Montgomery County sentinel., 1889-05-24
WHAT SHALL WE READ?
[From The WaDerIy Progress, by J. L
LODGE, d. D., Editor

Interesting and profitable at all times, this
inquiry, just as we are providing library
for the use of our Club, will be regarded
specially pertinent and opportnne. That
article of the constitution which strictly for
bids the introduction of subjects and refer
ences with what is styled denomination
al bias" or touching party politics. would
seem to inhibit books of an avowedly like
character. This fact greatly narrows the
question as To what class of books shall be
owned by the Club, but nowise affects the
general question.
Indiscriminate reading cannot be too se-
verely condemned "Oi making books
there is no end"--especialy Of trashy, vi
cious books which .debiitate the mind. de
bauch the morals, and destroy the SOUL
Life is too short, alas to gain the best things
! from the smallest traction Of the best au
thors. The literary glutton is, indeed,
"a bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
| With loads OF learned lumber in his head !"
but is empty Of that practical knowledge,
that capacity for utilizing his boarded but
hudde acq cquisiiions, which makes reading
| or study worth its tremendous cost. One
tails 10 see the use of Il sponge unless it will
freely give up what it has absorbed Or Of
fulfilled man who has neither action nor
work. AS no one man can compass all
knowledge, wisdom Itself has directed, even
compelled, division of this labor, and the
selection of certain lines of thought, distinct
subjects, separate areas of investigation, spe-
| cific sources Of information No man bR0los
more than he is able to impart TO another,
and, therefore, falls short of the only worthy
intention of study where it has not resulted
in the gain Of the practical faculty. More
than this, here, as in everything, neutral in
iuences. neutral attitudes, neutral effects,
are merest misnomers. for no such things
exist in fact uT can exist. A book is either
positively good or positively bad, IT should,
hence, be diligently studied, or thrown into
the fire. Ignorance, dreadful as il is, ls al
WAYS preferable To education in evil. Better
that the field lie primitive, though produc-
ing indigenous tares, than To plant and cm.
tiydte brars, thistlcs, poison ivy, and Upas
trees Best of all that native evil growths
be plucked up by the roots and burned and
the virgin soil sown with good seed whose
plenteous harvest shall be human purity,
earthly blessedness and heavenly peace !
This is, pre.eminently, the age 0fbad books
The most of men, and women-shame to
say it-have caught the cacOethes scr56erdt
the "itch for scribbing," and the epidemic
is alarming:
All bedlam or Parnassus is let out.
Fire in each eye, and pamphlets in each
| hand,
They rave, recite, and madden through the
land.
These wretched scribblers range them
selves into several Glasses. One ridicules the
Bible, which, regarded merely as literary
production is still without an equal, and is
more worthy OF tireless study than all the
books that were ever written-and essays to
undermine and overthrow the simple faith
of the unndoctrinated The skilled theo-
Logan can afford 10 smile as he pricks the
fallacies of these vain revilers, who shit
their ground, and revise their own opinions
once or twice in decade; but their writings
are deadly in the hands of the young and
simple. Another class secretly debauches
purity under cover of vicious fiction, and
are running both sexes by the thousand. A
third class, ascertaining the tendency Of thu
general public taste, pander u the loves
Instincts, the most sordid motives, the mos
idle sentiments, the most hurtiul lusts o
their eager and degraded readers. Look a
the great crowd of ldleTs who hang arount
our village stores, and, it they read at all
see in their hands the detestable paper GOV
er. embriished with flaming colors, hideou
engrayngs, introductory TO detective stories
blood and thunder histories, Yapid, sic Ken
ing love tales Life painted in horrible,. or
at mildest, impossible colCrs, calculated u
masculate, deprave, vitiate, utterly destroy
all who touch them. The right father must
stand guard over his son, To save him, If b.
! can, from this DEVILS brood, who SOW drag
Ons teeth wherever they enter. The righ
mother must scrutinize as she would deadl
poison the book that falls into her daugh
ter's hands For death and hell arein leagu
against theml