The Dominion. WEDNESDAY,AUGUST 23, 1911. THE COMMONPLACE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1213, 23 August 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY,AUGUST 23, 1911. THE COMMONPLACE BOOK.

Literary methods seem to change with tho times; Nowadays one seldom meets with, or- reads of, the corhmonplacc book, once the indispensable vude mccum of scholars and authors. Even the simple notebook is now decried. Just the other day a London literary man of eminence denounced the habit of note-taking, and expressed the belief that many well-meaning people went through life with full notebooks and empty heads. In whatever light the custom of placing on record new items of knowledge or the fleeting' fancies of the brain is viewed' at jthe present time, those who zealously add to, and cultivate the of, their notebooks—or commonplace bookshave a goodly company of the great ones of this earth to cite as their models and preceptors. AVe have Bacon's authority for believing that writing makes an exact man, "and therefore if a man write little he had need have a great memory." But long before Bacon's time the practice of making many and copious extracts was generally followed by the erudite. Cicero ; for example, never j passed a day without reading and writing something: he was constantly taking notes, we read, and making comments on what he read. Plutarch always carried about with him a commonplace book and preserved with the utmost care "every judicious observation that fell, in the course of conversation." ' Again, I Pliny the Younger saya of his Ulus--1 trious uncle that he never read a book without making excerpts from it, and that he was frequently heard to remark that there was no book so bad that something interesting could not bo found within it. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries all who aspired to the character of scholars were ever industrious in transferring to their volumes of Adversaria the passages met with in tho prosecution of their studies. Many of those commonplace books are deposited in tho British Museum, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the University Library at Cambridge, tho Vatican Library in Rome, and in other great public libraries in Europe.

When the printing _ press made books cheaper and easier of access it might be imagined that the usefulness of the commonplace book would cease: that, like the ink-horn and the stout parchment, it would be consigned to the limbo of a distant past. The reverse, however, is the truth. The scholars who assisted in Jhe revival of learning outstripped their classical predecessors by tho zeal they displayed in filling up their ponderous tomes. Bacon advocated the employment of the commonplace book. In his Advancement of Lcariiiny he writes: "For the disposition and collocation of that knowledge which we preserve in writing, it consistcth in a good digest of commonplaces, wherein I am not ignorant of the prejudice imputed to the use of common place books, as causing a retardation of reading, and some sloth or relaxation of memory. But because it is but a counterfeit thing in knowledge to be forward and ,iregnant, except a man be deep and full, .[ hold the entry of commonplaces lo 1>.7 a matter of great use and essence, in studying, as that which ussuretli

Porno (copiousness) of invention and conli'iictcth judgment to a'slrengtli." Among the conspicuous men of fornior generations who kept commonplace books may be mentioned Milton, Locke, Soctiiev, Dugald, Stewart, Robekt Burns. Tho last-named, tho ploughman, began his commonplace book when lie was twenty-four years of age, writing: "It may be some entertainment to a curious observer of human nature to see how a ploughman thinks and feels under the pressure of love, ambition, anxiety, grief, with the like cares and passions, which, however, diversified by the modes and manner of life, operate pretty much alike, I believe, on all the species." Dugai.d Stewart, the philosopher, was intermittent in attending to his records, hence the following lament: "What improvements in science might wo not flatter ourselves -with the hopes of accomplishing had wc only activity and industry to treasure up every plausible hint that occurs to us ! Detached and insulated as they may appear at present, some of thcin may perhaps afterwards, at the distance _ of years-, furnish the keystone of an important system." Purveyors of the lighter forms of literature in earlier times did not disdain note-taking as a help in their vocations. Thus Samuel Butler before writing Hudibras— probably .tie best burlesque poem in the English language—got together a very largo assortment of odd saying 3 and of quaint conceits. Addison filled several folio volumes before he ventured to undertake the task of writing the Spectator. At that particular period commonplace books were greatly in vogue. In the Tatlcr a writer is found saying: "I turned to my commonplace book -and found his case under the word 'coquette.' " George Augustus Sala should not be forgotten. He was one of tho most brilliant contributors to the daily press and the light literature of his day. AVith his marvellously minute handwriting ho filled a vast number of elaborately-arranged commonplace books by tho aid of which hewas able at a moment's notice to write brightly and instructively nn ovcry passing topic of the day. Tho late Dr. MarcusDods, if he kept no formal volume in which to' gamer the harvest of his wide reading, was an. inveterate note-taker. Dr. Alexander Whyte - frequently -remarked the unexpected places his friend fooked for and found knowledgesuch as in cheap magazines and papers of the Answers typo—and always the old envelope or the stray slip of paper was utilised to retain some fact or idea, fresh and of value to the_ famous preacher and author. Alluding to preachers recalls Thomas Fuller's observation in his Holy Slate —"I know some have a prejudice against commonplace books, aud yet perchance will privately make use of what publicly they declaim against. A commonplace book contains many notions in garrison, whence the owner may draw out an army in the field on competent warning." AVhat King Charles's chaplain said was no doubt true, and it is possible that today the commonplace book, or its equivalent in some other form, may bo utilised more than the owner cares to admit. It is always impressive to have, or seem to have, vast funds of knowledge and of wisdom stored away in the recesses of the brain. Jack London, young, but acute and experienced, wrote truly, "Cheap paper is less perishable than grey matter, an'd lead poncil markings endure longer than memory."