THE BATTALION.
65
SYMPOSIUM ON GOOD LITERATURE.
Ray Ridenhower: There is nothing
which tells so much of the education of
a person as his familiarity with the best
literature. When I say good literature,
I do not mean such magazines as Frank
Meriwell, Diamond Dick, and hooks on
the same order, hut I mean magazines
and hooks that, by their language and
the thought contained, tend to lead on
to something higher and nobler in life.
Some one has said that “character is
not something that is added to life, hut it
is life itself.” Sad indeed will be the day
for any man who becomes contented with
the life he is living, with the thoughts he
is thinking, and the deeds he is doing,
when there is not forever heating at the
door of his soul a desire to do something
larger which he knows that he was cre
ated to 1 do. Character is something that
points you onward and upward in life’s
work, or else drags you to lower and
lower depths.
If we wish to build up a good charac
ter, the surest and best way is by the
coming in contact with the enlightened
minds of our country through the med
ium of the best books and periodicals.
• * *
R. E. Carswell: In my opinion, a man
can form no better habit than that of
leading the best literature. No matter
what a man’s vocation is, if he is well
read he is in a great deal better condi
tion to meet the emergencies of life than
one who is not so informed. A man that
forms this habit finds it the greatest
pleasure on earth. If men of business
would spend their idle hours in reading
Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, Longfellow,
or any other classic author, there would
be more marks of enlightenment among
them. If the boys of this College would
spend their idle moments reading good
books, instead of “raising cane,” as they
generally do, the parade ground in front
of the main building would not be such
a resort on Saturday as it generally is.
* * *
T. R. Batte, Jr.: “Train up a child
in the way he should go and when he is
old he will not depart from it.” This
holds good in literature as well as in
anything else. Good books thrown in
the way of small children have a great
influence on their literary tastes through
life; for we find that the best read men
began reading good literature in their
early youth. A book like “Robinson
Crusoe” calls for “Swiss Family Robin
son;” then we delight in “Gulliver’s Trav
els” and “Arabian Nights,” and after a
while we begin to read the works of our
greatest writers and thinkers.
Lowell has said that “a complete liter- _
ary education can be obtained only by
the reading of good literature.” In this
day there can be no excuse for not be
ing well read, with the countless maga
zines, journals, and other periodicals
which furnish literature to suit all tastes.
A literary taste, acquired at home
clings to us while abroad, and thus it is,
while at college, we still treasure books,
the companions of our boyhood.
* * *
Harry Gleason: There is a saying:
“We are known by three things: our
manners, the company we keep, and the
books we read.” It is the last thought
expressed that we will refer to as re
lated to the subject of good literature.
The literature we read largely forms
the thoughts which our minds entertain.
Our thoughts prompt our actions and
fix our ideas. So we can see that the
literature we acquaint ourselves with
bears greatly on our characters; in other