The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-05-28
READING STORIES.

There are still a good many people who
don't believe in reading stories.
Time was when the supposed Wickedness
OF novel reading divided churches. When
Jonathan Edwards was pastor in Northamp-
ton his church was broken up in a dispute
because he cenSured some Of his cOngrega-
ton for reading bad books. Nobody knows
now what the bad books were, but it is
supposed that they were merely novels,
very likely Richardson's Pamela" and
'Clarissa Harlowe,' which were vey pop
ular at that time but aren't now, because we
have so many better books
It's the worst kind of a mistake to sup
pose that solid reading it is called,
is always the best for young folks.
If horse eats nothing but grain he Will
be worse than If his food is less solid. In
fact, he won't live long. The body isn't
fed on beefsteak alone. SO the mind wants
vSriety, and is all the better for it. It's
nonsense for any one to wade through Glib
bons's Decline and Fall of Rome or
Macaulay's History of England" when he
isn't interested in it, doesn't understand it
nnd won't remember it, is SO often the
case. It's as unwise as it would be to study
algebra before you get to arithmetic.
One can learn a great deal from stories.
In the first place, one learns to read and
spell about twice fast by reading by
class lessons in school. Indeed il all cniN
dren read plenty of good stories. both to
each other and to themselves, there would
be much less need of studying reading and
spelling in the schools. There's no sense
in learning to spell words whose meaning
isn't understood, and reading helps to UNI
derstand words.
The historical novel is a great thing for
young folks.
You can read about the Monmouth re-
bellion and Jeffreys, and the bloody as
sizes" in the histories; but a novel like DR..
Conan Doyle's "Micah Clarke will make
it all much clearer by making the reader
understand what kind of people were fight
ing and why and how some of the Mon
mouth rebels were sold as slaves to be
brought to this country. SCOTS "Quen-
tin Durward" does the same for France,
and others OF his novels make Scotland
and it's history familiar that you can
so from GLASGOW to Edinburgh by way of
Loeb Lomond and pass by places which
are like household words to him.
In our own country it is the same.
One learns about the New England of
the present from Miss Jewett and Miss
Wilkins, about the south from Johnston,
Harris and Allen; of the southwest from
Octave Thanet, about Canada from Gilbert
Parker. Stories about the war and about
the settlement Of the country help US to
understand our own country.
If We take a still wider view, Tolstol
teaches us about Russia, Victor Hugo about
France, Spielhagen and Auerbach about
Germany.
FROM Slcn authors one ledlIlS u SOou ucdl
more than languages. He learns about the
world and its people and their ways. One
LEARNS more about Waterloo from Thack-
cray and Victor Hugo than he is likely to
do from the historians, unless he is an
unusually deep student.
Reading stories is all right, providing
you're sure of the stories.
Good stories must have two merits. They
must be true; that is, true to human ma
ture and to the known facts. Thus such
a story as micah Clarke" is, in sense,
as true as history, because it gives, in
the story of one ina inary boy, the expert
ence which good many real boys must
have had. What it tells us about the time
is as true as if Micah had been an actual
boy of that day and we knew all about him.
Robinson Crusoe' is true, as far it
tells about the time Of which Defoe wrote.
But a great many stories which are writ
ten for the young not true, even in
this sense. They sensational and
trashy, and give false ideas of life.
Almost any reader, young or old, can tell
whether story is could possibly be
true The other merit of a book isn't so
easy to determine.
The second merit of a good book is that
1t is well written; that its style is good
and correct. TO know that one needs to
have a natural gift for Judging such things
or both. Reading slipshod and faulty books
of the. language, while well written books
we'll read are better than all the grammars
and rhetOricS.