Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-04
BOOKS AND BRAINS.
An Interesting subject ably Handled.

| on any subject should have been Sufhcien
to fill the largest hall in Nashville with on
best citizens. But this is not lecture
going community, hence it is not matte
] of surprise thai not more than two hundrei
! people heard the Bishops interesting dis
course at the Union Chapel on Summe
street last night, on the subject, ''BOoks an
Brains"
His subject, he said, could be divided In
to two parts; lie would deal in books anC
his audience must furnish the brains.
Reading opens cur Minds 10 the bes
minds OF past ages. Reading opens OF
golden hinges the doors of the best societ,
Of the past to our welcoming feet. Whs
care we if Mrs. Jellaky stub as, if Jeremy
Taylor comes ana sits at our table? Read
| ing also gives US actual communication be
tween the present and the past. The PEG
pie Of this country who have no India1
blood in their veins are better acquainte,
with the history of the Indian race than thu
Indians themselves. The man that he.
conquered the Indian has preserved him il
books. What would we know of Colum
bus If tradition alone brought him down to
US? What Of the settlement of our country
or of the Revolutionary war? There were
AdAAAONlo lACAl III lAAnCS WIZ lldNt
been practically blotted out because ofthei
fame not being handed down to us il
books,
WHAT SHALL WE READ?
Read Hdrper'S Weekly, Netg York Led
ger, Literary Companion, dime novels
One that is strong may eat all things, bu
he that is weak eats nothing. There il
reading that is ruinous to beings Of our fine
organization. The World is full OF false
culture In this department, and the true
reader must discriminate.
Perhaps the first department IS the news
paper. We want TO know of the present
The central idea Of the NEWSPAPER is tC
bring us into communion with mankind
The modern man lives on bread andZtele
grams. The newspaper makes every man
feel that every other man is his brother.
The newspaper is a sort of SianeSe Twins.
but as though all deaccns are good there
'sortS" in deacons, there are certainly
''Sorts" in newspapers. In the great wrest-
lingS that are going on in the world, the
newspaper stands up as IN athlete.
HISTORY.
But we want to know not only what is
going on to-day, but we want to know some
thing of those who have passed through
the world before us. We must look into
the history of mankind, and 10 do this
properly, must read the works OF those v no
possessed the ability 10 WELD a power in
tie ages of which they write-such men as
Macauley, Bancroft, Motley. The great
historians seize upon certain eras. Gibbon
grapples with the wonderful thought of the
overthrow of the Roman Empire by Chris
+fansfr- Ia -lr.,1l l., -
teacher in theology. FrUude takes that
single point IN the English history when
the English nation break loose from that
sovereignty Of the Church over the State.
SCIENCE
lures us to its study, but there are false
Ren of science who fail 70 see the eonnec-
ton between nature and natures God.
Study those men of science who alNaYs
guide ycu along the right path, and remem-
Der that false men of science may
be used as physicians use poison.
The essay and discourses of John
Stuart Mil resolve themselves into tki5.
'.Man is nothing hut III inlmaterial atom"
THE DtPARTMENT OF THE UNREAL.
has more power over us than the real. The
man working at the forge-the woman
kneading at the bread, may have certain
flights of fancy, so every nne % us has ms
great realm of the unreal and fictitious.
The child will sit and dream its dreams:
the maiden will build its Spanish castles,
and the youth will 60 out upon its seas.
These have two departmentS-the poetic
and what is generally known as the re-
mantle, though both are romantic, as both
are smade.n
There is great deal of humdrum poetry
written and published. There is Tupper's
Proyerbial Philosophy, Pollock's Course of
Time. and the rhymes Of Mrs. Hemans and
Mrs. Sigourney and many Others, but none
of these lift YOU up TO a higher plane of
thought or feeling. Read the poetry of that
man who has a greater Thoughts than YOU.
Read INSTRUMENTATION some pecple call
dull simply because they themselves are
duh, and You'll often find your whole being
is in a better realm than that of earth.
Take Shakespeare in his better moments.
Milton in his grandeur. Paradise Reaainpd
is better than Paradise Lest. Take lines
and oflen hcoi.s, OF Tennyson; take En-
mefson, whose poetry stands almost alone
among American poems, and who, a hun
dred years from now. will be
TIE ONLY AMERICAN WRITER
read, except, perhaps, Evangaline. by Long
fellow, and those Bigelow Papers, by Low
ell. Byron viii be remembered for his
Childe Harold. Moore wrote many things
worthy of being preserved. Goldsmith was
the most delicate and keen-edged satirist
that ever drew pen across English paper.
Pope has in some of his lines Thoughts that
are worthy OF immortality. Some folks
imagine they want to get the whole series
Of English poets; they might as well buy
whole stock of goods because they like the
factory. Shallspeare's dreams are remark
able, but there is a great difference in their
FICTITIOUS LITERATURE.
The fictitious literature of to-day is GER
tain not TO be the fictitious literature Otto
morrow. Ii is the most ephemeraI of all
literature. The story of the novel GOES
with the breath that created it. We have
not novel among all our works Of Greek
or Roman literature. The oldest fiction of
to-day is the story Of Don Quixote, and
that has been preserved only because of its
delicate satire. There is hardly a story in
that is Il hundred years old
The true novel writer cares nothing for
his ''stOry." He brings out character.
Dickens greatest work is the Pickwick Pa
pers, and there is no story about il. He
left Pickwick and Sam Weller where they
were. and might have taken them up again
where he left of, if he had possessed the
genius, but he did not. The interest in
Oliver Twist ceases when the STORY be-
gins. David COpperfeld was no longer in
.eresting when Dickens broke off telling
about himself, and began to work in the
.iliainieS and marriages, etc. Of the ..StOry."
Thackery is the best novel writer of. the
age, simply because he does not write
stories, but prints character. There is no
story about the NewcOmbS, Pendennis. or
anity Fair. His stories have no william
Dut a man who can "say things" The
whole thing issimply introspection of him
;elf, and OutrospectiOn of society.
In this realm of fiction YOU must make
-Our selections, and your stock of novels
viii be very small. Scott wrote but half a
iozen good books; Dickens is easier sifted
Town than Scott. All after Copperfield can
)e thrown away and most of that written
Defore it. Thackery can be sifted 20 still
esS. \ few OF the works of Charles Reade,
Miss MulOck and Mrs. Beecher Stowe
hOuld be preserved, but the great mass of
he writers of fiction can be destroyed.
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.
The worst of all the fiction of the present
ge is that in our Sunday-schOOl libraries.
II these books there is not the least idea of
character, the least fash of genius or the
east thought of power. The bad boy who
igJIres therein is always to be preferred to
he 0OOd bpV for no has conna uIucl-. hove