WHAT SHALL WE READ?

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 10, 9 June 1894, Page 10

WHAT SHALL WE READ?

Have you ever noticed what an uninteresting companion is the inveterate novel reader? And yet what a number of girls we know who read nothing but novels and romances, till their minds are so satiated with tbe woes of their imaginary heroes and heroines that they are incapable of appreciating anything which is likely to be of use to them in their path through life. What a mistake it is, for nowadays, when women all the world overare taking their stand as something * more than mere brainless dolls, it is imperative that they should know something about the chief topics of the day, and it is not from the sensational books,which our worthy librarian could tell us are in such demand at the Athemeum that this knowledge is to be gained. No one can enjoy a good novel better than myself,and a good author is often a teacher of much that is well to know, and which would, perhaps, no*: come under our observation otherwise. But novel reading to the exclusion of all else, is like feeding a child on ice-cream and expecting it to grow up a strong man or woman. What is’more like an ordeal than to sit for half-an-hour listening to a literary conversation consisting of “ Have you read suchjand such a book ?” or “ such and such P” and so on ad libitum , and the professional novel reader, if you can caliber such, is capable of nothing else. No girl has any right to grow up in ignorance of what is going on around her in the world of science, politics or literature, for if books treating of such subjects are out of her reach,and girls are proverbially poor, thee are still the newspapers, always dealing with these things, and reading carefully and discussing with the home circle what she has read,will do much to expand her mind, at the same time remembering the answer made by the learned professor when asked howit was he knew so much, “ because I was never too proud to ask what I did not know.” 1 heard a girl say once “What is the good of writing leaders for the papers, no one ever reads them.” Oh, girls, read the leader ■ — let it deal with poetry, or politics, or history —and when you come across anything you donot understand make it your business to find out what it means.

If you do this for a year you will be surprised what a Jot K of thing's you know at anyrate a little about, and though it is not advisable “ to brush with extreme flounce the circle of the sciences,” it is still better than to sit like a mute, while intelligent people talk of what you know nothing.

Never did Women hold such a high position in the -world as they do now, in so much that they are supposed to have minds of their own, but if they are vacant minds how will the community be benefited ? Let us lay aside our trashy novels then,girls, except as a relaxation now and then, and read what will enable us to take a place in the world worthy of enfranchised women. Not many of us will tread the “ primrose path of dalliance,” but we can all be good women and true, and though men may tell us that “ a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” we can claim a woman’s prerogative -—the last word—and retort “ knowledge is power.” B. B. S.