WISE READING

Southland Times, Issue 25311, 14 June 1935, Page 9

WISE READING

VALUE OF PLANNING MR PEARCE’S ADDRESS di.) The planning of reading was the next phase to be touched upon by Mr T. D. Pearce in his address to the girls attending the Educational Week. He urged that they should read along definite lines, in an author or a subject. By this means they would get a deep and lasting impression of the work read. “Soak yourself in an author, he advised. “Desultory reading is pleasant, but it is not so profitable. Get a grip of what you read?’ Mr Pearce also advised them to make a digest-of the books read. They should have a notebook into which to copy notable portions of the books. An A.B.C. of reference of subjects was valuable, while a scrap book and a pocket envelope .for newspaper clippings would prove most useful. For reference he advised the purchase of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Chambers’ 20th Century Dictionary (with latest additions) and other dictionaries for French and Latin. Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations” and Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary were the best works in their line. Library Reading. A man was known by the company he kept and in the same way a man was known by his library. Libraries cost money to build up in the home, but circulating libraries were inexpensive and provided all the reading that could be wished for. The Invercargill Public Library was a really good one, Mr Pearce said, and he advised them to join up with it. Under modem transport books could be returned very cheaply from country centres. For series of books Mr Pearce recommended: (1) “The King’s Treasururies of Literature.” The general editor was Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and they were published by J. M. Dent and Sons. These were admirable in selectionjin format, in size and in print. (2) The World’s Classics,” published by the Oxford University Press. (3) Macmillan’s “Pocket American and English Classics,” Macmillan’s “Globe Library, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Horace, Virgil and Tennyson. (4) Benn’s “Sixpenny Library” (leading authorities in their respective subjects). (5) “The Modem Reader’s Bible,” published by Macmillan and Company (a revised version presented in modem literary form). (6) “The Nelson Library of Notable Books,” and by Nelson and Sons, Ltd. (7) “The Home University Library of Modem Knowledge” (by the best men in their subjects). The Bible.

“In this survey of ‘Books, what to read and how to read them,’ I could not pass over that great monument of English prose, simple, clear, rhythmical prose, that has so profoundly influenced English literature in vocubulary, phraseology, and thought expression, the English Bible, particularly the Authorized Version of 1611. The late George Saintsbury, for so many years (nearly thirty) professor of English at Edinburgh University, the- maker of many books himself, and the editor of many series of books, a most erudite man, whether the field was English literature, French literature or Italian literature, whether it was the realm of Socialism or as connoisseur of wines, once said: ‘The Authorized Version of the Bible in English is probably the greatest prose work in any language.’ “Even agnostics have testified to the literary merits of the English Bible. In this connection it is well to remember that the translation was the work of many gifted men, chosen for their special distinction as scholars, whether of Hebrew or Greek or English. Fortyseven of them constituted the committee of revision—therefore the work is the result of immense care and thoroughness. What I wish you particularly to remember is that the Bible is not a homogeneous whole, but a collection’ of books, of varying forms of literature, a library in itself.

“You will find within its covers all the forms of prose, narration, description, exposition; you will also find the Various forms of poetry, lyric, epic and dramatic. But these forms are hidden from your view by the customarysetting of the print. I know of two settings, with their appropriate commentaries, that have greatly interested me and helped me to an appreciation of the literary forms of Biblical Literature. These are ‘The Modem Reader’s Bible,’ by Professor Moulton, and ‘The Literary Man’s Bible,’ by W. L. Courtney, M.A., LL.D. “They enhance by their setting the beauties of structure; and they reveal the status of the books from the point of literature. The Book of Job for instance, with its dialogues between Job and his friends, is the nearest approach to the dramatic form. The Book of Ruth is, of course, a short pastoral idyll. Isaiah is one of the most magnificent of poets. Songs occur here and there—the song of Deborah in Judges, .the Red Sea song in Ejcodus, Moses’ Swan song in Deuteronomy, and so on. I know nothing in any literature finer in stateliness and measured orderliness than Solomon’s Prayer at the dedication of his temple in I. Kings. The beauty of the Psalms in all their variety is unsurpassable. Therefore, do not neglect the beauties of Biblical literature.

“Solomon’s song Bth chapter, verses 6 and 7, reads: ‘Let me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned? “Saintsbury says: ‘This is absolutely perfect English prose—harmonious, modulated, yet in no sense trespassing the limits of prose and becoming poetry? Another passage he selects is the charity passage of the First Epistle to the Corinthians.

“J. R. Green in his ‘History of the English People’ says: ‘As a mere literary monument, the English version of the Bible remains the noblest example of the English tongue, while its perpetual use made it, from the instant of its appearance, the standard of our language?

(To be Continued.)