The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-18
BEST BOOKS TO READ.
John l.. Griffiths's Lecture at Seventh
Presbyterian Church.

At the Seventh Presbyterian Church last
night John l.. Griffiths delivered an address
on THE Best Books to Read" His re-
marks were heard with great interest. Mr..
Griffiths said in part:
THE American people read too much
rather than too little. They read for the
same reason that Beerbohm Tree says we
go to the theater to see farce-comedy
and living pictures, as an aid to digestion,
rather than as a means of education. They
read Voraciously and indiscriminately, in
season and out of season, on the street cars,
in the railroad trains, in public dining
rooms and on hotel verandas. They are all
apparently reading the same book at the
same time and engaged in mad race to
see who will finish it first. AS soon as the
goal is reached, quite out OF breadth, they
1.-THE Heavenly Twins "Ships that Pass in
the Night" or what not and engage in the
same hot struggle for precedence. Reading
in this sort of fashion should be treated
as disease, as much so as the opium habit
or excessive drinking, and instead OF en-
couraging it, we should place the victim, II
possible, in a mind cure, and build up the
enfeebled brain by feeding 1t Judlciously
and sparingly, of course, at first, on the
masterpieces of literature. The best books
are those which make us less arrogant and
more receptive, increasing our open minded
ness, without destroying our reverence
The permanent forces in literature have
been the men and women who believed in
something, who had faith in humanity, and
the possibilities Of high achievement, not
pessimists. We read Shakespeare through
all the years. Between King Lear ana A
Midsummer Nights Dream lie all the
hopes and fears, the smiles and tears, the
joys and sorrows, the consecration and mar
tyrdom, the high resolve and scant achleve-
ment, the glory and the shame OF the hui.
man soul. Why is there such lack OF
candor when we talk about our reading
We profess to admire authors over whose
pages we nod, because OF our fear TO eX-
press an honest, individual opinion.
at was quite refreshing to hear young
woman remark the other day that she
thought Wordsworth had been greatly
ferred the Ladies' Home Journal. Why
not be honest with ourselves and with our
pretend to an uplift Of soul which we nave
not experienced? We take our pleasures
sadly in this country Foreign critics re-
mark our lack of joyousness. You remem-
Der at the worlds fair how we walked with
set lips and fixed gaze, from the woman
building to the art building, or machinery
hall, as if undergoing a penance 30 IN
our reading and study.
1--WE make too much OF an EFFORT. one
of the public phases of some of our summer
resorts is the fact that people imagine tney
are taking vacation and at the same time
adding to their intellectual wealth, thus
killing two birds with one stone, ana Killing
them both very effectually, as they rush
from a class in French to one IN history,
and drop in by the way to study Delsarte or
interpret Browning. Fessler had the same
idea about his bees, when he took them
to Florida Tor the winter, out IHey SOoll
found that they were being imposed upon
and refused to work the year round. The
object of the novel should be primarily TO
amuse and interest. When you ride from
Liverpool to Chester on a bright June morn
ing, and the skies are blue above YOU and
the grass is filled with daisies; ana the
pink hawthorn is in bloom, and the wild
roses fill the air with their fragrance, you
are content to drink in the beauties or an
English landscape and to reVel IN the
mere fact of living. We do not think or
any ethical purpose in connection with a
bluebell, or a pansy, or the song OF night
ingale No more do / care to do so when
/ take up a novel / want simply TO be LED
out of myself into the fields of fancy: away,
far away. from the dry domain OF facts.
Mothers do not recommend stupid DOCKS, or,
namby-pamby, goOdygoody DOCKS 10 your
children. books which relate angellc scenes
of impossible children whose early death
the average boy or girl halls with delight,
but bonny, bracing books, racy or the SOIL,
which treat of outdoor life and adventure
in rational and entertaining and instruct
i've way. The boy who reads Robinson
Crusoe, Scott and Goldsmith and Fennimore
Cooper will not be apt to go lar astray IN
his reading in late years. 1t would be Wen
with each of us if some noble work that
Ruskin or Carlye or Emerson that Words
worth or Tennyson or Browning may nave
spoken has become, so 10 speak, nesh Of
our flesh and blood of our blood, to abide
rs forever