Wichita eagle., 1888-03-30
A GOOD LIBRARY.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE
MAN WHO READS.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE
MAN WHO READS.
The First Law in Selecting Books-A
Library Should Grow with the Mind.
Keen Your school Books-Light Litera-
ture.
Thr frs. law in selecting books is, am
sure, to buy along the line OF your special
work. do not say in the me. Tor that Is
precisely what is not wanted "hat we want
is not to be told what we can see or IND QUE
for ourselves, but what will enable US TO see
more broadly than our separate experience
would lead us TO see. Books, while not lead
ing Us away from sure and special lines OF
life work, should keep US frCu narrowing
ourselves into grooves.
The second law is to buy books, in the main,
as we need them A library should grow
with the mind. These two rules can be illus
trated together. We will suppose a mans
special line is anthropology. Plainly he
must also be good student OF history. De
must also be well acquainted with recent
biological researches-which involve paieon-
tology and zoology, at least as far as results
Of investigation go. He will not have gone
far before evolution, as scientific problem,
must be handled. Dealing fairly with this,
be finds himself involved in ancient religious
theories and comparative theology. l need
not carry the process farther, but l say his
library should be o. working library along
this line. and q his books should be bought
as needed.
The possession of large number OF books
Is not the possession Of library. Books,
however inherently valuable under certain
circumstances. under other circumstances be-
come lumber. 1t is like thousand acre farm,
of which only ten acres are worked, while
the owner lives in bit Of a howell 1t IS I'M
possible to express too strongly the close re-
lation that mind growth should bear to
library growth 1t should be Like the growth
of bone to mans flesh
No one should sell or give away his books
that have been used and seem no longer need
full. Especially should old school books and
college books be sacredly kept. To no other
books do VIC sustain so intimate personal re-
lationship We shall surely miss the very
CODY of Horace and of De Amicitia that we
grew familiar with and some day will desire
to turn to a passage in lars Poetlca, or
'Via Sacra," and it will not be quite the
same as when we read it in sophomore year
OF the log in the glen with ClaSsmate Stevens.
give every boy and girl warning not to part
with their text books In literature and
classics. Even my old Webster's spelling
book would now be treasure to me. Are
such books part of library! Most truly,
yes. They are the very essential part OF a
library-the tools we have used as we came
along-but tools that never wear out.
Perhaps careful distinction should be
made between the books in our study and
those in the library proper; for each man
should have his library, and each family
should have its library. The latter should be
built on less restricted plan; yet certainly
under careful rules 4 home library should,
above all, have an atmosphere of refinement
and good society. 1t should not admit low
bred book any more than our drawing rooms
should admit the familiarity Of low bred
people An hour spent in it should produce
the refreshment that comes from a social
hour with witty and good friends.
A really good home library must include
rescripts; it is sometimes a pity-oftener not.
There are not 100 good authors in general lit
It will not pay to read them through. These
'sHalf Hours with the best authors are nee,
essary and valuable But when it comes tc
history am not SO sure. And as for Beau
ties of Ruskin," Beauties of Goethe" etc.
etc, let us burn them. If I cannot go into g
rose garden for myself, 1 will thank you TO,
a bunch of flowers; but for you to run ahead
of me with your nose and demand that
shall smell over again your bouquet, l am in
clined to select for myself.
A good library grows as our souls grow; il
widens out its sympathies and gets larger
outlook But at the same time a sloughine
goes on. We only grow well as we can die
well. Some people have great difficulty il
dying to anything; they equally fail to grow
that is, to enlarge. Such are your religious
bigots. l hate to see man who reads ar
author by the dose-one dose day; tw:
doses day-the way my grandmother tool
her Bible, and as many take it yet, but il
smaller pellets I have friend who carries
Shakespeare in his pocket, and bolts a por
ton each day He resembles for all the world
pump that is clogged W from having its
chain run too deep. Shakespeare has Away:
been too deep for the fellow, and he is only
pumping sand and gravel Another took tc
carrying a mathematical treatise. He is him
self an equal angled triangle inscribed in 6
circle. We must be able to change intellec
! tually. outgrow and grey away from old
tastes. We all have our chrome period
some stop there.
The bulk Of novels is of no more value thar
blank paper. Children who have little reaI
world as yet need great deal of the possible
and ideal Novels, contrary to common
opinion, are peculiarly the books for the
young-true novels Curiously, the world:
earliest literature was mostly imaginative
W. have poems and tales 1000 years old
while logic did not find utterance till abou,
$500 years ago. Voyages, travels, natural
history gradually come TO serve in the place
Of novels, the actual in the place of the pos
sible Lowell urges the use Of such old vol
umes of travel as were written by voyagers
s'when the world was fresh and unhack
nevedn That last word of Lowell's tells the
story very fully. A well visited place il
England was one that hackney coaches rar
to and 'front.' was Hackneyed. Today tn.
whole world is Hackneyed-"E P. Pr IL
Globe-Democrat
SuDeriorjty of American HuShanda