The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-04-20

DIR. T. b. Kingsbury.
my father was a very busy q /
had no one to select for me, or to
warn me against certain poor books.
L had no n to tell me Of the best in
all fiction and in all l%iteratures in all
ages, what were the noblest, pro-
foundest works.
I read as famished, and learned by
experience and study and communion
With the dead and Sceptred sOver-
elgns' Of letters which We're written
worthiest, the profoundest, the great
est, the best. But to learn caused me
to murder SO much precious time
which | could AVE used so much more
wisely and ~imprOvingly and eleVatingly
if ] had only known it then. But /
read many great and improving books
Learned something of the noble and
the Inspired. I remember that before
| was sixteen l had read Hume's His
tory Of England, continued by DIR.
Smollett and Miller in four royal oc-
tavos, Rollins Ancient History in
seven volumes. portions of Sparks,
american Biography" in some twenty
volume in all Oh a part of Plutarch's
Lives parts of Shakespeare with
johnson and Stoves notes. parts Of
Fifth" and other books Of real value.
And yet | wasted sacred time I'VE
books Of but little merit.
/ believe that moral, superior novels
are a good education-an important
part of it. Some fifteen years ago
Professor Poteat (now president Of
Wake Forest COllege) writing on
books said this: "Of course, we mus,
read some novels. Mr.. Gradgrind OBJ
jeGts to all fiction. But, with all the
respect due to the severity of his
aspect. Mr.. Gradgrind is not a COM
petent guide. for real human beings,
who reckon imagination among the
finest of their native gifts. What imag-
inatiOn was born with him suffered
an early demise. Its resuscitatiOn in
the pages of Dickens and George Eliot
is al that he requires to relieve his
abnormal dryness and make him a
man again." He is a teacher and a
man Of education and that is worthy o;
him. ] do not regret that I have read
1T least fifty of the best novels, and
they have often helped me in this
stern battle of life. Great friction is
Men and women are getting their
ideas and having their lives shaped
and destinies fixed by the novels they
read. Let them beWar of poor, vicious,
dangerous. immoral novels, for they
are a curse and blast like a sirocco.
Latter day critics wander wide and
write a%bsurdly. / have given speci-
mems before. The later is a critical
Investment Of Nathanie! Hawthorne.
the foremost of American noveilsts
and an excellent master of style. A
Northern critic. Mr.. Brownell, is
sharply derogatory and finds the very
gifted New Englander "a dreamer" IT
is a pity thai other fiction writer's Of
the North did not dream after the
manner of the rarely endowed author
of 1.-The House of the Seven Gables
and The Scarlet Letter." both novels
of high genius. Possibly his highest
achievement was 1.-The House of the
Seven Cables" At any rate it has
practically more admirers than his
in my good judgment, and may be
placed first among all American works
of +fiction. Hawthorne was really a
great writer. He.had high creative
genius, and in the elegance and per-
lection of his style has had no equal
among American fiction writer's. DR..
Collier. a British critic of the past,
says of him that ''the beauty of his
language and the q~uaintness Of his
humor possess irresistible attractions.
AS a StyliSt / have not allowed myself
to place any other American prose
writer by his side. He wrote other
very engaging, delightful works. such
as "Twice-To1d Tales Moses From
An Old Manse." and The Blithldah
Romance" He INDUCED no little in
the weird Infection and left but few
rivals in hat special gift. He was
born at Salem. Mass, n died in his
manhood's prime, being fffty-seven
only. At one time he held the office
of American Consul at Liverpool. l
give only this short glimpse at one Of
the most. complete of all American
uthors The South had h greatest
poet. but who was born in Boston &C
cidentallv. OF course / can only re-
fer to. Edgar Allan Poe, whose superb
1870 * Y 90 n ara 11v =rocOonlZQ6 IN