The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-08-07
HUNGER,No FOX Books

HUNGERiNG FOR BOOKS.
The Greed Of the Man whose Appetite
for Reading Has Become Over Do
vsloped.
have picture hanging in my IL
orary, Autograph, Of which many OF
my readers may have seen copies. It
represents gray-haired old book-lovcr
at tho top Of . long flight Of steps. lie
finds himself in clover. 30 to speak,
among rare old editions, books he has
longed to look upon and never seen be-
fore. rarities, precious old volumes,
iacunabula cradle-books, printed while
tho art was in its infancy--its glorious
infancy. for 1t WAS born giant. The
old bookworm is 50 intoxicated with tho
sight and handling of the priceless
treasures that he can not bear to put one
Of the volumes back after he has taken
1t from the shelf. So there he stands
one book open in his hands, . volume
under each arm, and ono or moro be-
tween his legs-loadcd with - many as
he can possibly hold at the same time.
Now, that is just the way in which
the extreme form Of book-hunger shows
itself in the reader whose appetite has
become over developed. He wants to
read 50 many books that he over-crams
himself with the crude materials of
knowledge, which becomes knowledge
only whom the mental digestion has time
to assimilate them. never can 60 into
that famous corner bookstore" and look
over the new books in the row before
me, % l enter the door. without seeing
least to know something about lean
not empty my purse Of its contents. and
crowd my book shelves with all those
volumes. The titles Of many OF them
interest me. look into ono or two,
perhaps. have sometimes picked up
line or sentence, in these momentary
glancos between the uncut leaves Of =
new book, which have never forgotten.
Asa trivial but bona file example, one day
IOpened book on duelling. remember
only these words: "Conserrons-la, cette no
bic institution" had never before seen
duelling called . noble institution, and
| wish had taken the name Of the
hook, Rock .tastiaG is not necessarily
prodtless, but 1t is very stimulating. and
makes one hungry for more than he
needs for the nourishment OF his think
ing-marrow. To feed this Unsuitable
hunger, the abstracts, the reviews, do
their best. But these, again, have
grown 50 numerous and so crowded with
matter that it IS hard to find time "a
master their contents We arc accus-
toMed, therefore, to look for analyses Of
these periodicals, and at last we have
placed before US notwithstanding
monthly, The Review q! Essisws. After
the analyses comes the newspaper mo-
tice; and there is still room for the cpl
gram, which sometimes makes shcr.
work with all that has gone before on
tLa same spbject.
It is just as we'll to recognize the fact
that ii one should read day and night,
ponfining himself to his own language,
he could notpretend to keep up with tho
press. lie might as we'll try to race
with locomotive. The first discipline,
therefore, Is that Of despair. II you could
stick to your reading day and night for
fifty years, what learned idiot you
i WVulA OCSOMC AOnk OOAOIO VIC u0AA>CSu-
fury was over! Well, then, there IL ;lo
usein gorging ones self with knowledge,
and no need Of self-rcproach because
one Is content to remain laore 4r less
Ignorant Of many things which interest
his fellow-creatures. We get good deal
Of knowledge through the atmosphere
we learn great deal by accidental hear
say, nrovided we have the mordant in
our own consciousness which makes the
wise remark, the significant faot, the
instructive incident. take hold upon it
Aftsr the stage Of despair comes the
period Of consolation. We soon find tina,
we are not 80 much worse OF than most
Of our neighbors as we supposed. Ths
fractional value Of the wisest shows I
small numorator divided by an infinite
denominator of knowledge. - Oliver
Wendell Holmes, in Atlantic,