Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-22

It Is good to have interests that
stretch into the past, that Is why
browsing among old books Is whole
some pastime.
Too many people live entirely in the
present.
They know no need except that of
the hour, and, as they look not for
ward to tomorrow, have forgotten the
past already.
But every intelligent man should be
rooted in the past. Perhaps the lack
OF such earthly holds explains the
Tightly conduct Of many.
The world Of men has an imposing
record which any one may experience
through no more trouble than D visit
to an old book store.
Books are men and women, after all.
Take this copy Of Michelet's History
amplihed by william HaZlitt.
Those are mighty names, one a
Frenchman, the next a German, the
last an Englishman.
The French historian throws light
on the reformer by the expedient, since
adopted for Napoleon and other great
men, Of permitting him to tell his own
story, so far as possible, In his own
words
In this old volume, with the name
of a previous owner written small on
great differences Of past ages, the
heroic deeds Of mensin days when men
held out against torture and death for
the sake of an opinion.
In this book is the strange history
OF John OF Leyden, O. he was called,
one Of the queer historical figures who
rose in the wake Of the reformation.
John was elected King of Munster,
one Of the stronghold towns of Ger
many, and proceeded to preach a plu-
rality of wives and other startling
doctrines
The city was taken at last, and John
and two OF his disciples tied to stakes,
and pieces Of their tesh pulled out
with red-hot pincers for the space Of
an hour, after which they were stabbed
and hung on iron hooks on the castle
wall.
After the book lover reads this no
one can tell him that. the world Is
getting worse. And by the world, Of
course, one means the world of men.
It Is mankind, after all, which peren-
nially interests mankind.
Our religion and our science, our In
teuigence and our daily life meet the
needs Of man. Man has ever been Of
supreme interest to man through all
the ages of recorded history, and no
doubt 1t was the same before man
learned the art of writing.
Ancient monuments, inscribed with
their characters, point to the universal
desire OF mankind to learn about its
predecessors, and the firm belief Of
those ancients that the men who would
come after them would be interested
in them.
It is In books, and in them alone. In
many respects, that the man Of today
can satisfy his curiosity as to the men
Of past ages. It is not enough TO see
the Pyramids and to gaze upon the
face Of the Sphinx. Many men who
have done neither may enter as wen
into the spirit of antiquity, or even 60
farther In their remove to past ages
and places, II they will content them
selves with q backward look over
Travelled roads through the happy
medium Of books
This means, not mere reading Of
the current books Of the moment, even
though some Of them deal with men
and women and events Of past ages.
The Kingdoms of the past were built
in the past. and If we are to enter into
the spirit Of the past we must read the
contemporaneous record written By
men who lived at the time.
That Is why an old book, old In point