The San Francisco call., 1898-02-06
UNNECESSARY NEW BOOKS.

What Is the reason for the continuous making of books? Why are the looms of literature kept forever whirring and weaving? Is there an intellectual lam inc? Have all the works of last year been read, and is there any necessity for something new? Is there any real occa- sion for the tremendous holocaust of lit erature in the present day, outside the reason that authors and publishers have to support themselves by continuously feeding the flames? These questions sug- gest themselves daily, for no one can look upon the phenomenon of the great literary productiveness of the present without perplexity and amazement.
 Everyone knows that the necessary bock-the book that is even literature is as rare as an angels visit. To suppose otherwise Is to hold that genius has be- come vulgar commodity and not the ex- ceptional gift to mankind that it once was. Nor is it by any means demon strable that the increase in the output of books is in proportion to the increase in literary taste. Books are read nowadays, not for intellectual benefit, but for some almost incomprehensible reason. Even the argument that books are read for amusement in some measure fails, for the majority of new books are far from being amusing in the sense that great master pieces entertain and absorb.
 Perhaps the real reason for the in- satiable demand for brand-new books, no matter what their nature may be, for the absurd lament of nothing to read' Ghe cry of the new Miss Flora Mac Flimsy), is that the indiscriminate read ing of current literature is the fashion a slavish and senseless fashion to which most people who go out in the world are compelled to succumb. It Is the sacrifice that the majority of people feel they must make to the irrational eXigencies of mod cry society. The small class of persons who read because they care genuinely for literature read books that are literature; the rest read because the knowledge of the new book' supplies them with a timely fund of table talk. Society with each decade has become more and more restive under the constraint of any kind Of acGuirement that demands effort. It must have it's information and its 'ap- preciations,'' but of the sort that can be hastily put on. Culture accomplished by serious and continuous application Is ip- supportable-it creates an unpleasant dis parity between mind and mind.
 Bad taste in reading is, therefore, in- evitable for the average person. Fla miliarity with bad new books instead o1 familiarity with good old books is com pulsory. Knowing the wrong thing is too frequently socially the right thing-foI it is thus that people become agreeable after the accepted supposition of the world. We must be tricked out with un, essential trifies, bedizen ourselves with the useless book-lore of modern htera- ture, be ignorant of the best in the sphere of great minds and fuently al case in a discussion upon the latest nov city of the printing press.
 This condition of things among the reading public is one of the causes, we venture to say, why books pour forth SC unremittingly from publishing houses why we are submerged to-day in sea of new literature that is a Vexation and g weariness. What everyone needs is not an acquaintance with new books, but al acquaintance with the books thai have already been written and whose worth has already been proved. Wher books have begun to be read for theil own sake, instead of for the sake of SO ciety, people will develop a sense of dis crimination in their selection. Then perhaps, good old books will again come in for their share of attention.
 Many publishers will fail, doubtless should such an era dawn; for there will not be so many buyers of any kind oi book But it will be, however, the mis- fortune of the few for the benefit of the many.