Readings Book VI

READINGS SELECTED BY WALTER DE LA MARE ANI THOMAS QUATLE, D. Litt. BOOK VI BASIL BLACKWELL OXFORD INTRODUCTION To be able to read is to be t able to explore just as far as we can and wish the World of Books. Even the smallest library, con sisting only of books in the English language, will show how wide and rich and plenteous a world that is. No one mans life, even if he lived to the age of Methuselah, and even if he used all the time he could spare from his days work and from the great living world of man and of nature, would be enough for its complete discovery. We begin by learning our ABC then little words then on to nursery rhymes, and easy tales and poems then more difficult and so as we grow older we come at last to the histories of the peoples of the world, of all that is in it, of the stars above and the seas beneath, of our minds and bodies, and of all that the human imagination has dreamed and made and done. The vast scenery opens up beneath our very eyes. There is no end to it. With so much to read, then, and so little time and opportunity in which to read it, the simplest and wisest thing we can do is to choose the best books we can. But just as with food and drink, what is good and iii iv INTRODUCTION pleasant reading for one man is not always pleasant and good for another. We dont all of us like the same book nor can every book please everybody. So in books we have gradually to discover what really interests us, what helps to make us happier and wiser. What, too, rpay help to make us better company for ourselves when we are alone, and for others when we are not. Indeed, all that we discover in this way in the World of Books is not only a delight in itself, but will enableus far better to see and understand and realise the life and beauty of the actual world around us, at our very doors. So, too, the more we learn and discover in our own living experience, the better we shall understand the books we read. One reflects the other just as a looking-glass with its still charm reflects the outer world. Books worth the reading will help us also in some measure to meet our troubles and cares, and to do our small part in keeping and making the earth a happy place for those who will come after us. This particular little reading book contains only fragments of other books. They are pieces chosen in the hope that those who read them will not only find pleasure in INTRODUCTION v them, and will share in all they have to give, but will go on to the books from which they have been taken to make their own discoveries. It is an exceedingly difficult thing to learn to express anything we think or feel so clearly and simply and vividly that others shall share what we mean. Now, all the writers represented in these pages succeeded in their own way and in their own degree in doing this. They had learned how to translate their thoughts and feelings into words, into English. And if once one knows what a good piece of writing is, one is far less likely to spend time and pains on what is poor and dull and shallow. Read what makes you happy, then but remember there is not really time enough in our lives, with so much to be done, to waste our minds on what is unlikely to be of lasting joy and use and service to us. The pieces chosen here are concerned more with things than with thoughts. One simply cannot pay too much attention to beautiful things and in particular to livingthings. And more especially when we are young. If possible, then, when you read about anything in a book, see it as clearly as you can in your own mind, and then do your vi INTRODUCTION best to find that thing in the world around you, and compare it with what the writer has said about it. Good books ask for good readers readers, that is, who will do their utmost to get everything out of the words in them that the writer meant to put into them. For this reason we must be sure that we understand what those words mean...