Book-Lovei
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER.
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Ouitje io tfjc Btst Eeatitng. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES BALDWIN, PH.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH LITERATURE AND LITERARY CRITICISM, 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 Whosoever acknowledges himself to be a zealous follower of truth, 
 of happiness, of wisdom, of science, or even of the faith, must of 
 
 necessity make himself a Lover of Books. 
 
 RICHARD DE BURY 
 
 LONDON: 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 
 
 27 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, 
 
 AND 
 
 JOHN SLARK, 
 12 BUSBY PLACE, N. W. 
 
 1886.
 
 jFore SHortu 
 
 Annex 
 
 '1PHE titlepage of this book explains its plan 
 and purpose. The Courses of Reading 
 and the Schemes for Practical Study, herein 
 indicated, are the outgrowth of the Author's 
 long experience as a lover of books and director 
 of reading. They have been tested and found 
 to be all that is claimed for them. As to the 
 large number of quotations in the first part 
 of the book, they are given in the belief that 
 " in a multitude of counsels there is wisdom." 
 And the Author finds consolation and encour- 
 agement in the following words of Emerson : 
 " We are as much informed of a writer's genius 
 by what he selects, as by what he originates. 
 We read the quotation with his eyes, and find 
 a new and fervent sense." As the value of 
 the most useful inventions depends upon the
 
 vi A FORE WORD. 
 
 ingenious placing of their parts, so the origi- 
 nality of this work may be found to lie chiefly 
 in its arrangement. Yet the writer confidently 
 believes that his readers will enjoy that which 
 he has borrowed, and possibly find aid and 
 encouragement in that which he claims as his 
 own ; and therefore this book is sent out with 
 the hope that book-lovers will find in it a safe 
 Guide to the Best Reading.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PRELUDE : IN PRAISE OF BOOKS 9 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. ON THE CHOICE OF BOOKS 23 
 
 II. How TO READ 42 
 
 III. ON THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES 56 
 
 IV. BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR 69 
 
 V. WHAT BOOKS SHALL YOUNG FOLKS READ? 84 
 
 VI. HINTS ON THE FORMATION OF SCHOOL 108 
 
 LIBRARIES 
 
 VII. COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. . . 113 
 
 VIII. COURSES OF READING IN GEOGRAPHY AND 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY 138 
 
 IX. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION 148
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGK 
 
 X. POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE SCIENCE 
 
 OF GOVERNMENT l6x 
 
 XI. ON THE PRACTICAL STUDY of ENGLISH 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 1 68 
 
 AN AFTER WORD X 9 6 
 
 INDEX '97
 
 PRELUDE. 
 
 En praise of 1300fc0. 
 
 ET us consider how great a com- 
 modity of doctrine exists in Books ; 
 how easily, how secretly, how safely 
 they expose the nakedness of hu- 
 man ignorance without putting it to shame. 
 These are the masters who instruct us with- 
 out rods and ferules, without hard words and 
 anger, without clothes or money. If you ap- 
 proach them, they are not asleep ; if inves- 
 tigating you interrogate them, they conceal 
 nothing ; if you mistake them, they never 
 grumble ; if you are ignorant, they cannot 
 laugh at you. 
 
 You only, O Books, are liberal and in- 
 dependent. You give to all who ask, and 
 enfranchise all who serve you assiduously. 
 Truly, you are the ears filled with most pala- 
 table grains. You are golden urns in which 
 
 9
 
 10 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 manna is laid up ; rocks flowing with honey, 
 or rather, indeed, honeycombs ; udders most 
 copiously yielding the milk of life ; store- 
 rooms ever full; the four-streamed river of 
 Paradise, where the human mind is fed, and 
 the arid intellect moistened and watered ; 
 fruitful olives ; vines of Engaddi ; fig-trees 
 knowing no sterility; burning lamps to be 
 ever held in the hand. 
 
 The library, therefore, of wisdom is more 
 precious than all riches ; and nothing that can 
 be wished for is worthy to be compared with 
 it. Whosoever acknowledges himself to be 
 a zealous follower of truth, of happiness, of 
 wisdom, of science, or even of the faith, must 
 of necessity make himself a Lover of Books. 
 RICHARD DE BURY, 1344. 
 
 BOOKS are friends whose society is ex- 
 tremely agreeable to me ; they are of all ages, 
 and of every country. They have distin- 
 guished themselves both in the cabinet and in 
 the field, and obtained high honors for their 
 knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain 
 access to them ; for they are always at my 
 service, and I admit them to my company, 
 and dismiss them from it, whenever I please. 
 They are never troublesome, but immediately 
 answer every question I ask them. Some 
 relate to me the events of past ages, while
 
 IN PRAISE OP BOOKS. u 
 
 others reveal to me the secrets of Nature. 
 Some teach me how to live, and others how 
 to die. Some, by their vivacity, drive away 
 my cares and exhilarate my spirits; while 
 others give fortitude to my mind, and teach 
 me the important lesson how to restrain my 
 desires, and to depend wholly on myself. 
 They open to me, in short, the various avenues 
 of all the arts and sciences, and upon their 
 information I safely rely in all emergencies. 
 In return for all these services, they only ask 
 me to accommodate them with a convenient 
 chamber in some corner of my humble habi- 
 tation, where they may repose in peace ; for 
 these friends are more delighted by the tran- 
 quillity of retirement, than with the tumults 
 of society. FRANCESCO PETRARCA. 
 
 BOOKS are the Glasse of Counsell to dress 
 ourselves by. They are Life's best Business : 
 Vocation to them hath more Emolument 
 coming in, than all the other busie Termes 
 of Life. They are Feelesse Counsellours, no 
 delaying Patrons, of easie Accesse, and kind 
 Expedition, never sending away any Client 
 or Petitioner. They are for Company, the 
 best Friends; in doubts, Counsellours ; in 
 Damp, Comforters ; Time's Perspective ; the 
 home Traveller's Ship, or Horse ; the busie 
 Man's best Recreation; the Opiate of idle
 
 12 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Wearinesse ; the Mind's best Ordinary ; Na- 
 ture's Garden and Seed-plot of Immortality. 
 
 A WRITER OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 (quoted in " Allibone's Dictionary"). 
 
 BUT how can I live here without my books ? 
 I really seem to myself crippled and only half 
 myself; for if, as the great Orator used to say, 
 arms are a soldier's members, surely books 
 are the limbs of scholars. Corasius says : "Of 
 a truth, he who would deprive me of books, 
 my old friends, would take away all the de- 
 light of my life ; nay, I will even say, all desire 
 of living." 
 
 BALTHASAR BONIFACIUS RHODIGINUS, 1656. 
 
 FOR books are not absolutely dead things, 
 but do contain a potency of life in them to 
 be as active as that soul was whose progeny 
 they are ; nay, they do preserve, as in a vial, 
 the purest efficacy and extraction of that 
 living intellect that bred them. I know they 
 are as lively and as vigorously productive 
 as those fabulous dragon's teeth, and, being 
 sown up and down, may chance to spring up 
 armed men. . . . Many a man lives, a burden 
 to the earth; but a good book is the pre- 
 cious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed 
 and treasured up on purpose for a life 
 
 beyond life. 
 
 JOHN MILTON.
 
 IN PRAISE OP BOOK'S. 13 
 
 BOOKS are a guide in youth, and an enter- 
 tainment for age. They support us under 
 solitude, and keep us from being a burden to 
 ourselves. They help us to forget the cross- 
 ness of men and things, compose our cares 
 and our passions, and lay our disappoint- 
 ments asleep. When we are weary of the 
 living, we may fepair to the dead, who have 
 nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in 
 
 their conversation. 
 
 JEREMY COLLIER. 
 
 GOD be thanked for books ! They are the 
 voices of the distant and the dead, and make 
 us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. 
 Books are the true levellers. They give to 
 all who will faithfully use them, the society, 
 the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest 
 of our race. No matter how poor I am ; no 
 matter though the prosperous of my own 
 time will not enter my obscure dwelling ; if 
 the sacred writers will enter and take up 
 their abode under my roof, if Milton will 
 cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise ; 
 and Shakspeare to open to me the worlds of 
 imagination and the workings of the human 
 heart ; and Franklin to enrich me with his 
 practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want 
 of intellectual companionship, and I may 
 become a cultivated man, though excluded
 
 14 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 from what is called the best society in the 
 place where I live. 
 
 WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 
 
 IN a corner of my house I have books, 
 the miracle of all my possessions, more won- 
 derful than the wishing-cap of the Arabian 
 tales ; for they transport me instantly, not only 
 to all places, but to all times. By my books 
 I can conjure up before me to a momentary 
 existence many of the great and good men of 
 past ages, and for my individual satisfaction 
 they seem to act again the most renowned of 
 their achievements ; the orators declaim for 
 me, the historians recite, the poets sing. 
 
 DR. ARNOTT. 
 
 WONDROUS, indeed, is the virtue of a true 
 book ! Not like a dead city of stones, 
 yearly crumbling, yearly needing repair; 
 more like a tilled field, but then a spiritual 
 field ; like a spiritual tree, let me rather say, 
 it stands from year to year and from age to 
 age (we have books that already number some 
 hundred and fifty human ages) ; and yearly 
 comes its new produce of leaves (commenta- 
 ries, deductions, philosophical, political sys- 
 tems ; or were it only sermons, pamphlets, 
 journalistic essays), every one of which is 
 talismanic and thaumaturgic, for it can per- 
 suade man. O thou who art able t ) write a 
 book, which once in two centuries or oftener
 
 IN PRAISE OP BOOKS. 15 
 
 there is a man gifted to do, envy not him 
 whom they name city-builder, and inexpres- 
 sibly pity him whom they name conqueror or 
 city-burner ! Thou, too, art a conqueror and 
 victor ; but of the true sort, namely, over the 
 Devil. Thou, too, hast built what will out- 
 last all marble and metal, and be a wonder- 
 bringing city of mind, a temple and seminary 
 and prophetic mount, whereto all kindreds 
 
 of the earth will pilgrim. 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 GOOD books, like good friends, are few and 
 chosen ; the more select, the more enjoyable ; 
 and like these are approached with diffidence, 
 nor sought too familiarly nor too often, hav- 
 ing the precedence only when friends tire. 
 Tne most mannerly of companions, accessible 
 at all times, in all moods, they frankly de- 
 clare the author's mind, without giving offence. 
 Like living friends, they too have their voice 
 and physiognomies, and their company is 
 prized as old acquaintances. We seek them 
 in our need of counsel or of amusement, with- 
 out impertinence or apology, sure of having 
 our claims allowed. A good book justifies 
 our theory of personal supremacy, keeping 
 this fresh in the memory and perennial. What 
 were days without such fellowship ? We were 
 alone in the world without it. 
 
 A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
 
 1 6 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 CONSIDER what you have in the smallest 
 chosen library. A company of the wisest and 
 wittiest men that could be picked out of all 
 civil countries, in a thousand years, have set 
 in best order the results of their learning and 
 wisdom. The men themselves were hid and 
 inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, 
 fenced by etiquette ; but the thought which 
 they did not uncover to their bosom friend 
 is here written out in transparent words to 
 us, the strangers of another age. We owe 
 to books those general benefits which come 
 from high intellectual action. Thus, I think, 
 we often owe to them the perception of 
 immortality. They impart sympathetic ac- 
 tivity to the moral power. Go with mean 
 people, and you think life is mean. Then 
 read Plutarch, and the world is a proud place, 
 peopled with men of positive quality, with 
 heroes and demi-gods standing around us, 
 who will not let us sleep. Then they ad- 
 dress the imagination : only poetry inspires 
 poetry. They become the organic culture of 
 the time. College education is the reading 
 of certain books which the common sense of 
 all scholars agrees will represent the science 
 already accumulated. ... In the highest 
 civilization the book is still the highest 
 
 delight. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
 
 IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 17 
 
 A GREAT book that comes from a great 
 thinker, it is a ship of thought, deep- 
 freighted with truth, with beauty too. It 
 sails the ocean, driven by the winds of heaven, 
 breaking the level sea of life into beauty where 
 it goes, leaving behind it a train of sparkling 
 loveliness, widening as the ship goes on. And 
 what a treasure it brings to every land, scat- 
 tering the seeds of truth, justice, love, and 
 piety, to bless the world in ages yet to come ! 
 
 THEODORE PARKER. 
 
 WHAT is a great love of books? It is 
 something like a personal introduction to the 
 great and good men of all past times. Books, 
 it is true, are silent as you see them on their 
 shelves ; but, silent as they are, when I enter 
 a library I feel as if almost the dead were 
 present, and I know if I put questions to 
 these books they will answer me with all the 
 faithfulness and fulness which has been left 
 in them by the great men who have left the 
 books with us. JOHN BRIGHT 
 
 * 
 
 I LOVE my books as drinkers love their wine ; 
 The more I drink, the more they seem divine ; 
 With joy elate my soul in love runs o'er, 
 And each fresh draught is sweeter than before ! 
 Books bring me friends where'er on earth I be, 
 Solace of solitude, bonds of society. 
 
 I love my books ! they are companions dear, 
 Sterling in worth, in friendship most sincere ; 
 
 2
 
 1 8 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Here talk I with the wise in ages gone, 
 And with the nobly gifted in our own : 
 If love, joy, laughter, sorrow please my mind, 
 Love, joy, grief, laughter in my books I find. 
 
 FRANCIS BENNOCH. 
 
 BOOKS are the windows through which the 
 
 SOUl lOOkS OUt. HNRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 BOOKS are our household gods; and we 
 cannot prize them too highly. They are the 
 only gods in all the mythologies that are 
 beautiful and unchangeable ; for they betray 
 no man, and love their lovers. I confess my- 
 self an idolater of this literary religion, and 
 am grateful for the blessed ministry of books. 
 It is a kind of heathenism which needs no 
 missionary funds, no Bible even, to abolish 
 it ; for the Bible itself caps the peak of this 
 new Olympus, and crowns it with sublimity 
 and glory. Amongst the many things we 
 have to be thankful for, as the result of 
 modern discoveries, surely this of printed 
 books is the highest of all ; and I, for one, 
 am so sensible of its merits that I never think 
 of the name of Gutenberg without feelings of 
 
 veneration and homage. 
 
 JANUARY SEARLE. 
 
 THE only true equalizers in the world are 
 books; the only treasure-house open to all 
 comers is a library; the only wealth which
 
 IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 19 
 
 will not decay is knowledge ; the only jewel 
 which you can carry beyond the grave is 
 wisdom. To live in this equality, to share in 
 these treasures, to possess this wealth, and 
 to secure this jewel may be the happy lot of 
 every one. All that is needed for the acqui- 
 sition of these inestimable treasures is the 
 
 love of books. 
 
 J. A. LANGFORD. 
 
 LET us thank God for books. When I 
 consider what some books have done for the 
 world, and what they are doing; how they 
 keep up our hope, awaken new courage and 
 faith, soothe pain, give an ideal life to those 
 whose homes are hard and cold, bind to- 
 gether distant ages and foreign lands, create 
 new worlds of beauty, bring down truths 
 from heaven, I give eternal blessings for 
 this gift, and pray that we may use it aright, 
 
 and abuse it not. 
 
 JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 
 
 BOOKS, we know, 
 
 Are a substantial world, both pure and good ; 
 Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, 
 Our pastime and our happiness will grow. 
 
 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 
 
 PRECIOUS and priceless are the blessings 
 which books scatter around our daily paths. 
 We walk, in imagination, with the noblest
 
 20 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 spirits, through the most sublime and en- 
 chanting regions, regions which, to all that 
 is lovely in the forms and colors of earth, 
 
 " Add the gleam, 
 
 The light that never was on sea or land, 
 The consecration and the poet's dream." 
 
 A motion of the hand brings all Arcadia to 
 sight. The war of Troy can, at our bidding, 
 rage in the narrowest chamber. Without 
 stirring from our firesides, we may roam to 
 the most remote regions of the earth, or soar 
 into realms where Spenser's shapes of un- 
 earthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton's 
 angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of 
 Paradise. Science, art, literature, philosophy, 
 
 all that man has thought, all that man has 
 done, the experience that has been bought 
 with the sufferings of a hundred generations, 
 
 all are garnered up for us in the world of 
 books. There, among realities, in a "sub- 
 stantial world," we move with the crowned 
 kings of thought. There our minds have a 
 free range, our hearts a free utterance. Rea- 
 son is confined within none of the partitions 
 which trammel it in life. In that world, no 
 divinity hedges a king, no accident of rank or 
 fashion ennobles a dunce or shields a knave. 
 We can select our companions from among 
 the most richly gifted of the sons of God;
 
 IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 21 
 
 and they are companions who will not desert 
 us in poverty, or sickness, or disgrace. 
 
 EDWIN P. WHIPPLE. 
 
 Mvr latest passion shall be for books. 
 
 FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA. 
 
 FOR what a world of books offers itself, in 
 all subjects, arts, and sciences, to the sweet 
 content and capacity of the reader? In arith- 
 metic, geometry, perspective, optics, astron- 
 omy, architecture, sculptura, pictura, of which 
 so many and such elaborate treatises are of 
 late written ; in mechanics and their mysteries, 
 military matters, navigation, riding of horses, 
 fencing, swimming, gardening, planting, etc. 
 . . . What so sure, what so pleasant? What 
 vast tomes are extant in law, physic, and 
 divinity, for profit, pleasure, practice, specu- 
 lation, in verse or prose ! Their names alone 
 are the subject of whole volumes ; we have 
 thousands of authors of all sorts, many great 
 libraries, full well furnished, like so many 
 dishes of meat, served out for several palates, 
 and he is a very block that is affected with 
 
 none of them. 
 
 ROBERT BURTON. 
 
 EXCEPT a living man, there is nothing more 
 wonderful than a book ! a message to us 
 from the dead, from human souls whom we 
 never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of
 
 22 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 miles away; and yet these, on those little 
 sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, vivify 
 us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to 
 us as brothers. We ought to reverence books, 
 to look at them as useful and mighty things. 
 If they are good and true, . . . they are the 
 message of Christ, the maker of all things, 
 
 the teacher of all truth. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 
 
 GOLDEN volumes 1 richest treasures ! 
 Objects of delicious pleasures 1 
 You my eyes rejoicing please, 
 You my hands in rapture seize. 
 Brilliant wits and musing sages, 
 Lights who beamed through many ages, 
 Left to your conscious leaves their story, 
 And dared to trust you with their glory; 
 And now their hope of fame achieved, 
 Dear volumes ! you have not deceived. 
 
 HENRY RANTZAU.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 n tfje Qfyoite of 
 
 THE choice of books is not the least part of the duty of 
 a scholar. If he would become a man, and worthy to deal 
 with manlike things, he must read only the bravest and uo- 
 blest books, books forged at the heart and fashioned by 
 the intellect of a godlike man. JANUARY SEARLE. 
 
 HE most important question for you 
 to ask yourself, be you teacher or 
 scholar, is this : What books shall 
 I read? For him who has incli- 
 nation to read, there is no dearth of reading 
 matter, and it is obtainable almost for the 
 asking. Books are in a manner thrust upon 
 you almost daily. ' Shall you read without dis- 
 crimination whatever comes most readily to 
 hand? As well say that you will accept as 
 a friend and companion every man whom you 
 meet on the street. Shall you read even 
 every good book that comes in your way, 
 
 23
 
 24 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 simply because it is harmless and interesting? 
 It is not every harmless book, nor indeed 
 every good book, that will make your mind 
 the richer for the reading of it. Never, per- 
 haps, has the right choice of books been 
 more difficult than at present ; and never did 
 it behoove more strongly both teachers and 
 scholars to look well to the character of that 
 which they read. 
 
 First, then, let us consider what books we 
 are to avoid. All will agree that those which 
 are really and absolutely bad should be 
 shunned as we shun a pestilence. In these 
 last years of the nineteenth century there is 
 no more prolific cause of evil than bad books. 
 There are many books so utterly vile that 
 there is no mistaking their character, and no 
 question as to whether they should be avoided. 
 There are others which are a thousand-fold 
 more dangerous because they come to us 
 disguised, " wolves in sheep's clothing," - 
 affecting a character of harmlessness, if not 
 of sanctity. I have heard those who ought to 
 know better, laugh at the silly jokes of a very 
 silly book, and offer by way of excuse that 
 there was nothing very bad in it. I have 
 heard teachers recommend to their pupils 
 reading matter which, to say the least, was of
 
 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 
 
 2 5 
 
 a very doubtful character. Now, the only 
 excuse that can be offered in such cases is 
 ignorance, "I did n't know there was any 
 harm in the book." But the teacher who 
 through ignorance poisons the moral char- 
 acter and checks the mental growth of his 
 pupils is as guilty of criminal carelessness as 
 the druggist's clerk who by mistake sells ar- 
 senic for quinine. Step down and out of that 
 responsible position which you are in no wise 
 qualified to fill ! The direction of the pupils' 
 habits of reading, the choice of reading mat- 
 ter for them, is by no means the least of the 
 teacher's duties. 
 
 The elder Pliny, eighteen hundred years 
 ago, was accustomed to say that no book was 
 so bad but that some part of it might be read 
 with profit. This may have been true in 
 Pliny's time ; but it is very far from correct 
 now-a-days. A large number of books, and 
 many which attain an immense circulation, 
 are but the embodiment of evil from begin- 
 ning to end ; others, although not absolutely 
 and aggressively bad, contain not a single 
 line that can be read with profit. 
 
 What are the sure criterions of a bad book? 
 There is no better authority on this subject 
 than the Rev. Robert Collyer. He says : " If
 
 26 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 when I read a book about God, I find that it 
 has put Him farther from me ; or about man, 
 that it has put me farther from him ; or about 
 this universe, that it has shaken down upon it 
 a new look of desolation, turning a green field 
 into a wild moor; or about life, that it has 
 made it seem a little less worth living, on all 
 accounts, than it was ; or about moral prin- 
 ciples, that they are not quite so clear and 
 strong as they were when this author began 
 to talk ; then I know that on any of these 
 five cardinal things in the life of man, his 
 relations to God, to his fellows, to the world 
 about him, and the world within him, and 
 the great principles on which all things stable 
 centre, that, for me, is a bad book. It may 
 chime in with some lurking appetite in my 
 own nature, and so seem to be as sweet as 
 honey to my taste ; but it comes to bitter, bad 
 results. It may be food for another; I can 
 say nothing to that. He may be a pine while 
 I am a palm. I only know this, that in these 
 great first things, if the book I read shall touch 
 them at all, it shall touch them to my profit 
 or I will not read it. Right and wrong shall 
 grow more clear ; life in and about me more 
 divine ; I shall come nearer to my fellows, 
 and God nearer to me, or the thing is a poi-
 
 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 27 
 
 son. Faust, or Calvin, or Carlyle, if any one 
 of these cardinal things is the grain and the 
 grist of the book, and that is what it comes to 
 when I read it, I am being drugged and poi- 
 soned ; and the sooner I know it the better. 
 I want bread, and meat, and milk, not brandy, 
 or opium, or hasheesh." * 
 
 And Robert Southey, the poet, expresses 
 nearly the same thing : " Young readers, you 
 whose hearts are open, whose understandings 
 are not yet hardened, and whose feelings are 
 not yet exhausted nor encrusted with the 
 world, take from me a better rule than any 
 professors of criticism will teach you ! Would 
 you know whether the tendency of a book is 
 good or evil, examine in what state of mind 
 you lay it down. Has it induced you to sus- 
 pect that what you have been accustomed to 
 think unlawful may after all be innocent, and 
 that may be harmless which you have hitherto 
 been taught to think dangerous? Has it 
 tended to make you dissatisfied and impa- 
 tient under the control of others, and dis- 
 posed you to relax in that self-government 
 without which both the laws of God and man 
 tell us there can be no virtue, and, conse- 
 quently, no happiness ? Has it attempted to 
 
 1 Robert Collyer : Addresses and Sermons.
 
 28 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 abate your admiration and reverence for what 
 is great and good, and to diminish in you the 
 love of your country and your fellow-crea- 
 tures ? Has it addressed itself to your pride, 
 your vanity, your selfishness, or any other of 
 your evil propensities ? Has it defiled the im- 
 agination with what is loathsome, and shocked 
 the heart with what is monstrous? Has it 
 disturbed the sense of right and wrong which 
 the Creator has implanted in the human soul ? 
 If so, if you are conscious of any or all of 
 these effects, or if, having escaped from all, 
 you have felt that such were the effects it was 
 intended to produce, throw the book in the 
 fire, whatever name it may bear in the title- 
 page ! Throw it in the fire, young man, 
 though it should have been the gift of a 
 friend ; young lady, away with the whole set, 
 though it should be the prominent furniture 
 of a rosewood bookcase." * 
 
 " It is the case with literature as with life," 
 says Arthur Schopenhauer, the German phi- 
 losopher. " Wherever we turn we come upon 
 the incorrigible mob of humankind, whose 
 name is Legion, swarming everywhere, dam- 
 aging everything, as flies in summer. Hence 
 the multiplicity of bad books, those exuberant 
 
 1 TJie Doctor, Interchapter V., 1856.
 
 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 29 
 
 weeds of literature which choke the true corn. 
 Such books rob the public of time, money, 
 and attention, which ought properly to belong 
 to good literature and noble aims ; and they 
 are written with a view merely to make money 
 or occupation. They are therefore not mere- 
 ly useless, but injurious. Nine tenths of our 
 current literature has no other end but to in- 
 veigle a thaler or two out of the public pocket, 
 for which purpose author, publisher, and 
 printer are leagued together. ... Of bad 
 books we can never read too little ; of the 
 good, never too much. The bad are intellec- 
 tual poison, and undermine the understand- 
 ing." 
 
 From Thomas Carlyle's inaugural address at 
 Edinburgh on the occasion of his installation 
 as rector of the University in 1866, I quote 
 the following potent passage : " I do not know 
 whether it has been sufficiently brought home 
 to you that there are two kinds of books. 
 When a man is reading on any kind of subject, 
 in most departments of books, in all books, 
 if you take it in a wide sense, he will find 
 that there is a division into good books and 
 bad books : everywhere a good kind of a book 
 
 1 Arthur Schopenhauer : Parerga und Paralipomena, 
 1851.
 
 30 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 and a bad kind of a book. I am not to assume 
 that you are unacquainted or ill-acquainted 
 with this plain fact ; but I may remind you 
 that it is becoming a very important consid- 
 eration in our day. . . . There is a number, 
 a frightfully increasing number, of books that 
 are decidedly, to the readers of them, not 
 useful. But an ingenious reader will learn, 
 also, that a certain number of books were 
 written by a supremely noble kind of people ; 
 not a very great number of books, but still a 
 number fit to occupy all your reading indus- 
 try, do adhere more or less to that side of 
 things. In short, as I have written it down 
 somewhere else, I conceive that books are 
 like men's souls, divided into sheep and goats. 
 Some few are going up, and carrying us up, 
 heavenward; calculated, I mean, to be of 
 priceless advantage in teaching, in forward- 
 ing the teaching of all generations. Others, 
 a frightful multitude, are going down, down ; 
 doing ever the more and the wider and the 
 wilder mischief. Keep a strict eye on that 
 latter class of books, my young friends ! " 
 
 Speaking of those books whose inward char- 
 acter and influence it is hard at first to dis- 
 cern, John Ruskin says : " Avoid especially 
 that class of literature which has a knowing
 
 THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 31 
 
 tone ; it is the most poisonous of all. Every 
 good book, or piece of book, is full of admi- 
 ration and awe : it may contain firm assertion 
 or stern satire, but it never sneers coldly, nor 
 asserts haughtily ; and it always leads you to 
 reverence or love something with your whole 
 heart. It is not always easy to distinguish 
 the satire of the venomous race of books from 
 the satire of the noble and pure ones ; but, 
 in general, you may notice that the cold- 
 blooded Crustacean and Batrachian books will 
 sneer at sentiment, and the warm-blooded, hu- 
 man books at sin. . . . Much of the literature 
 of the present day, though good to be read by 
 persons of ripe age, has a tendency to agitate 
 rather than confirm, and leaves its readers too 
 frequently in a helpless or hopeless indigna- 
 tion, the worst possible state into which the 
 mind of youth can be thrown. It may, in- 
 deed, become necessary for you, as you 
 advance in life, to set your hand to things 
 that need to be altered in the world, or apply 
 your heart chiefly to what must be pitied in 
 it, or condemned ; but for a young person 
 the safest temper is one of reverence, and 
 the safest place one of obscurity. Certainly 
 at present, and perhaps through all your life, 
 your teachers are wisest when they make you
 
 32 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 content in quiet virtue ; and that literature 
 and art are best for you which point out, in 
 common life and familiar things, the objects 
 for hopeful labor and for humble love." * 
 
 There would be fewer bad books in the 
 world if readers were properly informed and 
 warned of their character ; and we may be- 
 lieve that the really vicious books would 
 soon cease to exist if their makers and pub- 
 lishers were popularly regarded with the same 
 detestation as other corrupters of the public 
 morals. " He who has published an inju- 
 rious book," says Robert South, " sins, as 
 it were in his very grave ; corrupts others 
 while he is rotting himself." Addison says 
 much the same thing : " Writers of great 
 talents, who employ their parts in propagating 
 immorality, and seasoning vicious sentiments 
 with wit and humor, are to be looked upon 
 as the pests of society and the enemies of 
 mankind. They leave books behind them to 
 scatter infection and destroy their posterity. 
 They act the counterparts of a Confucius or 
 a Socrates, and seem to have been sent into 
 the world to deprave human nature, and sink 
 it into the condition of brutality." * 
 
 1 The Elements of Drawing, in Three Letters to Begin- 
 ners, 1857. 
 
 2 The Spectator, No. 166.
 
 THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 33 
 
 And William Cobbett- is still more severe 
 in his denunciation. In his "Advice to Young 
 Men," he says : "I hope that your taste will 
 keep you aloof from the writings of those 
 detestable villains who employ the powers of 
 their mind in debauching the minds of others, 
 or in endeavors to do it. They present their 
 poison in such captivating forms that it re- 
 quires great virtue and resolution to withstand 
 their temptations ; and they have, perhaps, 
 done a thousand times as much mischief in 
 the world as all the infidels and atheists put 
 together. These men ought to be held in 
 universal abhorrence, and never spoken of 
 but with execration." 
 
 But the shunning of bad books is only one 
 of the problems presented to us in the choice 
 of our reading. In the great multitude of 
 really good and valuable books, how shall we 
 choose those which are of the most vital im- 
 portance to us to know ? The universal habit 
 of desultory reading reading simply to be 
 entertained is a habit not to be indulged 
 in, nor encouraged, by scholars or by those 
 who aspire to the station of teachers. There 
 are perhaps a score of books which should 
 be read and studied by every one who claims 
 the title of reader ; but, aside from these, each 
 3
 
 34 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 person should determine, through a process of 
 rigid self-examination, what course of reading 
 and what books are likely to produce the most 
 profitable results to him. Find out, if possible, 
 what is your special bent of mind. What 
 line of inquiry or investigation is the most 
 congenial to your taste or mental capacity? 
 Having determined this question, let your 
 reading all centre upon that topic of study 
 which you have made your own, let it be 
 Literature, Science, History, Art, or any of 
 the innumerable subdivisions of these sub- 
 jects. In other words, choose a specialty, and 
 follow it with an eye single to it alone. 
 
 Says Frederic Harrison : " Every book that 
 we take up without a purpose is an oppor- 
 tunity lost of taking up a book with a pur- 
 pose ; every bit of stray information which we 
 cram into our heads without any sense of its 
 importance is for the most part a bit of the 
 most useful information driven out of our 
 heads and choked off from our minds. . . . 
 We know that books differ in value as much 
 as diamonds differ from the sand on the sea- 
 shore, as much as our living friend differs 
 from a dead rat. We know that much in the 
 myriad-peopled world of books very much 
 in all kinds is trivial, enervating, inane, even
 
 THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 35 
 
 noxious. And thus, where we have infinite 
 opportunities of wasting our effort to no end, 
 of fatiguing our minds without enriching them, 
 of clogging the spirit without satisfying it, 
 there, I cannot but think, the very infinity of 
 opportunities is robbing us of the actual power 
 of using them. ... To know anything that 
 turns up is, in the infinity of knowledge, to 
 know nothing. To read the first book we 
 come across, in the wilderness of books, is to 
 learn nothing. To turn over the pages of 
 ten thousand volumes is to be practically 
 indifferent to all that is good." ' 
 
 " It is of paramount importance," says 
 Schopenhauer, " to acquire the art not to read ; 
 in other words, of not reading such books as 
 occupy the public mind, or even those which 
 make a noise in the world, and reach several 
 editions in their first and last year of existence. 
 We should recollect that he who writes for 
 fools finds an enormous audience, and we 
 should devote the ever scant leisure of our cir- 
 cumscribed existence to the master-spirits of all 
 ages and nations, those who tower over human- 
 ity, and whom the voice of Fame proclaims : 
 only such writers cultivate and instruct us." 2 
 
 1 Fortnightly Review (April, 1879), "On the Choice 
 of Books." 2 Parcrqa und Paralipomena (1851).
 
 36 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 And John Ruskin offers the following per- 
 tinent advice to beginners : " It is of the 
 greatest importance to you, not only for art's 
 sake, but for all kinds of sake, in these days 
 of book deluge, to keep out of the salt 
 swamps of literature, and live on a little rocky 
 island of your own, with a spring and a lake 
 in it, pure and good. I cannot, of course, 
 suggest the choice of your library to you, for 
 every several mind needs different books ; 
 but there are some books which we all need, 
 and assuredly, if you read Homer, Plato, 
 ^Eschylus, Herodotus, Dante, Shakspeare, 
 and Spenser as much as you ought, you will 
 not require wide enlargement of your shelves 
 to right and left of them for purposes of per- 
 petual study. Among modern books, avoid 
 generally magazine and review literature. 
 Sometimes it may contain a useful abridg- 
 ment or a wholesome piece of criticism ; but 
 the chances are ten to one it will either waste 
 your time or mislead you. If you want to 
 understand any subject whatever, read the 
 best book upon it you can hear of; not a 
 review of the book. ... A common book will 
 often give you much amusement, but it is 
 only a noble book which will give you dear 
 friends."
 
 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 37 
 
 If any of us could recall the time which we 
 have spent in desultory and profitless reading, 
 and devote it now faithfully to the prosecution 
 of that special line of study which ought, long 
 ago, to have been chosen, how largely we 
 might add to our fund of useful knowledge, 
 and how grandly we might increase our in- 
 tellectual stature! "And again," remarks 
 James Herbert Morse, " if I could recover the 
 hours idly given to the newspaper, not for 
 my own gratification, but solely for my neigh- 
 bor at the breakfast- table, I could compass 
 a solid course of English and American his- 
 tory, get at the antecedents of political parties 
 in the two countries, and give the reasons for 
 the existence of Gladstone and Parnell, of 
 Elaine and Edmunds, in modern politics 
 and there is undoubtedly a reason for them 
 all. Two columns a day in the newspapers 
 which I could easily have spared, for they 
 were given mainly to murder- trials and the 
 search for corpses, or to the romance of the 
 reporter concerning the same have dur- 
 ing the last ten years absorbed just about the 
 time I might have spent in reading a very re- 
 spectable course in history, one embracing, 
 say, Curtius and Grote for Greece, Mommsen, 
 Merivale, and Gibbon for Rome, Macaulay
 
 38 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 and Green for my roots in Saxondom, Ban- 
 croft, Hildreth, and Palfrey for the ancestral 
 tree in America, together with a very notable 
 excursion into Spain and Holland with Motley 
 and Prescott, a course which I consider 
 very desirable, and one which should set up 
 a man of middle age very fairly in historical 
 knowledge. I am sure I could have saved 
 this amount out of any ten years of my news- 
 paper reading alone, without cutting off any 
 portion of that really valuable contribution for 
 which the daily paper is to be honored, and 
 which would be needed to make me an intelli- 
 gent man in the history of my own times." ' 
 
 It is not necessary that, in selecting a library 
 or in choosing what you will read, you should 
 have many books at your disposal. A few 
 books, well chosen and carefully read, will be 
 of infinitely more value to you than any mis- 
 cellaneous collection, however large. It is 
 possible for " the man of one book " to be 
 better equipped in knowledge and literary 
 attainments than he whose shelves are loaded 
 with all the fashionable literature of the day. 
 If your means will not permit you the luxury 
 of a library, buy one book, or a few books, 
 chosen with special reference to the line of 
 
 1 The Critic (July 5, 1884), " Leisure Reading."
 
 THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 39 
 
 reading which you have determined upon. 
 Let no honey-mouthed book-agent persuade 
 you to buy of his wares, unless they bear ex- 
 actly upon your specialty. You cannot afford 
 to waste money on mere catchpenny or ma- 
 chine publications, whose only recommenda- 
 tion is that they are harmless and that they sell 
 well. That man is to be envied who can say, 
 " I have a library of fifty or of a hundred 
 volumes, all relating to my chosen line of 
 thought, and not a single inferior or worthless 
 volume among them." 
 
 I have before me a list of books, " books 
 fashioned by the intellect of godlike men," 
 books which every person who aspires to 
 the rank of teacher or scholar should regard 
 as his inheritance from the master-minds of 
 the ages. If you know these books or 
 some of them you know much of that 
 which is best in the great world of letters. 
 You cannot afford to live in ignorance of 
 them. 
 
 Plato's Dialogues (Jowett's translation). 
 
 The Orations of Demosthenes on the Crown. 
 
 Bacon's Essays. 
 
 Burke's Orations and Political Essays. 
 
 Macaulay's Essays. 
 
 Carlyle's Essays. 
 
 Webster's Select Speeches.
 
 40 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Emerson's Essays. 
 
 The Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb. 
 
 Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. 
 
 Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray. 
 
 Hypatia, by Charles Kingsley. 
 
 The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot. 
 
 The Marble Faun, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
 
 The Sketch Book, by Washington Irving. 
 
 Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. 
 
 Wilhelm Meister, by Goethe (Carlyle's trans.). 
 
 Don Quixote, by Cervantes. 
 
 Homer's Iliad (Derby's or Chapman's translation). 
 
 Homer's Odyssey (Bryant's translation). 
 
 Dante's Divina Commedia (Longfellow's trans.). 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Shakspeare's Works. 
 
 Mrs. Browning's Poems. 
 
 Longfellow's Poetical Works. 
 
 Goethe's Faust (Bayard Taylor's translation). 
 
 I have named but twenty-five authors ; but 
 each of these, in his own line of thought and 
 endeavor, stands first in the long roll of im- 
 mortals. When you have the opportunity to 
 make the acquaintance of such as these, will 
 you waste your time with writers whom you 
 would be ashamed to number among your 
 personal friends? "Will you go and gossip 
 with your housemaid or your stable boy, 
 when you may talk with kings and queens, 
 while this eternal court is open to you, with 
 its society wide as the world, multitudinous
 
 THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 41 
 
 as its days, the chosen, the mighty, of every 
 place and time? Into that you may enter 
 always ; in that you may take fellowship and 
 rank according to your wish ; from that, once 
 entered into it, you can never be outcast but 
 by your own fault; by your aristocracy of 
 companionship there, your inherent aristoc- 
 racy will be assuredly tested, and the motives 
 with which you strive to take high place in the 
 society of the living, measured, as to all 
 the truth and sincerity that are in them, by 
 the place you desire to take in this company 
 of the dead." l 
 
 1 John Ruskin : Sesame and Lilies.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 to Eeato. 
 
 AND as for me, though I con but lite, 
 On bookes for to rede I me delite, 
 And to hem yeve I faith and credence, 
 And in my herte have hem in reverence 
 So hertely, that there is game none, 
 That from my bookes maketh me to gone, 
 But it be seldome on the holy daie, 
 Save certainly, whan that the month of May 
 Is comen, and that I heare the foules sing, 
 And that the floures ginnan for to spring, 
 Farwell my booke, and my devotion. 
 
 GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 
 
 HAVING chosen the books which are 
 to be our friends and counsellors, 
 the next question to be considered 
 is, How shall we use them ? Shall 
 we read them through as hastily as possible, 
 believing that the more we read, the more 
 learned we are ? Or shall we not derive more 
 profit by reading slowly, and by making the 
 subject-matter of each book thoroughly our 
 <nvn ? I do not believe that any general rule 
 42
 
 HOW TO READ. 43 
 
 can be given with reference to this matter. 
 Some readers will take in a page at a glance, 
 and will more thoroughly master a book in 
 a week than others could possibly master it 
 in six months. It required Frederick W. 
 Robertson half a year to read a small manual 
 of chemistry, and thoroughly to digest its con- 
 tents. Miss Martineau and Auguste Comte 
 were remarkably slow readers ; but then, that 
 which they read " lay fructifying, and came 
 out a living tree with leaves and fruit." Yet 
 it does not follow that the same rule should 
 apply to readers of every grade of genius. 
 
 It is generally better to read by subjects, to 
 learn what different writers have thought and 
 said concerning that matter of which you are 
 making a special study. Not many books are 
 to be read hastily through. " A person who 
 was a very great reader and hard thinker," 
 says Bishop Thirlwall, " once told me that he 
 never took up a book except with the view of 
 making himself master of some subject which 
 he was studying, and that while he was so 
 engaged he made all his reading converge 
 to that point. In this way he might read 
 parts of many books, but not a single one 
 from ' end to end.' This I take to be an 
 excellent method of study, but one which
 
 44 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 implies the command of many books as well 
 as of much leisure." 
 
 Seneca, the old Roman teacher, says : " Def- 
 inite reading is profitable ; miscellaneous read- 
 ing is pleasant. . . . The reading of many 
 authors and of all kinds of works has in it 
 something vague and unstable." 
 
 Says Quintilian : " Every good writer is to 
 be read, and diligently; and when the vol- 
 ume is finished, it is to be gone through again 
 from the beginning." 
 
 Martin Luther, in his " Table Talk," says : 
 " All who would study with advantage in any 
 art whatsoever ought to betake themselves to 
 the reading of some sure and certain books 
 oftentimes over; for to read many books 
 produceth confusion rather than learning, like 
 as those who dwell everywhere are not any- 
 where at home." 
 
 " Reading," says Locke the philosopher, 
 " furnishes the mind only with materials of 
 knowledge ; it is thinking that makes what 
 are read over. We are of the ruminating 
 kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves 
 with a great load of collections ; unless we 
 chew them over again, they will not give us 
 strength and nourishment." 
 
 " Much reading," says Dr. Robert South,
 
 HOW TO READ. 45 
 
 " is like much eating, wholly useless with- 
 out digestion." 
 
 " Desultory reading," writes Julius C. Hare, 
 "is indeed very mischievous, by fostering 
 habits of loose, discontinuous thought, by 
 turning the memory into a common sewer for 
 rubbish of all thoughts to flow through, and 
 by relaxing the power of attention, which of 
 all our faculties most needs care, and is most 
 improved by it. But a well-regulated course 
 of study will no more weaken the mind than 
 hard exercise will weaken the body ; nor will 
 a strong understanding be weighed down by 
 its knowledge, any more than oak is by its 
 leaves or than Samson was by his locks. He 
 whose sinews are drained by his hair must 
 already be a weakling." J 
 
 Says Thomas Carlyle : " Learn to be good 
 readers, which is perhaps a more difficult 
 thing than you imagine. Learn to be dis- 
 criminative in your reading ; to read faith- 
 fully, and with your best attention, all kinds 
 of things which you have a real interest in, 
 a real, not an imaginary, and which you 
 find to be really fit for what you are engaged in. 
 The most unhappy of all men is the man who 
 cannot tell what he is going to do, who has 
 
 i Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1848.
 
 46 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 got no work cut out for him in the world, 
 and does not go into it. For work is the 
 grand cure of all the maladies and miseries 
 that ever beset mankind, honest work, 
 which you intend getting done." 
 
 Says Ralph Waldo Emerson : " The best 
 rule of reading will be a method from nature, 
 and not a mechanical one of hours and pages. 
 It holds each student to a pursuit of his na- 
 tive aim, instead of a desultory miscellany. 
 Let him read what is proper to him, and not 
 waste his memory on a crowd of mediocrities. 
 . . . The three practical rules which I have 
 to offer are : i. Never read any book that is 
 not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed 
 books. 3. Never read any but what you like ; 
 or, in Shakspeare's phrase, 
 
 ' No profit goes where is no pleasure ta'en : 
 In brief, sir, study what you most affect.' " J 
 
 "Let us read good works often over," says 
 another writer. 2 " Some skip from volume to 
 volume, touching on all points, resting on 
 none. We hold, on the contrary, that if a 
 book be worth reading once, it is worth read- 
 ing twice, and that if it stands a second 
 reading, it may stand a third. This, indeed, 
 
 1 Society and Solitude, " Books." 
 * George Gilfillan.
 
 HOW TO READ. 47 
 
 is one great test of the excellence of books. 
 Many books require to be read more than 
 once, in order to be seen in their proper 
 colors and latent glories, and dim-discovered 
 truths will by-and-by disclose themselves. . . . 
 Again, let us read thoughtfully ; this is a great 
 secret in the right use of books. Not lazily, 
 to mumble, like the dogs in the siege of 
 Corinth, as dead bones, the words of the 
 author, not slavishly to assent to his every 
 word, and cry Amen to his every conclusion, 
 not to read him as an officer his general's 
 orders, but to read him with suspicion, with 
 inquiry, with a free exercise of your own 
 faculties, with the admiration of intelligence, 
 and not with the wonder of ignorance, that 
 is the proper and profitable way of reading 
 the great authors of your native tongue." 
 
 Says Sir Arthur Helps : " There is another 
 view of reading which, though it is obvious 
 enough, is seldom taken, I imagine, or at 
 least acted upon ; and that is, that in the 
 course of our reading we should lay up in 
 our minds a store of goodly thoughts in well- 
 wrought words, which should be a living 
 treasure of knowledge always with us, and 
 from which, at various times and amidst all 
 the shifting of circumstances, we might be
 
 48 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 sure of drawing some comfort, guidance, and 
 sympathy. ... In any work that is worth 
 carefully reading, there is generally something 
 that is worth remembering accurately. A 
 man whose mind is enriched with the best 
 sayings of his own country is a more indepen- 
 dent man, walks the streets in a town or the 
 lanes in the country with far more delight 
 than he otherwise would have, and is taught 
 by wise observers of man and nature to 
 examine for himself. Sancho Panza, with his 
 proverbs, is a great deal better than he would 
 have been without them ; and I contend that 
 a man has something in himself to meet 
 troubles and difficulties, small or great, who 
 has stored in his mind some of the best things 
 which have been said about troubles and 
 difficulties." ' 
 
 And John Ruskin : " No book is worth 
 anything which is not worth much ; nor is it 
 serviceable until it has been read, and re- 
 read, and loved, and loved again ; and 
 marked, so that you can refer to the passages 
 you want in it, as a soldier can seize the 
 weapons he needs in an armory, or a house- 
 wife bring the spice she needs from her 
 store." 
 
 1 Friends in Council.
 
 HOW TO READ. 49 
 
 " I am not at all afraid," says Matthew 
 Browne, "of urging overmuch the propriety 
 of frequent, very frequent, reading of the 
 same book. The book remains the same, 
 but the reader changes ; and the value of 
 reading lies in the collision of minds. It may 
 be taken for granted that no conceivable 
 amount of reading could ever put me into the 
 position with respect to his book I mean 
 as to intelligence only in which the author 
 strove to place me. I may read him a hun- 
 dred times, and not catch the precise right 
 point of view ; and may read him a hundred 
 and one times, and approach it the hundred 
 and first. The driest and hardest book that 
 ever was, contains an interest over and above 
 what can be picked out of it, and laid, so to 
 speak, on the table. It is interesting as my 
 friend is interesting; it is a problem which 
 invites me to closer knowledge, and that 
 usually means better liking. He must be a 
 poor friend that we only care to see once or 
 twice, and then forget." 1 
 
 "The great secret of reading consists in 
 this," says Charles F. Richardson, " that it 
 does not matter so much what we read, or 
 
 1 Views and Opinions, by Matthew Browne (W. H. 
 Rands).
 
 50 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 how we read it, as what we think and how we 
 think it. Reading is only the fuel ; and, the 
 mind once on fire, any and all material will 
 feed the flame, provided only it have any 
 combustible matter in it. And we cannot 
 tell from what quarter the next material will 
 come. The thought we need, the facts we 
 are in search of, may make their appearance 
 in the corner of the newspaper, or in some 
 forgotten volume long ago consigned to dust 
 and oblivion. . . . The mind that is not 
 awake and alive will find a library a barren 
 wilderness. Now, gather up the scraps and 
 fragments of thought on whatever subject 
 you may be studying, for of course by a 
 note-book I do not mean a mere receptacle 
 for odds and ends, a literary dust- bin, but 
 acquire the habit of gathering everything 
 whenever and wherever you find it, that be- 
 longs in your line or lines of study, and you 
 will be surprised to see how such fragments 
 will arrange themselves into an orderly whole 
 by the very organizing power of your own 
 thinking, acting in a definite direction. This 
 is a true process of self-education ; but you 
 see it is no mechanical process of mere ag- 
 gregation. It requires activity of thought ; 
 but without that, what is any reading but
 
 HOW TO READ. 51 
 
 mere passive amusement? And it requires 
 method. I have myself a sort of literary 
 book-keeping. I post my literary accounts, 
 bringing together in proper groups the fruits 
 of much casual reading." * 
 
 Edward Gibbon the historian tells us that 
 a taste for books was the pleasure and glory 
 of his life. " Let us read with method," he 
 says, " and propose to ourselves an end to 
 what our studies may point. The use of 
 reading is to aid us in thinking." 
 
 Among practical suggestions to those who 
 would read for profit, I have found nothing 
 more pertinent than the following from the 
 posthumous papers of Bryan Waller Procter : 
 "Always read the preface to a book. It 
 places you on vantage ground, and enables 
 you to survey more completely the book it- 
 self. You frequently also discover the char- 
 acter of the author from the preface. You 
 see his aims, perhaps his prejudices. You 
 see the point of view from which he takes 
 his pictures, the rocks and impediments 
 which he himself beholds, and you steer ac- 
 cordingly. . . . Understand every word you 
 read ; if possible, every allusion of the au- 
 thor, if practicable, while you are reading ; 
 
 1 The Choice of Books.
 
 52 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 if not, make search and inquiry as soon as 
 may be afterward. Have a dictionary near 
 you when you read ; and when you read a 
 book of travels, always read with a map of 
 the country at hand. Without a map the in- 
 formation is vague and transitory. . . . After 
 having read as much as your mind will 
 easily retain, sum up what you have read, 
 endeavor to place in view the portion or sub- 
 ject that has formed your morning's study ; 
 and then reckon up (as you would reckon 
 up a sum) the facts or items of knowledge 
 that you have gained. It generally happens 
 that the amount of three or four hours' read- 
 ing may be reduced to and concentrated in 
 half a dozen propositions. These are your 
 gains, these are the facts or opinions that 
 you have acquired. You may investigate 
 the truth of them hereafter. Although I 
 think that one's general reading should ex- 
 tend over many subjects, yet for serious 
 study we should confine ourselves to some 
 branch of literature or science. Otherwise 
 the mind becomes confused and enfeebled, 
 and the thoughts, dissipated on many things, 
 will settle profitably on none. A man whose 
 duration of life is limited, and whose powers 
 are limited also, should not aim at all things,
 
 HOW TO READ. 53 
 
 but should content himself with a few. By 
 such means he may master one, and become 
 tolerably familiar perhaps with two or three 
 arts or sciences. He may indeed even make 
 valuable contributions to them. Without 
 this economy of labor, he cannot produce 
 any complete work, nor can he exhaust any 
 subject." l 
 
 Every scholar is familiar with Lord Bacon's 
 classification of books, some " to be tasted, 
 others to be swallowed, and some few to be 
 chewed and digested : that is, some books 
 are to be read only in parts; others to be 
 read, but not curiously; and some few to 
 be read wholly, and with diligence and 
 attention." Coleridge's classification of the 
 various kinds of readers is perhaps not quite 
 so well known. He said that some readers 
 are like jelly-bags, they let pass away all 
 that is pure and good, and retain only what 
 is impure and refuse. Another class he typi- 
 fied by a sponge ; these are they whose 
 minds suck all up, and give it back again, 
 only a little dirtier. Others, again, he likened 
 to an hour-glass, and their reading to the sand 
 which runs in and out, and leaves no trace 
 
 1 Temple Bar (September. 1884), " Barry Cornwall 
 on the Reading of Books."
 
 54 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 behind. And still others he compared to the 
 slave in the Golconda mines, who retains the 
 gold and the gem, and casts aside the dust 
 and the dross. Charles C. Colton, the author 
 of " Lacon," says there are three kinds of read- 
 ers : first, those who read to think, and they 
 are rare ; second, those who read to write, 
 and they are common ; third, those who read 
 to talk, and they form the great majority. 
 And Goethe, the greatest name in German 
 literature, makes still a different classification : 
 some readers, he tells us, enjoy without judg- 
 ment ; others judge without enjoyment ; and 
 some there are who judge while they enjoy, 
 and enjoy while they judge. 
 
 In these days, when, so far as reading- 
 matter is concerned, we are overburdened 
 with an embarrassment of riches, we cannot 
 afford to read, even in the books which we 
 have chosen as ours, those things which have 
 no relationship to our studies, which do not 
 concern us, and which are sure to be forgotten 
 as soon as read. The art of reading, says 
 Philip Gilbert Hamerton in his admirable 
 essay on " The Intellectual Life," " is to skip 
 judiciously. The art is to skip all that does 
 not concern us, whilst missing nothing that 
 we really need. No external guidance can
 
 HOW TO READ. 55 
 
 teach this ; for nobody but ourselves can 
 guess what the needs, of our intellect may be. 
 But let us select with decisive firmness, in- 
 dependently of other people's advice, inde- 
 pendently of the authority of custom." And 
 Charles F. Richardson, referring to the same 
 subject, remarks : " The art of skipping is, 
 in a word, the art of noting and shunning that 
 which is bad, or frivolous, or misleading, or 
 unsuitable for one's individual needs. If you 
 are convinced that the book or the chapter is 
 bad, you cannot drop it too quickly. If it is 
 simply idle and foolish, put it away on that 
 account, unless you are properly seeking 
 amusement from idleness and frivolity. If it 
 is something deceitful and disingenuous, your 
 task is not so easy ; but your conscience will 
 give you warning, and the sharp examination 
 which should follow will tell you that you are 
 in poor literary company."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 n tlje Falue anb Wise of Hibrarics. 
 
 ALL round the room my silent servants wait, 
 
 My friends in every season, bright and dim 
 
 Angels and seraphim 
 
 Come down and murmur to me, sweet and low, 
 
 And spirits of the skies all come and go 
 
 Early and late ; 
 
 From the old world's divine and distant date, 
 
 From the sublimer few, 
 
 Down to the poet who but yester-eve 
 
 Sang sweet and made us grieve, 
 
 All come, assembling here in order due. 
 
 And here I dwell with Poesy, my mate, 
 
 With Erato and all her vernal sighs, 
 
 Great Clio with her victories elate, 
 
 Or pale Urania's deep and starry eyes. 
 
 BRYAN WALLER PROCTER. 
 
 LIBRARY is the scholar's work- 
 shop. To the teacher or profes- 
 sional man, a collection of good 
 books is as necessary as a kit of 
 tools to a carpenter. And yet I am aware 
 that many persons are engaged in teaching, 
 56
 
 THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 57 
 
 who have neither a library of their own, nor 
 access to any other collection of books suit- 
 able to their use. There are others who, 
 having every opportunity to secure the best 
 of books, with a public library near at hand 
 offering them the 'free use of works most val- 
 uable to them, yet make no effort to profit 
 by these advantages. They care nothing for 
 any books save the text-books indispensable 
 to their profession, and for these only so far 
 as necessity obliges them to do so. The 
 libraries of many persons calling themselves 
 teachers consist solely of school-books, many 
 of which have been presented them by accom- 
 modating book-agents, " for examination with 
 a view to introduction." And yet we hear 
 such teachers talk learnedly about the intro- 
 duction of English literature into the common 
 schools of the country, and the necessity of 
 cultivating among the children a wholesome 
 love and taste for reading. If inquiry were 
 made, we might discover that by a study of 
 English literature these teachers understand 
 some memoriter exercises in Shaw's " Manual " 
 or Brooke's " Primer," and that, as to good 
 reading, some there are who are entertained 
 more deeply by Peck's " Bad Boy " than by 
 Shakspeare's " Merchant of Venice." Talk not
 
 58 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 about directing and cultivating the reading- 
 tastes of your pupils until you have successfully 
 directed and cultivated your own ! And the 
 first step towards doing this is the selection 
 and purchase of a library for yourself, which 
 shall be all your own. A very few books will 
 do, if they are of the right kind ; and they 
 must be yours. A borrowed book is but a 
 cheap pleasure, an unappreciated and un- 
 satisfactory tool. To know the true value of 
 books, and to derive any satisfactory benefit 
 from them, you must first feel the sweet de- 
 light of buying them, you must know the 
 preciousness of possession. 
 
 You plead poverty, the insufficiency of 
 your salary ? But do you not spend for other 
 things, entirely unnecessary, much more every 
 year than the cost of a few books? The im- 
 mediate outlay need not be large, the returns 
 which you will realize will be great in pro- 
 portion to your good judgment and earnest- 
 ness. Not only will the possession of a good 
 library add to your means of enjoyment and 
 increase your capacity for doing good, it may, 
 if you are worldly-minded, and we all are, 
 put you in the way of occupying a more 
 desirable position and earning a more satis- 
 factory reward for your labors.
 
 THE VALUE AND USE OP LIBRARIES. 59 
 
 There are two kinds of books that you 
 will need in your library : first, those which 
 are purely professional, and are in the strictest 
 sense the tools of your craft ; second, those 
 which belong to your chosen department of 
 literature, and are to be regarded as your 
 friends, companions, and counsellors. I can- 
 not, of course, dictate to you what these 
 books shall be. The lists given in the chap- 
 ters which follow this are designed simply as 
 suggestive aids. But in a library of fifty or 
 even thirty well-chosen volumes you may 
 possess infinite riches, and means for a life- 
 time of enjoyment ; while, on the other hand, 
 if your selection is injudicious, you may ex- 
 pend thousands of dollars for a collection of 
 the odds and ends of literature, which will be 
 only an incumbrance and a hindrance to you. 
 
 " I would urge upon every young man, as 
 the beginning of his due and wise provision 
 for his household," says John Ruskin, "to 
 obtain as soon as he can, by the severest 
 economy, a restricted, serviceable, and stead- 
 ily however slowly increasing series of 
 books for use through life ; making his little 
 library, of all the furniture in his room, the 
 most studied and decorative piece ; every 
 volume having its assigned place, like a little
 
 60 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 statue in its niche, and one of the earliest and 
 strictest lessons to the children of the house 
 being how to turn the pages of their own 
 literary possessions lightly and deliberately, 
 with no chance of tearing or dog's-ears." ' 
 
 And Henry Ward Beecher emphasizes the 
 same thing, remarking that, among the early 
 ambitions to be excited in clerks, workmen, 
 journeymen, and indeed among all that are 
 struggling up in life from nothing to something, 
 the most important is that of forming and 
 continually adding to a library of good books. 
 " A little library, growing larger every year, is 
 an honorable part of a man's history. It is 
 a man's duty to have books. A library is not 
 a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life." 
 
 "How much do you think we spend al- 
 together on our libraries, public or private, as 
 compared with what we spend on our horses ? " 
 asks another enthusiastic lover of books, al- 
 ready quoted. " If a man spends lavishly on 
 his library, you call him mad, a biblio- 
 maniac. But you never call any one a horse- 
 maniac, though men ruin themselves every 
 day by their horses, and you do not hear of 
 people ruining themselves by their books. . . 
 We talk of food for the mind, as of food for 
 
 1 Sesame and Lilies.
 
 THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 6 1 
 
 the body : now, a good book contains such 
 food inexhaustibly; it is a provision for life, 
 and for the best of us ; yet how long most 
 people would look at the best book before 
 they would give the price of a large turbot 
 for it ! Though there have been men who 
 have pinched their stomachs and bared their 
 backs to buy a book, whose libraries were 
 cheaper to them, I think, in the end than 
 most men's dinners are. We are few of us 
 put to such trial, and more the pity : for, 
 indeed, a precious thing is all the more pre- 
 cious to us if it has been won by work or 
 economy ; and if public libraries were half as 
 costly as public dinners, or books cost the 
 tenth part of what bracelets do, even foolish 
 men and women might sometimes suspect 
 there was good in reading, as well as in 
 munching and sparkling ; whereas the very 
 cheapness of literature is making even wise 
 people forget that if a book is worth reading, 
 it is worth buying." 
 
 " The truest owner of a library," says the au- 
 thor of " Hesperides," " is he who has bought 
 each book for the love he bears to it, who 
 is happy and content to say, ' Here are my 
 jewels, my choicest material possessions ! ' 
 who is proud to crown such assertion thus :
 
 62 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 ' I am content that this library shall rep- 
 resent the use of the talents given me by 
 Heaven ! ' That man's library, though not 
 commensurate with his love for books, will 
 demonstrate what he has been able to ac- 
 complish with his resources ; it will denote 
 economy of living, eagerness to possess the 
 particles that compose his library, and quick 
 watchfulness to seize them when means and 
 opportunities serve. Such a man has built 
 a temple, of which each brick has been the 
 subject of curious and acute intelligent exam- 
 ination and appreciation before it has been 
 placed in the sacred building." 
 
 " Every man should have a library ! " 
 exclaims William Axon. '' The works of the 
 grandest masters of literature may now be 
 procured at prices that place them within the 
 reach almost of the very poorest, and we 
 may all put Parnassian singing-birds into our 
 chambers to cheer us with the sweetness of 
 their songs. And when we have got our little 
 library we may look proudly at Shakspeare 
 and Bacon and Bunyan, as they stand in our 
 bookcase with other noble spirits, and one or 
 two of whom the world knows nothing, but 
 whose worth we have often tested. These 
 may cheer and enlighten us, may inspire us
 
 THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 65 
 
 with higher aims and aspirations, may make 
 us, if we use them rightly, wiser and better 
 men." T 
 
 Good old George Dyer, the friend of the 
 poet Southey, as learned as he was benev- 
 olent, was wont to say : " Libraries are the 
 wardrobes of literature, whence men, properly 
 informed, may bring forth something for or- 
 nament, much for curiosity, and more for 
 use." "Any library is an attraction," says the 
 venerable A. Bronson Alcott; and Victor 
 Hugo writes : 
 
 " A library implies an act of faith, 
 Which generations stiil in darkness hid 
 Sign in their night in witness of the dawn." 
 
 John Bright, the great English statesman 
 and reformer, in a speech at the opening of 
 the Birmingham Free Library a short time 
 ago, remarked : " You may have in a house 
 costly pictures and costly ornaments, and a 
 great variety of decoration ; yet, so far as my 
 judgment goes, I would prefer to have one 
 comfortable room well stocked with books to 
 all you can give me in the way of decoration 
 which the highest art can supply. The only 
 subject of lamentation is one feels that 
 
 1 Meliora (October, 1867).
 
 64 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 always, I think, in the presence of a library 
 that life is Joo short, and I am afraid I must 
 say also that our industry is so far deficient 
 that we seem to have no hope of a full en- 
 joyment of the ample repast that is spread 
 before us. In the houses of the humble a 
 little library, in my opinion, is a most precious 
 possession." 
 
 Jean Paul Richter, it is said, was always 
 melancholy in a large library, because it re- 
 minded him of his ignorance. 
 
 " A library may be regarded as the solemn 
 chamber in which a man can take counsel of 
 all that have been wise and great and good 
 and glorious amongst the men that have gone 
 before him," said George Dawson, also at 
 Birmingham. " If we come down for a mo- 
 ment and look at the bare and immediate 
 utilities of a library, we find that here a man 
 gets himself ready for his calling, arms him- 
 self for his profession, finds out the facts that 
 are to determine his trade, prepares himself 
 for his examination. The utilities of it are 
 endless and priceless. It is, too, a place of 
 pastime ; for man has no amusement more 
 innocent, more sweet, more gracious, more 
 elevating, and more fortifying than he can 
 find in a library. If he be fond of books,
 
 THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 65 
 
 his fondness will discipline him as well as 
 amuse him. ... A library is the strengthener 
 of all that is great in life, and the repeller of 
 what is petty and mean ; and half the gossip 
 of society would perish if the books that are 
 truly worth reading were read. . . . When we 
 look through the houses of a large part of the 
 middle classes of this country, we find there 
 everything but what there ought most to be. 
 There are no books in them worth talking of. 
 If a question arises of geography, they have no 
 atlases. If the question be when a great man 
 was born, they cannot help you. They can 
 give you a gorgeous bed, with four posts, 
 marvellous adornments, luxurious hangings, 
 and lacquered shams all round; they can 
 give you dinners ad nauseam, and wine that 
 one can, or cannot, honestly praise. But use- 
 ful books are almost the last things that are to 
 be found there ; and when the mind is empty 
 of those things that books can alone fill it 
 with, then the seven devils of pettiness, fri- 
 volity, fashionableness, gentility, scandal, small 
 slander, and the chronicling of small beer 
 come in and take possession. Half this 
 nonsense would be dropped if men would 
 only understand the elevating influences of 
 their communing constantly with the lofty 
 5
 
 66 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 thoughts and high resolves of men of old 
 times." 
 
 The author of " Dreamthorpe," filled with 
 love and enthusiasm, discourses thus : " I go 
 into my library, and all history unrolls before 
 me. I breathe the morning air of the world 
 while the scent of Eden's roses yet lingers in 
 it, while it vibrates only to the world's first 
 brood of nightingales and to the laugh of 
 Eve. I see the pyramids building; I hear 
 the shoutings of the armies of Alexander ; I 
 feel the ground shake beneath the march of 
 Cambyses. I sit as in a theatre, the stage 
 is time; the play is the play of the world. 
 What a spectacle it is ! What kingly pomp, 
 what processions file past, what cities burn to 
 heaven, what crowds of captives are dragged 
 at the chariot wheels of conquerors ! I hiss, 
 or cry ' Bravo,' when the great actors come 
 on, shaking the stage. I am a Roman em- 
 peror when I look at a Roman coin. I lift 
 Homer, and I shout with Achilles in the 
 trenches. The silence of the unpeopled As- 
 syrian plains, the out-comings and in-goings of 
 the patriarchs, Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac 
 in the fields at eventide, Rebekah at the well, 
 Jacob's guile, Esau's face reddened by desert 
 sun-heat, Joseph's splendid funeral procession,
 
 THE VALUE AND USE OP LIBRARIES, 67 
 
 all these things I find within the boards of 
 my Old Testament. What a silence in those 
 old books as of a half-peopled world, what 
 bleating of flocks, what green pastoral rest, 
 what indubitable human existence ! Across 
 brawling centuries of blood and war, I hear 
 the bleating of Abraham's flocks, the tinkling 
 of the bells of Rebekah's camels. O men 
 and women, so far separated yet so near, so 
 strange yet so well-known, by what miraculous 
 power do I know you all ? Books are the true 
 Elysian fields, where the spirits of the dead 
 converse ; and into these fields a mortal may 
 venture unappalled. What king's court can 
 boast such company? What school of phi- 
 losophy, such wisdom? The wit of the an- 
 cient world is glancing and flashing there. 
 There is Pan's pipe, there are the songs of 
 Apollo. Seated in my library at night, and 
 looking on the silent faces of my books, I am 
 occasionally visited by a strange sense of the 
 supernatural. They are not collections of 
 printed pages, they are ghosts. I take one 
 down, and it speaks with me in a tongue not 
 now heard on earth, and of men and things 
 of which it alone possesses knowledge. I 
 call myself a solitary, but sometimes I think 
 I misapply the term. No man sees more
 
 68 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 company than I do. I travel with mightier 
 cohorts around me than did ever Timour or 
 Genghis Khan on their fiery marches. I am 
 a sovereign in my library ; but it is the dead, 
 not the living, that attend my levees."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Books for cfcerg Scholar. 
 
 THESE books of mine, as you well know, are not drawn 
 up here for display, however much the pride of the eye 
 may be gratified in beholding them ; they are on actual 
 service. SOUTHEY. 
 
 [JO assist teachers and scholars, and 
 those who aspire to become such, 
 in making judicious selection of 
 world-famous books for their libra- 
 ries, I submit the following list, which includes 
 the greater part of all that is the very best and 
 the most enduring in our language. It is not 
 intended to embrace professional works, nor 
 works suited merely for students of specialties. 
 The books named are such as will grace the 
 library of any scholar, no matter what his 
 profession or his preferences ; they are books 
 which every teacher ought to know ; they are 
 books of which no one can ever feel ashamed. 
 
 69
 
 70 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 "The first thing naturally, when one enters 
 a scholar's study or library," says Holmes, " is 
 to look at his books. One gets a notion very 
 speedily of his tastes and the range of his 
 pursuits by a glance round his book-shelves." 
 And, take my word for it, if you want a library 
 of which you will be proud, you cannot be 
 too careful as to the character of the books 
 you put in it. 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 Chaucer's Poetical Works, or, if not the complete 
 works, at least the " Canterbury Tales." In 
 speaking of the great works in English Poetry, 
 it is natural to mention Chaucer first, although, 
 as a general rule, he should be one of the last 
 read. " It is sufficient to say, according to the 
 proverb, that here is God's plenty." DRYDEN. 
 
 Spenser's Faerie Qiteene, not to be read through, but 
 in selections. " We can scarcely comprehend 
 how a perusal of the Faerie Queene can fail to in- 
 sure to the true believer a succession of halcyon 
 days." HAZLITT. 
 
 The Works of William Shakspeare. The following 
 editions of Shakspeare have been issued within 
 the present century: The first Variorum (1813); 
 The Variorum (1821) ; Singer's (10 vols. 1826) ; 
 Knight's (8 vols. 1841); Collier's (8 vols. 1844); 
 Verplanck's (3 vols. 1847); Hudson's (n vols. 
 1857) ; Dyce's (6 vols. 1867) ; Mary Cowden 
 Clarke's (2 vols. 1860) ; R. G. White's (12 vols. 
 1862); Clark and Wright's (9 vols. 1866); The
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 71 
 
 Leopold Edition (i vol. 1877); The Harvard 
 Edition (20 vols. 1881); The Variorum ( vols. 
 I S 7 i ); Rolfe's School Shakspeare (1872-81); 
 Hudson's School Shakspeare. " Above all poets, 
 the mysterious dual of hard sense and empyrean 
 fancy." LORD LYTTON. 
 
 Ben Jonsorfs Dramatic and Poetical Works, to be 
 read also in selections. " O rare Ben Jonson ! " 
 
 Christopher Marlowe" 1 * Dramatic Works, especially 
 " Tamburlaine," " Doctor Faustus," and " The 
 Jew of Malta." " He had in him all those brave 
 translunary things which the first poets did 
 have." DRAYTON. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, and especially " The Faith- 
 ful Shepherdess," a play " very characteristic of 
 Fletcher, being a mixture of tenderness, purity, 
 indecency, and absurdity." HALLAM. 
 John Webster's Tragedies. " To move a horror skil- 
 fully, to touch a soul to the quick, to lay upon 
 fear as much as it can bear, to wean and weary 
 a life till it is ready to drop, and then step in with 
 mortal instruments to take its last forfeit: this 
 only a Webster can do." CHARLES LAMB. 
 
 George Herberfs Poems. " In George Herbert there is 
 poetry, and enough to spare ; it is the household 
 bread of his existence." GEORGE MACDONALD. 
 
 Milton's Poetical Works. The " Paradise Lost " was 
 mentioned in the former list ; but you cannot well 
 do without his shorter poems also. " Milton 
 almost requires a solemn service of music to be 
 played before you enter upon him." CHARLES 
 LAMB. 
 
 Pope's Poetical Works. " Come we now to Pope, that 
 prince of savers of acute and exquisite things." 
 ROBERT CHAMBERS. 
 
 Dryden's Poems. " Dryden is even better than Pope. 
 He has immense masculine energies." IBID.
 
 72 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Goldsmith's Select Poems. " No one like Goldsmith 
 knew how to be at once natural and exquisite, 
 innocent and wise, a man and still a child." 
 EDWARD DOWDEN. 
 
 The Poems of Robert Burns. " Burns should be my 
 stand-by of a winter night." J. H. MORSE. 
 
 Wordsivorth's Select Poems. " Nearest of all mod- 
 ern writers to Shakspeare and Milton, yet in 
 a kind perfectly unborrowed and his own." 
 COI.ERIDGE. 
 
 The Poems of Sir Walter Scott. "Walter Scott 
 ranks in imaginative power hardly below any 
 writer save Homer and Shakspeare." GOLDWIN 
 SMITH. 
 
 The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. " Mrs. 
 Browning's ' Aurora Leigh ' is, as far as I know, 
 the greatest poem which the century has pro- 
 duced in any language." RUSKIN. 
 
 Coleridge's Select Poems. " The Ancient Mariner," 
 "Christabel," and "Genevieve." "These might 
 be bound up in a volume of twenty pages, but 
 they should be bound in pure gold." STOPFORD 
 BROOKE. 
 
 The Poems of John Keats. " No one else in English 
 poetry, save Shakspeare, has in expression quite 
 the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perfection of 
 loveliness." MATTHEW ARNOLD. 
 
 The Christian Year, by John Keble. " I am not a 
 churchman, I don't believe in planting oaks in 
 flower-pots, but such a poem as ' The Rosebud ' 
 makes one a proselyte to the culture it grows 
 from." DR. HOLMES. 
 
 Tennyson's Poems. " Tennyson is a born poet, that 
 is, a builder of airy palaces and imaginary castles ; 
 he has chosen amongst all forms the most elegant, 
 ornate, exquisite." M. TAINE. 
 
 Longfellow's Poetical Works. "In the pure, amia-
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 73 
 
 ble, home-like qualities that reach the heart and 
 captivate the ear, no one places Longfellow 
 second." THE CRITIC. 
 
 Bryant's Poetical Works. " The great characteristics 
 of Bryant's poetry are its strong common-sense, 
 its absolute sanity, and its inexhaustible imagi- 
 nation." R. H. STODDARD. 
 
 The Poems of John G. Whittier. " The lyric poet of 
 America, his poems are in the broadest sense 
 national." ANON. 
 
 In addition to the works named above, 
 there are several collections of short poems 
 and selections of poetry invaluable to the 
 student. They are " infinite riches in little 
 room." I name : 
 
 Bryant's Library of Poetry and Song. 
 
 Emerson's Parnassus. 
 
 Ward's English Poets. 
 
 Piatt's American Poetry and Art. 
 
 Appleton's Library of British Poetry. 
 
 Palgrave's Golden Treasury. 
 
 " A large part of what is best worth know- 
 ing in ancient literature, and in the literature 
 of France, Italy, Germany, and Spain," says 
 Lord Macaulay, " has been translated into our 
 own tongue. I would not dissuade any per- 
 son from studying either the ancient languages 
 or the languages of modern Europe ; but I 
 would console those who have not time to 
 make themselves linguists by assuring them
 
 74 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 that, by means of their own mother tongue, 
 they may obtain ready access to vast in- 
 tellectual treasures, to treasures such as might 
 have been envied by the greatest linguists of 
 the age of Charles the Fifth, to treasures sur- 
 passing those which were possessed by Aldus, 
 by Erasmus, and by Melanchthon." 
 
 I name some of the treasures which you 
 may thus acquire : 
 
 Homer's Iliad. Of this work, without which no 
 scholar's library is complete, many translations 
 have been made. The most notable are George 
 Chapman's (1611), Pope's (i7i5),Tickell's (1715), 
 Cowper's (1781), Lord Derby's (1867), Bryant's 
 (1870). Americans will, of course, prefer Bryant's 
 translation; but Derby's is more poetical, and 
 the greatest scholars award the palm of merit to 
 Chapman. Says Lowell : " Chapman has made 
 for us the best poem that has yet been Englished 
 out of Homer." 
 
 jEschylus. " Prometheus Bound " has been ren- 
 dered into English verse by Elizabeth Barrett 
 Browning, " Agamemnon " has been translated 
 by Dean Milman, and the entire seven tragedies 
 by Dean Potter. " The ' Prometheus ' is a poem 
 of the like dignity and scope as the Book of Job, 
 or the Norse Edda." EMERSON. 
 
 Aristophanes. The translation by John Hookham 
 Frere is admirable. " We might apply to the 
 pieces of Aristophanes the motto of a pleasant 
 and acute adventurer in Goethe : ' Mad, but 
 clever.' " A. W. SCHLEGEL. 
 
 VirgiFs Alneid. The best known translations of 
 Virgil are Dryden's (1697), Christopher Pitt's
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 75 
 
 (1740), John Conington's (1870), William Mor- 
 ris's (1876). Your choice among these will lie 
 between the last two. " Virgil is far below Ho- 
 mer; yet Virgil has genius enough to be two 
 men." LORD LYTTON. 
 
 Horace's Odes, Epodes, and Satires. There are ex- 
 cellent translations by Conington, Lord Lytton, 
 and T. Martin. "There is Horace, charming 
 man of the world, who will condole with you 
 feelingly on the loss of your fortune, . . . but 
 who will yet show you that a man may be happy 
 with a vile modicum or parva ritra." IBID. 
 
 Danfe's Divina Commedia. Translated by Long- 
 fellow. " The finest narrative poem of modern 
 times." MACAULAY. 
 
 Goethe's Faust. Translated by Bayard Taylor. " What 
 constitutes Goethe's glory is, that in the nine- 
 teenth century he did produce an epic poem 
 I mean a poem in which genuine gods act and 
 speak." H. A. TAINE. 
 
 Of the best poetry written in the modern 
 foreign tongues, you will have no difficulty 
 in finding excellent translations. There are 
 good English editions of Dante, Petrarch, 
 Ariosto, and Tasso ; of Calderon and Cam- 
 oens; of Moliere, Corneille, Racine, and 
 Victor Hugo ; and of Goethe and Schiller. 
 And to make your collection complete for 
 all the purposes of a scholar, you will want 
 Longfellow's "Poets and Poetry of Europe," 
 containing translations of the best short poems 
 written in the modern European languages.
 
 76 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Of modern poetry, John Ruskin advises 
 beginners to "keep to Scott, Wordsworth, 
 Keats, Crabbe, Tennyson, the two Brownings, 
 Lowell, Longfellow, and Coventry Patmore, 
 whose ' Angel in the House ' is a most finished 
 piece of writing, and the sweetest analysis we 
 possess of quiet modern domestic feeling. . . , 
 Cast Coleridge at once aside as sickly and 
 useless ; and Shelley as shallow and verbose ; 
 Byron, until your taste is fully formed, and 
 you are able to discern the magnificence in 
 him from the wrong. Never read bad or 
 common poetry, nor write any poetry your- 
 self; there is, perhaps, rather too much than 
 too little in the world already." 
 
 Says Frederic Harrison : " I am for the 
 school of all the great men ; and I am against 
 the school of the smaller men. I care for 
 Wordsworth as well as for Byron, for Burns 
 as well as for Shelley, for Boccaccio as well as 
 for Milton, for Bunyan as well as Rabelais, for 
 Cervantes as much as for Dante, for Corneille 
 as well as for Shakspeare, for Goldsmith as 
 well as Goethe. I stand by the sentence of 
 the world ; and I hold that in a matter so 
 human and so broad as the highest poetry, 
 the judgment of the nations of Europe is 
 pretty well settled. . . . The busy world may
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 77 
 
 fairly reserve the lesser lights for the time 
 when it knows the greatest well. . . . Nor 
 shall we forget those wonderful idealizations 
 of awakening thought and primitive societies, 
 the pictures of other races and types of life 
 removed from our own : all those primeval 
 legends, ballads, songs, and tales, those prov- 
 erbs, apologues, and maxims which have come 
 down to us from distant ages of man's history, 
 the old idyls and myths of the Hebrew 
 race ; the tales of Greece, of the Middle Ages, 
 of the East; the fables of the old and the 
 new world ; the songs of the Nibelungs ; the 
 romances of early feudalism ; the ' Morte 
 d' Arthur ' ; the 'Arabian Nights ; ' the ballads 
 of the early nations of Europe." 
 
 PROSE. 
 
 In the following list I shall endeavor to 
 name only the truly great and time-abiding 
 books, books to be used not simply as 
 tools, but for the " building up of a lofty char- 
 acter," the turning of the soul inward upon it- 
 self, concentrating its forces, and fitting it for 
 greater and stronger achievements. They 
 embody the best thoughts of the best thinkers ; 
 and almost any one of them, if properly read
 
 7 8 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 and " energized upon," will furnish food for 
 study, and meditation, and mind-growth, 
 enough for the best of us. 
 
 ESSAYS, ETC. 
 
 The Works of Lord Bacon. (Popular edition.) "He 
 seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the great- 
 est men, and most worthy of admiration, that had 
 been in many ages." BEN JONSON. 
 
 Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne. " One of the 
 most beautiful prose poems in the language." 
 LORD LYTTON. 
 
 The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Robert Burton. By- 
 ron says that "if the reader has patience to go 
 through the ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' he will be 
 more improved for literary conversation than by 
 the perusal of any twenty other works with which 
 I am acquainted." 
 
 Montaigne 's Essays. (Best edition.) " Montaigne 
 comes in for a large share of the scholar's regard ; 
 opened anywhere, his page is sensible, marrowy, 
 quotable." A. BRONSON ALCOTT. 
 
 Areopagitica, by John Milton. " A sublime treatise, 
 which every statesman should wear as a sign upon 
 his hand and as frontlets between his eyes." 
 MACAULAY. 
 
 The Spectator. " The talk of Addison and Steele is 
 the brightest and easiest talk that was ever put in 
 print." JOHN RICHARD GREEN. 
 
 Burke 1 s Orations and Political Essays. " In ampli- 
 tude of comprehension and richness of imagina- 
 tion, Burke was superior to every orator, ancient 
 or modern." LORD MACAULAY. 
 
 Webster's Best Speeches. " But after all is said, we 
 come back to the simple statement that he was
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 79 
 
 a very great man ; intellectually, one of the great- 
 est men of his age." HENRY CABOT LODGE. 
 
 The Orations of Demosthenes. A good translation is 
 that of Kennedy in Bohn's Classical Library. 
 
 Cicero's Orations ; also Cicero's Offices, Old Age, 
 Friendship, etc. 
 
 Plutarch's Lives. Arthur Hugh Clough's revision 
 of Dryden's Plutarch. " Without Plutarch, no 
 library were complete." A. BRONSON AL- 
 COTT. 
 
 The Six Chief Lives from Johnson's Lives of the Poets, 
 edited by Matthew Arnold. 
 
 BoswelFs Life of Samuel Johnson. " Scarcely since 
 the days of Homer has the feat been equalled ; 
 indeed, in many senses, this also is a kind of 
 heroic poem." CARLYLE. 
 
 Charles Lamb's Essays. " People never weary of 
 reading Charles Lamb." ALEXANDER SMITH. 
 
 Carlyle's Works. "No man of his generation has 
 done as much to stimulate thought." ALFRED 
 GUERNSEY. 
 
 Macau/ay's Essays. " I confess to a fondness for 
 books of this kind." H. A. TAINE. 
 
 Fronde's Short Studies on Great Subjects. " Models 
 of style and clear-cut thought." ANON. 
 
 The Works of Washington Irving. " In the depart- 
 ment of pure literature the earliest classic writer 
 of America." 
 
 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, by Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes. " Something more than an essayist ; 
 he is contemplative, discursive, poetical, thought- 
 ful, philosophical, amusing, imaginative, tender 
 never didactic." MACKENZIE. 
 
 Emerson's Essays. " A diction at once so rich and 
 so homely as his, I know not where to match in 
 these days of writing by the page ; it is like home- 
 spun cloth-of-gold." J. R. LOWELL.
 
 80 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 FICTION. 
 
 The novel, in its best form, I regard as one 
 of the most powerful engines of civilization 
 ever invented. SlR JOHN HERSCHEL . 
 
 Novels are sweets. All people with healthy 
 literary appetites love them, almost all wo- 
 men ; a vast number of clever, hard-headed 
 men, judges, bishops, chancellors, mathema- 
 ticians, are notorious novel-readers, as well as 
 young boys and sweet girls, and their kind, 
 tender mothers. w M> THACKERAY. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Deioe. " ' Robinson 
 Crusoe ' contains (not for boys, but for men) more 
 religion, more philosophy, more psychology, more 
 political economy, more anthropology, than are 
 found in many elaborate treatises on these special 
 subjects." F. HARRISON. 
 
 Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Cervantes. " The work 
 of Cervantes is the greatest in the world after 
 Homer's Iliad, speaking of it, I mean, as a work 
 of entertainment." DR. JOHNSON. 
 
 Gulliver's Travels, by Dean Swift. " Not so indis- 
 pensable, but yet the having him is much to be 
 rejoiced in." R. CHAMBERS. 
 
 The Vicar of Wakefield, by Goldsmith. " The blot- 
 ting out of the ' Vicar of Wakefield,' from most 
 minds, would be more grievous than to know that 
 the island of Borneo had sunk in the sea." 
 IBID.
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 8 1 
 
 The Waverley Novels. If not all, at least the follow- 
 ing : Ivanhoe; The Talisman; Kenilworth; The 
 Monastery; The Abbot; Old Mortality; The 
 Antiquary ; Guy Mannering ; The Bride of Lam- 
 mermoor ; The Heart of Midlothian. 
 
 Cooper's Leather-Stocking Tales. 
 
 Dickens' s Novels. Not all, but the following : David 
 Copperfield ; Dombey and Son ; Nicholas Nick- 
 leby ; Old Curiosity Shop ; Oliver Twist ; and 
 The Pickwick Papers. 
 
 Thackeray's Novels. Vanity Fair ; Pendennis ; The 
 Newcomes ; The Virginians ; Henry Esmond. 
 
 George Eliot's Novels. Adam Bede ; The Mill on 
 the Floss ; Romola ; Middlemarch ; Daniel 
 Deronda. 
 
 Corinne, by Madame de Stael. 
 
 Telemachus, by Fenelon. ( Hawkesworth's trans- 
 lation.) 
 
 Tom Jones, by Fielding. " We read his books as 
 we drink a pure, wholesome, and rough wine, 
 which cheers and fortifies us, and which wants 
 nothing but bouquet." H. A. TAINE. 
 
 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, by Goethe. (Car- 
 lyle's translation.) 
 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne's Novels. The Scarlet Letter ; 
 The Marble Faun; The Blithedale Romance; 
 The House of Seven Gables. 
 
 Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. 
 
 Hypatia and Alton Locke, by Charles Kingsley. 
 
 Uncle Toms Cabin, by Mrs. Stowe. " We have seen 
 an American woman write a novel of which a 
 million copies were sold in all languages, and 
 which had one merit, of speaking to the universal 
 heart, and was read with equal interest to three 
 audiences, namely, in the parlor, in the kitchen, 
 and in the nursery of every house." EMERSON. 
 
 Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain. 
 6
 
 82 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 J5ulwer-Ly ttoii's Novels. The Caxtons ; My Novel ; 
 
 Zanoni ; The Last of the Barons ; Harold ; The 
 
 Last Days of Pompeii. 
 Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. 
 John Halifax, Gentleman, by Mrs. Craik. 
 
 This list might be readily extended ; but I 
 forbear, resolved rather to omit some meri- 
 torious works than to include any that are 
 unworthy of the best companionship. 
 
 I close this chapter with Leigh Hunt's 
 pleasant word-picture descriptive of his own 
 library : " Sitting last winter among my books, 
 and walled round with all the comfort and 
 protection which they and my fireside could 
 afford me, to wit, a table of high-piled 
 books at my back, my writing-desk on one 
 side of me, some shelves on the other, and 
 the feeling of the warm fire at my feet, I 
 began to consider how I loved the authors of 
 those books ; how I loved them too, not only 
 for the imaginative pleasures they afforded 
 me, but for their making me love the very 
 books themselves, and delight to be in con- 
 tact with them. I looked sideways at my 
 Spenser, my Theocritus, and my Arabian 
 Nights ; then above them at my Italian Poets ; 
 then behind me at my Dryden and Pope, my 
 Romances, and my Boccaccio ; then on
 
 BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 83 
 
 my left side at my Chaucer, who lay on my 
 writing-desk ; and thought how natural it was 
 in Charles Lamb to give a kiss to an old 
 folio, as I once saw him do to Chapman's 
 Homer. ... I entrench myself in my books, 
 equally against sorrow and the weather. If 
 the wind comes through a passage, I look 
 about to see how I can fence it off by a 
 better disposition of my movables ; if a mel- 
 ancholy thought is importunate, I give an- 
 other glance at my Spenser. When I speak 
 of being in contact with my books, I mean it 
 literally. I like to be able to lean my head 
 against them. . . . The very perusal of the 
 backs is a ' discipline of humanity.' There Mr. 
 Southey takes his place again with an old Rad- 
 ical friend ; there Jeremy Collier is at peace 
 with Dryden; there the lion, Martin Luther, 
 lies down with the Quaker lamb, Sewell ; 
 there Guzman d'Alfarache thinks himself fit 
 company for Sir Charles Grandison, and has 
 his claims admitted. . . . Nothing, while I 
 live and think, can deprive me of my value 
 for such treasures. I can help the apprecia- 
 tion of them while I last, and love them 
 till I die ; and perhaps I may chance, some 
 quiet day, to lay my over-beating temples on 
 a book, and so have the death I most envy."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Books gfjalt goung Jolfcs Ecafc ? 
 
 HE greatest problem presented to 
 the consideration of parents and 
 teachers now-a-days is how prop- 
 erly to regulate and direct the read- 
 ing of the children. There is no scarcity of 
 reading-matter. The poorest child may have 
 free access to books and papers, more than he 
 can read. The publication of periodicals and 
 cheap books especially designed to meet the 
 tastes of young people has developed into an 
 enterprise of vast proportions. Every day, 
 millions of pages of reading matter designed 
 for children are printed and scattered broad- 
 cast over the land. But unlimited oppor- 
 tunities often prove to be a damage and a 
 detriment ; and over-abundance, rather than 
 scarcity, is to be deplored. As a general rule, 
 84
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 85 
 
 the books read by young people are not such 
 as lead to studious habits, or induce correct 
 ideas of right living. They are intended 
 simply to amuse ; there are no elements of 
 strength in them, leading up to a noble man- 
 hood. I doubt if in the future it can be 
 said of any great statesman or scholar that 
 his tastes had been formed, and his energies 
 directed and sustained, through the influence 
 of his early reading ; but rather that he had 
 attained success, and whatever of true no- 
 bility there is in him, hi spite of such 
 influence. 
 
 This was not always so. The experience 
 of a few well-known scholars will illustrate. 
 " From my infancy," says Benjamin Franklin, 
 " I was passionately fond of reading, and all 
 the money that came into my hands was laid 
 out in the purchasing of books. I was very 
 fond of voyages. My first acquisition was 
 Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. I 
 afterwards sold them to enable me to buy 
 R. Burton's Historical Collections. They were 
 small chapmen's books, and cheap ; forty 
 volumes in all. My father's little library con- 
 sisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, 
 most of which I read. I have often regretted 
 that at a time when I had such a thirst for
 
 86 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 knowledge more proper books had not fallen 
 in my way, since it was resolved I should not 
 be bred to divinity. There was among them 
 Plutarch's Lives, which I read abundantly, 
 and I still think the time spent to great ad- 
 vantage. There was also a book of Defoe's 
 called ' An Essay on Projects,' and another of 
 Dr. Mather's, called ' An Essay to Do Good,' 
 which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking 
 that had an influence on some of the principal 
 future events of my life. This bookish in- 
 clination at length determined my father to 
 make me a printer. ... I stood out some 
 time, but at last was persuaded, and signed 
 the indenture when I was yet but twelve 
 years old. ... I now had access to better 
 books. An acquaintance with the appren- 
 tices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to 
 borrow a small one, which I was careful to 
 return soon, and clean. Often I sat up in 
 my chamber the greatest part of the night, 
 when the book was borrowed in the evening 
 and to be returned in the morning, lest it 
 should be found missing. . . . About this 
 time I met with an odd volume of the ' Spec- 
 tator.' I had never before seen any of them. 
 I bought it, read it over and over, and was 
 much delighted with it. I thought the writ-
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLK'S TO READ. 87 
 
 
 
 ing excellent, and wished if possible to imi- 
 tate it With that view I took some of the 
 papers, and, making short hints of the sen- 
 timents in each sentence, laid them by a few 
 days, and then, without looking at the book, 
 tried to complete the papers again, by ex- 
 pressing each hinted sentiment at length, and 
 as fully as it had been expressed before, in 
 any suitable words that should occur to me. 
 Then I compared my ' Spectator ' with the 
 original, discovered some of my faults, and 
 corrected them. . . . 
 
 " Now it was, that, being on some occasions 
 made ashamed of my ignorance in figures, 
 which I had twice failed learning when at 
 school, I took Cocker's book on Arithmetic, 
 and went through the whole by myself with 
 the greatest ease. I also read Seller's and 
 Sturny's book on Navigation, which made me 
 acquainted with the little geometry it con- 
 tains ; but I never proceeded far in that 
 science. I read about this time ' Locke on 
 the Human Understanding,' and the 'Art of 
 Thinking,' by Messrs, de Port Royal. 
 
 "While I was intent on improving my 
 language, I met with an English Grammar 
 (I think it was Greenwood's), having at the 
 end of it two little sketches on the ' Arts of
 
 88 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Rhetoric and Logic,' the latter finishing with 
 a dispute in the Socratic method. And soon 
 after, I procured Xenophon's 'Memorable 
 Things of Socrates,' wherein there are many 
 examples of the same method. I was 
 charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my 
 abrupt contradiction and positive argumen- 
 tation, and put on the humble inquirer." ' 
 
 Hugh Miller, that most admirable Scotch- 
 man and self-made man, relates a similar 
 experience : " During my sixth year I spelled 
 my way through the Shorter Catechism, 
 the Proverbs, and the New Testament, and 
 then entered upon the highest form in the 
 dame's school as a member of the Bible 
 class. But all the while the process of learn- 
 ing had been a dark one, which I slowly 
 mastered, in humble confidence in the awful 
 wisdom of the schoolmistress, not knowing 
 whither it tended; when at once my mind 
 awoke to the meaning of the most delightful 
 of all narratives, the story of Joseph. Was 
 there ever such a discovery made before ! I 
 actually found out for myself that the art of 
 reading is the art of finding stories in books ; 
 and from that moment reading became one 
 of the most delightful of my amusements. I 
 
 1 Sparks's Life of Franklin, part i.
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 89 
 
 began by getting into a corner on the dis- 
 missal of the school, and there conning over 
 to myself the new-found story of Joseph ; nor 
 did one perusal serve ; the other Scripture 
 stories followed, in especial, the story of 
 Samson and the Philistines, of David and 
 Goliah, of the prophets Elijah and Elisha; 
 and after these came the New Testament 
 stories and parables. Assisted by my uncles, 
 too, I began to collect a library in a box of 
 birch bark about nine inches square, which I 
 found quite large enough to contain a great 
 many immortal works : Jack the Giant- Killer, 
 and Jack and the Bean-Stalk, and the Yellow 
 Dwarf, and Blue Beard, and Sinbad the 
 Sailor, and Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin 
 and the Wonderful Lamp, with several others 
 of resembling character. Those intolerable 
 nuisances, the useful-knowledge books, had 
 not yet arisen, like tenebrious stars on the 
 educational horizon, to darken the world, and 
 shed their blighting influence on the opening 
 intellect of the ' youthhood ; ' and so, from my 
 rudimental books books that made them- 
 selves truly such by their thorough assimilation 
 with the rudimental mind I passed on, 
 without being conscious of break or line of 
 division, to books on which the learned are
 
 90 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 content to write commentaries and disserta- 
 tions, but which I found to be quite as nice 
 children's books as any of the others. Old 
 Homer wrote admirably for little folk, espe- 
 cially in the Odyssey; a copy of which, in 
 the only true translation extant, for, judging 
 from its surpassing interest, and the wrath of 
 critics, such I hold that of Pope to be, 
 I found in the house of a neighbor. Next 
 came the Iliad ; not, however, in a complete 
 copy, but represented by four of the six vol- 
 umes of Bernard Lintot. With what power 
 and at how early an age true genius im- 
 presses ! I saw, even at this immature period, 
 that no other writer could cast a javelin with 
 half the force of Homer. The missiles went 
 whizzing athwart his pages ; and I could see 
 the momentary gleam of the steel, ere it 
 buried itself deep in brass and bull-hide. I 
 next succeeded in discovering for myself a 
 child's book, of not less interest than even the 
 Iliad, which might, I was told, be read on 
 Sabbaths, in a magnificent old edition of the 
 ' Pilgrim's Progress,' printed on coarse whity- 
 brown paper, and charged with numerous 
 wood-cuts, each of which occupied an entire 
 page, which, on principles of economy, bore 
 letter-press on the other side. . . .
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 91 
 
 "In process of time, I devoured, besides 
 these genial works, Robinson Crusoe, Gul- 
 liver's Travels, Ambrose on Angels, the ' judg- 
 ment chapter ' in Howie's Scotch Worthies, 
 Byron's Narrative, and the Adventures of 
 Philip Quarll, with a good many other adven- 
 tures and voyages, real and fictitious, part of 
 a very miscellaneous collection of books made 
 by my father. It was a melancholy library to 
 which I had fallen heir. Most of the missing 
 volumes had been with the master aboard his 
 vessel when he perished. Of an early edition 
 of Cook's Voyages, all the volumes were now 
 absent, save the first ; and a very tantalizing 
 romance, in four volumes, Mrs. Radcliffe's 
 ' Mysteries of Udolpho,' was represented by 
 only the earlier two. Small as the collection 
 was, it contained some rare books, among 
 the rest, a curious little volume entitled ' The 
 Miracles of Nature and Art,' to which we find 
 Dr. Johnson referring, in one of the dialogues 
 chronicled by Boswell, as scarce even in his 
 day, and which had been published, he said, 
 some time in the seventeenth century by a 
 bookseller whose shop hung perched on Old 
 London Bridge, between sky and water. 
 It contained, too, the only copy I ever saw 
 of the ' Memoirs of a Protestant condemned to
 
 92 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 the Galleys of France for his Religion/ a 
 work interesting from the circumstance that, 
 though it bore another name on its title- 
 page, it had been translated from the French 
 for a few guineas by poor Goldsmith, in his 
 days of obscure literary drudgery, and exhib- 
 ited the peculiar excellences of his style. The 
 collection boasted, besides, of a curious old 
 book, illustrated by very uncouth plates, that 
 detailed the perils and sufferings of an English 
 sailor who had spent the best years of his life 
 as a slave in Morocco. It had its volumes of 
 sound theology, too, and of stiff controversy, 
 Flavel's Works, and Henry's Commentary, 
 and Hutchinson on the Lesser Prophets, and 
 a very old treatise on the Revelations, with 
 the titlepage away, and blind Jameson's 
 volume on the Hierarchy, with first editions 
 of Naphtali, The Cloud of Witnesses, and the 
 Hind Let Loose. ... Of the works of fact 
 and incident which it contained, those of the 
 voyages were my special favorites. I perused 
 with avidity the Voyages of Anson, Drake, 
 Raleigh, Dampier, and Captain Woods Rog- 
 ers ; and my mind became so filled with con- 
 ceptions of what was to be seen and done in 
 foreign parts, that I wished myself big enough 
 to be a sailor, that I might go and see coral
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 93 
 
 islands and burning mountains, and hunt 
 wild beasts, and fight battles." 1 
 
 William and Robert Chambers, the founders 
 of the great publishing-house of W. & R. 
 Chambers, Edinburgh, were self-educated men. 
 " At little above fourteen years of age," 
 writes William, " I was thrown on my own 
 resources. From necessity, not less than 
 from choice, I resolved at all hazards to make 
 the weekly four shillings serve for everything. 
 I cannot remember entertaining the slightest 
 despondency on the subject. ... I made 
 such attempts as were at all practicable, while 
 an apprentice, to remedy the defects of my 
 education at school. Nothing in that way 
 could be done in the shop, for there reading 
 was proscribed. But, allowed to take home 
 a book for study, I gladly availed myself of 
 the privilege. The mornings in summer, 
 when light cost nothing, were my chief reli- 
 ance. Fatigued with trudging about, I was 
 not naturally inclined to rise ; but on this and 
 some other points I overruled the will, and 
 forced myself to rise at five o'clock, and have 
 a spell at reading until it was time to think of 
 moving off, my brother, when he was with 
 me, doing the same. In this way I made 
 
 1 My Schools and Schoolmasters.
 
 94 THE BOOK -LOVER. 
 
 some progress in French, with the pronun- 
 ciation of which I was already familiar from 
 the speech of the French prisoners of war at 
 Peebles. I likewise dipped into several books 
 of solid worth, such as Smith's ' Wealth of 
 Nations,' Locke's ' Human Understanding,' 
 Paley's ' Moral Philosophy,' and Blair's ' Belles- 
 Lettres,' fixing the leading facts and theo- 
 ries in my memory by a note-book for the 
 purpose. In another book I kept for years 
 an accurate account of my expenses, not al- 
 lowing a single halfpenny to escape record." 
 
 And Robert, the younger brother, confirms 
 the story, with even more accurate attention 
 to details. " My brother William and I," he 
 says, " lived in lodgings together. Our room 
 and bed cost three shillings a week. ... I 
 used to be in great distress for want of fire. 
 I could not afford either that or a candle my- 
 self; so I have often sat by my landlady's 
 kitchen fire, if fire it could be called, which 
 was only a little heap of embers, reading 
 Horace and conning my dictionary by a light 
 which required me to hold the books almost 
 close to the grate. What a miserable winter 
 that was ! Yet I cannot help feeling proud of 
 my trials at that time. My brother and I 
 he then between fifteen and sixteen, I between
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 95 
 
 thirteen and fourteen had made a reso- 
 lution together that we would exercise the 
 last degree of self-denial. My brother actually 
 saved money out of his income. I remember 
 seeing him take five-and-twenty shillings out 
 of a closed box which he kept to receive his 
 savings ; and that was the spare money of 
 only a twelvemonth." ' 
 
 Rev. Robert Collyer, whose name is known 
 and honored by every American scholar, says : 
 " Do you want to know how I manage to talk 
 to you in this simple Saxon ? I will tell you. 
 I read Bunyan, Crusoe, and Goldsmith when 
 I was a boy, morning, noon, and night. All 
 the rest was task work ; these were my delight, 
 with the stories in the Bible, and with Shak- 
 speare when at last the mighty master came 
 within our doors. ... I took to these as I 
 took to milk, and, without the least idea what 
 I was doing, got the taste for simple words 
 into the very fibre of my nature. There was 
 day-school for me until I was thirteen years 
 old, and then I had to turn in and work thir- 
 teen hours a day. ... I could not go home 
 for the Christmas of 1839, and was feeling 
 very sad about it all, for I was only a boy ; 
 
 1 Memoir of Robert Chambers : with Autobiographic 
 Reminiscences of William Chambers,
 
 96 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 and, sitting by the fire, an old farmer came 
 in and said, ' I notice thou 's fond o' read- 
 ing, so I brought thee summat to read.' It 
 was Irving's ' Sketch Book.' I had never 
 heard of the work. I went at it, and was ' as 
 them that dream.' No such delight had 
 touched me since the old days of Crusoe. 
 I saw the Hudson and the Catskills, took 
 poor Rip at once into my heart, as every- 
 body has, pitied Ichabod while I laughed at 
 him, thought the old Dutch feast a most 
 admirable thing; and long before I was 
 through, all regret at my lost Christmas had 
 gone down the wind, and I had found out 
 there are books and books. That vast 
 hunger to read never left me. If there was 
 no candle, I poked my head down to the 
 fire ; read while I was eating, blowing the 
 bellows, or walking from one place to another. 
 I could read and walk four miles an hour. 
 I remember while I was yet a lad reading 
 Macaulay's great essay on Bacon, and I could 
 grasp its wonderful beauty. . . . Now, give 
 a. boy a passion like this for anything, books 
 or business, painting or farming, mechanism 
 or music, and you give him thereby a lever to 
 lift his world, and a patent of nobility, if the 
 thing he does is noble."
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 97 
 
 It may be questioned whether, in these 
 days of opportunities, it would be possible to 
 find boys of thirteen and sixteen who would 
 be able to read understandingly, much less 
 appreciate and enjoy, those masterpieces of 
 English literature so eagerly studied by Frank- 
 lin and Hugh Miller and the Chambers 
 brothers. Their mental appetites have been 
 treated to a different kind of diet. If their 
 minds have not been dwarfed and stunted by 
 indulgence in what has been aptly termed 
 " pen-poison," their tastes have been per- 
 verted and the growth of their reasoning 
 powers checked by being fed upon the milk- 
 and-water stuff recommended as harmless 
 literature. They are inveterate devourers of 
 stories, and novels, and the worthless material 
 which is recommended as good reading, but 
 which, in reality, is nothing but a " discipline 
 of debasement." Better that children should 
 not read at all, than read much of that which 
 passes current now-a-days for entertaining 
 reading. 
 
 All children like to read stories. The love 
 of "the story," in some form or other, is 
 indeed a characteristic of the human mind, 
 and exists everywhere, in all conditions of 
 life. But stories are the sweets of our mental 
 7
 
 98 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 existence, and only a few of the best and 
 greatest have in them the elements which 
 will lead to a strong and vigorous mind- 
 growth. Constant feeding upon light litera- 
 ture however good that literature may be 
 in itself will debilitate and corrupt the 
 mental appetite of the child, much the same 
 as an unrestrained indulgence in jam and 
 preserves will undermine and destroy his 
 physical health. In either case, if no result 
 more serious occurs, the worst forms of dys- 
 pepsia will follow. Literary dyspepsia is the 
 most common form of mental disease among 
 us, and there is no knowing what may be the 
 extent of its influence upon American civili- 
 zation. Fifty per cent of the readers who 
 patronize our great public libraries have weak 
 literary stomachs ; they cannot digest any- 
 thing stronger than that insipid solution, the 
 last society novel, or anything purer than the 
 muddy decoctions poured out by the peri- 
 odical press. When, of all the reading done 
 in a public library, eighty per cent is of books 
 in the different departments of fiction, I doubt 
 whether, after all, that library is a public ben- 
 efit. Yet this is but the natural result of 
 the loose habits of reading which we encour- 
 age among our children, and cultivate in
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 99 
 
 ourselves, the habit of reading anything 
 that comes to hand, provided only that it is 
 entertaining. 
 
 How then shall we so order the child's 
 reading as to avoid the formation of desultory 
 and aimless habits? 
 
 Naturally, the earliest reading is the story, 
 simple, short, straightforward recitals of mat- 
 ters of daily occurrence, of the doings of 
 children and their parents, their friends or 
 their pets. "The Nursery," a little magazine 
 published in Boston, contains an excellent 
 variety of such stories. Now and then we 
 may pick up a good book, too, for this class 
 of readers ; but there are many worthless 
 books here, as elsewhere, and careful parents 
 will look well into that which they buy. The 
 illuminated covers are often the only recom- 
 mendation of books of this kind. Numbers 
 of them are made only for the holiday trade ; 
 the illustrations of many are from second-hand 
 cuts ; and the text is frequently written to fit 
 the illustrations. A pure, fresh book for a 
 little child is a treasure to be sought for and 
 appreciated. 
 
 Very early in child-life comes the period 
 of a belief in fairies ; and the reading of 
 fairy-stories is, to children, a very proper, nay,
 
 100 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 a very necessary thing. I pity the boy or 
 girl who must grow up without having made 
 intimate acquaintance with " Mother Goose," 
 and the wonderful stories of " Jack the Giant- 
 Killer," and " Blue Beard," and " Cinderella," 
 and those other strange tales as old as the 
 race itself, and yet new to every succeeding 
 generation. They are a part of the inheritance 
 of the English-speaking people, and belong, 
 as a kind of birthright, to every intelligent 
 child. 
 
 As your little reader advances in knowledge 
 and reading-ability, he should be treated to 
 stronger food. Grimm's " Household Stories " 
 and the delightful " Wonder Stories " of Hans 
 Christian Andersen, should form a part of the 
 library of every child as he passes through the 
 " fairy- story period " of his life ; nor can we 
 well omit to give him Charles Kingsley's 
 " Water Babies," and " Alice's Adventures in 
 Wonderland." And now, or later, as circum- 
 stances shall dictate, we may introduce him 
 to that prince of all wonder-books, "The 
 Arabian Nights' Entertainment," in an edi- 
 tion carefully adapted to children's reading. 
 The tales related in this book " are not ours 
 by birth, but they have nevertheless taken 
 their place amongst the similar things of our
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. ioi 
 
 own which constitute the national literary 
 inheritance. Altogether, it is a glorious book, 
 and one to which we cannot well show enough 
 of respect." 
 
 And while your reader lingers in the great 
 world of poetic fancy and child-wonder, let 
 him revel for a while in those enchanting idyls 
 and myths which delighted mankind when the 
 race was young and this earth was indeed a 
 wonder-world. These he may find, apparelled 
 in a dress adapted to our modern notions of 
 propriety, in Hawthorne's " Wonder Book " and 
 "Tanglewood Tales," in Kingsley's "Greek 
 Heroes," and, in a more prosaic form, in 
 Cox's "Tales of Ancient Greece;" and in 
 "The Story of Siegfried," and, later, in Mor- 
 ris's " Sigurd the Volsung," he may read the 
 no less charming myths of our own northern 
 ancestors, and the world-famous legend of 
 the Nibelungen heroes. Then, by a natural 
 transition, you advance into the border-land 
 which lies between the world of pure fancy 
 and the domains of sober-hued reality. You 
 introduce your reader to some wholesome 
 adaptations of those Mediaeval Romances, 
 which, with their one grain of fact to a thou- 
 sand of fable, gave such noble delight to lords 
 and ladies in the days of chivalry. These
 
 102 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 you will find in Sidney Lanier's " Boy's King 
 Arthur" and "Boy's Mabinogion;" in "The 
 Story of Roland," by the author of the pres- 
 ent volume ; and in Bulfinch's " Legends of 
 Charlemagne " and "The Age of Chivalry." 
 
 Do you understand now to what point you 
 have led your young reader? You have 
 simply followed the order of nature and of 
 human development, and you have gradually 
 almost imperceptibly even to yourself 
 brought him out of the world of child-wonder 
 and fairy-land, through the middle ground of 
 chivalric romance, to the very borders of the 
 domains of history. He is ready and eager 
 to enter into the realms of sober-hued truth ; 
 but I would not advise undue haste in this 
 matter. The medieval romances have in- 
 spired him with a desire to know more of 
 those days when knights-errant rode over sea 
 and land to do battle in the name of God and 
 for the honor of their king, the Church, and 
 the ladies ; he wants to know something more 
 nearly the truth than that which the minstrels 
 and story-tellers of the Middle Ages can tell 
 him. And yet he is not prepared for a sud- 
 den transition from romance to history. Let 
 him read " Ivanhoe ; " then give him Howard 
 Pyle's " Story of Robin Hood " and Lanier's
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 103 
 
 " Boy's Percy ; " and if you care to allow him 
 so much more fiction, let him read Madame 
 Colomb's " Franchise " as translated and 
 adapted by Davenport Adams in his " Page, 
 Squire, and Knight." Can you withhold his- 
 tory longer from your reader? I think not. 
 He will demand some authentic knowledge of 
 Richard the Lion-hearted, and of King John, 
 and of the Saxons and Normans, and of the 
 Crusades, and of the Saracens, and of Charle- 
 magne and his peers. Lose not your oppor- 
 tunity, but pass over with your pupil into the 
 promised land. The transition is easy, im- 
 perceptible, in fact, and, leaving fiction and 
 "the story" behind you, you enter the fields 
 of truth and history. As for books, it is 
 difficult now to advise ; but there are Abbott's 
 little histories, give him the " History of 
 Richard I." to begin with, then get the whole 
 set for him. Yonge's " Young Folks' History 
 of England," or Dickens's " Child's History " 
 will also be in demand. The way is easy 
 now, the road is open, you need no further 
 guidance only, keep straight ahead. 
 
 There are other books, of course, which the 
 young reader will find in his way, and which 
 it is altogether proper and necessary that he 
 should read. For instance, there is " Robin-
 
 104 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 son Crusoe," without a knowledge of which 
 the boy loses one of his dearest enjoyments. 
 " How youth passed long ago, when there 
 was no Crusoe to waft it away in fancy to the 
 Pacific and fix it upon the lonely doings of 
 the shipwrecked mariner, is inconceivable ; but 
 we can readily suppose that it must have been 
 different," says Robert Chambers. And no 
 substitute for the original Robinson will an- 
 swer. Not one of the ten thousand tales of 
 adventure recently published for boys will fill 
 the niche which this book fills, or atone in the 
 least for any neglect of its merits. " The 
 Swiss Family Robinson" approaches nearest 
 in excellence to Defoe's immortal creation, 
 and may very profitably form a part of every 
 boy's or girl's library. Then, among the 
 really unexceptionable books, of the healthful, 
 hopeful, truthful sort, I may name "Tom 
 Brown's School Days at Rugby," Lamb's 
 "Tales from Shakspeare," Mitchell's "About 
 Old Story-Tellers," the inimitable "Bodley 
 Books," Bayard Taylor's "Boys of Other 
 Countries," Abbott's "Franconia Stories," and 
 a few others in the line of History or Travels, 
 to be mentioned in future chapters. These 
 I believe to be, in every sense, proper, whole- 
 some books, free from all kinds of mannerisms,
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 105 
 
 free from improper language, free from sickly 
 sentiment and "gush;" and these, if not the 
 most instructive books, are the sort of books 
 which the child or youth should read as a 
 kind of relish or supplement to the more 
 methodical course of reading which I have 
 elsewhere indicated. 
 
 In this careful direction of the child's 
 reading, and in the cultivation of his literary 
 taste, if you have succeeded in bringing him 
 to the point which we have indicated, you 
 have done much towards forming his char- 
 acter for life. There is little danger that bad 
 books will ever possess any attractions for 
 him ; he will henceforth be apt to go right of 
 his own accord, preferring the wholesome and 
 the true to any of the flashy allurements of the 
 " literary slums and grog-shops," which so 
 abound and flourish in these days. 
 
 But perhaps the fundamental error in deter- 
 mining what books children shall read lies in 
 the very popular notion that to read much, 
 and to derive pleasure and profit from our 
 reading, many books are necessary. And the 
 greatest obstacle in the way of forming and 
 directing a proper taste for good reading is 
 to be found, not in the scarcity, but in the 
 superabundance of reading matter. The great
 
 106 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 flood of periodical literature for young peo- 
 ple is the worst hindrance to the formation 
 of right habits in reading. Some of these 
 periodicals are simply unadulterated " pen 
 poison," designed not only to enrich their 
 projectors, but to deprave the minds of those 
 who read. Others are published, doubtless, 
 from pure motives and with the best inten- 
 tions ; but, being managed by inexperienced 
 or incapable editors, they are, at the best, 
 but thin dilutions of milk-and-water literature, 
 leading to mental imbecility and starvation. 
 The periodicals fit to be placed in the hands 
 of reading children may be numbered on half 
 your fingers ; and even these should not be 
 read without due discrimination. 
 
 Too great a variety of books or papers 
 placed at the disposal of inexperienced read- 
 ers offers a premium to desultoriness, and 
 fosters and encourages the habit of devouring 
 every species of literary food that comes to 
 hand. Hence we should beware not only of 
 the bad, but of too great plenty of the good. 
 "The benefit of a right good book," says Mr. 
 Hudson, " all depends upon this, that its vir- 
 tue just soak into the mind, and there become 
 a living, generative force. To be running and 
 rambling over a great many books, tasting a
 
 BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 107 
 
 little here, a little there, and tying up with 
 none, is good for nothing; nay, worse than 
 nothing. Such a process of unceasing change 
 is also a discipline of perpetual emptiness. 
 The right method in the culture of the mind 
 is to take a few choice books, and weave 
 about them 
 
 ' The fixed delights of house and home, 
 Friendship that will not break, and love that cannot
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 fruits on tfje .formation of 
 
 WHAT sort of reading are our schools planting an appe- 
 tite for? Are they really doing anything to instruct and 
 form the mental taste, so that the pupils on leaving them 
 may be safely left to choose their reading for themselves ? 
 It is clear in evidence that they are far from educating the 
 young to take pleasure in what is intellectually noble and 
 sweet. The statistics of our public libraries show that 
 some cause is working mightily to prepare them only for 
 delight in what is both morally and intellectually mean 
 and foul. It would not indeed be fair to charge our public 
 schools with positively giving this preparation; but it is 
 their business to forestall and prevent such a result. If, 
 along with the faculty of reading, they cannot also impart 
 some safeguards of taste and habit against such a result, 
 will the system prove a success ? HENRY N. HUDSON. 
 
 |UCH is being said, now-a-days, about 
 the utility of school libraries ; and 
 in some instances much ill-directed, 
 if not entirely misdirected, labor is 
 being expended in their formation. Public 
 libraries are not necessarily public benefits ; 
 108
 
 FORMATION OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 109 
 
 and school libraries, unless carefully selected 
 and judiciously managed, will not prove to 
 be unmixed blessings. There are several 
 questions which teachers and school officers 
 should seriously consider before setting them- 
 selves to the task of establishing a library; 
 and no teacher'who is not himself a knower 
 of books, and a reader, should presume to 
 regulate and direct the reading of others. 
 
 What are the objects of a school library? 
 They are twofold : First, to aid in cultivating 
 a taste for good reading; second, to supply 
 materials for supplementary study and inde- 
 pendent research. Now, neither of these ob- 
 jects can be attained unless your library is 
 composed of books selected especially with 
 reference to the capabilities and needs of 
 your pupils. Dealing, as you do, with pupils 
 of various degrees of intellectual strength, 
 warped by every variety of moral influence 
 and home training, the cultivation of a taste 
 for good reading among them is no small 
 matter. To do this, your library must con- 
 tain none but truly good books. It is a great 
 mistake to suppose that every collection of 
 books placed in a schoolhouse is a library ; 
 and yet that is the name which is applied to 
 many very inferior collections. It is no un-
 
 110 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 common thing to find these so-called libraries 
 composed altogether of the odds and ends 
 of literature, of donations, entirely worth- 
 less to their donors ; of second-hand school- 
 books; of Patent Office Reports and other 
 public documents ; and of the dilapidated 
 remains of some older and equally worthless 
 collection of books : and with these you talk 
 about cultivating a taste for good reading ! 
 One really good book, a single copy of "St. 
 Nicholas," is worth more than all this trash. 
 Get it out of sight at once ! The value of 
 a library no matter for what purpose it has 
 been founded depends not upon the num- 
 ber of its books, but upon their character. 
 And so the first rule to be observed in the 
 formation of a school library is, Buy it at first 
 hand, even though you should begin with a 
 single volume, and shun all kinds of dona- 
 tions, unless they be donations of cash, or 
 books of unquestionable value. 
 
 In selecting books for purchase, you will 
 have an eye single to the wants of the stu- 
 dents who are to use them. A school library 
 should be in no sense a public circulating 
 library. You cannot cater to the literary 
 tastes of the public, and at the same time 
 serve the best interests of your pupils. Books
 
 FORMA TION OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 1 1 1 
 
 relating to history, to biography, and to travel 
 will form a very large portion of your library. 
 These should be chosen with reference to 
 the age and mental capacity of those who are 
 to read them. No book should be bought 
 merely because it is a good book, but because 
 we know that it can be made useful in the 
 attainment of certain desired ends. The 
 courses of reading indicated in the following 
 chapters of this work, it is hoped, will assist 
 you largely in making a wise selection as well 
 as in directing to a judicious use of books. 
 For the selection of a book is only half of 
 your duty : the profitable use of it is the 
 other half ; and this lesson should be early 
 taught to your pupils. 
 
 If, through means of your school library or 
 otherwise, you succeed in enlisting the in- 
 terest of a young person in profitable method- 
 ical reading, you have accomplished a great 
 deal towards the forwarding of his education 
 and the formation of his character. It is a 
 great mistake to suppose that a boy of twelve 
 cannot pursue a course of reading in English 
 history ; if properly directed and encouraged, 
 he will enjoy it far better than the perusal 
 of the milk-and-water story-books which, un- 
 der the guise of " harmless juvenile litera-
 
 112 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 ture," have been placed in his hands by 
 well-meaning teachers or parents. 
 
 In a former chapter I have shown you 
 how, with a library of only fifty volumes, you 
 may have in your possession the very best 
 of all that the world's master-minds have ever 
 written, food, as I have said, for study, and 
 meditation, and mind growth enough for a life- 
 time. Such a library is worth more than ten 
 thousand volumes of the ordinary "popular " 
 kind of books. So, also, the reading of a 
 very few books, carefully and methodically, 
 by your pupils the constant presence of 
 the'very best books in our language, and the 
 exclusion of the trashy and the vile will 
 give them more real enjoyment and infinitely 
 greater profit than the desultory or hasty read- 
 ing of many volumes. A small library is to 
 be despised only when it contains inferior 
 books.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 (Courses of Eeaofng fit Pffstorg. 
 
 HISTORY, at least in its state of ideal perfection, is a 
 compound of poetry and philosophy. MACAULAY. 
 
 LET us search more and more into the Past ; let all 
 men explore it as the true fountain of knowledge, by 
 whose light alone, consciously or unconsciously employed, 
 can the Present and the Future be interpreted or guessed 
 at. CARLYLE. 
 
 HISTORY is a voice forever sounding across the centuries 
 the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners 
 change, creeds rise and fall ; but the moral law is written 
 on the tablets of eternity. . . . Justice and truth alone 
 endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, 
 but doomsday comes at last to them in French revolutions 
 and other terrible ways. That is one lesson of history. 
 Another is, that we should draw no horoscopes ; that we 
 should expect little, for what we expect will not come to 
 pass. FROUDE. 
 
 THE student is to read history actively and not passively ; 
 to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. 
 Thus compelled, the Muse of history will utter oracles, as 
 never to those who do not respect themselves. I have no 
 
 8 
 
 "3
 
 114 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 expectation that any man will read history aright who 
 thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose 
 names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what 
 he is doing to-day. . . . The instinct of the mind, the pur- 
 pose of nature, betrays itself in the use we make of the 
 signal narrations of history. EMERSON. 
 
 VENTURE to propose the follow- 
 ing courses of reading in history. 
 Properly modified with reference to 
 individual needs and capabilities, 
 these lists will prove to be safe helps and 
 guides to younger as well as older readers, to 
 classes in high schools and colleges as well 
 as private students and specialists. To read 
 all the works here mentioned, as carefully and 
 critically as the nature of their contents de- 
 mands, would require no inconsiderable por- 
 tion of one's reading lifetime. Such a thing 
 is not expected. The wise teacher or the 
 judicious scholar will select from the list that 
 which is most proper for him, and which best 
 meets his wants, or aids him most in the pur- 
 suit of his native aim. 
 
 The titles, so far as possible, are given in 
 chronological order. Those printed in italics 
 are of books indispensable for purposes of 
 reference ; those printed in SMALL CAPITALS 
 are of works especially adapted to younger 
 readers.
 
 COURSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 1 1 5 
 
 I. GREEK HISTORY. 
 
 Dictionaries. 
 
 No reader can well do without a good clas- 
 sical dictionary. The following are recom- 
 mended as the best : 
 
 Anthon : Classical Dictionary. 
 Smith : Studenfs Classical Dictionary. 
 
 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 
 
 Ginn & Heath's Classical Atlas. 
 Kiepert's Schulatlas. 
 
 General Histories. 
 
 Cox : General History of Greece. 
 
 Smith : Smaller History of Greece. 
 
 Felton : Ancient and Modern Greece. 
 
 Yonge : YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF GREECE. 
 
 Grote : History of Greece (12 vols.). 
 
 Curtius : History of Greece (5 vols.); translated 
 
 from the German, by A. W. Ward. 
 J. A. St. John : Ancient Greece. 
 
 Mythology. 
 
 Dwight : Grecian and Roman Mythology. 
 Murray : Manual of Mythology. 
 Keightley : Classical Mythology. 
 Gladstone : Juventus Mundi. 
 Ruskin : The Queen of the Air. 
 Cox: TALES OF ANCIENT GREECE. 
 Kingsley : THE GREEK HEROES. 
 Hawthorne : THE WONDER BOOK. 
 
 TANGLEWOOD TALES.
 
 Il6 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Chapman's translation 
 
 is the best. Of the later versions, that of Lord 
 
 Derby is preferable. 
 Church: STORIES FROM HOMER. 
 Butcher and Lang's prose translation of the 
 
 Odyssey. 
 Collins : The Iliad and the Odyssey (two volumes 
 
 of " Ancient Classics for English Readers"). 
 Gladstone : Homer. 
 De Quincey: Homer and the Homeridae (essay in 
 
 " Literary Criticism "). 
 Fenelon : TELEMACHUS (translated by Hawkes- 
 
 worth). 
 
 Benjamin : Troy. 
 Goethe : Iphigenia in Tauris (drama, Swanwick's 
 
 translation). 
 
 The student of this period is referred also 
 to Dr. Schliemann's works : Ilios, Troja, and 
 Mykenai. 
 
 Church : STORIES FROM HERODOTUS. 
 Swayne : Herodotus (Ancient Classics). 
 Brugsch Bey : Egypt under the Pharaohs. 
 Freeman : Historical Essays (ad series). 
 Ebers: Uarda (romance, descriptive of Egyptian 
 life and manners fourteen centuries before Christ). 
 
 An Egyptian Princess (five centuries before 
 
 Christ). 
 
 Smith : Student's History of the East. 
 Cox : The Greeks and the Persians. 
 Abbott: THE HISTORY OF DARIUS THE GREAT. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF XERXES THE GREAT. 
 
 Sankey : The Spartan Supremacy.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 1 1 7 
 
 Bulwer : Pausanias the Spartan (romance, 475 B. c.). 
 
 Glover : Leonidas (epic poem). 
 
 Croly : The Death of Leonidas (poem). 
 
 Robert Browning : Pheidippides (poem in " Dra- 
 matic Idyls "). 
 
 Lloyd: The Age of Pericles (fifth century before 
 Christ). 
 
 Cox : The Athenian Empire. 
 
 Landor: Pericles and Aspasia (in " Imaginary Con- 
 versations " ). 
 
 Mrs. L. M. Child : Philothea (romance of the time 
 of Pericles). 
 
 Curteis : The Macedonian Empire. 
 
 Abbott : THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 Butcher: Demosthenes (Classical Writers). 
 
 Greenough : Apelles and his Contemporaries (a 
 romance of the time of Alexander). 
 
 Dryden : Alexander's Feast (poem). 
 
 Bickersteth : Caubul (poem). 
 
 Literature. 
 
 Mahaffy : History of Greek Literature. 
 
 Schlegel : History of Dramatic Literature (first 
 fourteen chapters). 
 
 Church : STORIES FROM THE GREEK TRAGE- 
 DIANS. 
 
 Copleston : ^Eschylus (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Mrs. Browning: Prometheus Bound (an English 
 version of the great tragedy). 
 
 Bishop Milman : Agamemnon. 
 
 Collins: Sophocles (Ancient Classics). 
 
 De Quincey : The Antigone of Sophocles (essay in 
 " Literary Criticism "). 
 
 Donne : Euripides (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Froude : Sea Studies (essay in " Short Studies bn 
 Great Subjects ").
 
 Il8 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Collins: Aristophanes (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Mitchell : The Clouds of Aristophanes. 
 
 De Quincey : Theory of Greek Tragedy (essay in 
 
 " Literary Criticism "). 
 
 Brodribb : Demosthenes (Ancient Classics). 
 Collins: Plato (Ancient Classics). 
 Jowett : The Dialogues of Plato (4 vols.). 
 The Phaedo of Plato (Wisdom Series). 
 Plato : The Apology of Socrates. 
 A Day in Athens with Socrates. 
 Plutarch: On the Daemon of Socrates (essay in 
 
 the " Morals "). 
 
 Grant : Xenophon (Ancient Classics). 
 Collins : Thucydides (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Life and Manners. 
 
 For a study of social life and manners in 
 Greece, read or refer to the following : 
 
 Becker: Charicles (romance, with copious notes 
 
 and excursuses). 
 Mahaffy : Social Life in Greece. 
 
 Old Greek Life. 
 Guhl and Koner : Life of the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 Special Reference. 
 
 Draper: History of the Intellectual Development 
 
 of Europe (vol. i.). 
 Clough : Plutarch's Lives. 
 Kaufman : THE YOUNG FOLKS' PLUTARCH. 
 White: PLUTARCH FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. 
 
 It is good exercise, good medicine, the reading of Plu- 
 tarch's books, good for to-day as it was in times preced- 
 ing ours, salutary for all times. A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY, j 19 
 
 II. ROMAN HISTORY. 
 
 For purposes of reference the following 
 books, already mentioned in the course of 
 Greek History, are indispensable : 
 
 Anthon : Classical Dictionary. 
 
 Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 
 
 Ginn & Heath : Classical Atlas. 
 
 Murray : Manual of Mythology. 
 
 General Histories. 
 
 Smith : Smaller History of Rome. 
 Merivale : Students' History of Rome. 
 Yonge : YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF ROME. 
 Creighton : History of Rome. 
 
 For the period preceding the Empire : 
 
 Mommsen : History of Rome (4 vols.). 
 Abbott : THE HISTORY OF ROMULUS. 
 Church : STORIES FROM VIRGIL. 
 
 STORIES FROM LIVY. 
 
 Macaulay : Horatius (poem in " Lays of Ancient 
 
 Rome "). 
 
 Arnold : History of Rome. 
 Ihne : Early Rome. 
 
 Shakspeare : The Tragedy of Coriolanus (490 B. c.). 
 Macaulay: Virginia (poem in "Lays of Ancient 
 
 Rome," 459 B.C.). 
 
 Abbott : THE HISTORY OF HANNIBAL. 
 Smith : Rome and Carthage. 
 
 Dale : Regulus before the Senate (poem, 256 B. c.). 
 Beesly: The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla. 
 Mrs. Mitchell : Spartacus to the Gladiators (poem, 
 
 73 B.C.).
 
 120 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 For the period of the Caesars and the early 
 Empire : 
 
 Merivale : Histnry of the Romans (4 vols.). 
 The Roman Triumvirates. 
 
 Abbott : THE HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. 
 
 Addison : The Tragedy of Cato (drama). 
 
 Froude : Caesar ; a Sketch. 
 
 Trollope : Life of Cicero. 
 
 Ben Jonson : Catiline (drama). 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher : The False One (dra- 
 ma). 
 
 Abbott: THE HISTORY OF CLEOPATRA. 
 
 Shakspeare : The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. 
 Antony and Cleopatra. 
 
 Capes : The Early Empire. 
 
 De Quincey : The Caesars. 
 
 Ben Jonson : The Poetaster (drama, time of Au- 
 gustus). 
 
 Wallace : Ben Hur (romance, time of Tiberius). 
 
 Longfellow: The Divine Tragedy (poem). 
 
 Ben Jonson : Sejanus, his Fall (drama, time of 
 Tiberius). 
 
 Becker: Gallus (romance, with notes, time of Au- 
 gustus). 
 
 Schele De Vere: The Great Empress (romance, 
 time of Nero). 
 
 Abbott : THE HISTORY OF NERO. 
 
 W. W. Story: Nero (drama). 
 
 Hoffman : The Greek Maid at the Court of Nero 
 (romance). 
 
 Farrar : Seekers after God (Seneca, Epictetus). 
 
 Wiseman : The Church of the Catacombs (romance, 
 time of the Persecutions). 
 
 Mrs. Charles: The Victory of the Vanquished 
 (romance).
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 121 
 
 Church and Brodribb: Pliny's Letters (Ancient 
 
 Classics). 
 Bulwer : The Last Days of Pompeii (romance, time 
 
 of Vespasian). 
 Massinger : The Roman Actor (drama, time of 
 
 Domitian). 
 
 The Virgin Martyr (drama). 
 
 Dickinson : The Seed of the Church. 
 De Mille : Helena's Household. 
 Lockhart : Valerius. 
 
 The last three works are romances, depict- 
 ing life and manners in the time of Trajan. 
 
 For the period of the later Empire and the 
 decline of the Roman power : 
 
 Curteis : History of the Roman Empire (395-800). 
 
 Gibbon : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 
 Ebers : The Emperor (romance, time of Hadrian). 
 
 Capes : The Age of the Antonines. 
 
 Watson : Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 
 
 Hodgkin : Italy and her Invaders. 
 
 William Ware : Zenobia (romance, A. D. 266). 
 Aurelian (romance, A. D. 275). 
 
 Ebers : Homo Sum (romance, A. D. 330). 
 
 Kouns: Arius the Libyan (romance, A. D. 336). 
 
 Aubrey De Vere : Julian the Apostate (drama, 
 A. D. 363). 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher: Valentinian (drama, 
 A. D. 375). 
 
 Edward Everett: Alaric the Visigoth; and Mrs. 
 Hemans : Alaric in Italy (poems, A. D. 410). 
 
 Kingsley : Hypatia (romance, A. D. 415). 
 
 Mrs. Charles : Conquering and to Conquer (ro- 
 mance, A. D. 418).
 
 122 THE BOOK-LOVER, 
 
 Mrs. Charles : Maid and Cleon (romance of Alex- 
 andria, A. D. 425). 
 Kingsley : Roman and Teuton. 
 Church: The Beginning of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Literature. 
 
 Simcox : History of Roman Literature. 
 
 Schlegel : History of Dramatic Literature. 
 
 Collins: Livy (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Mallock : Lucretius (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Trollope : Caesar (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Collins : Cicero (Ancient Classics). 
 
 Morris : The ^Eneid of Virgil. 
 
 Collins : Virgil, Ovid, Lucian (three volumes of 
 Ancient Classics). 
 
 Epictetus : Selections from Epictetus. 
 
 Jackson : Apostolic Fathers (Early Christian Lit- 
 erature Primers). 
 
 Special Reference. 
 
 Clough : Plutarch's Lives, 
 
 White : PLUTARCH FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. 
 
 Kaufman: THE YOUNG FOLKS' PLUTARCH. 
 
 Coulange: The Ancient City. 
 
 Draper : History of the Intellectual Development of 
 
 Europe. 
 
 Lecky : History of European Morals. 
 Milman : History of Christianity. 
 Stanley : History of the Eastern Church. 
 Fisher : Beginnings of Christianity. 
 Dollinger : The First Age of Christianity. 
 Montalembert : The Monks of the West. 
 Reber : History of Ancient Art. 
 Hadley : Lectures on Roman Law. 
 Maine : Ancient Law.
 
 COURSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 123 
 
 III. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY. 
 
 This course has been prepared with special 
 reference to English history. The right-hand 
 column, headed Collateral Reading, will assist 
 students desiring to extend their reading so 
 as to embrace the history of Continental 
 Europe. The figures affixed to some of 
 the titles indicate, as nearly as is thought 
 necessary, the time covered or treated of by 
 the work mentioned. Historical romances 
 and other prose works of fiction are desig- 
 nated thus (*) ; dramas thus (f) ; other 
 poems thus (J). 
 
 ENGLISH HISTORY. | COLLATERAL READ- 
 ING. 
 General Histories. 
 
 KNIGHT : History of England 
 (9 vols. ). 
 
 YONGE: YOUNG FOLKS' HIS- 
 TORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 DICKENS : CHILD'S HISTORY 
 OF ENGLAND. 
 
 STRICKLAND : Lives of the 
 Queens of England (7 vols. ). 
 
 PEARSON: Historical Atlas of 
 England. 
 
 WHITE : History of France. 
 
 LEWIS: Students' History of 
 Germany. 
 
 HUNT: History of Italy. 
 
 YONGE: YOUNG FOLKS' HIS- 
 TORY OF FRANCE. 
 
 KIRKLAND : SHORT HISTORY 
 OF FRANCE. 
 
 HALLAM : View of the State of 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Period. 
 
 GREEN : History of the Eng- 
 lish People, book i. 
 
 MRS. ARMITAGE : The Child- 
 hood of the English Nation. 
 
 GREEN : The Making of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 GUIZOT : History of France, 
 vol. i. 
 
 JAMES : History of Charle- 
 magne. 
 
 BRYCE : The Holy Roman 
 Empire.
 
 124 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 PALGRAVE: History of the 
 Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 t Paulinus and Edwin. 
 
 TURNER : History of tlu An- 
 glo-Saxons. 
 
 GRANT ALLEN : Anglo-Saxon 
 Britain. 
 
 ABBOTT: ALFRED THE 
 GREAT. 
 
 HUGHES : Life of Alfred the 
 Great. 
 
 THIERRY : The Conquest of 
 England by the Normans. 
 
 ABBOTT : WILLIAM THE CON- 
 QUEROR. 
 
 GRBEN : The Conquest of 
 England. 
 
 FREEMAN : History of the Nor- 
 man Conquest of England. 
 
 MRS. CHARLES : * Early 
 Dawn (romance of the Ro- 
 man occupation of Britain). 
 
 COWPER : \ Boadicea. 
 
 LANIER : *THE BOY'S KING 
 ARTHUR. 
 
 LOWELL : % The Vision of Sir 
 Launfal. 
 
 TENNYSON: JThe Idylls of 
 the King. 
 
 SCOTT : t Harold the Dauntless. 
 
 TAYLOR : t Edwin the Fair. 
 
 BULWER : * Harold, the Last 
 of the Saxons (1066). 
 
 TENNYSON: t Harold; a Drama. 
 
 LEIGHTON : t The Sons of 
 Godwin. 
 
 KINGSLEV : * Hereward, the 
 Last of the Saxons. 
 
 CUTTS : Scenes and Charac- 
 ters of the Middle Ages. 
 
 JOHNSON : The Normans in 
 Europe. 
 
 CARLYLE : The Early Kings 
 of Norway. 
 
 ANDERSON : Norse Mythology. 
 
 LETTSOM : t The Nibelungen- 
 lied. 
 
 DASENT: The Burnt Njal. 
 
 BALDWIN : *THE STORY OF 
 SIEGFRIED. 
 
 MALLET: Northern Antiqui- 
 ties. 
 
 JAMES : History of Chivalry. 
 
 BULFINCH : *The Age of 
 Chivalry. 
 
 LANIER: * KNIGHTLY LE- 
 GENDS OF WALES. 
 
 LUDLOW : Popular Epics of 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
 BULFINCH : Legends of Char- 
 lemagne. 
 
 BALDWIN: *THK STORY OF 
 ROLAND. 
 
 ARIOSTO : t Orlando Furioso. 
 
 LOCKHART : t Spanish Ballads. 
 
 YONGE: Christians and Moors 
 in Spain. 
 
 SOUTHEY: Chronicles of the 
 Cid. 
 
 TENNYSON : t Godiva (1040). 
 
 The Age of Feudalism. 
 JOHNSON : The Norman Kings 
 
 and the Feudal System. 
 GREEN: History of the Eng- 
 lish People, books ii. and iii. 
 
 GUIZOT : History of France, 
 
 vol. ii. 
 Cox : The Crusades.
 
 COURSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 125 
 
 PALGRAVE: t Death in the 
 
 Forest (uoo). 
 ABBOTT : RICHARD I. 
 HUME : History of England. 
 FROUDE : Life and Times of 
 
 Thomas Becket. 
 AUBREY DE VERB : t St. 
 
 Thomas of Canterbury. 
 JAMES : Life of Richard Cceur 
 
 de Lion. 
 FBOUDE : A Bishop of the 
 
 Twelfth Century ( 1 190). 
 STUBBS : The Early Plantage- 
 
 nets. 
 PYLE : THE STORY OF ROBIN 
 
 HOOD. 
 SCOTT : * The Talisman ( 1 193). 
 
 * Ivanhoe (1194). 
 
 JAMES : * Forest Days (1214). 
 SHAKSPEARE: t King John 
 
 (1215). 
 DRAYTON: JThe Barons' 
 
 Wars. 
 PAULI: Life of Simon de 
 
 Montfort (1215). 
 PEARSON : English History in 
 
 the Fourteenth Century. 
 YONGE : * The Prince and the 
 
 Page (1280). 
 
 GRAY : t The Bard (1282). 
 CUNNINGHAM: *Sir Michael 
 
 Scott (1300). 
 PORTER : * The Scottish 
 
 Chiefs. 
 AGUILAR: *The Days of 
 
 Bruce. 
 CAMPBELL: t The Battle of 
 
 Bannockbum. 
 SCOTT: JThe Lord of the 
 
 Isles (1307). 
 MARLOWE : t Edward II. 
 
 (1327)- 
 WARBURTON : Edward III. 
 
 (1327-77)- 
 ABBOTT : RICHARD II. 
 
 MICHAUD: History of the 
 Crusades. 
 
 GRAY: The Children's Cru- 
 sade. 
 
 GAIRDNER : Early Chroniclers 
 of Europe. 
 
 OLIPHANT: Francis of Assisi. 
 
 ADAMS: *PAGE, SQUIRE, AND 
 KNIGHT (1180). 
 
 HENTY: *THB BOY KNIGHT 
 (1188). 
 
 SCOTT : * The Betrothed. 
 
 YONGE: * Richard the Fear- 
 less. 
 
 JAMES: * Philip Augustus. 
 
 SCOTT: * Count Robert of 
 Paris. 
 
 HALE : * In his Name. 
 
 KINGSLEY : t The Saint's 
 Tragedy (1220). 
 
 BROWNING : t Sordello (1230). 
 
 KINGTON-OLIPHANT : Fred- 
 erick II. (1250). 
 
 GUIZOT: History of France, 
 vol. iii. 
 
 HEMANS: tThe Vespers of 
 Palermo (1282). 
 
 BOKER : t Francesca di Rimini 
 (1300). 
 
 SCHILLER : t Wilhelm Tell. 
 
 BULWER : *Rienzi, the Last of 
 the Tribunes (1347). 
 
 BYRON : t Marino Faliero 
 
 (i355). 
 JAMISON : Life of Bertrand du 
 
 Guesclin. 
 LORD HOUGHTON: t Bertrand 
 
 du Guesclin (1380). 
 HUTTON: James and Philip 
 
 Van Artevelde.
 
 126 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 LANIBR: THE BOY'S FROIS- 
 
 SART. 
 
 SOUTHKV : t Wat Tyler (1381). 
 CAMPBELL: tWat Tyler's 
 
 Address to the King. 
 SHAKSPEARE: t Richard II. 
 
 (i399)- 
 
 BESAKT AND RICE: Life of 
 Whittington. 
 
 PERCY : t The Ballad of Chevy 
 Chase. 
 
 GAIRDNBR: The Houses of 
 Lancaster and York. 
 
 EDGAR: The Wars of the Roses. 
 
 GREEN : History of the Eng- 
 lish People, book iv. 
 
 SHAKSPEARB: tKing Henry 
 IV. 
 
 YONGE: *The Caged Lion 
 (1406). 
 
 TOWLE : History of Henry V. 
 
 EWALD : The Youth of Henry 
 V. (in " Stories from the 
 State Papers"). 
 
 GAIRDNER: The Lollards. 
 
 DRAYTON : t The Battle of 
 Agincourt (1415). 
 
 SHAKSPEARE : t King Henry 
 VI. 
 
 BULWER: *The Last of the 
 Barons (1460). 
 
 GAIRDNER : History of Rich- 
 ard III. 
 
 The Paston Letters. 
 
 SHAKSPEARB : t King Richard 
 III. 
 
 ABBOTT: HISTORY OF RICH- 
 ARD III. 
 
 TAYLOR : t Philip Van Arte- 
 velde (1382). 
 
 MRS. BRAY : Joan of Arc and 
 the Times of Charles VII. of 
 France. 
 
 SOOTHEY : t Joan of Arc. 
 
 CALVBRT : t The Maid of Or- 
 leans. 
 
 BROWNING : t Luria (1405). 
 
 JAMES: * Agincourt. 
 
 KIRK : History of Charles the 
 
 Bold. 
 SCOTT: *Quentin Durward 
 
 ('45)- 
 BYRON: tThe two Foscari 
 
 (457). 
 
 HERZ : t King Rent's Daugh- 
 ter. 
 
 SCOTT: *Anne of Geierstein. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO : *The Hunch- 
 back of Notre Dame. 
 
 BROWNING : t The Return of 
 the Druses. 
 
 MACAULAY : Essay on Machi- 
 avelli. 
 
 Modern England. 
 
 BIRCHALL: England under the 
 Tudors. 
 
 GREEN : History of the Eng- 
 lish People, books v. and vi. 
 
 PRBSCOTT: The History of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 
 ANITA GEORGE: Isabel the 
 Catholic.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 127 
 
 MANNING : The Household of 
 
 Sir Thomas More. 
 SCOTT: t Marmion (1513). 
 JAMES : * Darnley (1520). 
 FROUDE : History of England 
 
 from the Fall of Wolsey to 
 
 the Death of Elizabeth. 
 MUHLBACH: * Henry VIII. 
 
 and Catherine Parr. 
 SHAKSPEARE: t King Henry 
 
 VIII. 
 
 GEIKIE : History of the Eng- 
 lish Reformation. 
 MILMAN : t Anne Boleyn 
 
 dS36). 
 AINSWORTH : * Tower Hill 
 
 dS33). 
 EWALD: Stories from the 
 
 State Papers. 
 MARK TWAIN : * THE PRINCE 
 
 AND THE PAUPER (1548). 
 AUBREY DE VERB: t Mary 
 
 Tudor. 
 
 TENNYSON : t Queen Mary. 
 SCOTT : t Lay of the Last 
 
 Minstrel. 
 MANNING: * Colloquies of 
 
 Edward Osborne (1554). 
 ROWK : t Lady Jane Grey 
 
 ('554). 
 AINSWORTH : * The Tower of 
 
 London (1554). 
 ABBOTT : HISTORY OF QUEEN 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 CREIGHTON : The Age of Eliza- 
 beth. 
 
 SCOTT: *Kenilworth (1560). 
 MACAULAY : Essays on Lord 
 
 Burleigh and Bacon. 
 TOWLE: DRAKE, THE SEA 
 
 KING OF DEVON. 
 ABBOTT : HISTORY OF MARY 
 
 QUEEN OF SCOTS. 
 SCOTT : * The Monastery and 
 
 The Abbot. 
 
 IRVING: The Conquest of 
 
 Granada. 
 The Alhambra. 
 
 AGUILAR: *The Edict (1492). 
 
 ROBERTSON : History of 
 Charles V. 
 
 SEEBOHM : Era of the Protes- 
 tant Revolution. 
 
 FISHER: History of the Ref- 
 ormation. 
 
 YONGE: *The Dove in the 
 Eagle's Nest (1519). 
 
 MRS. CHARLES : * Chronicles 
 of the Schonberg-Cotta 
 Family. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT : * Romola. 
 
 READK: *The Cloister and 
 the Hearth. 
 
 MRS. STOWE : * Agnes of 
 Sorrento. 
 
 MRS. MANNING: *Good Old 
 Times (1549). 
 
 PRESCOTT : History of Philip 
 II. 
 
 MOTLEY: The Rise of the 
 Dutch Republic. 
 
 History of the United 
 
 Netherlands. 
 
 YONGE: *The Chaplet of 
 Pearls (France, 1555). 
 
 BARRETT: William the Silent 
 (1533-1584). 
 
 BAIRD : Rise of the Hugue- 
 nots. 
 
 SMILES : The Huguenots in 
 France. 
 
 ABBOTT : HISTORY OF HENRY 
 IV. OF FRANCE. 
 
 GUIZOT: History of France, 
 vol. iv. 
 
 GOETHE: t Egrnont (1568). 
 
 JAMES: * The "Man-at- Arms 
 
 (iS7>- 
 
 SOUTHEY : t St. Bartholo- 
 mew's Day (1572)-
 
 128 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 YONGH : * Unknown to His- 
 tory (1587). 
 SWINBURNE : t Chastelard. 
 
 t Bothwell. 
 
 t Mary Stuart (1587). 
 
 SCHILLER : t Marie Stuart 
 
 (1587)- 
 
 MELINK : Life of Mary Queen 
 of Scots (Catholic). 
 
 KINGSLHY : * Westward Ho ! 
 
 WORDSWORTH : J The White 
 Doe of Rylstone. 
 
 MACAULAY : t The Armada. 
 
 TENNYSON: tThe Revenge. 
 
 TOWLE: SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 LANDOR : Elizabeth and Bur- 
 leigh (in " Imaginary Con- 
 versations "). 
 
 GREEN : History of the Eng- 
 lish People, book vii. 
 
 CORDERY AND PHILLPOTT : 
 
 King and Commonwealth. 
 GARDINER: The Puritan 
 
 Revolution. 
 AINSWORTH : * Guy Fawkes 
 
 (1605). 
 
 SCOTT: *TheFortunesof Nigel. 
 AINSWORTH: *The Spanish 
 
 Match ( 16*0). 
 ABBOTT: HISTORY OF 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 LBTITIA E. LANDON: $The 
 
 Covenanters (1638). 
 MARRYAT: *THB CHILDREN 
 
 OF THE New FOREST. 
 SCOTT : t Rokeby (1644). 
 * Legend of Montrose 
 
 (1646). 
 PRAED : t Marston Moor 
 
 (1644)- 
 
 CARLYLE: History of Oliver 
 Cromwell. 
 
 GUIZOT : History of the Eng- 
 lish Revolution. 
 
 MACAULAY: 
 
 GOETHE : t Torquato Tasso 
 
 (159)- 
 
 TROLLOPS: *Paul the Pope 
 and Paul the Friar. 
 
 ROBSON : Life of Cardinal 
 
 Richelieu (1585-1642). 
 JAMES: * Richelieu. 
 BULWER : t Richelieu. 
 MANZONI : * The Betrothed 
 
 (1628). 
 GOETHE: {The Destruction of 
 
 Magdeburg. 
 SCHILLER : t Wallenstein 
 
 (1634)- 
 TOPELIUS: * Times of Gustaf 
 
 Adolf. 
 GINDBLY : History of the 
 
 Thirty Years' War. 
 SCHILLER: History of the 
 
 Thirty Years' War. 
 MOTLEY : Life of John of 
 
 Barneveld. 
 PARDOE : * Louis XIV. and 
 
 the Court of France. 
 JAMES : Louis XIV. 
 
 GUIZOT: History of France, 
 vol. v.
 
 COURSES OF READING 7/V HISTORY. 
 
 129 
 
 GOLDWIN SMITH : Three Eng- 
 lish Statesmen. 
 
 MACAULAY: JThe Cavalier's 
 March to London (1651). 
 
 MASSON : Life and Times of 
 John Milton. 
 
 YONGE : * The Pigeon Pie ; a 
 Tale of Roundhead Times. 
 
 SHORTHOUSE : * John Ingle- 
 sant. 
 
 JAMES: * The Cavalier (1651). 
 
 BUTLER : t Hudibras. 
 
 SCOTT : * Woodstock. 
 
 MARVELL : % Blake's Victory 
 (1657)- 
 
 ABBOTT : HISTORY OF 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 DRYDEN : J Annus Mirabilis 
 (1666). 
 
 BIRCHALL : England under the 
 Stuarts. 
 
 Fox: Life of James II. 
 
 AINSWORTH : * James II. 
 
 JAMES : * Russell. 
 
 MACAULAY : History of Eng- 
 land (1683-1702). 
 
 Essay on Sir William 
 
 Temple. 
 
 AYTOUN : t The Widow of 
 
 Glencoe (1692). 
 HALE: The Fall of the 
 
 Stuarts. 
 
 MORRIS : The Age of Anne. 
 COXE : Memoirs of the Duke 
 
 of Marlborough. 
 SCOTT: * Old Mortality. 
 
 *The Bride of Lam- 
 
 mermoor. 
 
 DEFOE : * Memoirs of a Cav- 
 alier. 
 
 * History of the Great 
 
 Plague in London. 
 
 ADDISON : The Spectator. 
 THACKERAY : * Henry Es- 
 mond. 
 
 ABBOTT: HISTORY OF Louis 
 
 XIV. 
 
 MANNING: * Idyl of the Alps. 
 BUNGENER: BOURUALOUE AND 
 
 Louis XIV. 
 TOPELIUS : * Times of Battle 
 
 and Rest. 
 
 MACAULAY: t Song of the 
 
 Huguenots (1685). 
 BROWNING: t Hervd Riel. 
 ABBOTT : HISTORY OF PETER 
 
 THE GREAT. 
 SCHUYLER : History of Peter 
 
 the Great. 
 MAHON : War of the Spanish 
 
 Succession. 
 MUHLBACH : * Prince Eugene 
 
 and his Times. 
 TOPELIUS : * Times of Charles 
 
 XII. 
 VOLTAIRE : History of Charles 
 
 XII. 
 MARTINEAU: * Messrs. Van- 
 
 deput and Snoek (1695). 
 LADY JACKSON : The Old 
 
 Regime (Louis XIV. and 
 
 XV.). 
 MACAULAY : Essay on the War 
 
 of the Succession in Spain.
 
 13 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 BLACKMORB: *LornaDoone. 
 
 ADDISON: tThe Battle of 
 Blenheim (1704). 
 
 PHPYS : Diary (1659-1703). 
 
 GREEN : History of the Eng- 
 lish People, book viii. 
 
 LECKY : History of England in 
 the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 GRBEN : History of the Eng- 
 lish People, book ix. 
 
 SCOTT : * Rob Roy (1715)- 
 
 The Heart of Mid- 
 Lothian. 
 
 THACKERAY : Lectures on the 
 Four Georges. 
 
 STEPHEN : History of English 
 Thought in the Eighteenth 
 Century. 
 
 MACAULAY: Essays on Lord 
 Clive and Lord Chatham. 
 
 FROUDK : The English in Ire- 
 land in the Eighteenth Cen- 
 tury. 
 
 CAMPBELL: t Lochiel's Warn- 
 ing. 
 
 SCOTT: *Waverley (1745). 
 
 MOIR : $ The Battle of Pres- 
 tonpans(i745). 
 
 SMOLLETT: tThe Tears of 
 Scotland. 
 
 GOLDSMITH: The Vicar of 
 Wakefield. 
 
 SOUTHKY: Life and Times of 
 John Wesley. 
 
 MRS. CHARLES: 'Diary of 
 Kitty Trevylyan. 
 
 M ITFORD : * Our Village. 
 
 EDGBWORTH : * Castle Rack- 
 rent. 
 
 THACKERAY: *The Virgini- 
 ans (1775)- 
 
 SCOTT : * Guy Mannering. 
 
 DICKENS : * Barnaby Rudge 
 (780). 
 
 TOPEUUS: * Times of Fred- 
 erick I. (1721). 
 
 BUNGENER : LOUIS XV. AND 
 HIS TIMES. 
 
 HELPS : Ivan de Biron (1740). 
 
 MACAULAY: Essay on Fred- 
 erick the Great. 
 
 ABBOTT: HISTORY OF MARIE 
 ANTOINETTE 
 
 DAVIS : t Fontenoy (1745). 
 
 LONGMAN : Frederick the 
 
 4 Great and the Seven Years' 
 War. 
 
 CARLYLE: Life of Frederick 
 the Great. 
 
 YONGE : Life of Marie Antoi- 
 nette. 
 
 MUHLBACH: * Frederick the 
 Great and his Family. 
 
 TOPELIUS : * Times of Lin- 
 nasus. 
 
 GUIZOT: History of France, 
 vol. vi. 
 
 TOPELIUS: *Timesof Alchemy. 
 
 TAINE: The Ancient Regime. 
 
 ABBOTT: The French Revo- 
 lution of 1789. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE EM- 
 
 PRESS JOSEPHINE. 
 HISTORY OF MADAME 
 
 ROLAND. 
 
 HISTORY OF QUEEN 
 
 HORTENSE. 
 
 ALISON: History of Europe 
 (1789-1815), abridged by 
 Gould.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 
 
 MACAULAY : Essays on Warren 
 Hastings, William Pitt, and 
 Barere. 
 
 GOLDWIN SMITH: Three Eng- 
 lish Statesmen. 
 
 TREVEI.YAN : Early History 
 of Charles James Fox. 
 
 WADE : Letters of Junius. 
 
 MORLEY : Edmund Burke, a 
 Historical Sketch. 
 
 BLACKMORE: *The Maid of 
 Sker. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT : * Adam Bede. 
 
 COOPER : * Wing and Wing. 
 
 LEVER: * Charles O'M alley 
 
 MRS. CHARLES: * Against the 
 Stream. 
 
 THACKERAY: * Vanity Fair. 
 
 MAGINN: 'Whitehall. 
 
 PALGRAVE : t Trafalgar (1805). 
 
 ROBERT BUCHANAN : t The 
 Shadow of the Sword. 
 
 KINGSLEY : * Alton Locke. 
 
 DISRAELI : * Sybil. 
 
 SOUTHEY: JThe Battle of 
 Algiers (1815). 
 
 MCCARTHY : History of our 
 own Times. 
 
 MARTINEAU : History of the 
 Thirty Years' Peace. 
 
 CARLYLE : Latter-Day Pam- 
 phlets. 
 
 DISRAELI: *Lothair. 
 
 KINGLAKE : The Invasion of 
 the Crimea. 
 
 TAINE : Origins of Contempo- 
 rary France. 
 
 VAN LAUN: The French 
 Revolutionary Epoch. 
 
 ADAMS: Democracy and Mon- 
 archy in France. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO : * Ninety- 
 Three. 
 
 COLERIDGE t Destruction oj 
 the Bastile. 
 
 RENAUD: tThe Last Ban- 
 quet 
 
 ERCKMANN - CHATRIAN : 
 * Year One of the Republic. 
 
 DICKENS: *A Tale of Two 
 Cities. 
 
 BLACKMORE : * Alice Lor- 
 raine. 
 
 TROLLOPE : * La Vendde. 
 
 SAINTINE : * Picciola. 
 
 FRITZ RKUTER : * In the Year 
 Thirteen. 
 
 ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN : *The 
 Conscript; The Invasion of 
 France in 1814; and Water- 
 loo. 
 
 BYRON : { The Battle of Water- 
 loo. 
 
 MOORE : * The Fudge Family 
 in Paris. 
 
 MARTINEAU: "French Wine 
 and Politics. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO : * Les Misera- 
 bles. 
 
 GUIZOT : France under Louis 
 Philippe. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO :. The History 
 of a Crime. 
 
 BULWER : *The Parisians. 
 
 MURRAY: *The Member fen- 
 Paris. 
 
 FORBES : The Franco-German 
 War.
 
 132 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 IV. AMERICAN HISTORY. 
 
 General Histories. 
 
 Bancroft: History of the United States (12 vols., 
 
 from the discovery of America to the adoption of 
 
 the Constitution). 
 Hildreth : History of the United States (6 vols., from 
 
 the discovery of America to 1820). 
 Bryant and Gay : History of the United States (from 
 
 the discovery to 1880). 
 Ridpath : History of the United States. 
 Higginson : YOUNG FOLK'S HISTORY OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Aboriginal America. 
 
 Baldwin : Ancient America. 
 
 Donnelly : Atlantis. 
 
 Foster : Prehistoric Races of the United States. 
 
 Short : North Americans of Antiquity. 
 
 Ellis : The Red Man and the White Man. 
 
 H. H. Bancroft : Native Races of the Pacific 
 States. 
 
 Bourke : The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Ari- 
 zona. 
 
 The Period of the Discovery. 
 
 Irving: Columbus and his Companions. 
 Abbott: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 
 
 Towle : VASCO DA GAMA. 
 
 Helps : The Spanish Conquest of America (4 vols.). 
 
 Prescott : The Conquest of Mexico (3 vols.). 
 
 Abbott : HERNANDO CORTEZ. 
 
 Helps : Hernando Cortez. 
 
 Eggleston: MONTEZUMA. 
 
 Wallace : *The Fair God, or the Last of the 'Tzins.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 133 
 
 Prescott : The Conquest of Peru (2 vols.). 
 Towle : PIZARRO. 
 
 MAGELLAN. 
 
 Irving : The Conquest of Florida by De Soto. 
 
 Abbott: DE SOTO. 
 
 Simms: *Vasconselos (1538). 
 
 Towle : DRAKE, THE SEA-KING OF DEVON. 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEGH. 
 
 Hale : Stories of Discovery. 
 
 Simms: *The Lily and the Totem (the story of the 
 Huguenots at St. Augustine). 
 
 The Colonial Period. 
 
 Coffin : Old Times in the Colonies. 
 Simms : Life of John Smith. 
 Kingston: *The Settlers (1607). 
 Eggleston : POCAHONTAS. 
 Abbott : THE NORTHERN COLONIES. 
 
 Miles Standish. 
 
 Longfellow : J The Courtship of Miles Standish. 
 Mrs. Child: *The First Settlers of New England. 
 
 *Hobomok. 
 
 Cheney: *A Peep at the Pilgrims. 
 Clay : Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware. 
 Banvard : PIONEERS OF THE NEW WORLD. 
 J. G. Holland: *The Bay Path (1638). 
 Paulding: * Koningsmarke (a tale of the Swedes on 
 
 the Delaware). 
 
 Arthur : CABINET HISTORY OF NEW YORK. 
 Abbott : PETER STUYVESANT. 
 Irving : * Knickerbocker's History of New York. 
 Abbott : KING PHILIP. 
 Markham : King Philip's War. 
 Cooper: *The Wept of Wish-ton- Wish (1675). 
 Palfrey: History of New England (4 vols.). 
 Hawthorne : * The Scarlet Letter.
 
 134 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Spofford : New England Legends. 
 
 Longfellow: {New England Tragedies. 
 
 Whittier : \ Ballads of New England. 
 
 Hale : Stories of Adventure. 
 
 Abbott : CAPTAIN KIDD. 
 
 Banvard: Southern Explorers. 
 
 Abbott : THE SOUTHERN COLONIES. 
 
 Arthur: Cabinet History of Virginia. 
 
 Simms : * The Cassique of Kiawah (a story of the 
 
 early settlement of South Carolina, 1684). 
 De Vere : Romance of American History. 
 Abbott: CHEVALIER DE LA SALLE. 
 Parkman : Discovery of the Great West. 
 
 The Jesuits in North America. 
 
 Sparks : Life of Father Marquette. 
 
 Shea: Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi. 
 Parkman : Frontenac, and New France under Louis 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Simms : *The Yemassee (1715). 
 Longfellow : \ Evangeline. 
 Johnson: The Old French Wat. 
 Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe. 
 
 The Conspiracy of Pontiac. 
 Paulding: *The Dutchman's Fireside. 
 Cooper: *The Pathfinder. 
 
 * The Last of the Mohicans. 
 Kennedy: * Swallow Barn. 
 Mrs. Stowe : * The Minister's Wooing. 
 Thackeray : * The Virginians. 
 
 The Period of the Revolution. 
 
 Abbott : THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 Irving : Life of George Washington (5 vols.)- 
 Headley : Washington and his Generals. 
 Longfellow : } Paul Revere's Ride.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 135 
 
 Holmes : J Grandmother's Story of the Battle of 
 
 Bunker Hill. 
 
 Coffin: THE BOYS OF '76. 
 Cooper: *The Spy. 
 
 * The Pilot. 
 
 Neal: * Seventy-Six. 
 Greene : Life of Nathanael Greene. 
 Abbott: LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
 Parton : Life of Benjamin Franklin. 
 Sparks : The Works of Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Treason of Benedict Arnold. 
 
 Arnold: Life of Benedict Arnold. 
 Campbell : J Gertrude of Wyoming. 
 Mrs. Child: *The Rebels. 
 Paulding: *The Old Continentals. 
 
 *The Bulls and the Jonathans. 
 Simms: *Eutaw. 
 
 Kennedy : * Horse-Shoe Robinson. 
 Grace Greenwood : * The Forest Tragedy. 
 Lossing : Field Book of the Revolution. 
 Carrington: Battles of the Revolution. 
 Wirt : The Life of Patrick Henry. 
 Dwight : Lives of the Signers. 
 Magoon : Orators of the American Revolution. 
 Greene : Historical View of the American Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 From the Close of the Revolution. 
 
 McMaster: History of the People of the United 
 States from the Revolution to the Civil War. 
 
 Frothirlgham : Rise of the Republic in the United 
 States. 
 
 Curtis : History of the Constitution. 
 
 Von Hoist : Constitutional History of the United 
 States. 
 
 Nordhoff: POLITICS FOR YQUNG AMERICANS.
 
 136 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Coffin: BUILDING OF THE NATION. 
 Lodge : Life of Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 Morse : John Adams. 
 
 Parton : Life of Jefferson. 
 
 Abbott : LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE. 
 
 John Esten Cooke : * Leatherstocking and Silk 
 
 (1800). 
 
 Cable : * The Grandissimes. 
 Cooper : * The Prairie. 
 
 Simms : * Beauchampe, or the Kentucky Tragedy. 
 Parton : Life of Aaron Burr. 
 Hale : * Philip Nolan's Friends. 
 
 * The Man without a Country. 
 
 Pioneer Life in the West. 
 
 Lewis and Clarke's Journey across the Rocky 
 
 Mountains. 
 Irving : Astoria. 
 
 Adventures of Captain Bonneville. 
 
 Eggleston : Brant and Red Jacket. 
 Johnson : The War of 1812. 
 
 Lossing: Field Book of the War of 1812. 
 
 Iron : * The Double Hero. 
 
 Gleig : * The Subaltern. 
 
 Cooper : History of the American Navy. 
 
 Gay : James Madison. 
 
 Gilman : Life of James Monroe. 
 
 Morse : Life of J. Q. Adams. 
 
 Sumner : Andrew Jackson. 
 
 Lodge : Daniel Webster. 
 
 Whipple: Webster's Best Speeches. 
 
 Schmucker : Life and Times of Henry Clay. 
 
 Ripley : The War with Mexico. 
 
 Kendall : The Santa Fe Expedition. 
 
 Wilson : History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave 
 Power in America.
 
 COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 137 
 
 King : The Great South. 
 
 Olmsted: The Sea-Board Slave States. 
 
 Mrs. Stowe: * Uncle Tom's Cabin. 
 
 Hildreth : * The White Slave. 
 
 Whittier : J Voices of Freedom. 
 
 Greeley: The American Conflict. 
 
 Lossing : The Civil War in the United States. 
 
 Draper : History of the American Civil War. 
 
 Stephens: Constitutional History of the War be- 
 tween the States (Southern view). 
 
 Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion. 
 
 Champlin: YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE WAR 
 FOR THE UNION. 
 
 Coffin : THE BOYS OF '61. 
 
 * WINNING HIS WAY. 
 
 Hale : Stories of War. 
 
 Richardson : Field, Dungeon, and Escape. 
 Swinton : Twelve Decisive Battles of the War. 
 Cooke : Life of General Lee. 
 Whittier : J In War Time. 
 Lester: Our First Hundred Years. 
 Lossing: The American Centenary. 
 Tourgee : *A Fool's Errand. 
 
 * Bricks without Straw. 
 
 Headley : HEROES OF THE REBELLION (6 vols.).
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Courses of Beatiing in corjrapljg anto 
 Natural 
 
 |EOGRAPHY is learned best by the 
 careful reading of books of travel. 
 Pupils would derive infinitely more 
 knowledge by the use, under judi- 
 cious instructors, of a library of this sort, than 
 by years of drudging through those masses of 
 inanity known as School Geographies. The 
 following list is designed chiefly to aid teach- 
 ers in the selection of books suitable for 
 geographical study at school, and to assist 
 private readers in the choice of useful and 
 entertaining works on the various subjects of 
 interest in our own and foreign countries. 
 
 A good atlas is the first desideratum, and 
 is an indispensable auxiliary to the course of 
 reading here indicated. Rand, McNally, & 
 Co.'s Atlas is one of the latest publications, 
 and perhaps the most accurate and complete 
 138
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 139 
 
 in the market. Among other very good works 
 of this kind we may mention Gray's, Johnson's, 
 Colton's, and Zell's, any one of which will an- 
 swer all the ordinary purposes of the reader. 
 When no complete work is available, the maps 
 in the larger school geographies will render 
 very fair service. 
 
 The World. 
 
 Coffin : OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Curtis : Boltings round the Circle. 
 
 Dana: Two YEARS BEFORE THE MAST. 
 
 Hall: DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Gerstacker : A Journey round the World. 
 
 Prime : Around the World. 
 
 Pumpelly : Across America and Asia. 
 
 Smiles : A BOY'S JOURNEY ROUND THE \VORLD. 
 
 Nordhoff : MAN-OF-WAR LIFE. 
 
 Knox : THE YOUNG NIMRODS AROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 Hale: STORIES OF THE SEA, TOLD BY SAILORS. 
 
 Verne : FAMOUS TRAVELS AND TRAVELLERS. 
 
 THE GREAT NAVIGATORS. 
 
 THE EXPLORERS OK THE NINETEENTH 
 
 CENTURY. 
 
 Figuier : The Ocean World. 
 
 The Insect World. 
 
 Mrs. Brassey : Voyage in the Sunbeam. 
 Ainsworth : All round the World. 
 Harper : WHAT DARWIN SAW. 
 Humboldt : Cosmos. 
 
 North America. 
 
 Butterworth: ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE OCCI- 
 DENT. 
 Knox : THE YOUNG NIMRODS IN NORTH AMERICA.
 
 140 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Rideing: BOYS IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Hawthorne : AMERICAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAIN- 
 MENT. 
 
 Ingersoll : FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING ; Glimpses 
 of American Natural History. 
 
 Hale : STORIES OF DISCOVERY. 
 
 Say : Insects of North America. 
 
 Drake : Nooks and Corners of the New England 
 
 Coast. 
 
 Flagg: The Woods and By- Ways of New England. 
 Nordhoff : * Cape Cod and all along Shore. 
 Thoreau : The Maine Woods. 
 
 A Week on the Concord. 
 
 Cape Cod. 
 
 Excursions in Field and Forest. 
 
 Samuels : The Birds of New England. 
 Scudder : THE BODLEYS AFOOT. 
 
 Drake : AROUND THE HUB ; A Boy's Book about 
 
 Boston. 
 Longfellow: Poems of Places, vol. xxvi. 
 
 Murray: Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp 
 
 Life in the Adirondacks. 
 Warner: The Adirondacks Verified. 
 Bromfield: Picturesque Journeys in America. 
 Jordan: Vertebrates of the Northern States. 
 Appleton: Picturesque America. 
 
 - Our Native Land. 
 Howells: * Their Wedding Journey. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxvii. 
 
 King: The Great South. 
 Olmsted: The Sea-Board Slave States. 
 Baldwin : The Flush Times of Alabama and Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 Pollard: The Virginia Tourist.
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 141 
 
 Twain : Life on the Mississippi. 
 Lanier : Florida ; its Scenery. 
 Porte Crayon : Virginia Illustrated. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxviii. 
 
 Lewis and Clarke's Expedition across the Rocky 
 
 Mountains. 
 Irving : Astoria. 
 
 Adventures of Captain Bonneville. 
 
 A Tour on the Prairies. 
 
 Meline : Two Thousand Miles on Horseback. 
 
 Richardson: Beyond the Mississippi. 
 
 Browne : Crusoe's Island. 
 
 Nordhoff: Northern California. 
 
 Taylor : Eldorado. 
 
 Codman: The Round Trip. 
 
 Bird : A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Ingersoll : Knocking round the Rockies. 
 
 Cozzens : The Marvellous Country; or, Three Years 
 
 in Arizona and New Mexico. 
 Browne: The Apache Country. 
 Taylor : Colorado ; A Summer Trip. 
 Richardson : Wonders of the Yellowstone. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxix. 
 
 Robinson : The Great Fur Land. 
 Butler: The Great Lone Land. 
 
 The Wild North Land. 
 
 Hartwig : The Polar World. 
 Hayes : The Land of Desolation. 
 Blake : Arctic Experiences. 
 
 Nourse : American Explorations in the Ice Zones. 
 Burton : Ultima Thule. 
 Stephens : OFF TO THE GEYSERS. 
 
 Haven : Our Next-Door Neighbor. 
 Wilson : Mexico ; its Peasants and Priests.
 
 142 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Ruxton : Adventures in Mexico. 
 Stephens : Travels in Yucatan. 
 
 Travels in Central America. 
 
 Squier : The States of Central America. 
 
 Ober : * THE SILVER CITY. 
 
 Kingsley : At Last ; a Christmas in the West Indies. 
 
 Hurlbert: Gan Eden; or, Pictures of Cuba. 
 
 Dana: To Cuba and Back. 
 
 South America. 
 
 Holton : New Granada. 
 
 Orton : The Andes and Amazon. 
 
 Agassiz : Journey in Brazil. 
 
 Ewbank : Life in Brazil. 
 
 Fletcher: Brazil and the Brazilians. 
 
 Bishop : A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS 
 
 SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 Marcoy : Travels across South America. 
 Hassaurek: Four Years among Spanish Americans- 
 Squier : Peru. 
 
 Orton : * The Secret of the Andes. 
 Stephens : ON THE AMAZONS. 
 Dixie : Across Patagonia. 
 Reid: *THE LAND OF FIRE. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxx. 
 
 Europe. 
 
 Butterworth: ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Champney: THREE VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD. 
 
 Scudder: THE ENGLISH BODLEY FAMILY. 
 
 Hawthorne : Our Old Home. 
 
 Taine : Notes on England. 
 
 Escott : England. 
 
 Miller : First Impressions of England and its 
 
 People. 
 Emerson: English Traits.
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 143 
 
 Hoppin : Old England ; Its Scenery, Art, and People. 
 Abbott : A Summer in Scotland. 
 Miller : Scenes and Legends of the North of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 White : Natural History of Selborne. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. i.-v. 
 
 Longfellow : Outre Mer. 
 
 Taylor : Views Afoot. 
 
 Macquoid : Through Normandy. 
 
 Hamerton : Round My House. 
 
 Hale : A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 GERMANY, AND SWITZERLAND. 
 Walworth : THE OLD WORLD SEEN THROUGH 
 
 YOUNG EYES. 
 
 Buhver : France, Literary, Social, and Political. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. vi.-x. 
 
 Taine : Tour through the Pyrenees. 
 
 Hale : A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN. 
 
 De Amicis : Spain and the Spaniards. 
 
 Bodfish : Through Spain on Donkey-Back. 
 
 Hare : Wanderings in Spain. 
 
 Hay : Castilian Days. 
 
 Irving: The Alhambra. 
 
 Spanish Papers. 
 
 Andersen : Pictures of Travel. 
 Latouche : Travels in Portugal. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. xiv., xv. 
 
 Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN CLASSIC LANDS. 
 Browne : Yusef ; Travels on the Shores of the 
 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 Eustis : Classical Tour through Italy. 
 Dickens : Pictures from Italy. 
 Hare : Cities of Northern and Central Italy. 
 
 Days near Rome.
 
 144 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Hawthorne : English and Italian Notes. 
 Howells : Italian Journeys. 
 
 Venetian Life. 
 
 Taine : Italy (Florence and Venice). 
 
 Italy (Rome and Naples). 
 
 Di Cesnola : Cyprus. 
 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. xi.-xiii. 
 
 Stephens: Travels in Greece and Turkey. 
 
 Mahaffy : Rambles and Studies in Greece. 
 
 Baird : Modern Greece. 
 
 Townsend : A Cruise in the Bosphorus. 
 
 De Amicis: Constantinople. 
 
 Gautier : Constantinople. 
 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xix. 
 
 Waring : Tyrol and the Skirt of the Alps. 
 
 Whymper: Scrambles among the Alps. 
 
 Taylor : The By- Ways of Europe. 
 
 Hugo : Tour on the Rhine. 
 
 Browne : An American Family in Germany. 
 
 Hawthorne : Saxon Studies. 
 
 Hugo : Home-Life in Germany. 
 
 Baring-Gould : Germany, Past and Present. 
 
 De Amicis : Holland. 
 
 Scudder: THE BODLEYS IN HOLLAND. 
 
 Dodge : *HANS BRINKER, OR THE SILVER SKATES 
 
 Havard: Picturesque Holland. 
 
 Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN NORTHERN 
 
 LANDS. 
 
 Taylor : Northern Europe. 
 Browne : Land of Thor. 
 
 Du Chaillu : The Land of the Midnight Sun. 
 Andersen : Pictures of Travel in Sweden. 
 MacGregor : Rob Roy on the Baltic. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. xvii., xviii.
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 145 
 
 Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE ORIENT. 
 
 Gautier : A Winter in Russia. 
 
 Wallace : Russia. 
 
 Richardson : Ralph's Year in Russia. 
 
 Morley : Sketches of Russian Life. 
 
 Dixon : Free Russia. 
 
 Asia. 
 
 Kennan: Tent Life in Siberia. 
 McGahan : Campaigning on the Oxus. 
 Burnaby : A Ride to Khiva. 
 Schuyler : Turkistan. 
 Taylor : Central Asia. 
 Arnold : Through Persia by Caravan. 
 Stack: Six Months in Persia. 
 Vambery : Travels in Central Asia. 
 O'Donovan : The Merv Oasis. 
 Curtis : The Howadji in Syria. 
 Kinglake : Eothen. 
 
 MacGregor : Rob Roy on the Jordan. 
 Prime : Tent Life in the Holy Land. 
 Taylor : Travels in Arabia. 
 Blunt: The Bedouin Tribes. 
 Keane : Six Months in Mecca. 
 
 Baker : Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 
 
 Butler : The Land of the Vedas. 
 
 French : OUR BOYS IN INDIA. 
 
 Knox: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN INDIA AND 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SIAM AND JAVA. 
 
 Vincent : The Land of- the White Elephant. 
 Leonowens : An English Governess at the Siamese 
 
 Court. 
 Kingston : * Ix EASTERN SEAS.
 
 146 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Wilson : The Abode of Snow. 
 
 Markham: Thibet. 
 
 Gordon : The Roof of the World. 
 
 Williams: The Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Taylor : India, China, and Japan. 
 
 French: OUR BOYS IN CHINA. 
 
 Eden : China, Japan, and India. 
 
 Oppert : Corea. 
 
 Knox : THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN JAPAN AND 
 
 CHINA. 
 Miller : LITTLE PEOPLE OF ASIA. 
 
 CHILD LIFE IN JAPAN. 
 
 Greey: THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS. 
 
 Griffis : The Mikado's Empire. 
 Bird : Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. 
 Longfellow Poems of Places, vols. xxi.-xxiii. 
 
 Africa. 
 
 Hale: A FAMILY FLIGHT OVER EGYPT AND 
 
 SYRIA. 
 Knox: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT. 
 
 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 McCabe : OUR YOUNG FOLKS IN AFRICA. 
 
 Du Chaillu: WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
 
 THE COUNTRY OF THE DWARFS. 
 Baker: *CAST UP BY THE SEA. 
 Stanley: *Mv KALULU. 
 Baker : Ismailia. 
 
 Albert N'Yanza. 
 
 Speke : Journal of the Discovery of the Source of 
 
 the Nile. 
 
 Edwards : A Thousand Miles up the Nile. 
 Taylor : Central Africa. 
 Schweinfurth : The Heart of Africa.
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 147 
 
 Livingstone : Last Journals. 
 Stanley : How I found Livingstone. 
 
 Through the Dark Continent. 
 Du Chaillu: Explorations in Central Africa. 
 
 Journey to Ashango Land. 
 Anderson : Southwestern Africa. 
 Livingstone : South Africa. 
 Gumming: Hunter's Life in South Africa. 
 MacLeod : Madagascar and its People. 
 Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxiv. 
 
 Australia and the Pacific. 
 
 Grant : Bush Life in Australia. 
 Cook: Voyages round the World. 
 Gironierre : Twenty Years in the Philippine Islands. 
 Nordhoff : Stories of the Island World. 
 Cheever : The Island World of the Pacific. 
 Lamont : Wild Life among the Pacific Islanders. 
 Bird : Six Months among the Sandwich Islands. 
 Dana : Corals and Coral Islands. 
 
 f
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ant) 
 
 A LITTLE philosophy inclineth a man's mind to athe- 
 ism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about 
 to religion. BACON. 
 
 HE books which help you most 
 are those which make you think 
 the most," says Theodore Parker. 
 "The hardest way of learning is 
 by easy reading ; every man that tries it finds 
 it so." 
 
 And apropos of this, I present the following 
 list of books recommended by Dr. John 
 Brown as suitable for the reading of young 
 medical students. Yet not only medical stu- 
 dents, but students of other special subjects, 
 and teachers as well, will find it profitable to 
 dig into and through, to " energize upon " 
 and master, such books as these :
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 149 
 
 1. Arnauld's Port Royal Logic ; translated by T. 
 
 S. Baynes. 
 
 2. Thomson's Outlines of the Necessary Laws of 
 
 Thought. 
 
 3. Descartes on the Method of Rightly Conduct- 
 
 ing the Reason and Seeking Truth in the 
 Sciences. 
 
 4. Coleridge's Essay on Method. 
 
 5. Whately's Logic and Rhetoric (new and cheap 
 
 edition). 
 
 6. Mill's Logic (new and cheap edition). 
 
 7. Dugald Stewart's Outlines. 
 
 8. Sir John Herschel's Preliminary Dissertation. 
 
 9. Isaac Taylor's Elements of Thought. 
 
 10. Sir William Hamilton's edition of Reid: Dis- 
 
 sertations and Lectures. 
 
 11. Professor Eraser's Rational Philosophy. 
 
 12. Locke on the Conduct of the Understanding. 
 
 " Taking up a book like Arnauld, and read- 
 ing a chapter of his lively, manly sense," says 
 Rab's friend, " is like throwing your manuals, 
 and scalpels, and microscopes, and natural 
 (most unnatural) orders out of your hand and 
 head, and taking a game with the Grange 
 Club, or a run to the top of Arthur Seat. 
 Exertion quickens your pulse, expands your 
 lungs, makes your blood warmer and redder, 
 fills your mouth with the pure waters of relish, 
 strengthens and supples your legs ; and though 
 on your way to the top you may encounter 
 rocks, and baffling debris, and gusts of fierce 
 winds rushing out upon you from behind
 
 150 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 corners, just as you will find, in Arnauld and 
 all truly serious and honest books of the kind, 
 difficulties and puzzles, winds of doctrine, and 
 deceitful mists, still you are rewarded at the 
 top by the wide view. You see, as from a 
 tower, the end of all. You look into the per- 
 fections and relations of things ; you see the 
 clouds, the bright lights, and the everlasting 
 hills on the horizon. You come down the 
 hill a happier, a better, and a hungrier man, 
 and of a better mind. But, as we said, you 
 must eat the book, you must crush it, and 
 cut it with your teeth, and swallow it ; just as 
 you must walk up, and not be carried up, the 
 hill, much less imagine you are there, or look 
 upon a picture of what you would see were 
 you up, however accurately or artistically 
 done ; no, you yourself must do both." 
 
 The same may be said of all books that are 
 the most truly helpful to us, and mind-lifting. 
 It is the hard reading that profits most, 
 provided, always, that due care be taken to 
 digest that which is read. Yet I would not 
 recommend the same strong diet or the same 
 severe exercise to every person, or even to 
 any considerable proportion of readers. One 
 man may be a palm, as says Dr. Collyer, and 
 another a pine ; that which is wisdom to the
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 151 
 
 one may be incomprehensible folly to the 
 other. But those whose mental constitutions 
 are sufficiently vigorous to digest and assimi- 
 late the food which the philosophers offer, 
 may find comfort and health, not only in 
 the works above recommended, but in the 
 following : 
 
 Plato's Works : Jowett's translation. 
 
 G. H. Lewes : A Chapter from Aristotle. 
 
 Lord Bacon : Novum Organum. 
 
 Butler: Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed. 
 
 Hume : A Treatise on Human Nature. 
 
 Hamilton : Discussions on Philosophy and Litera- 
 ture. 
 
 Mill : Examination of Hamilton's Philosophy. 
 
 Lewes: Problems of Life and Mind. 
 
 Cousin : Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and 
 the Good. 
 
 Martineau : The Positive Philosophy of Auguste 
 Comte. 
 
 Mill : Comte and Positivism. 
 
 Mahaffy : Kant's Critical Philosophy for English 
 Readers. 
 
 Fichte : The Science of Knowledge. 
 
 Meiklejohn : Kant's Critique of the Pure Reason 
 (published in Bohn's Philosophical Library). 
 
 Spencer : First Principles of Philosophy. 
 
 Bowen : Essays on Speculative Philosophy. 
 
 Porter : Elements of Intellectual Science. 
 
 The Human Intellect. 
 
 McCosh : Intuitions of the Mind. 
 System of Logic. 
 
 Fiske : Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy. 
 
 Everett : Science of Thought.
 
 152 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Wallace : The Logic of Hegel. 
 
 Hegel: The Philosophy of History (translated by 
 J. Sibree, in Bonn's Philosophical Library). 
 
 Schopenhauer: Select Essays of Arthur Schopen- 
 hauer (translated by Droppers and Dachsel). 
 
 Lewes : Biographical History of Philosophy. 
 
 Morell : An Historical and Critical View of the 
 Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nine- 
 teenth Century. 
 
 Ueberweg : History of Philosophy. 
 
 Masson : Recent British Philosophy. 
 
 Lecky : History of European Morals. 
 
 History of Rationalism in Europe. 
 
 Draper : History of the Intellectual Development 
 of Europe. 
 
 To the foregoing list the following may be 
 added : 
 
 Plutarch's Morals (translated by Goodwin). 
 Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (in the 
 
 "Wisdom Series"). 
 Selections from Fenelon. 
 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 
 Sydney Smith's Sketches of Moral Philosophy. 
 Watts on the Mind. 
 Taine on Intelligence. 
 
 A course of reading which shall include any 
 number of the works here mentioned will be 
 no child's play ; it will involve the severest 
 exercise of the thinking powers, but it will 
 enable you " to look into the perfections and 
 relations of things, and to see the clouds, the 
 bright lights, and the everlasting hills on the
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 153 
 
 horizon." The reading of such books is like 
 the training of a gymnast ; it will lead to the 
 healthy development of the parts most skil- 
 fully exercised, but the strength of him who 
 exercises should never be too severely tested. 
 Would you prefer a lighter course of reading, 
 but one which will probably lead you into 
 pleasanter paths of contemplation and reflec- 
 tion, and finally open up to your view a pros- 
 pect equally boundless and grand? Allow 
 me to suggest the following, which is neither 
 philosophical nor religious, in the strictest ac- 
 ceptation of these terms, but which leads us 
 to an acquaintance with that which is best in 
 both. 
 
 We shall begin with the Bible, and through- 
 out the course we shall make that book our 
 grand rallying-point. " Read the Bible rever- 
 ently and attentively," says Sir Matthew Hale ; 
 " set your heart upon it, and lay it up in your 
 memory, and make it the direction of your 
 life : it will make you a wise and good man." 
 From the reverential reading of the Bible, 
 which to most of us is rather an act of reli- 
 gious duty than of intellectual effort, we turn 
 to the great masterpieces of antiquity. In the 
 Phaedo and the Apology and Crito of Plato, 
 we find the ripest thoughts of the world's
 
 154 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 greatest thinker; then we turn to Aristotle's 
 Ethics, and, afterwards, we compare the doc- 
 trines of the Greek philosophers with the 
 Teachings of Confucius and of Mencius. 1 If 
 we have supplemented these readings with 
 the proper acquaintance with ancient his- 
 tory, we shall now be ready to understand 
 the great poems of antiquity, and to read 
 them in a light different from that which we 
 have hitherto known. We read the Iliad, and 
 the Odyssey, and the Greek tragedians ; then 
 the old Indian epics, Arnold's "The Light 
 of Asia," and Swamy's " Dialogues and Dis- 
 courses of Gotama Buddha." Descending 
 now to more modern times, for we would 
 not make this course a long one, we turn 
 again to our Bible, and thoroughly acquaint 
 ourselves with " the unsurpassedly simple, lov- 
 ing, perfect idyls of the life and death of 
 Christ," as we find them in the New Testa- 
 ment. After this, we shall obtain more ex- 
 alted ideas of the brotherhood of the human 
 race and the "hope of the nations," if we 
 spend some time in the study of the majestic 
 expressions of the universal conscience found 
 in such works as the " Vishnu Sarma " of the 
 Hindoos, the "Gulistan" of Saadi, the "Sen- 
 
 1 Chinese Classics, by J . Legge. 3 vols.
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 155 
 
 tences" of Epictetus, and the "Thoughts" of 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Then, to get at 
 the poetic interpretation of the teachings of 
 Mohammed, we read the " Pearls of Faith ; 
 or, Islam's Rosary," and Lane Poole's "Selec- 
 tions from the Koran." Returning to the 
 study of Christian ethics and poetry, we take 
 up the " Confessions of Saint Augustine," 
 and the " Discourse " of Saint Bernard, and 
 then the " Imitation of Christ," by Thomas 
 a Kempis. We read Milton's " Paradise 
 Lost " again, and Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress ; " and we enjoy the wealth of imagery 
 in Jeremy Taylor's " Holy Living and Holy 
 Dying." Holy George Herbert's " Sacred 
 Poems and Private Ejaculations" claim our 
 attention for a time, and then we take up 
 Pascal's "Thoughts," and selections from 
 Fnelon's " Telemachus " and " Dialogues of 
 the Dead." Finally, we read Wordsworth's 
 " Excursion," and Keble's " Christian Year," 
 and return after all to a further perusal of 
 the Bible and the poems of antiquity. 
 
 You may say that this course is rather frag- 
 mentary, and so it is ; but it differs from the 
 other courses which I have indicated, in that 
 it is undertaken as a heart-work rather than a 
 head-work. Unlike the course just preceding,
 
 156 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 it has to do with our emotional and devotional 
 natures rather than with our highest powers 
 of thinking and reasoning. With few excep- 
 tions only, the books here mentioned are 
 voices out of the past, speaking to us of the 
 human soul's belief and experience in different 
 ages of the world and under different dispen- 
 sations. " I suppose," says George Eliot, 
 speaking of the " Imitation of Christ," "I 
 suppose that is the reason why the small old- 
 fashioned book, for which you need only pay 
 sixpence at a book-stall, works miracles to this 
 day, turning bitter waters into sweetness; 
 while expensive sermons and treatises, newly 
 issued, leave all things as they were before. 
 It was written down by a hand that waited for 
 the heart's prompting; it is the chronicle of 
 a solitary, hidden anguish, struggle, trust, and 
 triumph, not written on velvet cushions to 
 teach endurance to those who are treading 
 with bleeding feet on the stones. And so it 
 remains to all time a lasting record of human 
 needs and human consolations ; the voice of 
 a brother who, ages ago, felt and suffered 
 and renounced, in the cloister, perhaps with 
 serge gown and tonsured head, with much 
 chanting and long fasts, and with a fashion of 
 speech different from ours, but under the
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 157 
 
 same silent far-off heavens, and with the same 
 passionate desires, the same strivings, the 
 same failures, the same weariness." 
 
 Writing of works like these, Emerson says : 
 "Their communications are not to be given 
 or taken with the lips and the end of the 
 tongue, but out of the glow of the cheek, 
 and with the throbbing heart. . . . These are 
 the Scriptures which the missionary might 
 well carry over prairie, desert, and ocean, to 
 Siberia, Japan, Timbuctoo. Yet he will find 
 that the spirit which is in them journeys faster 
 than he, and greets him on his arrival, was 
 there long before him. The missionary must 
 be carried by it, and find it there, or he goes 
 in vain. Is there any geography in these 
 things? We call them Asiatic, we call them 
 primeval; but perhaps that is only optical, 
 for Nature is always equal to herself, and 
 there are as good eyes and ears now in the 
 planet as ever were. Only these ejaculations 
 of the soul are uttered one or a few at a 
 time, at long intervals, and it takes millen- 
 niums to make a Bible." 
 
 We are brought now naturally to the sub- 
 ject of Theological Literature. The number 
 of books in this department is very great, and 
 there are wide differences of opinion with
 
 158 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 regard to the merits of many of the best-known 
 works. Without attempting to select always 
 the best, I shall name only a sufficient num- 
 ber of books necessary for the use of such 
 non-professional readers as may desire to ac- 
 quire a moderate knowledge of the commonly 
 accepted theological doctrines : 
 
 McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia of Biblical, 
 Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (10 
 vols.). 
 
 Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
 Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible. 
 
 Barrow's Sacred Geography and Antiquities. 
 
 Dean Stanley's Sinai and Palestine in connection 
 with their History. 
 
 Clark's Bible Atlas, with Maps and Plans. 
 
 Bissell's Historic Origin of the Bible. 
 
 Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Alford's The Greek Testament ; and The New Tes- 
 tament for English Readers. 
 
 Oehler's Theology of the Old Testament. 
 
 Weiss's Biblical Theology of the New Testament. 
 
 Geikie's Hours with the Bible. 
 
 Lenormant's The Beginnings of History, according 
 to the Bible and the Traditions of Oriental Peoples. 
 
 Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of the 
 Jewish Church. 
 
 Geikie's Life and Works of Christ. 
 
 Farrar's Life of Christ. 
 
 Farrar's Life and Work of St. Paul. 
 
 Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. 
 Paul. 
 
 Schaff's History of the Christian Church. 
 
 Dean Milman's History of Latin Christianity (8 vols.).
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 159 
 
 Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of the East- 
 ern Church. 
 
 Maurice's Religions of the World. 
 
 James Freeman Clarke's Ten Great Religions. 
 
 Moffatt's Comparative History of Religions. 
 
 Trench's Lectures on Mediaeval Church History. 
 
 Ullman's Reformers before the Reformation. 
 
 Fisher's History of the Reformation. 
 
 Ranke's History of the Popes during the Sixteenth 
 and Seventeenth Centuries. 
 
 Griesinger's History of the Jesuits. 
 
 Baird's Rise and Progress of the Huguenots in 
 France. 
 
 Stevens's History of Methodism. 
 
 Tyerman's Life and Times of,John Wesley. 
 
 Hagenbach's History of Christian Doctrines (trans- 
 lated by C. W. Buch). 
 
 Fisher's Faith and Rationalism. 
 
 McCosh's Christianity and Positivism. 
 
 Farrar's Critical History of Free Thought in refer- 
 ence to the Christian Religion. 
 
 Smith's Faith and Philosophy. 
 
 Calderwood's Relations of Science and Religion. 
 
 Max Muller's Science of Religion. 
 
 Christlieb's Counteracting Modern Infidelity. 
 
 Trench's Shipwrecks of Faith. 
 
 Walker's Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation. 
 
 Smyth's Old Faiths in New Light. 
 
 Brooks's Yale Lectures on Preaching. 
 
 Dorner's System of Christian Doctrine. 
 
 Goulburn's Thoughts on Personal Religion. 
 
 Richard Baxter, speaking of this class of 
 books, says : " Such books have the advantage 
 in many other respects : you may read an
 
 160 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 able preacher when you have but a mean one 
 to hear. Every congregation cannot hear the 
 most judicious or powerful preachers; but 
 every single person may read the books of 
 the most powerful and judicious. Preachers 
 may be silenced or banished, when books 
 may be at hand ; books may be kept at a 
 smaller charge than preachers : we may choose 
 books which treat of that very subject which 
 we desire to hear of. Books we may have at 
 hand every day and hour, when we can have 
 sermons but seldom, and at set times. If 
 sermons be forgotten, they are gone. But a 
 book we may read over and over until we 
 remember it ; and if we forget it, may again 
 peruse it at our pleasure or at our leisure."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Jiolttfcal IScflnomg anli tfje Science of 
 ofacrnment. 
 
 THIS is that noble Science of Politics, which is equally 
 removed from the barren theories of the utilitarian sophists, 
 and from the petty craft, so often mistaken for statesman- 
 ship by minds grown narrow in habits of intrigue, jobbing, 
 and official etiquette, which of all sciences is the most 
 important to the welfare of nations, which of all sciences 
 most tends to expand and invigorate the mind, which 
 draws nutriment and ornament from every part of philos- 
 ophy and literature, and dispenses in return nutriment and 
 ornament to all. MACAULAY. 
 
 O the student of Political Economy 
 and the Science of Government I 
 offer the following lists of books, 
 embracing the best works on the 
 various subjects connected with this study. 
 The classification has been made solely with 
 reference to the subject-matter, without any 
 attempt to indicate the order in which the 
 books are to be studied, as this would be 
 impossible. 
 
 ir 161
 
 1 62 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Constitutional History, etc. 
 
 Freeman : Growth of the English Constitution. 
 Creasy : Rise and Progress of the English Consti- 
 tution. 
 
 Stubbs : Constitutional History of England. 
 Hallam : Constitutional History of England (1485- 
 
 1759)- 
 Curtis : History of the Constitution of the United 
 
 States. 
 Von Hoist : Constitutional History of the United 
 
 States. 
 
 De Tocqueville: Democracy in the United States. 
 Townsend : ANALYSIS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 Nordhoff : POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. 
 Andrews : Manual of the United States Constitution. 
 Mulford: The Nation. 
 Story : Familiar Exposition of the United States 
 
 Constitution. 
 
 Bancroft : History of the United States (vol. xi.). 
 Amos : The Science of Politics. 
 
 General Works on Political Economy. 
 
 Perry : AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL ECON- 
 OMY. 
 
 Jevons: A PRIMER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 Fawcett: A MANUAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
 
 John Stuart Mill : Principles of Political Economy 
 (People's edition). 
 
 Cairnes : Some Leading Principles of Political 
 Economy Newly Expounded. 
 
 Walker : The Elements of Political Economy. 
 
 Perry : Elements of Political Economy. 
 
 Bastiat : Essays on Political Economy. 
 
 Bowen: American Political Economy. 
 
 Mason and Lalor: Primer of Political Economy.
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 163 
 
 On Population. 
 Malthus : The Principles of Population. 
 
 Mr. Malthus's doctrines are opposed in the 
 following works : 
 
 Godwin: On Population (1820). 
 
 Sadler: The Law of Population (1830). 
 
 Alison : The Principles of Population, and their 
 
 Connection with Human Happiness (1840). 
 Doubleday : The True Law of Population shown to 
 
 be connected with the Food of the People (1854). 
 Herbert Spencer : The Principles of Biology (vol. ii.). 
 Rickards : Population and Capital (1854). 
 Greg: Enigmas of Life (1872). 
 
 The Malthusian doctrine is supported 
 wholly or in part by 
 
 Macaulay, in his Essay on Sadler's Law of Popula- 
 tion ; 
 
 Rev. Thomas Chalmers, in Political Economy in con- 
 nection with the Moral State and Moral Prospects 
 of Society ; 
 
 David Ricardo, in Principles of Political Economy ; 
 and some other writers. See, also, Roscher's 
 Political Economy. 
 
 On Wealth and Currency. 
 
 Adam Smith : An Inquiry into the Nature and 
 Causes of Wealth. 
 
 Probably the most important book that has ever been 
 written, and certainly the most valuable contribution ever 
 made by a single man towards establishing the principles 
 on which government should be based. H. T. BUCKLE.
 
 1 64 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Jevons : Money and the Mechanism of Exchange. 
 
 A. Walker : The Science of Wealth. 
 
 F. A. Walker : Money. 
 
 Bagehot : Lombard Street ; a Description of the 
 
 Money Market. 
 Bonamy Price : Principles of Currency. 
 
 Currency and Banking. 
 
 Chevalier : Essay on the Probable Fall in the Value 
 
 of Gold (translated by Cobden). 
 Ricardo : Proposals for an Economical Currency. 
 Poor: Money; its Laws and History. 
 McCulloch : On Metallic and Paper Money, and 
 
 Banks. 
 
 Newcomb : The A B C of Finance. 
 Wells : Robinson Crusoe's Money. 
 Harvey: Paper Money, the Money of Civilization. 
 Sumner : History of American Currency. 
 Maclaren : History of the Currency. 
 Linderman : Money and Legal Tender of the United 
 
 States. 
 Bolles : Financial History of the United States, from 
 
 1789 to 1860. 
 
 On Banking. 
 
 Macleod : The Elements of Banking. 
 
 Theory and Practice of Banking. 
 
 Bonamy Price : Currency and Banking. 
 Gibbons : The Banks of New York. 
 Atkinson : What is a Bank ? 
 
 Gilbart : Principles and Practice of Banking. 
 Bagehot : Lombard Street. 
 
 Morse : Treatise on the Laws relating to Banks 
 and Banking. 
 
 On Labor and "Wages. 
 
 Henry George : Progress and Poverty. 
 Mallock : Property and Progress.
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 165 
 
 Walker : Wages and the Wages Class. 
 
 Brassey : Work and Wages. 
 
 Jevons : The State in relation to Labor. 
 
 Jervis : Labor and Capital. 
 
 Thornton : On Labor ; its Wrongful Claims and 
 
 Rightful Dues. 
 
 Wright : A Practical Treatise on Labor. 
 Young : Labor in Europe and America. 
 Bolles : Conflict of Labor and Capital. 
 About : Hand-Book of Social Economy. 
 
 On Socialism and Co-operation. 
 
 Nordhoff : Communistic Societies of the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Noyes : History of American Socialism. 
 Ely : French and German Socialism in Modern 
 
 Times. 
 
 Holyoake : History of Co-operation. 
 Woolsey : Socialism. 
 Barnard : Co-operation as a Business. 
 
 The student of socialism will doubtless 
 be interested in reading some of the philo- 
 sophical fictions and other works, written in 
 various ages, describing fanciful or ideal 
 communities and governments. The follow- 
 ing are the best : 
 
 Plato's Republic. 
 Sir Thomas More's Utopia. 
 Bacon's New Atlantis. 
 Hall's Mitndus Alter et Idem. 
 Harrington's Oceana. 
 Defoe's Essay on Projects.
 
 1 66 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Disraeli's Coningsby, or the New Generation. 
 Bulwer's The Coming Race. 
 
 On Taxation and Pauperism. 
 
 Peto : Taxation ; its Levy and Expenditure. 
 Cobden Club Essay, On Local Government and 
 
 Taxation. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica : The Article on Taxation. 
 Fawcett : Pauperism ; its Causes and Remedies. 
 Sir George Nicholl : Histories of the English, 
 
 Scotch, and Irish Poor Laws. 
 Lecky: History of European Morals (vol. ii.). 
 
 On the Tariff Question. 
 
 The following works favor, more or less 
 strongly, the doctrine of Free Trade : 
 
 Adam Smith : On the Wealth of Nations. 
 
 Walter : What is Free Trade? 
 
 Sumner : Lectures on the History of Protection in 
 
 the United States. 
 
 Mongredien : History of the Free-Trade Movement. 
 Grosvenor : Does Protection Protect ? 
 Bastiat : Sophisms of Protection. 
 Fawcett : Free Trade and Protection. 
 Butts : Protection and Free Trade. 
 
 The following are the most important works 
 favoring Protection : 
 
 Horace Greeley : The Science of Political Economy. 
 E. Peshine Smith : A Manual of Political Economy. 
 R. E. Thompson : Social Science and National 
 
 Economy. 
 
 H.C.Carey: Principles of Social Science. 
 Byles : Sophisms of Free Trade.
 
 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 167 
 
 Works of Reference. 
 
 McCulloch : Literature of Political Economy. 
 
 Macleod : A Dictionary of Political Economy, Bio- 
 graphical, Historical, and Practical. 
 
 Lalor : Cyclopaedia of Political Science and Political 
 Economy. 
 
 McCulloch : Dictionary of Commerce. 
 
 Tooke: History of Prices, 1793 to 1856. 
 
 Rogers : History of Agriculture and Prices in 
 England.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 n tfje practical Stubs ot 
 ^Literature. 
 
 THE ocean of literature is without limit. How then shall 
 we be able to perform a voyage, even to a moderate dis- 
 tance, if we waste our time in dalliance on the shore ? Our 
 only hope is in exertion. Let our only reward be that of 
 industry. RINGELBERGIUS. 
 
 HE student of English literature has ' 
 indeed embarked upon a limitless 
 ocean. A lifetime of study will serve 
 only to make him acquainted with 
 parts of that great expanse which lies open 
 before him. He should pursue his explora- 
 tions earnestly, and with the inquiring spirit of 
 a true discoverer. His thirst for knowledge 
 should be unquenchable ; he should long 
 always for that mind food which brings the 
 right kind of mind growth. He should not 
 rest satisfied with merely superficial attain- 
 ments, but should strive for that thoroughness 
 168
 
 STUDY OP ENGLISH LITERATURE. 169 
 
 of knowledge without which there can be 
 neither excellence nor enjoyment. 
 
 English literature is not to be learned from 
 manuals. They are onty helps, charts, 
 buoys, light-houses, if you will call them so ; 
 or they serve to you the purposes of guide- 
 books. What do you think of the would-be 
 tourist who stays at home and studies his 
 Baedeker with the foolish thought that he is 
 actually seeing the countries which the book 
 describes? And yet I have known students, 
 and not a few teachers, do a thing equally as 
 foolish. With a Morley, or a Shaw, or even a 
 Brooke in their hands, and a few names and 
 dates at their tongues' ends, they imagine 
 themselves viewing the great ocean of litera- 
 ture, ploughing its surface and exploring its 
 depths, when in reality they are only wasting 
 their time "in dalliance on the shore." 
 
 English literature does not consist in a 
 mere array of names and dates and short 
 biographical sketches of men who have writ- 
 ten books. Biography is biography ; litera- ' 
 ture " is a record of the best thoughts." But 
 the former is frequently studied in place of 
 the latter. " For once that we take down our 
 Milton, and read a book of that 'voice,' as 
 Wordsworth says, ' whose sound is like the sea,'
 
 170 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 we take up fifty times a magazine with some- 
 thing about Milton, or about Milton's grand- 
 mother, or a book stuffed with curious facts 
 about the houses in which he lived, and the 
 juvenile ailments of his first wife." x Instead 
 of becoming acquainted at first hand with 
 books in which are stored the energies of the 
 past, we content ourselves with knowing only 
 something about the men who wrote them. 
 Instead of admiring with our own eyes the 
 architectural beauties of St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 we read a biography of Sir Christopher Wren. 
 Again, it must be borne in mind that lit- 
 erature is one thing, and the history of litera- 
 ture is another. The study of the latter, 
 however important, cannot be substituted for 
 that of the former ; yet it is not desirable to 
 separate the two. To acquire any service- 
 able knowledge of a book, you will be greatly 
 aided by knowing under what peculiar con- 
 ditions it was conceived and produced, 
 the history of the country, the manners of 
 the people, the status of morals and politics 
 at the time it was written. Between history 
 and literature there is a mutual relationship 
 which should not be overlooked. " A book 
 
 1 Frederic Harrison: Fortnightly Review (April, 1879), 
 "On the Choice of Books."
 
 STUDY OP ENGLISH LITERATURE. 171 
 
 is the offspring of the aggregate intellect of 
 humanity," and it gives back to humanity, in 
 the shape of new ideas and new combinations 
 of old ideas, not only all that which it has 
 derived from it, but more, increased intel- 
 lectual vitality, and springs of action hitherto 
 unknown. 
 
 In the study of literature, one should begin 
 with an author and with a subject not too 
 difficult to understand. A beginner will be 
 likely to find but little comfort in Chaucer or 
 Spenser, or even in Emerson ; but after he 
 has worked up to them he may study them 
 with unbounded delight. For a ready under- 
 standing and correct appreciation of the great 
 masterpieces of English literature, a knowl- 
 edge of Greek and Roman mythology and 
 history is almost indispensable. The student 
 will find the courses of historical reading given 
 in a former chapter of this book of much 
 value in supplementing his literary studies. 
 
 The great works of the world's master- 
 minds should be studied together, with refer- 
 ence to the similarity of their subject-matter. 
 For example, the reading of Shakspeare will 
 give occasion to the study of dramatic lit- 
 erature in all its forms ; the reading of Mil- 
 ton's "Paradise Lost" will introduce us to
 
 172 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 the great epics, and to heroic poetry in gen- 
 eral ; Sir Walter Scott's " Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel " will lead naturally to the romance 
 literature of modern and mediaeval times ; 
 Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales " fitly illustrate 
 the story-telling phase of poetry; the study 
 of lyric poetry may centre around the old 
 ballads, the poems of Robert Burns, and the 
 religious hymns of our language ; Bunyan's 
 " Pilgrim's Progress " introduces us to alle- 
 gory, and Milton's " Lycidas " to elegiac and 
 pastoral poetry ; and to know the best speci- 
 mens of argumentative prose, we begin with 
 the speeches of Daniel Webster and end with 
 the orations of Demosthenes. 
 
 The following schemes for the study of dif- 
 ferent departments of English literature have 
 been tested both with private students and 
 with classes at school. Of course, many of 
 the books mentioned are to be used chiefly 
 as works of reference ; some of them may be 
 conveniently omitted in case it is desirable 
 to abridge the course, and others may be 
 exchanged for similar works upon the same 
 subject.
 
 DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 
 
 173 
 
 SCHEME I. 
 
 jfar tfje Stufcg of Qramattc 3Literatu. 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 For manuals use any or all 
 of the following works : 
 
 SHAW'S Manual of English 
 Literature. 
 
 MORLEV'S First Sketch of 
 English Literature. 
 
 BALDWIN'S English Litera- 
 ture and Literary Criticism. 
 
 BROOKE'S Primer of English 
 Literature. 
 
 WELSH'S Development of 
 English Literature. 
 
 RICHARDSON'S Familiar 
 
 Talks on English Litera- 
 ture. 
 
 To be read : 
 
 " Rise and Progress of the Eng- 
 lish Drama," in White's 
 Shakspeare, vol. i. 
 
 " Origin and Growth of the 
 Drama in England," in 
 Hudson's Life, Art, and 
 Characters of Shakspeare , 
 vol. i. 
 
 " Life of Shakspeare'' in either 
 of the works just named. 
 
 To be referred to : 
 DOWDEN'S Shakspere Primer. 
 ABBOTT'S Sftakspearian 
 
 Grammar. 
 
 TAINE'S English Literature, 
 the chapter on " Shak- 
 speare." 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 
 English histories for study 
 
 and reference : 
 
 GREEN'S History of the Eng- 
 lish People. 
 
 KNIGHT'S History of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 YONGE'S Young Folks' Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Study the history of Eng- 
 land from 1066 to 1580. 
 
 Write an essay on one of the 
 following subjects : 
 
 1. Miracles and Mysteries. 
 
 2. Popular Amusements of the 
 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 3. The Church and the Early 
 
 Drama. 
 
 4. The Social Condition of 
 
 England in the Time of 
 Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 5. The Early Theatres.
 
 174 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 To be studied : 
 
 I. THE MERCHANT 
 VENICE. 
 
 II. CORIOLANITS or JULIUS 
 CESAR. 
 
 III. RICHARD III. 
 
 IV. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S 
 DREAM. 
 
 V. KING LEAR or MAC- 
 BETH. 
 
 VI. HAMLET. 
 
 Books for study and refer- 
 ence while studying Shak- 
 speare : 
 HAZLITT'S Characters of 
 
 Shakspeare's Plays. 
 COLERIDGE'S Literary Re- 
 mains. 
 
 LEIGH HUNT'S Imagination 
 and Fancy. 
 
 I. Study the history and to- 
 
 pography of Venice. 
 
 Write essays on various sub- 
 jects suggested by the play. 
 
 II. Read Plutarch's Life of 
 
 Coriolanus or of Julius 
 
 Cassar. 
 
 Study the peculiarities of 
 Roman life and manners. 
 Refer to Mommsen's Rome. 
 
 III. Study the history of Rich- 
 
 ard III. as related by 
 trustworthy historians. 
 Write an essay in his 
 defence. 
 
 IV. Study the sources from 
 
 which this play has been 
 derived. Write essays 
 on subjects suggested 
 by it. 
 
 V. Read Geoffrey of Mon- 
 
 mouth's account of King 
 Lear. Learn what you 
 can of the historical leg- 
 ends of early Britain and 
 Scotland. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these plays. 
 
 VI. HAMLET. Study the 
 
 sources of the play. 
 Write essays. Discuss 
 the question of Ham- 
 let's madness. 
 
 Write an essay on Shak- 
 speare's works, his life, his art. 
 
 Discuss the Baconian theory 
 of the authorship of Shak- 
 speare's plays.
 
 DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 
 
 LAMB'S Essay on Shak- 
 
 spe are's Tragedies. 
 DOWDEN'S Mind and Art of 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 WEISS'S Wit, Humor, and 
 
 Sliakspearc. 
 MORGAN'S The Shakspearian 
 
 Myth. 
 
 Also, the various works of the 
 Shakspeare Society and of 
 the New Shakspere Society. 
 
 General Study of the Drama. 
 
 1. The Greek Drama. Re- 
 
 fer to, or read, 
 
 MAHAFFY'S Greek Literature. 
 
 SCHLEGEL'S Dramatic Litera- 
 ture. 
 
 COPLESTON'S sEsckyhes. 
 
 CHCRCH'S Stories from the 
 Greek Tragedians. 
 
 MRS. BROWNING'S translation 
 of Prometheus Bound. 
 
 DONNE'S Euripides. 
 
 FROUDB'S essay, Sea Stud- 
 ies. 
 
 DONALDSON'S Theatre of the 
 Greeks. 
 
 2. The Roman Drama. See 
 
 the following works : 
 SCHLEGEL'S Dramatic Litera- 
 ture. 
 SIMCOX'S History of Latin 
 
 Literature. 
 
 QUACKENBOS'S Classical Lit- 
 erature. 
 
 3. Mysteries and Miracle- 
 
 Plays. Refer to 
 " An Essay on the Origin of the 
 English Stage," in Percy's 
 Reliques of Ancient Eng- 
 lish Poetry. 
 
 1. The Greek Drama. 
 
 Study the history of 
 Greece from some brief 
 text-book like Smith's 
 Smaller History. Study 
 the life and manners of 
 the Greeks by referring to 
 Becker's Charicles, or 
 Mahaffy's Old Greek 
 Life. 
 
 Refer to Grote and Curtius. 
 
 Read the old Greek Myths. 
 
 Write essays on the Greek 
 
 Stage, the Greek Tragedy, and 
 
 kindred subjects. 
 
 Discuss the subjects sug- 
 gested by reading " Prome- 
 theus Bound." 
 
 2. Refer to Mommsen's Rome, 
 
 especially the chapters re- 
 lating to literature and art. 
 
 3. Review the history of Eng- 
 land from 1066 to 1580, 
 with special reference to 
 the social, religious, and 
 political progress of the 
 people.
 
 1 7 6 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 WARTON'S History of Eng- 
 lish Poetry. 
 
 MORLEY'S English Writers; 
 and the essays of White and 
 Hudson, already named. 
 
 4. The Elizabethan Drama, 
 
 See the works on Shak- 
 speare, mentioned above ; 
 also, 
 WHIPPLE'S Literature of the 
 
 Age of Elizabeth. 
 HAZLITT'S Age of Elizabeth. 
 LAMB'S Notes on the Eliza- 
 bethan Drantatitts. 
 WARD'S English Dramatic 
 
 Literature. 
 
 Study selections from 
 JONSON'S Every Man in. his 
 
 Humor. 
 MARLOWE'S Doctor Faustus, 
 
 or Tamburlaine. 
 Also, selections from Webster, 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, and 
 
 others. 
 
 5. Study Milton's Comus. 
 Read Milton's Samson Ago- 
 
 nistes. 
 
 6. The Drama of the Restora- 
 tion. Read 
 
 HAZLITT'S English Comic 
 Writers. 
 
 JOHNSON'S Life of Dryden. 
 
 THACKKRAY'S English Hu- 
 morists. 
 
 4. Subjects for special study : 
 
 The history of the reigns of 
 Elizabeth and James I. 
 
 The causes and character of 
 the Renaissance in England. 
 
 Character of the Elizabethan 
 dramatists. 
 
 Causes of the decline of dra- 
 matic literature. 
 
 The character of James I. 
 
 The Puritans and their in- 
 fluence upon the manners of 
 the English people. 
 
 The Puritans and the drama. 
 
 PRYNNE'S Histrio-Mastix. 
 
 The reign of Charles I. 
 
 5. Study the history of Oliver 
 Cromwell and Puritan 
 England. Suppression of 
 the drama. 
 
 Read Macaulay's Essay on 
 Milton. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 Discuss the character of the 
 Puritans. 
 
 6. Study the state of society at 
 the time of the Restora- 
 tion. 
 The history of England from 
 
 1660 to 1760.
 
 EPIC POETRY. 
 
 I 77 
 
 MACAULAY'S Essay on the 
 Comic Dramatists of the 
 Restoration. 
 
 WARD'S Historyofthe Drama. 
 
 ^. The Later Drama. See 
 
 the following : 
 FITZGERALD'S Life of David 
 
 Garrick. 
 The Life and Dramatic 
 
 Works of R. B. Sheridan. 
 Lives of the Kembles. 
 MACREADY'S Reminiscences. 
 LEWES'S Actors and the Art 
 
 of Acting. 
 HUTTON'S Plays and Players. 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S She Stoops to 
 Conquer. 
 
 SHERIDAN'S School for Scan- 
 dal. 
 
 BULWER'S Richelieu. 
 
 TENNYSON'S Drama of Queen 
 Mary. 
 
 SHELLEY'S Prometheus Un- 
 bound. 
 
 SWINBURNE'S Atalanta in 
 Calydon. 
 
 ROBERT BROWNiNG'sZ>ra*a.r. 
 
 Write essays on subjects 
 relating to the drama or the 
 public manners of this period. 
 
 JEREMY COLLIER'S work. 
 
 7. Study the history of England 
 tothecloseoftheeighteenth 
 century. 
 
 Write an essay on the " In- 
 fluence of the Drama." 
 
 Discuss the means by which 
 the stage may be made benefi- 
 cial as a means of popular edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Study the character of the 
 drama of our own times, and 
 how it may be improved. 
 
 SCHEME II. 
 
 jfor tfje Stutog of ISpfc 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 For manuals, etc., see 
 Scheme I. 
 
 To be studied : 
 MILTON'S Paradise Lost. 
 
 Read 
 
 MACAULAY'S Essay on Milton. 
 DR. JOHNSON'S Life of Milton. 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 For English histories, see 
 Scheme I. 
 
 Read the account of the Cre- 
 ation as related in the book of 
 Genesis. 
 
 Study the character of the 
 Puritans in England.
 
 1 7 8 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 STOPFORD BROOKE'S Milton. 
 
 MARK PATTISON'S Milton. 
 
 HAZLITT'S Essay on " Shak- 
 speare and Milton," in Eng- 
 lish Poets. 
 
 HAZLITT'S Essay on Milton's 
 Eve. 
 
 DE QUINCEY'S Essay on Milton 
 vs. Southey and Landor. 
 
 HIMKS'S A Study of Paradise 
 Lost. 
 
 The Spectator; the numbers 
 issued on Saturdays from 
 Jan. 5 to May 3, 1712. 
 
 MASSON'S Introduction to Mil- 
 ton's Poetical Works. 
 
 GOSSE'S Essay on Milton and 
 Vondel, in " Studies in 
 Northern Literature." 
 
 Refer to 
 
 MASSON'S Life of Milton. 
 BOYD'S Milton's Paradise Lost 
 
 (with copious notes). 
 
 A notice of the other great 
 Epics : 
 
 1. HOMBR'S Iliad and Odys- 
 
 sey. Selections read and 
 
 studied. 
 
 (See list of books suggested 
 for the study of Greek history, 
 etc.) 
 
 2. VIRGIL'S SEneid (Morris's 
 
 translation). General plan 
 of the work observed. 
 
 3. DANTE'S Divina Coinme- 
 
 dia (Longfellow's or Ca- 
 rey's translation). Gen- 
 eral plan of the work ob- 
 served. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by the study of " Para- 
 dise Lost." 
 
 Study the mythological allu- 
 sions found in the poem. The 
 following works of reference 
 are recommended for this pur- 
 pose : 
 
 SMITH'S Classical Dictionary. 
 
 MURRAY'S Manual of Mythol- 
 ogy. 
 
 KEIGHTLEY'S Classical My- 
 thology. 
 
 Write an essay on the gen- 
 eral plan of the poem. 
 
 Discuss Milton's theory of 
 the universe as understood 
 from the reading of " Paradise 
 Lost" 
 
 See list of books elsewhere 
 given, relating to Greek My- 
 thology, the Trojan War, etc. 
 
 See 
 
 LOWELL'S Essay on Dante, in 
 A mong My Books. 
 
 SYMOND'S Introduction to the 
 Study of Dante. 
 
 BOTTA'S Dante as a Philoso- 
 pher, Patriot, and Poet. 
 
 CARLYLE'S Heroes and Hero- 
 Worship.
 
 POETICAL ROMANCE. 
 
 179 
 
 Attempted Epics : 
 COWLEY'S Davideis. 
 GLOVER'S Leonidas, 
 SOUTHEY'S Joan of Arc, 
 
 Madoc, Thalaba, and Tlie 
 
 Curse of Kehama, 
 LANDOR'S Gebir. 
 
 Why these poems fail to be 
 epics. 
 
 Heroic Poems : 
 HARBOUR'S Bruce. 
 DAVENANT'S Gondibert. 
 
 The Mock-Heroic : 
 POPE'S Rape of the Lock. 
 The general plan. Selec- 
 tions studied. 
 
 Historical studies suggested 
 by these attempted poems. 
 
 Write an essay on the quali- 
 ties requisite to a great epic 
 poem. 
 
 Discuss the possibility of 
 another great epic being 
 written. 
 
 Study the legends and his- 
 torical events upon which these 
 poems are founded. 
 
 Write an essay on some sub- 
 ject suggested by these studies. 
 
 SCHEME III. 
 Jor tfje StutJg of Poetical Romance. 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 For manuals, see Scheme I. 
 
 To be studied : Sir Walter 
 Scott's great poems, 
 
 The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 
 Marmion. 
 
 The Lady of the Lake. 
 
 To be read : 
 
 CARLYLE'S Essay on Sir Wal- 
 ter Scott. 
 
 HAZLITT on Scott, in The 
 Spirit of the Age. 
 
 The chapter on Scott in Shaw's 
 Manual of English Liter- 
 ature. 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 For histories, see Scheme I. 
 
 Read the history of Scotland 
 from the earliest period to the 
 reign of James V. 
 Miss PORTER'S Scottish 
 
 Chiefs. 
 SCOTT'S Minstrelsy of the 
 
 Scottish Border. 
 AYTOUN'S Ballads of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 SCOTT'S Fair Maid of Perth. 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 Discuss the character of the 
 Scotch people in feudal times.
 
 i So 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 R. H. MUTTON'S Sir Walter 
 Scott, in " English Men of 
 Letters." 
 
 How the Romance poetry 
 differed from Classic poetry. 
 
 See Macaulay's Essay on 
 Sovthey's Life of Byron. 
 
 The Origin of Romance Lit- 
 erature. Refer to 
 
 WARTON'S History of Poetry. 
 
 The Introduction to Ellis's 
 Early English Metrical Ro- 
 mances. 
 
 RITSON'S Ancient English 
 Metrical Romances. 
 
 PERCY'S Reliques, introductory 
 essay to book iii. 
 
 To be studied : 
 TENNYSON'S Idylls of the 
 
 King. 
 Refer to Taine's criticism of 
 
 Tennyson's Poetry, in his 
 
 English. Literature, vol. iv. 
 
 Read selected portions of 
 Byron's poetical romances : 
 
 The Giaour. 
 
 The Corsair. 
 
 The Bride of Abydos. 
 
 The Siege of Corinth. 
 
 Read Byron,\)y John Nichol, 
 in " English Men of Letters." 
 
 Read Matthew Arnold's In- 
 troduction to the Selected 
 Poems of Lord Byron. 
 
 Compare selections from 
 Scott with selections from 
 Pope. Find other illustrations 
 of the difference between the 
 two schools of poetry. 
 
 Read the chapter on the 
 Troubadours, in Sismondi's 
 Literature of Southern Eu- 
 rope ; also in Van Laun's His- 
 tory of French Literature. 
 
 Refer to Miss Prescott's 
 Troubadours and Trouveres. 
 
 Read the account of the ro- 
 mances of King Arthur as re- 
 lated in the books already 
 mentioned. 
 
 Also, 
 
 LANIER'S Boy's King A rthur. 
 BULFINCH'S Age of Chivalry. 
 GEOFFREY OP MONMOUTH'S 
 
 British History, books viii. 
 
 and ix. 
 
 Write an essay on the King 
 Arthur legends. 
 
 Compare Kyron's poetry 
 with that of Sir Walter Scott, 
 
 ist. As to matter. 
 
 2d. As to style. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 Discuss reasons why Lord 
 Byron's poetry is much less 
 popular than formerly.
 
 STORY-TELLING POETRY. 
 
 181 
 
 Study selections from 
 Moore's Lalla Rookh. 
 
 Read Hazlitt's criticisms on 
 Moore, in his " English Poets." 
 
 Also, VV. M. Rossetti's In- 
 troduction to the Poeins of 
 Thomas Moore. 
 
 Study selections from Mor- 
 ris' & Sigurd the Volsung ; also 
 from Tlie Earthly Paradise 
 by the same author. 
 
 Study, from whatever sources 
 are available, Oriental life and 
 manners as portrayed in 
 Lalla Rookh. Write essays 
 on the same. 
 
 Study the myths of the 
 north, referring to Mallet's 
 Northern A ntiquities and An- 
 derson's Norse Mythology. 
 
 SCHEME IV. 
 tfje Stutig of Stai'2=2Tellittg | 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 Use manuals for reference 
 as indicated in Scheme I. To 
 these may be added Under- 
 wood's American Literature, 
 and White's Story of English 
 Literature. 
 
 CHAUCER'S Canterbury Tales. 
 Study the Prologue and 
 either the Knightes Tale or 
 the Clerkes Tale. 
 
 Refer to, or read, 
 TJie Riches of Chattcer, by 
 
 Charles Cowden Clarke. 
 LOWELL'S Essay on Chaucer, 
 
 in " My Study Windows." 
 CARPENTER'S English of the 
 
 Fourteenth Century. 
 
 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 
 Explained, by Saunders. 
 
 Canterbury Chimes, by Storr 
 and Turner. 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 
 Use for reference, Green's 
 History of the English People, 
 or Knight's History of Eng- 
 land; also, some standard his- 
 tory of America. 
 
 Study the history of England 
 in the fourteenth century, and 
 especially the social condition of 
 the people during that period. 
 
 Make some acquaintance 
 with the great Italian writers 
 who flourished about this time, 
 and exerted a marked influ- 
 ence upon Chaucer's work. 
 
 Refer to 
 
 SISMONDI'S Literature of 
 Southern Europe ; 
 
 CAMPBELL'S Life of Petrarch; 
 
 BOTTA'S Dante as Philoso- 
 pher, Patriot, and Poet; etc.
 
 182 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Stories from Old English 
 Poetry, by Mrs. Richardson. 
 
 Read some of Scott's shorter 
 narrative poems, 
 
 Rokeby. 
 
 The Bridal of Triermain. 
 
 Harold the Dauntless. 
 
 For criticisms and essays on 
 Scott, see Scheme III. 
 
 Study The Prisoner of Chil- 
 ian, by Lord Byron. 
 
 Read Wordsworth's story- 
 poems, 
 
 The White Doe of ' Rylstone ; 
 
 Peter Bell; 
 
 IVe are Seven ; etc. 
 
 Study Coleridge's The An- 
 cient Mariner, and Keats's 
 The Eve of St. Agnes. 
 
 For criticisms on the poets 
 
 last read, refer to 
 
 HAZLITT'S English Poets. 
 
 SWINBURNE'S Studies and Es- 
 says. 
 
 SHAIRP'S Studies in Poetry. 
 
 LORD HOUGHTON'S Life of 
 Keats. 
 
 MATTHEW ARNOLD'S Essay 
 on Keats, in Ward's English 
 Poets. 
 
 CARLYLE'S Reminiscences. 
 
 Read Campbell's Gertrude 
 of Wyoming. 
 
 Read selections from Mrs. 
 Hemans. 
 
 Read Mrs. Browning* sLady 
 Geraldine's Courtship ; also 
 some of her shorter poems. 
 
 Study the historical subjects 
 suggested by these poems. 
 
 See Parallel Studies in con- 
 nection with Scott's longer 
 poems, Scheme III. 
 
 See criticisms on Byron, in 
 Taine's English Literature. 
 
 Read Hazlitt's estimate of 
 Wordsworth, in The Spirit 
 of the Age. 
 
 DE QUINCEY on Wordsworth's 
 poetry, in Literary Criti- 
 cism. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 Study the history of the Eng- 
 lish people from 1760 to 1820, 
 with special reference to their 
 social condition, and the pro- 
 gress of literature. 
 
 Write essays on suggested 
 subjects. 
 
 Read the historical account 
 of the Massacre of Wyoming. 
 
 Read biographies of Mrs. 
 Hemans and Mrs. Browning. 
 Discuss reasons why Mrs. He- 
 mans' poetry is no longer pop- 
 ular.
 
 ALLEGORY. 
 
 Study Tennyson's poems, 
 The Princess. 
 Maud. 
 
 Enoch Arden. 
 Also his shorter poems. 
 
 Study at least two poems in 
 Morris's Earthly Paradise. 
 
 Study Longfellow's poems, 
 Evangeline. 
 Miles Standish. 
 Hiawatha. 
 
 Tales of a Wayside Inn. 
 The Skeleton in A rmor. 
 Read Underwood's Life of 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Study the story-poems of 
 John G. Whittier : MaudMul- 
 ler ; Flud Ireson; etc. 
 
 Consult 
 
 STEDMAN'S Victorian Poets. 
 HADLEY'S Essays. 
 KINGSLEY'S Miscellanies. 
 
 Study the classical and Norse 
 legends upon which these sto- 
 ries are based. 
 
 See 
 
 BANCROFT'S History of the 
 United States, vol. iv. 
 
 ABBOTT'S Life of Miles Stan- 
 dish. 
 
 Study other historical refer- 
 ences, etc., suggested by these 
 poems. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 SCHEME V. 
 
 jFar the Stufcg of 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 JEsop's Fables. 
 
 Oriental parables and fables. 
 
 Study Bunyan's Pilgrinfs 
 
 Progress, as being the most 
 
 popular allegory in the English 
 
 language. 
 Read 
 
 MACAULAY'S Essay on John 
 Bunyan. 
 
 CHEEVER'S Lectures on Bun- 
 yan. 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 
 Rhetorical definition of alle- 
 gory. The distinction between 
 fables and parables. 
 
 Study the history of the rise 
 and progress of Puritanism in 
 England. 
 
 Refer to Green's History of 
 the English People, and to 
 Taine's English Literature.
 
 i8 4 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon parables and 
 allegories. The growth of the 
 allegory. 
 
 The Vision of 'Piers Plowman. 
 The great French allegory, the 
 
 Roman de la Rose. 
 CHAUCER'S Remount of the 
 
 Rose. 
 
 Other allegorical poems usu- 
 ally ascribed to Chaucer, 
 The Court of Love. 
 The Cuckow and the Night- 
 ingale. 
 
 The Parlament of Foules. 
 The Flower and the Leaf. 
 
 Refer to Taine's English 
 Literature. 
 
 Notice, next, Dunbar*s The 
 Thistle and the Rose; also, 
 The Golden Terge, and the 
 Dance of the Seven Sins. 
 STEPHEN HAWES'S Grand 
 
 A mour and la Bell Pucett. 
 
 Study selected passages from 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene ; also 
 the general plan of the poem. 
 
 See 
 
 LOWELL'S Among My Books. 
 CRAIK'S Spenser and his Poe- 
 try. 
 
 Read 
 
 PHINEAS FLETCHER'S Purple 
 Island. 
 
 THOMSON'S Castle of Indo- 
 lence. 
 
 LOWELL'S Vision of Sir 
 Launfal. 
 
 GAY'S Fables. 
 
 BURNS'S The Tu>a Dogs, and 
 The Brigs of Ayr. 
 
 Abou Ben Adhem. 
 
 Consult 
 
 MORLEY'S English Writers. 
 
 WARTON'S History of English 
 Poetry. 
 
 GEORGE P. MARSH'S Lectures 
 on the Origin and History 
 of the English Language. 
 
 SKEATS'S Specimens of Eng- 
 lish Literature. 
 
 Study the social condition of 
 England in the thirteenth, 
 fourteenth, and fifteenth cen- 
 turies. Refer to the histories 
 already mentioned ; also to 
 PEARSON'S History of Eng- 
 land in the Fourteenth Cen- 
 tury. 
 
 LANIER'S Boy's Froissart, or 
 the abridged edition offrois- 
 sart's Chronicles. 
 TOWLE'S History of Henry V. 
 
 Study the social and literary 
 history of England during the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 Refer to Froude's History 
 of England. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 Discuss the value of allegory 
 as an aid in education. 
 
 Why has the taste for alle- 
 gory steadily declined? 
 
 Write in plain prose the les- 
 son learned in each of the fa- 
 bles studied. 
 
 What relationship exists be- 
 tween fables and myths ?
 
 DIDACTIC POETRY. 
 
 SCHEME VI. 
 
 Jot tfy Stuog of JUfoartfc 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 DRYDEN'S Religio Laid; and 
 7'fe Hind and tJie Panther. 
 Study selected passages from 
 
 Pope's Essay on Criticism, 
 
 and Essay on Man. 
 
 YOUNG'S Night Thoughts. 
 
 JOHNSON'S Vanity of Human 
 Wishes. 
 
 AKENSIDE'S Pleasures of the 
 Imagination. 
 
 WAR TON'S Pleasures of Mel- 
 ancholy. 
 
 ROGERS' Pleasures of Mem- 
 ory. 
 
 CAMPBELL'S Pleasures of 
 Hope. 
 
 GRAHAME'S The Sabbath. 
 
 Study selected passages from 
 Wordsworth's Excursion. 
 
 Select and study some of the 
 best-known shorter didactic 
 poems in the language. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 Refer to 
 
 HAZLITT'S English Poets; 
 Lowell's Among My Books 
 (essay on Dryden) ; Macau- 
 lay's Essay on Dryden ; and 
 Taine's English Literature. 
 
 JOHNSON'S Lives of the Poets ; 
 Stephen's Hours in a Libra- 
 ry; De Quincey's Literature 
 of the Eighteenth Centiiry. 
 
 MACAULAY'S Essay on Samuel 
 Johnson; Boswell's Life of 
 Dr. Johnson ; Carlyle's Es- 
 say on BoswelVs Life of 
 Johnson ; Stephen's John- 
 son, in " English Men of Let- 
 ters." 
 
 WHIPPLE'S Essay on Words- 
 worth, in "Literature and 
 Life." 
 
 SHAIRP'S Studies in Poetry 
 and Philosophy; Hazlitt's 
 Spirit of the Age ; Charles 
 Lamb's Essay on Words- 
 worth's Excursion.
 
 i86 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 SCHEME VII. 
 
 Jor tfje Stutig of 3Lortc $0etrg. 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 | PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 I. 
 
 The Early Ballad*. 
 
 Ballads of Robin Hood. 
 Ballads of the Scottish Bor- 
 der. 
 Modern Ballads. 
 
 Read histories and stories of 
 the mediaeval times. 
 
 Refer to Percy's R clique s ; 
 Aytoun's Scottish Ballads ; 
 Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scot- 
 tish Border. 
 
 II. 
 
 Bongs of Patriotism. 
 
 Read and study the best- 
 known patriotic poems in the 
 language. 
 
 Study the historical events, 
 or other circumstances which 
 led to the production of these 
 poems. 
 
 III. 
 
 Battle Songs. 
 
 The battle scenes in Scott's 
 poems. Burns: " Scots wha 
 hae wi' Wallace bled." Ma- 
 caulay's Battle of Ivry, Nose- 
 by, Horatius at the Bridge. 
 Tennyson's Charge of the 
 Light Brigade. Drayton's 
 Battle of Agincourt. 
 
 Study the historical events 
 which gave rise to these poems. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Religious Songs and Hymns. 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT'S Temple. 
 Read selections from Cra- 
 shaw and Vaughan. Study 
 Milton's Hymn on the Na- 
 
 For specimens and extracts 
 of lyric poetry of every class, 
 consult Ward's English Poets ; 
 Appleton's Library of British
 
 LYRIC POETRY. 
 
 i8 7 
 
 tivtiy, and selections from 
 Keble's Christian Year. 
 Read Pope's Universal 
 Prayer, and The Dying 
 Christian ; also selections 
 from Moore's Sacred Songs, 
 Byron's Hebrew Melodies, 
 and Milman's Hymns for 
 Church Service. 
 
 Poets; The Family L ibrary of 
 British Poets; Emerson's Par- 
 nassus ; Chambers' Cyclopa- 
 dia of English L iterature ; 
 Bryant's Library of Poetry 
 and Song ; and Piatt's A mer- 
 ican Poetry and A rt. 
 
 V. 
 
 Love Lyrics. 
 
 The Songs of the Trouba- 
 dours. Wyatt's Poems. 
 Marlowe's Passionate Shep- 
 herd. Raleigh's The 
 Nymph's Reply. Robert 
 Herrick's Poems. Selections 
 from the poems of Sir John 
 Suckling. The love poems 
 of Robert Burns. Coleridge's 
 Genevieve. Selections from 
 other poets. 
 
 Consult Miss Prescott's 
 Troubadours and Trouveres ; 
 Warton's History of English 
 Poetry. Study the biographies 
 of Marlowe, Raleigh, Herrick, 
 and Suckling. Read Carlyle's 
 Essay on Robert Burns ; and 
 Principal Shairp's Burns, in 
 "English Men of Letters." 
 
 VI. 
 
 Sonnets. 
 
 The origin of the sonnet. Se- 
 lections from the sonnets of 
 Wyatt, Spenser, Sidney, 
 Shakspeare, Drayton, Drum- 
 mond, Milton, Wordsworth, 
 Keats, and others. Mrs. 
 Browning's Sonnets from 
 the Portuguese. 
 
 See Leigh Hunt's Book of 
 the Sonnet ; Dennis's English 
 Sonnets ; French's Dublin 
 Afternoon Lectures ; Massey's 
 Shakspeare ' s Sonnets ; Henry 
 Brown's Sonnets of Shak- 
 speare Solved; Tomlinson's 
 The Sonnet : its Origin, 
 Structure, and Place in 
 Poetry. 
 
 VII. 
 Odes. 
 
 DRYDEN'S Alexander's Feast. 
 POPE'S Ode on Si. Cecilia's 
 Day. 
 
 See Husk's Account of the 
 Musical Celebrations on St. 
 Cecilia's Day, in the Sixteenth,
 
 iS8 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 COLLINS'S Ode on t/te Pas- 
 sions, and other odes. 
 
 GRAY'S Ode on the Progress 
 of Poesy, and T/te Bard. 
 
 KEATS'S Sleep and Poetry. 
 
 SHELLEY'S Ode to Liberty, and 
 To the West Wind. 
 
 COLBKIDGE'S Ode on France, 
 and To the Departing Year. 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S Ode on the 
 Intimations of Immortality. 
 
 ' Seventeenth, and Eighteenth 
 Centuries. 
 
 Study the construction of the 
 ode. Compare the English ode 
 with the Greek and Latin 
 ode. Learn something of the 
 odes of Horace. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 VIII. 
 Elegies. 
 
 Study Milton's Lycidas. 
 Read selections from Spen- 
 ser's Astrophel; Shelley's 
 Adonais ; Tennyson's In Me- 
 tnoriam ; Ode on the Death 
 of the Duke of Wellington ; 
 Pope's .Elegy on an Unfortu- 
 nate Lady. Study Gray's Ele- 
 gy in a Country Churchyard ; 
 The Dirge in Cytnbeline ; and 
 Collins's Dirge in Cymbeline. 
 Read Shenstone's Elegies ; 
 Cowper's The Castaway ; and 
 Bryant's Thanatopsis- 
 
 For references to Milton and 
 Spenser, see other schemes. 
 For Shelley's Adonais, see 
 Hutton's Essays. See F. W. 
 Robertson's Analysis of In 
 Memoriam. See also, for sub- 
 jects connected with these 
 studies, Roscoe's Essays ; Haz- 
 litt's English Poets ; Dr. John- 
 son's Life of Gray; K. W. 
 Gosse's Gray, in " English 
 Men of Letters ; " Parke God- 
 win's Life of William Cullen 
 Bryant. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Miscellaneous Lyrics. 
 
 Study selections from the 
 poems of Burns, Ramsay, and 
 Fergusson ; Whittier, Bryant, 
 and Longfellow ; William 
 Blake; Mrs. Browning, Tenny- 
 son, and Swinburne ; and oth- 
 ers, both British and American. 
 
 Refer to the manuals else- 
 where mentioned. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug. 
 gested by these studies. 
 
 Discuss the distinctive quali- 
 ties of Lyric Poetry, and the 
 place which it occupies in Eng- 
 lish Literature.
 
 DESCRIPTIVE POETRY. 
 
 189 
 
 SCHEME VIII. 
 
 jfor t!je Stutig of JBescnptf&e Ipoetrg, 3Etc. 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 Study selections from the 
 poems of William CuUen Bry- 
 ant. 
 
 Study Whittier's Snow- 
 Bound, and other descriptive 
 poems. 
 
 Study Milton's L' Allegro 
 and // Penseroso. 
 
 Study selections from Thom- 
 son's Seasons, and Cowper's 
 Task. 
 
 Study Goldsmith's Traveller, 
 and The Deserted Village; 
 also, Shenstone's Schoolmis- 
 tress. 
 
 Find and read characteristic 
 descriptive passages in the 
 poems of Scott, Byron, Shelley, 
 Wordsworth, Keats, Brown- 
 ing, and others. Compare 
 Scott's descriptions with the 
 descriptions in Pope's Wind- 
 sor Forest and in Denham's 
 Cooper's Hill. 
 
 Select and study descriptive 
 passages from Chaucer's Po- 
 ems, and from Spenser's Faerie 
 Queene. 
 
 Read selections from Gay's 
 Rural S forts, and from Bloom- 
 field's Farmer's Boy. 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 
 See Godwin's Life of Wil- 
 liam Cullen Bryant; and 
 Underwood's biography of 
 John G. Whittier. See Stop- 
 ford Brooke's Milton ; and 
 Mark Pattison's Milton, in 
 " English Men of Letters ; " 
 Irving's Life of Goldsmith; 
 Thackeray's English Humor- 
 ists of the Eighteenth Century; 
 William Black's Goldsmith, in 
 " English Men of Letters ; " 
 Hazlitt's English Poets; and 
 De Qu'mcey'sZsiteraiure of the 
 Eighteenth Century. 
 
 Read Macaulay's Essay on 
 Moore's Life of Byron. 
 
 Refer to Goldwin Smith's 
 Cowper,\t\ "English Men of 
 Letters ; " also to Charles 
 Cowden Clarke's Life of Cow- 
 Per. 
 
 See references to Chaucer 
 and Spenser elsewhere given. 
 
 Pastoral Poetry. 
 
 Study Milton's Arcades, and 
 selections from Pope's Pasto- 
 rals ; also from Spenser's 
 Shepherd's Calendar. 
 
 Read Pope's Essay on Pas- 
 toral Poetry. 
 
 Learn something about The- 
 ocritus and his Idyls, and
 
 190 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 See Drayton's Shepherd's 
 Garland; Browne's Britan- 
 nia's Pastorals ; Jonson's Sad 
 Shepherd; Fletcher's Faith- 
 ful Shepherdess; Gay's Sliep- 
 herd's Week; Ramsay's Gen- 
 tle Shepherd ; and Shenstone's 
 Pastoral Ballads. 
 
 about the Eclogues of Virgil. 
 A translation of the former 
 may be found in Bohn's Clas- 
 sical Library. The latest 
 translation of the Eclogues is 
 that by Wilstach. 
 
 SCHEME IX. 
 
 jFor tfje Stutig of Satire, TOt, anto 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 DEAN SWIFT, the great Eng- 
 lish satirist. Study his life 
 and character. See Forster's 
 Life of Swift ; or Leslie 
 Stephen's Swift, in " Eng- 
 lish Men of Letters." 
 
 Read selections from Gulli- 
 ver's Travels, and the Tale of 
 a Tub. Read, also, his Modest 
 Proposal. 
 
 DANIEL DEFOE'S Satirical Es- 
 says: The Shortest Way 
 with Dissenters, etc. 
 See Minto's Defoe, in " Eng- 
 lish Men of Letters." 
 
 The origin and growth of 
 satirical literature in England. 
 
 JOHN SKELTON'S Satires. See 
 Warton's History of English 
 Poetry, and Taine's English 
 Literature. 
 
 BARCLAY'S Shyp of Fooles. 
 See Warton's History. 
 
 The Satires of Surrey and 
 Wyatt. SeeHallam'sZ/'ter- 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 
 RABELAIS, the great satirist 
 of France. Read Besant's 
 French Humorists ; and 
 Rabelais, by the same au- 
 thor. Refer also to Van 
 Laun's History of French 
 Literature. 
 
 VOLTAIRE, the third of the 
 great modern satirists. 
 Read Parton's Life of Vol- 
 taire ; or Voltaire, by John 
 Morley ; or Colonel Ham- 
 ley's Voltaire, in " Foreign 
 Classics for English Read- 
 ers." 
 
 Satirical literature in Rome. 
 
 The great poetical satirists of 
 ancient times, Horace and 
 Juvenal. See Lord Lytton's 
 translation of the Epodes 
 and Satires of Horace ; and 
 Dryden's Imitations of Ju- 
 venal. Dr. Johnson's Lon- 
 don and The Vanity of
 
 SATIRE, WIT, AND HUMOR. 
 
 ary History, and Chalmers' 
 Collection of the Poets. 
 
 GASCOIGNE'S The Steele Glass. 
 
 DONNE'S Satires. See Pope's 
 The Satires of Dr. Donne 
 Versified. 
 
 HALL'S Virgidemiarum. See 
 Warton's History, and Camp- 
 bell's Specimens of the Eng- 
 lish Poets. 
 Study selected passages from 
 
 Butler's Hudibras. 
 Refer to Haz lilt's Comic 
 
 Writers, and Leigh Hunt's 
 
 Wit and Wisdom. 
 
 DRVDEN'S A bsalom and Achi- 
 tophel, and the publications 
 which followed it. 
 
 DRYDEN'S MacFlecknoe. 
 
 POPE'S Dunciad. 
 
 BYRON'S English Bards and 
 
 Scotch Reviewers. 
 LOWELL'S Fable for Critics. 
 
 POPE'S Moral Essays. 
 
 SWIFT'S Satirical Poems. 
 
 The humor of Fielding, Smol- 
 lett, and Goldsmith, as ex- 
 hibited in their writings. 
 
 CHATTERTON'S Prophecy. 
 
 Read Burns' Holy Willie's 
 Prayer, and the Holy Fair. 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH. See the Wit 
 and Wisdom of Sydney 
 Smith (1861). 
 
 The Fudge Family in Paris, 
 by Thomas Moore. 
 
 The Humorous Essays of 
 Charles Lamb. 
 
 THOMAS CARI.YLE'S Sartor 
 Resartus, and Latter-Day 
 Pamphlets. Study selec- 
 tions. 
 
 Human Wishes are also 
 imitations of Juvenal. See 
 Dryden's Essay on Satire. 
 To understand the satires of 
 Hall, Butler, Dryden, and 
 Pope, it is absolutely necessary 
 to be well acquainted with the 
 history and social condition of 
 England during the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Study Green's History of 
 the English People. 
 
 Study the political agitations 
 in England just preceding the 
 Revolution of 1688. 
 
 Compare these four personal 
 satires, and write essays on the 
 subjects suggested by their 
 study. 
 
 Read Thackeray's Humor- 
 ists of the Eighteenth Century, 
 and Hazlitt's Comic Writers. 
 
 Study the social condition of 
 England in the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 Study the political agitations 
 in England during the first half 
 of the present century. Refer 
 to Knighfs History of Eng- 
 land, and to Justin McCarthy's 
 History of Our Own Times. 
 Miss Martineau's History of 
 the Thirty Years' Peace may 
 be read with profit. 
 
 Write essays on subjects sug- 
 gested by these studies.
 
 192 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 THACKERAY as a humorist. 
 Read his Irish Sketch-Book, 
 and selections from the Book 
 of Snobs, but especially ob- 
 serve his power in Vanity 
 Fair. 
 
 Read and study Dr. Holmes' 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast- 
 Table. 
 
 Read Lowell's Biglow Pa- 
 pers. 
 
 Read selections from Mark 
 Twain and other living Ameri- 
 can humorists. 
 
 Compare the humor of the 
 present day with that of the 
 last generation. Read selec- 
 tions from Irving's Sketch 
 Book, and Knickerbocker's 
 New York. 
 
 Read Burns' Tarn O'S/tan- 
 ter ; and selections from Hood, 
 John G. Saxe, and others. 
 
 Study the true distinctions 
 between Wit, Humor, and 
 Satire ; and select from what 
 you have read a number of illus- 
 trative examples. 
 
 Discuss questions which may 
 arise from these studies ; and 
 write essays on the same. 
 
 Study the biographies of 
 Irving, Lowell, Holmes, Mark 
 Twain, Saxe, and other Amer- 
 ican authors whose works have 
 been noticed in this scheme. 
 
 SCHEME X. 
 
 JFor tfje Stirtig of SSnjjIfefj $ros0 Jfctton. 
 
 General Work* of Reference. 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 DUNLOP'S History of Fiction. 
 JBAFFKESON'S Novels and 
 
 Novelists. 
 MASSON'S British Novelists 
 
 and their Styles. 
 TUCKERMAN'S History of 
 
 English Prose Fiction. 
 
 PARALLEL STUDIES. 
 
 The historical works and also 
 the literary manuals mentioned 
 in Scheme IV. should be at 
 hand for constant reference.
 
 ENGLISH PROSE FICTION. 
 
 193 
 
 The Pint Romances. 
 
 SIDNEY'S Arcadia. 
 
 LYLY'S Euphues. 
 
 GREENE'S Pandosto, or the 
 
 Triumph of Time. 
 The Novels of Thomas Nash. 
 
 Study the conditions of life 
 and thought in England under 
 which these first attempts at 
 the writing of prose romance 
 were made. 
 
 II. 
 
 Fabulous Voyages and Travels. 
 
 GODWIN'S Man in the Moon. 
 HALL'S Mundus Alter et 
 
 Idem. 
 SWIFT'S Gulliver's Travels; 
 
 read selections. 
 Study Robinson Crusoe. 
 The Adventures of Peter 
 
 Wilkins. 
 EDGAR A. POE'S Narrative of 
 
 A rthur Gordon Pym. 
 
 See Collins' Lucian, in "An- 
 cient Classics for English 
 Readers," for an account of 
 Lucian's Veracious History. 
 
 Read the voyage of Gargan- 
 tua by Rabelais ; or, better, 
 consult Besant's Rabelais. 
 
 Read Minto's Defoe, in 
 "English Men of Letters." 
 
 See Forster's Life of Dean 
 Swift; Scott's Memoir of 
 Dean Swift ; and Minto's 
 Manual of English Prose. 
 
 III. 
 
 Romances of the Supernatural. 
 
 WALPOLE'S The Castle of 
 Otranto. 
 
 MRS. RADCLIFFK'S Romances. 
 
 GODWIN'S St. Leon. 
 
 BULWBR'S Zanoni. 
 
 MRS. SHELLEY'S Franken- 
 stein. 
 
 LEWIS'S The Monk. 
 
 See Tuckerman's Literature 
 of Fiction (an essay) ; C. Ke- 
 gan Paul's Life of William 
 Godwin ; Macaulay's Essay on 
 Horace Walpole ; Miss Kava- 
 nagh's English Women of 
 Letters. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Oriental Romances. 
 
 BECKFORD'S Vathek. 
 HOPE'S A nastasius. 
 The Adventures of Hajji 
 Baba.
 
 194 
 
 THE BOOK-LOVER. 
 
 V. 
 
 Historical Romance!. 
 
 M.ISS PORTER'S Scottish. 
 Chiefs. 
 
 SCOTT'S Waverley Novels. 
 
 The Novels of G. P. R. 
 James. 
 
 BULWER'S Last Days of Pom- 
 peii; Rienzi ; Harold ; The 
 Last of the Barons. 
 
 LOCKHART'S Valerius. 
 
 KINGSLEY'S Hypatia. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT'S Romola. 
 
 See Lockhart's Life of 
 Scott; Stephen's Hours in a 
 Library; Carlyle's Essay on 
 Sir Walter Scott; Shaw's 
 Manual of English Litera- 
 ture ; Hutton's Scott, in ' ' Eiy; 1 
 lish Men of Letters ; " Nassau 
 Senior's Essays on Fiction ; 
 The Life of Edward Bulwer- 
 Lytton, by his son, the present 
 Lord Lytton. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Novels of Social Life, etc. 
 
 RICHARDSON'S Novels. 
 FIELDING'S Tom Jones. 
 SMOLLETT'S Novels. 
 STERNE'S Tristram Shandy. 
 GOLDSMITH'S Vicar of Wake- 
 field. 
 
 Miss BURNEY'S Novels. 
 GODWIN'S Caleb Williams. 
 Miss EDGEWORTH'S Novels. 
 SCOTT'S Guy Mannering; The 
 
 Heart of Mid - Lothian ; 
 
 The Bride ofLammermoor; 
 
 The A ntiquary ; etc. 
 Miss AUSTEN'S Works. 
 THACKERAY'S Vanity Fair. 
 DICKENS'S Pickwick Papers. 
 Other Novels of Dickens and 
 
 Thackeray. 
 CHARLOTTE BRONTE'S Jane 
 
 Eyre. 
 
 BULWER'S Novels. 
 DISRAELI'S Vivian ; and Lo- 
 
 ihair. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY'S Novels. 
 GEORGE ELIOT'S Works. 
 
 See Stephen's Hours in a 
 Library ; Hazlitt's English 
 Noz'elists ; Thackeray's Eng- 
 lish Humorists of the Eigh- 
 teenth Century ; Irving's Life 
 of Goldsmith; Macaulay's Es- 
 say en Madame d'Arblay; 
 MissKavanagh's.fi'w.f/iiA Wo- 
 men of Letters; James T. 
 Fields' Yesterdays -with Au- 
 thors ; Home's Neva Spirit of 
 the Age ; John Forster's Life 
 of Charles Dickens ; Hannay's 
 Studies on Thackeray ; Han- 
 nay's Characters and Sketches; 
 Anthony Trollope's Thack- 
 eray, in " English Men of 
 Letters;" Taine's English 
 Literature, vol. iv. ; Mrs. 
 Gaskell's Life of Charlotte 
 Bronfi ; Miss Martineau's Bi- 
 ographical Sketches; Thack- 
 eray's Roundabout Papers ; 
 Life of Charles Brockden 
 Brown, in Sparks' "American 
 Biography ; '' Griswold's Prose
 
 ENGLISH PROSE FICTION. 
 
 A merican Fiction : 
 
 CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN'S 
 Wieland, and other Novels. 
 COOPER'S Novels. 
 JAMES KIRKE PAULDING. 
 JOHN P. KENNEDY. 
 WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. 
 HAWTHORNE'S Works. 
 The later and living novelists. 
 
 Writers of America; Pres- 
 cott's Miscellaneous Essays ; 
 J. T. Fields' Hawthorne ; H. 
 A. Page's Life of Hawthorne ; 
 Lathrop's Study of Haw- 
 thorne ; Roscoe's Essays ; 
 Hawthorne, by Henry James, 
 in " English Men of Letters ; " 
 Cooke's George Eliot : a Crit 
 teal Study of her Life, Writ- 
 ings, and Philosophy ; (Round- 
 Table Series) George Eliot, 
 Moralist and Thinker. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Didactic Fiction. 
 
 MORE'S Utopia. 
 
 HARRINGTON'S Oceana. 
 
 DISRAELI'S Coningsby. 
 
 BULWER-LYTTON'S The Com- 
 ing Race. 
 
 BUNYAN'S Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress. 
 
 HANNAH MORE'S Novels. 
 
 JOHNSON'S Rasselas. 
 
 The modern didactic novel. 
 
 See Hallam's Literary His- 
 tory; and references given in 
 the preceding schemes.
 
 Sifter 
 
 I ERE let us face the last question 
 of all : In the shade and valley of 
 Life, on what shall we repose ? 
 When we must withdraw from the 
 scenes which our own energies and agonies 
 have somewhat helped to make glorious ; when 
 the windows are darkened, and the sound of 
 the grinding is low, where shall we find the 
 beds of asphodel 1 } Can any couch be more 
 delectable than that amidst the Elysian leaves 
 of Books ? The occupations of the morning and 
 the noon determine the affections, which will 
 continue to seek their old nourishment when 
 the grand climacteric has been reached. 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF " HESPERIDES." 
 
 196
 
 INDEX. 
 SN? 
 
 197
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Addison, Joseph, 32, 78. 
 ./Eschylus, 74. 
 Alcott, A. Bronson, 63. 
 Allegory, 183. 
 American Fiction, 195. 
 Areopagitica, 78. 
 Aristophanes, 74. 
 Axon, William, 62. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 53, 78. 
 Ballads, 186. 
 Banking, 164. 
 Battle Songs, 186. 
 Baxter, Richard, 159. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, 71. 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, 60. 
 Bennoch, Francis, 17. 
 Bible, The, 153. 
 Borrowed Books, 58. 
 Boswell's Johnson, 79. 
 Bright, John, 17, 63. 
 Bronte, Charlotte, 82. 
 Brown, Dr. John, 148. 
 Browne, Matthew, 49. 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, 78. 
 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 
 
 72- 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 73 
 Bulwer Lytton, 82. 
 Burke, Edmund, 78. 
 Burns, Robert, 72. 
 Burton, Robert, 21. 
 Bury, Richard de, 9. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 15, 29, 79. 
 Carr, Frank ( " Launcelot 
 
 Cross "), 61. 
 Cervantes, 80. 
 Chambers,WilIiam and Robert, 
 
 93- 
 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 70. 
 Children's Books, 84. 
 Chivalry, Tales of, 102. 
 Choice of Books, 23, 165. 
 Christian Year, The, 72. 
 Cicero's Orations, 79. 
 I Clarke, James Freeman, 19. 
 Cobbett, William, 33. 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 53, 
 
 7 2 - 
 
 Collier, Jeremy, 13. 
 Collyer, Robert, 25, 95. 
 Colton, Charles C., 54. 
 Constitutional History, 162. 
 Cooper, James Fenimore, 81. 
 Craik, Dinah Mulock, 82. 
 Crusoe, Robinson, 80, 104. 
 Currency and Wealth, 163. 
 
 Dante's Divina Commedia, 75. 
 Dawson, George, 64. 
 Defoe, Daniel, 80. 
 Demosthenes, 79. 
 Descriptive Poetry, 189. 
 Dickens, Charles, 81. 
 Didactic Fiction, 195. 
 Didactic Poetry, 185. 
 199
 
 2OO 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dryden, John, 71. 
 Dyer, George, 63. 
 
 Elegies, 188. 
 
 Eliot, George, 81, 156. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 16, 46, 
 
 79- 
 
 English Literature, 168. 
 Epic Poetry, 177. 
 
 Fabulous Voyages, 193. 
 Fairy Stories, 99. 
 Fenelon's Telemaque, 81. 
 Fiction, English Prose, 192. 
 Fielding, Henry, 81. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 85. 
 Froude, James Anthony, 79. 
 
 Geography, 138. 
 Gibbon, Edward, 51. 
 Gilfillan, George, 46. 
 Goethe, 54, 75, 81. 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 72, 80. 
 Government, Science of, 161. 
 
 Hale, Sir Matthew, 153. 
 Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 54. 
 Hare, Julius C., 45- 
 Harrison, Frederic, 34, 76. 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 81. 
 Helps, Sir Arthur, 47. 
 Herbert, George, 71. 
 Historical Romances, 194. 
 History, Courses of Reading 
 
 in, 113. 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 70, 
 
 79' 
 
 Homer, 74, 90. 
 Horace, 74 
 Hugo, Victor, 81. 
 Humor, Wit and, 190. 
 Hunt, Leigh, 82. 
 Hymns, 186. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 79, 96. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, 79. 
 Jonson, Ben, 71. 
 
 Keats, John, 72. 
 Keble, John, 72. 
 Kempis, Thomas a, 156. 
 Kingsley, Charles, 22, Si. 
 
 Labor and Wages, 164. 
 Lamb, Charles, 79. 
 Libraries 56, 108. 
 Locke, John, 44. 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadswortli, 
 
 72- 
 
 Love Lyrics, 187. 
 Luthe Martin, 44. 
 Lyric Poetry, 186. 
 
 Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 
 
 73i 79i 96- 
 
 Marlowe, Christopher, 71. 
 Miller, Hugh, 88. 
 Milton, John, 12, 71, 78. 
 Montaigne's Essays, 78. 
 Morse, James Herbert, 37. 
 Mythology, 101. 
 
 Natural History, 138. 
 Nibelungen Lied, 101. 
 Novels, 194. 
 
 Odes, 187. 
 
 Oriental Romances, 193. 
 
 Parker, Theodore, 17, 148. 
 Pastoral Poetry, 189. 
 Patmore, Coventry, 76. 
 Patriotism, Songs of, 186. 
 Pauperism, 166. 
 Petrarca, Francesco, 10. 
 Philosophy and Religion, 148. 
 Plutarch's Lives, 79, 86. 
 Political Economy, 161. 
 Pope, Alexander, 71. 
 Population, 163.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 2OI 
 
 Praise of Books, 9. 
 
 Prefaces always to be read, 51 . 
 
 Procter, Bryan Waller, 51, 56. 
 
 Rantzau, Henry, 22. 
 Religious Books, 148. 
 Religious Poetry, 186. 
 Rhodiginus, Balthasar Boni- 
 
 facius, 12. 
 
 Richardson, Charles F., 49. 
 Richter, Jean Paul, 64. 
 Romances, 179, 193. 
 Romances of the Middle Ages, 
 
 101. 
 
 Rules for Reading, 42, 46. 
 Ruskin, John, 36, 59, 76. 
 
 Satire, 190. 
 
 Scholar, Books for every, 69. 
 School Libraries, 108. 
 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 28, 35. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 81. 
 Searle, January, 18. 
 Seneca, 44. 
 Shakspeare, 70. 
 Smith, Alexander, 66. 
 Socialism, 165. 
 Sonnets, 187. 
 South, Robert, 44. 
 
 Southey, Robert, 27. 
 Spectator, The, 78, 86. 
 Spenser, Edmund, 70. 
 Story-telling Poetry, 181. 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 81. 
 
 Tariff, Books on the, 166. 
 Taxation, 166. 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 72. 
 Thackeray, William Make- 
 peace, 8 1. 
 
 Theological Literature, 157. 
 Travels and Adventure, 138. 
 Twain, Mark, 81. 
 
 Value and Use of Libraries, 
 
 56. 
 Virgil's JEneld, 74. 
 
 Wages and Labor, 164. 
 Wealth and Currency, 163. 
 Webster, Daniel, 78. 
 Webster, John, 71. 
 Whipple, Edwin P., 20. 
 Whittier, John G., 73. 
 Wit, Humor, and Satire, 190. 
 Wordsworth, William, 72. 
 
 Young Folks, Books for, 84,
 
 i" c O A