THE AGE OF SCANNING

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 787, 9 April 1910, Page 9

THE AGE OF SCANNING

In one of the illustrated weeklies, Mr. Augustine 'Bin-ell, gayest of penitents, enters tho confessional and without a -single moa, culpa tells-aU'whom it,may •concern that he' has lost the, faculty of reading. Mr. Birrell used; to' be a reviewer. Ho no louger reviews. . He

no longer reads. The popular' fallaey, that there is. a necessary connection' between reading and reviewing,, is one that every author does>his.best, to discourage.. "We have a'volume before us in which,the writer-says, "If the.reader or; reviewer"-—observe the distinction— "is -still: more impatient he .will probably,, content himself with the final summary and conclusion." Mr. -Birrell seems to have ranged : himself on the side of the, undiscerning angels, though there is a clause in' his avowedly "melancholy," but really mirthful, "Confession" which suggests that after all there are ways of reading which just miss by a hair's breadth'that dis-r ingenuous performance against which authors make their moan. . "My books aro there,"'-writes Mr.; Birrell, "as full of Quotations as ever they were, but the old instinct, tho 'nosing' faculty, has gone." "Full of quotations as ever." How BirreUistic-1 How characteristic also of that epoch of literary tabloiding, the ' necessary preparative to the ago of scanning, .when one could be an Addison by the simple expedient of acting, oil' the maxinr that the law of-copyright runs for only' forty years. Mr. 'Birfell's, argument appears, to be that reading is incompatible with a life of action. But it ;is easy, to recall names of men who did.not lose tho "nosing" faculty because events conspired to distract their attention. Harley was a patron of letters and, not altogether a mere poseur. Macaulay was by. way-of being a man of action, yet there' never was a moro : omnivorous reader. !; Gladstone was diligent in.business, but his biography. shows how assiduous he.was in the study of ancient, and modern literature. One can readily grant, however, that for the majority the art of. reading requires leisure not less, than predilection. Tho mero machanics of the ait are nothing. The turning of pages and the .glancing of the'eye over the marshalled columns may furnish occupation, but the heart must-go with .the mind if tho result is to ha that cordial companionship which is- the only fruit of reading worth gathering. One man may read but one book in a twelvemonth and be incalculably "enriched by the experience; another may, attempt a hundred and remain a "lost mind." His case re.minds one pf the old story of Belphegor. . Every new book begun is a temporary obsession. Its successor is at .once exorcist and perverting spirit. To read wisely is to read moderately. But who has time to read in that fashion nowadays? "Who can afford to seclude himself along with a few authors with wdiom acquaintance might broaden into enduring friendship when scores X>{ entreating hands are held out to him, and he is implored in. a chorus that comes from "a' the airts" to be up-to-date or die? . - There' is no escaping our contemporaries. \Yp live amid epidemics of. unrest and pass from one feverish malady to another almost, before we have had opportunity to diagnose the symptoms. Wo are politicians, municipal'reformers, sociologists', philanthropists, scientists of sorts, loiterers on the Sahara-like expanses of philosophy, professors—and occasionally practitioners—of an enlightened religiosity—everything hutreaders of bonks. Our supreme achievement, in which no other age has rivalled

us, is that of scanning the multitude of literary works by which wo-are environed. On tho wliolo wo do it well. Nature, which is ■kind to the lowliest of her organisms, enabling-tho fish without eyes to carry a delicate sense at end of its feelers, whilo tho eagle soaring in tho ether can gaze undaunted at tho sun, has endowed the higher animal with tho power of endless absorption without the discomfort of constant assimilation. Wo do uot feed. Wo taste, and. our palates have evolved a sensitiveness and receptiveness which yield ns all-tho satisfaction of banqueting without going to tho trouble of dining. It has already been hinted that this refinement.of the faculties is in great measure due to tho superlatively active lives wo aro obliged to lead. The world, admittedly, is too much with us. If wo oxclaim "Vado reto . . ." Satan, no doubt obeys, but clutches at our respectable coat-tails. Again, the deluge of books would bo impossible to survive if we had uot developed a buoyancy which allows us to float on tho surface of_ things without knowing, or indeed caring very much, what is going on in tho depths beneath.. But this accomplishment, on which we .are justified in. priding ourselves not a little; would have been'impossible without the aid of the modern newspaper. It seems to us (though wo say it modestly), that tho newspaper, which has triumphed to the extent of making, the-.magazine an antiquated survival, will crown its conquests by making the book—except in thb rari. cases when men havo something to say. to each other worthy of the car of posterity—nothing more than an. expensive eccentricity. Tho publishers of the future will take no risks. Their adventures will be on a "strictly cash basis, and as Grub Street is notoriously poverty-stricken, tho nation will before very, long arrive at the ideal condition of being able to read its daily sheets -without querulous interference from the people who imagine that an octavo form entitles them to claim even that perfunctory exercise in the art of scanning which we have pointed out is among tho greatest achievements of the present century. When that happy day dawns, some of us will be able to find time to road. With tho' suspiration of relieved souls, once tho newspaper, with its nows, its political discussions, its mirrored reflection of the life that is from China to Peru, its diminishing reviews of the literature into which vain men and aspiring women are endeavouring to breathe their expiring breath, and its magazine articles have been got through, we shall be able to open our arms to those'long-suffering friends of the past who havo been left to moulder on ! ceremonial shelves. Tho age of .scanning will, usher in tho a»e of reading.—"Glasgow Herald." °