THE MISUSE OF BOOKS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3186, 6 May 1879, Page 1

THE MISUSE OF BOOKS.

An e?*mnf lecture at the London In> stitution? was recently delivered by Mr Frederic Harrison, his subject being " The Misuse :6t ßooks;" There were.be '■aid, many ways of misusing bocks, but 'noi niaoy .would.follow the.fex&m'ple of a college tutor he had known, whose lifepassion was ,th.c buying and reading of fyooks;. but who always threw the leaves, as hV fe'id theinVinto the fire, as either worltilekr br already printed on his memory. The hoarding up of rare books of which we made littlb or no rise was a more common Foible;'but'the worst misuse of the art of readinghe'knew of,'and at the same time the most' widely spread, jwa«the,w,aste of, time and attention iipon utterly trivial^productiohsj wl/ile leaving unregcLoxforgotten the greatest and best books'ever written. [ Eveh ; scholars indulged too much in promiscuous reading, although ,the longest life and,the greatest industry^ would, not' enable a man to master,iia'hundredth part of the books really worth reading. The great thing ■to'lfnow::was what sort of reading;to avoid. We should be as much on our guard/ag*jn|t * "^ance book as against a* chahce"companion.' The enormous of books in the present day was not wholly favourable to mental growth, and-for the last .300 years it had nerer been harder than now to select the right books to read. He argued at considerable length on the absolute necessity of, confining our ordinary reading to the very best authors, whose books, he complairied, were sadly neglected in these days. He endorsed in general a proposal which had been put forth for the guidance of the more thoughtful <in the choice of books for constant use, not dwelling on the theory of education underlying it, put'dimply specifying .the method on which it was framed. The authors comprised .would not number more tban between ltiOand 200 ;> representing poetry, history, science,'and religion. The first thing, was to attempt to get together what was best in all the great departments of human thought, so that no part of culture, might be wholly neglected or wanting. The next was "to gather" into one collection the greatest and best books in each department, and' such only. Thirdly the test of the value of the books to be what they say, not the manner of saying it. , bare it in the highest kinds of poetry, , grace of form should not count. Lastly, the verdict to be given by the common voice of mankind. Mr Harrison added that as the best hundred .books, or so, Abe world had long been pretty well Agreed. He had provided himtelf with some «ueh catalogue 20 years ago-—of course, > not as a bar to other reading. Such a list would serve to check indiscriminate wandering in the pathless field of literature, and tend to remind us daily how many are the books of inimitable beauty and glory which we have never even taken into oar hands. >(