Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-11-10

AT RUTGERS
James Bryce, of Great Britain
Speaks at Charter Day
Celebration.
THE READING OF BOOKS
Tells Of Some Principles and
Maxims that the Average
Person Should Observe.
ss.essr .. IA. EVENING Nsra.

/ EQ&Ht6t 30 kAS - ANAG " S - /" -
New Brunswick, Nov. 1o-Ballan
tine gymnasium was filled at ths
exercises held this morning in con
nection with Rutgers College Char
| ter day. DIR. Demarest, the Dresiden'
of the college. was in charge of tht
program and the public schools
closed one half hour prior to ths
time for the charter day celebration
that the teachers might attend and
hear the address by Ambassador
| James Bryce on Some principles
and maxims for the reading Of
books"
After some remarks upon the his
tory of Rutgers College and the
great interest which attached to 1t In
respect of It's antiquity and after
adverting to the special functions
and advantages of small colleges and
to the necessity of maintaining them
as a valuable part Of the educattonal
system of the country, he compared
the educational conditions existing
now with those which existed when
Rutgers, then Queens College, was
founded In 1855 and contrasted the
abundance of universities and col
leges In the United States now with
the meagre provision that existed
then. He rejoiced to see that despite
the abundance of this provision, not
only were universities being founded
from time to time, but efforts were
being everywhere made to raise the
standard of higher education, as well
as to develop 1t in those new branch
es which the progress Of modern
science had made needful.
Perhaps 1t isl he said, more In
the direction of raising the quality
and character of university instruc-
tion than it's wider diffusion-in
fact, in intensity, rather than exten-
sion--that the needs of the time lie,
I believe in the value of oral teach
ing as just as essential now as it was
in the days when books were COM
paratively scarce. But the very
abundance of books have made 1t
the more important to think OF the
best way of using books, and one of
the great uses of college was to
give students instruction In the art
of using them. and to show them
how having formed good intellectual
habits tn the student years, they may
continue to apply these to continue
their education through books to the
end of their lives. because education,
as has been well said, ought to end
only with life Itself.
Accordingly, ! venture to submit
for your consideration few sugges-
tions or maxims as to how to use
books, which have been impressed
upon me by the experience of many
years. The first maxim is that one
should always try to find and read
the best book on any subject. BY
the best book / mean the book from
which you can carry the most away.
The test of the value of a book is
that it should give what you can
profitably make a part of your own
mind; and by good book l do not
mean what used to be called an i'm
proving book D. book containing
solid information, but l include
books of every kind so long as they
are good of their kind, that Is to say,
so long as they give You something
new and fresh, something stimulat-
ing or enlivening, something on
which the mind can work, and which
leave the reader knowing more, or
better able to think than 1t found
him. The dry book is not necessari-
ly better than the lively book, on
the contrary, it is, other things be-
ing equal, presumably worse, be-
cause every book ought, If possible,
to be SO written as to be interesting,
that is to say, capable of being read
with enjoyment. OF course 1t is not
easy to be equally lively upon all
subjects, but however dry the sub
ject, the same difference exists be-
tween book which is well written
and takes a grip of the mind, and
given you the pleasure of following
line of thought with profit, and
the book which tumbles out facts
and ideas In shapeless and uninter-
esting way. Life is too short for
reading inferior books Everyone
finds as he goes on how terribly
short life Is, and how much there is
he would like to know which he
never will have time to learn. Moth
ing of our time therefore should be
wasted on third-rate books, or sec
ond-rate books. If first-rate ones are
to be had This is true of fiction as
well as of science or history, though
in q different sense.
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