What Mr. Robinson Thinks.

The Two Gunners.

Leaving the Matter Open.

Jonathan to John.

XI Suggested Oral: If your school library affords the needed material, give in class at some future date a program of short humorous passages selected by yourselves with the approval of your teacher.

GOSPELS *

Two gospels there are of the years

That haunt men and follow them after :

And one is the Gospel of tears,

The other the Gospel of laughter.

The Gospel of laughter is good,

For it sweetens the gall of our sorrow:
Therethrough is slow anguish withstood
And the spirit trussed up for the morrow.

The Gospel of tears is divine,

For it makes us draw closer together,

And shows us the beacon and sign

Of souls, in Life's stormiest weather.

Two Gospels there are of the years,

Rich-crowning our grief and our pleasure:

The Gospel of laughter, of tears,

With meanings that man may not measure.

Richard Burton.

* From "Lyrics of Brotherhood," and reprinted by permission of the Lothrop Publishing Company.

CHAPTER XXIII

A FEW WORDS ABOUT TASTE

Taste is that power of the mind thru which we see and enjoy whatever on earth is true, harmonious, and beautiful. Because it is convenient to do so, we speak often of "bad taste"; but we really mean by this, the absence of taste, since nothing can be at the same time both good and bad, and taste is always a good thing. What we call very bad taste is often an uneducated but strong desire for beauty. In every human soul is born the power to enjoy beauty, and with that power is also born an ability to develop taste, or the appreciation of beauty. Persons differ in their natural ability to see and enjoy beauty just as widely as they do in their liking to solve problems. And, just as some minds never delight in number work, so some minds never delight in certain forms of beauty, altho fully enjoying others.

desirable that you

Surely you will That is the true

Can you think out for yourselves why it is should learn to appreciate every kind of beauty? answer at once, Because it will add to happiness. reason and the best reason in the world. Whatever adds to the happiness of mankind must be a good thing and should be earnestly sought.

Granted, then, that taste is a good thing to have, can we acquire it? Do you remember the time when you first tasted an olive, an oyster, a banana, a shrimp, or a stem of celery? Perhaps the new flavor was at first quite unpleasant, and yet you may now greatly enjoy the very thing which you at first disliked. Exactly similar will be your experience in learning to enjoy beauty of every sort for which you have not natural appreciation. There is

ready for you mind food of varied and most delicious kinds which you may not at first like, but which you may come to esteem as choicest of all.

Some of the boys who study these lines are perhaps reading eagerly at present the "yellow-covered" novels which good judges pronounce the worst sort of mind food. But if these same boys will but once taste and then keep on tasting of the romances of Cooper, and Scott, and Stevenson, and Dickens, and Kipling, they will soon come to like these new flavors better than they ever did the unsavory "yellow-backs." In this matter of taste, every child may, if he will, educate himself, and he will soon begin to wonder how he could once have preferred poor writers.

Girls and boys are sure to differ somewhat as to what they like, and yet both may show good taste in liking different things. For instance, girls usually like poetry better than boys do and they are likely to prefer Miss Alcott to Walter Scott. It would be a good idea for girls to read the boys' books more often and to learn to like them. For, I believe, the boys have rather the best of it just here; since, on the whole, books which are listed as liked by boys take somewhat higher rank than those listed as liked by girls. But perhaps too few lists have thus far been made to permit a fair comparison.

Some persons seem to have a natural taste, so decided that as if by instinct they seize upon and hold dear the things of beauty and greatest worth. These need few hints in regard to what is best, proper, or suitable; for the beautifully fitting seems always theirs to do and say. They are indeed fortunate, and I trust that many of you who read these words have eyes and ears and minds in which taste thus rules. If at present, however, you care little for what others call beautiful, do not be too greatly troubled, but remember that taste will grow and develop if it but have the chance to do so.

For another and somewhat less important reason than that of gaining pleasure, you should cultivate taste in the matters of oral and written speech. The reason is this: if you have inherited by birth or have acquired by training some degree of taste, you will be less likely to commit errors of form. Good form, or the conducting oneself according to the usages of the best society, is largely dependent upon taste. Good form includes everything our grandparents once classed under the head of propriety, everything which modern civilized life requires in the way of manners. No one who is in the race with his companions for life's prizes can afford to sneer at good form.

Today we shall give our thought for a little while to good form as shown in speech. Now the laws of good form with respect to oral speech,- and these, pray remember, are also laws of taste,― are many and binding. Hence, it is wise to begin noting these as early in life as possible. For, as you know, bad habits in speech, as in everything else, are harder and harder to get rid of as one grows older; since habits are the very warp and woof of one's everyday life. Then take to heart this incomplete list of the laws of oral speech,—already touched upon in Chapter XV,- which taste and good form alike proclaim :

No profanity; no contradicting; no interrupting; no haranguing; no bragging; no nagging; no officious advice to others, and no prying into their affairs; no pouring out of one's own affairs into the ears of strangers; no recounting of private grievances nor of one's ailments; no unnecessary recitals of domestic affairs; no obtruding of one's views in the form of argument; no needless putting of others in the wrong; no gossip, kind or unkind; no shouting of remarks across the street, from room to room, nor from floor to floor; no boisterousness in public places; no vulgar nor coarse speeches or stories; no rant; no cant; no scolding; no indelicacy of any sort; no

Ah, I fancy that I see you open your eyes very wide, as if to say, "Why, all this means that we should always be perfectly polite in our speech!" And that is just what it all means; for good taste in speech and its expression according to good form, merely require perfect and constant politeness.

In written speech, the laws of taste and of good form apply not only to the matter and the manner of what is said, but also to the artistic appearance of the printed page when placed before the eye. Hence, it is advisable to study closely the pages of our firstclass magazines, such as the Atlantic, the Outlook, the Century, St. Nicholas, and others of the same rank. The books, too, which are printed by our best publishing houses show constant regard for taste and artistic form, for the eye of the great publisher has been trained to see his page as a work of art.

Just here, I wish you to note one matter in which all the best literary publications follow correct and artistic form, but in which our daily papers often use very bad form indeed. I refer to the matter of abbreviations upon the written or printed page.

Abbreviations certainly have a useful place. They are needed to save expense and bulk in dictionaries, gazetteers, almanacs, directories, catalogues, and business papers of many sorts. But abbreviations have no place whatever upon the pages of a carefully printed book, where neither expense nor bulk need be considered. The first-class publisher has a proper contempt for the tiny item of expense saved by placing abbreviations upon his pages, and no price would tempt him to use these cheap-looking clipped forms which too often disfigure the headlines of our newspapers.

Your aim in preparing manuscript should be to make correct printer's copy; hence, if you do this you must avoid abbreviations of every sort except the universal Mr., Mrs., and Messrs., and perhaps Jr. and Sr. This is not a small matter, and I trust that the many future editors who are reading this lesson will decide at