Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-21
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. G. M.

a million or more who, by the grace
of God and a bookish ancestry, finds
| it pathway of magic delight.
| Every now and then some one, out
of a rare and right inspiration, seeks
to reclaim this toilsome road to gar
| den spots of beauty such as, in
classic instance, the old Greeks en-
joyed in the pursuit of knowledge.
But, save for single exception, edu-
cation more than any other profess
sion is weighted by it's own dogmas,
held back by it's own timidities, shut
in by its own thwarting type of per-
sonality. So, such a trial flight into
the free upper spaces turns out, in
the main, to be no more than a
feeble lift from the ground followed
promptly by a stolid settling back
into the deep rutS of unimaginative
routine.
Nevertheless, hope springs eternal
and a cheering promise issues from
the report that DIR. Hamilton Holt
has established in Rollins College, at
Winter Park, Fla, a "professorship
of books whose prime object is to
impart freedom, zest, joyous spon-
taneity to the processes of education.
Outdoors is to play a leading part in
this new drama of getting knowledge.
Florida appears to be fit stage for
its projection. In sunny weather a
setting of blue waters and royal
palms and sweet orange blossoms is
calculated to furnish the mind with
wings. On the few inclement days
great rooms, as little like the familiar
schoolroom in appearance and effect
as can be devised. still invite to free
thought. free vision and free speech.
Something like t.. is has been dreamed
many q time. But not before, in our
time and in our country, has the
dream walked to anything like reality.
However, to set a chair is one
thing. To fill it is another At the
moment DR.. Holt is combing the
United States, for IS golden person
atty professors. around whom are
to be gathered 700 selected students
to try out this dream to prove it's
substance as reality.
Naturally at this point my mind
goes back to those old Athenians.
stretched out upon marble benches in
the midst of vine and fig tree
Socrates, DemOStheneS, Plato, Arts
totle, Pericles and another and an
other, all talking, talking endlessly
in the honeyed sunlight of Greece,
piling up high thoughts in words of
wisdom that have served gloriously
all the ages lying in between their
day and our own. And other high
adventures in learning pass by. In
novators and eXperimenters in this
field. but all in an eXultant freedom
nuncti inc tI1,th yyhoroyor, oil
flight may lead. Many man of our
own day, here, holding tenaciously to
his own gospel of knowledge pursued
in independence and freedom.
X X * *
"Anato!e France at Home" comes
marching by, an extraordinary ex-
ample of freedom in thought, in ways
of thinking. in modes of exposition
and communication. Poet, historian,
novelist, controversialist, statesman.
fabulist. All of these. And around
him gather people of all nations His
estate becomes a school that suggests
something of the plan projected by
DR.. Holt down in Florida. There is
here. it is true, but a single golden
perSOnality'-but such unalloyed gold
as it is. There is here. to be sure, but
IL single CHAIR" but it is filled to
overf1owing and every second of the
time with a true Athenian philosopher
and orator all in one. La Bechellerie,
tine France eState near st. Cyr, is the
open-air school where "a great man
talks himself out to the waiting peo-
pie around him. Just at the time
when [ went there in the company of
Marcel LIE Golf, the most faithful of
the faithful, the war was on, and this
was melancholy period for Anatole
France, by nature the pacitist, but in
fact at this moment the most ardent
of militants. However, not even war
could hold France to any one subject,
for his mind was a spreading, inclu-
sive mind. and his words followed
swiftly and cogently.
A terribly disillusoned man, but
who isn't more or less in the same
situation, Just listen to this: 1.-THE in
telligence is q calamity. 1t is the
mock wicked gift that the demiurge
could have bestowed upon the in
habitants of our planet. 1t only makes
us unhappy, for it is, above every.
thing, comprehension. But to under
stand is. to wish to be unhappy; it is,
indeed, to be aware of many new ways
of suffering. This comprehensive in
telligence has limits that are very
rapidly reached. One soon comes to
realize that even if they were in
definitely withdrawn the mystery that
troubles us would still remain I'M
solved. In the difficult relations one
has with fellow beings the intelligence
is neither a blessing nor profit. 1t
makes those who are endowed with it
unlike others, in their ideas and in the
expression they give to them In this
way he becomes an object of sus-
picion and hate. The best thing is to
be stupid, quite stupid, which doesn't,
however, exclude cleverness; for one
can be stupid and have cleverness at
the same time; in fact, this is general
ly the case With nothing more than
cleverneSs one gets along very well,
one has the esteem of his cotempo-
raries, which is, 1t is true, small mat
ter. Perhaps it is best, after all, to be
intelligent, but one runs the risk OF
passing for mailman"
I'VE aggravate our griefs and our
sufferings by meditation and refiec
ton, and in this way suffer twice
from the reality of our grief and from
! the image which our intelligence
makes of it. l myself have spent a
large part of my life in doubling my
grief in this way. q, too, and you
too.C' Toll is against nature. Idle
ness alone is divine. 1t has been sung
by poets. 1t is the creator of happy
dreams. In our democracies, in WHICH
we are carried away by the fever OF
| gain, idleness becomes more and more
| impossible. Soon it will disappear
| and with 1t will go all the lovely
things that once gave us pleasure
| We no longer know how to be idle.
| This talk gives sort of body blow
| to all the precepts of industry and tC
the superior blessings of intelligence
| But-Anatole France talked in the
| large-spread his thoughts beyond
| their natural reach. sometimes pro
| jected clear absurdities. in a spirit OF
| selfish mischief. However, to one
| standard be held fast: He had not
| tho hit Of wing itIa and MY