Evening star., 1932-12-23

II there Is such Q thing as light Sum-
mer fictiou-and there may be-there
must be heavy Winter reading, too.
TO md some Of this weighty mate
rial the ambitious reader cannot select
Q bstter year than l776.
A great year from the American
standpoint, II was q great time In Eng
lish literature.
Two Of the finest heavy weight books
Of al time appeared that year.
They are Adam sy1ith's Wealth Of
Nations" and Edward Gibbons de-
cline and Fall Of the Roman Empire"
When Smiths book was first issued
it bore the tremendous title of Inquiry
Into the Nature and Causes Of the
Wealth Of Nations" but the first part
Of 1t has been dropped out over the
years.
what put us in mind of this really
important volume was the sight Of an
ambitious young man carrying 1t along
. downtown street the other day.
Heavy reading?
Yes. in the general acceptance Of the
term.
It Is not the sort of thing one would
turn to for sheer entertainment. And
this Is all the more true because the
0ut11OS GU 1lOt Q1VlQc SuUJCCI u
systematized scheme, as no doubt q
modern writer would do.
There Is, however, a certain thread Of
common sense and real knowledge
which runs all through the wealth Of
Nations" strong enough and large
enough to keep 1t alive over the years.
Discussion Of economic conditions Is
very much to the fore today Some Of
our authors who pose as experts" have
gone to great pains to expound the
causes Of present worldwide conditions,
until many an intelligent reader who
has attempted to keep abreast Of these
works has acquired bad case of mental
indigestion
"A plague on both your houses" he
Is likely to say as he puts down a big
book on the latest phase Of interna-
tional economics.
Why the thing is mysticism!
II only economists did not know 30
much, If only they would reinterpret
what they know in the terms of the
here-and-now and Of the every day!
Perhaps 1t would be q good thing for
the average earnest reader If he would
60 back to his Adam Smith and acquire
there some Of the fundamentals which
would stand him in good stead In his
reading along economic lines.
He would find Smith salutary, not so
much for the information he contains
a. for the course In mind training which
his long, heavy book imposes upon one.
After the Wealth of Nations" one
may read with better personal grace
such things as Sir lrthur Salter's Re
covery: the Sc I'D Effort" and
George Soule,s "A Planned Society" and
q. d. H. Coles "A Guide Through
World Chaos"
Another great book Of the year 1776
was the first volume of Gibbons De-
cline and Fall" The eighteenth Gen.
tury saw Q sort of renaissance in
English literature Then the minds OF
men, previously held down by various
trammels, which are matters Of his
tory. felt an urge onward to plain
speaking. It was in the year 1892, we
believe, that James Boswell was to pub
lsh that great masterpiece THE Life
Of DR.. Johnson" It was sort OF
new biography" Of that age, replete
with facets of the truth.
In this search, which began with the
first climbings of life out of the ooze,
that strangest Of men, Edward Gibbon,
had preceded Boswell. His gigantic
history of the Roman Empire was a
lifetime job, conceived by man who
ran q double risk, self-imposed, when
he adopted lofty literary style" and
at the same time combined 1t with one