Smyrna times., 1866-12-26
NJ is ELL A n NEO US.
Too Many Books.

1t is almost impossible to keep tho run of
even the names Of the multitudes of books that
come driving around you, like leaves in an au-
tumn forest As to becoming acquainted with
their contents, that is simply impracticable, at
least regards about ninety mine hundredths
OF them; sense of lncOmpetency overwhelms
you; you feel oppressed with the safety Of
good things; you want room to breahe freely,
and you suffer from intellectual repletion; you
| long for time to sit down and enjoy what you
have before you are overloaded with more.
You are like the guest at fashionable dinner,
whose plate is snatched away by the officious
waiter before he is half done with it, and ano-
ther put in its place, to be whipped off in like
manner, just as he is finding relish for the
Wand; and SO ON to the end of the feast =
| Thus you are kept on continual drive. You
are whirled along, had almost said with tee-
graphic celebrity, through the regions Of poetry,
romance, history, biography, politics, theology,
and all the other departments OF literary endea-
vor in which earth's millions are emulating
each other; and the mass of books are to you
little more than the posts of the field fences, of
which the railroad traveller catches a misty
glimpse as he hurries along. Truly the age is
fast in letters, as it is in everything else. Now
all this seems to me very unsatisfactory; amidst
the multiplicity of good things there appears
|
any, Before you have partaken of one delight
you are interrupted to taste another.
get hold of some pleasant book that has
just come Out-say, for instance, Barry Corn
walls Memoir of Charles Lamb the kind
ly "reminiscences Of the almost octogenarian
when shall we ever tire of reading about "the
gentle Elia?" take it into my study and sit
down by myself to devour it, thinking to have
a good time but Ger have got through the
first few pages, the mail is in, and the daily
newspaper comes ciamoring to be looked at
One mast read the newspaper, or how shall We
keep up with the times, and know how the
world wags? Perhaps there are two or three
OF them-and such papers! 1t they were onl,
OF reasonable size-pleasant, moderate, un
pretending little ''foliOs of four pages" sucl
as our great grandfathers delighted in: anC
% which they could readily dispose of, advertise
e ments and all, in half an hour-and which a
ID the end of the year could be bound up in
y book and put away in the library without bein
'e unwieldy-if they were such papers, it wovl
4 not beiso bad. But these newspapers of on
day are giants-monsters in literature-huge
n tremendous sheets, almost large enough t
make a bed quilt and containing matte
enough to fill a duodecimo volume. And, {
u think of man being asked to read whole vC
lume, nay, two or three of them, every day {
his life. What an exaction 1t may be sal
that you are not obliged to read everything tha
y, is in the paper. Very true but you are Oblil
u" ed to wade through great mass of type in Of
der to ascertain what there is worth reading
and that is a prodigious tax upon man tim,
Our ancestors were certainly happy in havir
= small newspapers that they could tai
in their hands, and find their way throuq
? without fatigue-sheets where the news WI
~ ~ condensed, and brought, as it were, within
ss. nut she'll and where avarvthinU uoc ploin oy
bv straightforward, and easy to be understood.
ef- Happy age ere the world had learned to
al so fast; and when people acted more upon Il
ny principles of moderation.
well, by dint of industry and perseverance
&c. L despatch my newspapers, and again beta
Ivy. myself to my volume. A few more pages q
Ie- accomplished; and then comes another int
nr' ruption; my religious paper makes its week
,OI appearance. One must take religious pap,
his In order to know what is going on in I
eIy church, just as we take secular one to KIN
lou. what is done in the world. Irun through tn
and try to get its essence. 1t takes some tin
ress but at last | am satisfied, and take to my bo
I"l su again. Then comes the Home Journal; tn,
is no resisting that, and the book has to be Il
down. The Journal must have its reading,
G. it talks about books, and people, and thin
- and gives much gossip and valuable inform
ton Then comes my Literary Gazette a
Publishers Circular, that pleasant fortnight
UT which tells me what is being done in the bC
ILL community, and which / should hardly kn
how to do without. And then come, in th
rer rer turn, the larger and still more exacting mon
'eiP- lies, few Of which | now take, partly beca
Anu | cannot afford to pay for them at the pres
ns, high prices, and partly because / have not ii
to read them, Those that do come in my
81, are enough to hold me back from rapid |