The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1949 GOOD COMPANIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 December 1949, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1949 GOOD COMPANIONS

TUST as a man is known by the company lie keeps so is he better J known by the books he reads. A man reveals his inner self by the contents of his bookshelf. The man he aims to be is the dictator of the books that he chooses to read. A good man will select good books. A poor quality man will choose books which are cheap in texture. There is very good reason why a cheap quality man should not choose good books. lie would find them a poor investment, for they contain none of the things he wishes to know or to possess. He can get what lie wants in concentrated form in the printed matter turned out for his especial consumption. For the man who has a desire to live a richer and a fuller life two things are requisite—good companions and good books. Good companions, ordinary flesh and blood contacts, are essential_ for the human being simply because he is human. Humanity is a composite thing and it must hang together somehow. The old song of jollification which proclaims that “the more we are together the merrier we shall be” is true. The desire to get together when one wants to be happy is inherent in our natures. V> e are simply made that way and that is all there is to be said on the point. It can be averred with a great deal of truth that good books are good companions. “Everyman. I will go with thee and be thy friend” is the quotation which provided the title for that popular series of the classics, the Everyman Library, which has now reached nearly to one thousand volumes. This is one of the series that has provided many friends to the generation that witnessed its initiation half a century ago when its volumes were published at the modest price of one shilling. The friendship that the Everyman series has provided is so considerable that it is now taken for granted and the beneficiaries have ceased to be aware of their benefaction. It is only when the catalogue of this series is perused that one realises the full extent of the debt due to those, who placed the classics within the range of every home. The history of the Jews, the courtier of the middle ages, the scandalous but nevertheless interesting adventures of Benvenuto Cellini, Rome’s majestic past and the dark davs of the French Revolution aie found side by side with White’s “History of Seibourne” with all its naturalist, lore, or the peaceful essays of Emerson, of Montesque and Bacon, Emerson and Montaigne, while Haslett also is available in company with Dean Swift and Oliver Goldsmith. The man who desires to know how Londoners lived and thought in the Eighteenth Century may turn to Boswell’s “Life of Dr. Johnson.” and he will at once be introduced into the best conversation which London could then provide. Should the fireside adventurer seek to know more about high politics he may cross the Channel and move comfortably along the tortuous paths that were explored by the mysterious mind ot Tallyrand “that rather middling bishop but very eminent knave as De Quincey described him. It may be objected that such men as Tallyrand are really not good companions'for Mr. Suburbia. Were it possible for the two to meet in the flesh today—Tallyrand would no doubt be peddling shares in South American tin mines or oil wells—Mr. Suburbia would no doubt find the contact a costly one. But the advantage of having the adventurer between the covers of a book liesl m being able to control him. What a privilege to deal with Tallyrand so cheaply: one can shut him up at any time. It is as well to learn of all sorts and conditions of men; for one is sure to meet some of them in a lifetime. Further, it would be an unsatisfactory world, indeed, if there were living in it. too mrry unsophisticated Mr Pickwicks. To know and appreciate the heights of human character it is essential that one shall know something of the depths as well: Just as a mountaineer must know besides the peaks to which he struggles, something of the gullies and valleys that serry the mountainside. . . It is an interesting experience to re-read a. good book, but a practice not sufficiently indulged in. It has been said that c<udinal Newman read “Mansfield Park” four times a year• for-the sake of the literary style, while King George the I'iflh of England reread many times “It’s Never Too Late to Mend. Newman s own literary style was not one that stood in need of supnort, yet he found in Jane Austin a good companion, while the well-known level-headedness of King George was supported by the powerfully written narrative of Charles Reade. To reread a good book is to discover delights therein which passed unfloticed at the primary reading. If a considerable period has elapsed between the two readings the second time is a new experience, the difference being so marked. It. is the mark of a good book that, it can be reread, just, as it is the mark of good company that the more one gets ot it the more enjoyable does it become. One soon tires of supeifieial books and men. . . • mi Good companionship is essentially a process of sharing. I here must be both giving and taking and it will be the better if the traffic, each way comes near to balancing. The reader who takes corelative knowledge to a book contributes to the experience of reading that. book, that is why a good reader gets so much more out of a book than does an illiterate or semi-illiterate person. It pays therefore, to be a good companion to “the elves that hide in corners on one’s shelves.” Those elves enjoy themselves the more when they too find themselves in good company.