The herald., 1894-08-20

books. am safe in saying that so per
cent OF all the books drawn from the
public library are works of fiction. l do
not stand here to condemn all fiction Tor
l am confident that we have sorne OF the
best helps for the building up OF our
civilization in many OF our authors oil
fiction. The Influence OF such writers
as Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, Cooper
and Kingsley, Hawthorne and Thack-
cray and Irving can only, be elevating
and Of lasting benefit to all who will
read their works. There are thousands
of others who write pure literature
and furnish "diet in ink" which shall
only produce healthful and strong
minds.
But bad books, no man can fathom to
what depths they will plunge that poor,
inhamed and abnormal mind made 60
by contact with impure and vicious
literature. But some will ask, how can
we restrict and discriminate for our
children, who will read at every oppor-
tunity?
Have them abstain from all those
books which have an admixture OF evil
with the good. Lockjaw has been
produced by the prick of thorn
A companionship of such works of fic-
tion as tend toward simpering sentl-
mentalism is to be abandoned. Such q
compsnionship is demoralizing and de-
praving in effect. The most dangerous
books are those that gloss over impurity
and crime and cover it with mantle Of
hypocritical attractiveness. How many
princely youths have been ruined by
questionable books? The parent says,
l will 20 to the bail room and attend my
| rbildron and hor bou oh 40 II m lu
mingls in the society OF the pure and
the best that can be found in the dance
hall, but the same parent never once
asks that son or daughter about the COM
panionship of their newly selected books.
Do not forget to teach the necessity OF
selecting good and pure books.
Benjamin Franklin said that the
reading of Cotton Mather'a essay on
Doing Good moulded his entire life.
what do you read?" said the late
James I. Field to the boy fend, Jesse
Pomeroy. "Mostly one kind" was the
reply; ''mostly dime novels" "And
what is the best book you have read ?"
"Well," he replied, II like Buffalo Bill
the best; it is full Of murders and pic
lures about murders" And how do
you feel after reading it?" "Oh, feel
as ii wanted to 90 and do the same"
But the great danger does not lie in
the fact that y few such brutal natures
as this boy possessed will come in con-
tact with this moral strychnine, but
the reading youth of every community
are liable to be tainted by q mass OF
printed corruption.
polluted and foul publication can
give bias to the young mind for which
there is no antidote. When the moral
mechanism of the young mind has been
inhamed and poisoned through impure
literature and the disease becomes
chronic there ia no remedy except most
radical application of supernatural
power which shall regenerate and reno
vate the mental tastes and soul OF the
reader.
You may break your watch spring and
20 to the matchmaker and have it re-
paired bat in ali this world there is no
shop to which you may 20 and find o
complete reparatiOn for that individual
whose powers have grown or degener-
ated into moral deere epitude through tn 9
association of bad books.
Some one in Mondays HERALD was
criticised in personal way because the
writer suggested that public bonfire
should be instituted to rid the library OF
all books of q questionable character.
Why criticise such 6 proposed method
l remember that the Apostle Paul
preached in the streets of Ephesus
Righteousness in such strong terms that
the citizens brought out of their city
library all their bad books and made q
public bonfire of them. They counted
no cost, but never ceased their efforts
until the vast number of volumes were
in ashes.
So we would say to our city and all
| other cities: Cleanse the library by fire.
Why, you ask, by fire? Because fire
is the only sure way of ridding the COM
munity of bad books. In the distant
past books were rarity and difficult of
of parents was to create in their child.
rem love for reading. They were
always encouraging and Btimulat.
ing their children to read.
But the tendency of our times is to read
while we ride and run. The watchword
of today should be: Discriminate; dis.
criminste in your reading.
"Readers," says Coleridge, may be
divided into four classes. The first may
be compared to an hour glass, their
reading being as the sand; it runs in
and runs out and leaves not q vestige
behind. A second class resembles a
sponge, which imbibes everything and
returns it in nearly the same state, only
little dirtier. A third class is like a
jelly bag. which allows all that is pure
to pass away and retains only the refuse
and the dregs. The fourth class may be
compared to the slave in the diamond
mines, who, casting aside all that Ia
worthless, preserves only the pure
GEM"
Select your books with care. and read
only such works as shall enrich the
mind and furnish it with useful knowl-
edge. 1t ia not supposed that our young
people will shut themselves up in the
library and explore and delve into sci
ence or astronomy, nor will they read
all books which may be found in uni
versity collection. But it is to be hoped
that our young people will cultivate a
taste for pure literature. A taste for
such works az shall be elevating and en-
nobling in thei- character, both for the
intellect and heart Such reading will
form Q strong and supplementary help
in the study of the word of God.
ALI aids which we can obtain in pre-
pairing US for the duties we owe to God,
socisty and to ourselves we should
acquire.
Rantzau, the founder of the great city
library OF Copenhagen. whose days
| -ara ItucolvaI ha sovu of raal;u~