Evening star., 1924-10-15
THIS AND THAT
BY c. E. TRACEWELL.

classics down the throats OF children
not prepared for them has been
touched upon. The way to do 1T is
to expose the children to the best
literature and allow 1t to "take," IL
1T will.
r. A. B., writing from the Racquet
Club. said:
""This and That of Saturday after
noon was fine. When lad my father
read to the children .Josephus.' This
was Sunday afternoons. Think OF
children and golf-playing fathers
having to do this! Terrible. We
were fascinated with the siege Of
Jerusalem.
Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress She
just reveled in the hell and brim-
stone Of it. Also Paradise Lost
When young man l bought
Carlyle's History Of the French Rev
olution' and did not care for it, al
| though 1 finished it.
Il read the Divine Comedy a long
distance north of Washington. Julius
Caesar / always liked, and read 1t
| often, as well as Hamlet.
Lies Miserables' L have read, as
| well as many of ffVictor Hugo's.'
X X X
Alas for my proud boast that l was
the only person in Washington who
| had read Baruch Spinozas "Ethics!"
G. C.. w. wrote:
1T may please you to know that
| only recently i finished reading for
| the second time the Ethics that
| Spinoza.
Il doubt whether we are the only
ones in Washington who shared the
! pleasure of reading it-quite likely
the Dutch Minister or some of his as
sociates are familiar with it.
How many Washington lawyers,
do you suppose, have read or care to
read Grotius' Mare Liberum'T'
If there are any attorneys-or
dable volume by Grotus, let them
come forward, in the name of great
| books
DR.. Bowerman, the librarian at the
Public Library. says he has Fl copies
| of "Pilgrim's Progress" in the adult
department, and that when he went
| to get a copy all were out! He had
not been presented with the figures
for the children's department.
| Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason"
was drawn out of the library Is times
| in 1923 and 20 times in 1924, the Ii
brarian said, which, with the 20
| times Spinoza's Ethics" was with
| drawn, made a total of so times the
| two were taken out in the two years.
The librarian went on to say that
| the circulation of Millions Paradise
Lost" Sponsors .Faery Queen" and
Dante's Divine Comedy" was SINH
| larly active The five sets of Car
| lyle's History of the French Revo-
| luton have been out six times this
year. "Josephus" had a circulation
| of 10 times in 1923 and Is times out
so far this year. There is also a juve-
| nile edition.
| Now all this is interesting and very
| encouraging until it is remembe red
| that Washington is a great educa-
tional center. Here we have a num-
Der of great high schools, the George
| Washington University, Catholic Uni
| versity, Georgetown University, the
| American University and other insti-
| tutions Of learning.
| Who knows but what nearly all
the Withdrawals of these books are
| made as required reading in the
/, schools: and who can say just how
much of each book the reader reads,
| or, even If he reads it, how much he
gets out Of it?
Nobody, not even a librarian!
| When l say read a book 1 mean
read it for the love of it. There is
| little love in required reading"
| Wherefore, in comparison with the
| tremendous circulations of other
| books, notably the novels, these books
| any one reads! We have 100000 resi-
waded through Carlyle's undoubtedly