Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-07

an inveterate dislike to the authors cited.
In many instances the quotations given are
about as useful for purposes OF illustration
IS would be the exhibition Of brick in
illustration of the character of a house
To these selections" are prefixed short
biographical sketches, carefully emitting
every interesting circumstances, and re-
| tanning only the bald dates and mat
tiers of fact. Should the teacher not
he better equipped than the text book, the
course of English Literature must be fiat.
stale and Improbable. It is due TO our
teachers TO say that many of them are bet
ter than the textbooks that they do seek
TO incite interest in their pupils that thew
do endeavor 10 stimulate them to something
IN the nature OF original research; and
that we have such conscientious and capa.
bic teachers in the public schools of Sac
ramento. But for these there would be no
progress in this study at all. As it is, the
number of such teachers is discouragingly
small, and the general progress equally
slight.
Yet the formation of literary taste must
be attended to during youth. It must be
admitted that the rising generation has to
contend not only with inefficient teaching
at school, but with very demoralizng asso.
Citations at home. For the average man
and woman OF mature life possesses no
literary taste at all. They do not know
what is best in any branch of literature
They do not even know what is good. In
fact novel reading as rule is the only
reading ever done by them, and the novels
they prefer are such trash as no rightly
/ trained persons would condescend to look
at. Il is indeed depressing to enter a
modern bookstore, and looking round its
| shelves to observe how enormously rubbish
preponderates there. Literary classics are
drug. They constitute "dead stock. :"
The really live stock is a class of romances
scarcely if at all above the dime-novel
standard. These wretched things are
eagerly demanded. They are principally
devoured by young girls and women. The
boys like blood -and-thunder stories,
such as are found in certain weekly publ
cations, and the aforesaid dime novels.
Our free libraries furnish from so to 80 per
| cent. OF fiction to their customers, and
probably 10 per cent. of that fiction is of
| tho 1nyxvar Cr1cr Nv, A. L
in the doctrine held by certain fanatical
EterGti, to the effect that all fictien is de.
PRAYING. On the contrary we condemn
that doctrine as preposterous. The human
mind, in its healthiest condition, has an
appetite for fiction which is natural and
innocent and wholesome, and good fiction
is as necessary as good food for the body.
But unhappily the public do not confine
themselves to good fiction do not in fact
care or know anything about the quality of
their mental nourishment; and through
defective training generally prefer the bad
to the good.
A knowledge and care for literature con.
fined to the perusal of inferior fiction must
be classified as a minimum condition of
culture. 1t is in fact open TO serious ques.
ton whether such condition is not dis
tinctiy retrogressive. Yet this is the
actual state of things, and We cannot per-
ceive that it is changing for the better.
When children leave school without hav.
ing acquired any taste for literature, with.
out having imbibed any desire to read for
themselves, without having learned any
thing of the spirit and significance and
beauty of the masterpieces Of English
literature, without having absorbed any
ideas concerning that literature which are
calculated to fructify later-we are war
ranted in saying that their alleged educa-
ton has been failure in this respect at
least Yet when young men can actually
60 through the public schools without even
reading a book-for textbooks are hardly
entitled to be called books-it is evident
that this barrenness is a real evil And
when we consider how greatly the future
Of the nation depends upon its literary
taste, it seems most deplorable that SO i'm.
portant branch of study should be so
slurred over Nor must it be ignored that
the same deficiency of literary taste is OBJ
servable in the life which succeeds to
school-life. The press is responsible for the
encouragement and maintenance of a very
low state of public taste in literary mat.
tiers. 1t is difficult, for instance, to esti-
mate the demoralizing effect OF the
extreme license which prevails in re-
gard to the publication of bad verses.
The quantity Of atreoious versifcation-
we will not call it poetry-which
is presented annually in newspapers
is really almost appalling. L is flung
forth without any discrimination, and
what is still worse, it is often even praised
by the publisher. Nothing but harm
comes of this uuinteligent federation. II
lowers the standard OF public taste hope.
lessly. 1t prevents that careful study
which can alone bring excellence. 1t
exAlts worthlessness, and by the sam.
action belittles real literary merit.
In the same line is far too muck CT the
journalistic criticism o: literature. Il is
true that the leading papers In most con.
siderable places now seek to make impair
tial and discriminating reviews OF new
books. But such papers are after all a
small minority, and the great majority
continue to print reckless pufTsry or as
reckless censure. The general result is
that literature is igporautly condemned
by many people, that the young enter life
without any appreciation OF this noblest
and most remurerative of studies, and that
the generation az q whole suffers from
strange lack CT knowledge concerning the
most precious intellectual productions of
preceding ages. Now this deficiency is
very serious enc. For It is Literature
rext to Science which distinguishes the