The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-10-12
NEWS or THE BOOK WORLD

/ W00ao60 /
Guide to the Recovery of the Lost Art of
Reading, by Or. w. r. NicoII--A Case
In Point from Friend of The Uneasy
chalr-AIfred Russell Wallace Gives
More Reasons for Believing Good Man.
Is Gods Masterplece-The Author OF
THE Memoirs of Baby" Now Has
Daughter Of Her Own.
KnoW all men by these presents, that
the art of reading (not of reading aloud)
has been lost. What I" say you, ''the art
OF reading lost in this day Of printing
presses that never rest and books pouring
IN millions from changing book mills 2"
Yea, verify Too much to read has pulled
reading from its place as an art to that
OF business, thence to that of trade
and often to that of an evil habit A
debt is due, therefore, to DR.. W. r. Nicol
for again turning the light upon reading
as an art, in; The Lost Art Of Reading,
one of four new additions to Thomas Y.
Crowell & Co. S ''What Is Worth While
Series" What DR.. Nicoll means by the
art OF reading will be seen in the follow
! ing extract, and it will be seen equally
why the art is called lost: :.
| 1t is of little use to preach the gospel of re-
Taxation against the gospel of work. Relaxation
has become business quite as much as work .
AS practced in the present day, it tends to
strain almost as much as any amount of daily
Labor! What Is needed to tranuulize anxious
spirits and smooth careworn brows is the secure
possession of some treasure the value of which
does not huctuate with the price of stocks. The
eager, and the nervous and the hurried need
ABOVE all THINGS not strenuous play, but repose.
preach to you the value of reading on this
account.
We're 1t only for this, the art of reading
would be worth acquiring. But I put it on still
higher ground. Whatever your progression nav
be, you will discharge your duties more wisely,
more efficiently, if you know books. The vision
Of wider horizons, the contact with greater
every duty.
soothed and fortified by beholding the bright
countenance OF truth in the quiet and still air
of delightful studies at the end we may look
up IN peace, content with the work of the day.
/ AS a means of learning and practicine
the art, DR.. Nicoll believes in OWNING
ones own books-such books as will
save us from fever, from fretfulness
from fear, from envy, from the baser and
maligner PASSIONS such books as will
change lonely hour into one of genial
companionship, such books as will illl1.
inmate dark days. such books as will dc
Joy to bright days, books to purge one
OF pase and make stronger good moods
one Will soon learn not to make a 'bust.
ness of reading such books, but an art
Acting upon this principle friend O.
Inc Uneasy Chair yesterday purchased
a full set of Robert Louis Stevenson, ir
accordance with long cherished plan
Today the books have been delivered a
his home. Tonight he will have thu
pleasure of placing them upon his book
shelves, 1t will be a pleasant duty which
ne will go about as one would offer sac
rlilces to benefcent household gods. H,
Will foresee, as he performs it, hour
spent in reading this or that volume, es
says, letters, poems, fiction, as fits hi
need at the time, and he will know tina
he is making easier the hard way of lif
and at the same time providing cache
OF spiritual and mental nourishment an,
retreshment upon which to draw as h
traverses the long Journey if long i
prove. He cannot be other than a bette
man for his work in life for such pro
vision, and If his day "ringeth to even
song before he has gone far upon hi
journey, he will have had the fairer pros
pect in this life as an earnest Of and
preparation for still fairer one in tn
: next.
That is what the art of reading mean
to one man. To possess the art is to ad
tenfold to the worth of the books one buy
e and by comparison to render insignifcan
: the sum invested.
e Announcement is made in New York {
IAAo MI Ill 'ols ID ruduSutGE To- MIS- Sel0e
5 Bacon Josephine Daslkam), whose recer
I book, "The Memoirs of a Baby" arouse
= such a lively controversy over the natural
L ness Of Its small hero, "Binks." Mr.:
Bacon has always been one of the mos
sympathetic writers about children an
their quaint characteristics, and one won
:, ders. what effect her experience with >tth
real thing will have upon her future liter
airy offspring. Pc, a,. g. u. ,.~ 49,. '+a,,> .
o..
Alfred Russell Wal1ace,s book "'Man's Plac
In the Universe, has stood steady fire of scie1
II t1hc criticism for year, and the author
far from abandoning his theory expressed in ii
= that the earth is the, center of the universe
r which was created for earthly man alone see
n new arguments IN support Of HIS theory. Nj
; Clure-P Phillips will shortly bring out a new ed
ton OF the book. in which will be included ne,
i chapter containing an additional argument d.
pendent upon the theory of evolution.
h RoNDEAU TO A HELPFUL FRIEND,
Your bright idea I tried to use.
+ Too proud boon lightly to lose!
h The sparkling treasure of your thought K
- J. bore away and patient wrought,
The gem In words of fire to fuse.
t Alas! my dullard brain accuse!
e Gone was the sheen of rainbow hues
| That flashed when first my fancy caught
- - Your bright idea!
3 Slow moved my wit in leaden shoes:
To curse my quill could but choose
And pace the floor like one dstraught!
5. All! here's the secret vainly sought
# needed. to inspire my muse
, Your bright eye, dear
% Margaret Johnson in October Smart Set
~ Robert Grants powerful novel. 1.-THE JJndercu
Il rent will be published toward the end of tn
month. 1t will be illustrated by F. C. Yohn
! The Uneasy Chair.
q With bold strokes and little atteml
- to smooth the rough corners, Opie Rea
- has given us Turk, a novel of Ke1
e lucky before the war, written with a d
~ rectness Of expression which sugges
- the bitter struggles and feuds which IL
~ book pictures.
- Turk, named so for his brilliant re
,e hair and freckled face, was diminuti,
in size but never in courage. He he
le caught the spirit Of his warning ance
1t tors and strove to live up to the prim
tive morals instilled in his childhood