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

II shall not he my purpose. In deailEs
with the moral value ol good reau.ls
40 30 over the ground that mas peeh 50
admirably and adequately coNeTsu W
That EN- nent hteists w $50
on feadlng. no- 10 sins Rassh "
\ praise TO books in general, az ih Shs r.
ecteristic fashion Sir John LupDoSh nes
done In his pleasures OF Lie hOl
10 bSrate tae making OF many books as
Schopenhauer has done. nor, III Nno
spirit OF Montaigne. to Jusuty mus mus
who nave written much MOI 10 entea
upon "A disc ussion as 10 WhctheI oo"No
shouid be read chiefly fol pleasure OF
4 for upliff which was tbc subject OF
& spirited debate between Sir Arthur bai
four and the well-knoWh tItuvil N
HGrI ison. shall neither take Sues
< with those who nave cursed Gutehbcss
& for his invention or the pruning press,
\ nor shall 1 align myself though
synipathize with their views win lu u.s.
who believe that the ar, OF prlhtlhs
f. has been a most potent FACTOR "a
speeding onward tie processes Oh CIV
z lixation. -
Mine small be the less ambitious,
fhouah nor the more unworthy task OF
trying TO show YOU that readlns IN
itself must have mora N@Iut, NMSS
preeuming that | am speaking 70 a
class OF readers whose taste IS neitheE
so prurient that they turn with pleas
Gre only 10 books that are ilNlu gnu
1urid with unchaste SUGGESTION, 10,
yet so prudish as to shuh as li'.IlvtS'
every book that is true enough 10 nv
10 paint the evil In man ana IN the
world In tones as clear as II portray1
the good In them The cry that goes
forth in our time, that the iaea, oi
literary workers has been lowered by
the spirit of commercialism that mas
affected them. loses some OF It's Tore,
i believe when We remember that
Schopenhauer, that apostle CT pessim-
ism. writing almost century ago, SAID
that nineteen OF prese t-day litel
ature has no other ann thah 10 set
shiilings out of the pockets OF the
public" statement, however. which az
least goes FAR TO prove that such de-
cadence, IL IL be- real, did not begin III
our day. Nor IS IL fair 10 hold win a
great many modern writer's, that TOT
really good reading matter one must
for sheer lack OF anything else, turn 10
those works upon which the centuries
have set their approval
While mono is 90 foolish as TO deny
the eternal value Of the great classics
OF all languages or to believe that
there is likely to be produced more
than once Ia generation, or cen
tury perhaps. "A book that shall take
rank with the great Hebrew. Greek
ana Roman. or even the English ana
the German classics, II Is yet mis-
take. 1 hold. so 10 depreciate the pos
sibiliti,s OF literary creation IN our
own time as 10 mold with many that
tile genius of today Is producing or
can produce nothing that is worthy OF
preservation. 1t is true mat OF the
making OF books there is end and
that OF all that leave the press, per
laps moi one-tenth of one per cent arc
acstined TO live In the memory OF man
beyond the time IL takes To perusC
them But for all that, inspiration Is
not dead. and the possibilities OF liter
ature are not exhausted. Whether one
turns to prose OF to poetry. TO the
essay or to the novel. one shall ind
among the productions OF the past CEN
ttlfy books which, by every law OF
logic, shall live on and eventually take
of those who have won their niche In
the gallery OF the imnortals. BY what
right shall one say that Tennyson's
sIn Memcvlam" shall not live: or an
Edward Everett Hale's Man without
Country" or THE Gentle Reader by
Samuei srothers or the essays OF an
'Emerson, or the gsnius-inspired poems
OF Browning?
Value of BOOK Depends ON Reader.
IL is not my idea. In dealing with
books today TO select this or that par
ttcular work or author and to say TO
you. Here is something that you must
read III you would he elevated and In
spired. For my part. I have little
sympathy with the idea that has be Ell
fostered very largely by publishers
rather than by critics in our time. that
one can set down the one hundred best
books, nor even that he can enumerate
what should he the contents OF fve-
foot shelf In the library OF the man OF
culture. Ii IL my idea that the value OF
books depends much upon the recep-