able
institution. I like to see these earnest, clear-eyed la-ads comin' in to
waken th' echoes iv our grim walls with their young voices. I'm sure th'
other undhergrajates will like him. He hasn't been spoiled be bein' th'
star iv his school f'r so long, Charles seems to me to be th' normal
healthy boy. He does exactly what all freshmen in our university do whin
they enther. He tells people what books they shud read an' he invints a
new relligon. Ivry well-ordhered la-ad has to get these two things out
iv his system at wanst. What books does he advise, says ye? I haven't
got th' complete list yet, but what I seen iv it was good. Speakin' fr
mesilf alone, I don't read books. They are too stimylatin'. I can get
th' same wrong idees iv life fr'm dhrink. But I shud say that if a man
was a confirmed book-reader, if he was a man that cudden't go to sleep
without takin' a book an' if he read befure breakfast, I shud think that
Doctor Eliot's very old vatted books are comparatively harmless. They
are sthrong it is thrue. They will go to th' head. I wud advise a man
who is aisily affected be books to stick to Archibald Clavering Gunter.
But they will hurt no man who's used to readin'. He has sawed thim out
carefully. 'Give me me tools,' says he, 'an' I will saw out a five-foot
shelf iv books.' An' he done it. He has th' right idee. He real-izes
that th' first thing to have in a libry is a shelf. Fr'm time to time
this can be decorated with lithrachure. But th' shelf is th' main thing.
Otherwise th' libry may get mixed up with readin' matther on th' table.
Th' shelf shud thin be nailed to th' wall iliven feet fr'm th' flure an'
hermetically sealed.
"What books does he riccomind? Iv course there's such folklore as
Epicbaulus in Marsupia an' th' wurruks iv Hyperphrastus. But it shows
how broad an' indulgent th' doctor's taste is that he has included
Milton's Arryopatigica, if I have th' name right. This is what ye might
call summer readin'. I don't know how I cud describe it to ye, Hinnissy.
Ye wudden't hardly call it a detective story an' yet it ain't a problem
play. Areopapigica is a Greek gur-rul who becomes th' iditor iv a daily
newspaper. That is th' beginnin' iv th' plot. I won't tell ye how it
comes out. I don't want to spile ye'er injymint iv it. But ye'll niver
guess who committed th' crime. It is absolutely unexpicted. A most
injanyous book an' wan iv th' best sellers iv its day. There were four
editions iv thirty copies
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