Evening star., 1932-05-19
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES e. TRACEWELL.

An increasing tendency toward
suicide In these times will leave the
booklover cold he could never bring
himself to take his own life. when
there are no many good books yet to
be read.
An interest IN books. he we'll feels,
might have saved hundreds OF poor
souls. who found themselves weighed
| down by physical and mental disabil-
! tiles.
AS long MS he can read he believes,
| he viii be content to take life as 1t
comes, good or bad He did not invite
himself here. and certainly he will not
ask himself to leave.
The books OF the world call to him
with irresistible force. In Latin and
Greek and Arabic they speak; in
| scores Of other tongues.
That makes no difference. for thou
sands of accommodating scholars nave
done what is known as translate them,
lift them up to his understanding, not
down to II
The range OF books is just short of
the record of the rocks. Stone goes
back to the very formation Of the
globe, books return to the real begin
nings of the human mind.
Everything which mankind has
thought is now on paper, some place
or other
The search fer Il constitutes the
eternal Joy of the booklover, whether
on large or modest scale.
There is no high or low here; every
honest student is on parity with
every other student. although one may
be in rags and tags and the other In
velvets-perhaps "in a car block long
would be truer to the modern situation.
The more one loves to read the bet
ter he realizes the tmpoSsibility OF his
seli-appcinted task, to read everything
in the world which was written for
him
What great thought that is, that
not everything was written for him,
but that so much was!
So much, alas, that he will never
get around to. but which will be his,
iust the same, although his eyes may
never see 1t. his mind and heart never
answer to the mind and heart OF the
writer
At the very beginning OF his lifelong
search he deftly eliminates, by mas
ter stroke OF common sense, the mil
lions upon millions of volumes which
were never meant for him.
Even here, however, he keeps COM
mand. His eliminaticns are not done
on a pedantic and narrow scale. but as
the result of a somewhat complete un-
derstanding Of himself.
without this understanding a book
lover founders in the dark OF sea OF
| light; great waves Of books, centuries
high. engulf him; and as swimmer
| beyond his depth he swallows waters
which do him no good.
The complete booklover never makes
such a mistake. To him the books OF
the world. are divided into two parts,
| those which are his books and those
which are the books of other men.
He is happy if his taste is good
enough to keep within his list some, II
not all of the really better books OF
mankind The good books, as he pre-
| fers TO think of them. in every nation
stand out. for him. as If lighted.
| Personal conceit plays no particular
part in this happy fact. Some people
are born with the reading sense; they
easily, even as children. separate the
trash from the real things, and know
what to read and what to leave alone
This faculty is strengthened by
schooling. even the rudimentary train
! ing of orthodox education. as faulty as
It is in many respects, and as ruthless
as it is in attempting to force stand
ardized opinions down young menta
| throats
The booklover paid no real atten-
! ton to this forcing process; 1t did no'
force him in the least: he gave only
lip acuuiescence to the formulae placed
before him.
With interest he looks back over some
of his old college note books in Eng
Lit" The man who taught it was
earnest. we'll versed in his subject, re-
splendent with academic honors He
knew, or thought he knew. the gooc
from the poor, the mediocre and the
| fair
What he did not know was what the
student who sat before him did know
that he made judgments only FOL