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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3426-h.zip b/3426-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c332d5e --- /dev/null +++ b/3426-h.zip diff --git a/3426-h/3426-h.htm b/3426-h/3426-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4d7421 --- /dev/null +++ b/3426-h/3426-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1179 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + On Books and the Housing of Them, by William Ewart Gladstone + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On Books and the Housing of Them, by +William Ewart Gladstone + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On Books and the Housing of Them + +Author: William Ewart Gladstone + +Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3426] +Last Updated: February 4, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Hall, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES: </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + In the old age of his intellect (which at this point seemed to taste a + little of decrepitude), Strauss declared <a href="#linknote-1" + name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> that the + doctrine of immortality has recently lost the assistance of a passable + argument, inasmuch as it has been discovered that the stars are inhabited; + for where, he asks, could room now be found for such a multitude of souls? + Again, in view of the current estimates of prospective population for this + earth, some people have begun to entertain alarm for the probable + condition of England (if not Great Britain) when she gets (say) seventy + millions that are allotted to her against six or eight hundred millions + for the United States. We have heard in some systems of the pressure of + population upon food; but the idea of any pressure from any quarter upon + space is hardly yet familiar. Still, I suppose that many a reader must + have been struck with the naive simplicity of the hyperbole of St. John, + <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> + perhaps a solitary unit of its kind in the New Testament: "the which if + they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself + could not contain the books that should be written." + </p> + <p> + A book, even Audubon (I believe the biggest known), is smaller than a man; + but, in relation to space, I entertain more proximate apprehension of + pressure upon available space from the book population than from the + numbers of mankind. We ought to recollect, with more of a realized + conception than we commonly attain to, that a book consists, like a man, + from whom it draws its lineage, of a body and a soul. They are not always + proportionate to each other. Nay, even the different members of the + book-body do not sing, but clash, when bindings of a profuse costliness + are imposed, as too often happens in the case of Bibles and books of + devotion, upon letter-press which is respectable journeyman's work and + nothing more. The men of the Renascence had a truer sense of adaptation; + the age of jewelled bindings was also the age of illumination and of the + beautiful miniatura, which at an earlier stage meant side or margin art,<a + href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> + and then, on account of the small portraitures included in it, gradually + slid into the modern sense of miniature. There is a caution which we ought + to carry with us more and more as we get in view of the coming period of + open book trade, and of demand practically boundless. Noble works ought + not to be printed in mean and worthless forms, and cheapness ought to be + limited by an instinctive sense and law of fitness. The binding of a book + is the dress with which it walks out into the world. The paper, type and + ink are the body, in which its soul is domiciled. And these three, soul, + body, and habilament, are a triad which ought to be adjusted to one + another by the laws of harmony and good sense. + </p> + <p> + Already the increase of books is passing into geometrical progression. And + this is not a little remarkable when we bear in mind that in Great + Britain, of which I speak, while there is a vast supply of cheap works, + what are termed "new publications" issue from the press, for the most + part, at prices fabulously high, so that the class of real purchasers has + been extirpated, leaving behind as buyers only a few individuals who might + almost be counted on the fingers, while the effective circulation depends + upon middle-men through the engine of circulating libraries. These are not + so much owners as distributers of books, and they mitigate the difficulty + of dearness by subdividing the cost, and then selling such copies as are + still in decent condition at a large reduction. It is this state of + things, due, in my opinion, principally to the present form of the law of + copyright, which perhaps may have helped to make way for the satirical + (and sometimes untrue) remark that in times of distress or pressure men + make their first economies on their charities, and their second on their + books. + </p> + <p> + The annual arrivals at the Bodleian Library are, I believe, some twenty + thousand; at the British Museum, forty thousand, sheets of all kinds + included. Supposing three-fourths of these to be volumes, of one size or + another, and to require on the average an inch of shelf space, the result + will be that in every two years nearly a mile of new shelving will be + required to meet the wants of a single library. But, whatever may be the + present rate of growth, it is small in comparison with what it is likely + to become. The key of the question lies in the hands of the United Kingdom + and the United States jointly. In this matter there rests upon these two + Powers no small responsibility. They, with their vast range of inhabited + territory, and their unity of tongue, are masters of the world, which will + have to do as they do. When the Britains and America are fused into one + book market; when it is recognized that letters, which as to their + material and their aim are a high-soaring profession, as to their mere + remuneration are a trade; when artificial fetters are relaxed, and + printers, publishers, and authors obtain the reward which well-regulated + commerce would afford them, then let floors beware lest they crack, and + walls lest they bulge and burst, from the weight of books they will have + to carry and to confine. + </p> + <p> + It is plain, for one thing, that under the new state of things specialism, + in the future, must more and more abound. But specialism means subdivision + of labor; and with subdivision labor ought to be more completely, more + exactly, performed. Let us bow our heads to the inevitable; the day of + encyclopaedic learning has gone by. It may perhaps be said that that sun + set with Leibnitz. But as little learning is only dangerous when it + forgets that it is little, so specialism is only dangerous when it forgets + that it is special. When it encroaches on its betters, when it claims + exceptional certainty or honor, it is impertinent, and should be rebuked; + but it has its own honor in its own province, and is, in any case, to be + preferred to pretentious and flaunting sciolism. + </p> + <p> + A vast, even a bewildering prospect is before us, for evil or for good; + but for good, unless it be our own fault, far more than for evil. Books + require no eulogy from me; none could be permitted me, when they already + draw their testimonials from Cicero<a href="#linknote-4" + name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> and Macaulay.<a + href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a> + But books are the voices of the dead. They are a main instrument of + communion with the vast human procession of the other world. They are the + allies of the thought of man. They are in a certain sense at enmity with + the world. Their work is, at least, in the two higher compartments of our + threefold life. In a room well filled with them, no one has felt or can + feel solitary. Second to none, as friends to the individual, they are + first and foremost among the compages, the bonds and rivets of the race, + onward from that time when they were first written on the tablets of + Babylonia and Assyria, the rocks of Asia minor, and the monuments of + Egypt, down to the diamond editions of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Frowde.<a + href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> + </p> + <p> + It is in truth difficult to assign dimensions for the libraries of the + future. And it is also a little touching to look back upon those of the + past. As the history of bodies cannot, in the long run, be separated from + the history of souls, I make no apology for saying a few words on the + libraries which once were, but which have passed away. + </p> + <p> + The time may be approaching when we shall be able to estimate the quantity + of book knowledge stored in the repositories of those empires which we + call prehistoric. For the present, no clear estimate even of the great + Alexandrian Libraries has been brought within the circle of popular + knowledge; but it seems pretty clear that the books they contained were + reckoned, at least in the aggregate, by hundreds of thousands.<a + href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> + The form of the book, however, has gone through many variations; and we + moderns have a great advantage in the shape which the exterior has now + taken. It speaks to us symbolically by the title on its back, as the roll + of parchment could hardly do. It is established that in Roman times the + bad institution of slavery ministered to a system under which books were + multiplied by simultaneous copying in a room where a single person read + aloud in the hearing of many the volume to be reproduced, and that so + produced they were relatively cheap. Had they not been so, they would + hardly have been, as Horace represents them, among the habitual spoils of + the grocer.<a href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> + It is sad, and is suggestive of many inquiries, that this abundance was + followed, at least in the West, by a famine of more than a thousand years. + And it is hard, even after all allowances, to conceive that of all the + many manuscripts of Homer which Italy must have possessed we do not know + that a single parchment or papyrus was ever read by a single individual, + even in a convent, or even by a giant such as Dante, or as Thomas + Acquinas, the first of them unquestionably master of all the knowledge + that was within the compass of his age. There were, however, libraries + even in the West, formed by Charlemagne and by others after him. We are + told that Alcuin, in writing to the great monarch, spoke with longing of + the relative wealth of England in these precious estates. Mr. Edwards, + whom I have already quoted, mentions Charles the Fifth of France, in 1365, + as a collector of manuscripts. But some ten years back the Director of the + Bibliotheque Nationale informed me that the French King John collected + twelve hundred manuscripts, at that time an enormous library, out of which + several scores were among the treasures in his care. Mary of Medicis + appears to have amassed in the sixteenth century, probably with far less + effort, 5,800 volumes.<a href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" + id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> Oxford had before that time + received noble gifts for her University Library. And we have to recollect + with shame and indignation that that institution was plundered and + destroyed by the Commissioners of the boy King Edward the Sixth, acting in + the name of the Reformation of Religion. Thus it happened that opportunity + was left to a private individual, the munificent Sir Thomas Bodley, to + attach an individual name to one of the famous libraries of the world. It + is interesting to learn that municipal bodies have a share in the honor + due to monasteries and sovereigns in the collection of books; for the + Common Council of Aix purchased books for a public library in 1419.<a + href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a> + </p> + <p> + Louis the Fourteenth, of evil memory, has at least this one good deed to + his credit, that he raised the Royal Library at Paris, founded two + centuries before, to 70,000 volumes. In 1791 it had 150,000 volumes. It + profited largely by the Revolution. The British Museum had only reached + 115,000 when Panizzi became keeper in 1837. Nineteen years afterward he + left it with 560,000, a number which must now have more than doubled. By + his noble design for occupying the central quadrangle, a desert of gravel + until his time, he provided additional room for 1,200,000 volumes. All + this apparently enormous space for development is being eaten up with + fearful rapidity; and such is the greed of the splendid library that it + opens its jaws like Hades, and threatens shortly to expel the antiquities + from the building, and appropriate the places they adorn. + </p> + <p> + But the proper office of hasty retrospect in a paper like this is only to + enlarge by degrees, like the pupil of an eye, the reader's contemplation + and estimate of the coming time, and to prepare him for some practical + suggestions of a very humble kind. So I take up again the thread of my + brief discourse. National libraries draw upon a purse which is bottomless. + But all public libraries are not national. And the case even of private + libraries is becoming, nay, has become, very serious for all who are + possessed by the inexorable spirit of collection, but whose ardor is + perplexed and qualified, or even baffled, by considerations springing from + the balance-sheet. + </p> + <p> + The purchase of a book is commonly supposed to end, even for the most + scrupulous customer, with the payment of the bookseller's bill. But this + is a mere popular superstition. Such payment is not the last, but the + first term in a series of goodly length. If we wish to give to the block a + lease of life equal to that of the pages, the first condition is that it + should be bound. So at least one would have said half a century ago. But, + while books are in the most instances cheaper, binding, from causes which + I do not understand, is dearer, at least in England, than it was in my + early years, so that few can afford it.<a href="#linknote-11" + name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> We have, + however, the tolerable and very useful expedient of cloth binding (now in + some danger, I fear, of losing its modesty through flaring ornamentation) + to console us. Well, then, bound or not, the book must of necessity be put + into a bookcase. And the bookcase must be housed. And the house must be + kept. And the library must be dusted, must be arranged, should be + catalogued. What a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! Unless indeed + things are to be as they now are in at least one princely mansion of this + country, where books, in thousands upon thousands, are jumbled together + with no more arrangement than a sack of coals; where not even the + sisterhood of consecutive volumes has been respected; where undoubtedly an + intending reader may at the mercy of Fortune take something from the + shelves that is a book; but where no particular book can except by the + purest accident, be found. + </p> + <p> + Such being the outlook, what are we to do with our books? Shall we be + buried under them like Tarpeia under the Sabine shields? Shall we renounce + them (many will, or will do worse, will keep to the most worthless part of + them) in our resentment against their more and more exacting demands? + Shall we sell and scatter them? as it is painful to see how often the + books of eminent men are ruthlessly, or at least unhappily, dispersed on + their decease. Without answering in detail, I shall assume that the + book-buyer is a book-lover, that his love is a tenacious, not a transitory + love, and that for him the question is how best to keep his books. + </p> + <p> + I pass over those conditions which are the most obvious, that the building + should be sound and dry, the apartment airy, and with abundant light. And + I dispose with a passing anathema of all such as would endeavour to solve + their problem, or at any rate compromise their difficulties, by setting + one row of books in front of another. I also freely admit that what we + have before us is not a choice between difficulty and no difficulty, but a + choice among difficulties. + </p> + <p> + The objects further to be contemplated in the bestowal of our books, so + far as I recollect, are three: economy, good arrangement, and + accessibility with the smallest possible expenditure of time. + </p> + <p> + In a private library, where the service of books is commonly to be + performed by the person desiring to use them, they ought to be assorted + and distributed according to subject. The case may be altogether different + where they have to be sent for and brought by an attendant. It is an + immense advantage to bring the eye in aid of the mind; to see within a + limited compass all the works that are accessible, in a given library, on + a given subject; and to have the power of dealing with them collectively + at a given spot, instead of hunting them up through an entire + accumulation. It must be admitted, however, that distribution by subjects + ought in some degree to be controlled by sizes. If everything on a given + subject, from folio down to 32mo, is to be brought locally together, there + will be an immense waste of space in the attempt to lodge objects of such + different sizes in one and the same bookcase. And this waste of space will + cripple us in the most serious manner, as will be seen with regard to the + conditions of economy and of accessibility. The three conditions are in + truth all connected together, but especially the two last named. + </p> + <p> + Even in a paper such as this the question of classification cannot + altogether be overlooked; but it is one more easy to open than to close—one + upon which I am not bold enough to hope for uniformity of opinion and of + practice. I set aside on the one hand the case of great public libraries, + which I leave to the experts of those establishments. And, at the other + end of the scale, in small private libraries the matter becomes easy or + even insignificant. In libraries of the medium scale, not too vast for + some amount of personal survey, some would multiply subdivision, and some + restrain it. An acute friend asks me under what and how many general + headings subjects should be classified in a library intended for practical + use and reading, and boldly answers by suggesting five classes only: (1) + science, (2) speculation, (3) art, (4) history, and (5) miscellaneous and + periodical literature. But this seemingly simple division at once raises + questions both of practical and of theoretic difficulty. As to the last, + periodical literature is fast attaining to such magnitude, that it may + require a classification of its own, and that the enumeration which + indexes supply, useful as it is, will not suffice. And I fear it is the + destiny of periodicals as such to carry down with them a large proportion + of what, in the phraseology of railways, would be called dead weight, as + compared with live weight. The limits of speculation would be most + difficult to draw. The diversities included under science would be so vast + as at once to make sub-classification a necessity. The ologies are by no + means well suited to rub shoulders together; and sciences must include + arts, which are but country cousins to them, or a new compartment must be + established for their accommodation. Once more, how to cope with the + everlasting difficulty of 'Works'? In what category to place Dante, + Petrarch, Swedenborg, Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle, or a hundred more? Where, + again, is Poetry to stand? I apprehend that it must take its place, the + first place without doubt, in Art; for while it is separated from Painting + and her other 'sphere-born harmonious sisters' by their greater dependence + on material forms they are all more inwardly and profoundly united in + their first and all-enfolding principle, which is to organize the + beautiful for presentation to the perceptions of man. + </p> + <p> + But underneath all particular criticism of this or that method of + classification will be found to lie a subtler question—whether the + arrangement of a library ought not in some degree to correspond with and + represent the mind of the man who forms it. For my own part, I plead + guilty, within certain limits, of favoritism in classification. I am + sensible that sympathy and its reverse have something to do with + determining in what company a book shall stand. And further, does there + not enter into the matter a principle of humanity to the authors + themselves? Ought we not to place them, so far as may be, in the + neighborhood which they would like? Their living manhoods are printed in + their works. Every reality, every tendency, endures. Eadem sequitur + tellure sepultos. + </p> + <p> + I fear that arrangement, to be good, must be troublesome. Subjects are + traversed by promiscuous assemblages of 'works;' both by sizes; and all by + languages. On the whole I conclude as follows. The mechanical perfection + of a library requires an alphabetical catalogue of the whole. But under + the shadow of this catalogue let there be as many living integers as + possible, for every well-chosen subdivision is a living integer and makes + the library more and more an organism. Among others I plead for individual + men as centres of subdivision: not only for Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, but + for Johnson, Scott, and Burns, and whatever represents a large and + manifold humanity. + </p> + <p> + The question of economy, for those who from necessity or choice consider + it at all, is a very serious one. It has been a fashion to make bookcases + highly ornamental. Now books want for and in themselves no ornament at + all. They are themselves the ornament. Just as shops need no ornament, and + no one will think of or care for any structural ornament, if the goods are + tastefully disposed in the shop-window. The man who looks for society in + his books will readily perceive that, in proportion as the face of his + bookcase is occupied by ornament, he loses that society; and conversely, + the more that face approximates to a sheet of bookbacks, the more of that + society he will enjoy. And so it is that three great advantages come hand + in hand, and, as will be seen, reach their maximum together: the + sociability of books, minimum of cost in providing for them, and ease of + access to them. + </p> + <p> + In order to attain these advantages, two conditions are fundamental. + First, the shelves must, as a rule, be fixed; secondly, the cases, or a + large part of them, should have their side against the wall, and thus, + projecting into the room for a convenient distance, they should be of + twice the depth needed for a single line of books, and should hold two + lines, one facing each way. Twelve inches is a fair and liberal depth for + two rows of octavos. The books are thus thrown into stalls, but stalls + after the manner of a stable, or of an old-fashioned coffee-room; not + after the manner of a bookstall, which, as times go, is no stall at all, + but simply a flat space made by putting some scraps of boarding together, + and covering them with books. + </p> + <p> + This method of dividing the longitudinal space by projections at right + angles to it, if not very frequently used, has long been known. A great + example of it is to be found in the noble library of Trinity College, + Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. He has kept these + cases down to very moderate height, for he doubtless took into account + that great heights require long ladders, and that the fetching and use of + these greatly add to the time consumed in getting or in replacing a book. + On the other hand, the upper spaces of the walls are sacrificed, whereas + in Dublin, All Souls, and many other libraries the bookcases ascend very + high, and magnificent apartments walled with books may in this way be + constructed. Access may be had to the upper portions by galleries; but we + cannot have stairs all round the room, and even with one gallery of books + a room should not be more than from sixteen to eighteen feet high if we + are to act on the principle of bringing the largest possible number of + volumes into the smallest possible space. I am afraid it must be admitted + that we cannot have a noble and imposing spectacle, in a vast apartment, + without sacrificing economy and accessibility; and vice versa. + </p> + <p> + The projections should each have attached to them what I rudely term an + endpiece (for want of a better name), that is, a shallow and extremely + light adhering bookcase (light by reason of the shortness of the shelves), + which both increases the accommodation, and makes one short side as well + as the two long ones of the parallelopiped to present simply a face of + books with the lines of shelf, like threads, running between the rows. + </p> + <p> + The wall-spaces between the projections ought also to be turned to account + for shallow bookcases, so far as they are not occupied by windows. If the + width of the interval be two feet six, about sixteen inches of this may be + given to shallow cases placed against the wall. + </p> + <p> + Economy of space is in my view best attained by fixed shelves. This dictum + I will now endeavor to make good. If the shelves are movable, each shelf + imposes a dead weight on the structure of the bookcase, without doing + anything to support it. Hence it must be built with wood of considerable + mass, and the more considerable the mass of wood the greater are both the + space occupied and the ornament needed. When the shelf is fixed, it + contributes as a fastening to hold the parts of the bookcase together; and + a very long experience enables me to say that shelves of from half- to + three-quarters of an inch worked fast into uprights of from three-quarters + to a full inch will amply suffice for all sizes of books except large and + heavy folios, which would probably require a small, and only a small, + addition of thickness. + </p> + <p> + I have recommended that as a rule the shelves be fixed, and have given + reasons for the adoption of such a rule. I do not know whether it will + receive the sanction of authorities. And I make two admissions. First, it + requires that each person owning and arranging a library should have a + pretty accurate general knowledge of the sizes of his books. Secondly, it + may be expedient to introduce here and there, by way of exception, a + single movable shelf; and this, I believe, will be found to afford a + margin sufficient to meet occasional imperfections in the computation of + sizes. Subject to these remarks, I have considerable confidence in the + recommendation I have made. + </p> + <p> + I will now exhibit to my reader the practical effect of such arrangement, + in bringing great numbers of books within easy reach. Let each projection + be three feet long, twelve inches deep (ample for two faces of octavos), + and nine feet high, so that the upper shelf can be reached by the aid of a + wooden stool of two steps not more than twenty inches high, and portable + without the least effort in a single hand. I will suppose the wall space + available to be eight feet, and the projections, three in number, with end + pieces need only jut out three feet five, while narrow strips of bookcase + will run up the wall between the projections. Under these conditions, the + bookcases thus described will carry above 2,000 octavo volumes. + </p> + <p> + And a library forty feet long and twenty feet broad, amply lighted, having + some portion of the centre fitted with very low bookcases suited to serve + for some of the uses of tables, will receive on the floor from 18,000 to + 20,000 volumes of all sizes, without losing the appearance of a room or + assuming that of a warehouse, and while leaving portions of space + available near the windows for purposes of study. If a gallery be added, + there will be accommodation for a further number of five thousand, and the + room need be no more than sixteen feet high. But a gallery is not suitable + for works above the octavo size, on account of inconvenience in carriage + to and fro. + </p> + <p> + It has been admitted that in order to secure the vital purpose of + compression with fixed shelving, the rule of arrangement according to + subjects must be traversed partially by division into sizes. This + division, however, need not, as to the bulk of the library, be more than + threefold. The main part would be for octavos. This is becoming more and + more the classical or normal size; so that nowadays the octavo edition is + professionally called the library edition. Then there should be deeper + cases for quarto and folio, and shallower for books below octavo, each + appropriately divided into shelves. + </p> + <p> + If the economy of time by compression is great, so is the economy of cost. + I think it reasonable to take the charge of provision for books in a + gentleman's house, and in the ordinary manner, at a shilling a volume. + This may vary either way, but it moderately represents, I think, my own + experience, in London residences, of the charge of fitting up with + bookcases, which, if of any considerable size, are often unsuitable for + removal. The cost of the method which I have adopted later in life, and + have here endeavored to explain, need not exceed one penny per volume. + Each bookcase when filled represents, unless in exceptional cases, nearly + a solid mass. The intervals are so small that, as a rule, they admit a + very small portion of dust. If they are at a tolerable distance from the + fireplace, if carpeting be avoided except as to small movable carpets + easily removed for beating, and if sweeping be discreetly conducted, dust + may, at any rate in the country, be made to approach to a quantite + negligeable. + </p> + <p> + It is a great matter, in addition to other advantages, to avoid the + endless trouble and the miscarriages of movable shelves; the looseness, + and the tightness, the weary arms, the aching fingers, and the broken + fingernails. But it will be fairly asked what is to be done, when the + shelves are fixed, with volumes too large to go into them? I admit that + the dilemma, when it occurs, is formidable. I admit also that no book + ought to be squeezed or even coaxed into its place: they should move + easily both in and out. And I repeat here that the plan I have recommended + requires a pretty exact knowledge by measurement of the sizes of books and + the proportions in which the several sizes will demand accommodation. The + shelf-spacing must be reckoned beforehand, with a good deal of care and no + little time. But I can say from experience that by moderate care and use + this knowledge can be attained, and that the resulting difficulties, when + measured against the aggregate of convenience, are really insignificant. + It will be noticed that my remarks are on minute details, and that they + savor more of serious handiwork in the placing of books than of lordly + survey and direction. But what man who really loves his books delegates to + any other human being, as long as there is breath in his body, the office + of inducting them into their homes? + </p> + <p> + And now as to results. It is something to say that in this way 10,000 + volumes can be placed within a room of quite ordinary size, all visible, + all within easy reach, and without destroying the character of the + apartment as a room. But, on the strength of a case with which I am + acquainted, I will even be a little more particular. I take as before a + room of forty feet in length and twenty in breadth, thoroughly lighted by + four windows on each side; as high as you please, but with only about nine + feet of height taken for the bookcases: inasmuch as all heavy ladders, all + adminicula requiring more than one hand to carry with care, are forsworn. + And there is no gallery. In the manner I have described, there may be + placed on the floor of such a room, without converting it from a room into + a warehouse, bookcases capable of receiving, in round numbers, 20,000 + volumes. + </p> + <p> + The state of the case, however, considered as a whole, and especially with + reference to libraries exceeding say 20,000 or 30,000 volumes, and + gathering rapid accretions, has been found to require in extreme cases, + such as those of the British Museum and the Bodleian (on its limited + site), a change more revolutionary in its departure from, almost reversal + of, the ancient methods, than what has been here described. + </p> + <p> + The best description I can give of its essential aim, so far as I have + seen the processes (which were tentative and initial), is this. The masses + represented by filled bookcases are set one in front of another; and, in + order that access may be had as it is required, they are set upon trams + inserted in the floor (which must be a strong one), and wheeled off and on + as occasion requires. + </p> + <p> + The idea of the society of books is in a case of this kind abandoned. But + even on this there is something to say. Neither all men nor all books are + equally sociable. For my part I find but little sociabilty in a huge wall + of Hansards, or (though a great improvement) in the Gentleman's Magazine, + in the Annual Registers, in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, or in the + vast range of volumes which represent pamphlets innumerable. Yet each of + these and other like items variously present to us the admissible, or the + valuable, or the indispensable. Clearly these masses, and such as these, + ought to be selected first for what I will not scruple to call interment. + It is a burial; one, however, to which the process of cremation will never + of set purpose be applied. The word I have used is dreadful, but also + dreadful is the thing. To have our dear old friends stowed away in + catacombs, or like the wine-bottles in bins: the simile is surely lawful + until the use of that commodity shall have been prohibited by the growing + movement of the time. But however we may gild the case by a cheering + illustration, or by the remembrance that the provision is one called for + only by our excess of wealth, it can hardly be contemplated without a + shudder at a process so repulsive applied to the best beloved among + inanimate objects. + </p> + <p> + It may be thought that the gloomy perspective I am now opening exists for + great public libraries alone. But public libraries are multiplying fast, + and private libraries are aspiring to the public dimensions. It may be + hoped that for a long time to come no grave difficulties will arise in + regard to private libraries, meant for the ordinary use of that great + majority of readers who read only for recreation or for general + improvement. But when study, research, authorship, come into view, when + the history of thought and of inquiry in each of its branches, or in any + considerable number of them, has to be presented, the necessities of the + case are terribly widened. Chess is a specialty and a narrow one. But I + recollect a statement in the Quarterly Review, years back, that there + might be formed a library of twelve hundred volumes upon chess. I think my + deceased friend, Mr. Alfred Denison, collected between two and three + thousand upon angling. Of living Englishmen perhaps Lord Acton is the most + effective and retentive reader; and for his own purposes he has gathered a + library of not less, I believe, than 100,000 volumes. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly the idea of book-cemeteries such as I have supposed is very + formidable. It should be kept within the limits of the dire necessity + which has evoked it from the underworld into the haunts of living men. But + it will have to be faced, and faced perhaps oftener than might be + supposed. And the artist needed for the constructions it requires will not + be so much a librarian as a warehouseman. + </p> + <p> + But if we are to have cemeteries, they ought to receive as many bodies as + possible. The condemned will live ordinarily in pitch darkness, yet so + that when wanted, they may be called into the light. Asking myself how + this can most effectively be done, I have arrived at the conclusion that + nearly two-thirds, or say three-fifths, of the whole cubic contents of a + properly constructed apartment<a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" + id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> may be made a nearly solid mass + of books: a vast economy which, so far as it is applied, would probably + quadruple or quintuple the efficiency of our repositories as to contents, + and prevent the population of Great Britain from being extruded some + centuries hence into the surrounding waters by the exorbitant dimensions + of their own libraries. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> —The End— <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOOTNOTES: + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ In Der alte und der neue + Glaube] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ xxi, 25.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ First of all it seems to + have referred to the red capital letters placed at the head of chapters or + other divisions of works.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Cic. Pro Archia poeta, + vii.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Essays Critical and + Historical, ii. 228.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ The Prayer Book recently + issued by Mr. Frowde at the Clarendon Press weighs, bound in morocco, less + than an once and a quarter. I see it stated that unbound it weighs + three-quarters of an ounce. Pickering's Cattullus, Tibullus, and + Propertius in leather binding, weighs an ounce and a quarter. His Dante + weighs less than a number of the Times.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ See Libraries and the + Founders of Libraries, by B. Edwards, 1864, p. 5. Hallam, Lit. Europe.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ Hor. Ep. II. i. 270; + Persius, i. 48; Martial, iv. lxxxvii. 8.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ Edwards.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ Rouard, Notice sur la + Bibliotheque d'Aix, p. 40. Quoted in Edwards, p. 34.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ The Director of the + Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, which I suppose still to be the first + library in the world, in doing for me most graciously the honors of that + noble establishment, informed me that they full-bound annually a few + scores of volumes, while they half-bound about twelve hundred. For all the + rest they had to be contented with a lower provision. And France raises + the largest revenue in the world.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ Note in illustration. Let + us suppose a room 28 feet by 10, and a little over 9 feet high. Divide + this longitudinally for a passage 4 feet wide. Let the passage project 12 + to 18 inches at each end beyond the line of the wall. Let the passage ends + be entirely given to either window or glass door. Twenty-four pairs of + trams run across the room. On them are placed 56 bookcases, divided by the + passage, reaching to the ceiling, each 3 feet broad, 12 inches deep, and + separated from its neighbors by an interval of 2 inches, and set on small + wheels, pulleys, or rollers, to work along the trams. Strong handles on + the inner side of each bookcase to draw it out into the passage. Each of + these bookcases would hold 500 octavos; and a room of 28 feet by 10 would + receive 25,000 volumes. A room of 40 feet by 20 (no great size) would + receive 60,000, It would, of course, be not properly a room, but a + warehouse.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Books and the Housing of Them, by +William Ewart Gladstone + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + +***** This file should be named 3426-h.htm or 3426-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/3426/ + +Produced by Charles Hall, and David Widger + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On Books and the Housing of Them + +Author: William Ewart Gladstone + +Posting Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3426] +Release Date: September, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Hall + + + + + +ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM + + +By William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) + + +In the old age of his intellect (which at this point seemed to taste +a little of decrepitude), Strauss declared [1] that the doctrine of +immortality has recently lost the assistance of a passable argument, +inasmuch as it has been discovered that the stars are inhabited; for +where, he asks, could room now be found for such a multitude of souls? +Again, in view of the current estimates of prospective population for +this earth, some people have begun to entertain alarm for the probable +condition of England (if not Great Britain) when she gets (say) seventy +millions that are allotted to her against six or eight hundred millions +for the United States. We have heard in some systems of the pressure of +population upon food; but the idea of any pressure from any quarter upon +space is hardly yet familiar. Still, I suppose that many a reader must +have been struck with the naive simplicity of the hyperbole of St. John, +[2] perhaps a solitary unit of its kind in the New Testament: "the +which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world +itself could not contain the books that should be written." + +A book, even Audubon (I believe the biggest known), is smaller than a +man; but, in relation to space, I entertain more proximate apprehension +of pressure upon available space from the book population than from +the numbers of mankind. We ought to recollect, with more of a realized +conception than we commonly attain to, that a book consists, like a +man, from whom it draws its lineage, of a body and a soul. They are not +always proportionate to each other. Nay, even the different members +of the book-body do not sing, but clash, when bindings of a profuse +costliness are imposed, as too often happens in the case of Bibles and +books of devotion, upon letter-press which is respectable journeyman's +work and nothing more. The men of the Renascence had a truer sense +of adaptation; the age of jewelled bindings was also the age of +illumination and of the beautiful miniatura, which at an earlier +stage meant side or margin art,[3] and then, on account of the small +portraitures included in it, gradually slid into the modern sense of +miniature. There is a caution which we ought to carry with us more and +more as we get in view of the coming period of open book trade, and of +demand practically boundless. Noble works ought not to be printed +in mean and worthless forms, and cheapness ought to be limited by an +instinctive sense and law of fitness. The binding of a book is the dress +with which it walks out into the world. The paper, type and ink are the +body, in which its soul is domiciled. And these three, soul, body, and +habilament, are a triad which ought to be adjusted to one another by the +laws of harmony and good sense. + +Already the increase of books is passing into geometrical progression. +And this is not a little remarkable when we bear in mind that in Great +Britain, of which I speak, while there is a vast supply of cheap works, +what are termed "new publications" issue from the press, for the most +part, at prices fabulously high, so that the class of real purchasers +has been extirpated, leaving behind as buyers only a few individuals who +might almost be counted on the fingers, while the effective circulation +depends upon middle-men through the engine of circulating libraries. +These are not so much owners as distributers of books, and they mitigate +the difficulty of dearness by subdividing the cost, and then selling +such copies as are still in decent condition at a large reduction. It +is this state of things, due, in my opinion, principally to the present +form of the law of copyright, which perhaps may have helped to make +way for the satirical (and sometimes untrue) remark that in times of +distress or pressure men make their first economies on their charities, +and their second on their books. + +The annual arrivals at the Bodleian Library are, I believe, some twenty +thousand; at the British Museum, forty thousand, sheets of all kinds +included. Supposing three-fourths of these to be volumes, of one size +or another, and to require on the average an inch of shelf space, the +result will be that in every two years nearly a mile of new shelving +will be required to meet the wants of a single library. But, whatever +may be the present rate of growth, it is small in comparison with what +it is likely to become. The key of the question lies in the hands of the +United Kingdom and the United States jointly. In this matter there rests +upon these two Powers no small responsibility. They, with their vast +range of inhabited territory, and their unity of tongue, are masters +of the world, which will have to do as they do. When the Britains and +America are fused into one book market; when it is recognized that +letters, which as to their material and their aim are a high-soaring +profession, as to their mere remuneration are a trade; when artificial +fetters are relaxed, and printers, publishers, and authors obtain the +reward which well-regulated commerce would afford them, then let floors +beware lest they crack, and walls lest they bulge and burst, from the +weight of books they will have to carry and to confine. + +It is plain, for one thing, that under the new state of things +specialism, in the future, must more and more abound. But specialism +means subdivision of labor; and with subdivision labor ought to be +more completely, more exactly, performed. Let us bow our heads to +the inevitable; the day of encyclopaedic learning has gone by. It may +perhaps be said that that sun set with Leibnitz. But as little learning +is only dangerous when it forgets that it is little, so specialism is +only dangerous when it forgets that it is special. When it encroaches +on its betters, when it claims exceptional certainty or honor, it is +impertinent, and should be rebuked; but it has its own honor in its +own province, and is, in any case, to be preferred to pretentious and +flaunting sciolism. + +A vast, even a bewildering prospect is before us, for evil or for good; +but for good, unless it be our own fault, far more than for evil. Books +require no eulogy from me; none could be permitted me, when they already +draw their testimonials from Cicero[4] and Macaulay.[5] But books are +the voices of the dead. They are a main instrument of communion with +the vast human procession of the other world. They are the allies of the +thought of man. They are in a certain sense at enmity with the world. +Their work is, at least, in the two higher compartments of our threefold +life. In a room well filled with them, no one has felt or can feel +solitary. Second to none, as friends to the individual, they are first +and foremost among the compages, the bonds and rivets of the race, +onward from that time when they were first written on the tablets of +Babylonia and Assyria, the rocks of Asia minor, and the monuments of +Egypt, down to the diamond editions of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Frowde.[6] + +It is in truth difficult to assign dimensions for the libraries of the +future. And it is also a little touching to look back upon those of the +past. As the history of bodies cannot, in the long run, be separated +from the history of souls, I make no apology for saying a few words on +the libraries which once were, but which have passed away. + +The time may be approaching when we shall be able to estimate the +quantity of book knowledge stored in the repositories of those empires +which we call prehistoric. For the present, no clear estimate even of +the great Alexandrian Libraries has been brought within the circle +of popular knowledge; but it seems pretty clear that the books they +contained were reckoned, at least in the aggregate, by hundreds of +thousands.[7] The form of the book, however, has gone through many +variations; and we moderns have a great advantage in the shape which the +exterior has now taken. It speaks to us symbolically by the title on its +back, as the roll of parchment could hardly do. It is established that +in Roman times the bad institution of slavery ministered to a system +under which books were multiplied by simultaneous copying in a room +where a single person read aloud in the hearing of many the volume to +be reproduced, and that so produced they were relatively cheap. Had they +not been so, they would hardly have been, as Horace represents them, +among the habitual spoils of the grocer.[8] It is sad, and is suggestive +of many inquiries, that this abundance was followed, at least in the +West, by a famine of more than a thousand years. And it is hard, even +after all allowances, to conceive that of all the many manuscripts +of Homer which Italy must have possessed we do not know that a single +parchment or papyrus was ever read by a single individual, even in a +convent, or even by a giant such as Dante, or as Thomas Acquinas, the +first of them unquestionably master of all the knowledge that was within +the compass of his age. There were, however, libraries even in the West, +formed by Charlemagne and by others after him. We are told that Alcuin, +in writing to the great monarch, spoke with longing of the relative +wealth of England in these precious estates. Mr. Edwards, whom I have +already quoted, mentions Charles the Fifth of France, in 1365, as a +collector of manuscripts. But some ten years back the Director of the +Bibliotheque Nationale informed me that the French King John collected +twelve hundred manuscripts, at that time an enormous library, out of +which several scores were among the treasures in his care. Mary of +Medicis appears to have amassed in the sixteenth century, probably with +far less effort, 5,800 volumes.[9] Oxford had before that time received +noble gifts for her University Library. And we have to recollect with +shame and indignation that that institution was plundered and destroyed +by the Commissioners of the boy King Edward the Sixth, acting in the +name of the Reformation of Religion. Thus it happened that opportunity +was left to a private individual, the munificent Sir Thomas Bodley, to +attach an individual name to one of the famous libraries of the world. +It is interesting to learn that municipal bodies have a share in the +honor due to monasteries and sovereigns in the collection of books; +for the Common Council of Aix purchased books for a public library in +1419.[10] + +Louis the Fourteenth, of evil memory, has at least this one good deed +to his credit, that he raised the Royal Library at Paris, founded two +centuries before, to 70,000 volumes. In 1791 it had 150,000 volumes. It +profited largely by the Revolution. The British Museum had only reached +115,000 when Panizzi became keeper in 1837. Nineteen years afterward he +left it with 560,000, a number which must now have more than doubled. +By his noble design for occupying the central quadrangle, a desert +of gravel until his time, he provided additional room for 1,200,000 +volumes. All this apparently enormous space for development is being +eaten up with fearful rapidity; and such is the greed of the splendid +library that it opens its jaws like Hades, and threatens shortly to +expel the antiquities from the building, and appropriate the places they +adorn. + +But the proper office of hasty retrospect in a paper like this is +only to enlarge by degrees, like the pupil of an eye, the reader's +contemplation and estimate of the coming time, and to prepare him for +some practical suggestions of a very humble kind. So I take up again the +thread of my brief discourse. National libraries draw upon a purse which +is bottomless. But all public libraries are not national. And the case +even of private libraries is becoming, nay, has become, very serious for +all who are possessed by the inexorable spirit of collection, but whose +ardor is perplexed and qualified, or even baffled, by considerations +springing from the balance-sheet. + +The purchase of a book is commonly supposed to end, even for the most +scrupulous customer, with the payment of the bookseller's bill. But this +is a mere popular superstition. Such payment is not the last, but the +first term in a series of goodly length. If we wish to give to the block +a lease of life equal to that of the pages, the first condition is that +it should be bound. So at least one would have said half a century ago. +But, while books are in the most instances cheaper, binding, from causes +which I do not understand, is dearer, at least in England, than it was +in my early years, so that few can afford it.[11] We have, however, +the tolerable and very useful expedient of cloth binding (now in some +danger, I fear, of losing its modesty through flaring ornamentation) to +console us. Well, then, bound or not, the book must of necessity be put +into a bookcase. And the bookcase must be housed. And the house must +be kept. And the library must be dusted, must be arranged, should be +catalogued. What a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! Unless indeed +things are to be as they now are in at least one princely mansion of +this country, where books, in thousands upon thousands, are jumbled +together with no more arrangement than a sack of coals; where not +even the sisterhood of consecutive volumes has been respected; where +undoubtedly an intending reader may at the mercy of Fortune take +something from the shelves that is a book; but where no particular book +can except by the purest accident, be found. + +Such being the outlook, what are we to do with our books? Shall we +be buried under them like Tarpeia under the Sabine shields? Shall +we renounce them (many will, or will do worse, will keep to the most +worthless part of them) in our resentment against their more and more +exacting demands? Shall we sell and scatter them? as it is painful +to see how often the books of eminent men are ruthlessly, or at least +unhappily, dispersed on their decease. Without answering in detail, I +shall assume that the book-buyer is a book-lover, that his love is a +tenacious, not a transitory love, and that for him the question is how +best to keep his books. + +I pass over those conditions which are the most obvious, that the +building should be sound and dry, the apartment airy, and with abundant +light. And I dispose with a passing anathema of all such as would +endeavour to solve their problem, or at any rate compromise their +difficulties, by setting one row of books in front of another. I +also freely admit that what we have before us is not a choice between +difficulty and no difficulty, but a choice among difficulties. + +The objects further to be contemplated in the bestowal of our books, +so far as I recollect, are three: economy, good arrangement, and +accessibility with the smallest possible expenditure of time. + +In a private library, where the service of books is commonly to be +performed by the person desiring to use them, they ought to be assorted +and distributed according to subject. The case may be altogether +different where they have to be sent for and brought by an attendant. +It is an immense advantage to bring the eye in aid of the mind; to see +within a limited compass all the works that are accessible, in a given +library, on a given subject; and to have the power of dealing with them +collectively at a given spot, instead of hunting them up through an +entire accumulation. It must be admitted, however, that distribution by +subjects ought in some degree to be controlled by sizes. If everything +on a given subject, from folio down to 32mo, is to be brought locally +together, there will be an immense waste of space in the attempt to +lodge objects of such different sizes in one and the same bookcase. And +this waste of space will cripple us in the most serious manner, as will +be seen with regard to the conditions of economy and of accessibility. +The three conditions are in truth all connected together, but especially +the two last named. + +Even in a paper such as this the question of classification cannot +altogether be overlooked; but it is one more easy to open than to +close--one upon which I am not bold enough to hope for uniformity of +opinion and of practice. I set aside on the one hand the case of great +public libraries, which I leave to the experts of those establishments. +And, at the other end of the scale, in small private libraries the +matter becomes easy or even insignificant. In libraries of the medium +scale, not too vast for some amount of personal survey, some would +multiply subdivision, and some restrain it. An acute friend asks me +under what and how many general headings subjects should be classified +in a library intended for practical use and reading, and boldly answers +by suggesting five classes only: (1) science, (2) speculation, (3) art, +(4) history, and (5) miscellaneous and periodical literature. But this +seemingly simple division at once raises questions both of practical and +of theoretic difficulty. As to the last, periodical literature is fast +attaining to such magnitude, that it may require a classification of +its own, and that the enumeration which indexes supply, useful as it is, +will not suffice. And I fear it is the destiny of periodicals as such to +carry down with them a large proportion of what, in the phraseology of +railways, would be called dead weight, as compared with live weight. The +limits of speculation would be most difficult to draw. The +diversities included under science would be so vast as at once to make +sub-classification a necessity. The ologies are by no means well suited +to rub shoulders together; and sciences must include arts, which are but +country cousins to them, or a new compartment must be established +for their accommodation. Once more, how to cope with the everlasting +difficulty of 'Works'? In what category to place Dante, Petrarch, +Swedenborg, Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle, or a hundred more? Where, again, +is Poetry to stand? I apprehend that it must take its place, the first +place without doubt, in Art; for while it is separated from Painting and +her other 'sphere-born harmonious sisters' by their greater dependence +on material forms they are all more inwardly and profoundly united +in their first and all-enfolding principle, which is to organize the +beautiful for presentation to the perceptions of man. + +But underneath all particular criticism of this or that method of +classification will be found to lie a subtler question--whether the +arrangement of a library ought not in some degree to correspond with +and represent the mind of the man who forms it. For my own part, I plead +guilty, within certain limits, of favoritism in classification. I +am sensible that sympathy and its reverse have something to do with +determining in what company a book shall stand. And further, does +there not enter into the matter a principle of humanity to the authors +themselves? Ought we not to place them, so far as may be, in the +neighborhood which they would like? Their living manhoods are printed +in their works. Every reality, every tendency, endures. Eadem sequitur +tellure sepultos. + +I fear that arrangement, to be good, must be troublesome. Subjects are +traversed by promiscuous assemblages of 'works;' both by sizes; and +all by languages. On the whole I conclude as follows. The mechanical +perfection of a library requires an alphabetical catalogue of the whole. +But under the shadow of this catalogue let there be as many living +integers as possible, for every well-chosen subdivision is a living +integer and makes the library more and more an organism. Among others I +plead for individual men as centres of subdivision: not only for Homer, +Dante, Shakespeare, but for Johnson, Scott, and Burns, and whatever +represents a large and manifold humanity. + +The question of economy, for those who from necessity or choice +consider it at all, is a very serious one. It has been a fashion to make +bookcases highly ornamental. Now books want for and in themselves no +ornament at all. They are themselves the ornament. Just as shops need no +ornament, and no one will think of or care for any structural ornament, +if the goods are tastefully disposed in the shop-window. The man who +looks for society in his books will readily perceive that, in proportion +as the face of his bookcase is occupied by ornament, he loses that +society; and conversely, the more that face approximates to a sheet of +bookbacks, the more of that society he will enjoy. And so it is that +three great advantages come hand in hand, and, as will be seen, reach +their maximum together: the sociability of books, minimum of cost in +providing for them, and ease of access to them. + +In order to attain these advantages, two conditions are fundamental. +First, the shelves must, as a rule, be fixed; secondly, the cases, or a +large part of them, should have their side against the wall, and thus, +projecting into the room for a convenient distance, they should be of +twice the depth needed for a single line of books, and should hold two +lines, one facing each way. Twelve inches is a fair and liberal depth +for two rows of octavos. The books are thus thrown into stalls, but +stalls after the manner of a stable, or of an old-fashioned coffee-room; +not after the manner of a bookstall, which, as times go, is no stall +at all, but simply a flat space made by putting some scraps of boarding +together, and covering them with books. + +This method of dividing the longitudinal space by projections at right +angles to it, if not very frequently used, has long been known. A great +example of it is to be found in the noble library of Trinity College, +Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. He has kept these +cases down to very moderate height, for he doubtless took into account +that great heights require long ladders, and that the fetching and use +of these greatly add to the time consumed in getting or in replacing a +book. On the other hand, the upper spaces of the walls are sacrificed, +whereas in Dublin, All Souls, and many other libraries the bookcases +ascend very high, and magnificent apartments walled with books may in +this way be constructed. Access may be had to the upper portions by +galleries; but we cannot have stairs all round the room, and even with +one gallery of books a room should not be more than from sixteen to +eighteen feet high if we are to act on the principle of bringing the +largest possible number of volumes into the smallest possible space. I +am afraid it must be admitted that we cannot have a noble and imposing +spectacle, in a vast apartment, without sacrificing economy and +accessibility; and vice versa. + +The projections should each have attached to them what I rudely term an +endpiece (for want of a better name), that is, a shallow and extremely +light adhering bookcase (light by reason of the shortness of the +shelves), which both increases the accommodation, and makes one short +side as well as the two long ones of the parallelopiped to present +simply a face of books with the lines of shelf, like threads, running +between the rows. + +The wall-spaces between the projections ought also to be turned to +account for shallow bookcases, so far as they are not occupied by +windows. If the width of the interval be two feet six, about sixteen +inches of this may be given to shallow cases placed against the wall. + +Economy of space is in my view best attained by fixed shelves. This +dictum I will now endeavor to make good. If the shelves are movable, +each shelf imposes a dead weight on the structure of the bookcase, +without doing anything to support it. Hence it must be built with wood +of considerable mass, and the more considerable the mass of wood the +greater are both the space occupied and the ornament needed. When the +shelf is fixed, it contributes as a fastening to hold the parts of the +bookcase together; and a very long experience enables me to say that +shelves of from half- to three-quarters of an inch worked fast into +uprights of from three-quarters to a full inch will amply suffice for +all sizes of books except large and heavy folios, which would probably +require a small, and only a small, addition of thickness. + +I have recommended that as a rule the shelves be fixed, and have given +reasons for the adoption of such a rule. I do not know whether it will +receive the sanction of authorities. And I make two admissions. First, +it requires that each person owning and arranging a library should have +a pretty accurate general knowledge of the sizes of his books. Secondly, +it may be expedient to introduce here and there, by way of exception, +a single movable shelf; and this, I believe, will be found to afford a +margin sufficient to meet occasional imperfections in the computation of +sizes. Subject to these remarks, I have considerable confidence in the +recommendation I have made. + +I will now exhibit to my reader the practical effect of such +arrangement, in bringing great numbers of books within easy reach. Let +each projection be three feet long, twelve inches deep (ample for two +faces of octavos), and nine feet high, so that the upper shelf can be +reached by the aid of a wooden stool of two steps not more than twenty +inches high, and portable without the least effort in a single hand. +I will suppose the wall space available to be eight feet, and the +projections, three in number, with end pieces need only jut out three +feet five, while narrow strips of bookcase will run up the wall between +the projections. Under these conditions, the bookcases thus described +will carry above 2,000 octavo volumes. + +And a library forty feet long and twenty feet broad, amply lighted, +having some portion of the centre fitted with very low bookcases suited +to serve for some of the uses of tables, will receive on the floor from +18,000 to 20,000 volumes of all sizes, without losing the appearance of +a room or assuming that of a warehouse, and while leaving portions of +space available near the windows for purposes of study. If a gallery +be added, there will be accommodation for a further number of five +thousand, and the room need be no more than sixteen feet high. But a +gallery is not suitable for works above the octavo size, on account of +inconvenience in carriage to and fro. + +It has been admitted that in order to secure the vital purpose of +compression with fixed shelving, the rule of arrangement according +to subjects must be traversed partially by division into sizes. This +division, however, need not, as to the bulk of the library, be more than +threefold. The main part would be for octavos. This is becoming more and +more the classical or normal size; so that nowadays the octavo edition +is professionally called the library edition. Then there should be +deeper cases for quarto and folio, and shallower for books below octavo, +each appropriately divided into shelves. + +If the economy of time by compression is great, so is the economy of +cost. I think it reasonable to take the charge of provision for books in +a gentleman's house, and in the ordinary manner, at a shilling a volume. +This may vary either way, but it moderately represents, I think, my +own experience, in London residences, of the charge of fitting up with +bookcases, which, if of any considerable size, are often unsuitable for +removal. The cost of the method which I have adopted later in life, and +have here endeavored to explain, need not exceed one penny per volume. +Each bookcase when filled represents, unless in exceptional cases, +nearly a solid mass. The intervals are so small that, as a rule, they +admit a very small portion of dust. If they are at a tolerable distance +from the fireplace, if carpeting be avoided except as to small movable +carpets easily removed for beating, and if sweeping be discreetly +conducted, dust may, at any rate in the country, be made to approach to +a quantite negligeable. + +It is a great matter, in addition to other advantages, to avoid the +endless trouble and the miscarriages of movable shelves; the looseness, +and the tightness, the weary arms, the aching fingers, and the broken +fingernails. But it will be fairly asked what is to be done, when the +shelves are fixed, with volumes too large to go into them? I admit that +the dilemma, when it occurs, is formidable. I admit also that no book +ought to be squeezed or even coaxed into its place: they should +move easily both in and out. And I repeat here that the plan I have +recommended requires a pretty exact knowledge by measurement of the +sizes of books and the proportions in which the several sizes will +demand accommodation. The shelf-spacing must be reckoned beforehand, +with a good deal of care and no little time. But I can say from +experience that by moderate care and use this knowledge can be attained, +and that the resulting difficulties, when measured against the aggregate +of convenience, are really insignificant. It will be noticed that my +remarks are on minute details, and that they savor more of serious +handiwork in the placing of books than of lordly survey and direction. +But what man who really loves his books delegates to any other human +being, as long as there is breath in his body, the office of inducting +them into their homes? + +And now as to results. It is something to say that in this way 10,000 +volumes can be placed within a room of quite ordinary size, all visible, +all within easy reach, and without destroying the character of the +apartment as a room. But, on the strength of a case with which I am +acquainted, I will even be a little more particular. I take as before a +room of forty feet in length and twenty in breadth, thoroughly lighted +by four windows on each side; as high as you please, but with only +about nine feet of height taken for the bookcases: inasmuch as all heavy +ladders, all adminicula requiring more than one hand to carry with care, +are forsworn. And there is no gallery. In the manner I have described, +there may be placed on the floor of such a room, without converting it +from a room into a warehouse, bookcases capable of receiving, in round +numbers, 20,000 volumes. + +The state of the case, however, considered as a whole, and especially +with reference to libraries exceeding say 20,000 or 30,000 volumes, and +gathering rapid accretions, has been found to require in extreme cases, +such as those of the British Museum and the Bodleian (on its limited +site), a change more revolutionary in its departure from, almost +reversal of, the ancient methods, than what has been here described. + +The best description I can give of its essential aim, so far as I have +seen the processes (which were tentative and initial), is this. The +masses represented by filled bookcases are set one in front of another; +and, in order that access may be had as it is required, they are set +upon trams inserted in the floor (which must be a strong one), and +wheeled off and on as occasion requires. + +The idea of the society of books is in a case of this kind abandoned. +But even on this there is something to say. Neither all men nor all +books are equally sociable. For my part I find but little sociabilty +in a huge wall of Hansards, or (though a great improvement) in the +Gentleman's Magazine, in the Annual Registers, in the Edinburgh and +Quarterly Reviews, or in the vast range of volumes which represent +pamphlets innumerable. Yet each of these and other like items variously +present to us the admissible, or the valuable, or the indispensable. +Clearly these masses, and such as these, ought to be selected first for +what I will not scruple to call interment. It is a burial; one, however, +to which the process of cremation will never of set purpose be applied. +The word I have used is dreadful, but also dreadful is the thing. +To have our dear old friends stowed away in catacombs, or like the +wine-bottles in bins: the simile is surely lawful until the use of that +commodity shall have been prohibited by the growing movement of the +time. But however we may gild the case by a cheering illustration, or by +the remembrance that the provision is one called for only by our excess +of wealth, it can hardly be contemplated without a shudder at a process +so repulsive applied to the best beloved among inanimate objects. + +It may be thought that the gloomy perspective I am now opening exists +for great public libraries alone. But public libraries are multiplying +fast, and private libraries are aspiring to the public dimensions. It +may be hoped that for a long time to come no grave difficulties will +arise in regard to private libraries, meant for the ordinary use of that +great majority of readers who read only for recreation or for general +improvement. But when study, research, authorship, come into view, when +the history of thought and of inquiry in each of its branches, or in any +considerable number of them, has to be presented, the necessities of the +case are terribly widened. Chess is a specialty and a narrow one. But +I recollect a statement in the Quarterly Review, years back, that there +might be formed a library of twelve hundred volumes upon chess. I think +my deceased friend, Mr. Alfred Denison, collected between two and three +thousand upon angling. Of living Englishmen perhaps Lord Acton is the +most effective and retentive reader; and for his own purposes he has +gathered a library of not less, I believe, than 100,000 volumes. + +Undoubtedly the idea of book-cemeteries such as I have supposed is very +formidable. It should be kept within the limits of the dire necessity +which has evoked it from the underworld into the haunts of living men. +But it will have to be faced, and faced perhaps oftener than might be +supposed. And the artist needed for the constructions it requires will +not be so much a librarian as a warehouseman. + +But if we are to have cemeteries, they ought to receive as many bodies +as possible. The condemned will live ordinarily in pitch darkness, yet +so that when wanted, they may be called into the light. Asking myself +how this can most effectively be done, I have arrived at the conclusion +that nearly two-thirds, or say three-fifths, of the whole cubic contents +of a properly constructed apartment[12] may be made a nearly solid mass +of books: a vast economy which, so far as it is applied, would probably +quadruple or quintuple the efficiency of our repositories as to +contents, and prevent the population of Great Britain from being +extruded some centuries hence into the surrounding waters by the +exorbitant dimensions of their own libraries. + + --The End-- + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: In Der alte und der neue Glaube] + +[Footnote 2: xxi, 25.] + +[Footnote 3: First of all it seems to have referred to the red capital +letters placed at the head of chapters or other divisions of works.] + +[Footnote 4: Cic. Pro Archia poeta, vii.] + +[Footnote 5: Essays Critical and Historical, ii. 228.] + +[Footnote 6: The Prayer Book recently issued by Mr. Frowde at the +Clarendon Press weighs, bound in morocco, less than an once and a +quarter. I see it stated that unbound it weighs three-quarters of +an ounce. Pickering's Cattullus, Tibullus, and Propertius in leather +binding, weighs an ounce and a quarter. His Dante weighs less than a +number of the Times.] + +[Footnote 7: See Libraries and the Founders of Libraries, by B. Edwards, +1864, p. 5. Hallam, Lit. Europe.] + +[Footnote 8: Hor. Ep. II. i. 270; Persius, i. 48; Martial, iv. lxxxvii. +8.] + +[Footnote 9: Edwards.] + +[Footnote 10: Rouard, Notice sur la Bibliotheque d'Aix, p. 40. Quoted in +Edwards, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 11: The Director of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, which +I suppose still to be the first library in the world, in doing for me +most graciously the honors of that noble establishment, informed me that +they full-bound annually a few scores of volumes, while they half-bound +about twelve hundred. For all the rest they had to be contented with a +lower provision. And France raises the largest revenue in the world.] + +[Footnote 12: Note in illustration. Let us suppose a room 28 feet by 10, +and a little over 9 feet high. Divide this longitudinally for a passage +4 feet wide. Let the passage project 12 to 18 inches at each end beyond +the line of the wall. Let the passage ends be entirely given to either +window or glass door. Twenty-four pairs of trams run across the room. +On them are placed 56 bookcases, divided by the passage, reaching to +the ceiling, each 3 feet broad, 12 inches deep, and separated from its +neighbors by an interval of 2 inches, and set on small wheels, pulleys, +or rollers, to work along the trams. Strong handles on the inner side of +each bookcase to draw it out into the passage. Each of these bookcases +would hold 500 octavos; and a room of 28 feet by 10 would receive 25,000 +volumes. A room of 40 feet by 20 (no great size) would receive 60,000, +It would, of course, be not properly a room, but a warehouse.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Books and the Housing of Them, by +William Ewart Gladstone + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + +***** This file should be named 3426.txt or 3426.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/3426/ + +Produced by Charles Hall + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This Etext prepared by Charles Hall chall@rtpnet.org + + + + + +ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM + +BY William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) + + + + +In the old age of his intellect (which at +this point seemed to taste a little of +decrepitude), Strauss declared [1] that the doctrine of +immortality has recently lost the assistance +of a passable argument, inasmuch as it has +been discovered that the stars are inhabited; +for where, he asks, could room now be found +for such a multitude of souls? Again, in view +of the current estimates of prospective +population for this earth, some people have begun to +entertain alarm for the probable condition of +England (if not Great Britain) when she gets +(say) seventy millions that are allotted to her +against six or eight hundred millions for the +United States. We have heard in some +systems of the pressure of population upon food; +but the idea of any pressure from any +quarter upon space is hardly yet familiar. Still, I +suppose that many a reader must have been +struck with the naive simplicity of the hyperbole +of St. John, [2] perhaps a solitary unit of its +kind in the New Testament: "the which if +they should be written every one, I suppose +that even the world itself could not contain +the books that should be written." + +A book, even Audubon (I believe the biggest +known), is smaller than a man; but, in relation +to space, I entertain more proximate +apprehension of pressure upon available space from +the book population than from the numbers of +mankind. We ought to recollect, with more +of a realized conception than we commonly +attain to, that a book consists, like a man, +from whom it draws its lineage, of a body and +a soul. They are not always proportionate to +each other. Nay, even the different members +of the book-body do not sing, but clash, when +bindings of a profuse costliness are imposed, +as too often happens in the case of Bibles and +books of devotion, upon letter-press which is +respectable journeyman's work and nothing +more. The men of the Renascence had a +truer sense of adaptation; the age of jewelled +bindings was also the age of illumination and +of the beautiful miniatura, which at an earlier +stage meant side or margin art,[3] and then, on +account of the small portraitures included in +it, gradually slid into the modern sense of +miniature. There is a caution which we ought +to carry with us more and more as we get in +view of the coming period of open book trade, +and of demand practically boundless. Noble +works ought not to be printed in mean and +worthless forms, and cheapness ought to be +limited by an instinctive sense and law of +fitness. The binding of a book is the dress +with which it walks out into the world. The +paper, type and ink are the body, in which its +soul is domiciled. And these three, soul, body, +and habilament, are a triad which ought to be +adjusted to one another by the laws of harmony +and good sense. + +Already the increase of books is passing into +geometrical progression. And this is not a +little remarkable when we bear in mind that +in Great Britain, of which I speak, while there +is a vast supply of cheap works, what are +termed "new publications" issue from the +press, for the most part, at prices fabulously +high, so that the class of real purchasers +has been extirpated, leaving behind as buyers +only a few individuals who might almost be +counted on the fingers, while the effective +circulation depends upon middle-men through the +engine of circulating libraries. These are not +so much owners as distributers of books, and +they mitigate the difficulty of dearness by +subdividing the cost, and then selling such copies +as are still in decent condition at a large +reduction. It is this state of things, due, in my +opinion, principally to the present form of the +law of copyright, which perhaps may have +helped to make way for the satirical (and +sometimes untrue) remark that in times of distress +or pressure men make their first economies on +their charities, and their second on their books. + +The annual arrivals at the Bodleian Library +are, I believe, some twenty thousand; at the +British Museum, forty thousand, sheets of all +kinds included. Supposing three-fourths of +these to be volumes, of one size or another, +and to require on the average an inch of +shelf space, the result will be that in every +two years nearly a mile of new shelving will +be required to meet the wants of a single +library. But, whatever may be the present +rate of growth, it is small in comparison with +what it is likely to become. The key of the +question lies in the hands of the United +Kingdom and the United States jointly. In +this matter there rests upon these two Powers +no small responsibility. They, with their vast +range of inhabited territory, and their unity +of tongue, are masters of the world, which +will have to do as they do. When the +Britains and America are fused into one book +market; when it is recognized that letters, +which as to their material and their aim are +a high-soaring profession, as to their mere +remuneration are a trade; when artificial +fetters are relaxed, and printers, publishers, and +authors obtain the reward which well-regulated +commerce would afford them, then let +floors beware lest they crack, and walls lest +they bulge and burst, from the weight of +books they will have to carry and to confine. + +It is plain, for one thing, that under the +new state of things specialism, in the future, +must more and more abound. But specialism +means subdivision of labor; and with +subdivision labor ought to be more completely, +more exactly, performed. Let us bow our +heads to the inevitable; the day of +encyclopaedic learning has gone by. It may perhaps +be said that that sun set with Leibnitz. +But as little learning is only dangerous when +it forgets that it is little, so specialism is +only dangerous when it forgets that it is +special. When it encroaches on its betters, +when it claims exceptional certainty or +honor, it is impertinent, and should be rebuked; +but it has its own honor in its own +province, and is, in any case, to be preferred to +pretentious and flaunting sciolism. + +A vast, even a bewildering prospect is +before us, for evil or for good; but for good, +unless it be our own fault, far more than for +evil. Books require no eulogy from me; none +could be permitted me, when they already +draw their testimonials from Cicero[4] and +Macaulay.[5] But books are the voices of the +dead. They are a main instrument of +communion with the vast human procession of +the other world. They are the allies of the +thought of man. They are in a certain sense +at enmity with the world. Their work is, at +least, in the two higher compartments of our +threefold life. In a room well filled with +them, no one has felt or can feel solitary. +Second to none, as friends to the individual, +they are first and foremost among the compages, +the bonds and rivets of the race, +onward from that time when they were first +written on the tablets of Babylonia and +Assyria, the rocks of Asia minor, and the +monuments of Egypt, down to the diamond +editions of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Frowde.[6] + +It is in truth difficult to assign dimensions +for the libraries of the future. And it is also +a little touching to look back upon those of +the past. As the history of bodies cannot, +in the long run, be separated from the history +of souls, I make no apology for saying a few +words on the libraries which once were, but +which have passed away. + +The time may be approaching when we +shall be able to estimate the quantity of book +knowledge stored in the repositories of those +empires which we call prehistoric. For the +present, no clear estimate even of the great +Alexandrian Libraries has been brought +within the circle of popular knowledge; but it +seems pretty clear that the books they +contained were reckoned, at least in the +aggregate, by hundreds of thousands.[7] The form +of the book, however, has gone through many +variations; and we moderns have a great +advantage in the shape which the exterior +has now taken. It speaks to us symbolically +by the title on its back, as the roll of +parchment could hardly do. It is established that +in Roman times the bad institution of slavery +ministered to a system under which books +were multiplied by simultaneous copying in a +room where a single person read aloud in the +hearing of many the volume to be +reproduced, and that so produced they were +relatively cheap. Had they not been so, they +would hardly have been, as Horace represents +them, among the habitual spoils of the grocer.[8] +It is sad, and is suggestive of many +inquiries, that this abundance was followed, +at least in the West, by a famine of more +than a thousand years. And it is hard, even +after all allowances, to conceive that of all +the many manuscripts of Homer which Italy +must have possessed we do not know that a +single parchment or papyrus was ever read +by a single individual, even in a convent, or +even by a giant such as Dante, or as Thomas +Acquinas, the first of them unquestionably +master of all the knowledge that was within +the compass of his age. There were, +however, libraries even in the West, formed by +Charlemagne and by others after him. We +are told that Alcuin, in writing to the great +monarch, spoke with longing of the relative +wealth of England in these precious estates. +Mr. Edwards, whom I have already quoted, +mentions Charles the Fifth of France, in 1365, +as a collector of manuscripts. But some ten +years back the Director of the Bibliotheque +Nationale informed me that the French King +John collected twelve hundred manuscripts, +at that time an enormous library, out of which +several scores were among the treasures in +his care. Mary of Medicis appears to have +amassed in the sixteenth century, probably +with far less effort, 5,800 volumes.[9] Oxford +had before that time received noble gifts for +her University Library. And we have to +recollect with shame and indignation that +that institution was plundered and destroyed +by the Commissioners of the boy King +Edward the Sixth, acting in the name of the +Reformation of Religion. Thus it happened +that opportunity was left to a private +individual, the munificent Sir Thomas Bodley, to +attach an individual name to one of the +famous libraries of the world. It is interesting +to learn that municipal bodies have a share +in the honor due to monasteries and +sovereigns in the collection of books; for the +Common Council of Aix purchased books for a +public library in 1419.[10] + +Louis the Fourteenth, of evil memory, has +at least this one good deed to his credit, that +he raised the Royal Library at Paris, founded +two centuries before, to 70,000 volumes. In +1791 it had 150,000 volumes. It profited largely +by the Revolution. The British Museum had +only reached 115,000 when Panizzi became +keeper in 1837. Nineteen years afterward he +left it with 560,000, a number which must now +have more than doubled. By his noble design +for occupying the central quadrangle, a desert +of gravel until his time, he provided additional +room for 1,200,000 volumes. All this +apparently enormous space for development is being +eaten up with fearful rapidity; and such is the +greed of the splendid library that it opens its +jaws like Hades, and threatens shortly to +expel the antiquities from the building, and +appropriate the places they adorn. + +But the proper office of hasty retrospect in +a paper like this is only to enlarge by degrees, +like the pupil of an eye, the reader's +contemplation and estimate of the coming time, and +to prepare him for some practical suggestions +of a very humble kind. So I take up again +the thread of my brief discourse. National +libraries draw upon a purse which is +bottomless. But all public libraries are not national. +And the case even of private libraries is +becoming, nay, has become, very serious for all +who are possessed by the inexorable spirit of +collection, but whose ardor is perplexed and +qualified, or even baffled, by considerations +springing from the balance-sheet. + +The purchase of a book is commonly +supposed to end, even for the most scrupulous +customer, with the payment of the bookseller's +bill. But this is a mere popular superstition. +Such payment is not the last, but the first +term in a series of goodly length. If we wish +to give to the block a lease of life equal to +that of the pages, the first condition is that it +should be bound. So at least one would have +said half a century ago. But, while books +are in the most instances cheaper, binding, +from causes which I do not understand, is +dearer, at least in England, than it was in my +early years, so that few can afford it.[11] We +have, however, the tolerable and very useful +expedient of cloth binding (now in some +danger, I fear, of losing its modesty through +flaring ornamentation) to console us. Well, +then, bound or not, the book must of +necessity be put into a bookcase. And the +bookcase must be housed. And the house must +be kept. And the library must be dusted, +must be arranged, should be catalogued. What +a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! Unless +indeed things are to be as they now are in +at least one princely mansion of this country, +where books, in thousands upon thousands, +are jumbled together with no more +arrangement than a sack of coals; where not even +the sisterhood of consecutive volumes has +been respected; where undoubtedly an +intending reader may at the mercy of Fortune +take something from the shelves that is a +book; but where no particular book can +except by the purest accident, be found. + +Such being the outlook, what are we to do +with our books? Shall we be buried under +them like Tarpeia under the Sabine shields? +Shall we renounce them (many will, or will +do worse, will keep to the most worthless +part of them) in our resentment against their +more and more exacting demands? Shall we +sell and scatter them? as it is painful to see +how often the books of eminent men are +ruthlessly, or at least unhappily, dispersed +on their decease. Without answering in +detail, I shall assume that the book-buyer is a +book-lover, that his love is a tenacious, not +a transitory love, and that for him the +question is how best to keep his books. + +I pass over those conditions which are the +most obvious, that the building should be +sound and dry, the apartment airy, and with +abundant light. And I dispose with a passing +anathema of all such as would endeavour to +solve their problem, or at any rate +compromise their difficulties, by setting one row +of books in front of another. I also freely +admit that what we have before us is not +a choice between difficulty and no difficulty, +but a choice among difficulties. + +The objects further to be contemplated in +the bestowal of our books, so far as I +recollect, are three: economy, good arrangement, +and accessibility with the smallest possible +expenditure of time. + +In a private library, where the service of +books is commonly to be performed by the +person desiring to use them, they ought to be +assorted and distributed according to subject. +The case may be altogether different where +they have to be sent for and brought by an +attendant. It is an immense advantage to +bring the eye in aid of the mind; to see +within a limited compass all the works that +are accessible, in a given library, on a given +subject; and to have the power of dealing +with them collectively at a given spot, instead +of hunting them up through an entire +accumulation. It must be admitted, however, that +distribution by subjects ought in some degree +to be controlled by sizes. If everything on a +given subject, from folio down to 32mo, is to +be brought locally together, there will be an +immense waste of space in the attempt to +lodge objects of such different sizes in one +and the same bookcase. And this waste of +space will cripple us in the most serious +manner, as will be seen with regard to the +conditions of economy and of accessibility. +The three conditions are in truth all +connected together, but especially the two last +named. + +Even in a paper such as this the question +of classification cannot altogether be +overlooked; but it is one more easy to open than +to close -- one upon which I am not bold +enough to hope for uniformity of opinion and +of practice. I set aside on the one hand the +case of great public libraries, which I leave +to the experts of those establishments. And, +at the other end of the scale, in small private +libraries the matter becomes easy or even +insignificant. In libraries of the medium scale, +not too vast for some amount of personal +survey, some would multiply subdivision, and +some restrain it. An acute friend asks me +under what and how many general headings +subjects should be classified in a library +intended for practical use and reading, and +boldly answers by suggesting five classes +only: (1) science, (2) speculation, (3) art, +(4) history, and (5) miscellaneous and +periodical literature. But this seemingly simple +division at once raises questions both of +practical and of theoretic difficulty. As to the +last, periodical literature is fast attaining to +such magnitude, that it may require a +classification of its own, and that the enumeration +which indexes supply, useful as it is, will not +suffice. And I fear it is the destiny of +periodicals as such to carry down with them a +large proportion of what, in the phraseology +of railways, would be called dead weight, as +compared with live weight. The limits of +speculation would be most difficult to draw. +The diversities included under science would +be so vast as at once to make sub- +classification a necessity. The olog-ies are by no means +well suited to rub shoulders together; and +sciences must include arts, which are but +country cousins to them, or a new +compartment must be established for their +accomodation. Once more, how to cope with the +everlasting difficulty of 'Works'? In what +category to place Dante, Petrarch, +Swedenborg, Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle, or a hundred +more? Where, again, is Poetry to stand? +I apprehend that it must take its place, the +first place without doubt, in Art; for while it +is separated from Painting and her other +'sphere-born harmonious sisters' by their +greater dependence on material forms they are all +more inwardly and profoundly united in their +first and all-enfolding principle, which is to +organize the beautiful for presentation to the +perceptions of man. + +But underneath all particular criticism of +this or that method of classification will be +found to lie a subtler question -- whether the +arrangement of a library ought not in some +degree to correspond with and represent the +mind of the man who forms it. For my own +part, I plead guilty, within certain limits, of +favoritism in classification. I am sensible +that sympathy and its reverse have something +to do with determining in what company a +book shall stand. And further, does there +not enter into the matter a principle of +humanity to the authors themselves? Ought +we not to place them, so far as may be, in +the neighborhood which they would like? +Their living manhoods are printed in their +works. Every reality, every tendency, endures. +Eadem sequitur tellure sepultos. + +I fear that arrangement, to be good, must +be troublesome. Subjects are traversed by +promiscuous assemblages of 'works;' both by +sizes; and all by languages. On the whole +I conclude as follows. The mechanical +perfection of a library requires an alphabetical +catalogue of the whole. But under the shadow +of this catalogue let there be as many living +integers as possible, for every well-chosen +subdivision is a living integer and makes the +library more and more an organism. Among +others I plead for individual men as centres +of subdivision: not only for Homer, Dante, +Shakespeare, but for Johnson, Scott, and +Burns, and whatever represents a large and +manifold humanity. + +The question of economy, for those who +from necessity or choice consider it at all, is +a very serious one. It has been a fashion to +make bookcases highly ornamental. Now +books want for and in themselves no +ornament at all. They are themselves the +ornament. Just as shops need no ornament, +and no one will think of or care for any +structural ornament, if the goods are +tastefully disposed in the shop-window. The man +who looks for society in his books will +readily perceive that, in proportion as the face of +his bookcase is occupied by ornament, he +loses that society; and conversely, the more +that face approximates to a sheet of +bookbacks, the more of that society he will enjoy. +And so it is that three great advantages come +hand in hand, and, as will be seen, reach +their maximum together: the sociability of +books, minimum of cost in providing for +them, and ease of access to them. + +In order to attain these advantages, two +conditions are fundamental. First, the shelves +must, as a rule, be fixed; secondly, the cases, +or a large part of them, should have their +side against the wall, and thus, projecting +into the room for a convenient distance, they +should be of twice the depth needed for a +single line of books, and should hold two +lines, one facing each way. Twelve inches +is a fair and liberal depth for two rows of +octavos. The books are thus thrown into +stalls, but stalls after the manner of a stable, +or of an old-fashioned coffee-room; not after +the manner of a bookstall, which, as times +go, is no stall at all, but simply a flat space +made by putting some scraps of boarding +together, and covering them with books. + +This method of dividing the longitudinal +space by projections at right angles to it, if +not very frequently used, has long been +known. A great example of it is to be found +in the noble library of Trinity College, +Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher +Wren. He has kept these cases down to +very moderate height, for he doubtless took +into account that great heights require long +ladders, and that the fetching and use of +these greatly add to the time consumed in +getting or in replacing a book. On the other +hand, the upper spaces of the walls are +sacrificed, whereas in Dublin, All Souls, and +many other libraries the bookcases ascend +very high, and magnificent apartments walled +with books may in this way be constructed. +Access may be had to the upper portions by +galleries; but we cannot have stairs all round +the room, and even with one gallery of books +a room should not be more than from +sixteen to eighteen feet high if we are to act on +the principle of bringing the largest possible +number of volumes into the smallest possible +space. I am afraid it must be admitted that +we cannot have a noble and imposing +spectacle, in a vast apartment, without sacrificing +economy and accessibility; and vice versa. + +The projections should each have attached +to them what I rudely term an endpiece (for +want of a better name), that is, a shallow +and extremely light adhering bookcase (light +by reason of the shortness of the shelves), +which both increases the accommodation, and +makes one short side as well as the two long +ones of the parallelopiped to present simply +a face of books with the lines of shelf, like +threads, running between the rows. + +The wall-spaces between the projections +ought also to be turned to account for +shallow bookcases, so far as they are not +occupied by windows. If the width of the interval +be two feet six, about sixteen inches of this +may be given to shallow cases placed against +the wall. + +Economy of space is in my view best +attained by fixed shelves. This dictum I will +now endeavor to make good. If the shelves +are movable, each shelf imposes a dead +weight on the structure of the bookcase, +without doing anything to support it. Hence +it must be built with wood of considerable +mass, and the more considerable the mass +of wood the greater are both the space +occupied and the ornament needed. When the +shelf is fixed, it contributes as a fastening to +hold the parts of the bookcase together; and +a very long experience enables me to say +that shelves of from half- to three-quarters of +an inch worked fast into uprights of from +three-quarters to a full inch will amply suffice +for all sizes of books except large and heavy +folios, which would probably require a small, +and only a small, addition of thickness. + +I have recommended that as a rule the +shelves be fixed, and have given reasons for +the adoption of such a rule. I do not know +whether it will receive the sanction of +authorities. And I make two admissions. First, +it requires that each person owning and +arranging a library should have a pretty +accurate general knowledge of the sizes of his +books. Secondly, it may be expedient to +introduce here and there, by way of exception, +a single movable shelf; and this, I believe, +will be found to afford a margin sufficient to +meet occasional imperfections in the +computation of sizes. Subject to these remarks, I +have considerable confidence in the +recommendation I have made. + +I will now exhibit to my reader the +practical effect of such arrangement, in bringing +great numbers of books within easy reach. +Let each projection be three feet long, twelve +inches deep (ample for two faces of octavos), +and nine feet high, so that the upper shelf +can be reached by the aid of a wooden stool +of two steps not more than twenty inches +high, and portable without the least effort in +a single hand. I will suppose the wall space +available to be eight feet, and the projections, +three in number, with end pieces need only +jut out three feet five, while narrow strips of +bookcase will run up the wall between the +projections. Under these conditions, the +bookcases thus described will carry above +2,000 octavo volumes. + +And a library forty feet long and twenty +feet broad, amply lighted, having some +portion of the centre fitted with very low +bookcases suited to serve for some of the uses of +tables, will receive on the floor from 18,000 +to 20,000 volumes of all sizes, without losing +the appearance of a room or assuming that +of a warehouse, and while leaving portions +of space available near the windows for +purposes of study. If a gallery be added, there +will be accommodation for a further number +of five thousand, and the room need be no +more than sixteen feet high. But a gallery +is not suitable for works above the octavo +size, on account of inconvenience in carriage +to and fro. + +It has been admitted that in order to +secure the vital purpose of compression with +fixed shelving, the rule of arrangement +according to subjects must be traversed +partially by division into sizes. This division, +however, need not, as to the bulk of the +library, be more than threefold. The main +part would be for octavos. This is becoming +more and more the classical or normal size; +so that nowadays the octavo edition is +professionally called the library edition. Then +there should be deeper cases for quarto and +folio, and shallower for books below octavo, +each appropriately divided into shelves. + +If the economy of time by compression is +great, so is the economy of cost. I think it +reasonable to take the charge of provision for +books in a gentleman's house, and in the +ordinary manner, at a shilling a volume. +This may vary either way, but it moderately +represents, I think, my own experience, in +London residences, of the charge of fitting +up with bookcases, which, if of any +considerable size, are often unsuitable for removal. +The cost of the method which I have adopted +later in life, and have here endeavored to +explain, need not exceed one penny per +volume. Each bookcase when filled represents, +unless in exceptional cases, nearly a solid +mass. The intervals are so small that, as a +rule, they admit a very small portion of dust. +If they are at a tolerable distance from the +fireplace, if carpeting be avoided except as to +small movable carpets easily removed for +beating, and if sweeping be discreetly +conducted, dust may, at any rate in the country, +be made to approach to a quantite negligeable. + +It is a great matter, in addition to other +advantages, to avoid the endless trouble and +the miscarriages of movable shelves; the +looseness, and the tightness, the weary arms, +the aching fingers, and the broken +fingernails. But it will be fairly asked what is to +be done, when the shelves are fixed, with +volumes too large to go into them? I admit +that the dilemma, when it occurs, is +formidable. I admit also that no book ought to be +squeezed or even coaxed into its place: they +should move easily both in and out. And I +repeat here that the plan I have +recommended requires a pretty exact knowledge by +measurement of the sizes of books and the +proportions in which the several sizes will +demand accommodation. The shelf-spacing +must be reckoned beforehand, with a good +deal of care and no little time. But I can +say from experience that by moderate care +and use this knowledge can be attained, and +that the resulting difficulties, when measured +against the aggregate of convenience, are +really insignificant. It will be noticed that +my remarks are on minute details, and that +they savor more of serious handiwork in the +placing of books than of lordly survey and +direction. But what man who really loves +his books delegates to any other human +being, as long as there is breath in his body, +the office of inducting them into their homes? + +And now as to results. It is something to +say that in this way 10,000 volumes can be +placed within a room of quite ordinary size, +all visible, all within easy reach, and without +destroying the character of the apartment as +a room. But, on the strength of a case with +which I am acquainted, I will even be a little +more particular. I take as before a room of +forty feet in length and twenty in breadth, +thoroughly lighted by four windows on each +side; as high as you please, but with only +about nine feet of height taken for the +bookcases: inasmuch as all heavy ladders, all +adminicula requiring more than one hand to +carry with care, are forsworn. And there is +no gallery. In the manner I have described, +there may be placed on the floor of such a +room, without converting it from a room into +a warehouse, bookcases capable of receiving, +in round numbers, 20,000 volumes. + +The state of the case, however, considered +as a whole, and especially with reference to +libraries exceeding say 20,000 or 30,000 +volumes, and gathering rapid accretions, has +been found to require in extreme cases, such +as those of the British Museum and the +Bodleian (on its limited site), a change more +revolutionary in its departure from, almost +reversal of, the ancient methods, than what +has been here described. + +The best description I can give of its +essential aim, so far as I have seen the +processes (which were tentative and initial), is +this. The masses represented by filled +bookcases are set one in front of another; and, +in order that access may be had as it is +required, they are set upon trams inserted in +the floor (which must be a strong one), and +wheeled off and on as occasion requires. + +The idea of the society of books is in a +case of this kind abandoned. But even on this +there is something to say. Neither all men +nor all books are equally sociable. For my +part I find but little sociabilty in a huge wall +of Hansards, or (though a great improvement) +in the Gentleman's Magazine, in the Annual +Registers, in the Edinburgh and Quarterly +Reviews, or in the vast range of volumes +which represent pamphlets innumerable. Yet +each of these and other like items variously +present to us the admissible, or the valuable, +or the indispensable. Clearly these masses, +and such as these, ought to be selected first +for what I will not scruple to call interment. +It is a burial; one, however, to which the +process of cremation will never of set purpose +be applied. The word I have used is +dreadful, but also dreadful is the thing. To have +our dear old friends stowed away in +catacombs, or like the wine-bottles in bins: the +simile is surely lawful until the use of that +commodity shall have been prohibited by the +growing movement of the time. But however +we may gild the case by a cheering +illustration, or by the remembrance that the +provision is one called for only by our excess of +wealth, it can hardly be contemplated without +a shudder at a process so repulsive applied +to the best beloved among inanimate objects. + +It may be thought that the gloomy +perspective I am now opening exists for great +public libraries alone. But public libraries +are multiplying fast, and private libraries are +aspiring to the public dimensions. It may be +hoped that for a long time to come no grave +difficulties will arise in regard to private +libraries, meant for the ordinary use of that +great majority of readers who read only for +recreation or for general improvement. But +when study, research, authorship, come into +view, when the history of thought and of +inquiry in each of its branches, or in any +considerable number of them, has to be presented, +the necessities of the case are terribly +widened. Chess is a specialty and a narrow one. +But I recollect a statement in the Quarterly +Review, years back, that there might be +formed a library of twelve hundred volumes +upon chess. I think my deceased friend, Mr. +Alfred Denison, collected between two and +three thousand upon angling. Of living +Englishmen perhaps Lord Acton is the most +effective and retentive reader; and for his +own purposes he has gathered a library of +not less, I believe, than 100,000 volumes. + +Undoubtedly the idea of book-cemeteries +such as I have supposed is very formidable. +It should be kept within the limits of the dire +necessity which has evoked it from the +underworld into the haunts of living men. But it +will have to be faced, and faced perhaps +oftener than might be supposed. And the +artist needed for the constructions it requires +will not be so much a librarian as a +warehouseman. + +But if we are to have cemeteries, they +ought to receive as many bodies as possible. +The condemned will live ordinarily in pitch +darkness, yet so that when wanted, they may +be called into the light. Asking myself how +this can most effectively be done, I have +arrived at the conclusion that nearly two-thirds, +or say three-fifths, of the whole cubic +contents of a properly constructed apartment[12] +may be made a nearly solid mass of books: +a vast economy which, so far as it is applied, +would probably quadruple or quintuple the +efficiency of our repositories as to contents, +and prevent the population of Great Britain +from being extruded some centuries hence +into the surrounding waters by the exorbitant +dimensions of their own libraries. + + - The End - + +FOOTNOTES: + +1- In Der alte und der neue Glaube + +2- xxi, 25. + +3- First of all it seems to have referred to the red +capital letters placed at the head of chapters or other +divisions of works. + +4- Cic. Pro Archia poeta, vii. + +5- Essays Critical and Historical, ii. 228. + +6- The Prayer Book recently issued by Mr. Frowde at +the Clarendon Press weighs, bound in morocco, less +than an once and a quarter. I see it stated that unbound +it weighs three-quarters of an ounce. Pickering's +Cattullus, Tibullus, and Propertius in leather binding, +weighs an ounce and a quarter. His Dante weighs less +than a number of the Times. + +7- See Libraries and the Founders of Libraries, by +B. Edwards, 1864, p. 5. Hallam, Lit. Europe. + +8- Hor. Ep. II. i. 270; Persius, i. 48; Martial, iv. lxxxvii. 8. + +9- Edwards. + +10- Rouard, Notice sur la Bibliotheque d'Aix, p. 40. +Quoted in Edwards, p. 34. + +11- The Director of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, +which I suppose still to be the first library in the +world, in doing for me most graciously the honors of +that noble establishment, informed me that they full-bound +annually a few scores of volumes, while they +half-bound about twelve hundred. For all the rest +they had to be contented with a lower provision. And +France raises the largest revenue in the world. + +12- Note in illustration. Let us suppose a room 28 feet +by 10, and a little over 9 feet high. Divide this +longitudinally for a passage 4 feet wide. Let the passage +project 12 to 18 inches at each end beyond the line of +the wall. Let the passage ends be entirely given to +either window or glass door. Twenty-four pairs of +trams run across the room. On them are placed 56 +bookcases, divided by the passage, reaching to the +ceiling, each 3 feet broad, 12 inches deep, and separated +from its neighbors by an interval of 2 inches, +and set on small wheels, pulleys, or rollers, to work +along the trams. Strong handles on the inner side of +each bookcase to draw it out into the passage. Each +of these bookcases would hold 500 octavos; and a room +of 28 feet by 10 would receive 25,000 volumes. A room +of 40 feet by 20 (no great size) would receive 60,000, +It would, of course, be not properly a room, but a +warehouse. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's On Books and The Housing of Them by Gladstone + diff --git a/old/obhot10.zip b/old/obhot10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b11f4c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/obhot10.zip diff --git a/old/oflvc10.txt b/old/oflvc10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27ad7ce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/oflvc10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1462 @@ +The Project Gutenberg's O'Flaherty V.C., by George Bernard Shaw +#11 in our series by George Bernard Shaw. + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by Eve Sobol, South Bend, Indiana, USA + + + + + +O'FLAHERTY V.C.: A RECRUITING PAMPHLET + +GEORGE BERNARD SHAW + + +It may surprise some people to learn that in 1915 this little +play was a recruiting poster in disguise. The British officer +seldom likes Irish soldiers; but he always tries to have a +certain proportion of them in his battalion, because, partly from +a want of common sense which leads them to value their lives less +than Englishmen do (lives are really less worth living in a poor +country), and partly because even the most cowardly Irishman +feels obliged to outdo an Englishman in bravery if possible, and +at least to set a perilous pace for him, Irish soldiers give +impetus to those military operations which require for their +spirited execution more devilment than prudence. + +Unfortunately, Irish recruiting was badly bungled in 1915. The +Irish were for the most part Roman Catholics and loyal Irishmen, +which means that from the English point of view they were +heretics and rebels. But they were willing enough to go +soldiering on the side of France and see the world outside +Ireland, which is a dull place to live in. It was quite easy to +enlist them by approaching them from their own point of view. But +the War Office insisted on approaching them from the point of +view of Dublin Castle. They were discouraged and repulsed by +refusals to give commissions to Roman Catholic officers, or to +allow distinct Irish units to be formed. To attract them, the +walls were covered with placards headed REMEMBER BELGIUM. The +folly of asking an Irishman to remember anything when you want +him to fight for England was apparent to everyone outside the +Castle: FORGET AND FORGIVE would have been more to the point. +Remembering Belgium and its broken treaty led Irishmen to +remember Limerick and its broken treaty; and the recruiting ended +in a rebellion, in suppressing which the British artillery quite +unnecessarily reduced the centre of Dublin to ruins, and the +British commanders killed their leading prisoners of war in cold +blood morning after morning with an effect of long-drawn-out +ferocity. Really it was only the usual childish petulance in +which John Bull does things in a week that disgrace him for a +century, though he soon recovers his good humor, and cannot +understand why the survivors of his wrath do not feel as jolly +with him as he does with them. On the smouldering ruins of Dublin +the appeals to remember Louvain were presently supplemented by a +fresh appeal. IRISHMEN, DO YOU WISH TO HAVE THE HORRORS OF WAR +BROUGHT TO YOUR OWN HEARTHS AND HOMES? Dublin laughed sourly. + +As for me I addressed myself quite simply to the business of +obtaining recruits. I knew by personal experience and observation +what anyone might have inferred from the records of Irish +emigration, that all an Irishman's hopes and ambitions turn on +his opportunities of getting out of Ireland. Stimulate his +loyalty, and he will stay in Ireland and die for her; for, +incomprehensible as it seems to an Englishman, Irish patriotism +does not take the form of devotion to England and England's king. +Appeal to his discontent, his deadly boredom, his thwarted +curiosity and desire for change and adventure, and, to escape +from Ireland, he will go abroad to risk his life for France, for +the Papal States, for secession in America, and even, if no +better may be, for England. Knowing that the ignorance and +insularity of the Irishman is a danger to himself and to his +neighbors, I had no scruple in making that appeal when there was +something for him to fight which the whole world had to fight +unless it meant to come under the jack boot of the German version +of Dublin Castle. + +There was another consideration, unmentionable by the recruiting +sergeants and war orators, which must nevertheless have helped +them powerfully in procuring soldiers by voluntary enlistment. +The happy home of the idealist may become common under millennial +conditions. It is not common at present. No one will ever know +how many men joined the army in 1914 and 1915 to escape from +tyrants and taskmasters, termagants and shrews, none of whom are +any the less irksome when they happen by ill-luck to be also our +fathers, our mothers, our wives and our children. Even at their +amiablest, a holiday from them may be a tempting change for all +parties. That is why I did not endow O'Flaherty V.C. with an +ideal Irish colleen for his sweetheart, and gave him for his +mother a Volumnia of the potato patch rather than a affectionate +parent from whom he could not so easily have torn himself away. + +I need hardly say that a play thus carefully adapted to its +purpose was voted utterly inadmissible; and in due course the +British Government, frightened out of its wits for the moment by +the rout of the Fifth Army, ordained Irish Conscription, and then +did not dare to go through with it. I still think my own line was +the more businesslike. But during the war everyone except the +soldiers at the front imagined that nothing but an extreme +assertion of our most passionate prejudices, without the smallest +regard to their effect on others, could win the war. Finally the +British blockade won the war; but the wonder is that the British +blockhead did not lose it. I suppose the enemy was no wiser. War +is not a sharpener of wits; and I am afraid I gave great offence +by keeping my head in this matter of Irish recruiting. What can I +do but apologize, and publish the play now that it can no longer +do any good? + + + +O'FLAHERTY V.C. + +At the door of an Irish country house in a park. Fine, summer +weather; the summer of 1916. The porch, painted white, projects +into the drive: but the door is at the side and the front has a +window. The porch faces east: and the door is in the north side +of it. On the south side is a tree in which a thrush is singing. +Under the window is a garden seat with an iron chair at each end +of it. + +The last four bars of God Save the King are heard in the +distance, followed by three cheers. Then the band strikes up It's +a Long Way to Tipperary and recedes until it is out of hearing. + +Private O'Flaherty V.C. comes wearily southward along the drive, +and falls exhausted into the garden seat. The thrush utters a +note of alarm and flies away. The tramp of a horse is heard. + +A GENTLEMAN'S VOICE. Tim! Hi! Tim! [He is heard dismounting.] + +A LABORER'S VOICE. Yes, your honor. + +THE GENTLEMAN'S VOICE. Take this horse to the stables, will you? + +A LABORER'S VOICE. Right, your honor. Yup there. Gwan now. Gwan. +[The horse is led away.] + +General Sir Pearce Madigan, an elderly baronet in khaki, beaming +with enthusiasm, arrives. O'Flaherty rises and stands at +attention. + +SIR PEARCE. No, no, O'Flaherty: none of that now. You're off +duty. Remember that though I am a general of forty years service, +that little Cross of yours gives you a higher rank in the roll of +glory than I can pretend to. + +O'FLAHERTY [relaxing]. I'm thankful to you, Sir Pearce; but I +wouldn't have anyone think that the baronet of my native place +would let a common soldier like me sit down in his presence +without leave. + +SIR PEARCE. Well, you're not a common soldier, O'Flaherty: you're +a very uncommon one; and I'm proud to have you for my guest here +today. + +O'FLAHERTY. Sure I know, sir. You have to put up with a lot from +the like of me for the sake of the recruiting. All the quality +shakes hands with me and says they're proud to know me, just the +way the king said when he pinned the Cross on me. And it's as +true as I'm standing here, sir, the queen said to me: "I hear you +were born on the estate of General Madigan," she says; "and the +General himself tells me you were always a fine young fellow." +"Bedad, Mam," I says to her, "if the General knew all the rabbits +I snared on him, and all the salmon I snatched on him, and all +the cows I milked on him, he'd think me the finest ornament for +the county jail he ever sent there for poaching." + +SIR PEARCE [Laughing]. You're welcome to them all, my lad. Come +[he makes him sit down again on the garden seat]! sit down and +enjoy your holiday [he sits down on one of the iron chairs; the +one at the doorless side of the porch.] + +O'FLAHERTY. Holiday, is it? I'd give five shillings to be back in +the trenches for the sake of a little rest and quiet. I never +knew what hard work was till I took to recruiting. What with the +standing on my legs all day, and the shaking hands, and the +making speeches, and--what's worse--the listening to them +and the calling for cheers for king and country, and the saluting +the flag till I'm stiff with it, and the listening to them +playing God Save the King and Tipperary, and the trying to make +my eyes look moist like a man in a picture book, I'm that bet +that I hardly get a wink of sleep. I give you my word, Sir +Pearce, that I never heard the tune of Tipperary in my life till +I came back from Flanders; and already it's drove me to that +pitch of tiredness of it that when a poor little innocent slip of +a boy in the street the other night drew himself up and saluted +and began whistling it at me, I clouted his head for him, God +forgive me. + +SIR PEARCE [soothingly]. Yes, yes: I know. I know. One does get +fed up with it: I've been dog tired myself on parade many a time. +But still, you know, there's a gratifying side to it, too. After +all, he is our king; and it's our own country, isn't it? + +O'FLAHERTY. Well, sir, to you that have an estate in it, it would +feel like your country. But the divil a perch of it ever I owned. +And as to the king: God help him, my mother would have taken the +skin off my back if I'd ever let on to have any other king than +Parnell. + +SIR PEARCE [rising, painfully shocked]. Your mother! What are you +dreaming about, O'Flaherty? A most loyal woman. Always most +loyal. Whenever there is an illness in the Royal Family, she asks +me every time we meet about the health of the patient as +anxiously as if it were yourself, her only son. + +O'FLAHERTY. Well, she's my mother; and I won't utter a word agen +her. But I'm not saying a word of lie when I tell you that that +old woman is the biggest kanatt from here to the cross of +Monasterboice. Sure she's the wildest Fenian and rebel, and +always has been, that ever taught a poor innocent lad like myself +to pray night and morning to St Patrick to clear the English out +of Ireland the same as he cleared the snakes. You'll be surprised +at my telling you that now, maybe, Sir Pearce? + +SIR PEARCE [unable to keep still, walking away from O'Flaherty]. +Surprised! I'm more than surprised, O'Flaherty. I'm overwhelmed. +[Turning and facing him.] Are you--are you joking? + +O'FLAHERTY. If you'd been brought up by my mother, sir, you'd +know better than to joke about her. What I'm telling you is the +truth; and I wouldn't tell it to you if I could see my way to get +out of the fix I'll be in when my mother comes here this day to +see her boy in his glory, and she after thinking all the time it +was against the English I was fighting. + +SIR PEARCE. Do you mean to say you told her such a monstrous +falsehood as that you were fighting in the German army? + +O'FLAHERTY. I never told her one word that wasn't the truth and +nothing but the truth. I told her I was going to fight for the +French and for the Russians; and sure who ever heard of the +French or the Russians doing anything to the English but fighting +them? That was how it was, sir. And sure the poor woman kissed me +and went about the house singing in her old cracky voice that the +French was on the sea, and they'd be here without delay, and the +Orange will decay, says the Shan Van Vocht. + +SIR PEARCE [sitting down again, exhausted by his feelings]. Well, +I never could have believed this. Never. What do you suppose will +happen when she finds out? + +O'FLAHERTY. She mustn't find out. It's not that she'd half kill +me, as big as I am and as brave as I am. It's that I'm fond of +her, and can't bring myself to break the heart in her. You may +think it queer that a man should be fond of his mother, sir, and +she having bet him from the time he could feel to the time she +was too slow to ketch him; but I'm fond of her; and I'm not +ashamed of it. Besides, didn't she win the Cross for me? + +SIR PEARCE. Your mother! How? + +O'FLAHERTY. By bringing me up to be more afraid of running away +than of fighting. I was timid by nature; and when the other boys +hurted me, I'd want to run away and cry. But she whaled me for +disgracing the blood of the O'Flahertys until I'd have fought the +divil himself sooner than face her after funking a fight. That +was how I got to know that fighting was easier than it looked, +and that the others was as much afeard of me as I was of them, +and that if I only held out long enough they'd lose heart and +give rip. That's the way I came to be so courageous. I tell you, +Sir Pearce, if the German army had been brought up by my mother, +the Kaiser would be dining in the banqueting hall at Buckingham +Palace this day, and King George polishing his jack boots for him +in the scullery. + +SIR PEARCE. But I don't like this, O'Flaherty. You can't go on +deceiving your mother, you know. It's not right. + +O'FLAHERTY. Can't go on deceiving her, can't I? It's little you +know what a son's love can do, sir. Did you ever notice what a +ready liar I am? + +SIR PEARCE. Well, in recruiting a man gets carried away. I +stretch it a bit occasionally myself. After all, it's for king +and country. But if you won't mind my saying it, O'Flaherty, I +think that story about your fighting the Kaiser and the twelve +giants of the Prussian guard singlehanded would be the better for +a little toning down. I don't ask you to drop it, you know; for +it's popular, undoubtedly; but still, the truth is the truth. +Don't you think it would fetch in almost as many recruits if you +reduced the number of guardsmen to six? + +O'FLAHERTY. You're not used to telling lies like I am, sir. I got +great practice at home with my mother. What with saving my skin +when I was young and thoughtless, and sparing her feelings when I +was old enough to understand them, I've hardly told my mother the +truth twice a year since I was born; and would you have me turn +round on her and tell it now, when she's looking to have some +peace and quiet in her old age? + +SIR PEARCE (troubled in his conscience]. Well, it's not my +affair, of course, O'Flaherty. But hadn't you better talk to +Father Quinlan about it? + +O'FLAHERTY. Talk to Father Quinlan, is it! Do you know what +Father Quinlan says to me this very morning? + +SIR PEARCE. Oh, you've seen him already, have you? What did he +say? + +O'FLAHERTY. He says "You know, don't you," he says, "that it's +your duty, as a Christian and a good son of the Holy Church, to +love your enemies?" he says. "I know it's my juty as a soldier to +kill them," I says. "That's right, Dinny," he says: "quite right. +But," says he, "you can kill them and do them a good turn +afterward to show your love for them" he says; "and it's your +duty to have a mass said for the souls of the hundreds of Germans +you say you killed," says he; "for many and many of them were +Bavarians and good Catholics," he says. "Is it me that must pay +for masses for the souls of the Boshes?" I says. "Let the King of +England pay for them," I says; "for it was his quarrel and not +mine." + +SIR PEARCE [warmly]. It is the quarrel of every honest man and +true patriot, O'Flaherty. Your mother must see that as clearly as +I do. After all, she is a reasonable, well disposed woman, quite +capable of understanding the right and the wrong of the war. Why +can't you explain to her what the war is about? + +O'FLAHERTY. Arra, sir, how the divil do I know what the war is +about? + +SIR PEARCE (rising again and standing over him]. What! +O'Flaherty: do you know what you are saying? You sit there +wearing the Victoria Cross for having killed God knows how many +Germans; and you tell me you don't know why you did it! + +O'FLAHERTY. Asking your pardon, Sir Pearce, I tell you no such +thing. I know quite well why I kilt them, because I was afeard +that, if I didn't, they'd kill me. + +SIR PEARCE (giving it up, and sitting down again]. Yes, yes, of +course; but have you no knowledge of the causes of the war? of +the interests at stake? of the importance--I may almost say--in +fact I will say--the sacred right for which we are fighting? +Don't you read the papers? + +O'FLAHERTY. I do when I can get them. There's not many newsboys +crying the evening paper in the trenches. They do say, Sir +Pearce, that we shall never beat the Boshes until we make Horatio +Bottomley Lord Leftnant of England. Do you think that's true, +sir? + +SIR PEARCE. Rubbish, man! there's no Lord Lieutenant in England: +the king is Lord Lieutenant. It's a simple question of +patriotism. Does patriotism mean nothing to you? + +O'FLAHERTY. It means different to me than what it would to you, +sir. It means England and England's king to you. To me and the +like of me, it means talking about the English just the way the +English papers talk about the Boshes. And what good has it ever +done here in Ireland? It's kept me ignorant because it filled up +my mother's mind, and she thought it ought to fill up mine too. +It's kept Ireland poor, because instead of trying to better +ourselves we thought we was the fine fellows of patriots when we +were speaking evil of Englishmen that was as poor as ourselves +and maybe as good as ourselves. The Boshes I kilt was more +knowledgable men than me; and what better am I now that I've kilt +them? What better is anybody? + +SIR PEARCE [huffed, turning a cold shoulder to him]. I am sorry +the terrible experience of this war--the greatest war ever fought +--has taught you no better, O'Flaherty. + +O'FLAHERTY [preserving his dignity]. I don't know about it's +being a great war, sir. It's a big war; but that's not the same +thing. Father Quinlan's new church is a big church: you might +take the little old chapel out of the middle of it and not miss +it. But my mother says there was more true religion in the old +chapel. And the war has taught me that maybe she was right. + +SIR PEARCE [grunts sulkily]!! + +O'FLAHERTY [respectfully but doggedly]. And there's another thing +it's taught me too, sir, that concerns you and me, if I may make +bold to tell it to you. + +SIR PEARCE [still sulky]. I hope it's nothing you oughtn't to say +to me, O'Flaherty. + +O'FLAHERTY. It's this, sir: that I'm able to sit here now and +talk to you without humbugging you; and that's what not one of +your tenants or your tenants' childer ever did to you before in +all your long life. It's a true respect I'm showing you at last, +sir. Maybe you'd rather have me humbug you and tell you lies as I +used, just as the boys here, God help them, would rather have me +tell them how I fought the Kaiser, that all the world knows I +never saw in my life, than tell them the truth. But I can't take +advantage of you the way I used, not even if I seem to be wanting +in respect to you and cocked up by winning the Cross. + +SIR PEARCE [touched]. Not at all, O'Flaherty. Not at all. + +O'FLAHERTY. Sure what's the Cross to me, barring the little +pension it carries? Do you think I don't know that there's +hundreds of men as brave as me that never had the luck to get +anything for their bravery but a curse from the sergeant, and the +blame for the faults of them that ought to have been their +betters? I've learnt more than you'd think, sir; for how would a +gentleman like you know what a poor ignorant conceited creature I +was when I went from here into the wide world as a soldier? What +use is all the lying, and pretending, and humbugging, and letting +on, when the day comes to you that your comrade is killed in the +trench beside you, and you don't as much as look round at him +until you trip over his poor body, and then all you say is to ask +why the hell the stretcher-bearers don't take it out of the way. +Why should I read the papers to be humbugged and lied to by them +that had the cunning to stay at home and send me to fight for +them? Don't talk to me or to any soldier of the war being right. +No war is right; and all the holy water that Father Quinlan ever +blessed couldn't make one right. There, sir! Now you know what +O'Flaherty V.C. thinks; and you're wiser so than the others that +only knows what he done. + +SIR PEARCE [making the best of it, and turning goodhumoredly to +him again]. Well, what you did was brave and manly, anyhow. + +O'FLAHERTY. God knows whether it was or not, better than you nor +me, General. I hope He won't be too hard on me for it, anyhow. + +SIR PEARCE [sympathetically]. Oh yes: we all have to think +seriously sometimes, especially when we're a little run down. I'm +afraid we've been overworking you a bit over these recruiting +meetings. However, we can knock off for the rest of the day; and +tomorrow's Sunday. I've had about as much as I can stand myself. +[He looks at his watch.] It's teatime. I wonder what's keeping +your mother. + +O'FLAHERTY. It's nicely cocked up the old woman will be having +tea at the same table as you, sir, instead of in the kitchen. +She'll be after dressing in the heighth of grandeur; and stop she +will at every house on the way to show herself off and tell them +where she's going, and fill the whole parish with spite and envy. +But sure, she shouldn't keep you waiting, sir. + +SIR PEARCE. Oh, that's all right: she must be indulged on an +occasion like this. I'm sorry my wife is in London: she'd have +been glad to welcome your mother. + +O'FLAHERTY. Sure, I know she would, sir. She was always a kind +friend to the poor. Little her ladyship knew, God help her, the +depth of divilment that was in us: we were like a play to her. +You see, sir, she was English: that was how it was. We was to her +what the Pathans and Senegalese was to me when I first seen them: +I couldn't think, somehow, that they were liars, and thieves, and +backbiters, and drunkards, just like ourselves or any other +Christians. Oh, her ladyship never knew all that was going on +behind her back: how would she? When I was a weeshy child, she +gave me the first penny I ever had in my hand; and I wanted to +pray for her conversion that night the same as my mother made me +pray for yours; and-- + +SIR PEARCE [scandalized]. Do you mean to say that your mother +made you pray for MY conversion? + +O'FLAHERTY. Sure and she wouldn't want to see a gentleman like +you going to hell after she nursing your own son and bringing up +my sister Annie on the bottle. That was how it was, sir. She'd +rob you; and she'd lie to you; and she'd call down all the +blessings of God on your head when she was selling you your own +three geese that you thought had been ate by the fox the day +after you'd finished fattening them, sir; and all the time you +were like a bit of her own flesh and blood to her. Often has she +said she'd live to see you a good Catholic yet, leading +victorious armies against the English and wearing the collar of +gold that Malachi won from the proud invader. Oh, she's the +romantic woman is my mother, and no mistake. + +SIR PEARCE [in great perturbation]. I really can't believe this, +O'Flaherty. I could have sworn your mother was as honest a woman +as ever breathed. + +O'FLAHERTY. And so she is, sir. She's as honest as the day. + +SIR PEARCE. Do you call it honest to steal my geese? + +O'FLAHERTY. She didn't steal them, sir. It was me that stole +them. + +SIR PEARCE. Oh! And why the devil did you steal them? + +O'FLAHERTY. Sure we needed them, sir. Often and often we had to +sell our own geese to pay you the rent to satisfy your needs; and +why shouldn't we sell your geese to satisfy ours? + +SIR PEARCE. Well, damn me! + +O'FLAHERTY [sweetly]. Sure you had to get what you could out of +us; and we had to get what we could out of you. God forgive us +both! + +SIR PEARCE. Really, O'Flaherty, the war seems to have upset you a +little. + +O'FLAHERTY. It's set me thinking, sir; and I'm not used to it. +It's like the patriotism of the English. They never thought of +being patriotic until the war broke out; and now the patriotism +has took them so sudden and come so strange to them that they run +about like frightened chickens, uttering all manner of nonsense. +But please God they'll forget all about it when the war's over. +They're getting tired of it already. + +SIR PEARCE. No, no: it has uplifted us all in a wonderful way. +The world will never be the same again, O'Flaherty. Not after a +war like this. + +O'FLAHERTY. So they all say, sir. I see no great differ myself. +It's all the fright and the excitement; and when that quiets down +they'll go back to their natural divilment and be the same as +ever. It's like the vermin: it'll wash off after a while. + +SIR PEARCE [rising and planting himself firmly behind the garden +seat]. Well, the long and the short of it is, O'Flaherty, I must +decline to be a party to any attempt to deceive your mother. I +thoroughly disapprove of this feeling against the English, +especially at a moment like the present. Even if your mother's +political sympathies are really what you represent them to be, I +should think that her gratitude to Gladstone ought to cure her of +such disloyal prejudices. + +O'FLAHERTY [over his shoulder]. She says Gladstone was an +Irishman, Sir. What call would he have to meddle with Ireland as +he did if he wasn't? + +SIR PEARCE. What nonsense! Does she suppose Mr Asquith is an +Irishman? + +O'FLAHERTY. She won't give him any credit for Home Rule, Sir. She +says Redmond made him do it. She says you told her so. + +SIR PEARCE [convicted out of his own mouth]. Well, I never meant +her to take it up in that ridiculous way. [He moves to the end of +the garden seat on O'Flaherty's left.] I'll give her a good +talking to when she comes. I'm not going to stand any of her +nonsense. + +O'FLAHERTY. It's not a bit of use, sir. She says all the English +generals is Irish. She says all the English poets and great men +was Irish. She says the English never knew how to read their own +books until we taught them. She says we're the lost tribes of the +house of Israel and the chosen people of God. She says that the +goddess Venus, that was born out of the foam of the sea, came up +out of the water in Killiney Bay off Bray Head. She says that +Moses built the seven churches, and that Lazarus was buried in +Glasnevin. + +SIR PEARCE. Bosh! How does she know he was? Did you ever ask her? + +O'FLAHERTY. I did, sir, often. + +SIR PEARCE. And what did she say? + +O'FLAHERTY. She asked me how did I know he wasn't, and fetched me +a clout on the side of my head. + +SIR PEARCE. But have you never mentioned any famous Englishman to +her, and asked her what she had to say about him? + +O'FLAHERTY. The only one I could think of was Shakespeare, sir; +and she says he was born in Cork. + +SIR PEARCE [exhausted]. Well, I give it up [he throws himself +into the nearest chair]. The woman is--Oh, well! No matter. + +O'FLAHERTY [sympathetically]. Yes, sir: she's pigheaded and +obstinate: there's no doubt about it. She's like the English: +they think there's no one like themselves. It's the same with the +Germans, though they're educated and ought to know better. You'll +never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the +human race. + +SIR PEARCE. Still, we-- + +O'FLAHERTY. Whisht, sir, for God's sake: here she is. + +The General jumps up. Mrs. O'Flaherty arrives and comes between +the two men. She is very clean, and carefully dressed in the old +fashioned peasant costume; black silk sunbonnet with a tiara of +trimmings, and black cloak. + +O'FLAHERTY [rising shyly]. Good evening, mother. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [severely). You hold your whisht, and learn +behavior while I pay my juty to his honor. [To Sir Pearce, +heartily.] And how is your honor's good self? And how is her +ladyship and all the young ladies? Oh, it's right glad we are to +see your honor back again and looking the picture of health. + +SIR PEARCE [forcing a note of extreme geniality). Thank you, Mrs +O'Flaherty. Well, you see we've brought you back your son safe +and sound. I hope you're proud of him. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. And indeed and I am, your honor. It's the brave +boy he is; and why wouldn't he be, brought up on your honor's +estate and with you before his eyes for a pattern of the finest +soldier in Ireland. Come and kiss your old mother, Dinny darlint. +[O'Flaherty does so sheepishly.) That's my own darling boy. And +look at your fine new uniform stained already with the eggs +you've been eating and the porter you've been drinking. [She +takes out her handkerchief: spits on it: and scrubs his lapel +with it.] Oh, it's the untidy slovenly one you always were. +There! It won't be seen on the khaki: it's not like the old red +coat that would show up everything that dribbled down on it. [To +Sir Pearce.] And they tell me down at the lodge that her ladyship +is staying in London, and that Miss Agnes is to be married to a +fine young nobleman. Oh, it's your honor that is the lucky and +happy father! It will be bad news for many of the young gentlemen +of the quality round here, sir. There's lots thought she was +going to marry young Master Lawless + +SIR PEARCE. What! That--that--that bosthoon! + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [hilariously]. Let your honor alone for finding +the right word! A big bosthoon he is indeed, your honor. Oh, to +think of the times and times I have said that Miss Agnes would be +my lady as her mother was before her! Didn't I, Dinny? + +SIR PEARCE. And now, Mrs. O'Flaherty, I daresay you have a great +deal to say to Dennis that doesn't concern me. I'll just go in +and order tea. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Oh, why would your honor disturb yourself? Sure I +can take the boy into the yard. + +SIR PEARCE. Not at all. It won't disturb me in the least. And +he's too big a boy to be taken into the yard now. He has made a +front seat for himself. Eh? [He goes into the house.] + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Sure he has that, your honor. God bless your +honor! [The General being now out of hearing, she turns +threateningly to her son with one of those sudden Irish changes +of manner which amaze and scandalize less flexible nations, and +exclaims.) And what do you mean, you lying young scald, by +telling me you were going to fight agen the English? Did you take +me for a fool that couldn't find out, and the papers all full of +you shaking hands with the English king at Buckingham Palace? + +O'FLAHERTY. I didn't shake hands with him: he shook hands with +me. Could I turn on the man in his own house, before his own +wife, with his money in my pocket and in yours, and throw his +civility back in his face? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. You would take the hand of a tyrant red with the +blood of Ireland-- + +O'FLAHERTY. Arra hold your nonsense, mother: he's not half the +tyrant you are, God help him. His hand was cleaner than mine that +had the blood of his own relations on it, maybe. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [threateningly]. Is that a way to speak to your +mother, you young spalpeen? + +O'FLAHERTY [stoutly]. It is so, if you won't talk sense to me. +It's a nice thing for a poor boy to be made much of by kings and +queens, and shook hands with by the heighth of his country's +nobility in the capital cities of the world, and then to come +home and be scolded and insulted by his own mother. I'll fight +for who I like; and I'll shake hands with what kings I like; and +if your own son is not good enough for you, you can go and look +for another. Do you mind me now? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. And was it the Belgians learned you such brazen +impudence? + +O'FLAHERTY. The Belgians is good men; and the French ought to be +more civil to them, let alone their being half murdered by the +Boshes. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Good men is it! Good men! to come over here when +they were wounded because it was a Catholic country, and then to +go to the Protestant Church because it didn't cost them anything, +and some of them to never go near a church at all. That's what +you call good men! + +O'FLAHERTY. Oh, you're the mighty fine politician, aren't you? +Much you know about Belgians or foreign parts or the world you're +living in, God help you! + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Why wouldn't I know better than you? Amment I +your mother? + +O'FLAHERTY. And if you are itself, how can you know what you +never seen as well as me that was dug into the continent of +Europe for six months, and was buried in the earth of it three +times with the shells bursting on the top of me? I tell you I +know what I'm about. I have my own reasons for taking part in +this great conflict. I'd be ashamed to stay at home and not fight +when everybody else is fighting. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. If you wanted to fight, why couldn't you fight in +the German army? + +O'FLAHERTY. Because they only get a penny a day. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Well, and if they do itself, isn't there the +French army? + +O'FLAHERTY. They only get a hapenny a day. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [much dashed]. Oh murder! They must be a mean lot, +Dinny. + +O'FLAHERTY [sarcastic]. Maybe you'd have me in the Turkish army, +and worship the heathen Mahomet that put a corn in his ear and +pretended it was a message from the heavens when the pigeon come +to pick it out and eat it. I went where I could get the biggest +allowance for you; and little thanks I get for it! + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Allowance, is it! Do you know what the thieving +blackguards did on me? They came to me and they says, "Was your +son a big eater?" they says. "Oh, he was that," says I: "ten +shillings a week wouldn't keep him." Sure I thought the more I +said the more they'd give me. "Then," says they, "that's ten +shillings a week off your allowance," they says, "because you +save that by the king feeding him." "Indeed!" says I: "I suppose +if I'd six sons, you'd stop three pound a week from me, and make +out that I ought to pay you money instead of you paying me." +"There's a fallacy in your argument," they says. + +O'FLAHERTY. A what? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. A fallacy: that's the word he said. I says to +him, "It's a Pharisee I'm thinking you mean, sir; but you can +keep your dirty money that your king grudges a poor old widow; +and please God the English will be bet yet for the deadly sin of +oppressing the poor"; and with that I shut the door in his face. + +O'FLAHERTY [furious]. Do you tell me they knocked ten shillings +off you for my keep? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [soothing him]. No, darlint: they only knocked off +half a crown. I put up with it because I've got the old age +pension; and they know very well I'm only sixty-two; so I've the +better of them by half a crown a week anyhow. + +O'FLAHERTY. It's a queer way of doing business. If they'd tell +you straight out what they was going to give you, you wouldn't +mind; but if there was twenty ways of telling the truth and only +one way of telling a lie, the Government would find it out. It's +in the nature of governments to tell lies. + +Teresa Driscoll, a parlor maid, comes from the house, + +TERESA. You're to come up to the drawing-room to have your tea, +Mrs. O'Flaherty. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Mind you have a sup of good black tea for me in +the kitchen afterwards, acushla. That washy drawing-room tea will +give me the wind if I leave it on my stomach. [She goes into the +house, leaving the two young people alone together.] + +O'FLAHERTY. Is that yourself, Tessie? And how are you? + +TERESA. Nicely, thank you. And how's yourself? + +O'FLAHERTY. Finely, thank God. [He produces a gold chain.] Look +what I've brought you, Tessie. + +TERESA [shrinking]. Sure I don't like to touch it, Denny. Did you +take it off a dead man? + +O'FLAHERTY. No: I took it off a live one; and thankful he was to +me to be alive and kept a prisoner in ease and comfort, and me +left fighting in peril of my life. + +TERESA [taking it]. Do you think it's real gold, Denny? + +O'FLAHERTY. It's real German gold, anyhow. + +TERESA. But German silver isn't real, Denny. + +O'FLAHERTY [his face darkening]. Well, it's the best the Bosh +could do for me, anyhow. + +TERESA. Do you think I might take it to the jeweller next market +day and ask him? + +O'FLAHERTY [sulkily]. You may take it to the divil if you like. + +TERESA. You needn't lose your temper about it. I only thought I'd +like to know. The nice fool I'd look if I went about showing off +a chain that turned out to be only brass! + +O'FLAHERTY. I think you might say Thank you. + +TERESA. Do you? I think you might have said something more to me +than "Is that yourself?" You couldn't say less to the postman. + +O'FLAHERTY [his brow clearing]. Oh, is that what's the matter? +Here! come and take the taste of ther brass out of my mouth. [He +seizes her and kisses her.] + +Teresa, without losing her Irish dignity, takes the kiss as +appreciatively as a connoisseur might take a glass of wine, and +sits down with him on the garden seat, + +TERESA [as he squeezes her waist]. Thank God the priest can't see +us here! + +O'FLAHERTY. It's little they care for priests in France, alanna. + +TERESA. And what had the queen on her, Denny, when she spoke to +you in the palace? + +O'FLAHERTY. She had a bonnet on without any strings to it. And +she had a plakeen of embroidery down her bosom. And she had her +waist where it used to be, and not where the other ladies had it. +And she had little brooches in her ears, though she hadn't half +the jewelry of Mrs Sullivan that keeps the popshop in Drumpogue. +And she dresses her hair down over her forehead, in a fringe +like. And she has an Irish look about her eyebrows. And she +didn't know what to say to me, poor woman! and I didn't know what +to say to her, God help me! + +TERESA. You'll have a pension now with the Cross, won't you, +Denny? + +O'FLAHERTY. Sixpence three farthings a day. + +TERESA. That isn't much. + +O'FLAHERTY. I take out the rest in glory. + +TERESA. And if you're wounded, you'll have a wound pension, won't +you? + +O'FLAHERTY. I will, please God. + +TERESA. You're going out again, aren't you, Denny? + +O'FLAHERTY. I can't help myself. I'd be shot for a deserter if I +didn't go; and maybe I'll be shot by the Boshes if I do go; so +between the two of them I'm nicely fixed up. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [calling from within the house]. Tessie! Tessie +darlint! + +TERESA [disengaging herself from his arm and rising]. I'm wanted +for the tea table. You'll have a pension anyhow, Denny, won't +you, whether you're wounded or not? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Come, child, come. + +TERESA [impatiently]. Oh, sure I'm coming. [She tries to smile at +Denny, not very convincingly, and hurries into the house.] + +O'FLAHERTY [alone]. And if I do get a pension itself, the divil a +penny of it you'll ever have the spending of. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [as she comes from the porch]. Oh, it's a shame +for you to keep the girl from her juties, Dinny. You might get +her into trouble. + +O'FLAHERTY. Much I care whether she gets into trouble or not! I +pity the man that gets her into trouble. He'll get himself into +worse. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. What's that you tell me? Have you been falling +out with her, and she a girl with a fortune of ten pounds? + +O'FLAHERTY. Let her keep her fortune. I wouldn't touch her with +the tongs if she had thousands and millions. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Oh fie for shame, Dinny! why would you say the +like of that of a decent honest girl, and one of the Driscolls +too? + +O'FLAHERTY. Why wouldn't I say it? She's thinking of nothing but +to get me out there again to be wounded so that she may spend my +pension, bad scran to her! + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Why, what's come over you, child, at all at all? + +O'FLAHERTY. Knowledge and wisdom has come over me with pain and +fear and trouble. I've been made a fool of and imposed upon all +my life. I thought that covetious sthreal in there was a walking +angel; and now if ever I marry at all I'll marry a Frenchwoman. + +MRS O'FLARERTY [fiercely]. You'll not, so; and don't you dar +repeat such a thing to me. + +O'FLAHERTY. Won't I, faith! I've been as good as married to a +couple of them already. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. The Lord be praised, what wickedness have you +been up to, you young blackguard? + +O'FLAHERTY. One of them Frenchwomen would cook you a meal twice +in the day and all days and every day that Sir Pearce himself +might go begging through Ireland for, and never see the like of. +I'll have a French wife, I tell you; and when I settle down to be +a farmer I'll have a French farm, with a field as big as the +continent of Europe that ten of your dirty little fields here +wouldn't so much as fill the ditch of. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [furious]. Then it's a French mother you may go +look for; for I'm done with you. + +O'FLAHERTY. And it's no great loss you'd be if it wasn't for my +natural feelings for you; for it's only a silly ignorant old +countrywoman you are with all your fine talk about Ireland: you +that never stepped beyond the few acres of it you were born on! + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [tottering to the garden seat and showing signs of +breaking down]. Dinny darlint, why are you like this to me? +What's happened to you? + +O'FLAHERTY [gloomily]. What's happened to everybody? that's what +I want to know. What's happened to you that I thought all the +world of and was afeard of? What's happened to Sir Pearce, that I +thought was a great general, and that I now see to be no more fit +to command an army than an old hen? What's happened to Tessie, +that I was mad to marry a year ago, and that I wouldn't take now +with all Ireland for her fortune? I tell you the world's creation +is crumbling in ruins about me; and then you come and ask what's +happened to me? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [giving way to wild grief]. Ochone! ochone! my +son's turned agen me. Oh, what'll I do at all at all? Oh! oh! oh! +oh! + +SIR PEARCE [running out of the house]. What's this infernal +noise? What on earth is the matter? + +O'FLAHERTY. Arra hold your whisht, mother. Don't you see his +honor? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Oh, Sir, I'm ruined and destroyed. Oh, won't you +speak to Dinny, Sir: I'm heart scalded with him. He wants to +marry a Frenchwoman on me, and to go away and be a foreigner and +desert his mother and betray his country. It's mad he is with the +roaring of the cannons and he killing the Germans and the Germans +killing him, bad cess to them! My boy is taken from me and turned +agen me; and who is to take care of me in my old age after all +I've done for him, ochone! ochone! + +O'FLAHERTY. Hold your noise, I tell you. Who's going to leave +you? I'm going to take you with me. There now: does that satisfy +you? + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Is it take me into a strange land among heathens +and pagans and savages, and me not knowing a word of their +language nor them of mine? + +O'FLAHERTY. A good job they don't: maybe they'll think you're +talking sense. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Ask me to die out of Ireland, is it? and the +angels not to find me when they come for me! + +O'FLAHERTY. And would you ask me to live in Ireland where I've +been imposed on and kept in ignorance, and to die where the divil +himself wouldn't take me as a gift, let alone the blessed angels? +You can come or stay. You can take your old way or take my young +way. But stick in this place I will not among a lot of +good-for-nothing divils that'll not do a hand's turn but watch +the grass growing and build up the stone wall where the cow +walked through it. And Sir Horace Plunkett breaking his heart all +the time telling them how they might put the land into decent +tillage like the French and Belgians. + +SIR PEARCE. Yes, he's quite right, you know, Mrs O'Flaherty: +quite right there. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Well, sir, please God the war will last a long +time yet; and maybe I'll die before it's over and the separation +allowance stops. + +O'FLAHERTY. That's all you care about. It's nothing but milch +cows we men are for the women, with their separation allowances, +ever since the war began, bad luck to them that made it! + +TERESA [coming from the porch between the General and Mrs +O'Flaherty. Hannah sent me out for to tell you, sir, that the tea +will be black and the cake not fit to eat with the cold if yous +all don't come at wanst. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [breaking out again]. Oh, Tessie darlint, what +have you been saying to Dinny at all at all? Oh! Oh-- + +SIR PEARCE [out of patience]. You can't discuss that here. We +shall have Tessie beginning now. + +O'FLAHERTY. That's right, sir: drive them in. + +TERESA. I haven't said a word to him. He-- + +SIR PEARCE. Hold your tongue; and go in and attend to your +business at the tea table. + +TERESA. But amment I telling your honor that I never said a word +to him? He gave me a beautiful gold chain. Here it is to show +your honor that it's no lie I'm telling you. + +SIR PEARCE. What's this, O'Flaherty? You've been looting some +unfortunate officer. + +O'FLAHERTY. No, sir: I stole it from him of his own accord. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY. Wouldn't your honor tell him that his mother has +the first call on it? What would a slip of a girl like that be +doing with a gold chain round her neck? + +TERESA [venomously]. Anyhow, I have a neck to put it round and +not a hank of wrinkles. + +At this unfortunate remark, Mrs O'Flaherty bounds from her seat: +and an appalling tempest of wordy wrath breaks out. The +remonstrances and commands of the General, and the protests and +menaces of O'Flaherty, only increase the hubbub. They are soon +all speaking at once at the top of their voices. + +MRS O'FLAHERTY [solo]. You impudent young heifer, how dar you say +such a thing to me? [Teresa retorts furiously: the men interfere: +and the solo becomes a quartet, fortissimo.] I've a good mind to +clout your ears for you to teach you manners. Be ashamed of +yourself, do; and learn to know who you're speaking to. That I +maytn't sin! but I don't know what the good God was thinking +about when he made the like of you. Let me not see you casting +sheep's eyes at my son again. There never was an O'Flaherty yet +that would demean himself by keeping company with a dirty +Driscoll; and if I see you next or nigh my house I'll put you in +the ditch with a flea in your ear: mind that now. + +TERESA. Is it me you offer such a name to, you fou-mouthed, +dirty-minded, lying, sloothering old sow, you? I wouldn't soil my +tongue by calling you in your right name and telling Sir Pearce +what's the common talk of the town about you. You and your +O'Flahertys! setting yourself up agen the Driscolls that would +never lower themselves to be seen in conversation with you at the +fair. You can keep your ugly stingy lump of a son; for what is he +but a common soldier? and God help the girl that gets him, say I! +So the back of my hand to you, Mrs O'Flaherty; and that the cat +may tear your ugly old face! + +SIR PEARCE. Silence. Tessie, did you hear me ordering you to go +into the house? Mrs O'Flaherty! [Louder.] Mrs O'Flaherty!! Will +you just listen to me one moment? Please. [Furiously.] Do you +hear me speaking to you, woman? Are you human beings or are you +wild beasts? Stop that noise immediately: do you hear? [Yelling.] +Are you going to do what I order you, or are you not? Scandalous! +Disgraceful! This comes of being too familiar with you. +O'Flaherty, shove them into the house. Out with the whole damned +pack of you. + +O'FLAHERTY [to the women]. Here now: none of that, none of that. +Go easy, I tell you. Hold your whisht, mother, will you, or +you'll be sorry for it after. [To Teresa.] Is that the way for a +decent young girl to speak? [Despairingly.] Oh, for the Lord's +sake, shut up, will yous? Have you no respect for yourselves or +your betters? [Peremptorily.] Let me have no more of it, I tell +you. Och! the divil's in the whole crew of you. In with you into +the house this very minute and tear one another's eyes out in the +kitchen if you like. In with you. + +The two men seize the two women, and push them, still violently +abusing one another, into the house. Sir Pearce slams the door +upon them savagely. Immediately a heavenly silence falls on the +summer afternoon. The two sit down out of breath: and for a long +time nothing is said. Sir Pearce sits on an iron chair. +O'Flaherty sits on the garden seat. The thrush begins to sing +melodiously. O'Flaherty cocks his ears, and looks up at it. A +smile spreads over his troubled features. Sir Pearce, with a long +sigh, takes out his pipe and begins to fill it. + +O'FLAHERTY [idyllically]. What a discontented sort of an animal a +man is, sir! Only a month ago, I was in the quiet of the country +out at the front, with not a sound except the birds and the +bellow of a cow in the distance as it might be, and the shrapnel +making little clouds in the heavens, and the shells whistling, +and maybe a yell or two when one of us was hit; and would you +believe it, sir, I complained of the noise and wanted to have a +peaceful hour at home. Well: them two has taught me a lesson. +This morning, sir, when I was telling the boys here how I was +longing to be back taking my part for king and country with the +others, I was lying, as you well knew, sir. Now I can go and say +it with a clear conscience. Some likes war's alarums; and some +likes home life. I've tried both, sir; and I'm for war's alarums +now. I always was a quiet lad by natural disposition. + +SIR PEARCE. Strictly between ourselves, O'Flaherty, and as one +soldier to another [O'Flaherty salutes, but without stiffening], +do you think we should have got an army without conscription if +domestic life had been as happy as people say it is? + +O'FLAHERTY. Well, between you and me and the wall, Sir Pearce, I +think the less we say about that until the war's over, the +better. + +He winks at the General. The General strikes a match. The thrush +sings. A jay laughs. The conversation drops. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg's O'Flaherty V.C., by George Bernard Shaw + diff --git a/old/oflvc10.zip b/old/oflvc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab3aecf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/oflvc10.zip |