Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-05-16
THE RISE AND FALL OF BOOKS.
Works for To-Day and Works for
All Time.
The Enormous Output of Books and
the Few That Are Long-Liyed.

There were published in the United
States last ar says the Chautauquan.
4.014 new books; in England, 6.O67. in
Guiding new editions. If the average gen
eral reader will attempt to recall these of
this number of which he has heard and
| those he has read and cares to remember.
he will be surprised at the paucIty of the
result. If he will go through one of the
| great reviews which find in the books pub
lished in the leading intellectual countries
| motifs for elaborate articles. he will be
| surprised to find how few, comparatively,
were selected by them. Let him examine
the French Revue deS Deux Mondes for
| 1899. and he will discover that the books
OF ii year or less, which furnished topics to
| the volumes of that period were only about
forty. Of these Gouvernedr Morris
Diary and Letters" was the only one
which we contributed, and from English
current publications less than ten were
| chosen. Ia technical journals he will find
| the percentage of really noteworthy issues
! is never large. He may be convinced, as
! he carries on his examination of the years
returns, that the publishers have been en-
gagged in producing fountain of folly"
whose spray rises only to fall. But this
will be hasty Judgment. We believe that
a smaller percentage is really folly -
! that is, bad, useless, insane-than Is gen
| orally supposed That the great mass of
| books scarcely outlast the year In which
| they are produced is true but that they are,
| therefore. useless, does not follow.
| A large percentage of the short-lived
| books serve ii current purpose. They dis
cuss questions of the day, and lose their
| interest when the question of negro emf
! grafton. of trusts, of creed revision. Of
| civil service, of realism and idealism in
literature, led to the publication of many
| books which, in another year. or ten at
most, will have no value save to those who
wish to trace the evolution of opinion on
that particular subject. These current
! topics lead even to much of the novel
writing of the day. Thus the interest in
capital punishment was the cause of
Would Iou Kill Him. and there are
| many such examples. As a rule such
novels die with the subject. They serve
their purpose, why should they live? They
should not, unless, rare thing. they nave
artistic merit. Take the case of Robert
EIsmere. The sensation it caused was
quite out OF proportions to its artistic
quality. 1t took because it was timely.
1t described forcioly and truthfully an eX
perience through which great number of
persons had gone and in which a great
number were f0undering 1t found re-
sponse in the public religious life But
book has had its day. Looking Back
ward" has reached its three hundred thou
sandth, it is said But this height cannot
be kept. The public was ripe for an in
genious scheme which would let it ont of
its social disturbances. Bellamy's fascin-
ating dream did it. When the social
mind shifts its position, the book will fall
out of sight.
Among transient useful books must be
included those Kuskin so well describes:
The good book of the hour is simply the
useful or pleasant talk of some person
whom you cannot otherwise converse with,
printed for you. Very useful often, tell
ing you what you need to know; very
pleasant often. as Il sensible friend talk
would be. These bright accounts of travels;
good humored and witty discussions of
questions; lively or pathetic story telling
in the form of novel; firm fact telling. by
the real agents concerned in the events Of
passing history all these books of the
hour, multiplying among us, as education
becomes more general, are a peculiar pos
session of the present age; We ought to be
entirely thankful for them, and entirely
ashamed of ourselves if we make no good
use of them, But we make the worst pos
sible use if we allow them to usurp the
place of true books; for, strictly speaking.
they are not books at all. but merely letters
or newspapers in good print. Our friends
letter may be delightful or necessary to-
day; whether worth keeping or not, it is
to be considered The newspaper may be
entirely proper at breakfast time. but as
sUedly 1t Is not reading for all day. So,
though bound up in a volume, the long
letter which gives you so pleasant an ac-
count of the inns and roads and whether
last year at such Il place, or which tells
you that amusing story, or gives you the
real circumstances of such and such events,
however valuable for occasional reference,
may not be. in the real sense of the word.
Il book at all, nor, in any sense to be read.
A book is essentially not a talked thing.
but a written thing; and written not with
the view of mere communication, but of
performance. The book of talk is printed
only because Its author cannot speak to
thousands of people at once: if he could.
he wOuld-the volume Is mere multiplica
ton of his voice on cannot talk to your
friend in India; if you could you would;
you write instead; that is mere conveyance
of voice.
There is always a respectable amount of
each annual output explained by new dis
COverIeS and by new theories. Old sub
jects on which new facts have been gathered
or of which new interpretations have been
made may demand fresh presentation.
! Text books and books of reference must
be up to the latest knowledge. and SO we
| have new ones coming out as rapidly as
advance is made. When7a new school"
| if anything arises. fresh books must repre-
| sent its peculiar doctrines. Thus the rise
| of the ethicalOr historical school OF political
| economy has been followed by self full
| treaties Oh the subject. As this school
| gives away, as it undoubtedly will in fut-
ure, to a new point Of view, the fresh book
will dispace those now in vogue. Liter
! airy test. changes, and in response comes
! volumes to represent the new style.
So general Is this displacement of books
| by books that one may say that every book
! has its day. Fortunately for us, however,
| there are exceptions to all rules There
| are books whose day never sets. and each
! year sees a few-a very few of them. The
| books which do not fall embody the very
| essence of somebody's close though high
imagination. laboriOuS study. They are
| the best there Is in that somebody A
/ short time ago an editor set some of the
prominent men of the times at telling what
books had influenced them Gladstone
named Dante. Bishop Butler. Aristotle and
| St. Augustine; Philip Gilbert Hamer-
ton named as chiefs Scott Byron. Words
worth Montague Emerson and
| Trackeray: Archadeacon Farrar mention
ed, among others, an anthology Of English
| poetry, Hooker. Butler. Coleridge's Prose.
+! Milton, Epictetus. Marcus. Aurelius.
Dante and Robert Browning. 1t was
noticeable in nearly all cases that the books
were what are called classics-those which
have arisen not to fall Such permanent
treasures may be infrequent. but they do
come. The great danger in the multigli-
city of books Is that those of the hour will
usurp the place of those of time; that the
reader cannot distinguish those which rise
TO fail and those who rise TO stay: or that.
if he does distinguish, he will not have
the nerve to neglect the first of the second
I class If he must make a choice