CULTURE AND CHOICE READING.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 609, 11 September 1909, Page 9

CULTURE AND CHOICE READING.

V '- V; i york ',' ,Na % 1 " llas what h . av6 {long-wished, that somebody wr-V^'the;doctrine tlmt ■ a - , bo '- bui ! t -'«P 01 an arm- '" Ifmf. , book's"^. ' aboutitho' ' J !,-i' which would ipI peal -to-'Other,! age 3 ,;thanV;our.,own' day- 'of- •" j^ 0 ? r -?aving i'an^'f;.time 7 savihg' . : doviccs. of -printed • rubbish ' which 1 pass a.s'-literaturc; ■ to obtain ' 1 patclletl together ~ through the years; in .'other. words, ■to get tile v ® ® st V? f T h ?t the : world cari;show without wasting trao on the bad, ■ tho.' mediocre, .or even the merely good—here is a service which ;. has. appealed .to .many, a ;scholar who to- ' ' -"PS-life has boon seized ';'■!? than ever with tho shortness of life and the. endless 1 making .of.books. But here,too' ' -the question prises, .whether;; the " personal ... ...taste ihat. sets, itself, to skimming for our . use_ the .very {best" that has ever; been writ- - ■ t«n,;-«puld /hay 9 been educated td a discrim-': i;; .'between good and evil without havpg partaken of both.. Dcea culture. consist Ji :; ? a , with good; books, or in. tho s.. -intellectual .. discipline which'" comes - fhrduah ly -"The .superficial traits of what we call culfi may-be within thfe reach of the man who has mastered_the world's : twenty-five',' best 'f f ooks; '/?° m 1 hare his fine stock of ideas; 1 .!; . ,iie may have the essential disdain for what'is ;. vulgar.or.trivial; he may."even-have the sobers! judgment .which comes' with , depth of kndw- i most precious' pro-'-i' -- ' -- n m' 1 ed Se. sympathy coupled /.with , , humility, will ever be, his. is, doubtful.' Ho Sk y „, r V l t C u p ll 01rm t l' U3 ' ® ut ho will - have ~ r.; missed the- lessons that- are to bo learned in '"' !£ 6 Process ..of , scaling\tho. mountain.: Like ,; • tho, gods who- feed on ambrosia, ho may be -y- more,,than human, but human he is not, if ;y he has-tasted only ;of tho ,very .best :books and -.- has never idled with - the inferior books, or. . V: ?yettiwasted.time:on the. .worst, kind. Leisure, . idleness, waste—whatover wo call. i t—go to tho making of .culture. To have missed the picking and choosing and tastirig is' to havo missed. the/soul. .. Tho North.Polo may lio ;i discovered .• and historic battles .-may bfr won ■ • on . conoensed- foods, on capsules, extracts J ..ossorices; but', the -'making• of an. athlete calls; for a. more wasteful ' diet...-'Wo doubt whether true culturo is within tho reach of %• 'ho man with all the world's ;b&t /literaturo about him, who.as a boy did not know Jules Verne, or some writer.like him.- ; ' '.-. differende lies between ofllciency arid • oulturc. A half-dozen .'good .books : taken close to the soul will make an intelligent citi- " zen, a good.. lawyer or' Congressman, even a . good cleric. Tho list of self-made.great nien who. know very few ,book 3 but ,those by heart '.must be a large ona, Thcro arc entire peoples -who''have been mado by 'ono book, as Puritan England is usually said to.havo been , ' made. But in. the Pnritans.tho contrast he- , -.twoen efficiency'amV culture is, of - course ;-. revealed. The Bible may havo given , : tho -Puritans their . democracy, 'their labori- : '.busness,: their' sharp Sense rof duty; their ; ; ' Golf-confidence.. But nil these nation-building / qualities had ,to -get' on without sympathy humour, or culture."