CHAPTER XXIV

THE USE OF BOOKS

"The words of the good are like a staff in a slippery place.” HINDU SAYING.

HE trained mind continually asks itself what

THE

good is being obtained from the work it is doing. It is worth noting that every part of our bodies is so planned that it must be always working. The only part of you that is indolent is your will power. Even when you lie inert in bed your muscles are at work, fighting the tendency for the body to shrivel up. It is only by their constant labour that your legs and arms retain their normal positions. You have probably noticed, too, that you often turn right round in your bed while you are asleep, so that even your bones, because of their control by your muscles, cannot rest, but must work. If the great muscle, which is your heart, stops working, you die. It labours ceaselessly, pumping the blood through your veins, while the lungs supply your body with the oxygen which you breathe in from the atmosphere.

Your mind, too, must work. If you are sitting still doing nothing, the thoughts will still crowd into your brain, and their character will affect your whole life and even shape your features. The only idle part of you is your own free will, and if you will heed the lesson of your body, you will feel ashamed if you do not use that will to control your mind and body so that you may create such things as you were made capable of creating.

You have been provided with a perfect machine. In that respect you are no better than the lower animals, or the plants. By self-indulgence you can so ruin the machine that it will be useless to you. By careful development and self-training you can so master its uses that it will perform miracles you do not dream of. Every moment you waste, your working body calls out shame at you. It must work, and your brain must work. Why not, then, plan their work for them so that you can improve your knowledge and grow in wisdom and power?

You are born with certain instincts which guide you in your everyday conduct. The experience you gain under present conditions added to those instincts will enable you to carry out the work your brain devises. The more knowledge and experience you possess the better you will be able to plan. You will then have a larger scope for your activities, and will be able to get more out of your life.

Experience is gained in two ways: by contact with other people in the actual affairs of life, and by absorbing the experiences of others through books. The wise man profits by the experiences of others, because it necessarily follows that, if we can avoid the mistakes other people have made, we shall avoid waste of effort. The right use of books not only gives us the experience of others to add to our own, but it gives us knowledge of life which stimulates our unconscious instincts. An inventor, for instance, does not need to start at the beginning. By study he is able to begin where the last man left off, and the clever man is quick to take advantage of this facility. If you are in business, you can collect the experiences of clever business men and save years of drudgery. While your competitors are idling you can consult the master minds of commerce and learn their secrets for success.

Though you do not want to be always studying, it is not necessary to waste time in reading books that cannot help you at all. The masterpieces of literature are as interesting as trash, and they are good all through. Trashy fiction, for instance, is the imaginative effort of second-rate writers, who seek only to amuse. The great masters describe life and its problems, and so enlarge your experience while they stimulate your thought.

There are millions of books available for you to

read, but you have only time to read an infinitesimal part of them. How careful, then, should you be in making your selection!

It is not so difficult as it may seem to choose your reading. Bearing in mind that you read for pleasure as well as instruction, the books you will need most are those which will please your own particular tastes, and those which will suit your own individual needs. Let us ask ourselves a few questions about books, remembering that it is only by ordering our lives on the principles of reasoning in this manner upon everything, that we can do all that we are capable of doing.

Some people like certain kinds of books out of which other people get no enjoyment. You must remember, however, that the best books are not so pleasing to the uncultured mind as the trashy ones. You have to read them carefully to appreciate their beauties of style, thought, and construction, and you have to read them slowly so that you can ponder over their messages, and thus stimulate your brain into activity.

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The right way to begin reading a book is to ask yourself, What am I going to get out of this?" Not the idle passing of an hour so much as real pleasure and a real insight into some phase of life or of knowledge. When you put a book down ask yourself what are its merits. If it possesses a lucid

and beautiful style, study that style by learning certain passages by heart, and also by reading other extracts, and then writing them down in your own words for purposes of comparison with the master's work. If it has a good plot, with characters who seem to live, ask yourself what problems of life it explains. Fiction, when it is good, has the supreme merit of taking you out of the workaday world and transplanting you to a region where you can forget the troubles and worries of your own life. Many a man with a love for reading has refreshed his tired brain and gained new courage by the change of mental air which he can obtain from literature. The man who loves reading can always have pleasure. He does not envy the millionaire in his yacht or motor. He sits in his armchair and is happier than the rich man, for he knows that, so long as he has a small library of good books, he can talk with the great thinkers of the world, who will put the richest treasures of their minds before him. Resting before his fire, he may roam through all the countries of the earth, viewing their beauties and their industries, studying their histories and meeting their great statesmen, writers, scientists, and thinkers. When he is tired of travel, the wits of the world will amuse him. When he is despondent, the great men of the world will tell him of their own struggles, and how they conquered by sheer force of will. When he is