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

II shall not he my purpose. In deailhs
with the moral value OF good ieauihh'
20 20 over the ground that has oeen ~
admirably and adequately COZ 1870.
that IN inent nteiatsuE 'ss', :,
Brandes, In his recently published ess"s
on reading: nos 10 sing paeah VI
praise TO books In general as III .n"'
acteristic fashion Sir John LlopoVH nas
done In his Pleasures OF LII
10 berate the making OF many DOORS 30
4 Schopenhauer has done; nor, III ate
spirit OF Montaigne 10 JUSTIFY thoss
n who nave written much, nor " 49,.
upon discussion as 10 whtthtI po'n -.
should be read chiefly foI pleasure %
/ for uplift, which was the hupJeet "
spirited debate between SIR Arthur ba :
\ four and the well-knowh rre"ei IN
Harrison. l shall neither tahe sieO
with those who nave cursed CulehOeIs
for his Invention OF the printing pres;
nor shall | align myself. though
b sympathize with their views Win tn .s's,
Z who believe that the arr Oh p.In''ue
has been most potent FACTOR
K speeding onward the processes OF elNl-
llzation. -,
Mine small he the less ambitious,
though not the more unworthy hasH a. ~.
, trying TO show you that feadlhs IN
itself must have a moral Naluc' alWuys
preruming that L am speaking 20
class OF readers whose taste rs hct.ho'
so prurient that they turn Win aSI
ure only 10 books that are llNld anu
Jurid with unchaste suggestion, nor
vet SO prudish as TO shun as immoral
every book that is true enough 10 me
TO paint the evil In man anu IN tie
world i'm tones as clear as IL portrays
the good in them. The cry that goes
forth in our simc. that the ideal OF
literary workers has been lowered oy
the spirit of commerciallsm that mas
affected them, loses some OF It's force
believe when we remember thdt
Schopenhauer. that apostle OF pessim.,
ism. writing almost a century ago, salu
that nine -tenths OF prcse NJ Gay liter
ature has no other aim than 10 get
shillings out of the pockets OF the
public" statement however. which AK
least goes far To prove that sucn nS-
cadence. II IL be real, did rot begin In
our day Nor - IL fair To hold. with
great many modern writer's, that tor
really good reading matter one must
for sheer lack Of anything else, turn TO
those works upon which the centuries
have set their approval
While none is so foolish as TO deny
the eternal value OF the great classics
OF all languages, or to believe tndl
there is iikely TO be produced more
than once In n generation. or cen
fury perhaps. A book that shall take
rank with the great Hebrew. Greek
and Roman, or even the English ana
the German classics. IL IL yet mis-
take. I hold, so to depreciate the pos
sibilitl.s of literary creation IN our
own time. as to mold With many that
the genius OF today Is producing or
can produce tndt Is WOINhg VI
preservation. 1t is true that of the
making OF books there is no end, and
that OF all that leave the press, per-
laps not one-tentn of one per cent arc
destined to live in the memory OF man
beyond the time il takes To peruse
them But fof all that, inspiration is
not dead. and the possibilities of liter
aturo are not exhausted. Whether one
turns TO prose or TO poetry, TO the
essay or to the novel. one shall find
among the productions of the past CEN
tnry books which, by every law OF
logic, shall live on and eventually take
a place side by side with the works
of those who have won their niche In
the gallery of the immortals. BY what
right shall one say that Tennysons
I'm Memcriam'' shall rot live: or an
Edward Everett Hale's Man Without
q Country" or THE Gentle Reader" by
Samucl Crothers. or the essays of an
Emerson, or the gsnius-inspired poems
of Browning?
Value Of Hook Depends ON Reader.
IL Is not my idea, In dealing with
hooks today. to select this or that par
ticular work or author and to say TO
YOU, Here is something that you must
reid In you would be- elevated and IN
spircd. For my part, l have little
sympathy with the idea. that has been
fostered very largely by publishers
rather than by critics in our time, that
one can set down the one hundred best
hooks nor even that he can enumerate
what should be the contents OF a five
foot shelf in the library OF the man OF
culture. IL Is my idea that the value OF
books depends much upon the recep-