The Washington times., 1923-02-20

In the short time fewer than thousand
men and women have asked advice OF this newspaper on the
What shall read9 How shall read7 What are the best
books? How much should one read?" etc., etc.
Advice has given this column this subject,
and many recommended gratifying
know that of these many have sold largely and that
majority are always in demand the public libraries
It il impossible to in detail all the questions that
thing may be said to comfort those who fear that they
reading the wrong track.
In the first place remember that when human being reads
book the important thing in the operation is not the book
When sculptor models work of art is not the clay
that Important but the shape which it takes in the sculptor
hands
The reading of book useless it only fills the mind
without producing results.
The who reads sucks water useless
The young weformed brain contains within itself pos
Hbes Of achievement accumulated during thousands Of gen.
book which the brain reads acts at best
ton, stimulant an incentive
Whatever you read to read the truth and above all
things seek to accumulate facts BY facts
history chemical formulas or meaningless lists Of
names but important facts those that suggest fresh thought
the mind and stimulate its activity.
The greatest writer that lived in the world beyond
any question: Shakespeare There living today hun
dreds thousands not millions Of far better read than
Shakespeare not Of them could write line
he did read and he had to read in order to give his brain
start IN order to divert 1t from boysh interest poacng
to the literary expression Of all the human emotions
full brain turned facts and imaginative suggestion into his
splendid product as the digestion Of powerful turns
Huxley called the attention Of laboring before whom
he ectured to the interesting fact that he Huxley should
eat crawh the crawhs body would become part Of Hux-
leys brain and would seek deal with the problem
ton Whereas on the contrary if Huxley fell into
and eaten by crawih Huxeys body would build the
crawh brain and would be devoted solving the problems
Of life in a crawfsh swamp
very much the in the reading Of books The
book start One the accumulation Of fortune
inspire another to unselfish life of public service.
Take a single isolated fact:
More than four millions Of human beings work constantly
In the mines Of this world"
million read this statement they will it in a
million different and their minds will be affected by it
differently
one perhaps will study from sociological point Of view
and think Of the suerngs Of these who the
Another will think simply Of the amount Of money many
men and women must dig out inside of the earth.
Another will invent fantastic theory about Of
beings dwelling at the center of the earth.
Another will devote his energies perfectng machinery
enable these millions Of human beings do their work without
going beneath the earth's surface.
is with this fact as with all others By itself it contains
nothing Everything depends the brain which absorbs it.
Whatever you read, try find truth either
your reflections and remember reading your
thinking is the important thing ten thousand times
important to you is what you read.