The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-06-29
BY EDGAR ILlFF.

5y ED1Sn IL-tFF
Oh, to have read tales in the hang
ing gardens of Babylon when books
were made of clay and every book was
a brick! To have lost ones self in
some old story of that female Blue
beard, Semiramis, and yet had a sub
conscious feeling all the time that you
held brickbat to throw at the first
son Of Babylonian who asked you
If you 'd.ever-read-when -knighthood-
wasin-flower." And to hit the Meso-
potamian square in the jaw and to cry
out so loudly that Belshazzar paused
in his feast between his cup and his
lip, thinking the handwriting on the
wall was about due-yes, to cry out,
NO! Nor have l read Three Weeks,
or even one week, but I've had the
smallpox
Or TO have read Daphnis and Chloe
from Parthenon, cooled by the soft air
OF Aegean seas and a lingering taste
Of Hyblis honey on your lips. No
need to seek small books one could
carry to the fire, as Dr. Sam Johnson
puts it. Just to crawl backward and
read, only to be interrupted by royal
peacock strutting to be seen, or to
be distracted by the flutter of AS
pasia's gown as she passed like
dream-Aspasia, the maid of Miletus;
the intellectual and beautiful; the
crown jewel of Pericles's heart; the
patroness Of Phidias; the perceptress
of Socrates the friend of Anaxagoras:
the companion of Zeno, Plato and
Protagoras
To Know Charles Lamb.
Or 10 have chummed with Charles
Lamb; quaffed his brown ale, smoked
his long white pipes, laughed with him
and laughed his sallies of wit and to
have seen his ragged regiment Of
books "-Charlie, who confessed that
he had no repugnances and could read
anything from the Bible to Jonathan
WIKI; only it hurt him to reach down
a volume expecting to find "a pleas
ant play book and open an essay on
population, or to seek Farquhar or
Steele and get Adam Smith on THE
Wealth of Nations
One of the strange things about
authors is that they are forever COM
planning of the multiplicity of books,
but go right on making more. Solo,
mon had the complaint badly; said
there would be no end In the making
of them, but he didn't know about
books in running brooks" and books
in woman's looks and that books are
made from books" and books breed
books
Deplores Many Books.
Sir Thomas Browne in his "Religio
Medici." published in the seventeenth
century, deplored the vast number of
books in the world; "swarms and
millions Of them" he said, "begotten
only TO distract and abuse the weaker
judgment OF scholars" He had no
patience with those who sighed over
the loss of some lines of Cicero or
lamented the destruction of the Alex
andrian library; said he could look
composure IL only Solomon's proverbs
were left. He thought a general synod
should be established to reduce learn
ing to few solid authors and burn
all else. The world has been kinder
to Sir Thomas than he was to the few
fragments Of ancient literature that
came down to his time; thousands Of
priceless gems Of Greece and Rome
have persisted; the tragedies Of the
sublime Aeschylus come to us in
scraps only; we see the literature of
Greece only In part and through
glass darkly, but Sir Thomas still re-
mains with his sour face and disturbed
epigastrium.
Book Reviewers Active.
The censor, the expurgator and the
lightning calculator called the book
reviewer have been very useful be-
cause they have called attention TO the
best and noblest In literature by their
condemnation and damned TO utter
oblivion the worthless and insipid by
their imbecle praise, The modern
reading world and host OF sane
owe debt OF gratitude