Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-26
Money at $50.
LOANED ON d. q. REAL ESTATE
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Man Does Not Need Many Voumes
but Needs Good Ones.

From the New York Sun.
We seldom have to complain of tina,
alert and accomplished young man from
Cambridge whom many kindly voices
possibly enough to his surprise. are pro
posing to export to the court OF st
James, but we draw the line at his "thre,
foot" or five FOOT library shelf with tn.
best books Of the world on it. Doubles.
President Eliot wished to enforce the
obvious truth that only q few books on,
Of the boundless weller Of the printing
press are really needed and that thei,
The example Of Abraham Lincoln is
classical in this regard. His library OF
six books or SO was sufficient. 1t was
IN fact, too large. Through life he sucked
from other men. never apparently taking
the trouble to read much. The humble
majority OF the world, 1t may be said
no Lincolns. must read. We are not
SO sure Of that. 1t does not seem to us
that the modern boys rich with the spoils
Of Carnegie and Fowler libraries, are SUI
perior in intellect or English to their pre-
deceSsors, who were restricted in their
diet, and besides under the sway Of au-
tomobiles and outdoor life there IL no
time to read. The colleges swarm with
agreeable and healthy youth destined to
be prosperous and charmingly flliterate.
Surely President Eliot doesn't hope to re-
call undergraduate youth to the King
James Bible. North's Plutarch and that
sort Of thing. Any way. he has been the
triumphant prota8onist Of the elective
system for forty years. Does he now
try to take from US the privilege OF
The trouble is that all these lists of
best books and Indispensable books
lead to hypocrisy and humbug. Nobody
to speak Of can devote himself to "the
best that has been thought and said" or
peg away at Sophocles and Dante and
Goethe. Matthew Arnold was a Grecian:
he was somewhat Of a prig. and he was
an inspector Of schools, working hard for
little money and weary OF his tedious
duties He needed recreation. and he had
a mind trained and tuned to the most
ethereal in literature.
Then there Is Mr.. Andrew Lang. who
writes two or three readable books a
year. orders us to read Sophocles and
so-called translation OF some of the
"Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam hits the
temper Of the time, albeit we sometimes
wonder why folks don't rave as much
over his predecessor. the author Of "Ec-
clesiastes" Every age must live its own
life and read Its own books. How are
We going to read Lang. even In part, II
we are true to Sophocles? The Greeks
never would have amounted to much II
they had had to acquire another language
than their own. Let US be just then to
an overworked generation that must have
French and German, even II II has small
Latin and less Greek. And let every man
read what agrees with him. Does he al
low somebody else to tell him whether
he shall eat white meat or dark?
The only possible use of a three FOOT
or five foot shelf is to contain the
STANDARD and 'immOrtal'' works which
no sentleman's library should be with
out" and few gentlemen read. Something
of the essence Of every book Is lost to
posterity The ~spirit Of the age" many
of the illusions. let alone the vocabulary,
escape the later conner. Only painfully
and imperfectly can he enter upon the
possession of his heritage. and II We COM
mon folks can make out pretty well with
Shakespeare, don't let US fiatter ourselves
that we can read him as Dyce did or as
Or. Furness does. II we can make any
thing out of the "Faery Queen" or Para
disc Lost or even THE Pilgrims Prog
ress"-bore ineffable to many, II few win
admit it-better than good. But let US
have the courage Of our preferences and
read what likes US. and probably ninety
nine times out Of q hundred Il will be
hooks Of our own time and consequently
novels Besides. American industry must
be protected. and the best seller Is one
of its chief branches.
Still, the fatal list makers are already
at work, and when DR.. Eliot fllls UP his
five-foot shelf we may reprove or Won
der at him IL he forgets, well. say. Pepys,
Tom Jones and George Borrow.