New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-02-17
4 SLw ~Boo6 or EEfAEEEcE.7

Il -
With The incIca,c of human knowlcd2e, few
men can hope to acqurc more ihan nag
m,nt OF the whole Even Solomon al the
present day would not attempt universal learn
ing. The most and the best thar can br done
j. 80 ascertain the Path of literature. Scicnc".
and ai, - that ~ az events "" en- find the
auilc-po,t- when We need to 90 in a certain
direction. IN, man who know, Just what are
the books of reference that viii tell him
where other houks-boOk- of dctuil-aIc. has
the hey 10 knowledge; and is likely to be Of
molc scrNic, 10 himself and others than if
he were. Ike ono 0f King james, trar>lG-
tors. "a walking encyclopaedia Bu books
of reference are IN general confined 10 certain
"la.,"s Of thihgs, and gre rarrt very recent
in their smNcy. The fact l. that the
best newspapers have now become the
recipitnt~ of the bulk of current kn0Nl-
edge; they have largely superseded the
old-fa-hicncd quartcrlicS. aud 70 a great cX-
tent. new books. Ii l. po>sibl, for n man to
hc well informed if ne reads only tlic news
rapnr-: il j. impossible if he does not read
them.
No newspaper reader needs 60 bc reminded
~ 10 how frequently be- meets with articles,
/
thinks well worthy of prc>cf, alton. Very
probably lac keep file OF The paper "a has
~ friend that dos. or at all events can con
suit tile ut the nearest public library. BuI
anybody who has tried the business OF finding
somrthne thai hc ha4 loved and lost, making
The effort - discovery some months after The
E.-t -iglt of the object in Il morning paper,
VII have probably had an experience Ia rum
u,aginy through back files comparable only
10 tlr pruycrhlll search for needle ia a hay
stack. II seems a pity that 80 many good
rhin.. should be- lost in what he Eooh-men
call "thc cphcmcral pres Take, for in
stancc, such a, the book reviews, averaging in
| THE 'iEIEr - one per day for the whole year !;
giving ynorsc, of The works of Matthew Arnold,
of Bancroft, of Emerson. of Herbert Spencer
thr dainty verse 81 Jean iDgcloW, the more
sorioU. stains of Browning, the sparkling
lines Of Oliver Wendell Holmes ahd The
nclloVing richness Of Iongfe'l0N must
they hc lost simply from NOT knowing
where to find them? 4 wcl-wii'tcu dramatic
criticism j. almost ~ Interesting ten wears
hence ~ NOW, aud there are perhaps hundred
of them in year filed away in TuE TRiGrNE's
PAGES. Almost ~ many articles describe the
success with which the works OF the most
iIustiious composers are now rendered at con-
cert- aud operas. The treasures of the picture
galleries can bc brought back to the minds
eve AT Il moments notice il one only knows
where 10 look for the AT criticisms, bound up
somewhere in the file. There, 100. are the
reports of lectures that would make library
in themselves; one of curious variety. where
Mr.. Conway aud President Woosey. Emerson
and DR.. John Han, Bunum and Rohlis Dr.
Leonard Bacon aud Theodore Titou lie calmly
side by side; aud DIR. Dawson proclaim- his dis
belief in, and Prof. Proctor his firm adhesion
to- evolution theories. but, like the older con-
! test over the body Of Moses, there is no sound
Of strife i'll tn air.
Many Il reader cuts Ont of the thousand cli-
toiials that appear in THr TRIBI NJ I'm year,
some few that please his fancy, perhaps ear
ries them around in hi, pocketbook for II
week or two, and then loses them. Many Il
! youth begins n scrap-book, keeps il carefully
full of choice things till twenty or a hundred
| pages arr covcrcd-and then ncglccts il ever
more. Life is too short and too busy to be
! spent in handling scissors and paste. Yet Il
preacher of considerable renown finds the
new -paper so indispensable FOR suggestions