sojourners. - -Oh no, it is not the professed gentleman of literature with the pedantic -knowledge and bookish phraseology, but the men and women who seek -explanation of and relief from sorrow, stimulus to higher attainment, -pleasure that mellows activity, to whom the authors are truly the path -of life. Those whom you see on the elevated trains reading Shakespeare, -the ranchman with his pocket edition of Dickens, the country doctor who -hates to buy an automobile as when driving his old buggy he could read -his Boswell upon his round of visits,--they are the ones to whom the -poet can truly say, - - You will hardly know who I am, or what I mean; - But I will be health to you nevertheless, - And filter and fibre your blood. - - -You need never be afraid of becoming intellectual. To be sure it is -somewhat the fashion in America to think that a man who reads Meredith -should be a college professor or the editor of a book review--but this -is only a fashion and held to by the most stupid. It is smart to laugh -at good books and "culture," but it is the same sort of smartness at -which all Europe has been sensibly sneering for a century. Reading -should not be a profession; those that make it such invariably become -world weary, book weary, at sea in an ocean in which life is necessarily -a more vital thing than they are able to swallow. Do not give your life -over to your library, but make of it an electric battery with which to -vivify life. It can be done, and is done by the great and the little, -the sorrowful and the joyful, the leading warriors in the battle for -civilized progress. - -Call upon the supreme minds of past ages to support you in the strife of -this and they will prove stalwart, faithful legions. Read as is your -need and inclination; not as a duty, not as a feat, but as an -acknowledgment that you are glad to win the best and most helpful of -friends. Aristotle said that all men desire knowledge. If knowledge -means deeper human sympathy, a more profound enlightenment, a richer, -happier, more productive life, let each one of us admit that the -attainment of knowledge is in truth our endeavor. Let us try the -experiment of finding this knowledge in the volumes of the deepest, the -most intensive livers. - -Make the book you read to-day play a part in the world of to-morrow, and -you will rise above the reader in the closet who carps and criticizes, -thus cutting himself off from the work of men. You will disprove all -statements about the lack of practicability of education, the -other-worldiness of books. - - * * * * * - -There was a boy who wandered out along an unknown highway into a far -country. The way seemed sombre, foreign and meaningless. His questions -were unanswered, his desires unsatisfied; there seemed no by-paths into -which he could turn in the hope of finding a solace or a reason for his -journey. - -A never-ending vista without rhyme or reason lay before him of flat, -uninteresting solitudes, only broken by dark pits or rugged obstructions -which he had either to circle about or climb over or under. They always -annoyed and provoked him, as there seemed no set plan for meeting such -difficulties, no apparent purpose in wandering on. He knew, however, -that there was no turning back, he had to stagger, and stumble, and plod -forward, ever forward. - -It was the way of life, and it was a meaningless road, a disappointing -journey undertaken with great expectations. - -After a deal of suffering, impatience and profound discouragement, he -came upon a great Palace standing in his way. It was the first that he -had ever seen, and he wondered at it. - -With hesitancy he determined to walk about it and to follow the beaten -road, uninteresting but familiar, which he felt must stretch beyond. He -spied, however, a small door at the side of the great barred gate and he -determined to enter and to see what could be found within. The panel -yielded to his timorous push, and he found himself in a mighty hall -where there were wondrous things! - -Many another wanderer had already arrived, and many others were to -follow,--there was a happiness, a purpose, a vitality in life that had -been sadly lacking upon the road of his journeying. Wisdom, riches, the -answers to his questions, the reasons for his arduous pilgrimage lay -before him. He grasped them and was content. - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - *J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY'S - IMPORTANT NEW BOOKS* - - -*Betty at Fort Blizzard* - -By MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL. Four illustrations in color and decorations by -Edmund Frederick. $1.50 net. - -This is a straightaway army love story, with the scene laid at a post in -the far Northwest. It is a sequel to the famous "Betty's Virginia -Christmas" so popular a few years ago. 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NYBURG. $1.25 net. - -"Originality and dramatic strength are marked on many pages of this -production of a promising writer."--_Springfield Republican_. "Sidney -L. Nyburg is a man who writes a man's book."--_San Francisco Call and -Post_. - - -*The Strange Cases of Mason Brant* - -By NEVIL MONROE HOPKINS. Illustrated in color by Gayle Hoskins. $1.25 -net. - -"The stories are very entertaining and are more human than the usual -detective stories."--_New York Sun_. "Out of the beaten track of -detective stories."--_Philadelphia North American_. - - -*Ten Beautiful Years* - -By MARY KNIGHT POTTER. Net, $1.25. - -Those who desire knowledge of the most brilliant work in American -fiction should read this series of short stories on psychological -subjects. They are clean but intensely emotional; most of them appeared -in the _Atlantic Monthly_, _Harper's_, etc. - - -*The Practical Book of Early American Arts and Crafts* - -By HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN and ABBOT McCLURE. 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One prominent -rose grower said that these pages were worth their weight in gold to -him. The official bulletin of the Garden Club of America said:--"It is a -book one must have." It is in fact in every sense practical, -stimulating, and suggestive. - - -*Parks: Their Design, Equipment and Use* - -By GEORGE BURNAP. Official Landscape Architect, Public Buildings and -Grounds, Washington, D.C. Profusely illustrated. Frontispiece in -color. $6.00 net. - -This, the only exhaustive book on the subject and by the foremost -authority on the subject, is an amazing addition to the literature of -civic planning. It is a thorough resume of the finest European and -American examples of Park work. To the owner of a country estate and to -all who are interested in park and playground establishment and up-keep, -it will be a stimulating and trustworthy guide. - - -*The Book of the Peony* - -By MRS. EDWARD HARDING. Twenty full page color illustrations, 25 in -black and white. $5.00 net. - -The glory of the illustrative work and the authoritative treatment by -the author mark this book as one which will stand alone amidst the -literature upon this popular flower. It is a thorough and complete -guide to the culture of the peony and proves a fitting companion volume -to the famous "Practical Book of Outdoor Rose Growing." - - -*The Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria* - -By MORRIS JASTROW, JR., PH.D., LL.D. 140 illustrations. In a box. -$7.00 net. - -This work covers the whole civilization of Babylonia and Assyria and by -its treatment of the various aspects of that civilization furnishes a -comprehensive and complete survey of the subject. 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