Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

be done in the daytime. One may read
in bed, OF course, but then the tendency
is to become sleepy.
In q hammock, swinging in q neat
breeze on q hot day, the physical senses
alertness. One does not find one's self
sliding farther and farther down into
the body OF the hammock, to lie at last
on the left side, with the book propped
up with the right hand, and then
oblivion.
In the proper sort of hammock, on
the right sort of porch, with the roar
ing music of the surf laundering pleas
antly in the ears, a reader may go
through the heaviest of works, such as
Spinoza's Ethics" for instance. with
out mental qualm. He who has not
known this sort of reading has missed
something out of his life.
Every one has a score or more books
which he has been promising himself to
read since he got out of school.
Let this present Summer see a few
Of them read.
Perhaps it would be better not to
tackle the entire score!
Leave some for other Summers.
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the Gibbon work, for instance, 1t will
be enough.
The man who gets through the last
three volumes Of THE Decline and Fall
will have earned the readers medal,
FIRST class, with decoration.
\ X
The first three volumes of the usual
SIX will be easy enough.
- ~
will carry him well through the chap
tiers on Christianity, which stirred up
such a row in their day. He will make
the midsection of this history with ease.
He will be enthralled with the crusades,
I'd the pictures of early monastic life,
nd the rise and sprI u of the Moham-
medan religion.
After that he will begin to find the
regular chronology of the Middle Ages
somewhat wearing, as Emperor aftsr
Emperor, lacking the picturesque quail
ties OF the earlier Caesars, follows EN-
peror after Emperor.
1t is q distressing tale, but gives, as
perhaps few other works do, the huge,
gigantic tale of the years, impresSing
the reader with what the flight Of the
centuries, as 1t is sometimes called,
really means.
BY the time he Is through the sixth
volume he will be willing to believe that
a century Is 100 years, pressed down and
running over with Time.
X
Instead of broiling around all over
the landscape this Summer, running the
risk OF having an automobile knock one
for what is euphemistically called a
goal" let the booklover sit at home Gin
a hammock, if possible, although gliders
seem to have put them out of business
with no more danger than that an air
plane may drop down through the roof
With minimum of clothing, a tall.
cool drink and a good book, he will
pass the time much more satisfactorily
than in many other ways: and he will
be all the more pleased with himself if
he have the courage to pick up what he
and his friends tend, to regard as q
heavy book, weighty work, of the sort
frivolous persons will not even look at.
Think of some of those old ones
which you were supposed to have read
as required reading 'z-unfortunate
term-in high school, Get one out one
Of these coming hot days and settle
down to it. The chances are very de-
cided that you will find yourself pleased
with your own growth in mind and
character. Why, this old thing which
one formerly thought dull is a great
book, after all! This is a great dis
covery, particularly for q hot day.