Evening star., 1925-10-03

Do merchants and bankers, butch.
ers, bakers and candlestick makers
read good books any more?
"A correspondent expresses his
doubt, as follows:
Dear Sir:
Il have not the pleasure of being
acquainted with you, but permit me,
in brief manner, to say that many
or your articles appearing in The
Star are much appreciated by the
| reading and thinking people OF this
| city.
1T is. however, needleess for me
TO inform you that, sad to say, this
class Is distinctly in the minority. I
refer, more especially. to your strictly
literary articles, such as the one
| which appeared ,on the 7th instant
re the immortal Lord Tennyson
Your last words in this writing,
But who reads them?' struck me
forcibly. I am a reader, and some
what of thinker. and 1t is distress
ing and disgusting for me to know.
as l do. how little the rank and file
OF the people know about the writings
OF the grand old literary masters, and
this condition Is by no means con-
fined to the hard working. or humble
classes Of society.
I'VE find it exists with the mer-
I chant, the banker and elsewhere
where one would not expect to find
II. There is vast, preSumptuouS
crowd TO be found everywhere.
Robert Burns. the Scotch poet.
once said when something had gone
wrong with him: 1T Is enough to
make man flee to drink. We
know he had the reputation of taking
too much, no doubt, on the slightest
provocation. Thomas Gray of Ell
egy' fame wrote in his Ode on a Dis
tant Prospect of Eton College U put
1t In prose form:
Yet all Why should they know their
@od,d and haRnnsss ,ss TO- too sx,slx flies thoasht
where ignorance is bliss. t is folly to be
wise.
referring to my foregoing remarks.
and the bad conditions generally all
over the world, | beg to inclose some
lines written by w. Wordsworth. Lon
don. 1892 / know these lines will
interest you very much. They confirm
There is nothing new under the sun.
If correctly quoted, and your very we'll
put Interrogation. But who reads
them? With the highest considera-
ton. am yours faithfully. "R. L."
plain living and high thinking are
no more" said Wordsworth. III the
sonnet which my correspondent i'll.
closed, and which runs as follows:
friend l know not which way l must
look
For comfort being. a. / am opprest
To think that our life is only drest
For show: mean handy-worls of craftsman.
cook,
Or groom We must run gl,tering like a
brook
In the open sunshine or are unh!est
The wealthi@st man among Is the best =:
No grandeur now in nature or III book
Delights US. Rapine. avarice. expense,
This is idolatary: and thes" adOrc:
Plain living and high thinking are no more
The homely beauty Of the good old cause
And pure religion breathing household
Ny correspondent. with Mr. Words
worth s capable aid works up a
formidable case against society: and
yet l am not entirely sure that either
of them is entirely right.
In any age it Is possible TO bemoan
the state OF affairs. In every period
OF history it has been done by some
one or other. Around . 900 years ago,
for instance. Titus Carus Lucretius
depicted an aged plowman stopping in
his work to lament the times, and look
backward to the good old days"
The truth of the statement that i'll
may be found in every age is no bet
ter illustrated than by the simple fact
that every age inveighs against ii.
Conversely. that much good is to be