The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-02-19
sKIMNIING HOOKS.
Few Books Fave Store Than one Idea
That Is Worth Finding Out.

Few Books Eave 5fore Than One Idea
That Is Worth Finding Out.
The increasing mass of matter which a
person Of any pretensions to culture must
at least skim over makes it very necessary
that the lighter part of our reading should
be systematized as far as is practicable. A
great many periodicals have sprung up
which aspire to do this work for an over
crowded public of distracted readers, and
1t must be confessed that they fulfill their
functions admirably you are rash
enough to take two Of them.
A vicarious selection of reading matter
hnnot be wholly successful, for the same
reason that ready made clothing can never
be supremely elegant. There must be
some allowance made for the variation Of
the individual. If you read in the wake of
the professional critic, the best you can do
is to find one who differs from you the
least in taste and mental constitution
The mind which would thrive on a diet
prescribed by Mr.. Andrew Lang would
starve on one selected by Mr.. Howells,
and, possibly, vice versa.
There is one comfort-that is, the more
one reads Of contemporary literature the
less he has to read. Very few of our clever
people have more than an idea or two a
year, anu Nutfl tlt StslSOHcu TtdutT DCkS
up a fresh book or article by familiar
author it will not take him long to get mt
the gist of the matter and see which is the
annual new idea and which are the old
ones warmed over. This implies no re-
proach to the writer--he is very fortunate
to have a whole idea year-would that all
of us hadl 1t only shows that the great
mass of current literature need not frighten
lie lslra hp tait of
immense in extent, but If necessary we
can dash through it at "a tremendous rate
of speed
Bacon's classification of books into those
which are to he tested, those which are to
be swallowed and those which are to be
chewed and digested, is still truer than
when he made it, except that in the light
of modern medical science we would leave
out that middle class Of things to be swal-
lowed and not digested. The hints of dys-
pepsia are too narrowing, and, moreover,
the figure is better without it il it is to be
applied to the needs Of us moderns.
With books, as with wines and chooses
and many other things, we do well to taste
the new for its promise and swallow the
old for its stimulant and nutritive value
II an old book is worth reading Mt all It
is worth reading well. But it takes lots of
courage to read an old book in these days,
when il is in such bad taste to talk about
IL after it is read.
Perhaps the happiest reader is the one
who reads new books rs a business and de-
pends for his pleasure upon those which
have been new for years with the freshness
Of eternal youth.
IL implies very marked talent for skim
ming il one would have any time left for
that sort Of literature which is 40 pre-
eminently its own reward, but this rem
nant of leisure Is not impossible even in
these days, when the yearly catalogues OF
the publishers are formidable volumes.
The entire lack Of the faculty for reading
light literature lightly is punishment
which the gods might have invented for
some obdurate mortal Of literary taste, for
what could he worse than 10 he doomed
forever to the perpetual reading of plati-
tudesi-kate Fields Washington.