The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-12-13

! tivity ard even the mood OF the man
who reads them--not 10 say his abilitl
10 understand. Rants "Critique OF
Pure Reason" Is "A mastery work or ITS
kind but / challenge majority OF
you TO read IL -not only with pleasure
but with UNDERSTANDINGS. lt - true.
youi inability 10 grasp the author
thought, through your Gnpreparedness
for philosophical discussion, does not
detract from the worth OF the book as
such. but To you u Is worthl.ss.
neVerthsless. and what holds OF
work # philoeJpny t. as true 81 SOM
OF the master creations IN ali depart
merits OF literature Dantc's 'l(ivine
Coiaedy and Millions Paradise LOST
are not the less classic bt "a use YOU 30
not understand them, tut the tact that
they are classic does not make them
fruitful reading TO the unframed
rcaucr. That's why lb5cn and Brown
lug and Mactcrlinck and even some OF
the Rtcat nUNchsts, read so OFTEN he-
cause every bodys redcihg thSn. YOU
know" are utterly dun end without
hClpfulness 10 many. BcttVr-h Simply
WI ,tter book wiShin the range OF your
az Outstanding and synpathies than The
most ambitious piece 81 literature that
you cannot really follow No more
than that the nostrums. which. pre-
sCrlbed for one pStienI VIII be eutcs
CiouS fol all men. Is ~ II de that Al /
the books that are good for one set OF
men viii pc vf real value 10 another.
81 coarse. there ere certain canons ~
criticism ~ which books are 10 %
judged. Tnvy must conform 10 certain
well -established rules OF harmony. De
quincy NAY rank as styllst par eN-
cellencS. out because Van Dyke
writes IN a style different from De
quincy. and Kipling IN a way that
has nothing In common with either or
these. Shsll one say that even from IN"
styhstic standpoint the books OF the
last-namSu two ere UNIV orthyg NOR
does this apply only 10 the formal AMI
If 4 n ~, IA he mo
implication OF one book may he or ire
mendously greater value 10 one man
than to another Just as music loses
ITS real charm 10 the one who has no
soul for music. although for the mo
me mt IL may entertain him just as art
has no very deep appeal L. him whose
artistic sei,se is updevc.oped though ht
may enjoy looking at pictures, So
books, i'm order TO do their highest
service unto men, must be read and
judged by those whose souls are
attuned to the Intellectual the spiritual
and TIE moral note which the author
wishes 20 strike.
II Is, therefore. hold. utterly i'm
possible to say TO a group of men and
women such as are here represented.
men and women whose sympathies'
whose abilities and whose advantage
rel resent such wide range. just what
books they shall read. For some, like
Moataigne. NAV ind the most IN books
In which they gee thence Ives rejected.
DOCKS whose characters mirror 10
themselves the emotions, the senti
ments, the passions. tie ideals, the
longiHgs that nave stirred their own
hives, and OF which they can say when
they have read them This book IL
true because IL Is my life" Such books
TO such people are as mirror to the
soul. and as IL is good occasionally for
mel and women who are none too seri-
GUS in their self-eNamInstion, TO go
through process Of introsPec;ion, II
IS well for them to read such books.
Put. on the other hand. there are men
ana women whose lives are too much
inward. whose eyes are ever directed
upor themselves. and who are con-
stenuy asking themselves not only why
they have failed 10 reach that goal OF
happiness toward which ultimately each
man is striving, but why. AS they
ime ginc, their lives are failures in all
things. To such persons. books that
become mirrors OF themselves are not
the best to read. IL seems TO me. Tc
such wouid rather recommend that
literature that Will tax them out OF
themselves into environments that are
strange 10 them, Introducing them 10
persons and TO places OF which they
never dreamed, and thus arouse In
them new interests ami new desires as
well as new standards OF self-measure-
ment.
or course. assume. in what I am
saying to you, that all men and women
should do some -eading I think IL was
Balfour who said that $50 long as we
have good health ana "A good library.
life cannot be altogether dull" And
IL was an Egyptian writer who as early
as the thirteenth century before the