FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  
Before we have done, we will have all life within the scope of the novel. THE PHILOSOPHER'S PUBLIC LIBRARY Suppose a philosopher had a great deal of money to spend--though this is not in accordance with experience, it is not inherently impossible--and suppose he thought, as any philosopher does think, that the British public ought to read much more and better books than they do, and that founding public libraries was the way to induce them to do so, what sort of public libraries would he found? That, I submit, is a suitable topic for a disinterested speculator. He would, I suppose, being a philosopher, begin by asking himself what a library essentially was, and he would probably come to the eccentric conclusion that it was essentially a collection of books. He would, in his unworldliness, entirely overlook the fact that it might be a job for a municipally influential builder, a costly but conspicuous monument to opulent generosity, a news-room, an employment bureau, or a meeting-place for the glowing young; he would never think for a moment of a library as a thing one might build, it would present itself to him with astonishing simplicity as a thing one would collect. Bricks ceased to be literature after Babylon. His first proceeding would be, I suppose, to make a list of that collection. What books, he would say, have all my libraries to possess anyhow? And he would begin to jot down--with the assistance of a few friends, perhaps--this essential list. He would, being a philosopher, insist on good editions, and he would also take great pains with the selection. It would not be a limited or an exclusive list--when in doubt he would include. He would disregard modern fiction very largely, because any book that has any success can always be bought for sixpence, and modern poetry, because, with an exception or so, it does not signify at all. He would set almost all the Greek and Roman literature in well-printed translations and with luminous introductions--and if there were no good translations he would give some good man L500 or so to make one--translations of all that is good in modern European literatures, and, last but largest portion of his list, editions of all that is worthy of our own. He would make a very careful list of thoroughly modern encyclopaedias, atlases, and volumes of information, and a particularly complete catalogue of all literature that is still copyright; and then--with perhaps a se
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
philosopher
 

modern

 

suppose

 

literature

 

libraries

 
translations
 
public
 

editions

 
collection
 

library


essentially

 

disregard

 
include
 

success

 
largely
 

fiction

 
assistance
 
possess
 

friends

 

bought


selection

 

limited

 

essential

 

insist

 

exclusive

 

careful

 

worthy

 

portion

 

literatures

 

largest


encyclopaedias

 
atlases
 

copyright

 

catalogue

 

complete

 
volumes
 

information

 
European
 

poetry

 
exception

signify
 

printed

 
Before
 
luminous
 

introductions

 

sixpence

 
collect
 

submit

 
suitable
 

PUBLIC