Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIII, Issue 1, 6 January 1916, Page 21

Current Topics

How and What to Read 'V-m}"' .*, ‘ A>V' : V v ii ; ? We have' referred elsewhere -to the complaint -made by the Minister for Education that reading, and writing were being ; neglected in * our schools, and iwe j have expressed the: opinion i that this was mainly : due i to' the temper of the time and to the policy of ‘ the Depart--1 ment that led ; our boys ; and girls to shirk} as far ias possible everything ' iii the shape, of .serious, personal effort ;or labor.- There is no - doubt that this is, in a certain sense, a - reading age, and that more books nqw issue ' from the press than ,in any age that has passed. Books t are published; upon : every subject",} treating it from every . point of ; view, and in every form y yet in the aristocracy of intellect we. have no one to. compare with : Pericles ' or Plato.} or Homer, ; with . Dante ; or Aquinas or Shakespeare ; and ‘in the rank and file the average modern reader compares unfavorably, so.} far as the understanding of what he reads. is concerned, with the average reader of the generations that have gone by. . The tradition- of the modern school to skim oyer as many lessons as possible in a stated ' time is carried from- tlje school and remains with most readers during the. whole term of their lives. They read much but think little, and superficiality triumphs at the expense of depth. The ancient- who feared the man of one book would have nothing to fear from the modern, whose intellect is atrophied from overcrowding and want of exercise, and whose opinions and judgments are worth precisely what they cost in personal and laborious' study.

Less reading with more observation and original thinking would make wiser and 'better men. Fewer printed books and a fuller acquaintance with the open book of Nature and with the inner voice of the soul would save many from much deceit, and make them expert in sifting, weighing, arranging, and digesting the accurate facts and the lofty thoughts their labor garners from the great master minds of the past.' The thinker is* never deceived, but shallow books deceive shallow readers, and leave them at the mercy of . every intellectual mountebank. • The unthinking • conclude without any process, of reason that a master in one branch of learning is an expert in ( all, and they go to Edison for judgments in philosophy when they should consult' him only oh automobiles. - Another - man is remarkable} for beautiful style as a writer, and those who are too indolent to think beseech him to discourse On Eternal. Beauty Truth, and Love. ; These would in unrestrained enthusiasm bind the poems of Archilocus in vellum and build a palace for himself ; but the Lacedemonians in their better, wisdom were not so minded. It is inevitable that things should be so man gets nothing for mothipg; truth and wisdom are hot at beck and call, they must be -wooed and won by patient, strenuous labor, by much-proved love and devotion. V- }• 1 ; -.x/"'- ■ ; ;

t; We would urge -our !* young boys leaving school • and the youthful members ,of our Catholic clubs and . debating societies to avoid these evils of the day and ■ - to : seek ; out -a' way : that iff better and follow it.. ' ; lf " they would become wise they will: read . deeply and '"well, they, will for , the most part select books that ■,-U } demands study ;to -understand them ; only such books * are worth reading, for only such } educate .am an by r M > :: : bringing out his latent powers and tempting.- him to i : rise higher and higher above . the level oh which he j finds himself. Let : others ;■ be. superficial’ and shallow, *; , let them be . discoverers, leaving the beaten track in ; . ,X > search of ; rich and hidden mines. JA '■ learned Australian Driest, long since dead, was once asked .for ■ a list -of books. I The present writer can quote that ; list only }-v.. from : -memory.;-il>ut it contains the nucleus of: a perfect / v v tv- library. 'lt .did - not *' overlook T the - essential fact that the superstructure of a worthy spiritual life must be raided upon the foundation of the natural virtues; Hi •' ; - - ... .

• therefore, if recommended Plutarch for honor, FenClon for.'- nobility of character, Lingard ' for a fearless love •■ of truth, for he wrote truth fearlessly" when 1 all-around; .him were conspiring against it a Kempis for kindness,! and the*.gentle Francis ; de Sales for that gentleness that ; i so 3 sweetly harmonises with greatness of mind. ; Having used these f in ; laying - the foundation of the <X natural virtues, the young h manmust * have recourse / to -the Book ; of Books, the inspired , word of God, - for 1 the rules ’, by which to raise the supernatural edifice, the 3i spiritual house s o,f the soul. But there must be no ' superficial and - hasty skimming; all' these he must ’ study deeply and well; patient industry must explore : for him their inmost core and reveal- to him their every hidden > source of strength and beauty. •- Here, too, it ■ may well be - said that none but the brave deserve ; the fair. Mr. Belloc tells -us in one of . his pleasant papers on c Nothing ’ that * once there was a man who lived• in a house at the corner of a, wood with an

excellent landscape upon every side. ' . . . He re- : membered an uncle of his - who had pointed out : that burdens, :especially if } born© in youth, strengthen the upper deltoid muscle, expand}} the } chest, 3 and give to the whole, figure an erect and graceful poise. }•• He remembered also reading in a book upon;-country sports ■ that the bearing of heavy weights is art- excellent train - ing for all other forms of exercise, and produces a • manly and resolute carriage, } very useful in r ’ golf, cricket;;: and colonial wars. He could not forget his mother’s frequent remark that a burden nobly endured gave firmness - and.-at the same time elasticity to the , character.’ This, then, is the resolution for the hour, the potent remedy ; for our time’s decay.. ' Let every • reader make a serious choice of good books/ and let him make his study of these a, serious labor. It will turn out to be a - labor of } love, enlightening his mind, strengthening his character, and safeguarding his country- and his generation;}. - . : ; V'}

■- . What more than this does any reader need unless -•it' be . some books for Vmental recreation ?/ , But} even here fair} wisdom, loved by him, will : not desert him; }-} for with love of wisdom it has been decreed that love v . of all good things shall come: a clean mind, a pure heart, sweet imaginings and books' that need no. fumigating. / He may turn' to romances} and love stories, he 'will find these in every, language, full of sweetness and : purity, for wisdom will lead him in the search. He will discover heroes, manly, noble, kind, virtuous . / ’and the heroines who will spring up to charm him will be like • the Blessed Damozel leaning out from the gold bar of. heaven and ' handing him ‘a. white rose of Mary’s gift.’ He will find: such heroines, in a host of Christian writers, like so many sweet symphonies . stirring the depths of his' soul, lighting up the dark ways of his . life by the glory that : sparkles on .their brow, awing him into submission /. by their spiritual beauty, and giving him a foretaste of heaven in the odors of sweetness and grace they shed around}, them. - * Such were Cecily and Gertrude and Magdalen, and : Margaret and Rosalys in , the dear days of old ;. such >}} was the lady who ; led the author of the Divine Comedy - } • up to th© steep ' heights of heaven s when the pagan;} - poet had failed ; such the lady , who is idealised by a hbst of ' Christian writers, easy of discovery to one. who , is - led by wisdom, whose flights of v genius are % not hampered' by morbidity, but are ever' borne} upwards •by a divine breath. : J-c ; ■/*}.•' \ }*•