With a weary sense of the futility of the whole thing, the wise man said, "Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." A modern poet spoke likewise of one condition of freedom, describing it negatively, when he said, "Not with blinded eyesight, poring over miserable books." When one reads the catalogues which industrious publishers send out, it would seem as though books were being blown about
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the
brooks
In Vallombrosa where th' Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd imbower; or scattered
sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion
armed
Hath vexed the Red Sea coast.
Many of the writers of such books it would be interesting to converse with, for they could answer questions, cite apposite facts, develop illustrations and analogies, bring in a gleam of humor, so that a conversation would be interesting. And yet nothing of it all could be a basis for what we call Christian Science demonstration. What good writers might say would not be adverse to Christianity perhaps, though it is safe to say that much of the less good writings would be, for this reason: that the writers intend to teach and establish in human consciousness a myriad of beliefs which war against the spiritual. The writer who wishes to be merely popular is too often found ministering to unhealthy imagination, developing concupiscence, beshrewing good and honest persons as being tame and uninteresting, and generally permeating human consciousness with considerations of lust and perverted imagination and fear.
