THE
FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS. 1926
| What memory is to the
individual, books are to the generality of mankind. In them we find written for
the benefit of humanity what an isolated individual would have to carry in a
brain which at best can only retain a minute fraction of what is set down in
books. Just as we naturally turn to intimate friends when in trouble, so may we turn to books, and often it is to the Bible, for aid in our difficulties, and consolation in our suffering and sorrow. An interesting book will change moments of lassitude and boredom into fleeting hours of delight. A good book is a season-ticket for life on the transport systems of the world. We are carried at will, while we read, over loch and mountain and sea, over prairie and desert. The moderns may argue that it is much more comfortable to see the world on the screen, but to be satisfied with a succession of descriptive slides is to miss the treasure of the author's inspiration. Health excepted, nothing is more precious in this matter-of-fact world than a good book. There is an oriental story, which tells of a king living in a spacious, marble palace, with everything his money can buy, yet without the comfort of books; and of a beggar leading his life in a wretched hovel, yet possessing a modest library, a veritable enchanted palace of dreams. Which of the two gets the best out of life? "There is a wider prospect," says Jean Paul Richter, "from Parnassus than from the throne." Just as a reflection may often be more beautiful than Nature herself, so books may give an even more vivid impression than the actual. There is, of course, a certain art in reading. It is not sufficient to stare at the print in a bovine fashion, and to turn over a leaf when instinct tells us we have reached the bottom of the page: we must try, and try hard, to get behind the author's mind. The choice of friends is a serious duty; so should be the choice of book-friends. We should be at least as responsible for what we read as for what we do. A good book is in truth the precious life-blood of a master-spirit." Books are not only a mental pleasure, but, in the modern world, are an absolute necessity. The uneducated man is at a great disadvantage compared with the educated. But friendly books are friendly tutors. They not only describe the present, they revive the past, and they even lift the corner of the veil of the future. S. A. SUPER (VI. Lit.). |