The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17

They are the human soul. so intangi-
 ble and remote. precipitated into very concrete shapes, and in the form or poetry they are the highest expression of human life. more wonderful than sculpture. more wonderful than paint ing, more wonderful than music.
 What To Read.
 And yet while true that this some what severe standard of literature must be maintained. and while true
 that the definite good of a solid self
 culture must be kept steadily in view; still. to afford the best results a course of reading must be truly lib- eral, broad, and catholic in its nature. After all, education perhaps is to se-
 cure information as well as to secure training. And 1t is not necessary that ones journey to Parnassus shall be made in a hair shirt or with peas in our shoes. For instance. much good can be secured from a judicious select ion of current literature, whether in the form of journal. periodical. or book | of the hour. A conservative and hon | est newspaper has immense education al value. The editorials of many of our strongest metropolitan journals are the most virfle writing of the day, examples of the essay at its best. Nor Is 1t little thing for a man to keep in touch with the great currents or contemporary llLS IlOWluk ana eDp- | ing in mighty throbs about us daily.
 History in the making is as important as history that is made. Interest in | the great political questions and is- | sues touching the very life of State,
 Nation. and society; interest in the great wars waging in diverse regions | of the earth; interest in the delibera- tions of the great legislative bodies of the world and in their outstand- | ing leaders; appreciation of the fact | that the world Is round, 25,000 miles | is circumference, and teeming with an | infinite variety of peoples and inter- | ests and manners and customs and views of life, and that it is not a petty nook a few square miles Tn area pent | up in the boundaries of ones own
 neighborhood-all of this Is of inest-
 unable value. and is unconsciously ab- sorbed at a tender age from contact
 with current books and Journals.
 But the exigencies of space forbid the elaboration in detail of the educa-
 tional values of all the rich resources of the library. Only by way of sum-
 mary must 1t be said that in a com mercial way we need more good libra ! ries, in a technical way we need more good libraries, in a professional way we need more good libraries. Books on political economy. books of science. | books of law, medicine, theology-all these we n0eQs bOOhS OI luaRlna- tion. books that touch the human sympathies and mans moral suscepti-
 bilities, books that color our views of life into the thousand shades of reIig- lon and politics, books that Milton
 calls The heart blood of good men
 and women," books that will help us
 to understand and interpret alright
 the great lessons of life, revealing to
 us physical and human nature, consol-
 ing rejoicing, amusing, elevating,
 teaching us virtue, love, patriotism,
 friendship, unrolling to us the glo- rious panorama of this beautiful uni
 verse we inhabit and giving us bright
 glimpses even beyond this mortal
 bourn-more. and still more of all
 these books do we need.
 And, 1t Is not too declama-
 tory. think. to say that we
 can find in books all of these
 qualities. find in a library all of these
 influences. True literature, indeed. speaks to the everlasting universal principles of human nature that give man his predominance over the beasts of the field; that Is. his love of the beautiful. his love of heroic action. and his devotion to duty. Nor for our
 serious moods and for the serious and higher duties of life Is this defi- milton Of literature too high. Neither, indeed. does 1t mean necessarily that
  Historian, poet. dramatist. novelist. preacher. or humorist; all are entitled to Q hearing. They are all literature, says Mir. Morley, in so far as they brighten life and teach us to know man and to know human nature.
 4 Powerful Agency.
 True literature as a discipline of in- tellect and as a distinctly spiritual dis cIpllne may be a most powerful agen- cy. It sheds about our lives the sweet influence of meadow. grove and stream. It stores our mind with all the illustrious examples of heroic men and noble women who have been faith full to duty and whose hearts have been full of beauty and of goodness. It lifts one out of the ruts of narrow environment with its preJudices and and sets his feet upon a high mount fin the dry light of truth. All mean limitations are stricken off by a broad contact with books. The mind is invigorated and set going in bright currents in numberless direct ions; while the spirit may be fired with the noblest ambitions and the greatest examples of magnanimity that the world affords. These spirit utalizing, uplifting influences, these are the educational forces of the library. Not that mere libraries or mere books, or mere learning, can brInR