Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-07-30
THE READING OF NOVELS.
It Is the Most Complete and SatisfactOr
Rest for the Working Mind.

It Is the Most Complete and Satisfactory
Rest for the Working Mind.
1t is significant fact that many Of
the hardest intellectual workers turn
at times to fiction with intense and
eager interest. After the tension Of
prolonged thought or sustained investi-
cation the mind is immensely refreshed
by contact with human life in some
good story. In the first despairing mo-
ments which followed the confession to
Carlyle that part of the manuscript Of
the French Revolution" had been de-
stroyed, the great Scotchman, whose
working power was phenomenal, tells
US that he plunged into Marryat's nov
els to secure distraction, and that the
effort was successful. Bismarck, one Of
the most powerful minds of the century,
Is always surrounded by piles of the
most recent novels; while Gladstone,
another prominently vigorous and
trained intellect is continually show
ing his interest in fiction by public
comments and concentrations 1t is
sometimes a mans duty to leave the
serious books in his library untouched
and to devote himself entirely to the
lightest novels upon which he can lay
his hands.
Since many of the masterpieces of
literature are in the department of fic-
ton, it is hardly necessary to add that
there are many novels which ought to
be studied as one studies a play of
Shakespeare's or poem of Browning's
Ignorance of the best modern fiction in
wolves ignorance of a very large part Of
the best modern literature; for in no
other department. save that of criti-
cism. has the modern mind been so
active and so creative. One returns
again and again to George Eliot's
earlier novels for their profound phi
losophy of life, their wonderful insight
into character, their sustained and no.
bic eloquence of ofastyle. adam Bede,"
The Mill on the Floss and 'Romola"
are as serious and substantial contribu-
tions to human knowledge, in every
way as worthy of profound study, as
Montaigne's "Essauo," or Carlyle's
Hero Worship" 3. Macaulay's brill
liant dissertations. They are not books
to read lightly or for mere enter
tainment; they are books to be
studied; they are masterpieces not only
in the fineness of their form, but be-
cause they contain the "life-blood of a
master spirit, embalmed and treasured
up on purpose to life beyond life"
These novels are named, not because
they are pre-eminently above other
novels, but because they represent a
whole class of books of the highest and
more lasting interest and Importance.
The great novelists have been among
the great teachers of this century. One
can not know France without knowing
Balzac, nor England without knowing
Thackeray, nor Russia without knowing
Tourgueneff, nor Germany without
knowing Heyse, nor Spain without
knowing Valdis.
When you are tired, anxious or over
burdened, the immediate duty is the
duty of rest, and there is no form of rest
so complete for the active working mind
as the reading of a good story. When
you are in the working mood, eager for
knowledge of life and for the study of
literary art read the great novels dis
criminatingly, inteiligently, thoughtful
y.-ChristiaR Union.