The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-19
From the New York Post.

From the NeW fork Host.
 WI E feel the deepest sympathy for
 A/ those moderns who complain
 w that so many books are now unfinished and so noisily advertised that thev are bewiidered as to choice, ana turn back to the old favorites. That surely, is a thousand times better tnan adopting the alternative which now seems so popular-of not reading at all. what with automobiling, golf, the theaere' bridge. and the 10-oent magazines, tnou- sands of our most substantial citizens are accused-by discontented bookseners-oI never opening book from one years end to another. The charge Is not increoi- ble. Hazlitt, who has said what would he the last word "On the Reading of Old Books," If our busy and distracted twen- tieth century could spare few moments to glance at so venerable work as ms .Plain Speaker" declares roundly;
 q hate to read new books. There are 20 or 30 volumes that I have read over and over again, and these are the only ones that have any desire ever to read at all."
 These sentences are familiar, of course,
 to a, few old-fashioned folk. who will be
 glad to have them recalled; and the vast majority, to whom Hazlitt is but a name, may take the hint that this author can
 provide more ediication and entertain
 ment than Charles Edward Russell or any
 other darling of the day.
 But re-reading is clearly a recreation
 not to be indulged in by those whose sole
 test of excellence is publication within the
 month, and whose chief object in going
 through a volume is to be able to com
 ment on what every one Is talking
 about" or to remark with an air of
 eondecention, Haven't you seen the Pink Giraffe yet? I fnishedj 1t last week." No, those for whom novelty in
 itself is a virtue should stop short at this very line, for they cannot possibly be moved by our repetition of the old plea for the old books. Our aim. however, is not so much to argue the point as to in ouire what qualities make a book re-read-
 able. Why is it that we could not be
 hired to re-read most articles in the mag azines and newspapers, while We hnd "Vanity Fair" Hamlet" and the Book of Job perennially vital? Why did Steven | son close his Gossip on Novel of Du- mas' with these words ?-"Yet sixth time, dearest D Artagnan, we shall kidnap | Monk and take horse together for Belle Isle"
 1 De Quincey offers key to the answer l when he makes distinction between the l literature of knowledge and the litera- F.l,o nf Lrnr,x ,xul- l edge-much of the stuff in our newspa- I pers might better be called the literature 1 of ignorance-is nothing to us once we | have assimilated the facts. The article which analyses the tariff bill or describes I the iniquity of the trusts serves Its pur- | pose this morning. but tonight it will be I of less moment than the spelling-book or I arithmetic which we discarded 30 years l ago; and the reason Is that the possibly | ill-informed article on the tariff or the l trusts has as little effect on the imagfna-
 ton and the emotions as the eternal truths l of the multiplication table. By the same token, the story which is sheer naked 1 plot. though it may be highly exciting | on q. first reading, would be uncomfortable l on A second. Conceivably, there are per 1 sons who can read Wilkie Collins's "Woman in White' or 'Moonstone' year
 after year-as, for instance. one reads Jane Austen--but we doubt it. Once is
 enough for watching the moves of those
 wooden pawns which Collins deploys so cleverly in his intricate game of chess i once is enough for the stunning surprise of the checkmate. No. thero must bo some life in the characters. something to lend them the charm of q friend who.