The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-02-08
READING TO LIVE.
How to Rise Above Petty
Environments.
A LECTURE ON LITERATURE.
Saving the Margin of Life for a
Larger Growth.
WHAT TO STUDY IN BOOKS.
Professor E. III. Griggs of Stanford
University on a Means of
Development.
WHAT TO STUDY IN BOOKS

The first of a course of five university
extens sion lectures, under the auspices of
the Unity Club, was given at the Second
Unitarian Church, on the corner of Tween
tieth and Capp streets. oD Tuesday evening.
There was \ very large attendance, and
the subject was listened to with unfailng
attention throughout.
Professor Edward Howard Grggs of Le-
land Stanford Jr. University was the lee
turer. and his subject was Literature"
He said be was especially interested in
literature as one method of saving the
margin of human life for the end OF
larger growth. The progress of the age
was indubitabie, not only in material but
in intellectual life. Was it not worth
while in this fever of progress to inquire
WHITTIER we are tending? Life was too
precious TO be spent in gaining the means
OF living; men craved life itself-to live.
Work was only prosecuted because it
meant gr owtb, and growth we have found
means life. We need growth, and for
growth we need thOught-fOod.
SpecialiZal was all very we'll in its
way, but might be carried too far. 1t
might exclude larger, broader, more
relative view Of life. 1t was the large in
ferest which made US do work worthily
The man who has most 10 live for will do his
work best. SO The larger culture is absolutely
necesSaTy-lhe education Of the man and the
woman as opposed TO the mere education Of
the specialist. Literature constituted one i'm
pOr ant form OF this larger culture.
Human life was the best aspect Of culture
and could be learned best in literature. The
best books OF the world will never be out OF
Shakespeare are permanent exoOnents of
human nature. Study IN art requires great
expenditure, but there Is no man so poor that
he mot have access 10 some few good books.
Regular study Of great books strengthens the
viii! and confirms the life purpose.
Litera ure has many aspects, but as the Oh
ject OF studying literature for ife-purposes it
was only necessary to seek, not Kant, Des-
cartes, SchOpenhautr or other abstract philos-
opheTs. but something that can be usefully as
simulated, such as Shakespeare's Tempest"
Dantes "Inferno" apd other cantos What
ooes life mean? What is worth my seeking or
rejecting? These are The questions which
hnd help in the largest works of TIE world.
Not only thought but emotions must be edu.
Gated Educated emotion and sensbilities
turned away instlnctiveiy from the base and
toward the beautiful and the true. This edu-
cation OF the emotions and the sensbilities
was contributed by true study OF literature.
| Burns first called the daisy
Ye modest, wee. pink-tipp flower,
And henceforth men looked upon the insgnif.
| cant blossom win new eyes. So it was with
| the poets views of other material things which
they sublimated. This is the poets mission
/ TO open our eyes.
But nature is the best exponent of human
! life. Less than half the world did not know
how the other half lived. Alb, the great I'M
! written tragedies, the sutferngs unblaZoned TO
| The world. Iiteratui shows US these TRACE
Rrs. poem nm on od MS irisna italian
! Was commonplace, perhaps, but Infinitely near
| to human interest
| Thought and emotion incarnate for us some
| life that has been lived. We get more OF man
from his book than he would give TO his con.
lessor The best thing of EmersoD's essays
- DO. 7
Three periods OF Shakes peare's life = the
periods of Loves Labor Lost" Hamlet" and
"a Winters Tale"-told the story of his life.
Books tell us the stage OF thought which char
acterized The epoch of the author. Behind
! Shakespeare was the EliZabetban epoch-that
OF the "dscovery" OF human nature. And be-
| hind the epoch was the race. Thus behind
! Chaueer, Carlyle, TennysoD, Browning, Ad-
olson there were an earnestness and matter
| oi-fact-ness" which we call English" char
acteristcs. SO. also OF the literature OF other
| races. When we read Homer, Eschylus and
! Plato we are Greeks; when we read DAME we
are Italians. We come into dynamic relations
| past.
But deeper than the epoch or the race, we
find in the best books human life.
Men on certain great fundamental principles
| mean the same thing. This comes out in the
! best books, and by studying those books we
come in contact with these common principles.
| Literature, however, has not only a soul, but
| body, and the style of a book has consider
able to do with its effect Everywhere Is there
| law; nothing in style has come by chance. The
word and the rhythm has been the product of
the wise receptivity of the poet. First came
| blank verse, which was the form having the
largest scope, only differing from prose by
being more maj e>tic aud more musical. Then
| came iambics. trochaics. the tire sylabled or
Alcestc verse, the dactyllic meter.
! The study of form as expressive OF life was to
be noted. The rhythm OF Bryant or Shelley, or
| in prose writer's. of De Quincy or Carlyle, was
! indicative OF human life. The ElZabe han age
was dramatic, the nineteenth century was in
| Prospective, almost morbid. Anglo-Saxon
| words were generally harsh. Greek word musi-
! cal.
The study OF literature was the study OF life.
! 1t extended beyond school. To the man or
woman who wished 10 soar above the petty en-
vironment OF their life The lecturer would say
''Sit at the feet OF the masters" 1t would help
! them TO realize the ideal 10 some extent
! Professor Griggs broad survey OF literature
was APPLY varied by many extracts from "beSt
| books" repeated from memory.