WHAT THE PEOPLE READ.

Evening Star, Issue 14523, 26 November 1910, Page 2

WHAT THE PEOPLE READ.

The ability to read is a -wonderful thing. we not eo familar with it, the fact that a few blade marks upon paper should become eo engrossing and informing a power, it would seem scarcely lees than miraculous. It docs, indeed, eo appear to savagds. They arc filled with amazement when they first discover that what one is thinking can bo conveyed to another miles away by a few strokes on paper. That these strokes should be the medium whereby reason is set in motion and emotions stirred to their deepest depths and lives blessed or blasted is a standing miracle, which only familiarity hinders us from realising. Not less wonderful is it that the readers come in turn to bo unconscious of the letters—soeing only the word, and then only the thought for which it stands. So that the physical act progresses insensibly into a mental one, and the reader is immersed in thought or melted into tears. And all this through a few black marks of ink on paper And then, tliink of what this ability to read means. It annihilates time and, space. It enables us to go here or there, over leagued of seas and land, without even leaving our chair.

It revives for us, without a miracle, tho Ago of Wonder, endowing us with the shoes of swiftness, and ths cap of darkness, so that we walk invisible, like fern seed, and witness unharmed the plague at Athens, or Florence, or London ; accompany Ca-sar on his marches, to look in on Cataline in council with his follow conspirators, or Guy Fawkes in tho cellar of St. Stephen’s.

And so tho art of reading should be of interest. We ought to be interested in knowing how many people practise it. It is such people that are ultimately to rule us. Goethe said : “ Tell mo what a “dozen of your brightest young men are “thinking about, and I will tell you the “ future of your country.” Wc are not sure that that is quite correct. But it is true enough to emphasise the fact that reading is one of the most influential elements in the formation of character. And character is destiny. ******* The recent report, therefore, of Mbs Culvcrwell, who has charge of the .Reference Department in tho Free Public Library, should ho of concern to us all. It hq« hardly had the attention it deserves. It may bo said at once that it, is a complete vindication of the efforts of those who, through good and evil report, worked for the establishment of this institution. They have seen of the travail of their soul. If is a suggestive saying of ono of George Maodoiiaid’e characters ; “God’s pleased, hut ill to satisfy.” We hardly suppose that the Free Library and Reading Room agitators are. satisfied. There is much yet to do. And, indeed, wo should bo sorry to think they would over attain that slate--for it would mean the cessation of progress. But if they arc not satisfied, they and everybody else ought at least to be pleased with tho results. The report of the Librarian shows how valuable an asset is this institution in the moral and intellectual life of the community. H is not a little interesting to see in what direction the reading tastes run. Encyclopedias arc tho best-used books in the. Library. That, is a hint to the Committee to make this department tho most complete. Encyclopedias aro not books to stock privately. They are, in fact, a waste of money. Tho progress of knowledge antiquities them in a few years. .'Scientific ones can hardly bo depended on for more than twelve months, if so long. One of the most useful functions, therefore, of a Free PublicLibrary is to have it thoroughly equipped with Ijooks of this class—equipped not only in number, hut in up-to-dateness. Philosophy and religion are also popular. But it affords toed for thought that the books most, need in these departments are not what wo would call classics. “ Ancient

ami modern philosophers scarcely over

“ leave, the shelves." It is those that deal with what might he called “sports” in philosophy—psychic phenomena, hypnotism, psychical expression, etc. —that aro the most sought after. In religion it is apparently tho same. H is tho nonChristian religions and sporadic offorle of the human mind, such as mysticism, asceticism, theosophy, etc., that aro the most popular. And these books are mainly used on Saturdays. Is this to get tho readers in a fit. frame of mind, for Sunday? Or aro they collecting p-wdor and shot for the discussions at tho Fountain and in the halls of Spiritualism and Theosophy, etc. ? There is such a thing as a non-religious curiosity about religion. There is abundant evidence of its existence in tills community. We are ready to flirt with every new religious doctrinaire who solicits our suffrage. There is a story told of a poor woman whose husband was infected in this way. She was telling tho Bishop about his religious vagaries. First, she said, ho was an Episcopalian. Then he left them ami joined tho Methodists. After a while lie tired of them also., and went, over to the Baptists. Then ho gave them up, and jiow lie is what I think (hey call a “ Plymouth Bloater.” Well, it is a free country, and every man for himself and God for ns all, as tho elephant said when ho danced among the chickens. *******

It is gratifying to seo that .sociological literature is popular. Books on political economy and education arc in largo demand. 'That indicates a desire for intelligent citizenship. It is only to be expected that the "useful arts” section would be, the best appreciated in the Library. Books on engineering—electrical and mechanical—are constantly read. So also are those on hygiene and medicine. In regard to the latter it might bo wise to recall Felix Holt’s warning to las mother, who was, in his opinion, too much inclined to amateur doctoring. “ Ignorance is not so damnable as “humbug, hut when it takes to preecribing “ pills u may do more harm.” On tbe wbolo, what phases ue best relative to the reading tastes of tho people is the statement that “ Literature is perhaps our “ strongest section, and increases most “ noticeably.” And this is particularly ho among the younger patrons of tho Library. We are not quite sure what the librarian means by literature. Apparently fiction bulks largely, and Scott, Dickens, Fielding, Meredith, are "constantly read.” There is a disposition to decry novels, and affirm tliat they monopolise the bulk of tho reading public. Well, and what it they do? It is the novel to-day that is translating tho ideas of science and philosophy into the language and understanding of the c.ommoa people. It is through them that tho thoughts of philosophers and scientists and theologians, which are hidden away in dusty tomes —the perquisites of the few—are being made current coin for the masses. The great need of the hour is not the denouncing of the cult of fiction, but the creating of a taste for the highest and best in it. The novelist is tho meet potent preacher of our time. He occupies the highest pulpit, iiis voice carries furthest, ■and his audience is, beyond all odds, the largest that listens to any teacher of the , day. How to jjet him Ur realise te— m- ,

spoimbility and how to secure that the novel-reading public shall select the best and profit by it is tbe most clamant need of the hour. ******* And so we are led to offer a suggestion to the Committee. Could they not arrange for a series of lectures or talks on literature? Wo do not mean lectures, such its are given by a school teacher or a university professor. These aro usually dominated unconsciously by the idea of an examination. They aro often pedantic, bookish, philological, or analytic. What is wanted is someone with a real taste for literature, and, above all, enthusiasm bom oat of his own jay in communion with it, to tell others how this has been acquired' and how it may become theirs also. Take, for instance, novol-reading. How many know how to choose a novel, or, having chosen ono, how to read it so as to get the ring best good out of it? The usual conception of the novel is that it is fiction, therefore false, therefore of no use save to pass tlie time —■ a pastime. And so the reader is demoralised, and the writer yields to the law of supply and demand. Wo believe there is a great field hero for the Committee to exploit. It is white to ripeness, :md will abundantly reward the labor spent on it. In Britain and America the library authorities in many places do undertake the duty we are advocating. Of course, in lhei"o older countries it is very much easier to get men and women competent for the work. But it should not be impossible here either. Our scats of learning have been Jong enough in existence to produce some -capable of rendering the service to their fellows. And there are nob a few professional men and others in our midst whoso familiarity with books, ripened and illumined by experience of life, would well qualify them to undertake this duty. *««««*«

Or take again poetry. It is significant that there is no reference in the Librarian’s report to poetical literature. That cannot be, we presume, because there is none in tho Library. Wc fear that the average man and woman has little, taste for it And they have little t.osto for it, not because the capacity is non-existent, but because it has never been discovered and developed. Stevenson is correct when lie says that a poet has died young in tho breast of tho most, stolid. But ho goes on to correct himself. He thinks tho poet in ns has not died, but survives and is the spice of life. Justice is not done io the versatility and the unplumbed childishness of man’s imagination. His life from without may seem but a rude mound of mud; there

will bo some golden chamber, at the heart, of which he dwells delighted. That is very true. And hero again what is needed is some sympathetic guide—someone who could introduce readers to this class of literature, and touch them with its beauty and power. It is good, no doubt, to supply in a library what may bo called bread-and-butter books—books that help a man to make money and gain a livelihood. But, after all, man i does not live by bread only, or even chiefly. He liras by imagination, hope, fear, love. And the literature that creates and inspires them best must always be fundamental and .supreme. And of this literature none surpasses poetry. “ The crown of literature,’’ says Matthew Arnold. “is poetry.” Everyone .remembers how when John Stuart Mill was bewildered by life’s problems iio chanced upon Wordsworth, and it was Ids salvation. When Tennyson was being buried in West minster Abbey a hard-pressed business man came down from a remote part of the country to attend the funeral. He fold the reason afterwards in a letter to one of tho newspapers. He said that in the darkest hour of his life, broken-hearted hy the tragedy of disappointment and lost love, Tennyson’s ‘ln Moinoriam ’ fell into his hands. It brought him a new gospel, healed His wounds, and pave him a. fresh clue to life. Henceforward Tennyson was to him closer than a brother. Wc believe that of all literature poetry has'this power in pre-eminence, and wc should like to see it in the place of honor to winch its history and its potentialities alike entitle it.