The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-17

Since Nan Has Learned to Chat
ter-SOmething Which VIII In
terest Students of Fact anu Fic-
ton.
Books, books, booksI What's the
use of so many books? Surely a few
books are a good thing; but why
should we want to accumulate such
enormous quantities? Why fill the
world with books? The National
library at Washington contains nearly
million volumes. Some of the
European libraries contain several
millions. And at this time our
several city libraries contain inn
mense numbers. sometimes hundreds
of thousands. Why all this vast ex-
pense, when everybody knows that no
body reads more than a few? Ger
tainly the most of this expense is
needless; and it entails but USELESS bur-
dens upon the people,
The foregoing represents the thought.
and a good deal Of the talk. of many
people who choose to have opinions
about something concerning which they
know but little. It is really a wonder
that the world gets along at all in
the midst of so much ignorance and
such a conflicting variety of opinions.
Now let US look at the matter some
what broadly and see if we cannot get
hold Of a few guiding principles.
BOOKS AND PROGRESS.
The greatest and most important
work for the world to achieve is its
progress in accordance with the laws
which determine it's destiny.
There was a time when the human
race had no need of books, except as
the mice and the birds might have
made nests of them; and when our
forefathers got to cooking their food,
the books might have served a good
purpose as fuel.
Now, whether our present state of
civilization is any better than the
primitive condition wherein books
were not known, need not be said but
one thing is quite certain-there is not
a single book in all the libraries that
has not served purpose, whether
great or small, in bringing about the
change. Furthermore, there is just the
same kind Of growth and death in
books that we see revealed in the
growth and death of the human
family in it's progress. The literature
of the race is the glamour that sur
rounds its progress.
EVOLUTION OF LITERATURE.
AS the child passes away and sue
ceeds itself in the grown man; as the
acorn yields its life and is renewed in
the oak; as the early stages of hui
mainly die away with the fashions
and customs of the times, and are
born anew in higher thoughts Of the
infinite life; so with the books and
literature Of the race They are
the garnature and coloring of the hui
man soul; the lights and shadows of
the sun Of humanity from it's rising
midst the glimmer and freshness of
dawn, to its setting, full-orbed and
glorious in the 1imitless ocean Of life
Books are the monuments of pro-
gress. They live and die and men and
nations come and go. They have their
day, as also do the forms of govern
ment, the fashions, inventions. mill
tary armor, social customs and religi-
Gus usage of the race
LITERARY IMMORTALITY
Being dead, they yet speak,. saith
the apostle; and so it is with books.
They die like the forest, or like the
present generations In most cases,
books are identical with their age, the
time and place in which they were pro-
duced. Books of law. religion and gov
eminent have been changing their hue
from the beginning. They die with the
institutions which they were designed
to treat of; but as every institution
and historic faith has an element of
truth in it, so the books preserve a
favor of life and spirit in them. They
are entombed in our great libraries
and we can bring them forth as we
would a mummy from the cata-
combs of ancient Egypt. Some books
! there are that rise above locality into
the spirit of all ages, and these like
| the New Testament and Shakespeare
are an inspiration to the human soul
throughout its entire progress.
USE OF NEW LITERATURE.
A large proportion of the world of
new books that are issuing from the
| press. is fiction. Fiction is read most
! largely by persons who are disinclin-
ed to indulge in, or incapable of,
original research; and fiction presents,
in a form most pleasing to the imagi-
nation, the results .of research
ture. All forms of human progress,
! intellectual, religious and economic
are represented up to date in
/ fiction; and in this way the
masses of men and women catch
! the meaning of things more readily
| than in any other. At the present time
a great social and religious reform is
! looming UP, and the literature of fic-
| ton is the principal vehicle of it's pro-
| pagation. Neither need we look with
| apprehension at this vast growth of
! fiction; for most of it is conceived in
| earnestness and with an intense desire
| for human Improvement There is
much Of it, of course, that is a ming
| ling of good and evil; but good and
! evil are the warp and woof-the light
/ and shade-of human progress, and the
| fact that there is a God over all in
sures the supremacy of elimination Of
| good.
BOOKS AND CIVILIZATION.
It would be as impossible to main
tain our present form of civilization
/ without books as without legislatures
| laws and business regulations. This