The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-22

developed that he instinctively turned
from this bogus literature. He simply
found the stuff un~palatable. That is
what a taste for good literature will
do for anybody all through life. 1t
will make the inferior and the evil
to read the great books, and his or
her feet will be set most surely on
the road to wisdom, refinement and
high ideals.
The Moslem. and, indeed, most east
ern people, respect the printed page
with something like a superstit1ous
reverence. They care not what the
contents may be: all literature is
sacred to them. We know better, in
this day of the making of many books.
Some publications are more desplcabie
than an equal amount of dirty rags.
They are pestilential. The harm they
do to the world is worse than the havoc
wrought by tuberculosis. Everybody
Should clearly recognize that nowadays
reading calls for careful discrimination.
One should be more fastidious in the
choice of books and papers than in the
selection of clothes or companions. Yet
some of us who would be Mortified at
the thought of wearing a soiled gar
ment, or of associating with a disrep-
utabIe character, grant free admission
to our minds to unworthy, debased and
I debasing printed matter.
The book that has stood the test IF
time and of searching criticism, and
the book that is known by its fruits, is
the one for which Sir Walter Scott
called on his deathbed as 1.-The book"
When asked which book he meant, he
answered, There is but one book"
The person who loves the Bible will
acquire a taste for all other good lit
erature.
A few centuries ago even some mem
bers of parliament could not read.
Now practically everybody in Christen-
dem reads. We are entering upon the
| era of universal literacy. The humblest
will share with the highest the key to
the treasures of human knowledge. Let
nobody think that this is an unmixed
blessing. Reading is not the only route
to Wisdom: some persons read so
much, and SO heedleSSly, that they
have lost the art of thinking Some of
the greatest men of ancient history
were unable to read. except in the book
Of the human heart and in the litera-
tUre of nature. A thousand publica-
tiCns are daily bidding for the eyes of
the modern public: except men read
Discriminatory, and with contempla-
ton, first perusing and then pondering,
this new privilege of literacy may be a
blight instead of a blessing. What and
how one reads is more important than
now mucn one r6aQS.
IF I were to pray" said Sir John
HerSchel, for a taste which would
stand me in stead under every variety
of circumstances and be a source of
happiness and ch~eerfulness to me
through life, and a shield against its
ills it would be a taste for
reading"
The worth of a book may be tested
by the number of times it will bear re-
reading. Nobody ead a
o. a popular novel more than once.
Shakespeare and the other great poets
are read over and over again. The
Bible is unique in that those who know
it best read it oftenest, ever finding
The inexhaustibility of the Holy Scrip
lures is one of the wonders of the
book of books. The b~rainiest scholars
in the world have been porting over its
pages for nearly twenty centuries and
still there are new riches being I'M
covered. The limitlessness of the
Bibles our is surely one evidence
of it's divine character.
Some books are to be tasted, others
to be swallowed, and some are to be
chewed and digested.-Bacon.
Reading is to the mind what ex-
ercise is to the -body.-Addison.
4
All worthy books have been divid-
ed into two classes-literature of
knowledge and literature of power.
Books that increase mems knowledge
are important and essential; every
body needs them. Still more neces-
sary, however, are those books which
stir the impulses, quicken the souls
vision, impel to action, n develop
character. A sagacious person will
sure that his reading includes
both sorts of literature and in a rea-
sonable proportion.
Charles Lamb asked why one
should not say grace over a good
book, as over a meal. The intellec-
food is the more important, and
more directly the gift of God.
Quaint old Thomas Fuller writes,
Lord, this morning I read a chapter
in the Bible. I therein observed a
notice before. Why now and no
did 1 see it? Formerly my
were as open and the letters as
Is there not a thin veil laid
over thy word which is more and
more rarified by reading and at last
wholly worn away?"
One of the improvements in news
paper making that is inevitable is the
elevation of the literary style en-
pioyeu- AT present., Eng
is synonymous with slovenli-
ness and disdain for the best forms
traditions of the language. The
press itself is beginning to direct at
to the absurdities of baseball
reporting. The dignity, force and
perspicuity of many editorial pages !
may fairly be expected one day to
all the departments OF
most nearly approaches to the ;
universal form of contemporary liter
ature.
SEVEN SENTENCED SERMONS j