Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1904-12-24

all of the popular novelists. In the
same way. by my rapidity of reading.
am able TO some extent TO keep
abreast of the literature of this day.
oh. no: you are wrong. The more
books man reads the more he knows.
The less man reads the less he will
know. Reading said Lord Bacon,
makes full man."
Am | wrong: believe today that
one of the curses of this age is too
much reading and too little thinking.
Men and women cram themselves with
lot of mentally undigested literature
in the same way that many people be-
come gormands at a dining table. 1t
is not the amount of food you put into
your stomach that makes you a strong
man: il is the amount of food you di-
Eest. We should think man very
silly who said: Il want to make my
self physical giant. l am therefore
going to eat enough food for ten men.
At breakfast | will have the cook
bring to me three pounds of beefsteak
and a dozen eggs and half bushel of
mashed potatoes. and I will sit there
and try to eat them all. When dinner
comes around will try to eat a whole
leg of mutton. and when supper comes
great big roast of beef" What
would happen: His digestive organs
would revolt. His body would be rack
ed with pain. Perhaps peritonitis
would set i'm. and death would be the
result of his folly.
Literary Commands.
Now. as some gormands abuse their
stomachs with too much eating, so
some Commands for mental food abuse
their brains with too much reading.
They stuff their minds with whole
piles Of indigestible literary food. They
read and they read and they read.
They keep on reading and never think
or care about what they are reading.
They read until at last their brains alb
solutely refuse to do any independent
thinking. Their brains become like
great sponge filed with water. sodden
and heavy and inactive. of no earthly
use to anybody or anything. What you
ought to do Is not to see how many
books you can skim through. but how
many books you can master.
Look out" says the old adage. "for
the man who is master of one book"
Look out. say l, for the master Of a
few great books. Too much reading
truly becomes a WEAKNESS to the flesh.
Mr.. Sturgeon in one of his sermons
quotes the invective which Lucian In
Disraelrs ''Curiosities Of Literature"
makes against those men whose pride
Is In large library which they never
properly read and therefore cannot
profit by. such a man is like pilot
who has never learned the art of navi-
CATION or cripple who wears embroid-
cred slippers and cannot stand upright
In them. Why do you buy SO many
books? You have no hair. and you pur-
chase comb. You are blind. and you
must need buy fine mirror. You are
deaf, and you will have the best music
al instruments" But the foolishness of
buying library of books for the shelf
so that you can look upon their hand
some bindings is not to he compared in
its evil effects TO the sin against the
brain by too much promiscuous read
ing. protest against the examining"
processes we have in our public schools.
l protest against the "cramming" proc
esses we have In our colleges. l protest
against the lightning rapidity with
which men and women gallop through
their books i'm an evenings reading.
Buy fewer books. Master those books.
Read them over and over again and
make them integral parts of your
selves. The discOrdant voices around
the tower of Babel could not have
been more helpless to do good than are
the babbling tongues of many books
which have been hastily read. Better.
far better. master a few great books
than have mere speaking acquaint-
ance with thousand different books.
Myriads of books are coming forth
with Outstretched hands. claiming our
welcome. We can only afford to take
a few TO our hearts. How important.
therefore. il Is for us not to invite into
our sanctuary bad book! How i'm
DOTtdut IL IL lot US uOt u lct OuT Cnii-
dren read any bad books! And. above
all, how important 1t is not to have
any bad books at all upon our library
shelves or our sitting room table. But.
though all of us are very careful never
to have a bottle of arsenic or strych-
nine or laudanum or carbolic acid In
our medicine closet unless 1t Is con-
spicuously and clearly labeled Poi
son." yet many will allow the most
deadly of all mental. moral and spirit
ual poisons to come into our homes in
the shape Of bad book. unlabeled with
any danger signal. We will suffer the
evil virus Of that poisonous book not
only to be inoculated into our own
hearts. but also into the hearts Of our
loved ones.
The Innuence Of q Book.
How many men have been ruined for
time and eternity by the influence of
one bad book, Am l describing the
experience of any OF you when imag-
Inc scene Of demoniac siege and con-
quest! For many years Satan was
trying to batter down the doors OF