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THE WORLD^S BEST BOOKS 
 
THE 
 
 WORLD'S BEST BOOKS 
 
 A KEY TO THE 
 
 TREASURES OF LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK PARSONS 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED 
 
 BOSTON 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1893 
 
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 Copyright, 1889, 1891, 1893, 
 By Frank Parsons. 
 
 5inibtrsitg ^rcss: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 \ T the request of the pubHshers the following 
 -^^^ statement is made as a substitute for the former 
 indefinite arrangement in respect to authorship. 
 
 The plan and composition of the book were mine; 
 the work of my colleagues, F. E. Crawford and H. T. 
 Richardson, consisting of criticism, verifications, and 
 assistance in gathering materials for the appendix, — 
 services of great value to me, and of which I wish to 
 express my high appreciation. 
 
 A few additions have been made in this edition, 
 and the book has been carefully revised throughout. 
 
 FRANK PARSONS. 
 Boston, January, 1893. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 'T^HE public and the critics have met us with a 
 welcome far more cordial than we had dared to 
 expect, though not more so, of course, than we hoped 
 for. When did a thing such as that ever happen? 
 We are glad to discover that in forming our expecta- 
 tions wc underrated their discernment, or our own 
 merit (probably not the latter, judging by the re- 
 marks of two or three of our critics), and in real 
 earnest we are grateful for their high appreciation 
 of our work. 
 
 Some few — a very few — have found fault with us, 
 and our thanks are due to them also ; for honest, 
 kindly, intelligent criticism is one of the most power- 
 ful means of growth. The fact that this little volume 
 is not intended as an infallible guide, or as anything 
 more than a stimulus to seek the best, and a sugges- 
 tion of the method of guiding one's self and one's 
 children, has been missed by some, though it appears 
 
vl PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 distinctly in various places through the book, and is 
 involved in what we deem the most useful part of our 
 work, — the remarks following Table V., wherein we 
 endeavor to show the student how he may learn to 
 estimate the value of a book for himself. So far 
 were we from wishing to decide matters which mani- 
 festly vary with the wants and capacities of each in- 
 dividual, that, we emphatically advised the reader not 
 to accept the opinions of any one as final, but to 
 form his own judgments. 
 
 Some have failed to perceive that, in ranking the 
 bookSf we have considered, not merely their intrinsic 
 nierity but also the needs and abilities of the average 
 English reader, making a compound test by which 
 to judge, not the relative greatness of the books sim- 
 ply, but their relative claims on the attention of the 
 ordinary reader. This also was set forth, as we 
 thought, quite distinctly, and was in fact understood 
 by nearly every one, but not by all, for some have 
 objected to the order of the books in Table I., affirm- 
 ing, for example, that the ''Federalist" and Bryce's 
 ''American Commonwealth " are far superior to " Our 
 Country," and should be placed above it. That 
 would be true if intrinsic greatness alone decided the 
 matter. But the average reader with his needs and 
 abilities is a factor in the problem, as well as the 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. vii 
 
 book with its subject and style. Now, the ordinary 
 reader's time and his mental power are both Hmited. 
 " Our Country " is briefer and simpler than the 
 others, and its contents are of vital interest to every 
 American, of even more vital interest than the discus- 
 sions of the " Federalist" or Bryce ; and so, although 
 as a work of art it is inferior to these, it must rank 
 above them in this book, because of its superior 
 claims upon the attention of the average reader. In 
 a similar manner other questions of precedence are 
 determined on the principles contained in the remarks 
 on Table V. It is not pretended, however, that the 
 arrangement is perfect even in respect to our own 
 tests, especially among th'e authors on the second 
 shelf of Table I. The difficulties of making a true 
 list may be illustrated by the fact that one critic of 
 much ability affirms that Marietta HoUey ought to 
 head the tenth column, as the best humorist of all 
 time; another says it is absurd to place her above 
 •the Roman wits Juvenal and Lucian ; and a third de- 
 clares with equal positiveness that she ought not to 
 appear in the list at all. We differ from them all, 
 and think the high place we have given Miss Holley 
 is very near the truth. 
 
 Communications have been received from Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, Marietta Holley, Senator Hoar, 
 
Vlll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Phillips Brooks, Bishop J. H. Vincent, Brooke Her- 
 ford, Francis Parkman, ex-Gov. John D. Long, Gen. 
 Benj. F. Butler, T. W. Higginson, and many other 
 eminent persons, bringing to us a number of sugges- 
 tions, most of which we have adopted to the great 
 advantage of our book, as we hope and believe. 
 
 We have added a number of valuable works to the 
 lists of the first edition, and have written a new chap- 
 ter on the guidance of children, the means of training 
 them to good habits of reading, and the books best 
 adapted to boys and girls of various ages. 
 
 If any one, on noting some of the changes that 
 have been made in this edition, feels inclined to raise 
 the cry of inconsistency, we ask him to remember 
 the declaration of Wendell Phillips, that " Inconsist- 
 ency is Progress." There is room for still further 
 inconsistency, we do not doubt; and criticism or 
 suggestion will be gladly received. 
 
 FRANK PARSONS. 
 Boston, January, 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introductory Remarks. page 
 
 Purposes of the book briefly stated i 
 
 System in reading 2 
 
 Purposes of reading 2 
 
 Its influence on health and mind 2 
 
 on character 3 
 
 on beauty and accomplishments ... 4 
 
 Its pleasures 5 
 
 Quantity and quality of reading 5 
 
 Selection of books = 6 
 
 Order of reading , . 7 
 
 Method of reading 8 
 
 Importance of owning the books you read .... 9 
 
 Effect of bad books 10 
 
 useless books 11 
 
 good books 12-15 
 
 Abbreviations used in this Work 16 
 
 Note of Explanation 17, 20 
 
 The First Two Shelves of the World's Library 
 
 (Table.) 18-19 
 
 Remarks on Table 1 21-80 
 
 Religion and Morals 21-24 
 
 Poetry and the Drama 25-41 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Science 41-46 
 
 Biography . 46-48 
 
 History 49-52 
 
 Philosophy 53-56 
 
 Essays 56-57 
 
 Fiction 58-67 
 
 Oratory 67-68 
 
 Wit and Humor 68-71 
 
 Fables and Fairy Tales I^-IZ 
 
 Travel 73-74 
 
 Guides 75-76 
 
 Miscellaneous 76-80 
 
 Glimpses of the Great Fields of Thought, 
 
 Arranged for the purpose of securing breadth of 
 
 mind (Table II.) 82-83 
 
 A Series of Brief but very Choice Selections 
 from general literature, constituting a year's 
 course for the formation of a true literary taste 
 
 (Table III.) 84-93 
 
 Groups I. and II., Poetry 85-91 
 
 Group III., Prose 91-92 
 
 Group IV., Wit and Humor 93 
 
 A Short Course supplementary to the Last 
 
 (Table IV.) 94-95 
 
 What to Give the Children 97-127 
 
 Special Studies 123-127 
 
 The Distribution of the World's Great Authors 
 in time and space, with a parallel column of con- 
 temporaneous noted historic events (Table V ) 128-132 
 
 Remarks on Table V 133-148 
 
 Definitions and divisions 133-135 
 
 Eight tests for the choice of books I35-I39 
 
 Intrinsic merit 139-148 
 
CONTENTS. . xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Periods of English Literature 150-160 
 
 The Pre-Shakspearian age 150-152 
 
 The Shakspearian age 152-155 
 
 The Post-Shakspearian age 155-160 
 
 Time of Milton 155-156 
 
 Dryden 156-158 
 
 Pope 158-159 
 
 The novelists, historians, and sci- 
 entists 159-160 
 
 The greatest names of other literatures: — 
 
 Greece, Rome, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, 
 
 Persia, Portugal, Denmark, Russia . . . 1 61-164 
 The fountains of national literatures: — 
 
 Homer, Nibelungenlied, Cid, Chansons, Morte 
 
 D'Arthur, etc 165-167 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 The Best Thoughts of Great Men about 
 Books and Reading 171-190 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Books used in the Boston Public Schools 
 as Supplementary Reading, Text-Books, 
 etc 191-207 
 
THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 THIS book is the result of much reading and 
 thought, teaching, lecturing, and conversation, 
 in the direction of its subject-matter. Its purpose 
 is fivefold : First, to call attention to the importance 
 of reading the best literature to the exclusion of all 
 that is inferior, by setting forth the benefits that may- 
 be derived from the former and the injuries that are 
 sure to result from the latter. Second, to select the 
 best things from all the literatures of the world; to 
 make a survey of the whole field of literature and 
 locate the mines most worthy of our effort, where 
 with the smallest amount of digging we may find the 
 richest ore ; and to do this with far greater precision, 
 definiteness, and detail than it has ever been done 
 before. Third, to place the great names of the world's 
 literature in their proper relations of time and space 
 to each other and to the great events of history, — 
 accompanying the picture with a few remarks about 
 the several periods of English Literature and the 
 
 I 
 
2 THE world's BEST BOOKS. 
 
 Golden Age of literature in each of the great nations. 
 Fourth, to discuss briefly the best methods of reading, 
 and the importance of system, quantity, quality, due 
 proportion, and thoroughness in reading, and of the 
 ownership of books and the order in which they 
 should be read. Fifth, to gather into a shining group, 
 like a constellation of stars, the splendid thoughts of 
 the greatest men upon these subjects. 
 
 The book is meant to be a practical handbook of 
 universal literature for the use of students, business 
 men, teachers, and any other persons who direct the 
 reading of others, and for the guidance of scholars 
 in departments other than their own. 
 
 1. System in reading is of as much importance as 
 it is in the business of a bank or any other mercantile 
 pursuit. 
 
 2. The Purposes of Reading should ever be kept in 
 mind. They are the purposes of life; namely, health, 
 mental power, character, beauty, accomplishments, 
 pleasure, and the knowledge which will be of use 
 in relation to our business, domestic life, and citizen- 
 ship. Literature can aid the health, indirectly, by 
 imparting a knowledge of the means of its attain- 
 ment and preservation (as in works on physiology 
 and hygiene) ; and directly, by supplying that exer- 
 cise of the mind which is essential to the balance of 
 the functions necessary to perfect health. A study 
 of literature will develop the mind — the perception, 
 memory, reason (especially true of science and philo- 
 sophy), and the imagination (especially the study of 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 
 
 poetry and science) — directly, by exercising those 
 all-important faculties ; and indirectly, by yielding a 
 knowledge of the conditions of their existence and 
 strength. On the other hand, the mind may be 
 greatly injured, if not wholly destroyed, by pouring 
 into it a flood of filth and nonsense ; or by a torrent 
 of even the best in literature, so rapid and long con- 
 tinued that it cannot be properly absorbed and di- 
 gested. The evil effects of cramming the mind are 
 only too often seen about us. 
 
 Literature can build or destroy the character both 
 directly and indirectly. Poetry, religion, philosophy, 
 fiction, biography, history, — indeed, all sorts of writ- 
 ings in some degree make us more sympathetic, 
 loving, tender, noble, generous, kind, and just, or 
 the opposite, by the simple power of exercise, if for 
 no other reason. If we freely exercise the muscles 
 of the arm, we shall have more vigor there. If we 
 continually love, our power and tendency to love 
 will grow. The poet's passion, passing the gates of 
 the eye and ear into our souls, rouses our sympathies 
 to kindred states of feeling. We love when he loves, 
 and weep when he weeps; and all the while he is 
 moulding our characters, taking from or adding to 
 the very substance of our souls. Brave words change 
 the coward to a hero ; a coward's cry chills the bravest 
 heart. A boy who reads of crime and bravery sadly 
 mixed by some foul traitor to the race, soon thinks 
 that to be brave and grand he must be coarse and 
 have the blood of villany and rashness pulsing from 
 
4 THE WORLD S BEST BOOKS. 
 
 his misled heart. Not all the books that picture vice 
 are harmful. If they show it in its ^truth, they drive 
 us from it by its very loathsomeness ; but if they gild 
 it and plume it with pleasure and power, beware. 
 Literature, too, can give us a knowledge of the means 
 for the development of character, and the inspiration 
 to make the best use of these means. Books of 
 morals, religion, biography, science, poetry, and fic- 
 tion especially hold these treasures. 
 
 In the attainment and enrichment of beauty, litera- 
 ture has a work to do. The choicest beauty is the 
 loveliness of soul that lights the eye and prints its 
 virtue in the face ; and as our reading moulds the 
 mind and heart to beauty, their servants at the door- 
 ways ever bend to their instructions and put on 
 the livery of their lords. Even that beauty which 
 is of the rounded form, the soft cheek's blooming 
 tinge, the rosy mouth, and pearly lip, owes its 
 debt to health ; and that, as has been seen, may 
 profit much by literature. And beyond all this we 
 learn the means of great improvement in our come- 
 liness, — how crooked may be changed to straight, 
 and hollow cheeks to oval ; frowns to smiles, and lean 
 or gross to plump ; ill-fitting, ill-adapted dress to 
 beautiful attire ; a shambling gait to a well-conducted 
 walk, — and even the stupid stare of ignorance be 
 turned to angel glances of indwelling power and 
 interested comprehension. 
 
 Accomplishments , too, find help in written works of 
 genius, not merely as aff"ording a record of the best 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 
 
 methods of acquiring any given art, but directly as 
 supplying the substance of some of the greatest of all 
 accomplishments, — those of inspiring eloquent con- 
 versation, and of writing clear and beautiful English. 
 
 Pleasure manifestly is, by all these aids to beauty, 
 health, and power, much beholden to the books we 
 read ; but more than this, the very reading of a worthy 
 book is a delicious joy, and one that does not drain 
 but fills the fount from which the happiness of others 
 comes. Plato, Fenelon, Gibbon, and a host of others 
 name the love of books the chiefest charm and glory 
 of their lives. 
 
 3. The Quantity and Quality of what we read should 
 have our careful thought. Whoever lives on liter- 
 ary husks and intoxicants, when corn and wheat 
 and milk are just as easily within his reach, is 
 certainly no wiser than one who treats his phys- 
 ical receptacle in the same way, and will as surely 
 suffer from ill feeding in diminished vital force. In- 
 deed, he may be glad if he escapes acquiring in- 
 tellectual dyspepsia or spiritual delirium tremens. 
 Even of the best of reading there may be too much 
 as well as not enough. More than we can assimi- 
 late is waste of time and energy. Besides the regu- 
 lation of the total quantity we read, with reference 
 to our powers of digestion, we must watch the rela- 
 tive amounts of all the various kinds of literary sus- 
 tenance we take. A due proportion ought to be 
 maintained by careful mixture of religious, scienti- 
 fic, poetic, philosophic, humorous, and other read- 
 
6 THE world's best BOOKS. 
 
 ing. A man who exercises but one small muscle all 
 his days would violate the laws of health and power. 
 The greatest mind is that which comes the nearest 
 to attainment of a present perfect picture in the 
 mind of all the universe, past, present, and to come. 
 The greatest character is that which gets the greatest 
 happ'iness for self through fullest and most powerful 
 activities for others, and requires for its own work, 
 existence, and delight, the least subtraction from the 
 world's resources of enjoyment The greatest man 
 is he who combines in due proportion and com- 
 pletest harmony the fullest physical, emotional, and 
 intellectual life. 
 
 4. The Selection of books is of the utmost im- 
 portance, in view of their jnfluence upon charac- 
 ter. All the reasons for care that apply to the 
 choice of friends among the living, have equal 
 force in reference to the dead. The same tests 
 avail in one case as in the other, — reputation and 
 personal observation of the words and deeds of 
 those we think to make companions. We may at 
 will and at slight cost have all the great and noble 
 for our intimate friends and daily guests, who will 
 come when we call, answer the questions we put, 
 and go when we wish. And better yet, however 
 long we talk to them, no other friends will be kept 
 waiting in the anterooms, longing to take our place. 
 Our most engrossing friendship, though we keep 
 them always with us, will produce no interfer- 
 ence with their equal friendship with all the world 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 
 
 besides. We may associate with angels and become 
 angelic, or with demons and become satanic. 
 
 Besides the difference in the nature of books, the 
 very number of them commands a choice. In one 
 library there are three million volumes; in the Bos- 
 ton Public Library about three hundred thousand, 
 or five hundred thousand including pamphlets. In 
 your short life you can read but a trifling part of the 
 world's literature. Suppose you are fortunate enough 
 to be able to read one book a week, in thirty years 
 you would read but fifteen hundred books. Use, 
 then, every care to get the best. If it were in your 
 equal choice to go to one of two reputed entertain- 
 ments and but one, it surely would be worth your 
 while to know their character before selecting. One 
 might be Beethoven's loveliest symphony, the other 
 but a minstrel show. 
 
 5. The Order of our Reading must be carefully at- 
 tended to. The very best books are not always to 
 be first read. If the reader is young or of little 
 culture, the simplicity of the writing must be taken 
 into account, for it is of no use to read a book that 
 cannot be understood. One of mature and culti- 
 vated mind who begins a course of systematic read- 
 ing may follow the order of absolute value ; but a 
 child must be supplied with easy books in each de- 
 partment, and, as his powers develop, with works 
 of increasing difficulty, until he is able to grasp the 
 most complex and abstruse. If you take up a book 
 that is recommended to you as one of the world's 
 
8 THE world's best BOOKS. 
 
 best, and find it uninteresting, be sure the trouble 
 is in you. Do not reject it utterly, do not tell people 
 you do not like it; wait a few months or years, then 
 try it again, and it may become to you one of the 
 most precious of books. 
 
 6. The Method of your reading is an important 
 factor in determining its value to you. It is in pro- 
 portion to your conquest of what is worthy in litera- 
 ture that you gain. If you pour it into your mind 
 so fast that each succeeding wave ^forces the former 
 out before its form and color have been fixed, you 
 are not better off, but rather worse, because the 
 process washes out the power of memory. Memory 
 depends on health, attention, repetition, reflection, 
 association of ideas, and practice. Some books 
 should be very carefully read, looking to both 
 thought and form; the best passages should be 
 marked and marginal notes made; reflection should 
 •digest the best ideas, until they become a part of the 
 tissue of your own thought; and the most beautiful 
 -and striking expressions should be verbally com- 
 mitted. If you saw a diamond in the sand, surely 
 you would fix it where it might adorn your person. 
 If you find a sparkling jewel in your reading, fix 
 it in your heart and let it beautify your conversation. 
 Shakspeare, Milton, Homer, Bacon, ^schylus, and 
 Emerson, and nearly all the selections in Table III. 
 should be read in this way. Other books have value 
 principally by reason of the line of thought or argu- 
 ment of which the whole book is an expression; such 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 9 
 
 for the most part are books of history, science, and 
 philosophy. While reading them marks or notes 
 should be made ; so that when the book is finished, 
 the steps of thought may several times be rapidly 
 retraced, until the force and meaning of the book 
 becomes your own forever. Still other books may 
 be simply glanced through, it being sufficient for the 
 purposes of the general reader to have an idea of 
 the nature of their contents, so that he may know 
 what he can find in them if he has need. Such 
 books to us are the Koran, the works of the lesser 
 essayists, orators, and philosophers. Ruskin says 
 that no book should be read fast; but it would be as 
 sensible to say that we should never walk or ride fast 
 over a comparatively uninteresting country. Adap- 
 tation of method to the work in hand is the true rule. 
 We should not read " Robert Elsmere " as slowly and 
 carefully as Shakspeare. As the importance of the 
 book diminishes, the speed of our journey through it 
 ought to increase. Otherwise we give an inferior 
 book equal attention with its superiors. 
 
 7. Own the Books you Read, if possible, so that you 
 may mark them and often refer to them. If you are 
 able, buy the best editions, with the fullest notes and 
 finest binding, — the more beautiful, the better. A 
 lovely frame adds beauty to the picture. If you 
 cannot buy the best-dressed books, get those of 
 modest form and good large type. If pennies must 
 be counted, get the catalogues of all the cheap 
 libraries that are multiplymg so rapidly of late, — 
 
lO THE world's best BOOKS. 
 
 the Elzevir, Bohn, Morley, Camelot, National, Cassel, 
 Irving, Chandos, People's Library, World's Library, 
 etc., — and own the books you learn to love. Use 
 the public libraries for reference, but do not rely 
 on them for the standard literature you read. It is 
 better far to have an eight cent Bunyan, twelve cent 
 Bacon, or seven cent Hamlet within your reach from 
 day to day, and marked to suit yourself, than to read 
 such books from the library and have to take them 
 back. That is giving up the rich companionship 
 of new-found friends as soon as gained. The dif- 
 ference between talking with a sage or poet for a 
 few brief moments once in your lifetime, and having 
 him daily with you as your friend and teacher is the 
 difference between the vales and summits of this life. 
 The immense importance of possessing the best 
 books for your own cannot be too strongly impressed 
 upon you, nor the value of clothing your noble 
 friends as richly as you can. If they come to you 
 with outward beauty, they will claim more easily their 
 proper share of your attention and regard. Get an 
 Elzevir Shakspeare if you can afford no other, but 
 purchase the splendid edition by Richard Grant 
 White, if you can. Even if you have to save on 
 drink and smoke and pie-crust for the purpose, you 
 never will regret the barter. 
 
 8. Bad Books corrupt us as bad people do. When- 
 ever they are made companions, insensibly we learn 
 to think and feel and talk and act as they do in 
 degree proportioned to the closeness that we hug 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. II 
 
 them to our hearts. Books may be bad, not only 
 by imparting evil thoughts, awakening lust and gild- 
 ing vice, but by developing a false philosophy, 
 ignoble views of life, or errors in whatever parts 
 of science or religion they may. touch. Avoid foul 
 books as you would shun foul men, for fear you 
 may be like them ; but seek the errors out and 
 conquer them. Spend little time in following a 
 teacher you have tested and found false, but do 
 the testing for yourselves, and take no other per- 
 son's judgment as to what is truth or error. Truth 
 is always growing; you may be the first to catch 
 the morning light. The friend who warns you of 
 some book's untruth may be himself in error, led 
 by training, custom, or tradition, or unclearly see- 
 ing in the darkness of his prejudice. 
 
 9. Useless Books. Many books that are not posi- 
 tively bad are yet mere waste of time. A wise man 
 will not spend the capital of his life, or part with 
 the wealth of his energies except he gets a fair 
 equivalent. He will demand the highest market 
 price for his time, and will not give his hours and 
 moments — precious pieces of his life — for trash, 
 when he can buy with them the richest treasures 
 of three thousand years of thought. You have not 
 time to drink the whole of human life from out the 
 many colored bottles of our literature ; will you take 
 the rich cream, or cast that aside for the skimmed 
 milk below, or turn it all out on the pathway and 
 swallow the dirt and the dregs in the bottom? 
 
12 THE world's BEST BOOKS. 
 
 10. Good Books. — A Short Sermon. — If you are a 
 scholar, professor or lawyer, doctor or clergyman, 
 do not stay locked in the narrow prison of your own 
 department, but go out into the world of thought 
 and breathe the air that comes from all the quarters 
 of the globe. Read other books than those that deal 
 with your profession, — poetry, philosophy, and travel. 
 Get out of the valleys up on to the ridges, where you 
 can see what relation your home bears to the rest of 
 the world. Go stand in the clamor of tongues, that 
 you may learn that the truth is broader than any 
 man's conception of it and become tolerant. Look 
 at the standards that other men use, and correct your 
 own by them. Learn what other thinkers and work- 
 ers are doing, that you may appreciate them and aid 
 them. Learn the Past, that you may know the Future. 
 Do not look out upon the world through one small 
 window ; open all the doorways of your soul, let all 
 genius and beauty come in, that your life may be 
 bright with their glory. 
 
 If you are a busy merchant, artisan, or laborer, you 
 too can give a little time each day to books that are 
 the best. If Plato, Homer, Shakspeare, Tennyson, 
 or Milton came to town to-day, you would not let the 
 busiest hour prevent your catching sight of him ; you 
 would stand a half day on the street in the sun or the 
 snow to catch but a glimpse of the famous form ; but 
 how much better to receive his spirit in the heart 
 than only get his image on the eye ! His choicest 
 thought is yours for the asking. 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 13 
 
 If you are a thoughtless boy or silly girl, trying the 
 arts that win the matrimonial prize, remember that 
 there are no wings that fly so high as those of sense 
 and thought and inward beauty. Remember the old 
 song that ends, — 
 
 " Beauty vanish, wealth depart, 
 Wit has won the lady's heart." 
 
 Even as a preparation for a noble and successful 
 courtship, the best literature is an absolute neces- 
 sity. Perhaps you cannot travel : Humboldt, Cook, 
 and Darwin, Livingstone, and Stanley will tell you 
 more than you could see if you should go where 
 they have travelled. Perhaps you cannot have the 
 finest teachers in the studies you pursue : what a 
 splendid education one could get if he could learn 
 philosophy with Plato, Kant, and Spencer; astron- 
 omy with Galileo, Herschel, and Laplace ; mathe- 
 matics with Newton or Leibnitz ; natural history 
 with Cuvier or Agassiz ; botany with Gray; geol- 
 ogy with Lyell or Dawson ; history with Bancroft ; 
 and poetry with Shakspeare, Milton, Dante, and 
 Homer ! Well, those very teachers at their best are 
 yours if you will read their books. Each life is a 
 mixture of white and black, no one is perfect; but 
 every worthy passage and ennobling thought you read 
 adds to the white and crowds out the black ; and of 
 what enormous import a few brief moments daily 
 spent with noble books may be, appears when we 
 remember that each act brings after it an infinite 
 
14 THE world's best BOOKS. 
 
 series of consequences. It is an awe-inspiring truth 
 to me that with the color of my thought I tinge the 
 stream of Hfe to its remotest hour; that some poor 
 brother far out on the ocean of the future, strugghng 
 to breast the biUows of temptation, may by my hand 
 be pulled beneath the waves, ruined by the influences 
 I put in action now; that, standing here, I make 
 the depths of all eternities to follow tremble to the 
 music of my life : as Tennyson has put it so beauti' 
 fully in his " Bugle Song," — 
 
 " Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying : 
 Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 
 
 " O love, they die in yon rich sky, 
 They faint on hill or field or river : 
 Our echoes rollftofn soul to soul, 
 And grow for ever atidfor ever.'''* 
 
 How careful we should be of every moment if we 
 had imaginative power enough to fully realize the 
 meaning of the truth that slightly differing actions 
 now may build results at last as wide apart as poles 
 of opposite eternities ! Even idleness, the negative of 
 goodness, would have no welcome at our door. Some 
 persons dream away two thirds of life, and deem 
 quiescence joy; but that is certainly a sad mistake. 
 The nearer to complete inaction we attain, the nearer 
 we are clay and stone ; the more activity we gain, 
 that does not draw from future power, the higher 
 up the cliffs of life we climb, and nearer to celestial 
 life that never sleeps. Let no hour go idly by that 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. I 5 
 
 can be rendered rich and happy with a glorious bit 
 of Shakspeare, Dante, or Carlyle. Let us never 
 be deluded with the praise of peace, excepting that 
 of heart and conscience clear of all remorse. It 
 is ambition that has climbed the heights, and will 
 throuo;h all the future. Give me not the dead and 
 hopeless calm of indolent contentment, but far rather 
 the storm and the battle of life, with the star of my 
 hopes above me. Let me sail the central flow of the 
 stream, and travel the tides at the river's heart. I do 
 not wish to stay in any shady nook of quiet water, 
 where the river's rushing current never comes, and 
 straws and bubbles lie at rest or slowly eddying round 
 and round at anchor in their mimic harbor. How 
 often are we all like these imprisoned straws, revolv- 
 ing listlessly within the narrow circle of the daily 
 duties of our lives, gaining no new truth, nor deeper 
 love or power or tenderness or joy, while all the 
 world around is sweeping to the sea ! How often 
 do we let the days and moments, with their wealth 
 of life, fly past us with their treasure ! Youth lies 
 in her loveliness, dreaming in her drifting boat, and 
 wakes to find her necklace has in some way come 
 unfast, and from the loosened ribbon trailing o'er the 
 rail the lustrous pearls have one by one been slipping 
 far beyond her reach in those deep waters over w^hich 
 her slumbers passed. Do not let the pearls be lost. 
 Do not let the moments pass you till they yield their 
 wealth and add their beauty to your lives. 
 
l6 THE world's best BOOKS. 
 
 1 1 . Abbreviations. — 
 
 R. means. Read carefully. . 
 
 D. means, Digest the best passages ; make the thought and 
 feeling your own. 
 
 C. means, Commit passages in which valuable thought or 
 feeling is exquisitely expressed. 
 
 G. means, Grasp the idea of the whole book ; that is, the 
 train of the author's thought, his conclusions, and the 
 reasons for them. 
 
 S. means. Swallow ; that is, read as fast as you choose, it not 
 being worth while to do more than get a general im- 
 pression of the book. 
 
 T. means. Taste ; that is, skip here and there, just to get an 
 idea of the book, and see if you wish to read more. 
 
 e. means easy ; that is, of such character as to be within the 
 easy comprehension of one having no more than a 
 grammar-school education or its equivalent ; and it 
 applies to all books that can be understood without 
 either close attention or more than an ordinary New 
 England grammar-school training. 
 
 m. means mediuui ; that is, of such character as to require 
 the close attention called "study," or a high-school 
 education, or both ; and it applies to books the degree 
 of whose difficulty places them above the class e. and 
 below the class d. 
 
 d. means difficult ; that is, beyond the comprehension of an 
 ordinary person having only a New England high- 
 school education or its equivalent, even with close 
 study, unless the reader already has a fair understand- 
 ing of the sitbject of the book. In order to read with 
 advantage books that are marked d., the mind should 
 be prepared by special reading of simpler books in 
 the same department of thought. 
 
NOTE OF EXPLANATION. 1/ 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 NOTE OF EXPLANATION. 
 
 Table I. contains a list of autliors whose booi<s, on principle 
 and authority, have the strongest claims on the attention of the 
 average reader of English. They are arranged from left to right 
 in the order of importance of the divisions of the subject matter 
 regarded as wholes, and from above downward in the order of 
 their value in relation to the highest standard in their own de- 
 partment. The iiu?nbe7-s have nothing to do with the ranking, 
 but refer to notes that will be found on the pages following the 
 table. There is also, at the head of the notes relating to each 
 column of the table, a special note on the subject matter of that 
 column. 
 
 The upper part of the table represents the first shelf of 
 the world's library, and contains the books having the very 
 strongest claims upon the attention of all, — books with which 
 every one should endeavor to gain an acquaintance, at least to 
 the extent indicated in the notes. 
 
 The lower part of the table represents the second shelf of the 
 world's library, and contains books which in addition to those 
 of the first shelf should enter into a liberal education. 
 
 It must be always kept in mind that intrinsic merit alone 
 does not decide the position of a book in this table; for in order 
 to test the claim of a book upon the attention of a reader we 
 have to consider not only the artistic value of the author's work, 
 and its subject matter, but also the needs and abilities of the 
 reader. Thus it happens that it is not always the work of the 
 greatest genius which stands highest in the list. Moreover, 
 no claim is made that the ranking is perfect, especially on the 
 second shelf. The table is an example of the application of 
 the principles set forth in the remarks following Table V., to the 
 
I 
 
 TABLE I. — THE 
 
 [See explanation on 
 
 1. 
 
 Religion & Morals. 
 
 Bible I 
 Bunyan 2 
 Taylor 3 
 Kempis 4 
 Spencer 5 
 M. Aurehus 6 
 Plutarcli 7 
 Seneca £ 
 Epictetus 9 
 Brooks 10 
 Drummoiid 10 
 
 2. 
 
 Poetry & the 
 Drama. 
 
 Shakspeare 
 Homer 21 
 Dante 22 
 Goethe 23 
 Milton 24 
 ^schylus 2 
 Fragments 
 
 Milton 1 1 
 Keble 12 
 Cicero 13 
 Pascal 14 
 Channing 15 
 Aristotle 16 
 St. Augustine 17 
 Butler iS 
 Spinoza iq 
 
 Lucretius 62 
 Ovid 63 
 Sophocles 'S4 
 Euripides 65 
 Aristophanes 66 
 Pindar 67 
 Hesiod 68 
 Heine 69 
 Schiller 70 
 Corneille 71 
 Racine 72 
 Moli^re 73 
 Musset 74 
 Calderon 75 
 Petrarch 76 
 Ariosto 77 
 Tasso 78 
 Camoens 79 
 Omar 80 
 Firdusi 81 
 Hafiz 81 
 Saadi 81 
 Arnold 82 
 Pushkin St 
 Lermontoff 84 
 
 Spenser 27 
 Lowell 28 
 Whittier 29 
 Tennyson 30 
 Burns 31 
 .Scott 32 
 Byron 33 
 Shelley 34 
 Keats 3^ 
 Campbell 36 
 Moore 37 
 Thomson 38 
 Macaulay 39 
 Dryden 40 
 Collins 41 
 Ingelow 42 
 Bryant 43 
 Longfellow 44 
 Herbert 45 
 Goldsmith 46 
 Coleridge 47 
 Wordsworth 48 
 Pope 49 
 Southey 50 
 Walton 51 
 Browning 52 
 Young 53 
 Jonson 54 
 Beaumont 
 & F. 5^ 
 Marlowe 56 
 Sheridan 57 
 Carleton 58 
 Vireil 60 
 Horace 61 
 
 3. 
 
 Science. 
 
 Physiology and 
 
 Hygiene 85 
 "Our Country" 86 
 Federalist 88 
 Bryce 89 
 Montesquieu 90 
 Bagehot 90 
 Mill 91 
 Bain 92 
 Spencer 93 
 Darwin 94 
 Herschel 95 
 Proctor 95 
 Lyell 96 
 Lubbock 96 
 Dawson 96 
 Wood 97 
 Whewell 98 
 
 4. 
 
 Biography. 
 
 De Tocqueville 
 Von Hoist 100 
 Smith loi 
 Malthus 102 
 Carey 103 
 Cairnes 104 
 Freeman 105 
 Jevons 106 
 Mulford 107 
 Hobbes loS 
 Machiavelli 109 
 Max Miilier no 
 Trench iii 
 Taylor 112 
 White 113 
 Cuvier 114 
 Conk 115 
 Tvndall 116 
 Airy 117 
 Faraday 118 
 Helmholtz 119 
 Huxley 120 
 Gray 121 
 Agassiz 122 
 Silliman 123 
 
 Plutarch 124 
 Phillips 125 
 Boswell 126 
 Lockhart 127 
 Marshall 128 
 Franklin 128 
 Nicoiay & H. 
 
 129 
 Grant 129 
 Carlyle 130 
 Renan 130 
 Farrar 131 
 Emerson 132 
 100 Greatest 
 
 Men 133 
 Parton 134 
 Hale 135 
 Drake 136 
 Fox 137 
 Grimm 138 
 
 History. 
 
 Green 152 
 Bancroft 153 
 Guizot 154 
 Buckle 154 
 Parkman 155 
 Freeman 155 
 Fiske 155 
 Fyffe 155 
 
 99 G. Smith 139 
 Bourrienne 140 
 Johnson 141 
 Walton 142 
 Stanley 143 
 Irving 144 
 Southey 145 
 Stanhope 146 
 Moore 147 
 Jameson 148 
 Baring-Gould 
 
 149 
 Field 150 
 Hamilton 151 
 Darwin 151 
 Alcott 151 
 Talleyrand 151 
 Macaulay isi 
 Bashkirtseff 151 
 Guerin 151 
 Jefferson 151 
 American 
 
 Statesmen 151 
 English Men of 
 
 Letters 151 
 
 Creasy 155 « 
 Lecky 156 
 Clarke 157 
 Mofifat 158 
 Draper 159 
 Hallam 160 
 May i6r 
 Hume 162 
 Macaulay 163 
 Froude 164 
 Gibbon 165 
 Grote i66 
 Palfrev 167 
 Prescntt 168 
 Motley i6g 
 Frothin'jham 
 
 i<^q a 
 Wilkinson 170 
 Niebuhr 171 
 Menzel 172 
 Milman 173 
 Ranke 174 
 Sismnndi 175 
 Michelet 176 
 Cnrlyle 177 
 Thierry 178 
 Tacitus 179 
 Livv 180 
 Sallust 181 
 Herodotus 182 
 Xenophon 1S3 
 Thucvdides 184 
 Josephus 185 
 Mackenzie 185 
 Rawhnaon 185 
 
 6. 
 
 Philosophy. 
 
 Spencer 186 
 
 Plato 187 
 
 Berkeley 188 
 
 Kant 189 
 
 Locke & 
 Hobbes 190 
 
 Comte 191 
 
 Lewes 
 or Ueberweg 
 or Schwegler 
 or Schlegel 
 
 on the 
 History of 
 Philosophy. 
 
 Mill 192 
 Mansei 193 
 Biichner 194 
 Edwards 195 
 Bentham 196 
 Maurice 197 
 Hume 198 
 Hamilton 199 
 Aristotle 200 
 Descartes 201 
 Cousin 2CI 
 Hegel & 
 
 Schelling 202 
 Fichte 203 
 Erasmus 204 
 F'iske 205 
 Hickok 206 
 McCosh 207 
 Spinoza 208 
 
 Essays. 
 
 Emerson 209 
 Bacon 210 
 Montaigne 2tr 
 Ruskin 212 
 Carlyle 212 
 Addison 212 
 
 Macaulay 
 
 Leigh Hunt 
 
 Arnold 
 
 Buckle 
 
 Hume 
 
 Froude 
 
 Symonds 
 
 Steele 
 
 Browne 
 
 Johnson 
 
 De Quincey 
 
 Foster 
 
 Hazlitt 
 
 Lessing 
 
 Sparks 
 
 Disraeli 
 
 Whipple 
 
 Lamb 
 
 Schiller 
 
 Coleridge 
 
WORLD'S BEST BOOKS. 
 
 he preceding page.] 
 
 8. 
 
 9. 
 
 10. 
 
 11. 
 
 13. 
 
 13. 
 
 14. 
 
 Fiction. 
 
 Oratory. 
 
 Wit & Humor. 
 
 Fables & Fairy 
 Tales. 
 
 Travel. 
 
 Guides. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 Scott 213 
 
 Demosthenes 
 
 Lowell 244 
 
 Andersen 263 
 
 Cook 274 
 
 Foster 293 
 
 Smiles' 
 
 Eliot 214 
 
 I'urke 
 
 Holmes 245 
 
 La Fontaine 264 
 
 Humboldt 275 
 
 Pall Mall 294 
 
 Self- Help 3.0 
 
 Dickens 215 
 
 Fox 
 
 Dickens 246 
 
 .^sop 265 
 
 Darwin 276 
 
 Morley 295 
 
 Irving's Sketch 
 
 Hawthorne 216 
 
 Pitt 
 
 Cervantes 247 
 
 Grimm 266 
 
 
 Welsh 296 
 
 Book 31 1 
 
 Goldsmith 217 
 
 Webster 
 
 
 Goethe 267 
 
 
 Taine 297 
 
 Bacon's New 
 
 Kulwer 218 
 
 Clay 
 
 
 Hawthorne 267 
 
 
 Botta 298 
 
 Atlantis 312 
 
 MacDonald 219 
 
 Phillips 
 
 
 
 
 Allibone 299 
 
 Bellamy 313 
 
 'J hackeray 220 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 
 
 
 Bartlett 300 
 
 Arabian Nights 
 
 Kingsley 221 
 
 Everett 
 
 
 
 
 Ballou 301 
 
 314 
 
 Wallace 222 
 Tourgee 223 
 
 Bright 
 
 
 
 
 Bryant 302 
 Palgrave 302 
 
 Munchausen 315 
 Beowulf 316 
 
 Sienkiewicz 229 
 
 Hugo 224 
 
 Austen 230 
 
 
 
 
 Roget's 
 
 Anglo-Saxon 
 
 Dumas 224 
 
 Bronte 230 
 
 
 
 
 Thesaurus 
 
 Chronicle 317 
 
 Defoe 225 
 
 Alcott 231 
 Burnett 231 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 Dictionaries 
 
 Froissart 318 
 
 Hughes 225 
 
 
 
 
 Encyclopsedias 
 
 Nibelungenlied 319 
 
 Stowe 226 
 
 Cable 232 
 
 
 
 
 
 Icelandic Sagas 
 
 Cooper 226 
 
 Craddock 232 
 
 
 
 
 
 320 
 
 Curtis 227 
 
 Whitney 233 
 Jewett 233 
 Fielding 234 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elder Edda 321 
 
 Warner 227 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Cid 322 
 
 Aldrich 228 
 
 
 
 
 
 Morte D'Arthur 
 
 Hearn 228 
 Ebers 229 
 
 Le Sage 234 
 
 
 
 
 
 323 
 
 Balzac 234 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rousseau 235 
 
 Sumner 
 
 IngersoU 248 
 
 Bulfinch 26S 
 
 Marco Polo 277 
 
 Brook 303 
 
 Sheking 324 
 
 Sain tine 235 
 
 Henry 
 
 Holley 249 
 
 Saxe 269 
 
 Kane 278 
 
 Leypoldt 304 
 
 Analects of 
 
 Coffin 236 
 
 Otis 
 
 Curtis 250 
 
 Florian 270 
 
 Livingstone 279 
 
 Richardson 305 
 
 Confucius 325 
 
 Reade 236 
 
 Jay . 
 
 Depew 251 
 
 Kipling 270 
 
 Stanley 280 
 
 Harrison 306 
 
 Mesnevi 326 
 
 Warren 236 
 
 Madison 
 
 Twain 252 
 
 Babrius 271 
 
 Du Chaillu 2S1 
 
 Ruskin 307 
 
 Buddhism 327 
 
 Landor 237 
 
 Jefferson 
 
 Warner 253 
 
 Hauff 272 
 
 Niebuhr 282 
 
 Bright 308 
 
 Mahabharata 328 
 
 iurgenieff 237 
 
 Beecher 
 
 Edwards 254 
 
 Ovid 273 
 
 Bruce 283 
 
 Dunlop 309 
 
 Ramayana 329 
 
 Sue' 23 7 
 
 Brooks 
 
 Hale 255 
 
 Curtin 273 
 
 Heber 284 
 
 Baldwin 309 
 
 Vedas 330 
 
 Manzoni 237 
 
 Choate 
 
 Nasby 256 
 
 Fiske 273 
 
 Lander 285 
 
 Adams 309 
 
 Koran 331 
 
 L'ottin 238 
 
 Garfield 
 
 Ward 257 
 
 
 Waterton 286 
 
 
 Talmud 332 
 
 Hesant 23S 
 
 IngersoU 
 
 Jerrold 258 
 
 
 Rlungo Park 287 
 
 
 Hooker 333 
 
 Stevenson 238 
 
 Erskine 
 
 Voltaire 259 
 
 
 Ouseley 288 
 
 
 Swedenborg 333 
 
 ^V'ard 239 
 
 Sheridan 
 
 Byron 259 
 
 ' 
 
 Barth 289 
 
 
 Newton 333 
 
 Deland 239 
 
 Gladstone 
 
 Butler 260 
 
 
 Boteler 290 
 
 
 Kepler 333 
 
 Sewell 239 
 
 Cicero 
 
 Swift 260 
 
 
 Maundeville 291 
 
 
 Copernicus 333 
 
 liret Harte 239 
 
 Quintilian 
 
 Rabelais 261 
 
 
 Warburton 292 
 
 
 Laplace 333 
 
 'ireen 240 
 
 Bossuet 
 
 Sterne 261 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mulock 240 
 
 Saint 
 
 Juvenal 262 
 
 
 
 
 
 Disraeli 240 
 
 Chrysostom 
 
 Lucian 262 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Howells 240 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tolstoi 240 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■^and 241 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^lack 241 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^iackmore 241 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ichreiner 241 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 hemer 242 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Trollope 242 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A'inthrop 242 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■Richardson 243 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 snioUett 243 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Boccaccio 243 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
20 NOTE OF EXPLANATION. 
 
 case of the general reader. For every one above or below the 
 average reader the lists would have to be changed, and even 
 the average list has no quality of the absolute. It is but a sug- 
 gestion, — a suggestion, however, in which we have a good deal 
 of confidence, one that is based on a very wide induction, — 
 and we have no hesitation in affirming that the upper shelf rep- 
 resents the best literature the world affords. 
 
 In addition to Table I., there will be found in Tables III. and 
 IV., and in the remarks upon the Guidance of Children follow- 
 ing Table IV., a number of pieces of literary work of the very 
 highest merit and value. Some of the most important are Lowell's 
 "Vision of Sir Launfal," one of the very finest American poems; 
 Browning's " Ivan Ivanovitch ; " Guyot's " Earth and Man ; " 
 Mary Treat's " Home Book of Nature ; " Burroughs' " Pepacton," 
 "Signs and Seasons," "Wake Robin," etc. ; Buckley's "Fairy 
 Land of Science," etc.; Ragozin's " Chaldea; " P^enelon's " Lives 
 of the Philosophers;" Bolton's " Poor Boys who became Fa- 
 mous ; " Rives' " Story of Arnon ; " Drake's " Culprit Fay ; " Dr. 
 Brown's " Rab and his Friends ; " Mary Mapes Dodge's " Hans 
 Brinker ; " Andrews' " Ten Boys on the Road ; " Arnold's 
 "Sweetness and Light;" Higginson's "Vacations for Saints;" 
 and General Booth's " In Darkest England, and the Way Out," 
 a book of great power, which sets forth the most practical method 
 yet proposed for the immediate relief of society from the burdens 
 of pauperism and vice. 
 
RELIGION AND MORALS. 21 
 
 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 RELIGION AND MORALS. 
 
 Religion and Morals, though not identical, are 
 so closely related that they are grouped together. 
 The books in Column i by no means exhaust 
 these subjects, for they run like threads of gold 
 through the whole warp and woof of poetry. Phi- 
 losophy, fiction, and fable, biography, history, and 
 essays, oratory and humor, seem rather satellites 
 that attend upon moral feelings than independent 
 orbs, and even science is not dumb upon these 
 all-absorbing topics. If we are to be as broad- 
 minded in our religious views as we seek to be 
 in other matters, we must become somewhat ac- 
 quainted with the worship of races other than our 
 own. This may be done through Homer, Hesiod, 
 Ovid, Confucius, Buddha, the Vedas, Koran, Tal- 
 mud, Edda, Sagas, Beowulf, Nibelungenlied, Shah 
 Nameh, etc. (which are all in some sense *' Bibles," 
 or books that have grown out of the hearts of the 
 people), and through general works, such as Clarke's 
 " Ten Great Religions." 
 
 I. Especially Job, and Psalms 19, 103, 104, 107, in the 
 Old Testament ; and in the New the four Gospels, the Acts, 
 and the Epistles, (m. R. D. C. G.) 
 
22 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 2. Next to the Bible, probably no book is so much read 
 by the English peoples as Banyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," a 
 simple, vivid, helpful story of Christian life and its obstacles. 
 No writer has so well portrayed the central truths of Christi- 
 anity as this great, untrained, imaginative genius, pouring his 
 life upon the deathless pages of his poetic allegory during 
 the twelve long years in the latter part of the 17th century, 
 when he was imprisoned, under the Restoration, merely 
 because of his religious principles, (e. R. D.) 
 
 3. Taylor's *' Holy Living and Dying " is a wise, frank 
 talk about the care of our time, purity of intention, practice 
 of the presence of God, temperance, justice, modesty, humil- 
 ity, envy, contentedness, etc. Some portions of the first 
 hundred and fifty pages are of the utmost practical value. 
 Even Ruskin admits that Taylor and Bunyan are rightly 
 placed among the world's best. (Eng., 17th cent. — m. 
 R. D.) 
 
 4. " Imitation of Christ " is a sister book to the last, writ- 
 ten in the 15th century by Thomas a Kempis, a German 
 monk, of pure and beautiful life and thought. It is a world- 
 famous book, having been translated into every civilized 
 language, and having passed through more than five hundred 
 editions in the present century, (m. R D.) 
 
 5. Spencer's " Data of Ethics " is one of the most impor- 
 tant books in literature, having to the science of ethics much 
 the same relation as Newton's *' Principia" to astronomy, or 
 Darwin's "Origin of Species'' to biology. Note especially 
 the parts concerning altruistic selfishness, the morality of 
 health, and the development of moral feeling in general 
 (Eng., TQth cent. — d. R. D. G.) Spencer's "First Princi- 
 ples " is also necessary to an understanding of the scientific 
 religious thinking of the day. In connection with Spencer's 
 
RELIGION AND MORALS. 23 
 
 works, "The Idea of God" and the "Destiny of Man," by 
 Fiske, may be read with profit. The author of these books 
 is in large part a follower and expounder of Spencer. 
 
 6. The " Meditations " of M. Aurelius is a book that is 
 full of deep, pure beauty and philosophy ; one of the 
 sweetest influences that can be brought into the life, and 
 one of Canon Farrar's twelve favorites out of all literature. 
 (Rome, 2d cent. — m. R. D.) 
 
 . 7. Plutarch's " Morals " supplied much of the cream used 
 by Taylor in the churning that produced the " Holy Living 
 and Dying." Emerson says that we owe more to Plutarch 
 than to all the other ancients. Many great authors have 
 been indebted to him, — Rabelais, Montaigne, Montesquieu, 
 Voltaire, Rousseau, Shakspeare, Bacon, and Dry den, among 
 the number. Plutarch's " Morals " is a treasure-house of 
 wisdom and beauty. There is a very fine edition with an 
 introduction by Emerson. (Rome, ist cent. — m. R. D.) 
 
 8. Seneca's " Morals " is a fit companion of the preceding 
 six books, full of deep thought upon topics of every-day im- 
 port, set out in clear and forceful language. The Camelot 
 Library contains a very good selection from his ethical trea- 
 tises and his delightful letters, which are really moral essays. 
 (Rome, I St cent. — m. R. D.) 
 
 9 Epictetus was another grand moralist, the teacher of 
 Marcus Aurelius. Next to Bunyan and Kempis, the books 
 of these great stoics, filled as they are with the serenity of 
 minds that had made themselves independent of circum- 
 stance and passion, have the greatest popularity accorded 
 to any ethical works. Epictetus was a Roman slave in the 
 ist century a. d. (m. R. D.) 
 
 10. The little book on " Tolerance " by Phillips Brooks 
 ought to be read by every one. See Table III. side No. 23. 
 
24 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 The sermons of Dr. Brooks and of Robertson are among 
 the most helpful and inspiring reading we know. Drum- 
 mond's " Natural Law in the Spiritual World " is a book of 
 ingenious and often poetic analogies between the physical 
 and spiritual worlds. If read as poetry, no fault can be found 
 with it ; but the reader must be careful to test thoroughly 
 the laws laid down, and make sure that there is some weight- 
 ier proof than mere analogy, before hanging important con- 
 clusions on the statements of this author. A later book by 
 Drummond entitled " The Greatest Thing in the World " is 
 also worthy of attention. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 11. " Areopagitica." A noble plea for liberty of speech 
 and press. (Eng., early 17th cent.) 
 
 12. Keble's beautiful " Christian Year." 
 
 13. Cicero's '' Offices " is a very valuable ethical work. 
 It directs a young Roman how he may attain distinction and 
 the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens. Its under- 
 lying principles are of eternal value, and its arrangement is 
 admirable.' Dr. Peabody's translation is the best. (Rome, 
 I St cent. B. c.) 
 
 14. " Pens^es." Pascal's " Thoughts " are known the world 
 over for their depth and beauty. (France, 17th cent.) 
 
 15. "The Perfect Life" and other works. (U. S., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 16. Ethics. (Greece, 4th cent. B.C.) 
 
 17. "Confessions" and "The City of God." (Rome, 
 4th cent.) 
 
 18. Analogy of Religion. (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 19. Ethics and theologico-political speculation. (Dutch, 
 1 7th cent.) 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 25 
 
 POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 
 
 The faculty which most widely distinguishes man 
 from his possible relatives, the lower animals, and the 
 varying power of which most clearly marks the place 
 of each individual in the scale of superiority, is imagi- 
 nation. It lies at the bottom of intellect and char- 
 acter. Memory, reason, and discovery are built upon 
 it; and sympathy, the mother of kindness, tenderness, 
 and love, is itself the child of the imagination. Poetry 
 is the married harmony of imagination and beauty. 
 The poet is the man of fancy and the man of music. 
 This is why in all ages mankind instinctively feel that 
 poetry is supreme. Of all kinds of literature, it is the 
 most stimulating, broadening, beautifying, *and should 
 have a large place in every life. Buy the best poets, 
 read them carefully, mark the finest passages, and 
 recur to them many, many times. A poem is like a 
 violin : it must be kept and played upon a long time 
 before it yields to us its sweetest music. 
 
 The drama, or representation of human thought 
 and life, has come into being, among very many peo- 
 ples, as a natural outgrowth of the faculty of mimicry 
 in human nature. Among the South Sea Islanders 
 there is a rude drama, and in China such representa- 
 tions have existed from remote ages. Greece first 
 brought the art to high perfection ; and her greatest 
 tragic artists, ^schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, of 
 the fifth century B. c, are still the highest names in 
 
26 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 tragedy. The Greek drama with ^schylus was only 
 a dialogue. Sophocles introduced a third actor. It 
 would be a dull play to us that should fill the evening 
 with three players. In another thing the Grecian 
 play was widely different from ours. The aim of an- 
 cient playwrights was to bring to view some thought 
 in giant form and with tremendous emphasis. The 
 whole drama was built around, moulded, and adapted 
 to one great idea. The aim of English writers is to 
 give an interesting glimpse of actual life in all its mul- 
 tiplicity of interwoven thought and passion, and let it 
 speak its lessons, as the great schoolmistress, Nature, 
 eives us hers. The French and Italian drama follow 
 that of Greece, but Spain and England follow Nature. 
 Mystery and miracle plays were introduced about 
 1 100 A. D., by Hilarius, and were intended to enforce 
 religious truths. God, Adam, the Angels, Satan, 
 Eve, Noah, etc., were the characters. In the begin- 
 ning of the 15th century, morality plays became 
 popular. They personified faith, hope, sadness, 
 magnificence, conceit, etc., though there might seem 
 little need of invention to personify the latter. About 
 the time of Henry VIII., masques were introduced 
 from Italy. In them the performers wore extravagant 
 costumes and covered the face, and lords and ladies 
 played the parts. It was at such a frolic that King 
 Henry met Anne Boleyn. The first English comedy 
 was written in 1540, by Udall ; and the first tragedy 
 in 1 561, by Sackville and Norton. It was called 
 *' Ferrex and Porrex." From this time the English 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 2/ 
 
 drama rapidly rose to its summit in Shakspeare's 
 richest years at the close of the same century. At 
 first the theatre was in the inn-yard, — just a plat- 
 form, with no scenery but what the imagination of 
 the drinking, swearing, jeering crowd of common folk 
 standing in the rain or sunlight round the rough- 
 made stage could paint. 
 
 On the stage sat a few gentlefolk able to pay a 
 shilling for the privilege. They smoked, played 
 cards, insulted the pit, "who gave it to them back, 
 and threw apples at them into the bargain." Such 
 were the beginnings of what in Shakspeare's hands 
 became the greatest drama that the world has ever 
 seen. 
 
 The manner of reading all good poetry should 
 be: R. D. C. G. 
 
 If the reader wishes to study poetry critically, he 
 will find abundant materials in Lanier's ** Science of 
 English Verse" and Dowden's *' Mind and Art of Shak- 
 speare " (books that once read by a lover of poetry 
 will ever after be cherished as among the choicest of 
 his possessions); Lowell's *' Fable for Critics," "My 
 Study Windows," and " Among my Books ; " Arnold's 
 " Essays ; " Hazlitt's " English Poets ; " " English Men 
 of Letters ; " Poe's " Essay on the Composition of the 
 Raven ; " Taine's " English Literature ; " Swinburne's 
 " Essays and Studies ; " Stedman's " Victorian Poets ; " 
 Shairp's "Studies in Poetry ;" Warton's "History 
 of English Poetry ; " Ward's " History of English 
 Dramatic Literature ; " and Schlegel's " Dramatic 
 Literature." 
 
28 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 20. Shakspeare is the summit of the world's literature. 
 In a higher degree than any other man who has lived on 
 this planet, he possessed that vivid, accurate, exhaustive 
 imagination which creates a second universe in the poet's 
 brain. Between our thought of a man and the man himself, 
 or a complete representation of him with all his thoughts, 
 feelings, motives, and possibilities, there is a vast gulf. 
 If we had a perfect knowledge of him, we could tell what 
 he would think and do. To this ultimate knowledge Shak- 
 speare more nearly approached than any other mortal. He 
 so well understood the machinery of human nature, that he 
 could create men and women beyond our power to detect 
 an error in his work. This grasp of the most difficult sub- 
 ject of thought, and the oceanic, myriad-minded greatness of 
 his plays prove him intellectually the greatest of the human 
 race. It is simple nonsense to suppose that Bacon wrote 
 the dramas that bear the name of Shakspeare. They were 
 published during Shakspeare's life under his name ; and 
 Greene, Jonson, Milton, and other contemporaries speak 
 with unmistakable clearness of the great master. Donnelly's 
 Cryptogram is a palpable sham ; and to the argument that 
 an uneducated man like Shakspeare could not have written 
 such grand poetry, while Bacon, as we know, did have a 
 splendid ability, it is a sufficient answer to remark that Shak- 
 speare's sonnets, the authorship of which is not and cannot 
 be questioned, show far higher poetical powers than anything 
 that can be found in Bacon's acknowledged works. Richard 
 Grant White's edition is the best ; and certainly every one 
 should have the very best of Shakspeare, if no other book is 
 ever bought. (i6th cent.) See Table III. No. i. 
 
 With Shakspeare may be used Dowden's "Shakspeare 
 Primer," and "The Mind and Art of Shakspeare," Abbott's 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 29 
 
 " Shakspearian Grammar," Lanier's " Science of English 
 Verse," Hazlitt's " Characters of Shakspeare's Plays " and 
 '* Age of Elizabeth," Lamb's ^' Tales from Shakspeare," 
 Ward's " English Dramatic Literature, and History of the 
 Drama," Lewes' "Actors and the Art of Acting," Hutton's 
 " Plays and Players," Leigh Hunt's " Imagination and Fan- 
 cy," and Whipple's "Literature of the" Age of Elizabeth." 
 
 21. Homer is the world's greatest epic poet. He is the 
 brother of Shakspeare, full of sublimity and pathos, tender- 
 ness, simplicity, and inexhaustible vigor. Pope's translation 
 is still the best on the whole, but should be read with Derby's 
 Iliad and Worsley's Odyssey. In some parts these are fuller 
 of power and beauty ; in others, Pope is far better. Flax- 
 man's designs are a great help in enjoying Homer, as 
 are also tlie writings of Gladstone, Arnold, and Symonds. 
 (Greece, about 1000 b. c.) See Table III. No. 2. 
 
 22. Ruskin thinks Dante is the first figure of history, the 
 only man in whom the moral, intellectual, and imaginative 
 faculties met in great power and in perfect balance. (Italy, 
 14th cent.) Follow the advice given in Table III. No. 5, 
 and, if possible, read Longfellow's translation. See note 24, 
 p. 30. 
 
 Among writings that will be found useful in connection 
 with Dante, are Rossetti's " Shadow of Dante," Lowell's 
 Essay in "Among my Books," Symonds' "Introduction to 
 the Study of Dante," Farrar's " Lecture on Dante," Mrs. 
 Ward's '* Life of Dante," Botta's " Dante as a Philosopher," 
 and Carlyle's " Heroes and Hero Worship." 
 
 23. Goethe is unquestionably the greatest German, and 
 one of the first six names in literature. His " Faust " is a 
 history of the soul. Read Bayard Taylor's translation, and 
 the explanation of the drama's meaning given in Taylor's 
 
30 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 " Studies in German Literature." " Faust " was the work of 
 half a century, and completed in 1818, when Goethe was past 
 eighty. 
 
 As a preparation for Goethe it is interesting to study the 
 story of Faust in Butterworth's *' Zigzag Journeys," and 
 read Marlowe's " Drama of Faustus." The novel "Wilhelm 
 Meister " has been splendidly translated by Carlyle, and is 
 full of the richest poetic thought, crammed with wisdom, 
 and pervaded by a delicious sweetness forever provoking the 
 mind to fresh activity. As a work of genius, it is preferred 
 by some critics even to Hamlet. See Table III. No. 15. 
 
 24. Milton stands in his age like an oak among hazel- 
 bushes. The nobility of his character, the subHmity of his 
 thought, and the classic beauty of his style give him, in spite 
 of some coldness and some lack of naturalness in his concep- 
 tion of the characters of Adam and Eve, the second place 
 in English literature. His " Lycidas " is a beautiful elegy. 
 His " Comus " is the best masque in English, and certainly a 
 charming picture of chastity and its triumph over temptation. 
 It should be read along with Spenser's " Britomart." His 
 " L' Allegro " and " II Penseroso," on mirth and melancholy, 
 are among the best lyrics of the world. His " Paradise 
 Lost " is the greatest epic in English, and the greatest that 
 any literature has had since Dante's " Divine Comedy." 
 The two books should be read together. Milton shows us 
 Satan in all the pride and pomp and power this world oft 
 throws around his cloven Majesty. Dante tears away the 
 wrappings, and we see the horrid heart and actual loath- 
 someness of sin. (Eng., 17th cent.) See Table III. No. 2. 
 
 The writings of Stopford Brooke, Macaulay, Dr. Johnson, 
 De Quincey, and Pattison about Milton may be profitably 
 referred to. 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 3 I 
 
 25. /Eschylus was the greatest of the noble triumvirate of 
 Greek tragedy writers. SubHmity reached in his soul the 
 greatest purity and power that it has yet attained on earth. 
 One can no more afford to tread in life's low levels all his 
 days and never climb above the clouds to thought's clear- 
 ethered heights with ^schylus, than to dwell at the foot of 
 a cliff in New Mexico and never climb to see the Rockies 
 in the blue and misty distance, with their snowy summits 
 shining in the sun. Read, at any rate, his " Prometheus 
 Bound " and his " Agamemnon." (5th cent. b. c, the 
 Golden Age of Grecian literature.) See Table III. No. 4. 
 
 The student of yEschylus will find much of value to him 
 in Mahaffy's " Greek Literature," "Old Greek Life," and 
 " Social Life in Greece ; " Schlegel's " Dramatic Literature ; " 
 Donaldson's " Theatre of the Greeks," and Froude's *' Sea 
 Studies." Following the " Prometheus " of ^schylus, it is a 
 good plan to read the works of Goethe, Shelley, Lowell, and 
 Longfellow on the same topic. We thus bring close the 
 ideas and fancies of five great minds in respect to the myth 
 of Prometheus. 
 
 26. Many a selection in Table IIL is of very high merit, 
 and belongs on the world's first shelf, although the poetic 
 works of the author as a whole cannot be allowed such 
 honor. In the section preceding Table V. also will be 
 found a number of short writings of the very highest merit. 
 See explanatory note to Table I. 
 
 27. Edmund Spenser is the third name in English litera- 
 ture. No modern poet is more Hke Homer. He is sim- 
 ple, clear, and natural, redundant and ingenuous. He is a 
 Platonic dreamer, and worships beauty, a love sublime and 
 chaste ; for all the beauty that the eye can see is only, in his 
 view, an incomplete expression of celestial beauty in the 
 
32 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 soul of man and Nature, the light within gleaming and 
 sparkling through the loose woven texture of this garment of 
 God called Nature, or pouring at every pore a flood of soft, 
 translucent loveliness, as the radiance of a calcium flame 
 flows through a porcelain globe. Spenser was Milton's 
 model. The " Faerie Queen," the " Shepherd's Calendar," 
 and the '' Wedding Hymn " should be carefully read ; and if 
 the former is studied sufficiently to arrive at the underlying 
 spiritual meaning, it will ever after be one of the most 
 precious of books. (Eng., i6th cent.) See Table HI. No. 6. 
 See also Lowell's "Among my Books," Craik's "Spenser 
 and his Poetry," and Taine's *' English Literature." 
 
 28. Lowell is one of the foremost humorists of all time. 
 No one, except Shakspeare, has ever combined so much 
 mastery of the weapons of wit with so much poetic power, 
 bonhomie, and common-sense. Every American should 
 read his poems carefully, and digest the best. (Amer., 19th 
 cent.) See Table HI. Nos. 12 and 24. 
 
 29. Whittier is America's greatest lyric poet. Read w4iat 
 Lowell says of him in the " Fable for Critics," and get ac- 
 quainted with his poetry of Nature and quiet country life, 
 as pure as the snow and as sweet as the clover. (Amer., 
 19th cent.) See Table HI. No. 11. 
 
 30. Tennyson is the first poet of our age ; and though he 
 cannot rank with the great names on the upper shelf, yet his 
 tenderness, and noble purity, and the almost absolutely perfect 
 music of much of his poetry commands our love and ad- 
 miration. Read his " In Memoriam," " Princess," " Idylls of 
 the King," etc. (Eng., 19th cent.) See Table HI. No. 11. 
 
 31. Burns is like a whiff of the pure sea air. He is a 
 sprig of arbutus under the snow ; full of tenderness and gen- 
 uine gayety, always in love, and singing forever in tun^ to 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 33 
 
 the throbs of his heart. Read "The Jolly Beggars," ''The 
 Twa Dogs," and see Table III. No. ii. (Scot., iSth cent.) 
 
 32. Probably nothing is so likely to awaken a love for 
 poetry as the reading of Scott. (Scot., 19th cent.) See 
 Table III. No. 7. 
 
 ^^. Byron is the greatest English poet since Milton, and 
 except Goethe the greatest poet of his age in the world. 
 His music, his wonderful control of language, his impassioned 
 strength passing from vehemence to pathos, his fine sense 
 of the beautiful, and his combination of passion with beauty 
 would place him high on the first shelf of the world's litera- 
 ture if it were not for his moral aberration. Read his " Childe 
 Harold." (Eng., 1788-1824.) See Table HI. No. 13. 
 
 34. Shelley is indistinct, abstract, impracticable, but full of 
 love for all that is noble, of magnificent poetic power and 
 marvellous music. Read " Prometheus Unbound," and see 
 Table III. No. 13. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 35. Keats is the poetic brother of Shelley. He is deserv- 
 ing of the title " marvellous boy " in a far higher degree than 
 Chatterton. If the lives of Shakspeare, Milton, and Words- 
 worth had ended at twenty-five, as did the life of Keats, they 
 would have left no poetry comparable with that of this im- 
 passioned dreamer. Like Shakspeare, he had no fortune or 
 opportunity of high education. Read *' Hyperion," " Lamia," 
 " Eve of Saint Agnes," " Endymion," and see Table HI. 
 No. 13. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 36. Campbell clothed in romantic sweetness and delicate 
 diction, the fancies of the fairy land of youthful dreams, and 
 poured forth with a master voice the pride and grandeur of 
 patriotic song. Read his " Pleasures of Hope," " Gertrude 
 of Wyoming," and see Table HI. No. 12. (Eng., 19th 
 cent?) 
 
34 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 37. Moore is a singer of wonderful melody and elegance 
 and of inexhaustible imagery. Read his " Irish Melodies." 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) See Table TIL No. 11. 
 
 ;^8. Thomson is one of the most intense lovers of Nature, 
 and sees with a clear eye the correspondences between the 
 inner and outer worlds upon which poetry is built. Read 
 his " Seasons " and " The Castle of Indolence." (Eng.,. 
 1 8th cent.) 
 
 39. Read Macaulay's " Lays of xA^ncient Rome." " Hora- 
 tius " cannot fail to make the reader pulse with all the hero- 
 ism and patriotism that is in his heart, and " Virginia " will 
 fill each heart with mutiny and every eye with tears. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 12. 
 
 40. Dryden's song is not so smooth as Pope's, but doubly 
 strong. His .translation of Virgil has more fire than the 
 original, though less elegance. He was the literary king of 
 his time, but knew better /i07u to say things than w/iat to 
 say. (Eng., 17th cent.) • See Table III. No. 14. 
 
 41. Collins was a poet of fine genius. Beauty, simplicity, 
 and sweet harmony combine in his works, but he wrote very 
 little. Read his odes, "To Pity," "To Evening," "To 
 Mercy," "To Simplicity." See Table III. No. 14. (Eng., 
 1 8th cent.) 
 
 42. Jean Ingelow's poems deserve at least tasting, which 
 will scarcely fail to lead to assimilation. (Eng., 1862.) See 
 Table HI. No. 14. 
 
 43. Bryant's "Thanatopsis," written at eighteen, gave prom- 
 ise of high poetic power ; but in the life of a journaHst the 
 current of energy was drawn away from poetry, and America 
 lost the full fruitage of her best poetic tree. He is serene 
 and lofty in thought, and strong in his descriptive power and 
 the noble simplicity of his language. (Amer., 19th cent.) 
 See Table III. No. 13. 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 35 
 
 44. Longfellow's poetry is earnest and full of melody but 
 as a ivhole lacks passion and imagery. Relatively to a world 
 standard he is not a great poet and has written little worthy 
 of universal reading, but as bone of our bone he has a claim 
 on us as Americans for sufficient attention at least to inves- 
 tigate for ourselves his merits. (Amer., 19th cent.) See 
 Table III. No. 10. 
 
 45- Lowell says that George Herbert is as - holy as a 
 flower on a grave." (Eng., 1631.) See Table III. No. 13 
 
 46. Goldsmith's - Deserted Village " and " Traveller " will 
 live as long as the language. They are full of wisdom and 
 lovely poetry. His dramas abound in fun. Read - The 
 Good-Natured Man " and - She Stoops to Conquer." (Fn- 
 i8th cent.) See Table IV. ""'' 
 
 47- Read Coleridge's " Christabel/' and get somebody to 
 explain its mysterious beauty to you; also his ''Remorse" 
 I^Ode to the Departing Year," -Ancient Mariner," and 
 '^Kubla Khan." Tiie latter is the most magnificent creation 
 of his time, but needs a good deal of study for most readers 
 to perceive the beautiful underlying thought, as is the case 
 also with the -Mariner." Coleridge is difficult readin- 
 He wrote very Httle excellently, but that little should be bound 
 in gold, and read till the inner light of it shines into the soul 
 of the reader. The terrible opium habit ruined him. Read 
 his life ; it is a thrilling story. (Eng., 1 772-1 834.) Table III. 
 No. II. 
 
 48. Lowell says, in his " Fable for Critics," that he is always 
 discovering new depths 
 
 "in Wordsworth, undreamed of before,— 
 That divinely inspired, wise, deep, tender, grand -bore." 
 
36 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 Nothing could sum up this poet better than that. His 
 intense dehght in Nature and especially in mountain scenery, 
 and his pure, serene, earnest, majestic reflectiveness are his 
 great charms. His " Excursion " is one of the great works 
 of our literature, and stands in the front rank of the world's 
 philosophical poetry. Its thousand lines of blank verse roll 
 through the soul like the stately music of a cathedral organ. 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) See Table HI. No. 13. 
 
 49. Pope is the greatest of the world's machine poets, the 
 noblest of the great army who place a higher value on skilful 
 execution than on originality and beauty of conception. The 
 " Rape of the Lock " is his most successful effort, and is the 
 best of all mock-heroic poems, " The sharpest wit, the keen- 
 est dissection of the follies of fashionable life, the finest grace 
 of diction, and the softest flow of melody adorn a tale in 
 which we learn how a fine gentleman stole a lock of a lady's 
 hair." Read also his " Essay on Man," and glance at his 
 " Dunciad," a satire on fellow-writers. (Eng., 1688-1744'.) 
 See Table HI. No. 13, and Table IV. 
 
 50. Southey had great ideas of what poetry should be, and 
 strove for purity, unity, and fine imagery ; but there was no 
 pathos or depth of emotion in him, and the stream of his 
 poetry is not the gush of the river, but the uninteresting 
 flow of the canal. Byron says, " God help thee, Southey, and 
 thy readers too." Glance at his " Thalaba the Destroyer " 
 and " Curse of Kehama." (Eng., 1 774-1843.) 
 
 51. Walton's " Compleat Angler" is worthy of a glance. 
 (Eng., 1653.) 
 
 52. Browning is very obscure, and neither on authority nor 
 principle a first-rate poet ; but he is a strong thinker, and dear 
 to those who have taken the pains to dig out the nuggets of 
 gold. Canon Farrar puts him among the three living au- 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 37 
 
 thors whose works he would be most anxious to save from 
 the flames. Mrs. Browning has more imagination than her 
 husband, and is perhaps his equal in other respects. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 53. Read Young's "Night Thoughts." 
 
 54. Jonson, on account of his noble aims, comparative 
 purity, and classic style, stands next to Shakspeare in the 
 history of English drama. Read " The Alchemist," *' Cati- 
 line, " " The Devil as an Ass," " Cynthia's Revels," and " The 
 Silent Woman." The plot of the latter is very humorous. 
 (Eng., 1700.) 
 
 55. The dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher are poetically 
 the best in the language except those of Shakspeare. Read 
 " Philaster," " The Fair Maid of the Inn," " Thierry and 
 Theodoret," " The Maid's Tragedy." (Eng., 1 7th cent.) 
 
 56. Marlowe's " Mighty Line " is known to all lovers of 
 poetry who have made a wide hunt. His energy is intense. 
 Read " The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus," based on 
 that wonderfully fascinating story of the doctor who offered 
 his soul to hell in exchange for a short term of power and 
 pleasure, on which Goethe expended the flower of his genius, 
 and around which grew hundreds of plays all over Europe. 
 (Eng., 17th cent.) 
 
 57. For whimsical and ludicrous situations and a rapid 
 fire of witticisms, Sheridan's plays have no equals. Read 
 "The School for Scandal" and "The Rivals." (Eng., 
 1 8th cent.) 
 
 58. Carleton's poetry is not of a lofty order, but ex- 
 ceedingly enjoyable. Read his "Farm Ballads." (Amer., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 60. Virgil is the greatest name in Roman literature. His 
 " ^neid " is the national poem of Rome. His poetry is of 
 
38 ^ REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 great purity and elegance, and for variety, harmony, and 
 power second in epic verse only to his great model, Homer. 
 (Rome, ist cent. b. c.) Read Dryden's translation if you 
 cannot read the original. 
 
 6i. The Odes of Horace combine wit, grace, sense, fire, 
 and affection in a perfection of form never attained by any 
 other writer. He is untranslatable ; but Martin's version and 
 commentary will give some idea of this most mteresting man, 
 "the most modern and most famihar of the ancients." 
 (Rome, I St cent. b. c.) 
 
 62. Lucretius is a philosophic poet. He aimed to explain 
 Nature ; and his poem has much of wisdom, beauty, sublimity, 
 and imagination to commend it. Virgil imitated whole pas- 
 sages from Lucretius. (Rome, ist cent. b. c.) 
 
 63. Ovid is gross but fertile, and his " Metamorphoses " 
 and " Epistles " have been great favorites. (Rome, ist 
 cent. B. c.) 
 
 64. The" Antigone " and " CEdipus at Colonus " of Soph- 
 ocles are of exquisite tenderness and beauty. In pathos 
 Shakspeare only is his equal. (Greece, 5th cent, b c ) 
 
 65. Euripides is the third of the great triumvirate of Greek 
 dramatists. His works were very much admired by Milton 
 and Fox. Read his "Alcestis," "Iphigenia," "Medea," and 
 the " Bacchanals." (Greece, 5th cent. b. c ) 
 
 66. Aristophanes is the greatest of Greek comedy writers. 
 His plays are great favorites with scholars, as a rule. Read 
 the "Clouds," " Birds," "Knights," and "Plutus." (Greece, 
 Sth cent. b. c.) 
 
 67. Pindar's triumphal odes stand in the front rank of the 
 world's lyric poetry. (Greece, 5 th cent, b. c) 
 
 68. Hesiod's " Theogony " contains the religious faith of 
 Greece. He lived in or near the time of Homer. 
 
POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 39 
 
 69. Heine is the most remarkable German poet of this 
 century. He has written many gems of rare beauty, and 
 many sketches of hfe mimatched for racy freshness and 
 graphic power. 
 
 70. Schiller is the second name in German literature ; in- 
 deed, as a lover of men and as a poet of exquisite fancy, 
 he far excels Goethe. He was a great philosopher, his- 
 torian, and critic. Read his '' Song of the Bell," and his 
 drama of " Wallenstein," translated by Coleridge. (Ger- 
 many, 1 8th cent.) 
 
 71. 72, 73. Corneille, Racine, and Moliere are the great 
 French triumvirate of dramatists. Their object is to produce 
 one massive impression. In this they follow the classic 
 writers. A French, Greek, or Roman drama is to a Shak- 
 spearean play as a statue to a picture, as an idea carved 
 out of Nature and rendered magnificently impressive by 
 its isolation and the beauty of its modelling, to Nature itself. 
 The historical and ethical value of the French plays is very 
 great. Corneille is one of the grandest of modern poets. 
 Read "The Cid " (''As beautiful as the Cid " became a 
 proverb in France), and " Horace " (which is even more 
 original and grand than " The Cid "), and " Cinna " (which 
 Voltaire thought the best of all). Racine excels in grace 
 tenderness, and versatility. Read his " Phedre." Moliere 
 was almost as profound a master of human nature on its 
 humorous side as Shakspeare. He hates folly, meanness, 
 and falsehood ; he is always wise, tender, and good. Read 
 " Le Misanthrope," or " The Man-Hater," and " Tartuffe," 
 or "The Impostor." (17th cent.) 
 
 74. Alfred de Musset is a famous French poet of this cen- 
 tury, and is a great favorite with those who can enjoy charm- 
 ing and inspiring thoughts though mixed with the grotesque 
 and extravagant. 
 
40 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 75. Calderon de la Barca is one of the greatest dramatists 
 of the world. His purity, power, and passion, his magnifi- 
 cent imagination and wonderful fertility, will place him in 
 company with Shakspeare in the eternal society of the great. 
 Read Shelley's fragments from Calderon, and Fitzgerald's 
 translation, especially " Zalamea " and " The Wonder-Work- 
 ing Magician," two of his greatest plays. (Spain, 17th cent.) 
 
 76. Petrarch's lyrics have been models to all the great 
 poets of Southern Europe. The subject of nearly all his 
 poems is his hopeless affection for the high-minded and beau- 
 tiful Laura de Sade. His purity is above reproach. He is 
 pre-eminent for sweetness, pathos, elegance, and melody. 
 (Italy, 14th cent.) 
 
 77. Ariosto is Italy's great epic poet. Read his " Orlando 
 Furioso," a hundred-fold tale of knights and ladies, giants 
 and magicians. (Italy, 1474-1533). 
 
 78. Tasso is the second name in Italian epic poetry ; and 
 by some he is placed above Ariosto and named in the same 
 breath with Homer and Virgil. Read his "Jerusalem De- 
 livered," and " Aminta," and glance at his minor poems 
 composed while in confinement. (Italy, i6th cent.) 
 
 79. Camoens is the glory of Portugal, her only poet whose 
 fame has flown far beyond her narrow borders. Read his 
 grand and beautiful poem, the " Lusiad," a national epic 
 grouping together all the great and interesting events in the 
 history of his country. (i6th cent.) 
 
 80. Omar Khayyam, the great astronomer poet of Persia, 
 has no equal in the world in the concise magnificence with 
 which he can paint a grand poetic conception in a single 
 complete, well-rounded, melodious stanza. Read Fitzgerald's 
 translation. (12th cent.) 
 
 81. Firdusi, the author of the " Shah Nameh," or Poetic 
 
SCIENCE. 41 
 
 History of the great deeds of the sultans. Hafiz, the poet 
 of love, and Saadi are odier great Persian poets deserving at 
 least a glance of investigation, (i ith-i4th cents.) 
 
 82. Arnold's " Light of Asia" claims our attention for the 
 additions it can make to our breadth of thought, giving us 
 as it does briefly and beautifully the current of thinking of 
 a great people very unlike ourselves. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 83. Pushkin is called the Byron of Russia. Russian 
 songs have a peculiar, mournful tenderness. " They are the 
 sorrows of a century blended in one everlasting sigh." 
 (19th cent.) 
 
 84. Lermontoff is the Russian Schiller. (19th cent.) 
 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 The most important sciences for the ordinary reader 
 are Physiology, Hygiene, Psychology, Logic, Politi- 
 cal Economy, Sociology and the Science of Gov- 
 ernment, Astronomy, Geology, and Natural History; 
 but an elementary knowledge of all the sciences is 
 very desirable on account of the breadth of mind and 
 grasp of method which result therefrom. The Inter- 
 national Scientific Series is very helpful in giving the 
 brief comprehensive treatment of such subjects that is 
 needed for those who are not specialists. The best 
 books in this department are continually changing, 
 because science is growing fast, and the latest books 
 are apt to be fuller and better than the old ones. 
 The best thing that can be done by one who wishes 
 to be sure of obtaining the finest works upon any 
 given subject in the region of scientific research, is 
 
42 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 to write to a professor who teaches that subject in 
 some good university, — a professor who has not 
 himself written a book on the subject, — and get his 
 judgment on the matter. 
 
 85. Physical health is the basis of all life and activity, and 
 it is of the utmost importance to secure at once the best 
 knowledge the world has attained in relation to its procure- 
 ment and preservation. This matter has far too little atten- 
 tion. If a man is going to bring up chickens, he will study 
 chicken books no end of hours to see just what will make 
 them lay and make them fat and how he may produce the 
 finest stock ; but if he only has to bring up a few children, 
 he will give no lime to the study of the physical condidons 
 of their full and fine development. Some few people, how- 
 ever, have a strange idea that a child is nearly as valuable as 
 a rooster. There is no book as yet written which gives in 
 clear, easily understood language the known laws of diet, 
 exercise, care of the teeth, hair, skin, lungs, etc., and simple 
 remedies. Perhaps Dalton's " Physiology," Flint's " Nervous 
 System," Cutter's " Hygiene," Blaikie's " How to get Strong," 
 and Duncan's " How to be Plump," Beard's *' Eating and 
 Drinking," Bellows' " Philosophy of Eating,"' Smith on Foods, 
 Holbrook's " Eating for StrengUi," •' Fruit and Bread," " Hy- 
 giene for the Brain," '* How to Strengthen the Memory," 
 and Kay's book on the Memory, Walter's " Nutritive Cure," 
 Clark's "Sex in Education," Alice Stockham's "Tokology" 
 or " Hygiene for Married Women," and Naphy's " Trans- 
 mission of Life " will together give some idea of this all- 
 valuable subject, though none of these books except the first 
 are in themselves, apart from their subject, worthy of a place 
 on the first shelf 
 
SCIENCE. 43 
 
 S6. Dr. Strong's little book, " Our Country," is of the most 
 intense interest to every American who loves his country and 
 wishes its welfare. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 S8. The " Federalist " was a series of essays by Hamilton, 
 Jay, and Madison, in favor of the Federal Constitution, and 
 is the best and deepest book on the science of government 
 that the world contains. (Amer., 1788.) 
 
 89. Bryce on the American Commonwealth is a splendid 
 book, a complete, critical, philosophic work, an era- making 
 book, and should be read by every American who wishes to 
 know how our institutions appear to a genial, cultured, 
 broad-minded foreigner. Mr. Bryce has the chair of Politi- 
 cal Economy in Oxford, and is a member of Parliament. His 
 chief criticism of our great republic is that it is /lard to fix 
 responsibility for lawlessness under our institutions, which is 
 always an encouragement to wrongdoers. His book should 
 be read with De Tocqueville. (Eng., T9th cent.) 
 
 90. Montesquieu's " Spirit of Laws " is a profound 
 analysis of law in relation to government, customs, cli- 
 mate, religion, and commerce. It is the greatest book of 
 the 1 8th century. Read with it Bagehot's ''Physics and 
 Politics." 
 
 91. Mill's '' Logic " and " Political Economy" are simply 
 necessities to any, even moderately, thorough preparation for 
 civilized life in America. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 92. Read Bain on the " Emotions and the Will," "Mind 
 and Body," etc. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 93. Herbert Spencer is the foremost name in the philo- 
 sophic literature of the world. He is the Shakspeare of 
 science. He has a grander grasp of knowledge, and more 
 perfect conscious correspondence with the external universe, 
 than any other human being who ever looked wonderingly 
 
44 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 out into the starry depths ; and his few errors flow from an 
 over-anxiety to exert his splendid power of making beau- 
 tiful generalizations. Read his " First Principles," " Data 
 of Ethics," " Education," and " Classification of the Sci- 
 ences," at any rate ; and if possible, all he has written. 
 Plato and Spencer are brothers. Plato would have done 
 what Spencer has, had he lived in the 19th century. 
 
 94. Darwin's " Origin of Species " stands in history by 
 the side of Newton's " Principia." The thought of both 
 has to a great extent become the common inheritance of 
 the race ; and it is perhaps sufficient for the general reader 
 to refer to a good account of the book and its arguments, 
 such as may be found in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 95. Read Herschel and Proctor in Astronomy, to 
 broaden and deepen the mind with the grand and beau- 
 tiful conceptions of this most poetic of the sciences. Proc- 
 tor's books are more fascinating than any fiction. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 96. For a knowledge of what has been going on in this 
 dim spot beneath the sun, in the ages before man came 
 upon the stage, and for an idea about what kind of a fellow 
 man was when he first set up housekeeping here, and how 
 long ago that was, read Lyell's " Geology ; " Lubbock's 
 " Prehistoric Tunes," " Origin of Civilization and Primitive 
 Condition of Man," and Lyell's " Antiquity of Man " (Eng., 
 19th cent.); and Dawson's "Chain of Life." (U. S., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 97. Read Wood's beautiful and interesting books on 
 Natural History ; especially his " Evidences of Mind in 
 An-imals," " Out of Doors," " Anecdotes of Animals," 
 " Man and Beast," " Here and Hereafter." (Eng., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
SCIENCE. 45 
 
 98. Whewell's " History of the Inductive Sciences " is a 
 very broadening book. 
 
 99. De I'ocqueville's " Democracy in America " is one 
 of the great books, and is superior in depth and style even' 
 to Bryce. The two books supplement each other. See note 
 89. (France, 18th cent.) 
 
 100. " Constitutional History of the United States." (Ger., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 loi. *' Wealth of Nations/' " Moral Sentiments." (Eng., 
 1 8th cent.) 
 
 102. " Principles of Population." One of the most cele- 
 brated of books. (Eng., i8th cent.) 
 
 103. " Principles of Social Philosophy." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 104. " Essays on Political Economy," " Leading Princi- 
 ples of Political Economy." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 T05. " Comparative Politics." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 106. "The Theory of Political Economy," "The Logic 
 of Statistics." (Eng., 19th cent) 
 
 107. "The Nation, the Foundation of Civil Order and 
 Political Life in the United States." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 108. "Leviathan." See note 190. (Eng., 1 6th cent.) 
 
 109. "The Prince." (Italy, 1469-1527.) 
 
 no. "Chips from a German Workshop," and various 
 works on Philology. (Ger., 19th cent.) 
 
 111. " Study of Words," etc. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 112. " Words and Places." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 113. " Natural History of Selborne." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 114. "Animal Kingdom." (France, early 19th cent.) 
 
 115. "Voyages." (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 116. "Heat as a Mode of Motion," "Forms of Water," 
 etc. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 117. " On Sound." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
46 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 1 18. "Scientific Researches." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 119. "Conservation of Energy." In a book on this sub- 
 ject-edited by E. L. Youmans. (Ger., 19th cent.) 
 
 120. "Man's Place in Nature." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 121. Botany. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 122. "Methods of Study in Natural History." (U. S, 
 19th cent.) 
 
 123. Physics. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Biography carefully read will cast a flood of light 
 before us on the path of life. Read Longfellow's 
 ** Psalm of Life," and try to find the teachings he re- 
 fers to in the lives of great men. The world still 
 lacks what it very much needs, — a book of brief 
 biographies of the greatest and noblest men and 
 women of every age and country, by a master hand. 
 The aim should be to extract from the past what it 
 can teach us of value for the future; and to do this 
 biography must become a comparative science, events 
 and lives must be grouped over the whole range of 
 the years, that by similarities and contrasts the truth 
 may appear. Smiles's *' Self-Help " is a partial reali- 
 zation of this plan. 
 
 The manner of reading should be : R. D. 
 
 T24. Plutarch's "Lives" comes nearer to a comparative 
 biography than any other book we have. He contrasts his 
 characters in pairs, a Greek and a Roman in each couplet. 
 It is one of the most delightful of books, and among those 
 
BIOGRAPHY. 47 
 
 most universally read by cultured people of all nations. 
 Dryden's translation revised by Clough is the best. (Rome, 
 ist cent.) 
 
 125. In Wendell Phillips's oration on "Toussaint L'Ouver- 
 ture," there is a fascinating comparison of the noble negro 
 warrior with Napoleon. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 126. Boswell's "Johnson" is admittedly the greatest life 
 of a single person yet written. (Eng., i8th cent.) 
 
 127. Lockhart's " Life of Scott" is a favorite with all who 
 read it. Wilkie Collins especially recommends it as finely 
 picturing genius and nobility of character. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 128. Marshall's "Life of Washington" is an inspiring 
 book. Gladstone said to Mr. Depevv : " Sixty years ago I 
 read Chief-Justice Marshall's ' Life of Washington/ and I 
 was forced to the conclusion that he was quite the greatest 
 man that ever lived. The sixty years that have passed have 
 not changed that impression ; and to any Englishman who 
 seeks my advice in the line of his development and equip- 
 ment I invariably say, ' Begin by reading the Life of George 
 Washington.' " (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Franklin's " Autobiography " is brief, philosophic, and de- 
 lightfully frank and clear. (U. S., iSth cent.) 
 
 129. "The Life of Lincoln," by Nicolay and Hay, is a 
 book that has very strong claims to the attention of every 
 American, and every lover of liberty, greatness, nobility, and 
 kindliness. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Grant's " Memoirs " deserves reading for similar reasons. 
 The great General lived an epic, and wrote a classic. (U. S , 
 19th cent.) 
 
 130. Read Carlyle's "Life of John Sterling," "Oliver 
 Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," and " Heroes and Hero 
 Worship." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 Renan's " Life of Christ." (France, 19th cent.) 
 
48 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 131. Canon Farrar's little " Life of Dante " is, consider- 
 ing its brevity, one of the best things in this department. 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 132. Emerson's " Representative Men " most strongly 
 stirs thought and inspires the resolution. (U. S., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 133. ''The Portrait Collection of the Hundred Greatest 
 Men," published by Sampson, Low, & Co., 1879. 
 
 134. Read Parton's "Sketches of Men of Progress." 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 135. " Lights of Two Centuries." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 136. "Our Great Benefactors." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 137. "Book of Martyrs." (Eng., early i6th cent.) 
 
 138. "The Life and Times of Goethe," and "Michael 
 Angelo." Most interesting books. (Germany, 19th cent.) 
 
 139. " English Statesmen." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 140. " Life of Napoleon." (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 141. "Lives of the Poets." (Eng., i8th cent.) 
 
 142. Walton's " Lives." (Eng., 1 7th cent.) 
 
 143. " Life of Dr. Arnold." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 144. " Life of Washington." (U. S., 19th cent ) 
 
 145. " Life of Nelson." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 146. " Life of Pitt." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 147. " Life of Byron." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 148. " Lives of Female Sovereigns and Illustrious Women." 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 149. " Lives of the Saints." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 150. " Memories of many Men." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 151. "Reminiscences." (U. S., i8th cent.) 
 
 Tlie Life and Letters of Darwin, Talleyrand, and Ma- 
 caulay; the Journals of Miss Alcott,- Marie Bashkirtseff, 
 and Eugenie de Guerih ; the Autobiography of Joseph 
 
HISTORY. 49 
 
 Jefferson ; the " American Statesmen " series, edited by 
 John T. Morse, Jr., and the " English Men of Letters " series 
 are all valuable books. The Journals of Miss Alcott and 
 Marie Bashkirtseff are stories of heart struggles, longings, 
 failures, and triumphs, and are of exceeding interest and great 
 popularity. The Journal of Eugenie de Guerin deserves 
 to be better known than it is, for the delicate sweetness of 
 feeling that fills its pages. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 Remarks may be made about History very similar 
 to those in the special remarks concerning Biography. 
 The field is too vast for an ordinary life, and there is 
 no book that will give in brief compass the net re- 
 sults and profits of man's investment in experience 
 and life, — the dividends have not been declared. 
 Guizot and Buckle come nearer to doing this than 
 any other writers ; but t/ie book that shall reduce the 
 past to principles that will guide the future has not 
 yet been written. The student will be greatly assisted 
 by the ** Manual of Historical Literature," by C. K. 
 Adams. It is an admirable guide. Putnam's series, 
 "The Stories of the Nations," and Scribner's ** Epoch" 
 series are very useful, especially for young people. 
 
 The manner of reading the best history should be : 
 R. D. G. 
 
 152. Green's " History of the English People " has proba- 
 bly the first claims on the general reader. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 4 
 
50 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 153. Bancroft's *' History of the United States" should 
 be read by every American citizen, along with Dr. Strong's 
 " Our Country." (U. S., 19th cent.) The only trouble with 
 Bancroft is that he does not bring the history down to recent 
 times. Hildreth for the student, and Ridpath for practical 
 business men supply this defect. Doyle's " History of the 
 United States " is perhaps the best small book, and his 
 " American Colonies " is also good. McMaster's " History 
 of the People of the United States " is a brilliant work, given 
 largely to an account of the social life of the people. 
 
 154. Guizot's " History of Civilization" and " History of 
 France" (France, 19th cent.) are among the greatest books 
 of the world ; and with Buckle's " History of Civilization " 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) will give a careful reader an intellectual 
 breadth and training far above what is attained by the ma- 
 jority even of reading men. 
 
 155. Parkman is the Macaulay of the New World. He 
 invests the truths of sober history with all the charms of 
 poetic imagination and graceful style. His literary work 
 must take its place by the side of Scott and Irving. Read 
 his " France and England in North America," " Conspiracy 
 of Pontiac," and ^'The Oregon Trail." 
 
 Freeman, Fiske, and Fyffe are also great historians, who 
 require notice here. Freeman's " Comparative Politics," 
 " History of the Saracens," " Growth of the English Consti- 
 tution," " History of Federal Government," and " General 
 Sketch of History " are all great works, — the last being the 
 best brief account of general history that we possess. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 Fiske's " Civil Government," " War of Independence," and 
 " Critical Period of American History " are standard books. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
HISTORY. 5 1 
 
 Fyffe's " Modern Europe " is called the most brilliant pic- 
 ture of the Revolutionary Period in existence. It is certainly 
 one of the best of histories. 
 
 155 a. "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World." (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 156. '^History of England in the i8th Century," "His- 
 tory of European Morals." These books take very high 
 rank in respect to style, accuracy, and completeness. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 157. "Ten Great Religions," by James Freeman Clarke. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 158. "Comparative History of Religion." 
 
 159. "Intellectual Development of Europe." A work of 
 great power. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 160. " Middle Ages." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 161. "Constitutional History of England." Bagehot's 
 " English Constitution " should be read with the works of 
 Hallam, Freeman, and May on this topic, because of its 
 brilliant generahzations and ingenious suggestions. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 162. " History of England." (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 163. "History of England." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 164. " History of England." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 165. "Dechne and Fall of the Roman Empire." (Eng., 
 1 8th cent.) 
 
 166. " History of Greece." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 167. " History of New England." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 168. "Conquest of Mexico," "Peru," "Ferdinand and 
 Isabella," etc. Prescott's style is of the very best, clear, 
 graphic, and ever interesting. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 169. "Rise of the Dutch Republic." (U. S., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
52 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 169^. "Rise of the Republic of the United States." 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 170. "Ancient P^gyptians.'' (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 171. " History of Rome." (Eng._, 19th cent.) 
 
 172. " History of the Germans." (Ger., 1798.) 
 
 173. " Latin Christianity." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 174. "History of the Papacy in the i6th and 17th Cen- 
 turies." Ranke is one of the strongest names in history. 
 (Ger., 19th cent.) 
 
 175. " Italian RepubHcs." (France. 1773-1842.) 
 
 176. " History of France." (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 177. " French Revolution." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 178. "History of France," "Norman Conquest of Eng- 
 land." (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 179. " Germania." His " Life of Agricola " is also worthy 
 of note for the insight into character, the pathos, vigor, and 
 affection manifested in its flattering pages. (Rome, ist cent.) 
 
 180. " History of Rome." (Rome, ist cent. B.C.) 
 
 181. "The War of Catihne." (Rome, ist cent. b. c.) 
 
 182. History of nearly all the nations known at the time 
 he wrote. (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.) 
 
 183. "Anabasis, the Retreat of the Greek Mercenaries of 
 the Persian King." (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.) 
 
 184. "History of the Athenian Domination of Greece." 
 (Greece, 5th cent. b. c.) 
 
 185. "History of the Jewish Wars." (Jerusalem, ist 
 cent.) 
 
 Mackenzie's " History of the Nineteenth Century " is the 
 best English book on the subject. 
 
 Rawlinson's " Five Great Monarchies " is strongly 
 recommended. 
 
ESSAYS. 53 
 
 PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 There have been, since the waters of thought be- 
 gan to flow, two great streams running side by side, 
 — RationaHsm and Mysticism. Those who sail upon 
 the former recognize Reason as king; those upon 
 the latter enthrone some vague and shadowy power, 
 in general known as Intuition. The tendency of the 
 one is to begin with sense impressions, and out of 
 these to build up a universe in the brain correspond- 
 ing to the outer world, and to arrive at a belief in 
 God by climbing the stairway of induction and anal- 
 ogy. The tendency of the other is to start with the 
 affirmed nature of God, arrived at, the thinker knows 
 not how, and deduce the universe from the concep- 
 tion of the Divine Nature. If this matter is kept in 
 mind, the earnest student will be able to see through 
 the mists sufficiently to discover what the philosophers 
 are talking about whenever it chances that they them- 
 selves knew. Spencer, Plato, Berkeley, Kant, Locke, 
 are all worthy of a thorough reading; and Comte's 
 philosophy of Mathematics is of great importance. 
 
 The manner of reading good philosophic works 
 should be: R. D. G. 
 
 i86. Spencer's Philosophy is the grandest body of thought 
 that any one man has ever given to the world. No*one who 
 wishes to move with the tide can afford to bo- unfamiliar with 
 his books, from '' First Principles " to his Essays. He be- 
 
54 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 lieves that all ideas, or their materials, have come through 
 the avenues of the senses. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 187. Plato and Socrates are a double star in the sky of 
 Philosophy that the strongest telescopes have failed to re- 
 solve. Socrates wrote nothing, but talked much. Plato was 
 a pupil of his, and makes Socrates the chief character in his 
 writings. Ten schools of philosophy claimed Socrates as 
 their head, but Plato alone represented the master with ful- 
 ness. Considering the times in which he lived, the grandeur 
 of his thought, the power of his imagination, and the no- 
 bility, elegance, originality, and beauty of his writings, Plato 
 has no superior in the whole range of literature. With Plato,- 
 ideas are the only realities, things are imperfect expressions of 
 them, and all knowledge is reminiscence of what the soul 
 learned when it was in the land of spirit, face to face with 
 ideas unveiled. Read his dialogues, especially " Phaedo " 
 and the "Repubhc." (Greece, 429-348 B.C.) 
 
 188. A most acute idealist, whose argument against the 
 existence of matter is one of the great passages of literature. 
 (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 189. Kant argues that \}(\q forms of thought, time, and space 
 are necessarily intuitive, and not derived from sensation, 
 since they are prerequisites to sensation. Read the " Cri- 
 tique of Pure Reason," " Critique of Practical Reason," in 
 which he treats moral philosophy, and " Observations on the 
 Subhme and Beautiful." (Germany, i8th cent.) 
 
 190. Locke bases knowledge on sensation. His "Essay 
 on the Conduct of the Understanding " is one of the most 
 valuable books in the language. Spencer, Mill, and Locke 
 have so fully imbibed all that was good in Hobbes that it is 
 scarcely necessary to read him. (Eng., 1 7th cent.) 
 
 191. Comte's "Positive Philosophy" rejects intuitive 
 
PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 55 
 
 knowledge. It is characterized by force of logic, immense 
 research, great power of generalization (which is frequently 
 carried beyond the warrant of facts), and immense bulk. 
 (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 192. Sensationalist. A very strong writer. (Eng., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 193. "Limits of Religious Thought." A very powerful 
 exposure of the weakness of human imagination. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 194. " Matter and Force." A powerful presentation of 
 Materialism. (Ger., 19th cent.) 
 
 195. "Freedom of the Will." A demonstration of the 
 impossibihty of free will. (Amer., i8th cent.) 
 
 196. A very acute Enghsh philosopher. (Eng., 1748- 
 1832.) 
 
 197. Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy. (Eng., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 198. A deep, clear thinker, of sceptical character, who 
 laid bare the flaws in the old philosophies. (Eng., 1711- 
 1776.) 
 
 199. One of the most profound metaphysicians the world 
 can boast, and inventor of quaternions, the latest addition to 
 Mathematics. (Scot., 19th cent.) 
 
 200. Aristotle was the Bacon of the Old World. His 
 method was the very opposite of Plato's. He sought knowl- 
 edge chiefly by carefully looking out upon the world, instead 
 of by introspection. No one has exerted a greater influence 
 on the thought of the world than this deep and earnest 
 thinker. (Greece, 4th cent. b. c) 
 
 201. A very beautiful writer of the idealist school, though 
 he claims to be eclectic. (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 202. Hegel endeavored, by the method set forth in his 
 
56 
 
 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 "Absolute Logic," to reduce all knowledge to one science. 
 (Ger., 1 770-183 1.) Schelling, in his " Philosophy of Iden- 
 tity," tries to prove that the same laws hold in the world of 
 spirit as in the world of matter. Schelling bases his system 
 on an intuition superior to reason, and admitting neither 
 doubt nor explanation. (Ger., 17 75-1854.) 
 
 203. Fichte carries the doctrines of Kant to their limit : 
 to him all except the life of the mind is a delusion. (Ger., 
 18th cent.) 
 
 204. A great German philosopher of the time of Luther 
 (i6th cent.), very learned, refined, and witty. Read his 
 "Familiar Colloquies." 
 
 205. " Cosmic Philosophy." (Amer. 19th cent.) 
 
 206. " Rational Cosmology, or the Eternal Principles and 
 Necessary Laws of the Universe." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 207. Scottish Philosophy. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 208. Theologico-pohtico-moral, voluminous dissertations. 
 (Amsterdam, 17th cent.) 
 
 ESSAYS. 
 
 Next to Shakspeare's Plays, Emerson's Essays 
 and Lectures are to me the richest inspiration. At 
 every turn new and delightful paths open before the 
 mind ; and the poetic feeling and imagery are often 
 of the best. Only the music and the power of dis- 
 criminating the wheat from the chaff were lacking to 
 have made one of the world's greatest poets. To 
 pour into the life the spirit of Emerson, Bacon, and 
 Montaigne is a liberal education in itself. Addison's 
 
ESSAYS. 57 
 
 " Spectator " is inimitable in its union of humor, sense, 
 and imagination. A number of eminent men, Frank- 
 lin among them, have referred to it as the source of 
 their literary power. 
 
 Read these essays: R. D. C. G. 
 
 209. Emerson's Essays and Lectures certainly deserve 
 our first attention in this department, because of their poetic 
 beauty and stimulating effect upon the imagination and all 
 that is pure and strong and noble in the character. (Amer., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 210. Nowhere can be found so much wit and wisdom to 
 the square inch as in Bacon's Essays. (Eng., 1600.) 
 
 211. Montaigne is the most popular of all the world's 
 essayists, because of his common-sense, keen insight, and 
 perfect frankness. The only author we certainly know to 
 have been in Shakspeare's own library. (France, 1580.) 
 
 212. Ruskin's "Ethics of the Dust," "Crown of Wild 
 Olives," " Sesame and Lilies," while somewhat wild in sub- 
 stance as well as in title, are well worthy of reading for the 
 intellectual stimulus afforded by their breadth of view, novelty 
 of expression and illustration, and the intense force — al- 
 most fanaticism — which characterizes all that Ruskin says. 
 Ruskin is one of three living writers whom Farrar says he 
 would first save from a conflagration of the world's library. 
 Carlyle is another of the same sort. Read his " Past and 
 Present," a grand essay on Justice. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 So far as style is concerned, Addison's Essays in the 
 " Spectator " are probably the best in the world. 
 
58 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 FICTION. 
 
 In modern times much that is best in Hterature has 
 gone into the pages of the novel. The men and 
 women of genius who would in other days have been 
 great poets, philosophers, dramatists, essayists, and 
 humorists have concentrated their powers, and poured 
 out all their wealth to set in gold a story of^iuman 
 life. Don't neglect the novels; but be sure "to read 
 good ones, and don't read too many. 
 
 In fiction, England, America, and France are far 
 ahead of the rest of the world. Scott may well be 
 held to lead the list, considering the quantity and 
 quality of what he wrote ; and Dickens, I presume, 
 by many would be written next, though I prefer the 
 philosophic novelists, like George Eliot, Macdonald, 
 Kingsley, Hugo, etc. Fielding, Richardson, Gold- 
 smith, Sterne, and Defoe, Jane Austen, Cooper, and 
 Marryat all claim our attention on one account or 
 another. 
 
 The United States can boast of Hawthorne, Tour- 
 gee, Wallace, Hearn, Aldrich, Warner, Curtis, Jewett, 
 Craddock, and many others. 
 
 France has a glorious army, led by Victor Hugo, 
 George Sand, Balzac, Dumas, Gautier, Merimee, etc. 
 But the magnificent powers of these artists are com- 
 bined with sad defects. Hugo is the greatest literary 
 force since Goethe and Scott; but his digressions are 
 sometimes terribly tedious, his profundity darkness, 
 
FICTION. 59 
 
 and his " unities," his plot, and reasons for lugging in 
 certain things hard to find. Balzac gives us a mo- 
 notony of wickedness. George Sand is prone to 
 idealize lust. " Notre Dame " and " Les Miserables," 
 *' Le Pere Goriot" and *' Eugenie Grandet," '' Consu- 
 elo " and " La Mare au Diable," ** Capitaine Fracasse " 
 and " Vingt Ans Apres," are great books ; but they 
 will not rank with *' Tom Jones " artistically, nor with 
 the ''Vicar of Wakefield," '* Ivanhoe," ''Adam Bede," 
 " Romola," or " The Scarlet Letter," considering all 
 the elements that go to make a great novel. 
 
 Germany, Italy, and Spain have no fiction that 
 compares with ours. 
 
 No doubt many will be surprised to find Fielding, 
 Balzac, Tolstoi, and others placed so low in the list 
 as they are. The reason is that the moral tone of a 
 book is, with us, a weightier test of its claims on the 
 attention of the general reader, than the style of the 
 author or the merit of his work from an artistic point 
 of view. There might be some doubt whether or no 
 we ought not to exclude from our tables entirely all 
 books that are not noble enough in character to 
 admit of their being read aloud in the family. The 
 trouble is that much of the finest literature of the 
 world would have to be excluded. So there seems 
 to be no course but to admit these men, with a note 
 as to their character. 
 
 One who wishes to make a study of the novel will 
 be interested in Dunlop's " History of Fiction," Tuck- 
 erman's " History of English Prose Fiction," Hazlitt's 
 
6o REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 " English Novelists," Lanier's " Novel," Masson's 
 ** British Novelists and their Styles," and Jeaffreson's 
 '* Novels and Novelists." 
 
 The best fiction should be read: R. D. G. 
 
 213. "Heart of Midlothian," " Waverley," " Ivanhoe," 
 " Kenilvvorth," "Guy Mannering," "Tlie Antiquary," "Rob 
 Roy," " Old Mortality," " Red Gauntlet," etc. Scott is by 
 very many — and among them some of the greatest — loved 
 more than any other novehst. 1 he purity, beauty, breadth, 
 and power of his works will ever place them among the most 
 desirable reading. (Eng., 19th cent.) Hutton's "Sir Walter 
 Scott," Carlyle's "Essay on Scott," Hazlitt's Essay in "The 
 Spirit of the Age," and other books referred to in the head 
 notes to Poetry and Fiction will be useful to the student of 
 Scott. 
 
 214. "Adam Bede," "Mill on the Floss," " Romola," 
 " Silas Marner," etc. Deep philosophy and insight into 
 character mark all George Eliot's writings.' (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 Lanier's " Development of the Novel " is practically only an 
 enthusiastic study of George Eliot. 
 
 215. "Pickwick," "David Copperfield," "Bleak House," 
 *' Martin Chuzzlewit," " Old Curiosity Shop," etc. Dickens 
 needs no comment. His fame is in every house. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 216. Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter," "Marble Faun," 
 " Great Stone Face," etc., are by universal consent accorded 
 the first place in the lists of American novels, and are among 
 the best to be found anywhere. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 217. "Vicar of Wakefield." -One of Goethe's earliest 
 favorites. (Eng., i8th cent.) 
 
 218. "Rienzi," "Last Days of Pompeii," "Last of the 
 
FICTION. 6 1 
 
 Barons," etc. Most powerful, delightful, and broadening 
 books. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 219. "Malcolm," "Marquis o' Lossie," "David Elgin- 
 brod," etc. Books of marvellous spiritual helpfulness. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 220. " Esmond," " Vanity Fair," etc. Very famous books. 
 (Eng., T9th cent.) 
 
 221. "Westward, Ho !" "Two Years Ago," etc. Among 
 the best and most famous pictures of true English character. 
 (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 222. "Ben Hur." This book has been placed close to 
 the Bible and Bunyan. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 223. "Hot Plowshares," "The Idol's Errand," "The In- 
 visible Empire," "Appeal to Caesar," etc. Books widely 
 known, but whose great merit is not fully recognized. Tour- 
 gee, though uneven, seems to us a writer of very great power. 
 His " Hot Plowshares " is a powerful historical novel ; and 
 few books in the whole range of literature are so intensely 
 interesting, and so free from all that is objectionable in sub- 
 ject or execution. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 224. "Les Mis^rables," "Notre Dame de Paris," "Les 
 Travailleurs de la Mer," etc. Wraxall's translations of these 
 great French novels are most excellent. (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 Some critics think that no characters in Shakspeare are 
 better drawn than those of Dumas. "Monte Cristo," "The 
 Vicomte de Bragelonne" (Stevenson's favorite), "The Three 
 Musketeers," "Twenty Years After," "The Marie Antoi- 
 nette Romances," etc., are powerful and intensely interesting 
 novels. (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 225. "Robinson Crusoe." There are few persons who do 
 not get delight and inspiration from Defoe's wonderful story. 
 (Eng., 1661-1731.) 
 
62 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 " Tom Brown at Rugby " and "Tom Brown at Oxford,-' by 
 Thomas Hughes, are delightful books for boys. (Eng., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 226. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was God's 
 bugle-call to the war against slavery. Her " Oldtown Folks " 
 and " Sam Lawson's Fireside Stories " are very humorous 
 sketches of New England hfe. (U. S., igth cent.) 
 
 Cooper's "The Spy," "The Pilot," "Leather Stocking," 
 " Deerslayer," " Pathfinder," etc., are books that interfere 
 with food and sleep, and chain us to their pages. (U. S., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 227. " Prue and I," by George William Curtis, is one of 
 the most suggestive stories in print, and is in every way a 
 delightful book. " Potiphar Papers," " Our Best Society," 
 "Trumps," "Lotus Eaters," — in fact, everything Mr. Curtis 
 writes, is of the highest interest, and worthy of the most care- 
 ful attention. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 The same may be said of the works of Charles Dudley 
 Warner, — "Being a Boy," "A Hunting of the Deer," "In 
 the Wilderness," "Backlog Studies," "My Summer in a 
 Garden," etc. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 228. T. B. Aldrich, while perhaps not destined to rank 
 with Scott, EHot, and Hawthorne, is nevertheless one of the 
 most wholesome and interesting of living authors. " The Still- 
 water Tragedy " is his strongest book. " Prudence Palfrey," 
 "The Story of a Bad Boy," "Margery Daw," and "The 
 Queen of Sheba " will doubtless be read by those who 
 once become acquainted with the author. (U. S., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 The first part of Hearn's " Chita " exceeds in beauty and 
 strength any other piece of descriptive writing with which 
 we are familiar. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
FICTION. 63 
 
 229. Ebers' "Homo Sum," " Uarda," and "An Egyptian 
 Princess " are very powerful studies of Egyptian life and 
 history. (Ger., 39th cent.) 
 
 "With Fire and Sword," and its sequels, "The Deluge" 
 and "Pan Michael," by Henryk Sienkiewicz, are among the 
 greatest books of modern times. They are historical ro- 
 mances of the conflict between Russia, Poland, and Sweden ; 
 and their power may be guessed from the fact that critics have 
 compared the author favorably with Scott, Dumas, Schiller, 
 Cervantes, Thackeray, Turgenieff, Homer, and even Shak- 
 speare. (Poland, 19th cent.) 
 
 230. Miss Austen's " Emma," " Pride and Prejudice " 
 (Eng., 19th cent.), and Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" 
 (Eng., 19th cent.), are all noble and renowned novels. 
 
 231. Louisa Alcott's "Little Women " is a lovely story of 
 home life ; and its exceeding popularity is one of the most 
 encouraging signs of the growth of a taste for pure, gentle, 
 natural literature. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Mrs. Burnett's " Little Lord Fauntleroy " deservedly met 
 at once a high reward of popularity, and was placed in the 
 front rank among stories of child-life. As a teacher of gen- 
 tleness and good manners it is invaluable. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 232. Cable's "Grande Pointe," "The Grandissimes/'etc, 
 should be read by all who wish to know the best living novel- 
 ists. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Craddock's "Where the Battle was Fought," "Despot of 
 Broomsedge Cove," '' Prophet of Great Smoky Mountain," 
 "Story of Keedon Bluffs," and "Down the Ravine" are 
 fascinating stories, the last two being fine books for children. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 233. Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney's "Sights and Insights," 
 though somewhat too wordy for this busy world, is worthy 
 a place here, because of its spiritual beauty and its keen 
 
64 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 common-sense in respect to marriage and courtship. (U. S., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 Sarah Orne Jewett has won a good name by her excellent 
 stories, '' Deephaven," "Betty Leicester," etc. Her "Play 
 Days " is a fine book for girls. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 234. Fielding, Le Sage, and Balzac are writers of great 
 power, whose works are studied for their artistic merit, their 
 wit, and the intense excitement some of them yield ; but the 
 general moral tone of their writings places them below the 
 purer writers above spoken of in respect to their value 
 to the general reader, one of whose deepest interests is 
 character-forming. 
 
 Fielding's " Tom Jones " is by many considered the finest 
 novel in existence ; and it undoubtedly would be, if along 
 with its literary skill it possessed the high tone of Curtis or 
 Scott. "Jonathan Wild" is also a powerful story. (Eng., 
 i8th cent.) 
 
 " Gil Bias," by Le Sage, is one of the most famous and 
 widely read books in the world. (France, 1 668-1 747.) 
 
 Balzac's best are " Le Pere Goriot " (and especially the 
 magnificent preface to this book), " La Recherche de I'Ab- 
 solu," " Eugenie Grandet," " La Peau de Chagrin," etc. 
 (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 235. Rousseau's " Emile " has been called the greatest 
 book ever written ; but we presume that bias and limitation of 
 knowledge on the part of critics (not rare accomplishments 
 of theirs) might procure a similar judgment in respect to 
 almost any strong and peculiar book. Rousseau's " Con- 
 fessions " are worth some attention. (France, 18th cent.) 
 
 Saintine's ''Picciola" is a beautiful story. (France, 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 236. Coffin's "Boys of '76," " Boys of '61," "Story of 
 
FICTION. 65 
 
 Liberty,-' etc., are splendid books for young people. The 
 last describes the march of the human race from slavery to 
 freedom. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 • Charles Reade's " Hard Cash," " Peg Woffington," '' Clois- 
 ter and Hearth " are fascinating stories. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 Warren's '' Ten Thousand a Year." 
 
 237. Landor's '' Imaginary Conversations of Great Men." 
 (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 Turgenieff's "Liza," "Smoke," and "Fathers and Sons.'* 
 (Russia, 19th cent.) 
 
 Eugene Sue's "Wandering Jew." 
 Manzoni's " I promessi Sposi." 
 
 238. Cottin's " Elizabeth." 
 
 Besant's "All Sorts and Conditions of Men." (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 Stevenson's " The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
 Hyde." A book that teaches the danger of giving way to 
 the evil side of our nature. 
 
 239. Mrs. Ward's " Robert Elsmere " is a famous picture 
 of the struggle in the religious mind to-day. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 Margaret Deland's "John Ward, Preacher," is a book of 
 the same class as the last, but is not as interesting as her 
 "Florida Days" or her Poems. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Anna Sewell's " Black Beauty " is the autobiography of a 
 noble horse, and is tender and intelligent. A book that every 
 one who has anything to do with horses, or indeed with ani- 
 mals of any sort, cannot afford to neglect. (Eng., 1 9th cent.) 
 
 Bret Harte's " Luck of Roaring Camp " is an interesting 
 picture of Western hfe, and opens a new vein of fiction. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 240. Green's " Hand and Ring," " Leavenworth Case," 
 etc., are splendid examples of reasoning, without any of the 
 
 5 
 
66 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 objectionable features usually found in detective stories. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Miss Mulock's " John Halifax, Gentleman/' is a great and 
 famous book. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 Disraeli's " Lothair," " Endymion," etc., are strong books, 
 requiring the notice of one who reads widely in English 
 fiction. (Eng.; T9th cent.) 
 
 Howells' *' A Modern Instance," " The Undiscovered 
 Country," " A Hazard of New Fortunes," " A Chance Ac- 
 quaintance," " Lady of the Aroostook," etc., are not objec- 
 tionable. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 Tolstoi's " Anna Karenina " deserves mention, though we 
 cannot by any means agree with Howells that Tolstoi is the 
 greatest of novelists. The motive and atmosphere of his 
 books are not lofty, and some of his work is positively dis- 
 graceful. (Russia, 19th cent.) 
 
 241. George Sand's "Consuelo" is a great book in more 
 senses than one ; and although it deserves a place in this 
 lower list, yet there are so many better books, that if one 
 follows the true order, life would be likely to depart before 
 he had time to read a four- volume novel by an author of the 
 tone of George Sand. (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 Black's " Strange Adventures of a Phaeton," " Princess of 
 
 Thule." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 Blackmore's " Lorna Doone." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 Olive Schreiner's " Story of an African Farm " is powerful, 
 
 but not altogether wholesome. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 242. Bremer's "The Neighbors." (Norway, 19th cent.) 
 TroUope's *' Last Chronicles of Barsetshire." (Eng., 
 
 19th cent.) 
 
 Winthrop's " Cecil Dreeme," " John Brent." (U. S., 
 19th cent.) 
 
ORATORY. 6^ 
 
 243. Richardson's "Pamela" and "Clarissa Harlowe " 
 are interesting, because they were the beginning of the Eng- 
 lish novel ; but they are not nice or natural, and have no 
 attractions except their historic position. (Eng., 1689-1761.) 
 
 Smollett's " Humphrey Clinker " is his strongest work. 
 " Peregrine Pickle " is very witty, and " Adventures of an 
 Atom " altogether a miserable book. Smollett possessed 
 power, but his work is on a very low plane. (Eng., i8th 
 cent.) 
 
 Boccaccio's "Decameron" is a series of splendidly told 
 tales, from which Chaucer drew much besides his inspiration. 
 The book is strong, but of very inferior moral tone. 
 
 ORATORY. 
 
 Great and successful oratory requires deep knowl- 
 edge of the human mind and character, personal 
 force, vivid imagination, control of language and 
 temper, and a faculty of putting the greatest truths 
 in such clear and simple and forceful form, that they 
 may not only be grasped by untrained minds, but 
 will break down the barriers of prejudice and in- 
 terest, and fight their way to the throne of the will. 
 Oratory is religion, science, philosophy, biography, 
 history, wit, pathos, and poetry in action. This de- 
 partment of literature is therefore of the greatest value 
 in the development of mind and heart, and of the 
 power to influence and control our fellows. Espe- 
 cially read and study Demosthenes on the Crown, 
 Burke's ** Warren Hastings' Oration," Webster's 
 
68 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 " Reply to Hayne," Phillips' " Lovejoy " and '' Tous- 
 saint L'Ouverture," and Lincoln's " Gettysburg," his 
 debates with Douglas, and his great speeches in New 
 York and the East before the War, in which fun, 
 pathos, and logic were all welded together in such 
 masterly shape that professors of oratory followed 
 him about from city to city, studying him as a model 
 of eloquence. There is a book called " Great Ora- 
 tions of Great Orators " that is very valuable, and 
 there is a series of three volumes containing the 
 best British orations (fifteen orators), and another 
 similar series of American speeches (thirty-two 
 orators). 
 
 WIT AND HUMOR. 
 
 In what wit consists, and why it is we laugh, are 
 questions hard to answer (read on that subject Spen- 
 cer and Hobbes, and Mathews' '* Wit and Humor; 
 their Use and Abuse"); but certain it is that a little 
 seasoning of fun makes intellectual food very pal- 
 atable, and much better adapts it for universal and 
 permanent assimilation. Most men can keep what is 
 tied to their memories with a joke. Considering all 
 things, Lowell, Holmes, Dickens, and Cervantes are 
 the best humorists the world affords. See Table HL 
 Group 4. They exhibit a union of power and pur- 
 pose that is not found elsewhere. They always sub- 
 ordinate wit to wisdom, always aim at something far 
 
WIT AND HUMOR. 69 
 
 higher than making fun for its own sake, never appear 
 to make any effort for their effects, and ahvays poHsh 
 their work to perfection. A great deal of the keenest 
 wit will be found in books whose general character 
 puts them in some other column, — Poetry, Fiction, 
 Oratory, etc. The works of Shakspeare, Addison, 
 Eliot, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Irving, Higginson, Carle- 
 ton, Thackeray, Hood, Saxe, Fielding, Smollett, Aris- 
 tophanes, Moliere, etc., abound in wit and humor. 
 
 The student of humor will be interested in Hazlitt's 
 " English Comic Writers," Thackeray's " English 
 Humorists," and Besant's '' French Humorists." 
 
 244. "Fable for Critics," "Biglow Papers." Consider- 
 ing the keenness and variety of wit, the depth of sarcasm, 
 the breadth of view, and the importance of its subject, the 
 " Biglow Papers " is the greatest humorous work of all his- 
 tory. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 245. "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table," "Professor at 
 the Breakfast-Table," etc. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 246. " Pickwick Papers." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 247. "Don Quixote." (Spain, 1547-1616.) 
 
 248. Along with much violent scoffing, and calling of his 
 betters by hard names, Ingersoll's speeches contain some of 
 the keenest wit in the language. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 249. Marietta Holley's "Sweet Cicely," "Samantha at 
 the Centennial," " Betsey Bobbet," " My Wayward Pardner," 
 " Samantha at Saratoga," " Samantha among the Brethren," 
 etc., are full of quaint fun, keen insight, and common-sense. 
 They are somewhat more wordy than we wish they were, 
 but they are wholesome, and the author's purpose is always 
 
JO REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 a lofty one. Her fun is not mere fun, but is like the laugh- 
 ing eye and smiling lip of one whose words are full of thought 
 and elevated feeling. (U. S., igth cent.) 
 
 250. G. W. Curtis's " Potiphar Papers " is a good exam- 
 ple of quiet, refined humor. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 251. Chauncey j\I. Depew's Orations and After-Dinner 
 Speeches are worthy of perusal by all lovers of wit and sense. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 252. Mark Twain is the greatest of those who make 
 humor the primary object. He does not, like Artemus 
 Ward, make it the sole object, — there is a large amount 
 of keen common-sense in his " A Yankee in King Arthur's 
 Court," and there is also in it an open-mindedness to the 
 newest currents of thought that proves the author to be one 
 of the most wide-awake men of the day. " Innocents 
 Abroad," "The Prince and the Pauper," "Roughing It," 
 etc., are very amusing books, the only drawback being that 
 the reader is sometimes conscious of an effort to be funny. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 253. Charles Dudley Warner's "In the Wilderness" gives 
 some exceedingly amusing sketches of backwoods life. See 
 also other books mentioned under the head of Fiction. (U. S., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 254. S. K. Edwards' "Two Runaways, and Other Stories " 
 is a book that no lover of humor can afford to be without. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 255. E. E. Hale's "My Double, and How He Undid 
 Me," and other stories contain much innocent recreation. 
 (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 256. Nasby's " Ekoes from Kentucky" and " Swingin' 
 round the Circle " are full of the keenest political sarcasm. 
 Lincoln was so impressed with Nasby's power, that he said 
 
FABLES AND FAIRY TALES. 7 1 
 
 he had rather possess such gifts than be President of the 
 United States. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 257. " Artemus Ward His Book," is funny, but lacks pur- 
 pose beyond the raising of a laugh. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 258. "Caudle Lectures/' "Catspaw," etc. Jerrold is one 
 of the sharpest of wits. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 259. Voltaire was the IngersoU of France, only more so. 
 His " Dictionnaire " is full of stinging sarcasm and fierce 
 wit. (France, i8th cent.) 
 
 " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." The sharpest 
 edge of Byron's keen mind. (Eng., 1788-1824.) 
 
 260. '' Hudibras." A tirade against the Puritans. (Eng., 
 17th cent.) 
 
 "Gulliver's Travels," "Tale of a Tub," etc. Coarse rail- 
 lery. (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 261. "Gargantua and Pantagruel." Immense coarse wit. 
 (France, i6th cent.) 
 
 " Tristram Shandy." Not delicate, but full of humor. 
 (Eng., 1 8th cent.) 
 
 262. Juvenal is one of the world's greatest satirists. 
 (Rome, ist cent.) 
 
 Lucian is the Voltaire of the Old World. In his "Dia- 
 logues of the Gods " he covers with ridicule the religious 
 notions of the people. (Greek Lit, 2d cent. a. d.) 
 
 FABLES AND FAIRY TALES. 
 
 Fables and fairy tales are condensed dramas, and 
 some of them are crystal drops from the fountains of 
 poetic thought. Often they express in picture lan- 
 guage the deepest lessons that mankind have learned ; 
 
72 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 and one who wishes to gather to himself the intellect- 
 ual wealth of the nations must not neglect them. In 
 the section of the book devoted to remarks upon the 
 Guidance of Children, the literature of this subject 
 receives more extended attention. Among the books 
 that will most interest the student of this subject may 
 be mentioned the works of Fiske and Bulfinch, named 
 below, Baldwin's ** Story of the Golden Age," Rago- 
 zin's ** Chaldea," Kingsley's ** Greek Heroes," Cox's 
 " Tales of Ancient Greece," Hanson's " Stories of 
 Charlemagne," Church's " Story of the Iliad " and 
 " Story of the ^neid," and the books mentioned in 
 connection with the " Morte D'Arthur," note 323 
 following : — 
 
 263. "Fairy Tales," "Shoes of Fortune," etc. (Den- 
 mark, 19th cent.) 
 
 264. The inimitable French poet of Fable. (France, 
 1 7th cent.) 
 
 265. The world-famous Greek fabulist. His popularity 
 in all ages has been unbounded. Socrates amused himself 
 with his stories. (Greece, 6th cent. b. c.) 
 
 266. " Household Tales." (Ger., earty 19th cent.) 
 
 267. "Reineke Fox." (Bohn Lib.) (Ger., early 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 Kipling's "Indian Tales." (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 268. "Age of Fable," "Age of Chivalry," etc. (Eng., 
 19th cent.) 
 
 269. Fables in his poems. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 270. A French fabulist, next in fame to La Fontaine. 
 (i8th cent.) 
 
TRAVEL. 73 
 
 271. Greek Fables. (About com. Christ, era.) 
 
 272. ''Tales." (Ger., 19th cent.) 
 
 273. "Metamorphoses." An account of the mythology 
 of the ancients. Ovid was one of Rome's greatest poets. 
 (Rome, ist cent. b. c.) 
 
 Curtin's " Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland," " Myths and 
 Folk-Tales of the Russians," etc. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 Fiske's " Myths and Myth Makers." (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 TRAVEL. 
 
 Nothing favors breadth more than travel and con- 
 tact with those of differing modes of life and variant 
 belief. The tolerance and sympathy that are folding 
 in the world in these modern days owe much to the 
 vast increase of travel that has resulted from growth 
 of commerce, the development of wealth, and the 
 cheapness and rapidity of steam transportation. Even 
 a wider view of the world comes to us through the lit- 
 erature of travel than we could ever gain by personal 
 experience, however much of wealth and time we 
 had at our disposal ; and though the vividness is less 
 in each particular picture of the written page than 
 if we saw the full original reality that is painted for 
 us, yet this is more than compensated by the breadth 
 and insight and perception of the meaning of the 
 scenes portrayed, which we can take at once from 
 the writer, to whom perhaps the gaining of what he 
 gives so easily has been a very costly, tedious pro- 
 cess, and would be so to us if we had to rely on 
 
74 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 personal observation. Voyages and travels there- 
 fore are of much importance in our studies, and 
 delightful reading too. Stanley's opinions have 
 been much relied on in selecting the following 
 books : — 
 
 274. Voyages. (Eng., i8th cent.) 
 
 275. Cosmos; Travels. (Ger., 1762-1832.) 
 
 276. Naturalist on the Beagle. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 277. Travels. (Venice, 14th cent.) 
 
 278. Arctic Explorations. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 279. South Africa. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 280. Through the Dark Continent; In Darkest Africa. 
 (U. S., T9th cent.) 
 
 281. Travels in Africa. (France, 19th cent.) 
 
 282. On Egypt. (Germany, 19th cent.) 
 
 283. Abyssinia. (Eng., 19th cent.) 
 
 284. India. 
 
 285. Niger. 
 
 286. South America. 
 
 287. Upper Niger. 
 
 288. Persia. 
 
 289. Central Africa. 
 
 290. West Coast of Africa. 
 
 291. Travelled for thirty years, then wrote the marvels he 
 had seen and heard ; and his book became very popular in 
 the 14th and 15th centuries. (Eng., 14th cent.) 
 
 292. The Nile. 
 
GUIDES. 75 
 
 GUIDES. 
 
 In this column of '' Guides " are placed books that 
 will be useful in arriving at a fuller knowledge of lit- 
 erature and authors, in determining what to read, and 
 in our own literary efforts. 
 
 293. "What to Read on the Subject of Reading," by 
 William E. Foster, Librarian of the Providence Public Library. 
 Every one who is interested in books should keep an eye 
 on this thorough and enthusiastic worker, and take advantage 
 of the information he lavishes in his bulletins. 
 
 294. The " Pall Mall Extra," containing Sir John Lub- 
 bock's " List of the Best Hundred Books," and letters from 
 many distinguished men. 
 
 295. English Literature. 
 
 296. EngHsh Literature. 
 
 297. *' English Literature." The most philosophic work 
 on the subject ; but it is difficult, and requires a previous 
 knowledge of the principal English authors. 
 
 298. Handbook of Universal Literature. 
 
 299. Dictionary of Authors. 
 
 300. Bartlett's " Familiar Quotations " is one of the most 
 famous and valuable of books. 
 
 301. " Edge-Tools of Speech." Brief quotations arranged 
 under heads such as Books, Government, Love, etc. 
 
 302. "Library of Poetry and Song;" but for the gen- 
 eral reader Palgrave's exquisite little " Golden Treasury " is 
 better. 
 
 303. " Primer of English Literature." The best very 
 brief book on the subject. 
 
^6 REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 304. Bibliographical Aids. 
 
 305. " Motive and Habit of Reading." 
 
 306. " Choice of Books." 
 
 307. " Sesame and Lihes." 
 
 308. " The Love of Books." 
 •509. " History of Prose Fiction." 
 
 Baldwin's " Book Lover" is valuable for its lists of books 
 bearing on special topics. . 
 
 C. K. Adams' " Manual of Historical Literature " is in- 
 valuable to the student of history. There ought to be sim- 
 ilar books relating to Philosophy, Fiction, Science, etc. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 In the column ** Miscellaneous " are placed a 
 number of books which should be at least glanced 
 through to open the doors of thought on all sides 
 and to take such account of their riches as will place 
 them at command when needed. 
 
 310. One of the noblest little books in existence ; to read 
 it is to pour into the life and character the inspiration of 
 hundreds of the best and most successful lives. Every 
 page should be carefully read and digested. (U. S., 19th 
 cent.) 
 
 31 1. An exquisite book; one of Robert Collyer's early 
 favorites. Put its beauty in your heart. (U. S., 19th cent.) 
 
 312. A book that should be read for its breadth. (Eng., 
 early 17th cent.) 
 
 313. Edward Bellamy's ''Looking Backward" is one of 
 the same class of books to which Bacon's " New Atlantis," 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 'J'J 
 
 More's " Utopia," etc., belong, and may be read with much 
 pleasure and profit along with them. It is really a looking 
 forward to an ideal commonwealth, in which the labor 
 troubles and despotisms of to-day shall be adjusted on the 
 same principle as the political troubles and despotisms of 
 the last century were settled ; namely, the principle that each 
 citizen shall be industrially the equal of every other, as all 
 are now political equals. It is a very famous book, and has 
 been called the greatest book of the century, which, happily 
 for the immortality of Spencer and Darwin, Carlyle and Rus- 
 kin, Parkman and Bancroft, Guizot and Bryce, Goethe and 
 Hugo, Byron and Burns, Scott and Tennyson, Whittier and 
 Lowell, Bulvver and Thackeray, Dickens and Eliot, is only 
 the judgment of personal friendship and blissful ignorance. 
 But while the book cannot feel at home in the society of the 
 great, it is nevertheless a very entertaining story, and one 
 vastly stimulative of thought. The idea of a coming indus- 
 trial democracy, bearing more or less analogy to the political 
 democracy, the triumph of which we have seen, is one that 
 has probably occurred to every thoughtful person ; and in 
 Bellamy's book may be found an ingenious expansion of the 
 idea much preferable to the ordinary socialistic plans of the 
 day, though not wholly free from the injustice that inheres 
 in all social schemes that do not aim to secure to each man 
 the wealth or other advantage that his lawful efforts naturally 
 produce. (U. S., 19th cent ) 
 
 314. Everywhere a favorite. It opens up wide regions of 
 imagination. Ruskin says he read it many times when he 
 might have been better employed, and crosses it from his 
 list. But the very fact that he read the book so often shows 
 that even his deep mind found irresistible attraction in it. 
 (First introduced into Europe in 17th cent.) 
 
yS REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 315. The most colossal lies known to science. (Ger., 
 1 8th cent.) 
 
 316. The poem of " Beowulf" should be looked into by all 
 who wish to know the character of the men from whom we 
 sprang, and therefore realize the basic elements of our own 
 character. (Eng., early Saxon times.) 
 
 3 1 7. Should be glanced at for the light it throws on Eng- 
 lish history and development. (9th-i2th cents.) 
 
 318. Froissart's "Chronicles" constitute a graphic story 
 of the States of Europe from 1322 to the end of the 14th 
 century. Scott said that Froissart was his master. Breadth 
 demands at least a glance at the old itinerant tale-gatherer. 
 Note especially the great rally of the rebels of Ghent. 
 
 319. This masterpiece of Old German Minstrelsy is too 
 much neglected by us. Read it with the three preceding. 
 (Early German.) 
 
 320. Sd^a means "tale" or " narrative," and is applied 
 in Iceland to every kind of tradition, true or fabulous. Read 
 the " Heimskringla," Njal's Saga, and Grettir's Saga. (9th- 
 13th cents.) 
 
 321. Along with the last should be read the poems of 
 the elder Edda. (Compiled by Samund the Wise, 12th 
 cent.) 
 
 322. The epic of Spain, containing a wonderful account 
 of the prowess of a great leader and chief. (Spain, before 
 the 13th cent.) 
 
 323. A collection of fragments about the famous King 
 Arthur and his Round Table. They crop out in every age of 
 English literature. Read the book with Tennyson's " Idylls 
 of the King," — a poem inspired by Malory's " Morte 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 79 
 
 D'Arthur," — Cervantes' " Don Quixote," and Twain's " Yan- 
 kee in the Court of King Arthur," Lanier's " Boy's King 
 Arthur," Ritson's " Ancient English Metrical Romances," 
 Ellis' Introduction to the Study of the same, Preston's 
 "Troubadours and Trouveres," Sismondi's "Literature of 
 Southern Europe," Chapon's "Troubadours," and Van 
 Laun's " History of French Literature " may be referred 
 to with advantage by the student of Malory. 
 
 324. A collection of Chinese odes. 
 
 325. This and the last are recommended, not for intrinsic 
 merit, but for breadth, and to open the way to an under- 
 standing of and sympathy with four hundred millions of 
 mankind who hold these books in profound veneration. 
 (China, as early as 5th cent. b. c.) 
 
 326. This is the Bible of the Sufis of Persia, one of the 
 manifestations of that great spirit of mysticism which flows 
 like a great current through the world's history, side by side 
 with the stream of Rationalism. It found certain outlets 
 in Schelling, Swedenborg, Emerson, etc., and is bubbling 
 up even now through the strata of worldliness in the United 
 States in the shape of Theosophy. (7th cent.) 
 
 327. Read Saint Hilaire's " Buddha " and Arnold's " Light 
 of Asia." They will open great regions of thought. 
 
 328. 329. These are epitomized by Talboys Wheeler in 
 his " History of India." Very interesting and broadening. 
 (Very ancient.) 
 
 330-332. Not valuable reading intrinsically, but as open- 
 mg the doors of communication with the minds and hearts 
 of whole races of men, most useful. The Vedas are the 
 Bible of the Hindus, and contain the revelation of Brahma 
 (15th cent.). The Koran is the Mohammedan Bible (6th 
 cent.). The Talmud belongs to the Rabbinical literature 
 
8o REMARKS ON TABLE I. 
 
 of the Jews, and is a collection of Jewish traditions (3d 
 cent.). 
 
 333. The works of Hooker, Swedenborg, Newton, Kepler, 
 Copernicus, Laplace, should be actually handled and glanced 
 through to form a nucleus of experience, around which 
 may gather a little knowledge of these famous men and 
 what they did. This remark applies with more or less of 
 force to all the names on the second shelf. Few can hope 
 to 7'ead all these books, but it is practicable by means of 
 general works, such as those mentioned in Column 13, to 
 gain an idea of each man, his character and work ; and 
 there is no better way to put a hook in the memory on 
 which such knowledge of an author may be securely kept, 
 than to take his book in your hands, note its size and pecul- 
 iarities (visual and tactual impressions are more easily remem- 
 bered than others as a rule), glance through its contents, 
 and read a passage or two. 
 
SHORT COURSES. 
 
 When the reader has a special purpose in view, it is of 
 the greatest advantage to arrange in systematic order the 
 books that will be most helpful in the accomplishment of 
 his purpose, study them one after the other, mark them, 
 compare them, make cross references from one to another, 
 digest and assimilate the vital portions of each, and seek to 
 obtain a mastery of all that the best minds of the past have 
 given us in reference to the object of his effort. For ex- 
 ample : a person who has devoted himself exclusively to one 
 line of ideas will be greatly benefited by reading a short 
 course of books that will give him a glimpse of each of the 
 great fields of thought. One who is lacking in humor should 
 get a good list of fine humorous works and devote himself to 
 them, and to the society of fun-loving people, until he can 
 see and enjoy a good joke as keenly as they do, — not only to 
 quicken his perception cf humor, but that the organ of fun 
 (the gland that secretes wit and humor) may be roused 
 into normal activity. Again, if a gentleman finds that he 
 does not appreciate Shakspeare, Dante, Irving, etc., as he 
 sees or is told that literary people do ; if he prefers his 
 newspaper to the English classics as a source of pleasure 
 and profit; if he sees little difference between Tennyson 
 and Tupper, enjoys Bill Nye as much or more than Holmes, 
 and is able to compare the verses he writes to his sweetheart 
 with Milton without any very distinct feeling except perhaps 
 a disgust for Milton, — if any of these things are true, he has 
 need of a course to develop a literary taste. 
 
 In the three tables following will be found a suggestion of 
 several important short courses, and others will be found on 
 page 122, et seq. 
 
TABLE II. 
 
 A SHORT special course, to gather ideas of practical 
 importance to every life, and to make a beginning in 
 the gaining of that breadth of mind which, is of such 
 vital value by reason of its influence on morals and 
 the aid it gives in the attainment of truth. 
 
 1. Physiology and Hygiene. Read and digest the best 
 books. See Table I. Col. 3. 
 
 2. "Our Country," by Strong; the Constitution of the 
 United States ; the Declaration of Independence, and Wash- 
 ington's Farewell. (All m. R. D.) 
 
 3. Mill's Logic ; at any rate, the Canons of Induction and 
 the Chapter on Fallacies, (m. R. D. C. G.) 
 
 4. Smiles's " Self-Help." (m. R. D.) 
 
 5. Wood's books on Natural History ; especially his an- 
 ecdotes of animals, and evidences of mind, etc., in animals 
 (e. R. D.). Proctor's books on Astronomy, " Other Worlds 
 than Ours," etc. (e. R. G.). Lubbock's " Primitive Condition 
 of Man " (m. R.). Dawson's " Chain of Life " (m. R.). In 
 some good brief way, as by using the " Encyclopaedia Bri- 
 tannica," read about Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, 
 Darwin, Herschel, Lyell, Harvey, and Torricelli. 
 
 6. Spencer's '' First Principles." (d. R. D. G.) 
 
 7. Green's " Short History of the English People " (m. R. 
 D.G.). Bancroft's " History of the United States" (m. R. 
 D. G). Guizot's " History of Civilization " (m. R. D. G.). 
 
TABLE II. 83 
 
 8. Max Miiller's philological works, or some of them 
 (m. R.). Taylor's "Words and Places" (m. R.). 
 
 9. In some public library, if the books are not accessible 
 elsewhere, get into your hands the books named in Columns 
 12 and 13 of Table I., and not already spoken of in this 
 table, and glance through each, reading a little here and 
 there to make a rapid survey of the ground, acquire some 
 idea of it, and note the places where it may seem to you 
 worth while to dig for gold. 
 
TABLE III. 
 
 A SHORT course of the choicest selections from the 
 whole field of general literature. It may easily be 
 read through in a year, and will form a taste and 
 provide a standard that will enable the reader ever 
 after to judge for himself of the quality and value of 
 whatever books may come before the senate of his 
 soul to ask for an appropriation of his time in their 
 behalf. 
 
 Very few books are requisite for this course, but 
 it will awaken a desire that will demand a library of 
 standard literature. No. i. No. 2, etc., refer to the 
 numbers of the '' lOO Choice Selections." Monroe's 
 '' Sixth Reader" and Palgrave's "Golden Treasury" 
 are also referred to, because they contain a great 
 number of these gems, and are books likely to be in 
 the possession of the reader. 
 
 For the meaning of the other abbreviations, see the 
 last section of the Introductory Remarks. 
 
TABLE III. 
 
 85 
 
 Group I. — Poetry. 
 
 
 'o >< 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 2: cj 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 ^% 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 PQ 
 
 
 
 I. Shakspeare. 
 
 
 
 
 Hamlet, especially noting Hamlet's 
 
 
 
 Shakspeare's 
 
 conversations with the Ghost, with 
 
 
 
 Plays are pub- 
 
 his mother and Ophelia, his advice 
 
 
 
 lished separately. 
 
 to the players, his soliloquy, and his 
 
 
 
 and also together. 
 
 discourse on the nobleness of man 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 Richard Grant 
 
 Merchant of Venice, especially not- 
 
 
 
 White's edition 
 
 ing the scene in court, and the 
 
 
 
 being the best. 
 
 parts relating to Portia .... 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 
 Julius Caesar, especially noting the 
 
 
 
 
 speechesof BrutusandAntony,and 
 
 
 
 
 the quarrel of Brutus and Cassius 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 
 Taming of the Shrew 
 
 e. 
 
 R.G. 
 
 
 Henry the Eighth 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 
 Henry the Fourth, read for the wit 
 
 
 
 
 of Falstaff 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 
 Henry the Fifth, noting especially 
 
 
 
 
 the wooing 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 
 Coriolanus, noting especially the 
 
 
 grand fire and force and frankness 
 
 
 
 
 of Coriolanus 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 
 Sonnets in Palgrave's Golden Treas- 
 
 
 
 
 ury, Nos. 3,6, II, 12, 13, 14, 18, 
 
 
 
 
 36,46 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
 2. Milton. 
 
 
 
 
 The Opening of the Gates of Hell, 
 
 
 
 
 one of the sublimest conceptions 
 
 
 
 
 in literature. It is in Paradise 
 
 
 
 
 Lost, about six pages from the 
 
 
 
 
 end of Book H. Read sixty lines 
 
 
 
 
 beginning, " Thus saying, from her 
 
 
 
 
 side the fatal key, Sad instrument 
 
 
 
 
 of all our woe" 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 Milton's Poems. 
 
 Satan's Throne, ten lines at the be- 
 
 
 
 
 ginning of Book n 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 
 Opening of Paradise Lost, 26 lines 
 
 
 
 
 at the beginning of Book I. 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 
 The Angels uprooting the Mountains 
 
 
 
 
 and hurling them on the Rebels. 
 
 
 
 
 Fifty lines beginning about the 
 
 
 
 
 640th line of Book VL, " So they 
 
 
 
 
 in pleasant vein," etc 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 
 " Hail, Holy LiiTht," fifty-five lines 
 
 
 
 
 at the beginning of Book IH. . . 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 
86 
 
 POETRY. 
 
 Group I. coiitinued. — Poetry. 
 
 
 ^>^ 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 ^ 5 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 r^ -^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Milton. — Contimied. 
 
 
 
 
 Comus, a masque, and one of the 
 
 
 
 
 masterpieces of English literature 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 Milton's Poems. 
 
 L' Allegro, a short poem on mirth . 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 The last three of 
 
 11 Penseroso, a short poem on mel- 
 
 
 
 this list are in 
 
 ancholy 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 Palgrave. 
 
 Lycidas, a celebrated elegy . . . 
 
 d. 
 
 R.G. 
 
 
 3. Homer. 
 
 
 
 Homer has had 
 
 Pope's translation. At least the 
 
 
 
 many tran>lators. 
 
 first book of the Iliad. A simple, 
 
 
 
 Pope, Derby, 
 
 clear story of battles and quarrels, 
 
 
 
 Worsley, Chap- 
 
 loves and counsels, charming in its 
 
 
 
 man, Flaxman, 
 
 sublimity, pathos, vigor, and natu- 
 
 
 
 Lang, Bryant, etc. 
 
 ralness. The world's greatest epic 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 
 4. iEsCHYLUS. 
 
 
 
 Potter, Morshead, 
 
 Prometheus Bound, the sublimest of 
 
 
 
 Swanwick, Mil- 
 
 the sublime. Be sure to reach 
 
 
 
 man, and Brown- 
 
 and grasp the grand picture of the 
 
 
 
 ing have translated 
 
 human race and its troubles which 
 
 
 
 iEschylus. The 
 
 underlies this most magnificent 
 
 
 
 first two are the 
 
 poem 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 best. Flaxman's 
 
 Agamemnon, the grandest tragedy 
 
 
 
 designs add much. 
 
 in the world 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 
 5. Dante. 
 
 
 
 
 Divine Comedy. Read Farrar's lit- 
 
 
 
 Translated by 
 
 tle Life of Dante (John Alden, 
 
 
 
 Longfellow, 
 
 N. Y.), and then take the Comedy 
 
 
 
 Carey, fohn Car- 
 
 and read the thirty-third canto, 
 
 
 
 lyle, Butler, and 
 
 the portions relating to the Hells 
 
 
 
 Dean Church. 
 
 of Incontinence and of Fraud, the 
 
 
 
 
 picture of Satan, and the whole of 
 
 
 
 
 the Purgatorio 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 
 6. Spenser. 
 
 
 
 
 Faerie Queen, noting specially the 
 
 
 
 
 first bock and the book of 13rito- 
 
 
 
 
 mart, endeavoring to grasp and 
 
 
 
 
 apply to your own life the truths 
 
 
 
 
 tliat underlie the rich and beautiful 
 
 
 
 
 imagery 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 Spenser's Poems. 
 
 Hymn in Honor of his own Wedding 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 The Calendar is 
 
 Fable of the Oak and the Briar, in 
 
 
 
 published sepa- 
 
 Shepherd's Calendar, February . 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 rately. 
 
 7. Scott. 
 
 
 
 
 Lady of the Lake 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 Scott's Poems, 
 
 Marmion 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 or separate. 
 
 
 
TABLE III. 
 
 87 
 
 Group II. — Short Poetical Select io?ts. 
 
 
 
 Manner 
 
 of 
 Reading. 
 
 Where found. 
 
 10. Payne. 
 
 Home, Sweet Home 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Psalm of Life. Paul Revere's Ride 
 
 The Building of llie Ship . . . 
 
 (These may be found in most of 
 
 the reading-books.) 
 
 Suspiria, and the close of Morituri 
 
 Salutamus 
 
 e. 
 
 e. 
 e. 
 m. 
 
 c. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 R. 
 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D C. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 R D. 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 
 Longfellow's 
 Poems. 
 
 Autocrat of the 
 Breakfast-Table. 
 
 Monroe. 
 Palgrave, 87. 
 
 " 147. 
 
 " 159. 
 '' 140. 
 " 123. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 Poems of 
 
 H. H. Jackson. 
 
 Palgrave, 231. 
 No. 2. 
 
 Palgrave, 139. 
 
 144. 
 
 " 148. 
 
 149. 
 
 155. 
 
 - 156. 
 
 Burns's Poems. 
 
 Palgrave, 225. 
 Irish Melodies, 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 Nautilus; the last stanza commit . 
 
 The Stars and Flowers, a lovely 
 little poem, — the first verses in 
 the Au;ocrat of the Breakfast- 
 Table 
 
 m. 
 e. 
 
 Hunt. 
 Abou Ben Adhem 
 
 e. 
 
 Carew^. 
 The True Beauty 
 
 e. 
 
 Gray. 
 
 Elegy in a Country Churchj-ard 
 
 Hymn to Adversity 
 
 Progress of Poesy 
 
 The Bard 
 
 m. 
 m. 
 m. 
 m. 
 
 Saxe. 
 
 The Blind Men and the Elephant 
 Jackson. 
 
 The Release 
 
 e. 
 
 m. 
 
 II. Hood. 
 
 Bridge of Sighs 
 
 m. 
 
 Song of the Sliirt 
 
 e. 
 
 Burns. 
 Ye Banks and Braes 0' Bonnie Doon 
 To a Field-mouse 
 
 e. 
 e. 
 
 Mary Morrison 
 
 e. 
 
 Bonnie Lesley 
 
 e. 
 
 Jean 
 
 e. 
 
 John Anderson 
 
 e. 
 
 A Man 's a Man for a' that . . . 
 Auld Lang Syne 
 
 e. 
 e. 
 
 Robert Bruce's Address to his Army 
 Moore. 
 The Light of other Days .... 
 Come rest in this Bosom . . . 
 
 e. 
 
 e. 
 e. 
 
88 
 
 SHORT POETICAL SELECTIONS. 
 
 Group IL continued. — Short Poetical Selections. 
 
 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 ^3 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 ^.^ 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 Q^ 
 
 
 
 Moore. — Continued. 
 
 
 
 
 At the Mid Hour of Night . . . 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 Irish Melodies. 
 
 Those Evening Bells 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 Monroe. 
 
 Coleridge 
 
 
 
 
 Rime of the Ancient Mariner , 
 
 d. " 
 
 R.D.G. 
 
 Coleridge's 
 
 Kiibla Khan ; a Picture of the 
 
 
 
 Poems. 
 
 Stream of Life 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.G. 
 R. 
 
 Monroe. 
 
 Vale of Chamouni 
 
 e. 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 
 The Farmer's Wooing, in Among 
 
 
 
 
 the Hills 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Whittier's Poems. 
 
 The Harp at Nature's Advent 
 
 
 
 
 Strung, etc., in Tent on the 
 
 
 
 
 Beach 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
 Snow Bound, Centennial Hymn 
 
 
 
 
 (No. 13), and at least glance at 
 
 
 
 
 his Voices of Freedom .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
 Barefoot Boy 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 
 
 
 " Break, break, break, on thy cold 
 
 
 
 
 gray Stones, O Sea " .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Tennyson's 
 
 " Ring out, wild Bells," in the In 
 
 
 
 Poems. 
 
 Memoriam 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
 Bugle Song, in The Princ;ess . . 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Charge of the Light Brigade . . 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 The Brook 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Monroe. 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 
 
 
 The Clerk's Tale, or the Story of 
 
 
 
 
 Grisilde, in the Canterbury 
 
 
 
 
 Tales 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Chaucer's Poems. 
 
 12. Key. 
 
 
 The Star-Spangled Banner . . . 
 
 e. 
 
 C. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 Drake. 
 
 
 
 
 The American Flag 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Smith. 
 
 
 
 
 " My Country, 't is of thee "... 
 
 e. 
 
 C. 
 
 
 BOKER. 
 
 
 
 
 The Black Regiment 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Campbell, full of fire and martial 
 
 
 
 
 music. 
 
 
 
 
 Ye Mariners of England .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Palgrave, 206, 
 
 Battle of the Baltic 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 " 207. 
 
 Soldier's Dream 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 ♦' 267. 
 
 Hohenlinden 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 R.C. 
 
 " 215. 
 " 181. 
 
 Lord Ullin's Daughter .... 
 
 m. 
 
 Love's Beginning 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 " 183. 
 
 Ode to Winter 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 256. 
 
 
 
TABLE III. 
 
 89 
 
 Group II. contmited. — Short Poetical Selections. 
 
 
 "oi. 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 §1 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 Sf.^ 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 CQ 
 
 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 
 
 
 Rule Britannia 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 Palgrave, 122. 
 
 Lowell. 
 
 
 The Crisis 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C. G. 
 
 Lowell's Poems. 
 
 Harvard Commemoration Ode , . 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C. G. 
 
 
 The Fountain 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C.G. 
 
 
 Halleck. 
 
 
 Marco Bozzaris 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Macaulay. 
 
 
 Lays of Ancient Rome, especially 
 
 
 
 
 Horatius, and Virginia, also the 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Battle of Ivry 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 O'Hara. 
 
 
 
 
 The Bivouac of the Dead . . . 
 
 
 
 
 MiTFORD. 
 
 
 
 
 Rienzi's Address 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Croly. 
 
 
 
 
 Belshazzar 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. 4. 
 Shelley's Poems. 
 
 13. Shelley. 
 
 
 Ode to the West Wind .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Palgrave. 275. 
 
 Ode to a Skylark 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 " ■ 241. 
 
 To a Lady with a Guitar . . . 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 " 252. 
 
 Italy 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 274. 
 
 Naples 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 " 227. 
 
 The Poet's Dream 
 
 d. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 R.D.C. 
 
 " 277. 
 
 The Cloud, Sensitive Plant, etc. . 
 
 m. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 
 
 Byron's Poems. 
 
 All for Love 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 
 Pali^rave, 169. 
 171. 
 
 Beauty 
 
 m. 
 
 Apostrophe to the Ocean, and The 
 
 
 
 
 Eve of Waterloo 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Monroe. 
 
 The Field of Waterloo .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 (These are among the most mag- 
 
 
 
 
 nificent poems in any language. ) 
 
 
 
 
 Bryant. 
 
 
 
 
 Thanatopsis 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Prentice. 
 
 
 
 
 The Closing Year 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Foe. 
 
 
 
 
 The Bells ; The Raven .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 No. r. 
 
 Annabel Lee 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. 5. 
 Keats's Poems. 
 
 Keats. 
 
 
 The Star 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Palgrave, 198. 
 244. 
 
 Ods to a Nightingale 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Ode to Autumn 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 R. 
 
 " III 
 
 Ode on the Poets 
 
 m. 
 
90 SHORT POETICAL SELECTIONS. 
 
 * 
 Group IL contimied. — Short Poetical Selections. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 4J "^ 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 't 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 S-^ 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 ac 
 
 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 
 
 
 A Beautiful Woman . . . . , 
 
 e. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 Palgrave, 1 74. 
 
 The Reaper 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 250. 
 " 219. 
 " 367. 
 
 Simon Lee 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Intimations of Immortality . . . 
 
 
 Herbert. 
 
 
 
 
 Gifts of God 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 74- 
 
 Read. 
 
 
 
 
 Drifting 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Sheridan's Ride 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 w 
 
 Fletcher. 
 
 
 Melancholy 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 Palgrave, 104. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 
 
 Rape of the Lock 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Pope's Poems. 
 
 14. Ingelow. 
 
 
 
 
 The Brides of Enderby .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 High Tide, etc 
 
 
 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 
 
 
 Loss of the Royal George ? . . 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 Palgrave, 129. 
 
 Solitude of Selkirk 
 
 ni. 
 
 R. 
 
 160. 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 
 
 
 Alexander's Feast 
 
 d 
 
 R. 
 
 116. 
 
 Collins. 
 
 
 
 
 The Passions 
 
 d. 
 
 R. 
 
 " 141. 
 
 JONSON. 
 
 
 Hymn to Diana 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 78. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 
 
 
 Cato's Soliloquy 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Lodge. 
 
 
 
 
 Rosaline 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Palgrave 16. 
 
 Herrick. 
 
 
 Counsel to Girls 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 R. 
 
 82. 
 
 " 92. 
 
 The Poetry of Dress 
 
 e. 
 
 15. Goethe. 
 
 
 
 
 Raphael Chorus, — a wonderful 
 
 
 
 
 chorus of three stanzas in 
 
 
 
 
 Faust. Read Shelley's trans- 
 
 
 
 
 lations, both literal and free, in 
 
 
 
 
 his Fragments 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 Shelley's Poems. 
 
 Omar Khayyam. 
 
 
 
 
 Rubaiyat, especially the " moving 
 
 
 
 
 shadow-shape " and the " phan- 
 
 
 
 
 tom caravan " stanzas, for their 
 
 
 
 
 magnificent imagery .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 Fi'^zgerald's 
 
 Euripides. 
 
 
 
 Translation. 
 
 Chorus in Medea — Campbell's 
 
 
 
 
 translation 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 Campbell's 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 Poems. 
 
•TABLE III. 91 
 
 Group II. continued. — Short Poetical Select iofis. 
 
 Calderon. 
 
 Read Shelley's Fragments . . . 
 Schiller. 
 
 The Battle 
 
 The Song of the Bell 
 
 MOLIERE. 
 
 Tartuff 3', or The Hypocrite . . . 
 
 Le Misanthrope, or The Man- 
 
 Hater 
 
 
 Manner 
 
 of 
 Reading. 
 
 R.C.G. 
 
 R. 
 R. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 Where found. 
 
 Shelley's Poems. 
 Schiller's Poems. 
 
 No. 4. 
 Publ. separately. 
 
 Moliere's Plays. 
 
 Group III. — Short Prose Selections. 
 
 
 'o >■ 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 a 5 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 1) ^t: 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 QQ 
 
 
 
 16. Lincoln. 
 
 
 
 
 Gettysburg Oration. Famous for 
 
 
 
 
 its calm, clear, simple beauty, 
 
 
 
 
 breadth, and power 
 
 m. 
 
 R.C. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Irving, our greatest master of style ; 
 
 
 
 
 his prose is poetry. 
 
 
 
 
 Rip Van Winkle 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Sketch Book. 
 
 The Spectre Bridecjroom .... 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 U .i 
 
 The Art of Book-Making . . . 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 (( C( 
 
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow . . 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 (c a 
 
 17. Bacon. 
 
 
 
 
 Essay on Studies. Note the clear- 
 
 
 
 
 ness and completeness of Bacon, 
 
 
 
 
 and his tremendous condensation 
 
 
 
 
 of thought 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Bacon's Essays. 
 
 Carlyle. 
 
 
 
 
 Apostrophe to Columbus, p. 19^ 
 
 
 
 
 of Past and Present, — Carlyle's 
 
 
 
 
 finest passage 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
 Await the Issue 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Monroe. 
 
 The account of the conversational 
 
 
 
 
 powers of Coleridoje, given' in 
 
 
 
 
 Carlyle's Life of Sterling . . . 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 
92 
 
 SHORT PROSE SELECTIONS. 
 
 Group III. contifiued. — Short Prose Selections, 
 
 
 ,^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Manner 
 
 
 
 
 of 
 
 Where found. 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Reading. 
 
 
 
 QQ 
 
 
 
 i8. Webster. 
 
 
 
 
 Liberty and Union, — a selection 
 
 
 
 
 from the answer to Hayne in the 
 
 
 
 
 United States Senate, on the 
 
 
 
 
 question of the power of a State 
 
 
 
 
 to nulhfy the acts of Congress, 
 
 
 
 
 and to withdraw from the Union, 
 
 
 
 
 — the greatest of American ora- 
 
 
 
 
 tions, and worthy to rank side by 
 
 
 
 
 side with the world's best . . . 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Phillips. 
 
 
 
 
 Comparison of Toussaint L'Ou- 
 
 
 
 
 verture with Napoleon, in his 
 
 
 
 Phillips's 
 
 oration on Toussaint .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D.C. 
 
 Speeches. 
 
 19. Everett. 
 
 
 
 
 Discoveries of Galileo .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 BURRITT. 
 
 
 
 
 One Niche the Highest .... 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 20. Hugo. 
 
 
 
 
 The Monster Cannon, one of 
 
 
 
 
 the great Frenchman's master 
 
 
 
 
 strokes, — a very thrilling scene, 
 
 
 
 
 splendidly painted 
 
 e. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Rome and Carthage 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 De Quincey. 
 
 
 
 
 Noble Revenge 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 21. POE. 
 
 
 
 Murders in the Rue Morgue . . 
 
 d. 
 
 R. 
 
 Little Classics. 
 
 Ingersoll. 
 
 
 
 Ingersoll's 
 
 Oration at the funeral of his brother 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 Prose Poems. 
 
 22. Scott. 
 
 
 
 
 Thirty-sixth chapter of the Heart 
 
 
 
 
 of Midlothian 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 
 Curtis. 
 
 
 Nations and Humanity .... 
 
 m. 
 
 R. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 23. Taylor. 
 
 
 
 
 The sections on Temperance and 
 
 
 
 
 Chastity in the Holy Living and 
 
 
 
 
 DvinsT 
 
 ni. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 
 ■■-^j* *& ......... 
 
 Brooks. 
 
 
 
 
 Pamphlet on Tolerance, — the best 
 
 
 
 
 book in the world on a most vital 
 
 
 
 
 subject 
 
 m. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 
 
 
TABLE III. 
 
 93 
 
 Group IV. — Wit and Humor — Short List. 
 
 
 QQ 
 
 Manner 
 
 of 
 Reading. 
 
 Where found. 
 
 24. Lowell. 
 
 Biglow Papers 
 
 e. 
 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 R.D. 
 
 R.D. 
 
 S. 
 S. 
 S. 
 
 s. 
 
 S. 
 
 s. 
 s. 
 
 s. 
 
 Lowell's Poems. 
 
 No. IT. 
 
 No. 13. 
 Innocents 
 Abroad. 
 
 Cumnock's 
 Choice Readings. 
 
 (( <( 
 Publ. separately. 
 
 Fable for Critics 
 
 d 
 
 The Courtin' 
 
 e. 
 
 Holmes. 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table . 
 25. Carleton. 
 
 Farm Ballads, especially the Visit 
 of the School Committee, and 
 The Rivals 
 
 m. 
 e. 
 
 Stowe. 
 
 Laughin' in Meetin' ..... 
 Twain. 
 
 On New England Weather . 
 
 European Guides, and Turkish 
 Baths 
 
 e. 
 
 e. 
 e. 
 
 26. Dickens. 
 
 Pickwick Papers 
 
 e. 
 
 James De Mille. 
 
 A Senator Entangled 
 
 Lover. 
 
 The Gridiron 
 
 e. 
 e. 
 
 Whately. 
 Historic Doubts regarding Napo- 
 leon 
 
 e. 
 
 
 
94 SUPPLEMENTARY GENERAL READING. 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY GENERAL READING. 
 
 In addition to the short courses set forth in Tables 
 II. and III., at the same time, if the reader has a 
 sufficiency of spare hours, but always in subordina- 
 tion to the above courses, it is recommended that at- 
 tention be given to the following books : — 
 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, (e. R. D.) 
 
 Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, (e. S.) 
 
 Dickens' Christmas Carol (m. R. D.) ; Cricket on the 
 Hearth, (m. R. D.) 
 
 Ruskin's Crown of Wild Olive (m. R. D.) ; Ethics of 
 the Dust (m. R. D.) ; Sesame and Lilies, (m. R. D.) 
 
 Emerson's Essays (d. R. D. C.) ; especially those on 
 Manners, Gifts, Love, Friendship, The Poet, and on Repre- 
 sentative Men. 
 
 Demosthenes on the Crown, (m. R. D. C. G.) 
 
 Burke's Warren Hastings Oration, (m. R. D. C. G.) 
 
 Phillips' Speeches on Lovejoy and Garrison, (m. R. 
 D. C. G.) 
 
 La Fontaine's Fables, (m. R. D.) 
 
 Short Biographies of the World's Hundred Greatest Men. 
 (m. R. D.) 
 
 Marshall's Life of Washington, (m. R. D. G.) 
 
 Carlyle'^ Cromwell, (m. R. D. G.) 
 
 Tennyson's In Memoriam. (d. R. D. C.) 
 
TABLE IV. 95 
 
 Byron's Childe Harold, (m. R. D. C.) 
 Burns' Cotter's Saturday Night, (m. R. D.) 
 Keats' Endymion. (d. R. D. C.) 
 Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, (d. R. D. C. G.) 
 Campbell's Pleasures of Plope. (m. R. D. C.) 
 Goldsmith's Deserted Village., (m. R. D. C.) 
 Pope's Essay on Man. (m. R. D. C.) 
 Thomson's Seasons, (m. R. D. C.) 
 
CHILDREN. 
 
 So far we have spoken of reading for grown 
 people. Now we must deal with the reading of 
 young folks, — a subject of the utmost importance. 
 For to give a child good habits of reading, to make 
 him like to read and master strong, pure books, — 
 books filled with wisdom and beauty, — and equally 
 eager to shun bad books, is to do for him and the 
 world a service of the highest possible character ; and 
 to neglect the right care of a child in this matter is 
 to do him an injury far greater than to mutilate his 
 face or cut off his arm. 
 
WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Parents, teachers, and others interested in the 
 welfare of young people have not only to solve the 
 problem of selecting books for their own nourish- 
 ment, but also the more difficult problem of pro- 
 viding the young folks with appropriate literary food. 
 As literature may be made one of the most powerful 
 influences in the development of a child, the greatest 
 care should be taken to make the influence true, 
 pure, and tender, and give it in every respect the 
 highest possible character, which requires as much 
 care to see that bad books do not come into the 
 child's possession and use, as to see that good books 
 do. The ability to read adds to life a wonderful 
 power, but it is a power for evil as well as good. As 
 Lowell says, " It is the key which admits us to the 
 whole world of thought and fancy and imagination, — 
 to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and 
 wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moments. It 
 enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with 
 the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of 
 all time. More than that, it annihilates time and 
 space for us, — reviving without a miracle the Age 
 of Wonder, and endowing us with the shoes of swift- 
 ness and the cap of darkness." Yes, but it opens 
 
 7 
 
98 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 our minds to the thoughts of the vile as well as to 
 those of the virtuous ; it unlocks the prisons and 
 haunts of vice as well as the school and the church ; it 
 drags us through the sewer as well as gives us admis- 
 sion to the palace ; it feeds us on filth as well as the 
 finest food ; it pours upon our souls the deepest deg- 
 radation as well as the spirit of divinity. Parents will 
 do well to keep from their children such books as Rich- 
 ardson's ** Pamela" and ** Clarissa Harlowe ; " Field- 
 ing's " Joseph Andrews," " Jonathan Wild," and " Tom 
 Jones ; " Smollett's " Humphrey Clinker," " Peregrine 
 Pickle," and " Adventures of an Atom ; " Sterne's 
 "Tristram Shandy;" Swift's "Gulliver," and their 
 modern relatives. Many of these coarse pictures of 
 depravity and microscopic analyses of filth I cannot 
 read without feeling insulted by their vulgarity, as I 
 do when some one tells an indecent story in my 
 presence. Whatever the power or wit of a book, if 
 its motive is not high and its expression lofty, it 
 should not come into contact with any life, at least 
 until its character is fixed and hardened in the mould 
 of virtue beyond the period of plasticity that might 
 receive the imprint of the badness in the book. 
 There are plenty of splendid books that are pure and 
 ennobling as well as strong and humorous, — more 
 of them than anyone person can ever read, — so that 
 there is no necessity of contact with imperfect litera- 
 ture. If a boy comes into possession of a book that 
 he would not like to read aloud to his mother or 
 sister, he has something that is not good for him to 
 
WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 99 
 
 read, — something that is not altogether the very 
 best for anybody to read. Some liberty of choice, 
 however, ought to be allowed the children. It will 
 add much to the vigor and enthusiasm of a boy's 
 reading if, instead of prescribing the precise volume 
 he is to have at each step, he is permitted to make 
 his own selection from a list of three or four chosen by 
 the person who is guiding him. What these three or 
 four should be, is the problem. I cannot agree with 
 Lowell, when he says that young people ought to 
 " confine themselves to the supreme books in what- 
 ever literature, or, still better, choose some one great 
 author and make themselves thoroughly familiar with 
 him," It is possible to know something of peo- 
 ple in general about me without neglecting my best 
 friends. It is possible to enjoy the society of Shak- 
 speare, Goethe, ^schylus, Dante, Homer, Plato, 
 Spencer, Scott, Eliot, Marcus Aurelius, and Irving, 
 without remaining in ignorance of the power and 
 beauty to be found in Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Byron, 
 Burns, Goldsmith, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Longfel- 
 low, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell, Ingersoll, Omar, 
 Arnold, Brooks, and Robertson, Curtis, Aldrich, 
 Warner, Jewett, Burroughs, Bulwer, Tourgee, Hearn, 
 Kingsley, MacDonald, Hawthorne, Dickens, Thack- 
 eray, Carlyle, Ruskin, Hugo, Bronte, Sienkiewicz, and 
 a host of others. Scarcely a day passes that I do not 
 spend a little time with Shakspeare, Goethe, Aeschy- 
 lus, Spencer, and Irving; but I should be sorry to have 
 any one of those I have named beyond call at any 
 
lOO WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 time. There are parts of Holmes, Lowell, Brooks,* 
 Emerson, Omar, Arnold, Tourgee, and Hearn that 
 are as dear to me as any passages of equal size in 
 Goethe or Irving. So it does not seem best to me to 
 confine the attention to the supreme books; a just 
 proportion is the true rule. Let the supreme books 
 have the supreme attention, absorb them, print them 
 on the brain, carry them, about in the heart, but give 
 a due share of time to other books. I like the 
 suggestion of Marietta Holley : ** I would feed chil- 
 dren with little sweet crumbs of the best of books, 
 and teach them that a whole rich feast awaited them 
 in the full pages," only taking care in each instance 
 that the crumb is well rounded, the picture not torn 
 or distorted. There are paragraphs and pages in 
 many works of the second rank that are equal to 
 almost anything in the supreme books, and superior 
 to much the latter contain. These passages should 
 be sought and cherished ; and the work of condensing 
 the thought and beauty of literature — making a 
 sort of literary prayer-book — is an undertaking that 
 ought not to be much longer delayed. Until it is 
 done, however, there is no way but to read widely, 
 adapting the speed and care to the value of the vol- 
 ume. Some things may be best read by deputy, as 
 Mark Twain climbed the Alps by agent; newspapers, 
 for example, and many of the novels that flame up 
 like a haystack on fire, and fade like a meteor in its 
 fall, striking the earth never to rise again. The time 
 that many a young man spends upon newspapers 
 
WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. lOI 
 
 would be sufficient to make him familiar with a dozen 
 undying books every year. Newspapers are not to 
 be despised, but they should not be allowed to crowd 
 out more important things. I keep track of the 
 progress of events by reading the " Outlook " in the 
 ** Christian Union " every week, and glancing at 
 the head-lines of the ** Herald " or " Journal," read- 
 ing a little of anything specially important, or getting 
 an abstract from a friend who always reads the paper. 
 A good way to economize time is for a number of 
 friends to take the same paper, the first page being 
 allotted to one, the second to another, and so on, 
 each vocally informing the others of the substance of 
 his page. If time cannot be found for both the news- 
 paper and the classic, the former, not the latter, 
 should receive the neglect. 
 
 This matter of the use of time is one concerning 
 which parents should strive to give their children 
 good habits from the first. If you teach a child to 
 economize time, and fill him with a love of good 
 books, you ensure him an education far beyond any- 
 thing he can get in the university, — an education 
 that will cease only with his life. The creation of a 
 habit of industrious study of books that will improve 
 the character, develop the powers, and store the mind 
 with force and beauty, — that is the great object. 
 
 A good example is the best teacher. It is well for 
 parents to keep close to the child until he grows old 
 enough to learn how to determine for himself what 
 he should read (which usually is not before fifteen or 
 
102 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 twenty, and in many cases never) ; for children, and 
 grown folks too for that matter, crave intellectual 
 as much as they do physical companionship. 
 
 The methods of guiding the young in the paths 
 of literature fall naturally into two groups, — the first 
 being adapted to childhood not yet arrived at the 
 power of reading alone, the second adapted to later 
 years. There is no sharp line of division or exclu- 
 sion, but only a general separation ; for the methods 
 peculiarly appropriate to each period apply to some 
 extent in the other. Some children are able to read 
 weighty books at three or four years of age, but most 
 boys and girls have to plod along till they are eight 
 or ten before they can read much alone. I will con- 
 sider the periods of child life I have referred to, each 
 by itself. 
 
 The Age of Stories. — It is not necessary or proper 
 to wait until a child can read, before introducing it to 
 the best literature. Most of the books written for 
 children have no permanent value, and most of the 
 reading books used in primary and grammar schools 
 contain little or no genuine literature, and what they 
 do contain is in fragments. Portions of good books 
 are useful, if the story of each part is complete, but 
 children do not like the middle of a story without the 
 beginning and end ; they have the sense of entirety, 
 and it should be satisfied. And it is not difficult to 
 do this. Literature affords a multitude of beautiful 
 stories of exceeding interest to children, and of per- 
 manent attractiveness through all the after years of 
 
WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 103 
 
 their lives. Such h'terature is as available, as a means 
 of teaching the art of reading, as is the trash in dreary- 
 droning over which the precious years of childhood 
 are spent in our public schools. The development 
 of the child mind follows the same course as the 
 development of the mind of the race. The little boy 
 loves the wonderful and the strong, and nearly every- 
 thing is wonderful to him except himself. Living 
 things especially interest him. Every child is a born 
 naturalist; his heart turns to birds and beasts, flow- 
 ers and stars. He is hungry for stories of animals, 
 giants, fairies, etc. Myths and fairy tales are his 
 natural food. His power of absorbing and retaining 
 them is marvellous. One evening a few weeks ago 
 a little boy who is as yet scarcely able to read words 
 of two and three letters asked me for a story. I 
 made an agreement with him that whatever I told 
 him, he should afterward repeat to me, and then 
 gave him the story of the elephant who squirted 
 muddy water over the cruel tailor that pricked his 
 trunk with a needle. No sooner had I finished than 
 he threw his arms around my neck and begged for 
 another story. I told him eight in rapid succession, 
 some of them occupying three or four minutes, and 
 then asked him to tell me about the elephants, dogs, 
 bears, etc., that 1 had spoken of. He recited every 
 story with astonishing accuracy and readiness, and 
 apparently without effort, and would have been 
 ready for eight more bits of Wood or Andersen, 
 if his bedtime had not intervened. If parents would 
 
104 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 take as much pains to satisfy the mind hunger of 
 their children as they do to fulfil their physical wants, 
 and give them the best literature as well as the 
 best beef and potatoes, the boys and girls would 
 have digested the greater part of mythology, natural 
 science, and the best fiction by the time they are 
 able to read. Children should be fed with the lit- 
 erature that represents the childhood of the race. 
 Out of that literature has grown all literature. Give a 
 child the contents of the great books of the dawn, and 
 you give him the best foundation for subsequent ht- 
 erary growth, and in after life he will be able to follow 
 the intricate interweaving of the old threads through- 
 out all modern thought. He has an immense affinity 
 for those old books, for they are full of music and 
 picturesqueness, teeming with vigorous life, bursting 
 with the strange and wonderful. In the following 
 list parents and teachers will find abundant materials 
 for the culture of the little ones, either by reading 
 aloud to them, or still better by telling them the 
 substance of what they have gathered by their own 
 reading of these famous stories and ditties. Pictures 
 are always of the utmost value in connection with 
 books and stories, as they impart a vividness of con- 
 ception that words alone are powerless to produce. 
 One plea for sincerity I must make, — truth and 
 frankness from the cradle to the grave. Do not 
 delude the children. Do not persuade them that a 
 fairy tale is history. I have a sad memory of my 
 disgust and loss of confidence in human probity when 
 
WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. IO5 
 
 I discovered the mythical character of Kriss Kringle, 
 and I believe many children are needlessly shocked 
 in this way. 
 
 List of Materials for Story-telling and for the 
 Instruction and Amusement of Childhood. 
 
 " Mother Goose," " Jack and the Bean-Stalk," " Jack the 
 Giant-Killer," "Three Bears," "Red Riding-Hood," 
 "The Ark," " Hop o' my Thumb," " Puss in Boots," 
 "Samson," "Ugly Duckling," "The Horse of Troy" 
 (Virgil). " Daniel in the Lion's Den," etc. 
 
 Andersen's " Fairy Tales." Delightful to all children. 
 
 Grimm's "Fairy Tales." 
 
 De Garmo's " Fairy Tales." 
 
 Craik's " Adventures of a Brownie." 
 
 "Parents' Assistant," by Maria Edgeworth, recommended 
 by George William Curtis, Mary Mapes Dodge, Charles 
 Dudley Warner, etc. 
 
 " Zigzag Journeys," a series of twelve books, written by 
 Hezekiah Butterworth, one of the editors of the " Youth's 
 Companion." As might be supposed, they are among 
 the very best and most enduringly popular books ever 
 written for young people. 
 
 Wood's books of Anecdotes about Animals, and many 
 other works of similar character, that may be obtained 
 from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
 to Animals, 19 Milk Street, Boston. The literature dis- 
 tributed by this Society is filled with the spirit of love 
 and tenderness for all living things, and is one of the 
 best influences that can come into a child's life. 
 
 Mary Treat's " Home Book of Nature." One of the best 
 books of science for young people. 
 
I06 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Bulfinch's "Age of Fable." A book that is exhaustive of 
 Greek and Roman mythology, but meant for grown folks. 
 
 Bulfinch's "Age of Chivalry." 
 
 Fiske's " Myths and Myth Makers." Brief, deep, and sug- 
 gestive. 
 
 Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." 
 Books that no house containing children should lack. 
 
 Cox's "Tales of Ancient Greece." 
 
 Baldwin's " Stories of the Golden Age." 
 
 Forestier's " Echoes from Mist Land." An interesting study 
 of the Nibelungenlied. 
 
 Lucian's " Dialogues of the Gods." Written to ridicule an- 
 cient superstitions. 
 
 Curtin's " Folk Lore of Ireland." 
 
 Stories of Greek Heroes, Kingsley. 
 
 Stories from Bryant's Odyssey. 
 
 Stories from Church's " Story of the Iliad." 
 
 Stories from Church's " Story of the ^'Eneid." 
 
 Stories from Herodotus, Church. 
 
 Stories from the Greek Tragedians, Church. 
 
 Stories of Charlemagne, Hanson. 
 
 Stories from " Arabian Nights," Bulfinch. 
 
 Stories from " Munchausen," and Maundeville. 
 
 Stories from Chaucer, especially " Griselda." (From Chaucer, 
 or from Mrs. Havveis' book.) 
 
 Stories told to a Child, by Jean Ingelow. 
 
 Stories from the " Morte D' Arthur," Malory or Lanier. 
 
 Stories from Lanier's " Froissart." 
 
 Stories from Shakspeare. 
 
 Stories of the Revolution, Riedesel. 
 
 Stories from American and English History about the 
 Magna Charta, Henry Vllf., Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell, 
 
WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. lO/ 
 
 Pitt, Gladstone, Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, Washington, Rebellion, Lincoln, etc. 
 
 Stories of American life, from " Oldtovvn Folks," " Sam Law- 
 son's Fireside Stories," and from the best novels. 
 
 Stories from the " Book of Golden Deeds," Miss Yonge. 
 
 Stories from Bolton's " Poor Boys who became Famous," 
 and " Girls who became Famous." 
 
 Stories from Smiles's "Self-Help." Full of brief, inspiring 
 stories of great men. 
 
 Stories from Todd's " Students' Manual." 
 
 Stories from Irving's " Sketch Book," Rip Van Winkle, etc. 
 
 Stories from Green's "Short History of the English People." 
 
 Stories from Doyle's " History of the United States." One of 
 the very best brief histories. 
 
 Stories from Mackenzie's " History of the Nineteenth 
 Century." 
 
 Stories from Coffin's " Story of Liberty." 
 
 Stories from Freeman's '•' General Sketch of History." 
 
 Stories from the " Stories of the Nations." (Putnam's Series.) 
 
 Stories from the books of Columns 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, and 14 
 of Table I. 
 
 The story of Christ and his Apostles. (It is scarcely need 
 ful to mention Bible stories in general. Every child born 
 into a civilized family is saturated with them ; but the 
 simple story of Christ's life as an entirety is too seldom 
 told them.) 
 
 The story of Buddha, from the " Light of Asia." 
 
 The story of Mahomet, Irving. 
 
 The story of Confucius. 
 
 The story of Socrates drinking the hemlock, from Plato, or 
 from Fe'nelon's " Lives of the Philosophers," which con- 
 tains many splendid Greek stories. 
 
I08 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 The story of Prometheus, from ^schylus. 
 
 The story of Diogenes in his Tub. 
 
 The story of Thermopylae and other battles, from Cressy. 
 
 The story of Carthage, from Putnam's series of the " Stories 
 of the Nations." (Nine to eleven years.) 
 
 The story of Roland, Baldwin. 
 
 The story of the Cid, Southey. 
 
 The story of the Nibelungenlied. (See Baldwin's " Story 
 of Siegfried.") 
 
 The story of Faust, from "Zigzag Journeys." 
 
 The story of " Reynard the Fox," Goethe. 
 
 The story of Pythagoras and the transmigration of souls. 
 
 The story of Astronomy, from Herschel, Proctor, etc. 
 
 The story of Geology, from Lyell, Dawson, Miller, etc., or 
 from Dana's " The Geological Story, Briefly Told." 
 
 The story of Athena, Pluto, Neptune, Apollo, Juno, Mars, 
 Jupiter, Mercury, Charon, Vulcan, Zeus, lo, Orpheus, 
 and Eurydice, Phaeton, Arachne, Ariadne, Iphigenia, 
 Ceres, Vesta, Herakles, Minerva, Venus, Scylla and Cha- 
 rybdis, Hercules, Ulysses, Helen, Achilles, ^neas, etc., 
 from Bulfinch's " Age of Fable," " Zigzag Journeys," etc. 
 
 The story of William Tell, the Man in the Moon, etc., from 
 S. Baring Gould's " Curious Myths." 
 
 The story of the Courtship of Miles Standish. 
 
 The story of the Niirnburg Stove, from Ouida's " Bimbi." 
 
 The story of Robert Bruce. 
 
 The story of Circe's Palace, from '' Tangle wood Tales." 
 
 The story of Pandora's Box, from the *' Wonder Book." 
 
 The story of Little Nell, from " The Old Curiosity Shop." 
 
 The story of the Boy in *' Vanity Fair." 
 
 Many other books might be placed on the list of parent- 
 helpers. Indeed, the perfect guidance of youth would re- 
 
FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. 109 
 
 quire a perfect knowledge of literature throughout its breadth 
 and depth ; but the above suggestions, if followed in any- 
 large degree, will result in a far better training than most 
 children now receive. 
 
 THE FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. 
 
 As the child learns to read by itself, the books 
 from which were drawn the stories it has heard may 
 be given to it, care being taken that every gift shall 
 be adapted to the ability of the little one. The fact 
 that the boy has heard the story of Horatius at the 
 Bridge does not diminish, but vastly increases, his de- 
 sire to read the ** Lays of Ancient Rome." When he 
 comes to the possession of the book, it seems to him 
 like a discovery of the face of a dear friend with 
 whose voice he has long been familiar. I well remem- 
 ber with what delight I adopted the " Sketch Book " 
 as one of my favorites on finding Rip Van Winkle 
 in it. 
 
 Below will be found a list of books intended as a 
 suggestion of what should be given to children of 
 various ages. The larger the number of good books 
 the child can be induced to read each year, the better 
 of course, so long as his powers are not overtaxed, 
 and the reading is done with due thoroughness. But 
 if only four or five are selected from each year's list, 
 the boy will know more of standard literature by the 
 time he is sixteen, than most of his elders do. Each 
 
no WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 book enters the list at the earliest age an ordinary 
 child would be able to read it with ease, and it may- 
 be used then or at any subsequent age ; for no books 
 are mentioned which are not of everlasting interest 
 and profit to childhood, manhood, and age. Many 
 of the volumes named below may also be used by 
 parents and teachers as story-mines. There is no 
 sharp line between the periods of story-telling and of 
 reading. Most children read simple English readily 
 at eight or ten years of age ; many do a large amount 
 of reading long before that, and nearly all do some 
 individual work in the earlier period. The change 
 should be gradual. For the stimulus that comparison 
 gives, story-telling and reading aloud should be con- 
 tinued long after the child is able to read alone ; in 
 truth, it ought never to cease. Story-telling ought to 
 be a universal practice. Stories should be told to 
 and by everybody. One of the best things grown 
 folks can do is to tell each other the substance of 
 their experience from day to day ; and probably no 
 finer means of education exists than to have the 
 children give an account at supper or in the hour or 
 two following, of what they have seen, heard, read, 
 thought, and felt during the day. In the same way 
 reading solus should lap over into the early period 
 as far as possible. One of the greatest needs of the 
 day is a class of books that shall put solid sense into 
 very simple words. A child can grasp the wonder- 
 ful, strong, loving, pathetic, and even the humorous 
 and critical, long before it can overcome the mechan- 
 
FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. I I I 
 
 ical difficulties of reading. By so much as we dimin- 
 ish these, we push education nearer to the cradle. 
 Charles Dudley Warner says, " As a general thing, I 
 do not believe in books written for children ; " and 
 Phillips Brooks, Marietta Holley, Brooke Herford, 
 and others express a similar feeling. But the trouble 
 is not with iho. plan of writing for children, but with 
 the execution. If the highest thoug/its and feelings 
 were written in the simplest words, — written as a wise 
 parent tells them to his little ones, — then we should 
 have a juvenile literature that could be recommended. 
 As it is, most writers for babies seem to have far less 
 sense than the babies. Their books are filled with 
 unnatural, make-believe emotions, and egregious non- 
 sense in the place of ideas. The best prose for young 
 people will be found in the works of Hawthorne, 
 Curtis, Warner, Holmes, Irving, Addison, Goldsmith, 
 Burroughs, and Poe; and the best poets for them are 
 Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Burns, and Homer. 
 Books that flavor sense with fun, as do those of Curtis, 
 Holmes, Lowell, Holley, Stowe, Irving, Goldsmith, 
 Warner, Addison, and Burroughs, are among the 
 best means of creating in any heart, young or old, 
 a love for fine, pure writing. P. T. Barnum, a man 
 whose great success is largely due to his attainment 
 of that serenity of mind which Lowell calls the highest 
 result of culture, says : " I should, above almost every- 
 thing else, try to cultivate in the child a kindly sense of 
 humor. Wherever a pure, hearty laugh rings through 
 Hterature, he should be permitted and taught to en- 
 
112 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 joy it." This judgment comes from a knowledge ol 
 the sustaining power a love of humor gives a man 
 immersed in mental cares and worriments. Lincoln 
 is, perhaps, the best example of its power. 
 
 It is often an inspiration to a boy to know that a 
 book he is reading has helped and been beloved by 
 some one whose name is to him a synonym of great- 
 ness, — to know, for example, that Franklin got his 
 style from the " Spectator," which he studied dili- 
 gently when a boy ; that Francis Parkman from fifteen 
 to twenty-one obtained more pleasure and profit from 
 Scott than from any other writer ; that Darwin was 
 very fond of Mark Twain's '* Treatise on the Frog; " 
 that Marietta Holley places Emerson, Tennyson, and 
 Eliot next to the Bible in her list of favorites ; that 
 Senator Hoar writes Emerson, Wordsworth, and Scott 
 next after the Bible and Shakspeare ; that Robert 
 Collyer took great delight in Irving's '* Sketch Book," 
 when a youth ; that the great historian Lecky is said 
 to be in the habit of taking Irving with him when he 
 goes to bed ; that Phillips Brooks read Jonson many 
 times when a boy, and that Lockhart's Scott was 
 a great favorite with him, though the Doctor at- 
 taches no special significance to either of these facts ; 
 that Susan Coolidge thinks " Hans Brinker " is the 
 best of all American books for children, etc. Similar 
 facts may be found in relation to very many of the 
 best books, and will aid much in arousing an interest 
 in them. 
 
 Plato, Bacon, Goethe, Spencer, Emerson, and many 
 
FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. II3 
 
 others of the best are for the most part too difficult 
 to be properly grasped until the mind is more mature 
 than it usually is at sixteen. No precise rules, how- 
 ever, can be laid down on this subject. I have known 
 a boy read Spencer's '* First Principles " and Goethe's 
 '' Faust " and " VVilhelm Meister " at sixteen, and gain 
 a mastery of them. All I have attempted to do is to 
 make broad suggestions ; experiment in each case 
 must do the rest. 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Six or Eight Years- 
 of Age and tipzvard. 
 
 Little Lord Fauntleroy. A book that cannot fail to delight 
 and improve every reader. 
 
 King of the Golden River, Ruskin. 
 
 *' Rosebud," from " Harvard Sophomore Stories." 
 
 Christmas all the Year round, Hovvells. 
 
 Mrs. Stowe's '' Laughin' in Meetin'." An exceedingly funny 
 story. 
 
 " Each and All " and " Seven Little Sisters," by Jane An- 
 drews. Used in the Boston Public Schools as supple- 
 mentary reading. 
 
 Classics in Babyland, Bates. 
 
 Scudder's '•' Fables and Folk Stories." Fine hooks for little 
 ones. 
 
 ^sop. 
 
 Rainbows for Children, Lydia Maria Child. 
 
 Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell. The autobiography of a 
 splendid horse, and the best teacher of kmdness to ani- 
 mals we know of. 
 
 8 
 
114 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Burroughs' " Birds and Bees." In fact, all his beautiful and 
 simple stories of Nature — " Pepacton," " Fresh Fields," 
 " Wake Robin," " Winter Sunshine," " Signs and Sea- 
 sons," etc. — are the delight of children as soon as they 
 can read. 
 
 Winslow's " Fairy Geography." 
 
 By Sea-side and Wayside, Wright, 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Eight to Nine Years of 
 Age and upward. 
 
 Sandford and Merton, Day. One of the very best of 
 children's books. 
 
 Play Days, Sarah Orne Jewett. 
 
 Andersen's " Fairy Tales." Cannot be too highly praised. 
 
 Stories from King Arthur, Hanson. A good foundation for 
 the study of Malory, Tennyson, etc. 
 
 " Winners in Life's Race," and " Life and her Children," 
 by Miss Arabella Buckley. Books that charm many chil- 
 dren of eight or nine. 
 
 Fairy Frisket ; or. Peeps at Insect Life. Nelson & Sons. 
 
 Physiology, with pictures. 
 
 Queer Little People, Mrs. Stowe. 
 
 Kmgsley's " Water Babies." A beautiful book, as indeed are 
 all of Kingsley's. 
 
 Longfellow's " Building of the Ship." 
 
 The Fountam, Lowell. 
 
 Ye Mariners of England, Campbell. 
 
 Carleton's " Farm Ballads and Farm Legends." Humorous, 
 pathetic, sensible. 
 
FORMATION OP^ A GOOD READING HABIT. II 5 
 
 Literatitre adapted to a CJiild Nine to Ten Years of 
 Age and npivard. 
 
 Story of a Bad Boy, Aldrich. A splendid book for boys. 
 Boys of '76, Coffin. An eight-year-old boy read it five times, 
 
 he was so pleased with it. 
 New Year's Bargain, Coolidge. 
 Pussy Willow, Stovve. 
 
 Hanson's " Homer and Virgil." Brief, clear, simple, clean. 
 Stories from Homer, Hanson. 
 Stories from Pliny, White. 
 Grimm's " Fairy Tales." 
 Legend of Sleeping Beauty. 
 Clodd's '' The Childhood of the World." A splendid book 
 
 to teach children the development of the world. 
 '* Friends in Feathers and Fur," " Wings and Fins," " Paws 
 
 and Claws," by Johonnot. Books much liked by the 
 
 little ones. 
 First Book of Zoology, Morse. 
 Halleck's ^' Marco Bozzaris." 
 Wordsworth's " Peter Bell." 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, Strickland. 
 The Prince and the Pauper, Twain. A book that mingles 
 
 no small amount of sense with its abounding fun and 
 
 occasional tragedy. 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Ten or Eleven Years of 
 
 Age and upward. 
 Being a Boy, Warner. 
 Little Women, Alcott. One of the most popular books of 
 
 the day. 
 A Dog's Mission, Stowe. 
 
Il6 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Two Years before the Mast, Dana. Recommended by Sarah 
 Orne Jewett, George WiUiam Curtis, and others. 
 
 Ten Boys on the Road, Andrews. A great favorite with 
 the boys. 
 
 Jan of the Windmill, Ewing. The story of a poor boy who 
 becomes a famous painter. 
 
 Hawthorne's " Celestial Railroad." 
 
 Little People of Asia, Miller. 
 
 Hawthorne's " Tangl^wood Tales" and "Wonder Book " 
 should belong to every child old enough to read ordinary 
 English. 
 
 Adventures of a Brownie, Craik. 
 
 Stories from Chaucer, Seymour. 
 
 Stories from Livy, Church. 
 
 Lives of the Philosophers, Fenelon. An excellent book. 
 
 What Darwin saw in his Trip round the World in the Ship 
 Beagle. 
 
 Fairy Land of Science, Miss Buckley. An author who writes 
 for children to perfection. 
 
 Animal Life in the Sea and on the Land, Cooper. Very fine 
 indeed. 
 
 Darwin's chapter on the " Habits of Ants " (in the " Origin of 
 Species ") is very interesting and amusing to little ones, 
 and together with Burroughs' books prepares them to 
 read such works as Lubbock's " Ants, Bees, and Wasps." 
 
 Ragozin's " Chaldea." One of the indispensable books for 
 children. 
 
 Longfellow's " Psalm of Life." 
 
 Longfellow's " Hiawatha." 
 
 Lowell's " Under the Old Elm." 
 
 Wordsworth's "White Doe of Rylstone." 
 
 Lamb's Essay on Roast Pig. A piece of fun always en- 
 joyed by boys and girls. 
 
FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. 11/ 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Eleven to Twelve Years 
 of Age and upward. 
 
 Shakspeare's " Merchant of Venice." 
 
 Marcus Aurelius. In a school where the book was at their 
 call children from ten to thirteen carried it to and from 
 school, charmed with its beautiful thoughts, 
 Hans Brinker, Mary Mapes Dodge. One of the very best 
 
 stories for children. 
 Dickens' " Christmas Carol." 
 Hawthorne's " Great Stone Face." Highly appreciated by 
 
 the young folks. 
 Uncle Tom's Cabm, Mrs. Stowe. A book that every child 
 
 should have as soon as he is able to read it. 
 Another Flock of Girls, Nora Perry. 
 At the Back of the North Wind, Macdonald. A beautiful 
 
 story, with a high motive. 
 A Hunting of the Deer, Warner. 
 Crusade of the Children, Gray. A thrilHng story. 
 Bryant's translation of the Odyssey. 
 Story of the Iliad, Church. 
 Stories from Herodotus, Church. 
 Mary Treat's " Home Book of Nature." 
 Half Hours with the Stars, Proctor. 
 Guyot's " Earth and Man." A most excellent book. 
 First Book in Geology, Shaler. 
 First Steps in Chemistry, Brewster. 
 First Steps in Scientific Knowledge, Best. 
 Abou Ben Adhem, Hunt. 
 Scott's " Lady of the Lake." 
 Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome." 
 
Il8 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn." 
 
 Whittier's " Snow Bound." 
 
 How they Brought the Good News to Aix, Browning. 
 
 Wordsworth's " \\e are Seven." 
 
 Franklin's Autobiography. 
 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech. 
 
 Samantha at the Centennial. 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Twelve to TJiirteen Years 
 of Age and upward. 
 
 Shakspeare's "Juhus Caesar." 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan. Indispensable. 
 
 Meditation of Thomas a Kerapis. A strong influence for 
 sweetness and purity. 
 
 Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. Full of fun and good feel- 
 ing ; one of the most indispensable of books. 
 
 Cooper's novels, especially '*The Spy" and the "Last of the 
 Mohicans."' Books that are fascinating and yet wholesome. 
 
 " My Summer in a Garden," and "• In the Wilderness," 
 Warner. Very humorous. 
 
 " The Dog of Flanders," from '' Little Classics." 
 
 Picciola, Saintine. A great favorite. 
 
 The Story of Arnon, Ame'he Rives. 
 
 Drake's " Culprit Fay." 
 
 Dr. Brown's " Rab and his Friends." 
 
 "The Man without a Country," "My Double and How He 
 Undid Me," etc., by E. E. Hale. The cast is extremely 
 funny. 
 
 The Hoosier Schoolmaster, Eggleston. 
 
 'Boots and Saddles, Mrs. Custer. 
 
 Story of the yEneid, Church. 
 
FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. II9 
 
 Stories from Greek Tragedians, Church. 
 
 Plumptre's *' Sophocles." 
 
 Ruskin's ''Athena." 
 
 Boys and Girls in Biology, Stevenson. 
 
 Other Worlds than Ours, Proctor. 
 
 Captains of Industry, Barton. 
 
 Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal." One of the great poet's 
 finest productions. 
 
 Byron's "Eve of Waterloo." 
 
 Longfellow's " Evangeline." 
 
 Scott's "Marmion." 
 
 Milton's " Comus." 
 
 " The Two Runaways," " The Born Inventor," " Idyl of Sin- 
 kin' Mountain," etc., by Edwards. Very funny. 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Thirteen to Fourteen 
 Years of Age and upward. 
 
 Sliakspeare's " Coriolanus " and " Taming of the Shrew." 
 
 Scott's " Ivanhoe," " Heart of Midlothian," " Guy Manner- 
 ing," etc. It is the making of a boy if he learns to love 
 Scott. He will make a gentleman of him, and give him 
 an undying love of good literature. 
 
 Journal of Eugenie de Guerin. Full of delicacy and quiet 
 strength. 
 
 Tom Brown, Hughes. An universal favorite. 
 
 Curtis' " Prue and I." One of the very choicest books, 
 both in substance and expression, — especially remark- 
 able for its moral suggestiveness. 
 
 Craddock's " Floating down Lost Creek." Most excellent. 
 
 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson. A story with a 
 
I20 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 powerful moral, — if we give scope to our evil nature, it 
 
 will master us. 
 Goldsmith's '^ Good-Natured Man." 
 Carlyle's '' Heroes and Hero Worship." 
 Ben Hur, Wallace. 
 The Fool's Errand, Tourgee. 
 The Boys' King Arthur, Lanier. 
 Epictetus. 
 
 Physiology for Girls, Shepard. 
 Physiology for Boys, Shepard. 
 What Young People should Know, Wilder. A book that 
 
 no boy or girl should be without. 
 How Plants Behave, Gray. 
 Goethe's '• Erl King." 
 
 Browning's " Ivan Ivanovitch." A favorite. 
 The Forsaken Merman, Matthew Arnold. An exquisite 
 
 poem. 
 Longfellow's " Miles Standish." 
 Scott's " Lay of the Last Minstrel." 
 The Veiled Statue of Truth. Schiller. 
 Giitenburg, and the Art of Printing. 
 Doyle's " United States History." 
 John Bright's " Speeches on the American Question." 
 Backlog Studies, Warner. 
 " Encyclopaedia of Persons and Places," and " Encyclopaedia 
 
 of Common Things," by Champlin, should be within the 
 
 reach of every child over twelve or thirteen years of 
 
 age. 
 
FORMATION OF A GOOD READING HABIT. 121 
 
 Literature adapted to a Child Fourteen to Fifteen 
 
 Years of Age. 
 
 Shakespeare's " Henry Fourth " and " Henry Fifth." 
 Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Hohnes ; and Irving's 
 
 " Sketch Book." Two of the best books in all the world. 
 George Eliot's novels, especially '' Silas Marner," "The Mill 
 
 on the Floss," " Romola," and ^' Adam Bede." 
 The Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot. 
 Our Best Society, Curtis. 
 Bulwer's " Rienzi." 
 The Marl^le Faun, Hawthorne. 
 Sad Little Prince, Fawcett. 
 
 Chita, or Youma, by Hearn, a master of English style. 
 Grande Pointe, Cable. 
 La Fontaine's Fables. 
 Plutarch's '' Morals." 
 Ethics of the Dust, Ruskin. 
 Lady How. and Madam Why, Kingsley. 
 Sketches of Creation, Winchell. Very interesting to children 
 
 of fourteen or fifteen. 
 The Geological Story, Briefly Told, Dana. 
 Ready for Business, or Choosing an Occupation, Fowler and 
 
 Wells. 
 Ode to a Skylark, Shelley. 
 Birds of Aristophanes. Frere. 
 Alfred the Great, Hughes. 
 Plutarch's " Lives." 
 
 Green's " Short History of the English People." 
 Demosthenes on the Crown. The finest of all orations. 
 The Biglow Papers, Lowell. The best of fun and sense. 
 Sweet Cicely, Holley. Quiet humor and unfailmg wisdom. 
 Higginson's " Vacations for Saints." A splendid example of 
 
 humorous writing. 
 
122 WPIAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Liter atm'e adapted to a Child Fifteen to Sixteen 
 Years of Age and upward. 
 
 Shakspeare's " Hamlet " and " The Tempest." 
 
 Dante's " Inferno." 
 
 Dickens' " Pickwick Papers/' " David Copperfield,'' " Old 
 
 Curiosity Shop," etc. 
 Thackeray's "Vanity Fair." 
 Tourge'e's '• Hot Plowshares , " and " With Fire and Sword," 
 
 by Sienkiewicz. Two of the greatest historical novels. 
 Carlyle's " Past and Present." • 
 Arnold's " Sweetness and Light." 
 Raskin's "Crown of Wild Olive." 
 
 Emerson's Essays on " Manners," " Self- Reliance," " Elo- 
 quence," "' Friendship," " Representative Men," etc. 
 Mrs. Whitney's "Sights and Insights." A book that is 
 
 filled with beautiful thoughts and unselfish actions. 
 Spencer's "' Data of Ediics." Indispensable to a complete 
 
 understanding of ethical subjects, 
 "The Licrht of Asia." A book that cannot fail to broaden 
 
 and deepen every life it touches. 
 Ten Great Religions, Clarke. 
 Omar. Superb poetry. 
 Bryant's "Thanatopsis." 
 Coleridge's " Ancient Mariner." A lesson of the awfulness 
 
 of cruelty. 
 Auld Lang Syne, Burns. 
 Toilers of the Sea, Hugo. 
 Huxley's " Man's Place in Nature." 
 Tyndall"s "' Forms of Water." 
 Our Country, Strong. A book that ought to be in the 
 
 hands of every young person. 
 
SPECIAL STUDIES. 123 
 
 Bryce's "American Commonwealth." 
 
 Guizot's " History of Civilization." 
 
 Mill's '' Logic." No young man can afford to remain un- 
 acquainted with this book. 
 
 The Hand and Ring, Green. One of the finest examples 
 of reasoning in the language. 
 
 Poe's " Murders in the Rue Morgue " is another such ex- 
 ample, and his " Gold Bug " is another. 
 
 Phillips' Speeches 
 
 Webster's " Liberty and Union." 
 
 Golden Treasury, Palgrave. 
 
 The Spectator. One of the very best books to study, in 
 order to form a good style. Franklin and others attrib- 
 ute their success largely to reading it carefully in boyhood. 
 
 The Fable for Critics, Lowell. 
 
 The Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, Twain. Fun and 
 sense welded together to make the most delightful book 
 the author has written. 
 
 SPECIAL STUDIES. 
 
 Next in value to a love of good reading is a habit of 
 concentrating the attention upon one subject through 
 a long course of reading. In this way only can any 
 thorough mastery be obtained. The child should be 
 taught not to be satisfied with the thought of any 
 one writer, but to investigate the ideas of all upon 
 the topic in hand, and then form his own opinion. 
 Thus he will gain breadth, depth, tolerance, indepen- 
 dence, and scientific method in the search for truth. 
 Of course it is impossible in a work of this kind to 
 
124 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 map out lines of study for the multitudinous needs of 
 young people. The universities and the libraries 
 provide the means of gaining full information as to 
 the literature of any subject that may be selected. 
 A few topic-clusters may, however, be of use here in 
 the way of illustration. Many examples will be found 
 in Baldwin's " The Book Lover." 
 
 The Industrial Question. — Suppose a young man de- 
 sired to study the industrial question, which is one of 
 the most important subjects of to-day, the proper 
 method would be to go to one of the great libraries, 
 or examine the catalogues of the large publishing- 
 houses, to discover the names of recent books on 
 the given topic, or on such subjects as Labor and 
 Capital, Socialism, Co-operation, etc. Such books 
 usually refer to others, and name many kindred 
 works on the last pages. Thus the student's list will 
 swell. I have myself investigated more than two 
 hundred books on this topic and those it led me to. 
 A few of the more important I will name as a start- 
 ing-point for any one wishing to follow^ this research. 
 
 Labor, Thornton. 
 
 Conflict of Labor and Capital, Bolles ; also, Howell. 
 
 Political Economy, Mill. 
 
 Progress and Poverty, George. 
 
 Profit-Sharing, Oilman. 
 
 In Darkest England, Booth. 
 
 Wages and the Wages Class, Walker. 
 
 Book of the New Moral World, Owen. 
 
 Communistic Societies of the United States, Nordhoff. 
 
 Dynamic Sociology, Ward. 
 
SPECIAL STUDIES. I25 
 
 Looking Backward, Bellamy. 
 
 Destinee Sociale, Consid^rant. 
 
 More's "Utopia." 
 
 Co-operative Societies, Watts. 
 
 History of Co-operation, Holyoake. 
 
 The Margin of Profits, Atkinson. 
 
 Gronlund's " Co-operative Commonwealth." 
 
 Capital, Karl Marx. 
 
 The State in relation to Labor, Jevons. 
 
 Organisation du Travail, Louis Blanc. 
 
 Co-operative Stores, Morrison. 
 
 Labor and Capital, Jervis- 
 
 Newton's " Co-operative Production and Co-operative 
 Distribution in the United States." 
 
 Property and Progress, Mallock. 
 
 Principles of Sociology, Spencer. 
 
 Mill on Socialism. 
 
 The Progress of the Working Classes, GifFen. 
 
 Ely's " French and German Socialism," " Problems of To- 
 day," and " Labor Movement in America." 
 
 Dilke's " Problems of Greater Britain." 
 
 Contemporary Socialism, Rae. 
 
 Outlines of an Industrial Science, Symes. 
 
 Early History of Land-holding among the Germans, 
 Ross : etc. 
 
 Malthusianism. — To take a smaller example. Sup- 
 pose the student wishes to make a thorough study of 
 the doctrine of Malthusius in regard to population, 
 he will have to refer to Macaulay's " Essay on Sad- 
 ler," and the works on Political Economy of Ricardo, 
 Chalmers, Roscher, etc., in support of Malthus, and 
 
126 WHAT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN. 
 
 to George's " Progress and Poverty," Spencer's " Bi- 
 ology " (Vol. II.), Sadler's "Law of Population," and 
 the works of Godwin, Greg, Rickards, Doubleday, 
 Carey, Alison, etc., against him. 
 
 For an example of a very different kind, cluster 
 about the myth of Cupid the poems " Cupid and 
 my Campaspe," by Lilly; ** The Threat of Cupid," 
 translated by Herrick; *' Cupid Drowned," by Leigh 
 Hunt; and " Cupid Stung," by Moore. 
 
 A great deal depends on selecting some depart- 
 ment of thought and exhausting it. To know some- 
 thing of everything and everything of something is 
 the true aim. If a child displays fine musical or 
 artistic ability, among the books given it ought to 
 be many that bear upon music and art, — the "Au- 
 tobiography of Rubenstein ;" the Lives of Beethoven, 
 Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn ; and Rock- 
 sho's " History of Music," Upton's " Woman in Mu- 
 sic," Clayton's " Queens of Song," Lillie's " Music and 
 the Musician," Haweis' " Music and Morals," Jame- 
 son's "Lives of the Painters," Crowest's "Tone Poets," 
 Clement's " Painting and Sculpture," Mereweather's 
 " Semele, or the Spirit of Beauty," etc. 
 
 Probably these examples, with those to be found 
 in the notes to Table I., are amply sufficient to show 
 what is meant by grouping the lights of literature 
 about a single point so as to illuminate it intensely; 
 but one more specimen will be given, because of the 
 interest the subject has for us now and is likely to 
 have for many years. 
 
SPECIAL STUDIES. 12/ 
 
 The Tariff Question may be studied in Ely's *' Prob- 
 lems of To-day," Greeley's " Political Economy," 
 Carey's '* Principles of Social Science," E. P. Smith's 
 " Manual of Political Economy," Byles's " Sophisms 
 of Free Trade," Thompson's ** Social Science and 
 National Economy," Bastiat's "Sophisms of Protec- 
 tion," Mill's '* Political Economy," Sumner's '* Lec- 
 tures on the History of Protection in the United 
 States," Fawcett's ** Free Trade and Protection," Mon- 
 gredien's " History of the Free Trade Movement," 
 Butt's "Protection Free Trade," Walters' "What is 
 Free Trade," " The Gladstone-Blaine Debate," etc. 
 
128 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 Showing the Distribution of the Best Literature in Time a?id Space, with a 
 Parallel Reference to some of the World's Great Eve7its. 
 
 [It was impossible to get the writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into 
 the unit space. The former fills a space twice the unit width, and the latter, when 
 it is complete, will require five units.] 
 
 Greece 
 Homer 
 Hesiod 
 
 B.C. 
 1000 
 
 900 
 
 Israel 
 David, The 
 Psalms 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 800 
 
 
 Rome founded 
 
 ^sop 
 
 700 
 
 
 
 
 600 
 
 India 
 Buddha 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
 Babylon 
 
 Republic established at 
 Rome 
 
 The Golden Age of Grecian Literature 
 Pindar ..^scliylus Herodotus 
 Soplincles Thucvdides 
 Pericles Euripides Xenophon 
 Aristophanes 
 
 Socrates 
 
 500 
 
 Mahabharata 
 Ramayana 
 (Epics of India) 
 
 Darius, king of Persia 
 
 Greece 
 
 Battle of Marathon 
 " " Thermopylae 
 " " Salamis 
 
 Cincinnatus at Rome 
 
 Ezra at Jerusalem 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE BEST LITERATURE. 
 
 129 
 
 Plato 
 
 Aristotle 
 
 Demosthenes 
 
 400 
 
 
 Alexander 
 
 The Gauls bum Rome 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 Wars of Rome against Car- 
 thage 
 Hannibal in Italy 
 
 
 200 
 100 
 
 
 Greece becomes a Roman 
 Province 
 
 Rome 
 
 ■ The Gracchi, Marius, and 
 Sylla 
 
 Rome. Augustan Age, 31 b. c to a. d 14. 
 Reatinus Ovid 
 Sallust Livy 
 Cicero Lucretius 
 
 Virgil 
 
 
 Rome 
 Julius Caesar 
 Ponipey 
 
 Civil War, Empire estab- 
 lished 
 
 Tacitus 
 Plutarch Juvenal 
 Pliny 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Josephus 
 
 Jerusalem taken by Titus 
 Pompeii overwhelmed 
 Romans conquer Britain 
 
 Epictetus 
 Marcus Aurelius 
 
 100 
 
 
 Church Fathers 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 Aurelian conquers Zenobia 
 
I30 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 Under Constantine Christian- 
 ity becomes the State re-' 
 ligion ' 
 
 Roman Empire divided •■ 
 
 
 400 
 
 
 Angles and Saxons drive out 
 
 the Britons 
 Huns imder Attila invade_ the 
 
 Roman Empire 
 
 
 500 
 
 
 Christianity carried to Eng- 
 land by Augustine 
 
 English Literature 
 Caedmon 
 
 600 
 
 Arabia 
 Mahomet 
 
 
 Baeda 
 Cynewulf 
 
 700 
 
 
 France 
 Charlemagne founds the 
 Empire of the West 
 
 iElfred, 850-900 
 
 800 
 
 
 Danes overrun England 
 j^lfrecTs glorious reign 
 
 
 900 
 
 * 
 
 Chivalry beghis 
 Capetian kings in France 
 
 England 
 
 Sa nt Dunstan 
 Papal supremacy 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE BEST LITERATURE. 
 
 131 
 
 
 1000 
 
 Persia 
 
 Firdusi's Shah 
 Nameh 
 
 England 
 
 Canute the Great 
 
 1066. Nortiian Conquest 
 
 Peter the Hermit 
 First Crusade 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth 
 
 1100 
 
 Persia 
 
 Omar Khayyam 
 Germany 
 
 Nibelungenlied 
 Spain 
 
 Chronicle of the 
 Cid 
 
 England 
 Plantaeenets 
 Richard I. 
 
 France 
 
 Second and Third Crusades 
 Saint Bernard 
 
 Layamon 
 Roger Bacon 
 
 1300 
 
 Persia 
 Saadi 
 
 England 
 
 1215. Runnymede, Magna 
 
 Charta 
 Edward I. 
 
 Mandeville 
 
 l.angland 
 
 Wyc'.iffe Chaucer 
 
 Gower 
 
 1300 
 1400 
 
 Italy 
 Dante 
 Petrarch 
 Boccaccio 
 
 Persia 
 Hafiz 
 
 England 
 
 ChivaW at its height 
 The Black Prince 
 Gunpowder 
 
 France 
 Battles of Crecy, Poictiers, 
 and Agincourt 
 
 Lydgate 
 
 Fortescue 
 
 Malory 
 
 Germany 
 
 Thomas a Kem- 
 pis 
 Arabian Nights 
 
 (probably) 
 Persia 
 Jami 
 
 Encjland 
 
 Henry VIII. shook off the 
 Pope 
 Movable Tyf>es 
 Discovery of A merka 
 Joan of Arc 
 Wars of the Roses 
 
 More Ascham 
 
 Lyly Sackville 
 
 Sidney 
 
 Marlowe Fox 
 
 Spenser Hooker 
 
 1500 
 
 Italy 
 Ariosto 
 Tasso 
 Galileo 
 
 France 
 Montaigne 
 
 Copernicus 
 
 Kepler 
 
 The A rniada 
 
 England 
 
 Henry VIII , Elizabeth 
 Germany 
 
 1 515. Lrdher' s Reformation 
 France 
 
 Massacreof St. Bartholomew 
 
 Jonson Bacon Herbert 
 Siiakspeare Newton J. Taylor 
 Chapman Hobbes 
 Beaumont & Walton 
 
 Fletcher S. Butler 
 Milton Locke 
 Bunvan Pepys 
 Dryden 
 
 1600 
 
 Spain. Cervantes 
 
 Calderon 
 Germany. Kepler 
 France. Descartes 
 
 Corneille 
 
 Racine 
 
 Mo'iere 
 
 La Fontaine 
 
 1620. Plymouth Rock and the 
 
 *' Mayflower" 
 1649 Croniivell 
 16'So Restoration 
 1688 Revolution 
 
 William and Mary 
 France. Louis XIV. 
 
n2 
 
 TABLE V. 
 
 Addison 
 
 Cowper 
 
 Otis 
 
 1700 
 
 France 
 
 1776. 
 
 American Revolution 
 
 Steele 
 
 Burns 
 
 Jay 
 
 
 Montesquieu 
 
 17S9- 
 
 94. French Revolution 
 
 Pope 
 
 Rogers 
 
 Adams 
 
 
 Le Sage 
 
 
 
 Defoe 
 
 Hume 
 
 Hamilton 
 
 
 Rousseau 
 
 England 
 
 Swift 
 
 Edwards 
 
 Madison 
 
 
 Voltaire 
 
 Marlborough 
 
 Berkeley 
 
 A. Smith 
 
 Jefferson 
 
 
 
 
 
 J. Butler 
 
 Bentham 
 
 Pitt 
 
 
 Germany 
 
 
 
 Sloore 
 
 Gibbon 
 
 Burke 
 
 
 Munchausen 
 
 
 
 Thomson 
 
 Johnson 
 
 Fox 
 
 
 Lessing 
 
 
 
 Young 
 
 Boswell 
 
 Erskine 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gray 
 
 Malthus 
 
 P. Henry. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Goldsmith 
 
 Mackintosh 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sterne 
 
 Paine 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Scott 
 
 Herschel 
 
 DeQiiineey 
 
 1800 
 
 Germany 
 
 1807. 
 
 Fulton's Steamboat 
 
 Byron 
 
 . Whewell 
 
 Whately 
 
 
 Schiller 
 
 
 Wellington 
 
 Bryant 
 
 Ricardo 
 
 Jeffrey 
 
 
 Goethe 
 
 1815. 
 
 Waterloo 
 
 Drake 
 
 Carey 
 
 Brougham 
 
 
 Kant 
 
 1815. 
 
 White wives sold in 
 
 Wordsworth 
 
 Faraday 
 
 S. Smith 
 
 
 Ficlite 
 
 
 England 
 
 Keats 
 
 Lyell _ 
 
 C North 
 
 
 Hesel 
 
 1S30. 
 
 Passenger railway 
 
 Shelley 
 
 Agassiz 
 
 N. Webster 
 
 
 Schelling 
 
 1833. 
 
 Matches 
 
 Payne 
 
 Whitney 
 
 H. H. White 
 
 
 Niebuhr 
 
 
 
 Keble 
 
 A. Gray 
 
 D. Webster 
 
 
 Schlosser 
 
 
 
 Halleck 
 
 Hallam 
 
 Sparks 
 
 
 Heine 
 
 1844. 
 
 Telegraph 
 
 Key 
 
 Prescott 
 
 Story 
 
 
 Haeckel 
 
 1845. 
 
 Mexican War 
 
 Macaulay 
 
 Lewes 
 
 Gould 
 
 
 Helmholtz 
 
 
 
 Hood 
 
 Milman 
 
 Cooper 
 
 
 Grimm 
 
 
 
 Poe 
 
 Buckle 
 
 Disraeli 
 
 
 Froebel 
 
 
 
 Read 
 
 Merivale 
 
 Dickens 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tennyson 
 
 Hildreth 
 
 Thackeray 
 
 
 France 
 
 i860. 
 
 Rebellion 
 
 Browning 
 
 Freeman 
 
 Bronte 
 
 
 La Place 
 
 1863. 
 
 Emancipation 
 
 Lowell 
 
 Draper 
 
 Hawthorne 
 
 
 Guizot 
 
 
 
 Longfellow 
 
 Froude 
 
 Irving 
 
 
 De I'ocqueville 
 
 
 
 Carleton 
 
 Walpole 
 
 Hughes 
 
 
 Comte 
 
 
 
 Ingelow 
 
 Lecky 
 
 Kiiigsley 
 
 
 Hugo 
 
 
 
 Whittier 
 
 Parkman 
 
 Eliot 
 
 
 Dumas 
 
 1870. 
 
 Franco-German War 
 
 Mill 
 
 Bancroft 
 
 Collins 
 
 
 Balzac 
 
 1874. 
 
 The Telephone 
 
 Spencer 
 
 Whipple 
 
 Macdonald 
 
 
 Renan 
 
 
 Emancipation of serfs 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 Twain 
 
 Hunt 
 
 
 Tame 
 
 
 in Russia 
 
 Arnold 
 
 Jerrold 
 
 Wallace 
 
 
 
 
 
 Curtis 
 
 Choate 
 
 Clarke 
 
 
 Russia 
 
 
 
 Holmes 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Landor 
 
 
 Pushkin 
 
 
 
 Mansel 
 
 Phillips 
 
 Tourgee 
 
 
 Lermontoff 
 
 
 
 Carlyle 
 
 Everett 
 
 Holland 
 
 
 Bashkirtseff 
 
 
 
 Emerson 
 
 Sumner 
 
 Howells 
 
 
 Tolstoi 
 
 
 
 Darwin 
 
 Garfield 
 
 Mrs. Whitney 
 
 
 
 
 
 Huxley 
 
 Gladstone 
 
 Miss Alcott 
 
 
 Denmark 
 
 
 
 Dana 
 
 A. D. White 
 
 Bellamy 
 
 
 Andersen 
 
 
 
 Tyndall 
 
 Beeclier 
 
 Gronlund 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lubbock 
 
 P. Brooks 
 
 Gilman 
 
 
 Poland 
 
 
 
 Proctor 
 
 Lamb 
 
 Holley 
 
 
 Sienkiewicz 
 
 
 
 Davy 
 
 Hazlitt 
 
 Dodge 
 
 
 
 
 
 Proctor 
 
 Lamb 
 
 Jewett 
 
 
 
 
 
 Davy 
 
 Hazlitt 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bright 
 
 Fives 
 
 St owe 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fiske 
 
 Aldrich 
 
 Heam 
 
 
 
 
 
 Curtin 
 
 Warner 
 
 Burnett 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hale 
 
 Curtis 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Edwards 
 
 Higginson 
 
 
 1900 
 
 
 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. 1 33 
 
 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 Definitions and Divisions. — Literature is life pulsing 
 through life upon life; but only when the middle 
 life imparts new beauty to the first is literature pro- 
 duced in any true and proper sense. The last life 
 is that of the reader; the middle one that of the 
 author; the first that of the person or age he pic- 
 tures. Literature is the past pouring itself into the 
 present. Every great man consumes and digests his 
 own times. Shakspeare gives us the England of 
 the 1 6th century, with the added qualities of beauty, 
 ideality, and order. When we read Gibbon's '* Rome," 
 it is really the life of all those turbulent times of 
 which he writes that is pouring upon us through the 
 channels of genius. Dante paints with his own sub- 
 lime skill the portraits of Italy in the 14th century, 
 of his own rich, inner life, and of the universal human 
 soul in one composite masterpiece of art. In one 
 of Munchausen's stories, a bugler on the stage-top 
 in St. Petersburg was surprised to find that the bugle 
 stopped in the middle of the song. Afterward, in 
 Italy, sweet music was heard, and upon investigation 
 it was found that a part of the song had been frozen 
 in the instrument in Russia, and thawed in the warmer 
 air of Italy. So the music of river and breeze, of 
 battle and banquet, was frozen in the verse of Homer 
 
134 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 nearly three thousand years ago, and is ready at any 
 time, under the heat of our earnest study, to pour its 
 harmony into our lives. 
 
 It is the fact that beauty is added by the author 
 which distinguishes Literature from the pictures of life 
 that are given to us by newspaper reporters, tables 
 of statistics, etc. Literature is not merely life, — it 
 is life crystallized in art. This is the first great line 
 dividing the Literary from the Non-Literary. The 
 first class is again divided into Poetry and Prose. 
 In the first the form is measured, and the substance 
 imagery and imagination. In the latter the form is 
 unmeasured, and the substance direct. Imagery is 
 the heart of poetry, and rhythm its body. The 
 thought must be expressed not in words merely, but 
 in words that convey other thoughts through which 
 the first shines. The inner life is pictured in the 
 language of external Nature, and Nature is painted 
 in the colors of the heart. The poet must dip his 
 brush in that eternal paint-pot from which the for- 
 ests and fields, the mountains, the sky, and the stars 
 were painted. He must throw human life out upon 
 the world, and draw the world into the stream of his 
 own thoucrht. Sometimes we find the substance of 
 the poetic in the dress of prose, as in Emerson's and 
 in Ingersoll's lectures, and then we have the prose 
 poem ; and sometimes we find the form of poetry 
 with only the direct expression, which is the sub- 
 stance of prose, or perhaps without even the sub- 
 stance of literary prose, as in parts of Wordsworth, 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. 135 
 
 Pope, Longfellow, Homer, Tennyson, and even some- 
 times in Shakspeare; see, for example, Tennyson's 
 " Dirge." 
 
 Tests for the Choice of Books. — In deciding which of 
 those glorious ships that sail the ages, bringing their 
 precious freight of genius to every time and people, 
 we shall invite into our ports, we must consider the 
 nature of the crew, the beauty, strength, and size of 
 the vessel, the depth of our harbor, the character of 
 the cargo, and our own wants. In estimating the 
 value of a book, we have to note (i) the kind of 
 life that forms its material; (2) the qualities of the 
 author, — that is, of the life through which the stream 
 comes to us, and whose spirit is caught by the cur- 
 rent, as the breezes that come through the garden 
 bear with them the perfume of flowers that they 
 touch; (3) the form of the book, its music, sim- 
 plicity, size, and artistic shape; (4) its merits, com- 
 pared with the rest of the books in its own sphere of 
 thought; (5) its fame; (6) our abilities; and (7) 
 our needs. There result several tests of the claims 
 of any book upon our attention. 
 
 I. What effect will it have upon character? Will 
 it make me more careful, earnest, sincere, placid, 
 sympathetic, gay, enthusiastic, loving, generous, pure, 
 and brave by exercising these emotions in me, and 
 more abhorrent of evil by showing me its loathsome- 
 ness ; or more sorrowful, fretful, cruel, envious, vin- 
 dictive, cowardly, and false, less reverent of right 
 and more attracted by evil, by picturing good as 
 
136 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 coming from contemptible sources, and evil as 
 clothed with beauty? Is the author such a man as 
 I would wish to be the companion of my heart, or 
 such as I must study to avoid? 
 
 II. What effect will the book produce upon the 
 mind? Will it exercise and strengthen my fancy, 
 imagination, memory, invention, originality, insight, 
 breadth, common-sense, and philosophic power? 
 Will it make me bright, witty, reasonable, and tol- 
 erant? Will it give me the quality of intellectual 
 beauty? Will it give me a deeper knowledge of 
 human life, of Nature, and of my business, or open 
 the doorways of any great temple of science where I 
 am as yet a stranger? Will it help to build a standard 
 of taste in literature for the guidance of myself and 
 others? Will it give me a knowledge of what other 
 people are thinking and feeling, thus opening the ave- 
 nues of communication between my life and theirs? 
 
 III. What will be the effect on my skills and accom- 
 plishments? Will it store my mind full of beautiful 
 thoughts and images that will make my conversation 
 a delight and profit to my friends? Will it teach 
 me how to write with power, give me the art of 
 thinking clearly and expressing my thought with 
 force and attractiveness? Will it supply a knowl- 
 edge of the best means of attaining any other de- 
 sired art or accomplishment? 
 
 IV. Is the book simple enough for me? Is it within 
 my grasp? If not, I must wait till I have come upon 
 a level with it. 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. 1 3/ 
 
 V. Win the book impart a pleasure in the very 
 reading? This test alone is not reliable; for till our 
 taste is formed, the trouble may not be in it but in 
 ourselves. 
 
 VI. Has it been superseded by a later book, or has 
 its truth passed into the every-day life of the race? 
 If so, I do not need to read it. Other things equal, 
 the authors nearest to us in time and space have the 
 greatest claims on our attention. Especially is this 
 true in science, in which each succeeding great book 
 sucks the life out of all its predecessors. In poetry 
 there is a principle that operates in the opposite 
 direction ; for what comes last is often but an imita- 
 tion, that lacks the fire and force of the original. Na- 
 ture is best painted, not from books, but from her 
 own sweet face. 
 
 VII. What is the relation of the book to the com- 
 pleteness of my development? Will it fill a gap in 
 the walls of my building? Other things equal, I had 
 better read about something I know nothing of than 
 about somethincr I am familiar with ; for the aim is to 
 get a picture of the universe in my brain, and a full 
 development of my whole nature. It is a good plan 
 to read everything of something and something of 
 everything. A too general reader seems vague and 
 hazy, as if he were fed on fog ; and a too special reader 
 is narrow and hard, as if fed on needles. 
 
 VIII. Is the matter inviting my attention of perma- 
 nent value? The profits of reading what is merely of 
 the moment are not so great as those accruing from 
 
138 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 the reading of literature that is of all time. To 
 hear the gossip of the street is not as valuable as 
 to hear the lectures of Joseph Cook, or the sermons 
 of Beecher and Brooks. On this principle, most of 
 our time should be spent on classics, and very little 
 upon transient matter. There is a vast amount of 
 energy wasted in this country in the reading of news- 
 papers and periodicals. The newspaper is a wonder- 
 ful thing. It brings the whole huge earth to me in a 
 little brown wrapper every morning. The editor is 
 a sort of travelling stage-manager, who sets up his 
 booth on my desk every day, bringing with him the 
 greatest performers from all the countries of the 
 world, to play their parts before my eyes. Yonder 
 is an immense mass-meeting; and that mite, brandish- 
 ing his mandibles in an excited manner, is the great 
 Mr. So-and-So, explaining his position amid the tu- 
 multuous explosions of an appreciative multitude. 
 That puffet of smoke and dust to the right is a revo- 
 lution. There in the shadow of the wood comes an 
 old man who lays down a scythe and glass while he 
 shifts the scenes, and we see a bony hand reaching 
 out to snatch back a player in the midst of his part, 
 and even trying to clutch the showman himself. For 
 three dollars a year I can buy a season ticket to 
 this great Globe theatre, for which God writes the 
 dramas, whose scene-shifter is Time, and whose cur- 
 tain is rung down by Death.^ But theatre-going, 
 if kept up continuously, is very enervating. 'T is 
 
 ^ Adapted from Lowell. 
 
REMARKS ON TAELE V. 1 39 
 
 better far to read the hand-bills and placards at the 
 door, and only when the play is great go in. Glance 
 at the head-lines of the paper always ; read the mighty 
 pages seldom. The editors could save the nation 
 millions of rich hours by a daily column of brief but 
 complete statements of the paper's contents, instead 
 of those flaring head-lines that allure but do not sat- 
 isfy, and only lead us on to read that Mr, Windbag 
 nominated Mr. Darkhorse amid great applause, and 
 that Mr. Darkhorse accepted in a three-column 
 speech skilfully constructed so as to commit him- 
 self to nothing; or that Mr. Bondholder's daughter 
 was married, and that Mrs. So-and-So wore cream 
 satin and point lace, with roses, etc. 
 
 Intrinsic Merit. — It must be noted that the tests of 
 intrinsic merit are not precisely the same as the tests 
 for the choice of books. The latter include the 
 former and more. Intrinsic merit depends on the 
 character impressed upon the book by its subject- 
 matter and the author; but in determining the claims 
 of a book upon the attention of the ordinary English 
 reader, it is necessary not only to look at the book it- 
 self, but also to consider the needs and abilities of the 
 reader. One may not be able to read the book that 
 is intrinsically the best, because of the want of time 
 or lack of sufficient mental development. Green's 
 ** Short History of England " and Dickens' " Child's 
 History of England " may not be the greatest works 
 in their department, but they may have the greatest 
 claims on the attention of one whose time or ability is 
 
140 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 limited. A chief need of every one is to know what 
 others are thinking and feeHng. To open up avenues 
 of communication between mind and mind is one of 
 the great objects of reading. Now it often happens 
 that a book of no very high merit artistically con- 
 sidered — a book that can never take rank as a classic 
 — becomes very famous, and is for a time the subject 
 of much comment and conversation. In such cases 
 all who would remain in thorough sympathy with 
 their fellows must give the book at least a hasty 
 reading, or in some way gain a knowledge of its con- 
 tents. Intrinsically *' Robert Elsmere " and ** Look- 
 ing Backward " may not be worthy of high rank 
 (though I am by no means so sure of this as many 
 of the critics seem to be) ; but their fame, joined as 
 it is with high motive, entitles them to a reading. 
 
 It is always a good plan, however, to endeavor to 
 ascertain the absolute or intrinsic merit of a book 
 first, and afterward arrive at the relative value or 
 claim upon the attention by making the correction 
 required by the time and place, later publications 
 in the same department, the peculiar needs and abili- 
 ties of readers, etc. 
 
 In testing intrinsic worth we must consider — 
 
 Motive. 
 
 Magnitude. 
 
 Unity. 
 
 Universality. 
 
 Suggestiveness. 
 
 Expression. 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. I4I 
 
 Motive. — The purpose of the author and the emo- 
 tional character of the subject matter are of great 
 importance. A noble subject nobly handled begets 
 nobility in the reader, and a spirit of meanness 
 brought into a book by its subject or author also 
 impresses itself upon those who come in contact 
 with it. Kind, loving books make the world more 
 tender-hearted ; coarse and lustful books degrade 
 mankind. The nobility of the sentiment in and 
 underlying a work is therefore a test of prime 
 importance. 
 
 Whittier's " Voices of Freedom," 
 
 Lowell's " Vision of Sir Launfal," 
 
 Tennyson's " Locksley Hall," 
 
 Warner's " A-Hunting of the Deer," 
 
 Shakspeare's " Coriolanus," 
 
 Macaulay's " Horatius " and " Virginia," 
 
 ^schylus' " Prometheus," 
 
 Dickens' " Christmas Carol," 
 
 Sewell's " Black Beauty," 
 
 Chaucer's " Griselda," 
 
 Browning's '' Ivan Ivanovitch," 
 
 Arnold's " Forsaken Merman," and " The Light of Asia," 
 
 are fine examples of high motive. 
 
 Magnitude. — The grander the subject, the deeper 
 the impression upon us. In reading a book like 
 " The Light of Asia," that reveals the heart of a great 
 religion, or Guizot's '' Civilization in Europe," that 
 deals with the life of a continent, or Darwin's '* Ori- 
 gin of Species," or Spencer's *' Nebular Hypothesis," 
 
142 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 that grapples with problems as wide as the world 
 and as deep as the starry spaces, — in reading such 
 books we receive into ourselves a larger part of the 
 universe than when we devote ourselves to the his- 
 tory of the town we live in, or the account of the 
 latest game of base ball. 
 
 Unity. — A book, picture, statue, play, or oratorio 
 is an artistic unity when no part of it could be 
 removed without injury to the whole effect. True 
 art masses many forces to a single central purpose. 
 The more complex a book is in its substance (not its 
 expression), — that is to say, the greater the variety 
 of thoughts and feelings compressed within its lids, — 
 the higher it will rank, if the parts are good in them- 
 selves and are so related as to produce one tre- 
 mendous effect. But no intrusion of anything not 
 essentially related to the supreme purpose can be 
 tolerated. A good book is like a soldier who will 
 not burden himself with anything that will not in- 
 crease his fighting power, because, if he did, its 
 weight would diminish his fighting force. In the 
 same way, if a book contains unnecessary matter, a 
 portion of the attention that should be concentrated 
 upon the real purpose of the volume, is absorbed 
 by the superfluous pages, rendering the effect less 
 powerful than it would otherwise be. Most of the 
 examples of high motive named above, would be in 
 place here, especially, — 
 
 Prometheus. '' 
 
 The Forsaken Merman. 
 The Light of Asia. 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. 1 43 
 
 Other fine specimens of unity are, — 
 
 Holmes's '' Nautilus." 
 
 Hood's *' Bridge of Sighs." 
 
 Gray's " Elegy." 
 
 Hunt's '' Abou Ben Adhem." 
 
 Longfellow's ^' Psalm of Life." 
 
 Whittier's " Barefoot Boy." 
 
 Shelley's " Ode to a Skylark." 
 
 Shelley's " Ode to the West Wind." 
 
 Byron's '• Eve of Waterloo." 
 
 Bryant's " Thanatopsis." 
 
 Reed's "Drifting." ' 
 
 Drake's " Culprit Fay." 
 
 Irving's "Art of Bookmaking," etc. (in ''Sketch Book"). 
 
 Rives' " Story of Arnon." 
 
 Dante's " Divine Comedy." 
 
 Schiller's " Veiled Statue of Truth." 
 
 Goethe's " Erl King." 
 
 Humor alone has a right to violate unity even ap- 
 parently ; and although wit and humor produce their 
 effects by displaying incongruities, yet underlying 
 all high art, in this department as in others, there is 
 always a deep unity, — a truth revealed and enforced 
 by the destruction of its contradictories accomplished 
 by the sallies of wit and humor. 
 
 Universality. — Other things equal, the more people 
 interested in the subject the more important the 
 book. A matter which affects a million people is 
 of more consequence than one which affects only a 
 single person. National affairs, and all matters of 
 magnitude, of course possess this quality; but magni- 
 
144 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 tude is not necessary to universality, — the thoughts, 
 feeHngs, and actions of an unpretentious person in 
 a little village may be types of what passes in the 
 life of every human being, and by their representa- 
 tiveness attain a more universal interest for mankind 
 than the business and politics of a state. 
 
 The rules of tennis are not of so wide importance 
 as an English grammar, nor is the latter so uni- 
 versal as Dante's " Inferno " or '' The Meditations of 
 Marcus Aurelius," — these being among the books 
 that in the highest degree possess the quality under 
 discussion. Other fine examples are — 
 
 Goethe's " Faust." 
 Shakespeare's Plays and Sonnets. 
 Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." 
 Arnold's " Light of Asia." 
 Bacon's and Emerson's Essays. 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 
 Sevvell's " Black Beauty." 
 Eliot's •' Romola." 
 Curtis' " Prue and I." 
 Cooper's '* Last of the Mohicans." 
 Tourg^e's "Hot Plowshares." 
 Irving's " Sketch Book." 
 Plato, Spencer, etc. 
 
 In fact, all books that express love, longing, ad- 
 miration, tenderness, sorrow, laughter, joy, victory 
 over nature or man, or any other thought or feeling 
 common to men, have the attribute of universality in 
 greater or less degree. 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. 1 45 
 
 Sug^gestiveness. — Every great work of art suggests 
 far more than it expresses. This truth is illustrated by- 
 paintings like Bierstadt's ** Yosemite " or his " Drum- 
 mer Boy," Millet's *' Angelus," or Turner's "Slave 
 Ship." Statues like the " Greek Slave " or " The 
 Forced Prayer; " speeches like those of Phillips, Fox, 
 Clay, Pitt, Bright, Webster, and Brooks ; songs like 
 " Home, Sweet Home," '' My Country," *' Douglas," 
 " Annie Laurie ; " and books like 
 
 Emerson's Essays. 
 
 ^schylus' " Prometheus." 
 
 Goethe's " Faust " and " Wilhelm Meister.'* 
 
 Dante's " Divine Comedy." 
 
 " Hamlet " and many other of Shakspeare's Plays. 
 
 Curtis' "Prueand I." 
 
 The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 The Sermons of Phillips Brooks and Robertson. 
 
 '' My Summer in a Garden," by Warner ; etc. 
 
 A single sentence in Emerson often suggests a 
 train of thought that would fill a volume ; and a sin- 
 gle inflection of Patti's voice in singing ** Home, Sweet 
 Home" will fill the heart to overflowing. 
 
 Expression. — Like a musician, an author must study 
 technique. A book may possess high motive, artis- 
 tic unity, universality, suggestiveness, magnitude of 
 thought, and yet be lacking in clearness, purity, 
 music, smoothness, force, finish, tone-color, or even 
 in proper grammatical construction. The style ought 
 to be carefully adapted to the subject and to the 
 
 10 
 
146 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 readers likely to be interested in it. Force and beauty 
 may be imparted to the subject by a good style. In 
 poetry beauty is the supreme object, the projection of 
 truth upon the mind being subordinate. Poetry ex- 
 presses the truths of the soul. In prose, on the other 
 hand, truth is the main purpose, and beauty is used 
 as a helper. As a soldier studies his guns, and a 
 dentist his tools, so a writer must study the laws of 
 rhythm, accent, phrasing, alliteration, phonetic syzygy, 
 run-on and double-ending lines, rhyme, and, last but 
 not least, the melodies of common speech. The 
 first three and the last are the most important, and 
 should be thoroughly studied in Shakspeare, Addi- 
 son, Irving, and other masters of style by every one 
 who wishes to write or to judge the work of others. 
 Except as to rhyme, the arts of writing prose and 
 poetry are substantially the same. Theoretically there 
 is a fundamental difference in respect to rhythm, — 
 that of a poem being limited to the repetition of 
 some chosen type, that of prose being unlimited. 
 A little study makes it clear, however, that the 
 highest poetry, as that of Shakspeare's later plays, 
 crowds the type with the forms of common speech ; 
 while the highest efforts of prose, as that of Addison, 
 Irving, Phillips, Ingersoll's oration over his dead 
 brother, etc., display rhythms that approach the or- 
 der and precision of poetry. In practice the best 
 prose and the best poetry approach each other very 
 closely, moving from different directions toward the 
 same point. 
 
REMARKS ON TABLE V. 1 47 
 
 It is of great advantage to form the habit of 
 noticing the tunes of speech used by those around 
 us; the study will soon become very pleasurable, 
 and will be highly profitable by teaching the ob- 
 server what mode of expression is appropriate to 
 each variety of thought and feeling. There is a 
 rhythm that of itself produces a comic effect, no 
 matter how sober the words may be ; and it is the 
 same that we find in " Pinafore," in the " Mariner's 
 Duet " in the opera of *' Paul Jones," and in the min- 
 strel dance. For fifteen centuries all the great battle- 
 songs have been written in the same rhythm ; they 
 fall into it naturally, because it expresses the move- 
 ment of mighty conflict. See Lanier's " Science of 
 English Verse," pages 151 et seq.y 231 et seq. This is 
 the best book upon technique ; but Spencer's Essay on 
 the Philosophy of Style, and Poe's Essay on his com- 
 position of "The Raven" should not be overlooked. 
 Franklin and many others have discovered the laws of 
 style simply by careful study of the " Spectator." 
 
 Of course it is not easy to decide the true rank of 
 a book, even when we have tested it in respect to 
 all the elements we have named. One book may be 
 superior in expression, another in suggestiveness, and 
 so on. Then we have to take note of the relative 
 importance of these various elements of greatness. 
 A little superiority in motive or suggestiveness is 
 worth far more than the same degree of superiority 
 as to unity or magnitude. A book filled with noble 
 sentiment, though lacking unity, should rank far 
 
148 REMARKS ON TABLE V. 
 
 above ^* Don Juan," or any other volume that ex- 
 presses the ignoble part of human nature, however 
 perfect the work may be from an artistic point of 
 view. Having now examined the tests of intrinsic 
 merit, let me revert for a moment to my remark, a 
 few pages back, to the effect that " Looking Back- 
 ward " and " Robert Elsmere " deserve a high rank. 
 They are books of lofty aim, great magnitude of sub- 
 ject and thought, fine unity, wide itniversalityy ex- 
 haiistless siiggestiveness, and more than ordinary 
 power of expression. Doubtless they are not abso- 
 lute classics, — not books of all time, — for their 
 subjects are transitional, not eternal. They deal with 
 doubts, religious and industrial ; when these have 
 passed away, the mission of the books will be ful- 
 filled, and their importance will be less. But they 
 are relative classics, — books that are of great value 
 to their age, and will be great as long as their sub- 
 jects are prominent. 
 
SUPREME BOOKS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Literatures of England, America, Greece, 
 Rome, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Per- 
 sia, Portugal, Denmark, Russia. 
 
iqo PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 The highest summit of our literature — and indeed 
 of the literature of the world — is Shakspeare. He 
 brings us life in the greatest force and volume, of the 
 highest quality, and clothed in the richest beauty. 
 His age, which was practically identical with the 
 reign of Elizabeth, is the golden age of English let- 
 ters ; and taking it for a basis of division, we have 
 the Pre-Shakspearian Age from 600 to 1559, the 
 Shakspearian Age from 1559 to 1620, and the Post- 
 Shakspearian Age from 1620 to the present. 
 
 The first age is divided into three periods. 
 
 First, the Early Period, from 600 to the Norman 
 Conquest in 1066, which holds the names of Beo- 
 wulf,^ Caedmon,^ Bseda,^ Cynewulf, and Alfred, the 
 great king who did so much for the learning of his 
 country, bringing many great scholars into England 
 from all over the world, and himself writing the best* 
 prose that had been produced in English, and chang- 
 ing the ** Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" — till his time a 
 
 ^ An epic poem, full of the life, in peace and war, of our 
 Saxon fathers before they came to England. 
 
 "^ The writer of a paraphrase on the Bible ; a feeble Milton. 
 
 8 A very learned man, who gathered many scholars about 
 him, and who finished translating the Gospel of John on his 
 death-bed and with his latest breath. 
 
PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 15 1 
 
 mere record of noble births and deaths — into a val- 
 uable periodical, the progenitor of the vast horde 
 that threatens to expel the classics in our day. The 
 literature of this period has little claim upon us ex- 
 cept on the ground of breadth. The A7iglo-Saxon 
 Chronicle, and the poems of Beowulf , CcBdinoUy and 
 Cynewitlf, should be glanced at to see what sort 
 of people our ancestors were. 
 
 Second, the Period of Chaucer, from 1066 to the 
 death of Chaucer in 1400. The great books of 
 this period were Mandeville s Travels, Langland's 
 " Piers the Ploughman." Wyclifife's translation of the 
 Bible (these two books, with Wycliffe's tracts, went 
 all over England among the common people, rous- 
 ing them against the Catholic Church, and starting 
 the reformation that afterward grew into Puritanism, 
 and gained control of the nation under Cromwell), 
 Gower's Poems, and Chmicers Canterbury Tales. 
 Those in italics are the only books that claim our 
 reading. Mandeville travelled thirty years, and then 
 wrote all he saw and all he heard from the mouth of 
 rumor. Chaucer is half French and two-thirds Ital- 
 ian. He drank in the spirit of the Golden Age of 
 Italy, which was in the early part of his own century. 
 Probably he met Petrarch and Boccaccio, and cer- 
 tainly he drew largely from their works as well as 
 from Dante's, and he dug into poor Gower as into a 
 stone quarry. He is still our best story-teller in 
 verse, and one of our most musical poets ; and every 
 one should know something of this '* morning star of 
 
152 PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 English poetry," by far the greatest light before the 
 Elizabethan age, and still easily among the first five 
 or six of our poets. 
 
 Third, the Later Period, from 1400 to 1559, in 
 which Malory's Morte UArtJiiir, containing frag- 
 ments of the stories about King Arthur and the 
 knights of his round table, which like a bed-rock 
 crop out so often in English Literature, should be 
 read while reading Tennyson's ** Idylls of the King," 
 which is based upon Malory ; and Sir Thomas Mores 
 Utopia also claims some attention on the plea of 
 breadth, as it is the work of a great mind, thoroughly 
 and practically versed in government, and sets forth 
 his idea of a perfect commonwealth. 
 
 In this age of nine and a half centuries there were, 
 then, ten noteworthy books and one great book ; eight 
 only of the eleven, however, have any claim upon 
 our attention, the last three being all that are en- 
 titled to more than a rapid reading by the general 
 student; and only Chaucer for continuous compan- 
 ionship can rank high, and even he cannot be put 
 on the first shelf. 
 
 In the Shakspearian Age the great books were 
 (i) Roger AscJianis Schoolmaster, which was a 
 fine argument for kindness in teaching and nobility 
 in the teacher, but has been superseded by Spencer's 
 " Education." (2) Sackville's Induction to a se- 
 ries of political tragedies, called ** A Mirror for Mag- 
 istrates." The poet goes down into hell like Dante, 
 
IN THE SHAKSPEARIAN AGE. 153 
 
 and meets Remorse, Famine, War, Misery, Care, 
 Sleep, Death, etc., and talks with noted Englishmen 
 who had fallen. This ** Mirror" was of great fame 
 and influence in its day; and the " Induction," though 
 far inferior to both Chaucer and Spenser, is yet the best 
 poetic work done in the time between those masters. 
 (3) JoJin Lyly's Eiiphues, a book that expressed 
 the thought of Ascham's "Schoolmaster" in a style 
 peculiar for its puns, antitheses, and floweriness, — a 
 style which made a witty handling of language the 
 chief aim of writing. Lyly was a master of the art, 
 and the ladies of the court committed his sentences 
 in great numbers, that they might shine in society. 
 The book has given a word to the language ; that 
 affected word-placing style is known as eiiphiiistic. 
 The book has no claims upon our reading. (4) Sir 
 Philip Sidneys Arcadia^ a romance in the same 
 conceited style as the "' Euphues," and only valuable 
 as a mine for poetic images. (5) Hooker's Ecclesi- 
 astical Polity, which was a defence of the church 
 system against the Puritans. The latter said that no 
 such system of church government could be found in 
 the Bible, and therefore should not exist. Hooker 
 answered that Nature was a revelation from God as 
 well as the Bible; and if in Nature and society there 
 were good reasons for the existence of an institution, 
 that was enough. The book is not of importance to 
 the general reader to-day, for the truth of its prin- 
 ciples is universally admitted. (6) TJie Plays of 
 Marlowe, a very powerful but gross writer. His 
 
154 PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 *' Dr. Faustus " may very properly receive attention, 
 but only after the best plays of Shakspeare, Jonson, 
 Calderon, Racine, Moliere, Corneille, ^Eschylus, Soph- 
 ocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes have been care- 
 fully read. (7) The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 which are filled with beauty and imagination, min- 
 gled with the immodesty and vulgarity that were 
 natural to this age. The remark just made about 
 Marlowe applies here. (8) Fox s Book of Mar- 
 tyrs, which for the sake of breadth should be 
 glanced at by every one. The marvellous heroism 
 and devotion to faith on one side, and cruelty on 
 the other that come to us through the pages of this 
 history, open a new world to the modern mind. (9) 
 Edmimd Spenser s Faerie Qneene, which combines 
 the poetry of a Homer with the allegory of a Bunyan. 
 It presents moral truth under vast and beautiful 
 imagery. In English poetry it claims our attention 
 next to Shakspeare and Milton. (10) Ben Jonsons 
 Plays, which stand next to those of Shakspeare in 
 English drama. (11) The Plays of Shakspeare, 
 which need no comment, as they have already been 
 placed at the summit of all literature; and (12) Ba- 
 cons Works, including the Novum Organum, the 
 New Atlantis, and the Essays, the first of which, 
 though one of the greatest books of the world, set- 
 ting forth the true methods of arriving at truth by 
 experiment and observation and the collation of 
 facts, we do not need to read, because the substance 
 of it may be found in better form in Mill's Logic. 
 
THE POST-SHAKSPEARIAN AGE. 155 
 
 The ** Essays," however, are world-famed for their con- 
 densed wit and wisdom on topics of never-dying in- 
 terest, and stand among the very best books on the 
 upper shelf. The "New Atlantis ", also should be 
 read for breadth, with More's " Utopia; " the subject 
 being the same, namely, an ideal commonwealth. 
 
 From this sixty-one years of prolific writing, in 
 which no less than two hundred and thirty authors 
 gathered their poems together and published them, 
 to say nothing of all the scattered writings, twelve 
 volumes have come down to us with a large measure 
 of fame. Only the last seven call for our reading; 
 but two of them, Shakspeare and Bacon, are among 
 the very most important books on the first shelf of 
 the world's library. 
 
 The Post-Shakspearian Age is divided into four times, 
 or periods, — the Time of Milton; the Time of Dry- 
 den ; the Time of Pope ; and the Time of the Novel- 
 ists, Historians, and Scientists. 
 
 The Time of Milton, from 1620 to 1674, was 
 contemporary with the Golden Age of literature in 
 France. The great English books of this time were 
 ( I ) Chapman s Translation of Homer, which is su- 
 perseded by Pope's. (2) Hobbess Leviathan, a 
 discourse on government. Hobbes taught that gov- 
 ernment exists for the people, and rests not on the 
 divine right of kings, but on a compact or agree- 
 ment of all the citizens to give up a portion of their 
 liberties in order by social co-operation the better 
 
156 PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 to secure the remainder. He is one of our greatest 
 philosophers ; but the general reader will find the 
 substance of Hobbes's whole philosophy better put 
 in Locke, Mill, and Herbert Spencer. (3) Walton's 
 Complete Angler, the work of a retired merchant 
 who combined a love of fishing with a poetic per- 
 ception of the beauties of Nature. It will repay 
 a glance. (4) 5. Butler s Hiidibras, a keen satire 
 on the Puritans who went too far in their effort to 
 compel all men to conform their lives to the Puritan 
 standard of abstinence from worldly pleasures. In 
 spite of its vulgarity, the book stands very high 
 in the literature of humor. (5) George Herbert's 
 PoemSy many of which are as sweet and holy as a 
 flower upon a grave, and are beloved by all spirit- 
 ually minded people. (6) Jeremy Taylor's Holy 
 Living and Dyings a book that in the strength 
 of its claim upon us must rank close after the 
 Bible, Shakspeare, and the Science of Physiology 
 and Hygiene. (7) Milton's Poems, of which the 
 " Paradise Lost " and '* Comus," for their sublimity 
 and beauty, rank next after Shakspeare in English 
 poetry. ^Eschylus, Dante, and Milton are the three 
 sublimest souls in history. 
 
 From this time of fifty-four years seven great books 
 have come to us, Milton and Taylor being among our 
 most precious possessions. 
 
 The Time of DrydEn. — From the death of Mil- 
 ton, in 1674, to the death of Dryden, in 1700, the lat- 
 ter held undisputed kingship in the realm of letters. 
 
THE POST-SHAKSPEARIAN AGE. 1 57 
 
 This and the succeeding time of Pope were marked 
 by the development of a classic style and a fine lit- 
 erary and critical taste, but were lacking in great cre- 
 ative power. The great books were (i) Newtoit's 
 Principiay the highest summit in the region of as- 
 tronomy, unless the " Mecanique Celeste " of Laplace 
 must be excepted. Newton's discovery of the law of 
 gravitation, and his theory of fluxions place him at 
 the head of the mathematical thinkers of the world. 
 His books, however, need not be read by the gen- 
 eral student, for in these sciences the later books are 
 better. (2) Locke's Works upon Government and 
 the Understanding are among the best in the worlds 
 but their results will all be found in the later works 
 of Spencer, Mill, and Bryce ; and the only part of 
 the writings of Locke that claims our reading to-day 
 is the little book upon the Conduct of the Under- 
 standing, which tells us how to watch the processes 
 of our thought, to keep clear of prejudice, careless 
 observation, etc., and should be in the hands of every 
 one who ever presumes to do any thinking. (3) 
 Dry den's Translation of Virgil is the best we have, 
 and contains the finest writing of our great John. 
 (4) Biinyan s Pilgrint s Progress picturing in mag- 
 nificent allegory the journey of a Christian soul to- 
 ward heaven, and his " Holy War," telling of the 
 conflict between good and evil, and the devil's efforts 
 to capture and hold the town of '* Mansoul," should 
 be among the first books we read. The " Progress " 
 holds a place in the affections of all English-speaking 
 
158 PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 peoples second only to the Bible ( 5 ) Sam Pepys's 
 Diary is the greatest book of its kind in the world, 
 and is much read for its vividness and interesting de- 
 tail. It has, however, no claims to be read until all 
 the books on the first shelf of Table I. have been 
 mastered, and a large portion of the second shelf 
 pretty thoroughly looked into. 
 
 Of the five great works of these twenty-six years, 
 Bunyan and Locke are far the most important for us. 
 
 The Time of Pope, or the Time of the Essayists 
 and Satirists, covers a period of forty years, from 
 1700 to 1740, during which the great translator of 
 Homer held the sceptre of literary power by unani- 
 mous assent. The great works of this time were 
 (i) The Essays of Addison and Steele in the " Tat- 
 ler " and "■ Spectator," which, though of great merit, 
 must rank below those of Emerson, Bacon, and 
 Montaigne. (2) Defoe' s Robinson Crusoe, the boy's 
 own book. (3) Swift's Satii^es, — the "Tale of a 
 Tub," '' Gulliver's Travels," and the '' Battle of the 
 Books," — all full of the strongest mixture of gross- 
 ness, fierceness, and intense wit that the world has 
 seen. The ** Battle of the Books " may be read with 
 great advantage by the general reader as well as 
 by the student of humor. (4) Berkeley's Human 
 Knowledge, exceedingly interesting for the keenness 
 of its confutation of any knowledge of the exist- 
 ence of matter. (5) Pope's Poejns — the "Rape of 
 the Lock" (which means the theft of a lock of hair), 
 the " Essay on Man," and his translation of Homer 
 
THE POST-SHAKSPEARIAN AGE. 159 
 
 — must form a part of every wide course of reading. 
 Their mechanical execution, especially, is of the very 
 finest. (6) Thomsoris Seasons, a beautiful poem of 
 the second class. (7) Butler's Analogy, chiefly noted 
 for its proof of the existence of God from the fact 
 that there is evidence of design in Nature. 
 
 Of these writers, Pope and Defoe are far the most 
 important for us. 
 
 We have, down to this time of 1740, out of a lit- 
 erature covering eleven and a half centuries, recom- 
 mended to the chief attention of the reader ten great 
 authors, — Chaucer and Spenser, Shakspeare and Ba- 
 con, Milton and Taylor, Bunyan and Locke, Pope 
 and Defoe. We now come to the Time of Novel- 
 ists, Historians, and Scientists, a period in the 
 history of our literature that is so prolific of great 
 writers in all the vastly multiplied departments of 
 thought, that it is no longer possible to particularize 
 in the' manner we have done in regard to the preced- 
 ing ages. A sufficient illustration has been given of 
 the methods of judging books and the results of their 
 application. With the ample materials of Table I. 
 before him, the reader must now be left to make his 
 own judgments in regard to the relative merits of the 
 books of the modern period. We shall confine our 
 remarks on this last time of English literature to the 
 recommendation of ten great authors to match the 
 ten great names of former times. In history, we shall 
 name Parkman, the greatest of American historians ; 
 in philosophy, Herbert Spencer, the greatest name 
 
l6o PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 
 
 in the whole list of philosophers ; in poetry, Byron 
 and Tennyson^ neither of them equal to Shakspeare 
 and Milton, but standing in the next file behind 
 them ; in fiction, Scott, Eliot, and Dickens; in poetic 
 humor, Lowell, the greatest of all names in this de- 
 partment ; and in general literature, Carlyle and 
 Riiskiii, two of the purest, wisest, and most forcible 
 writers of all the past, and, curiously enough, both 
 of them very eccentric and very wordy, — a sort of 
 English double star, which will be counted in this 
 list as a unit, in order to crowd in Emerson, who 
 belongs in this great company, and is not by any 
 means the least worthy member of it. One more 
 writer there is in this time greater than any we have 
 named, except Spencer and Scott; namely, the author 
 of*' The Origin of Species." Darwijt stands by the 
 side of Newton in the history of scientific thought; 
 but, like his great compeer, the essence of his book 
 has come to be a part of modern thought that floats 
 in the air we breathe ; and so his claims to being 
 read are less than those of authors who cannot be 
 called so great when speaking of intrinsic merit. 
 
 Having introduced the greatest ten of old, and ten 
 that may be deemed the greatest of the new, in Eng- 
 lish letters, we shall pass to take a bird's-eye view 
 of what is best in Greece and Rome, France, Italy, 
 and Spain, and say a word of Persia, Germany, and 
 Portugal, 
 
GREATEST NAMES OF OTHER LITERATURES. l6l 
 
 THE GREATEST NAMES OF OTHER 
 LITERATURES. 
 
 Greece, in her thirteen centuries of almost contin- 
 uous literary productiveness from Homer to Longus, 
 gave the world its greatest epic poet, Horner ; the 
 finest of lyric poets, Pindar ; the prince of orators, 
 Demosthenes ; aside from our own Bacon and Spencer, 
 the greatest philosophers of all the ages, Plato and 
 Aristotle ;. the most noted of fabulists, ^sop; the most 
 powerful writer of comedy, Aristophaiies (Moliere, 
 however, is much to be preferred for modern read- 
 ing, because of his fuller applicability to our life) ; 
 and the three greatest writers of pure tragedy, Ais- 
 chyhcSy Sophocles, and Ezcripides, — the first remark- 
 able for his gloomy grandeur and gigantic, dark, and 
 terrible sublimity; the second for his sweet majesty 
 and pathos ; and third for the power with which he 
 paints men as they are in real life. Euripides was a 
 great favorite with Milton and Fox. 
 
 To one who is not acquainted with these ten great 
 Greeks, much of the sweetest and grandest of life re- 
 mains untasted and unknown. Begin with Homer, 
 Plato's " Phaedo " and ** Republic," ^Eschylus' " Pro- 
 metheus Bound," Sophocles' *' Qidipus," and Demos- 
 thenes' *' On the Crown." 
 
 II 
 
1 62 GREATEST NAMES OF OTHER LITERATURES. 
 
 A liberal reading must also include the Greek his- 
 torians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. 
 
 Rome taught the world the art of war, but was her- 
 self a pupil in the halls of Grecian letters. Only three 
 writers — Plutarch, Marcus AiweliiLS (who both wrote 
 in Greek), and Epictctns — can claim our attention in 
 anything like an equal degree with the authors of 
 Athens named just above. Its literature as a whole 
 is on a far lower plane than that of Greece or Eng- 
 land. A liberal education must include Virgil's 
 " i^neid," the national epic of Rome (which, how- 
 ever, must take its place in our lives and hearts far 
 after Homer, Shakspeare, Milton, Dante, and Goethe), 
 for its elegance and imagination ; Horace, for his 
 wit, grace, sense, and inimitable witchery of phrase ; 
 Lucretius, for his depth of meditation ; Tacitus, for 
 knowledge of our ancestors ; Ovid and Catullus, for 
 their beauty of expression ; Juvenal, for the keenness 
 of his satire ; and Plautus and Terence, for their in- 
 sight into the characters of men. But these books 
 should wait until at least the three first named in 
 this paragraph, with the ten Greek and twenty Eng- 
 lish writers spoken of" in the preceding paragraphs, 
 have come to be familiar friends. 
 
 Italy, in Chaucer's century, produced a noble liter- 
 ature. Dante is the Shakspeare of the Latin races. 
 He stands among the first creators of sublimity, ^s- 
 chylus and Milton only can claim a place beside him. 
 Petrarch takes lofty rank as a lyric poet, breathing 
 the heart of love. Boccaccio may be put with Chau- 
 
GREATEST NAMES OF OTHER LITERATURES. 1 63 
 
 cer. Ariosto and Tasso wrote the finest epics of 
 Italian poetry. A liberal education must neglect no 
 one of these. Every life should hold communion 
 with the soul of Dante, and get a taste at least of 
 Petrarch. 
 
 France has a glorious literature ; in science, the 
 best in the world. In history, Giiizot ; in jurispru- 
 dence, in its widest sense, Montesquieu ; and in 
 picturing the literary history of a nation, Taine, 
 stand unrivalled anywhere. Among essayists, Mon- 
 taigne ; among writers of fiction, Le Sage, Victor 
 Hugo, and Balzac ; among the dramatists, Corneille 
 the grand, Racine the graceful and tender, and Mo- 
 likre the creator of modern comedy; and among 
 fabulists, the inimitable poet of fable. La Fontaine^ 
 demand a share of our time with the best. Descartes, 
 Pascal, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Comte belong in 
 every liberal scheme of culture and to every student 
 of philosophy. 
 
 Spain gives us two most glorious names, Cervantes 
 and Pedro Calderon de la Barca, — the former one of 
 the world's very greatest humorists, the brother spirit 
 of Lowell ; the latter, a princely dramatist, the brother 
 of Shakspeare. 
 
 Germany boasts one summit on which the shadow 
 of no other falls. Goethe's *' Faust " and ** Wilhelm 
 Meister" and his minor poems cannot be neglected 
 if we want the best the world affords ; Schiller, too, 
 and Humboldt, Kant and Heine, Helmholtz and 
 Haeckel must be read. In science and history, the 
 
1 64 GREATEST NAMES OF OTHER LITERATURES. 
 
 list of German greatness is a very long and bright 
 one. 
 
 Persia calls us to read her magnificent astronomer- 
 poet, Omar Khayyam ; her splendid epic, the Shah 
 NameJi of Firdnsi, the story of whose labors, suc- 
 cesses, and misfortunes is one of the most interesting 
 passages in the history of poetry ; and taste at least 
 of her extravagant singer of the troubles and ecsta- 
 sies of love, Hafiz. 
 
 Portugal has given us Camoens, with his great poem 
 the '* Luciad." Denmark brings us her charming Aii- 
 dersen ; and Russia comes to us with her Byronic 
 Pushkin and her Schiller-hearted poet, Lermontoff, 
 at least for a glance. 
 
 We have thus named as the chiefs, twenty authors 
 in English, ten in Greek, three of Rome, two of Italy, 
 ten of France, two of Spain, seven of Germany, three 
 of Persia, one of Portugal, one of Denmark, and two 
 of Russia, — sixty-one in all, — which, if read in the 
 manner indicated, will impart a pretty thorough knowl- 
 edge of the literary treasures of the world. 
 
FOUNTAINS OF NATIONAL LITERATURES. 1 65 
 
 THE FOUNTAINS OF NATIONAL 
 LITERATURES. 
 
 In the early history of every great people there 
 has grown up a body of songs celebrating the hero- 
 ism of their valiant warriors and the charms of their 
 beautiful women. These have, generation after gen- 
 eration, been passed by word of mouth from one 
 group of singers to their successors, — by each new 
 set of artists somewhat polished and improved, — un- 
 til they come to us as Homer's Iliad, the ** Nibelun- 
 genlied " of the Germans, the '^ Chronicle of the Cid " 
 of the Spanish, the " Chansons de Gestes," the *' Ro- 
 mans," and the '* Fabliaux " of the French, and ** Beo- 
 wulf" and the ** Morte D' Arthur " of English literature. 
 These great poems are the sources of a vast portion of 
 what is best in subsequent art. From them Virgil, Boc- 
 caccio, Chaucer, Rabelais, Moliere, Shakspeare, Calde- 
 ron, and a host of others have drawn their inspiration. 
 Malory has wrought the Arthurian songs into a mould 
 of the purest English. The closing books, in their 
 quiet pathos and reserved strength, — in their melody, 
 winged words, and inimitable turns of phrase, — rank 
 with the best poetry of Europe. Southey called the 
 "Cid" the finest poem in the Spanish language, and 
 Prescott said it was " the most remarkable perform- 
 
1 66 FOUNTAINS OF NATIONAL LITERATURES. 
 
 ance of the Middle Ages." This may be going rather 
 too far ; but it certainly stands in the very front rank 
 of national poems. It has been translated by Lockhart 
 in verse, by Southey in prose, and there is a splendid 
 fragment by Frere. Of the French early epics, the 
 *' Chanson de Roland" and the ** Roman du Renart" 
 are the best. The '* Nibelungenlied " is the embodi- 
 ment of the wild and tragic, — the highest note of the 
 barbaric drama of the North. That last terrific scene 
 in the Hall of Etzel will rest forever in the memory of 
 every reader of the book. Carlyle has given a sketch 
 of the poem in his *' Miscellanies," vol. iii., and there 
 exists a complete but prolix and altogether miserable 
 translation of the great epic, but we sadly need a 
 condensed version of the myth of ** Siegfried" the 
 brave, and ** Chriemhild " the beautiful, in the stirring 
 prose of Malory or Southey. No reader will regret 
 a perusal of these songs of the people ; it is a journey 
 to the head-waters of the literary Nile. 
 
 The reader of this little book we hope has gained 
 an inspiration — if it were not his before — that, with a 
 strong and steady step, will lead him into all the paths 
 of beauty and of truth. Each glorious emotion and 
 each glowing thought that comes to us, becomes a 
 centre of new growth. Each wave of pathos, humor, 
 or sublimity that pulses through the heart or passes 
 to the brain, sets up vibrations that will never die, 
 but beautify the hours and years that follow to the 
 end of life. These waves that pass into the soul 
 do not conceal their music in the heart, but echo 
 
FOUNTAINS OF NATIONAL LITERATURES. 16/ 
 
 back upon the world in waves of kindred power; and 
 these return forever from the world into the heart 
 that gave them forth. It is as on the evening river, 
 where the boatman bends his homeward oar. Each 
 lusty call that leaves his lips, or song, or bugle blast 
 that slips the tensioned bars, and wings the breeze, 
 to teach its rhythm to the trees that crown the rocky 
 twilight steep o'er which the lengthening shadows 
 creep, returns and enters, softened, sweet, and clear, 
 the waiting portal of the sender's ear. The man who 
 fills his being with the noblest books, and pours their 
 beauty out in word and deed, is like the merry sing- 
 ers on the placid moonlit lake. Backward the ripples 
 o'er the silver sheet come on the echoes' winged feet ; 
 the hills and valleys all around gather the gentle 
 shower of sound, and pour the stream upon the boat 
 in which the happy singers float, chanting the hymns 
 they loved of yore, shipping the glistening wave- 
 washed oar, to hear reflected from the shore their 
 every charmed note. Oh, loosen from tJiy lip, my 
 friend, no tone thine ear would with remorseful sor- 
 row hear, hurling it back from far and near, the listen- 
 ing landscape oft repeat ! Rather a melody send to 
 greet the mountains beyond the silver sheet. Life 's 
 the soul's song ; sing sweetly, then, that when the si- 
 lence comes again, and ere it comes, from every glen 
 the echoes shall be sweet. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 
 
 Addison. " Books are the legacies that genius leaves to 
 mankind." 
 
 " Knowledge of books is a torch in the hands of one who 
 is willing and able to show those who are bewildered the way 
 which leads to prosperity and welfare." 
 
 Alcott, A. B. " My favorite books have a personality and 
 complexion as distinctly drawn as if the author's portrait 
 were framed into the paragraphs, and smiled upon me as I 
 read his illustrated pages." 
 
 " Next to a friend's discourse, no morsel is more delicious 
 than a ripe book, — a book whose flavor is as refreshing at 
 the thousandth tasting as at the first." 
 
 " Next to a personal introduction, a list of one's favor- 
 ite authors were the best admittance to his character and 
 manners." 
 
 " A good book perpetuates its fame from age to age, and 
 makes eras in the lives of its readers." 
 
 Atkinson, W. P. " Who can over-estimate the value of 
 good books, — those ships of thought, as Bacon so finely calls 
 them, voyaging througli the sea of time, and carrying their 
 precious freight so safely from generation to generation?" 
 
172 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Arnott, Dr. " Books, — the miracle of all possessions, 
 more wonderful than the wishing-cap of the Arabian tales ; 
 for they transport instantly, not only to all places, but to all 
 times." 
 
 Bacon. " Studies serve for pastimes, for ornaments, for 
 abilities. Their chief use for pastimes is in privateness and 
 retiring ; for ornaments, in discourse ; and for ability, in 
 judgment. ... To spend too much time in them is sloth ; 
 to use them too much for ornament is affectation ; to make 
 judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. 
 They perfect nature, and are themselves perfected by expe- 
 rience. Crafty men contemn them, wise men use them, 
 simple men admire them ; for they teach not their own use, 
 but that there is a wisdom without them and above them 
 won by observation. Read not to contradict, nor to believe, 
 but to weigh and consider. . . . Reading maketh a full man, 
 conference a ready, and writing an exact man. Therefore, 
 if a man write little, he had need of a great memory ; if he 
 confer little, he hath need of a present wit ; and if he read 
 little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that 
 he doth not know. Histories make men wise, poets witty, 
 the mathematicians subtile, natural philosophy deep, moral 
 grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend." 
 
 Barrow. "He who loveth a book will never want a faith- 
 ful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, or 
 an effectual comforter." 
 
 Bartholin. "' Without books God is silent, justice dor- 
 mant, natural science at a stand, philosophy lame, letters 
 dumb, and all things involved in Cimmerian darkness." 
 
 Beaconsfield, Lord. " The idea that human happiness is 
 dependent on the cultivation of the mind and on the dis- 
 covery of truth is, next to the conviction of our immortality, 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 1/3 
 
 the idea the most full of consolation to man ; for the cultiva- 
 tion of the mind has no limits, and truth is the only thing 
 that is eternal." 
 
 " Knowledge is like the mystic ladder in the patriarch's 
 dream. Its base rests on the primeval earth, its crest is lost 
 in the shadowy splendor of the empyrean ; while the great 
 authors, who for traditionary ages have held the chain of 
 science and philosophy, of poesy and erudition, are the angels 
 ascending and descending the sacred scale, and maintaining, 
 as it were, the communication between man and heaven." 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward. " A book is good company. It 
 seems to enter the memory, and to hover in a silvery trans- 
 formation there until the outward book is but a body, and 
 its soul and spirit are flown to you, and possess your mem- 
 ory like a spirit." 
 
 " Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. 
 A home without books is like a room without windows. ..." 
 
 Bright, John. " What is a great love of books ? It is 
 something like a personal introduction to the great and good 
 men of all past time." 
 
 Brooks, Phillips. '' Is it not a new England for a child 
 to be born in since Shakspeare gathered up the centuries 
 and told the story of humanity up to his time ? Will not 
 Carlyle and Tennyson make the man who begins to live 
 from them the ' heir of all ages ' which have distilled their 
 richness into the books of the sage and the singer of the 
 nineteenth century?" 
 
 Bro-wning, Elizabeth Barrett. 
 
 " When we gloriously forget ourselves and plunge 
 Soul forward, headlong into a book's profound, 
 Impassioned for its beauty, and salt of truth — 
 'T is then we get the right good from a book." 
 
174 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Bruy^re. "When a book raises your spirit, and inspires 
 you with noble and courageous feelings, seek for no other 
 rule to judge the event by ; it is good, and made by a good 
 workman." 
 
 Bury, Richard de. "You, O Books ! are golden urns in 
 which 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." 
 
 " In books vve find the dead, as it were, living. . . . The 
 truth written in a book . . . enters the chamber of intellect, 
 reposes itself upon the couch of memory, and there congen- 
 erates the eternal truth of the mind." 
 
 Carlyle. '" Evermore is Wisdom the highest of conquests 
 to every son of Adam, — nay, in a large sense, the one con- 
 quest ; and the precept to every one of us is ever, ' Above 
 all thy gettings get understanding.'" 
 
 " Of all the things which man can do or make here below, 
 by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the 
 things we call books." 
 
 " All that mankind has done, thought, gained, and been, 
 is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books." 
 
 Charming, Dr. Wm. E. " God be thanked for books ! 
 They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make 
 us heirs of the spiritual hfe 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 dwell- 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 175 
 
 ing : 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 from what is 
 called the best society in the place where I live." 
 Chaucer. 
 
 " And as for me, though that I know but lyte ^ 
 On bokes for to rede I me delyte, 
 And to them give I (feyth -) and ful credence, 
 And in myn herte have them in reverence 
 So hertily that there is pastime noon,^ 
 That from my bokes maketh me to goon 
 But yt be seldom on the holy day. 
 Save, certeynly, whan that the monethe of May 
 Is comen, and I here the foules synge, 
 And that the floures gynnen for to sprynge ; 
 Farewell my boke, and my devocioun." 
 
 Cicero. " Studies are the aliment of youth, the comfort 
 of old age, an adornment of prosperity, a refuge and a solace 
 in adversity, and a delight in our home." 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman. " 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, 
 give an ideal life to those whose homes are hard and cold, 
 bind together 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." 
 
 ^ Little. '^ Faith. 3 None. 
 
176 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Coleridge. " Some readers are like the hour-glass. Their 
 reading is as the sand ; it runs in and runs out, but leaves 
 not a vestige behind. Some, like a sponge, which imbibes 
 everything, and returns it in the same state, only a little 
 dirtier. Some, like a jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure 
 to pass away, and retains only the refuse and dregs. The 
 fourth class may be compared to the slave of Golconda, 
 who, casting away all that is worthless, preserves only the 
 pure gems." 
 
 Collyer, Robert. " 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. These were like a well of pure water ; and this is 
 the first step I seem to have taken of my own free will to- 
 ward the pulpit. From the days when we used to spell out 
 Crusoe and old Bunyan, there had grown up in me a de- 
 vouring hunger to read books. ... I could not go home 
 for the Christmas of 1839, and was feeling very sad about it 
 all, for I was only a boy ; and sitting by the fire, an old 
 farmer came in and said, ' I notice thou 's fond o' reading, 
 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 dehght had touched 
 me since the old days of Crusoe." 
 
 Curtis, G. W. " Books are the ever-burning lamps of ac- 
 cumulated wisdom." 
 
 De Quincey. " Every one owes to the impassioned books 
 he has read many a thousand more of emotions than he can 
 consciously trace back to them. ... A great scholar de- 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 177 
 
 pends not simply on an infinite memory, but also on an infi- 
 nite and electrical power of combination, — bringing together 
 from the four winds, like the Angel of the Resurrection, what 
 else were dust from dead men's bones into the unity of 
 breathing life." 
 
 Diodorus. " Books are the medicine of the mind." 
 
 Emerson. " The profit of books is according to the sen- 
 sibility of the reader." 
 
 Erasmus. "A little before you go to sleep read some- 
 thing that is exquisite and worth remembering, and contem- 
 plate upon it till you fall asleep ; and when you awake in the 
 morning call yourself to an account for it." 
 
 Farrar, Canon. " If all the books of the world were in a 
 blaze, the first twelve which I should snatch out of the flames 
 would be the Bible, the Imitation of Christ, Homer, ^schy- 
 lus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Virgil, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, 
 Shakspeare, Milton, Wordsworth. Of living writers I would 
 save, first, the works of Tennyson, Browning, and Ruskin." 
 
 Fenelon. "If die crowns of all the kingdoms of the em- 
 pire were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books 
 and my love of reading, I would spurn them all." 
 
 Freeman, E. A. (the historian). " I feel myself quite un- 
 able to draw up a list (of the best books), as I could not 
 trust my own judgment on any matters not bearing on my 
 special studies, and I should be doubtless tempted to give 
 too great prominence to them." 
 
 Fuller, Thomas. " It is thought and digestion which 
 make books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the 
 mind." 
 
 Gibbon. " A taste for books is the pleasure and glory 
 of my life. I would not exchange it for the glory of the 
 Indies." 
 
 12 
 
178 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Gladstone. " When I was a boy I used to be fond of 
 looking into a bookseller's shop ; but there was nothing to 
 be seen there that was accessible to the working-man of that 
 day. Take a Shakspeare, for example. I remember very 
 well that I gave £^2 ids. od. for my first copy ; but you can 
 get any one of Shakspeare's Plays for seven cents. Those 
 books are accessible now which were formerly quite inacces- 
 sible. We may be told that you want amusement, but that 
 does not include improvement. There are a set of worthless 
 books written now and at times which you should avoid, 
 which profess to give amusement ; but in reading the works 
 of such authors as Shakspeare and Scott there is the greatest 
 possible amusement in its best form. Do you suppose when 
 you see men engaged in study that they dislike it? No ! . . . 
 I want you to understand that multitudes of books are con- 
 stantly being prepared and placed within reach of the popu- 
 lation at large, for the most part executed by writers of a 
 high stamp, having subjects of the greatest interest, and 
 which enable you, at a moderate price, not to get cheap 
 literature which is secondary in its quality, but to go straight 
 into the very heart, — if I rnay so say, into the sanctuary 
 of the temple of literature, — and become acquainted with 
 the greatest and best works that men of our country have 
 produced." 
 
 Godwin, William. " It is impossible that we can be 
 much accustomed to such companions without attaining some 
 resemblance to them." 
 
 Goldsmith. *' An author may be considered as a merci- 
 ful substitute to the legislature. He acts not by punishing 
 crimes, but by preventing them." 
 
 Hale, Sir Matthew. " Read the Bible reverently and at- 
 tentively, set your heart upon it, and lay it up in your mem- 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 1 79 
 
 ory, and make it the direction of your life ; it will make you 
 a wise and good man." 
 
 Hamerton, P. H. " The art of reading is to skip judi- 
 ciously." 
 
 Harrison, Frederic. "The best authors are never dark 
 horses. The world has long ago closed the great assize of 
 letters, and judged the first places everywhere." 
 
 " The reading of great books is usually an acquired faculty, 
 not a natural gift. If you have not got the faculty, seek for 
 it with all your might." 
 
 " Of Walter Scott one need as little speak as of Shak- 
 speare. He belongs to mankind, — to every age and race ; 
 and he certainly must be counted as in the first line of the 
 great creative minds of the world. His unique glory is to 
 have definitely succeeded in the ideal reproduction of his- 
 torical types, so as to preserve at once beauty, life, and 
 truth, — a task which neither Ariosto and Tasso, nor Cor- 
 neille and Racine, nor Alfieri, nor Goethe, nor Schiller, — 
 no, nor even Shakspeare himself, entirely achieved. ... In 
 brilliancy of conception, in wealth of character, in dramatic 
 art, in glow and harmony of color, Scott put forth all the 
 powers of a master poet. . . . The genius of Scott has 
 raised up a school of historical romance ; and though the 
 best work of Chateaubriand, Manzoni, and Bulwer may take 
 rank as true art, the endless crowd of inferior imitations are 
 nothing but a weariness to the flesh. . . . Scott is a perfect 
 Hbrary in himself. . . . The poetic beauty of Scott's crea- 
 tions is almost the least of his great qualities. It is the 
 universality of his sympathy that is so truly great, the jus- 
 tice of his estimates, the insight into the spirit of each age, 
 his intense absorption of self in the vast epic of human 
 civilization." 
 
l8o THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Hazlitt, "William. " Books let us into the souls of men, 
 and lay open to us the secrets of our own." 
 
 Heinsius. " I no sooner come into the library but I bolt 
 the door to me, excluding Lust, Ambition, Avarice, and all 
 such vices, whose nurse is Idleness, the Mother of Ignorance 
 and Melancholy. In the very lap of eternity, among so many 
 divine souls, I take my seat with so Ibfty a spirit and sweet 
 content, that I pity all that know not this happiness." 
 
 Herbert, George. " This book of stars [the Bible] lights 
 to eternal bliss." 
 
 Herschel, Sir J. " Give a man this taste [for good 
 books] and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly 
 fail of making a happy man. You place him in contact with 
 the best society in every period of history, — with the wisest, 
 the wittiest, the tenderest, the bravest, and the purest char- 
 acters who have adorned humanity. You make him a deni- 
 zen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages." 
 
 Hillard, George S. *' Here we have immortal flowers of 
 poetry, wet with Castilian dew, and the golden fruit of Wis- 
 dom that had long ripened on the bough. . . . We should 
 any of us esteem it a great privilege to pass an evening with 
 Shakspeare or Bacon. . . . W'e may be sure that Shakspeare 
 never out-talked his ' Hamlet,' nor Bacon his ' Essays.' . . . 
 To the gentle-hearted youth, far from his home, in the midst 
 of a pitiless city, 'homeless among a thousand homes,' the ap- 
 proach of evening brings with it an aching sense of loneliness 
 and desolation. In this mood his best impulses become a snare 
 to him ; and he is led astray because he is social, affectionate, 
 sympathetic, and warm-hearted. The hours from sunset to 
 bedtime are his hours of peril. Let me say to such young 
 men that books are the friends of the friendless, and that a 
 library is the home of the homeless." 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. l8l 
 
 Holmes, O. "W. " Books are the ' negative ' pictures of 
 thought ; and the more sensitive the mind that receives the 
 images, the more nicely the finest lines are reproduced." 
 
 Houghton, Lord. '' It [a book] is a portion of the eter- 
 nal mind, caught in its process through the world, stamped 
 in an instant, and preserved for eternity." 
 
 Irving. " The scholar only knows how dear these silent 
 yet eloquent companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours 
 become in the season of adversity." 
 
 Johnson, Dr. " No man should consider so highly of 
 himself as to think he can receive but little light from books, 
 nor so meanly as to believe he can discover nothing but what 
 is to be learned from them." 
 
 Jonson, Ben. " A prince without letters is a pilot with- 
 out eyes." 
 
 King, Thomas Starr. " By cultivating an interest in a 
 few good books, which contain the result of the toil or the 
 quintessence of the genius of some of the most gifted think- 
 ers of the world, we need not live on the marsh and in the 
 mists ; the slopes and the summits invite us." 
 
 Kingsley, Charles. " Except a living man, there is noth- 
 ing more wonderful than a book ! — a message to us from 
 the dead, from human souls whom we never saw, who lived, 
 perhaps, thousands of 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 to brothers." 
 
 Lamb, Charles. " Milton almost requires a solemn ser- 
 vice of music to be played before you enter upon him. But 
 he brings his music, to which who listens had need bring 
 docile thoughts and purged ears." 
 
 Landor, Walter Savage. " The writings of the wise are 
 the only riches our posterity cannot squander." 
 
1 82 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT IVIEN 
 
 Langford. " Strong as man and tender as woman, they 
 welcome you in every mood, and never turn from you in 
 distress." 
 
 Lowell. " Have you ever rightly considered what the 
 noere ability to read means ? That it is the key that admits 
 us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination, 
 to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and the wit- 
 tiest at their wisest and wittiest moments ? That it enables 
 us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, 
 and listen to the sweetest voices of all time? . . . One is 
 sometimes asked by young people to recommend a course 
 of reading. My advice would be that they should confine 
 themselves to the supreme books in whatever literature, or, 
 still better, to choose some one great author, and make them- 
 selves thoroughly familiar with him." 
 
 Luther. " To read many books produceth confusion, 
 rather than learning, like as those who dwell everywhere are 
 not anywhere at home." 
 
 Lyly, John. " Far more seemly were it ... to have thy 
 study full of books than thy purse full of money." 
 
 Lytton, Lord. 
 
 " Laws die, books never." 
 
 " Beneath the rule of men entirely great 
 The pen is mightier than the sword." 
 
 "Ye ever-living and imperial Souls, 
 Who rule us from the page in which ye breathe." 
 
 " The Wise 
 (Minstrel or Sage) ott^ of their books are clay; 
 But /;/ their books, as from their graves, they rise. 
 Angels — that, side by side, upon our way, 
 Walk with and warn us ! " 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 183 
 
 " We call some books immortal ! Do they live ? 
 If so, believe me, Time hath made them pure. 
 In Books the veriest wicked rest in peace, — 
 God wills that nothing evil should endure ; 
 The grosser parts fly off and leave the whole, 
 As the dust leaves the disembodied soul ! " 
 
 Macaulay. " A great writer is the friend and benefactor 
 of his readers." 
 
 Milton. " As good almost kill a man as kill a good book. 
 Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; 
 but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, — kills 
 the image of God, as it w^ere, in the eye. Many a man lives 
 a burden to the earth ; but a good book is the precious 
 life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up 
 on purpose to a life beyond." 
 
 Montaigne. *' To divert myself from a troublesome fancy, 
 'tis but to run to my books." 
 
 " As to what concerns my other reading, that mixes a little 
 more profit with the pleasure, and from whence I learn how 
 to marshal my opinions and qualities, the books that serve 
 me to this purpose are Plutarch and Seneca, — both of which 
 have this great convenience suited to my humor, that the 
 knowledge I seek is discoursed in loose pieces that do not 
 engage me in any great trouble of reading long, of which I 
 am impatient. . . . Plutarch is frank throughout. Seneca 
 abounds with brisk touches and sallies. Plutarch, with things 
 that heat and move you more ; this contents and pays you 
 better. As to Cicero, those of his works that are most useful 
 to my design are they that treat of philosophy, especially 
 moral ; but boldly to confess the truth, his way of writing, 
 and that of all other long-winded authors, appears to me 
 very tedious." 
 
1 84 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Morley, John. " The consolation of reading is not futile 
 nor imaginary. It is no chimera of the recluse or the book- 
 worm, but a potent reality. As a stimulus to flagging ener- 
 gies, as an inspirer of lofty aim, literature stands unrivalled." 
 
 Morris, "William. " The greater part of the Latins I should 
 call sha7n classics. I suppose that they have some good lit- 
 erary qualities ; but I cannot help thinking that it is difficult 
 to find out how much. I suspect superstition and author- 
 ity have influenced our estimate of them till it has become 
 a mere matter of convention Of modern fiction, I should 
 like to say here that I yield to no one, not even Ruskin, in 
 my love and admiration for Scott ; also that, to my mind, of 
 the novelists of our generation, Dickens is immeasurably 
 ahead." 
 
 Miiller, Max. *' I know few books, if any, which I should 
 call good from beginning to end. Take the greatest poet of 
 antiquity, and if I am to speak the truth, the whole truth, 
 and nothing but the truth, I must say that there are long pas- 
 sages, even in Homer, which seem to me extremely tedious." 
 
 Parker, Thtjodore. " What a joy is there in a good book, 
 writ by some great master of thought, who breaks into beauty, 
 as in summer the meadow into grass and dandelions and 
 violets, with geraniums and manifold sweetness. . . . The 
 books which help you most are those which make you think 
 most. ... A great book ... is a ship of thought deep 
 freighted with thought, 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 spark- 
 ling loveliness, widening as the ship goes on. And what 
 treasures it brings to every land, scattering the seeds of 
 truth, justice, love, and piety, to bless the world in ages yet 
 to come." 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 1 85 
 
 Peacham, Henry. " To desire to have many books and 
 never to use them, is Hke a child that will have a candle 
 burning by him all the while he is sleeping." 
 
 Petrarch. " I have friends whose society is extremely 
 agreeable to me ; they are of all ages and of every country. 
 They have distinguished 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 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 impor- 
 tant 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." 
 
 Phelps, E. J. (United States Minister to the Court of St. 
 James). " I cannot think th^Jinis et fructus of liberal read- 
 ing is reached by him who has not obtained in the best writ- 
 ings of our English tongue the generous acquaintance that 
 ripens into affection. If he must stint himself, let him save 
 elsewhere!" 
 
 Plabo. " Books are the immortal sons deifying their sires." 
 
 Plutarch. " We ought to regard books as we do sweet- 
 meats, — not wholly to aim at the pleasantest, but chiefly to 
 respect the wholesomest." 
 
 Potter, Dr. "It is nearly an axiom that people will not 
 be better than the books they read." 
 
1 86 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Raleigh, Walter. " We may gather out of history a policy 
 no less wise than eternal, by the comparison and application 
 of other men's fore-passed miseries with our own like errors 
 and ill-deservings." 
 
 Richardson, C. F. " No book, indeed, is of universal 
 value and appropriateness. . . . Here, as in every other 
 question involved in the choice of books, the golden key 
 to knowledge, a key that will only fit its own proper doors, is 
 purposed 
 
 Ruskin. " All books are divisible into two classes, — ■ the 
 books of the hour and the books of all time." Books of the 
 hour, though useful, are, " strictly speaking, not books at all, 
 but merely letters or newspapers in good print," and should 
 not be allowed " to usurp the place of true books." 
 
 " Of all the plagues that afflict mortality, the venom of a 
 bad book to weak people, and the charms of a foolish one to 
 simple people, are without question the deadliest ; and they 
 are so far from being redeemed by the too imperfect work of 
 the best writers, that I never would wish to see a child taught 
 to read at all, unless the other conditions of its education 
 were alike gentle and judicious." 
 
 Ruskin says a well-trained man should know the literature 
 of his own country and half a dozen classics thoroughly ; but 
 unless he wishes to travel, the language and literature of 
 modern Europe and of the East are unnecessary. To read 
 fast any book worth reading is folly. Ruskin would* not have 
 us read Grote's " History of Greece," for any one could 
 write it if " he had the vanity to waste his time ; " " Confes- 
 sions of Saint Augustine," for it is not good to think so much 
 about ourselves ; John Stuart Mill, for his day is over ; 
 Charles Kingsley, for his sentiment is false, his tragedy 
 frightful. Hypatia is the most ghastly story in Christian tra- 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 1 8/ 
 
 dition, and should forever have been left in silence ; Darwin, 
 for we should know what we are, not what oicr embryo was, 
 or our skeleton will be; Gibbon, for we should study the 
 growth and standing of things, not the Decline and Fall 
 (moreover, he wrote the worst English ever written by an 
 educated Englishmen) ; Voltaire, for his work is to good 
 literature what nitric acid is to wine, and sulphuretted hydro- 
 gen to air. 
 
 Ruskin also crosses out Marcus Aurelius, Confucius, Aris- 
 totle (except his "Politics"), Mahomet, Saint Augustine, 
 Thomas a Kempis, Pascal, Spinoza, Buder, Keble, Lucretius, 
 the Nibelungenlied, Malory's Morte D'Arthur, Firdusi, the 
 Mahabharata, and Ramayana, the Sheking, Sophocles, and 
 Euripides, Hume, Adam Smith, Locke, Descartes, Berke- 
 ley, Lewes, Southey, Longfellow, Swift, Macaulay, Emer- 
 son, Goethe, Thackeray, Kingsley, George Eliot, and 
 Bulwer. 
 
 His especial favorites are Scott, Carlyle, Plato, and Dickens. 
 yEschylus, Taylor, Bunyan, Bacon, Shakspeare, Milton, Dante, 
 Spenser, Wordsworth, Pope, Goldsmith, Defoe, Boswell, 
 Burke, Addison, Montaigne, Moliere, Sheridan, yF^sop, De- 
 mosthenes, Plutarch, Horace, Cicero, Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, 
 Aristophanes, Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides, and Taci- 
 tus, he condescends to admit as proper to be read. 
 
 Schopenhauer. " Recollect that he who writes for fools 
 finds an enormous audience." 
 
 Seneca. " If you devote your time to study, you will 
 avoid all the irksomeness of this life." 
 
 " It does not matter how many, but how good, books you 
 have." 
 
 " Leisure without study is death, and the grave of a living 
 man." 
 
1 88 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN 
 
 Shakspeare. " A book ! oh, rare one ! be not, as in this 
 fangled world, a garment nobler than it covers." 
 
 *' My library was dukedom large enough." 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip. " Nature never set forth the earth 
 in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done." 
 
 Smiles, Sam. " Men often discover their affinity to each 
 other by the mutual love they have for a book." 
 
 Smith, Alexander. "We read books not so much for 
 what they say as for what they suggest." 
 
 Socrates. " Employ your time in improving yourselves 
 by other men's documents ; so shall you come easily by what 
 others have labored hard to win." 
 
 Solomon. " He that walketh with wise men shall be 
 wise." 
 
 Spencer, Herbert. " My reading has been much more in 
 the direction of science fhan in the direction of general lite- 
 rature ; and of such works in general literature as I have 
 looked into, I know comparatively little, being an impatient 
 reader, and usually soon satisfied." 
 
 Stanley, Henry M. " I carried [across Africa] a great 
 many books, — three loads, or about one hundred and eighty 
 pounds' weight ; but as my men lessened in numbers, — 
 stricken by famine, fighting, and sickness, — one by one they 
 were reluctantly thrown away, until finally, when less than 
 three hundred miles from the Atlantic, I possessed only the 
 Bible, Shakspeare, Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, Norie's Navi- 
 gation, and the Nautical Almanac for 1877. Poor Shak- 
 speare was afterwards burned by demand of the foolish people 
 ofZinga. At Bonea, Carlyle and Norie and the Nautical 
 Almanac were pitched away, and I had only the old Bible 
 left." 
 
 Swinburne, A. C. " It would be superfluous for any edu- 
 
ABOUT BOOKS AND READING. 1 89 
 
 cated Englishman to say that he does not question the pre- 
 eminence of such names as Bacon and Darwin." 
 
 Taylor, Bayard. " Not many, but good books." 
 
 Thoreau. " Books that are books are all that you want, 
 and there are but half a dozen in any thousand." 
 
 Trollope, Anthony. " The habit of reading is the only 
 enjoyment I know in which there is no alloy ; it lasts when 
 all other pleasures fade." 
 
 Waller, Sir William. " In my study I am sure to con- 
 verse with none but wise men ; but abroad, it is impossible 
 for me to avoid the society of fools." 
 
 Whateley, Richard. *' If, in reading books, a man does 
 not choose wisely, at any rate he has the chance offered him 
 of doing so." 
 
 Whipple, Edwin P. " Books, — lighthouses erected in 
 the sea of time." 
 
 White, Andrew D., President of Cornell, speaking of 
 Scott, says : " Never was there a more healthful and health- 
 ministering literature than that which he gave to the world. 
 To go back to it from Flaubert and Daudet and Tolstoi is 
 like listening to the song of the lark after the shrieking pas- 
 sion of the midnight pianoforte ; nay, it is like coming out 
 of the glare and heat and reeking vapor of a palace ball into 
 a grove in the first light and music and breezes of the morn- 
 ing. ... So far from stimulating an unhealthy taste, the en- 
 joyment of this fiction created distinctly a taste for what is 
 usually called ' solid reading,' and especially a love for that 
 historical reading and study which has been a leading inspi- 
 ration and solace of a busy life." 
 
 Whitman, Walt. " For us, along the great highways of ■ 
 time, those monuments stand, — those forms of majesty and 
 beauty. For us those beacons burn through all the night." 
 
I90 THE BEST THOUGHTS OF GREAT MEN. 
 
 Wolseley, Gen. Lord. " During the mutiny and China war 
 I carried a Testament, two volumes of Siiakspeare that con- 
 tained his best plays ; and since then, when in the field, I have 
 always carried a Book of Common Prayer, Thomas a Kempis, 
 Soldier's Pocket Book, depending on a well-organized postal 
 service to supply me weekly with plenty of newspapers." 
 
 Wordsworth. " These hoards of wealth you can unlock 
 at will." 
 
APPENDIX 11. 
 
 BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 
 
 BOYS' LATIN SCHOOL. 
 
 Moss' First Greek Reader. Tomlinson's Latin for Sight 
 Reading. Walford's Extracts from Cicero (Part L). Jack- 
 son's Manual of Astronomical Geography. Ritchie's Fabu- 
 lae Faciles. 
 
 GIRLS* LATIN SCHOOL. 
 
 Sheldon's Greek and Roman History. Ritchie's Fabulae 
 Faciles. 
 
 LATIN AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 Books required for admission to Harvard College. 
 
 A list of suitable books, carefully prepared under the di- 
 rection of the Committee on Text-Books, is presented to 
 the Board for adoption. After this list has been adopted, a 
 master may make requisition on the Committee on Sup- 
 plies for one set (of not more than thirty-five copies) of a 
 book. This committee, after the approval of the Committee 
 on Text-Books has been obtained, will purchase the books 
 and send them to the school for permanent use. No book 
 will be purchased until called for in the manner described. 
 
192 BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 
 
 English. — Barnes's History of Ancient Peoples ; Church's 
 Stories from the East, from Herodotus ; Church's Story of 
 the Persian War, from Herodotus ; Church's Stories from 
 the Greek Tragedians ; Kingsley's Greek Heroes ; Abbott's 
 Lives of Cyrus and Alexander ; Froude's Caesar ; Forsythe's 
 Life of Cicero ; Ware's Aurelian ; Cox's Crusades ; Masson's 
 Abridgment of Guizot's History of France ; Scott's Abbot ; 
 Scott's Monastery ; Scott's Talisman ; Scott's Quentin Dur- 
 vvard ; Scott's Marmion (Rolfe's Student series) ; Scott's Lay 
 of the Last Minstrel (Rolfe's Student series) ; Kingsley's 
 Hereward ; Kingsley's Westward Ho ; Melville's Holmby 
 House ; Macaulay's Essay on Frederic ; Macaulay's Essay 
 on Clive ; Macaulay's Essay on Dr. Johnson ; Motley's 
 Essay on Peter the Great ; Thackeray's Henry Esmond ; 
 Thackeray's The Virginians ; Thackeray's The Four Georges ; 
 Dickens' Tale of Two Cities ; George Eliot's Silas Mar- 
 ner ; Irving's Alhambra ; Irving's Bracebridge Hall ; Miss 
 Buckley's Life and her Children ; Miss Buckley's Winners 
 in Life's Race ; Bulfinch's Age of Fable (revised edition) ; 
 The Boy's Froissart ; Ballads and Lyrics ; Vicar of Wake- 
 field ; Essays of Elia ; Tennyson's Selected Poems (Rolfe's 
 Student series) ; Tennyson's Elaine ; Tennyson's In Memo- 
 riam ; Byron's Prisoner of Chillon ; Goldsmith's Deserted 
 Village ; Goldsmith's Traveller ; Coleridge's Ancient Mar- 
 iner ; Wordsworth's Excursion ; Monroe's Sixth Reader ; 
 Webster — Section 2 [Annotated English Classics, Ginn & 
 Co.] ; Wordsworth's Poems — Section 2 [Annotated Eng- 
 lish Classics, Ginn & Co.] ; Sheldon's Greek and Roman 
 History ; Monroe's Fifth Reader (old edition). 
 
 French. — St. German's Pour une Epingle ; Achard's Le 
 Clos Pommier ; Feuillet's Roman d'un Homme Pauvre ; 
 Dumas's La Tulipe Noire ; Vigny's Cinq Mars^; Lacombe's 
 La Petite Histoire du Peuple Fran^ais. 
 
BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 1 93 
 
 German. — Andersen's Marchen ; Simmondson's Balla- 
 denbuch ; Krummacher's Parabeln ; Goethe's Iphigenie auf 
 Tauris ; Goethe's Prose ; Schiller's Jungfrau vcni Orleans ; 
 Schiller's Prose ; Boisen's German Prose ; Bernhardt's No- 
 vellen Bibliothek. 
 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 
 
 Class VL {about Ten Years old). 
 
 Seven Little Sisters, first half-year. Each and All, second 
 half-year. This is simple, interesting class-reading, which 
 will aid the geography, and furnish material for both oral and 
 written language lessons. Hooker's Child's Book of Nature ; 
 those chapters of Parts L and IL, which will supplement 
 properly the observational studies of plants and animals, and 
 those chapters of Part IIL, on air, water, and heat, which 
 will aid the instruction in Geography. Our World Reader, 
 No. I. Our World, No. i ; the reading to be kept parallel 
 with the instruction in Geography through the year. Poetry for 
 Children ; selections appropriate for reading and recitation. 
 
 Class V. (about Eleven Years old). 
 
 Stories of American History ; for practice in reading at 
 sight, and for material for language lessons. Guyot's Intro- 
 duction to Geography ; the reading to be kept parallel with 
 the instruction in Geography through the year. Hooker's 
 Child's Book of Nature, and Poetry for Children ; as in Class 
 VL Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 Class IV. (about Twelve Years old). 
 
 The Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales, as collateral to 
 the oral instruction in Stories in Mythology. Hooker's 
 
194 BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 
 
 Child's Book of Nature, and Poetry for Children ; as in 
 Classes VI. and V. Readings from Nature's Book (revised 
 edition). Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 Class III. {about Thirteen Years old). 
 
 Hooker's Child's Book of Nature ; as supplementary to 
 oral lessons. American Poems, with Biographical Sketches 
 and Notes ; appropriate selections therefrom. 
 
 Class 1 1, {about Fourteen Years old). 
 
 Selections from American authors ; as in part collateral 
 to the United States History. American Poems ; appro- 
 priate selections therefrom. 
 
 Class I. {about Fiftee7i Years old). 
 
 Selections from American authors. Early England — Har- 
 per's Half-Hour Series, Nos. 6 and 14. American Poems; 
 selections therefrom. Green's Readings from English His- 
 tory. Phillips's Historical Readers, Nos. i, 2, 3, 4. 
 
 Any Class. 
 
 Six Stories from the Arabian Nights. Holmes' and Long- 
 fellow Leaflets, published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. Book 
 of Golden Deeds. Jackson's Manual of Astronomical Geog- 
 raphy. Parkman Leaflets, pubhshed by Litde, Brown, & Co. 
 
 Circulating Library for Grammar Schools. 
 
 Zigzag Journeys in Europe (revised edition) ; Zigzag Jour- 
 neys in the Orient (revised edition) ; Scudder's Boston 
 Town ; Drake's The Making of New England ; Towle's 
 Pizarro ; Towle's Vasco da Gama ; Towle's Magellan ; Fairy 
 Land of Science ; Hawthorne's True Stories ; Higginson's 
 
BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 1 95 
 
 Young Folks' Book of Explorers ; Scott's Ivanhoe ; Long- 
 fellow's Evangeline ; Little Folks in Feathers and Fur ; 
 What Mr. Darwin saw in his Voyage around the World in 
 the Ship Beagle ; Muloch's A Noble Life ; M. E. Dodge's 
 Hans Brinker ; Lambert's Robinson Crusoe ; Lamb's Tales 
 from Shakspeare (revised edition, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.) ; 
 Abbott's Jonas on a P'arm in Summer ; Smiles' Robert 
 Dick, Geologist and Botanist ; Eyes Right ; Alcott's Lit- 
 tle Men ; Alcott's Little Women ; Stoddards Dab Kin- 
 zer; Scott's Kenilworth ; Tom Brown's School-Days at 
 Rugby ; Abbott's Mary Queen of Scots ; Abbott's Charles I. ; 
 Taylor's Boys of Other Countries ; How Marjory Helped ; 
 Little People in Asia ; Oilman's Magna Charta Stories ; 
 Overhead ; Yonge's Lances of Linwood ; Memory Gems ; 
 Geographical Plays ; Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road 
 from Long Ago till Now ; Scott's Tales of a Grandfather ; 
 Hayes' Cast Away in the Cold ; Sharp Eyes and other 
 Papers ; Lessons on Practical Subjects ; Stories of Mother 
 Nature ; Play Days ; Jackanapes ; Children's Stories of Ameri- 
 can Progress ; Little Lord Fauntleroy ; Oilman's Historical 
 Readers (three volumes) ; Pilgrims and Puritans ; The Patri- 
 otic Reader; Ballou's Footprints of Travel. 
 
 PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 Permanent Supplementary Reading. 
 
 Easy Steps for Little Feet. Popular Tales (first and sec- 
 ond series.) Parker & Marvel's Supplementary Reading 
 (first book). Tweed's Graded Supplementary Reading. 
 Modern Series Primary Reading, Part I. An Illustrated 
 Primer (D. C. Heath & Co.). 
 
196 BOOKS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 
 
 Circulating Supplementary Reading. 
 
 First Readers. — Monroe's, Monroe's Advanced First, 
 
 Appleton's, Harvey's, Eclectic, Sheldon's, Barnes' New Na- 
 tional, Sheldon & Co.'s, Harper's, The Nursery Primer, 
 Parker & Marvel's Supplementary Reading (second book), 
 Wood's First Natural History Reader, Stickney's First 
 Reader, Stickney's First Reader (new edition), McGuffey's 
 Alternate First Reader. 
 
 Second Readers. — Monroe's, Monroe's Advanced Sec- 
 ond, Appleton's, Harvey's, Lippincott's, Sheldon & Co.'s, 
 Barnes' New National, Analytical, Macmillan's, Svvinton's, 
 New Normal, Stickney's Second Reader (new edition), 
 Harper's Easy Book (published by Shorey), Turner's Stories 
 for Young Children, Our Little Ones, Golden Book of 
 Choice Reading, When I was a Little Girl, Johonnot's 
 Friends in Feathers and Fur, Woodward's Number Stories, 
 Wood's Second Natural History Reader, Young Folks' Li- 
 brary, Nos. 5 and 6 (Silver, Burdett, & Co.). 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING IN ONE BUILD- 
 ING, NOVEMBER, 1890. 
 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
 Cl.'VSS I. {about Fifteen Years old). 
 Longfellow's Poems. 
 
 Class II. {about Fourteen Years old), 
 
 Hans Brinker. Mary Mapes Dodge. 
 How Marjory Helped. M. Caroll. 
 Magellan's Voyages. 
 Ivanhoe. Scott. 
 
TEXT-BOOKS. 197 
 
 Class III. {about Thirteen Years old), 
 American Explorers. Higginson. 
 
 Class IV. {about Twelve Years old), 
 
 Playdays. Sarah O. Jewett. 
 
 Water Babies. Kingsley. 
 
 Physiology. 
 
 A Child's Book of Nature. W. Hooker. 
 
 Class V. {about Eleven Years old) . 
 
 Stories of American History. N. S. Dodge. 
 Guyot's Geography. 
 
 Class VI. {about Ten Years old) . 
 
 The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Six stories by 
 Samuel Eliot. 
 
 Our World. Mary L. Hall. 
 The Seven Little Sisters. Jane Andrews. 
 Each and All. Jane Andrews. 
 Poetry for Children. Samuel Eliot. 
 
 TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 Third Class. — Franklin Primer and Advanced First 
 Reader. Munroe's Primary Reading Charts. 
 
 Second Class. — Franklin Second Reader. Franklin Ad- 
 vanced Second Reader. First Music Reader. 
 
198 TEXT- BOOKS. 
 
 First Class. — Franklin Third Reader. ■* New Franklin 
 Third Reader. First Music Reader. 
 
 Upper Classes. — ^Franklin Primary Aridimetic. First 
 Lessons in Natural History and Language, Parts I. and II. 
 Child's Book of Language, Nos. i, 2, 3. [By J. H. 
 Stickney.] 
 
 All the Classes. — American Text-books of Art Education. 
 First Primary Music Chart. Prang's Natural History Series, 
 one set for each building. 
 
 Magnus & Jeffries's Color Chart ; '' Color Blindness," by 
 Dr. B. Joy Jeffries. — One copy of the Chart and one copy 
 of the book for use in each Primary-School building. 
 
 Normal Music Course in the Rice Training School and in 
 the schools of the third and sixth divisions. National Music 
 Course (revised edition) in the schools of the first and second 
 divisions. 
 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 
 
 Sixth Class. — Franklin Advanced Third Reader. ^ War- 
 ren's Primary GeograjDhy. Intermediate Music Reader. 
 Franklin Elementary Arithmetic. *Greenleafs Manual of 
 Mental Arithmetic. Worcester's Spelling-Book. 
 
 Fifth Class. — Franklin Intermediate Reader. -^ New 
 Franklin Fourth Reader. Franklin Elementary Arithmetic. 
 
 ' To be furnished at the discretion of the Committee on Supplies. 
 
 ^ Each Primary-School building occupied by a first or second class to be 
 supplied with one set of the Franklin Primary Arithmetic; the number in a 
 set to be sixty, or, if less be needed, less than sixty; the Committee on Sup- 
 plies are authorized to supply additional copies of the book at their discretion, 
 if needed. 
 
 3 Swinton's Introductory Geography allowed in Charlestown Schools. 
 
 "* To be used in the manner recommended by the Board of Supervisors in 
 School Document No. 14, 1883; one set of sixty copies to be supplied for the 
 classes on each floor of a Grammar-School building occupied by pupils in either 
 of the four lower classes, and for each colony of a Grammar School. 
 
TEXT-BOOKS. I99 
 
 ^Greenleafs Manual of Mental Arithmetic. ^ Warren's Pri- 
 mary Geography. Intermediate Music Reader. Worcester's 
 Spelling-Book. 
 
 Fourth Class. — Franklin Fourth Reader. ^ New Franklin 
 Fourth Reader. Worcester's Comprehensive Dictionary. 
 Franklin Written Arithmetic. -^ Greenleaf's Manual of Mental 
 Arithmetic. ^Warren's Common-School Geography. Inter- 
 mediate Music Reader. Worcester's Spelling-Book. ^ Blais- 
 dell's How to Keep Well. 
 
 Third Class. — Franklin Fifth Reader. ^ New Franklin 
 Fifth Reader. Franklin Written Arithmetic. ^ Greenleafs 
 Manual of Mental Arithmetic. ^Warren's Common-School 
 Geography. Swinton's New Language Lessons. Worces- 
 ter's Comprehensive Dictionary. Higginson's History of the 
 United States. * Fourth Music Reader. [Revised edition.] 
 ^ Blaisdeirs How to Keep Well. 
 
 Second Class. — Franklin Fifth Reader. ^ New Franklin 
 Fifth Reader. Franklin Written Arithmetic. ^ Warren's 
 Common-School Geography. Tweed's Grammar for Com- 
 mon Schools. Worcester's Comprehensive Dictionary. 
 Higginson's History of the United States. ■* Fourth Music 
 Reader. [Revised edition.] Smith's Elementary Physio- 
 logy and Hygiene. 
 
 1 To be used in the manner recommended by the Board of Supervisors in 
 School Document No, 14, 1883; one set of sixty copies to be supplied for the 
 classes on each floor of a Grammar-School building occupied by pupils in either 
 of the four lower classes, and for each colony of a Grammar School. 
 
 2 The revised edition to be furnished at the discretion of the Committee on 
 Supplies to schools where this book is used, Swinton's Grammar-School 
 Geography allowed in Charlestown Schools. 
 
 ^ To be furnished at the discretion of the Committee on Supplies, 
 
 4 The revised edition. to be supplied as new books are needed, 
 
 5 One set of not more than sixty copies, or, if determined by the Committee 
 on Supplies to be necessary, more than one set, be placed in each Grammar 
 School, for use as collateral reading in the third and fourth classes. 
 
200 TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 First Class. — Franklin Sixth Reader. Franklin Writ- 
 ten Arithmetic. Meservey's Book-keeping, Single Entry. 
 * Warren's Common School Geography. Tweed's Grammar 
 for Common Schools. Worcester's Comprehensive Dic- 
 tionary. Stone's History of England. Cooley's Elements 
 of Philosophy. ^ Fourth Music Reader. [Revised edition.] 
 
 Fifth and Sixth Classes. — First Lessons in Natural His- 
 tory and Language. Parts IIL and IV. 
 
 All Classes. — American Text-books of Art Education. 
 Writing- Books : Duntonian Series ; Payson, Dunton, and 
 Scribner's ; Harper's Copy-books ; Appleton's Writing- 
 Books. Child's Book of Language ; and Letters and Les- 
 sons in Language, Nos. i,, 2, 3, 4. [By J. H. Stickney.] 
 Prang's Aids for Object Teaching, " Trades," one set for 
 each building. 
 
 Normal Music Course in the Rice Training School and 
 
 the schools of the third and sixth divisions. National Music 
 
 Course (revised edition) in the schools of the first and second 
 
 divisions. 
 
 HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 Efiglish. — Abbott's How to Write Clearly. Hill's or 
 Kellogg's Rhetoric. Meiklejohn's English Language. Scott's 
 Lady of the Lake. Selections from Addison's Papers in 
 the Spectator, with Macaulay's Essay on Addison. Irv- 
 ing's Sketch-Book. Trevelyan's Selections from Macaulay. 
 Hales' Longer English Poems. Shakspeare, — Rolfe's or 
 Hudson's Selections. Selections from Chaucer. Selections 
 from Milton. [Clarendon Press Edition. Vol. L] Worces- 
 ter's Comprehensive Dictionary. 
 
 1 The revised edition to be furnished at the discretion of the Committee on 
 Supplies to schools where this book is used. Swinton's Grammar-School 
 Geography allowed in Charlestown Schools. 
 
 2 The revised edition to be supplied as new books are needed. 
 
TEXT-BOOKS. . 201 
 
 Latin. — Allen & Greenough's Latin Grammar. [Rox- 
 bury, W. Roxbiiry, and Brighton High Schools.] Harkness' 
 Latin Grammar. [English, Girls', Dorchester, Charlestown, 
 and East Boston High Schools.] Harkness' Complete 
 Course in Latin for the first year. Gildersleeve's Latin 
 Primer. Collar & Daniell's Beginners' Latin Book. [Rox- 
 bury, West Roxbury, and Brighton High Schools.] Hark- 
 ness' Caesar. Lindsey's Cornelius Nepos. Chase's, Frieze's, 
 or Greenough's Virgil, or any edition approved by the Com- 
 mittee on Text-Books. Greenough's or Harkness' Cicero. 
 Chase's or Lincoln's Horace, or any edition approved by the 
 Committee on Text-books. 
 
 History. — ^ Anderson's New General History. Martin's 
 Civil Government. 
 
 Mythology. — Berens's Hand-book of Mythology. 
 
 Mathematics. — Meservey's Book-keeping. Bradbury & 
 Emery's Academic Algebra. ^ Wentvvorth & Hill's Exer- 
 cises in Algebra. Bradbury's Elementary Geometry, or Chau- 
 venet's Geometry, or Wells's Geometry. Greenleaf s Trig- 
 onometry. ^Metric Apparatus. 
 
 Physics. — Cooley's New Text-book of Physics. Avery's 
 Physics, or Gage's Introduction to Physical Science. 
 
 Astro7iomy. — Sharpless & Phillips' Astronomy. 
 
 Chemistry. — Williams's Chemistry. Williams's Laboratory 
 Manual. Eliot & Storer's Elementary Manual of Chemistry, 
 edited by Nichols. Eliot & Storer's Qualitative Analysis. 
 Hill's Lecture Notes on Qualitative Analysis. Tables for the 
 Determination of Common Minerals. [Girls' High School.] 
 White's Outlines of Chemical Theory. 
 
 1 To be dropped from list of authorized text-books, July i, 1S90. 
 
 2 This book is not intended to, and does not in fact displace any text-book 
 now in use, but is intended merely to furnish additional problems in algebra. 
 
 3 Not exceeding ^15 for each school. 
 
202 TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 Botany. — Gray's School and Field Book of Botany. 
 
 Zoology. — Morse's Zoology and Packard's Zoology. 
 
 Physiology. — Hutchinson's Physiology. Blaisdell's Our 
 Bodies and How We Live. 
 
 Draiving. — American Text-books of Art Education. 
 
 Music. — Eichberg's High- School Music Reader. Eich- 
 berg's Girls' High-School Music Reader. [Girls' High 
 School.] 
 
 LATIN SCHOOLS. 
 
 Latin. — White's Abridged Lexicon. Harkness' Grammar. 
 Harkness' Reader. Harkness' Complete Course in Latin 
 for the first year. Harkness' Prose Composition, or Allen's 
 Latin Composition. Harkness' Caesar. Lindsey's Cornelius 
 Nepos. Greenough's Catiline of Sallust. Lincoln's Ovid. 
 Greenough's Ovid. Greenough's Virgil. Greenough's or 
 Harkness' Orations of Cicero. Smith's Principia Latina, 
 Part H. 
 
 Greek. — Liddell & Scott's Abridged Lexicon. Good- 
 win's Grammar. White's Lessons. Jones' Prose Composi- 
 tion. Goodwin's Reader. The Anabasis of Xenophon. 
 Boise's Homer's Iliad. Beaumlein's Edition of Homer's 
 Iliad. 
 
 English. — Soule's Hand-book of Pronunciation. Hill's 
 General Rules for Punctuation. Tweed's Grammar for 
 Common Schools (in fifth and sixth classes). Hawthorne's 
 Wonder Book. Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales. Plutarch's 
 Lives of Famous Greeks and Romans. Macaulay's Lays of 
 Ancient Rome. Higginson's History of the United States. 
 Hughes' Tom Brown's School-Days at Rugby. Dana's 
 Two Years before the Mast. Charles and Mary Lamb's 
 Tales fi-om Shakspeare. [Revised Edition, Houghton, Mif- 
 flin, & Co.] Scott's Ivanhoe. Hawthorne's True Stories. 
 
TEXT-BOOKS. 203 
 
 Greene's Readings from English History. ^Church's Stories 
 from Homer. ^ Church's Stories of the Old World. Selections 
 from American Authors, — Franklin, Adams, Cooper, and 
 Longfellow. American Poems, with Biographical Sketches 
 and Notes. Irving's Sketch-Book. Selections from Addi- 
 son's Papers in the Spectator. Ballads and Lyrics. Hales' 
 Longer English Poems. Three plays of Shakspeare, — 
 Rolfe's or Hudson's Selections. 
 
 History. — Leighton's History of Rome. Smith's Smaller 
 History of Greece. Long's or Ginn & Heath's Classical 
 Atlas. Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary, — Student's 
 Series. 
 
 Mythology. — Bulfinch's Age of Fable. 
 
 Geography. — Geikie's Primer of Physical Geography. 
 Warren's Common -School Geography. 
 
 Physiology. — Mace's History of a Mouthful of Bread. 
 Foster's Physiology (Science Primer). Blaisdell's Our Bodies 
 and How We Live. 
 
 Botany. — Gray's School and Field Book of Botany. 
 
 Zoology. — Morse's Zoology and Packard's Zoology. 
 
 Mineralogy. — Tables for the Determination of Common 
 Minerals. [Girls' Latin School.] 
 
 Mathematics. — The Franklin W^ritten Arithmetic. Brad- 
 bury's Eaton's Algebra. ^ Wentworth & Hill's Exercises 
 in Algebra. Chauvenet's Geometry. Lodge's Elementary 
 Mechanics. 
 
 Physics. — Arnott's or Avery's Physics, or Gage's Physics. 
 
 1 No more copies of Church's Stories from Homer to be purchased, but 
 as books are worn out their place to be suppHed with Church's Stories of the 
 Old World. 
 
 2 This book is not intended to, and does not in fact, displace any text- 
 book now in use, but is intended merely to furnish additional problems in 
 algebra. 
 
 V 
 
204 TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 Drawing. — American Text-books of Art Education. 
 
 Music. — Eichberg's High-School Music Reader. Eich- 
 berg's Girls' High-School Music Reader. [Girls' Latin 
 School.] 
 
 LATIN AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 French. — Keetel's Elementary Grammar. Keetel's Ana- 
 lytical French Reader. Super's French Reader. •* Sauveur's 
 Petites Causeries. Hennequin's Lessons in Idiomatic French. 
 Gasc's French Dictionary. Erckmann-Chatrian's Le Con- 
 scrit de 1813. Erckmann-Chatrian's Madame Th^rese. 
 Bocher's College Series of French Plays. Nouvelles Gene- 
 voises. Souvestre's Au Coin du Feu. Racine's Andro- 
 maque. Racine's Iphige'nie. Racine's Athalie. Moliere's 
 Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Moliere's Precieuses Ridicules. 
 Corneille's Les Horaces. Corneille's Cid. Herrig's La 
 France Litteraire. Roemer's French Course, Vol. H. Ven- 
 tura's Peppino. HaMvy's L'Abb6 Constantin. La Fon- 
 taine's Fables. About's La Mere de la Marquise. Daudet's 
 Siege de Berlin. Daudet's Extraits. Daudet's La Belle 
 Nivarnaise. 
 
 German. — Whitney's German Dictionary. Whitney's 
 Grammar. Collar's Eysenbach. Otto's or Whitney's 
 Reader. Der Zerbrochene Krug. Schiller's Wilhelm Tell. 
 Schiller s Maria Stuart. Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea. 
 Putlitz's Das Herz Vergessen. Grimm's Marchen. Goethe's 
 Prose. Schiller's Prose. Stein's German Exercises. Heine's 
 Die Harzreise. Im Zwielicht. Vols. I. and IL Traumerein. 
 Buckheim's German Poetry for Repetition. 
 
 1 To be furnished as new French Readers are needed. The use of the book 
 confined for tliis year to the English, Charlestown, Roxbury, and West Rox- 
 bury High Schools. 
 
TEXT-BOOKS. 205 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 The text-books used in this school shall be such of the 
 text-books used in the other public schools of the city as are 
 needed for the course of study, and such others as shall be 
 authorized by the Board. 
 
 Normal Music Course. 
 
 HORACE MANN SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS. 
 Such text-books shall be supplied to the Horace Mann 
 School as the committee on that school shall approve. 
 
 EVENING HIGH SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 Benn Pitman's Manual of Phonography. Reporter's Com- 
 panion. The Phonographic Reader. The Reporter's First 
 Reader. Bradbury's Elementary Geometry. 
 
 The text-books used in this school shall be such of the 
 text-books autliorized in the other public schools as are 
 approved by the Committee on Evening Schools and the 
 Committee on Supplies. 
 
 East Boston Branch. — Graded Lessons in Shorthand. 
 Parts I and 2, by Mrs. Mary A. Chandler. 
 
 EVENING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 Munroe's Charts. Franklin Primer. Franklin Reader. 
 Stories of American History. Harper's Introductory Geog- 
 raphy. The Franklin Elementary Arithmetic. The Franklin 
 Written Arithmetic. ^ Andersen's Marchen. Writing-books, 
 Plain Copy-books ; and such of the text-books authorized in 
 the other public schools as are approved by the Committee 
 on Evening Schools and the Committee on Supphes. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF COOKERY. 
 Boston School Kitchen Text-book, by Mrs. D. A. Lincoln. 
 
 1 In schools in which the English language is taught to German pupils. 
 
206 REFERENCE-BOOKS. 
 
 REFERENCE-BOOKS. 
 
 PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 
 
 Worcester's Comprehensive Dictionary. National Music 
 Teacher. Munroe's Vocal Gymnastics. Lessons in Color 
 (one copy for each Primary -School teacher's desk). White's 
 Oral Lessons in Number (one copy for each Primary-Scliool 
 teaciier's desk). Smith's Primer of Physiology and Hygiene 
 (one copy for each Primary-School teacher's desk). 
 
 Observation Lessons in the Primary Schools, by Mrs. L. P. 
 Hopkins (one co])y for each Primary-School teacher's desk). 
 
 Simple Object Lessons (two series), by W. Hewitt Beck. 
 Natural History Object Lessons, by G. Ricks (one set of 
 books of each title for each Primary-School teacher's desk). 
 
 GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 
 
 Appleton's American Encyclopaedia or Johnson's Encyclo- 
 paedia. Chambers's Encyclopaedia. Anthon's Classical Dic- 
 tionary. Thomas's Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. 
 
 Worcester's Quarto Unabridged Dictionary. Webster's 
 Quarto Unabridged Dictionary. Webster's National Picto- 
 rial Dictionary. 
 
 Lippincott's Gazetteer. Johnson's Atlas. Reclus' Earth. 
 Reclus' Ocean. Flammarion's Atmosphere. Weber's Uni- 
 versal History. Bancroft's History of the United States. 
 Battle Maps of the Revolution. Palfrey's History of New 
 England. Martin's Civil Government. Frothingham's Rise 
 of the Republic. Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution. 
 Shurtleff's Topographical History of Boston. Frothingham's 
 Siege of Boston. Lingard's History of England. Smith's 
 Primer of Physiology and Hygiene (one copy for the desk 
 of each teacher of the fifth and sixth classes). 
 
REFERENCE-BOOKS. 20/ 
 
 Goold-Brown's Grammar of English Grammars. Wilson's 
 Punctuation. Philbrick's Union Speaker. Methods of Teach- 
 mg Geography (one copy for each teacher of Geography). 
 
 First Classes. — Physiography (Longmans & Co.). Copies 
 for teachers' desks. 
 
 Second Classes. — Harper's Cyclopaedia of United States 
 History. 
 
 Maps and Globes. — Cutter's Physiological Charts. Charts 
 of the Human F3ody (Milton Bradley & Co.). White's Mani- 
 kin. Cornell's Series Maps, or Guyot's Series Maps, Nos. 
 I, 2, 3. (Not exceeeding one set to each floor.) Hughes's 
 Series of Maps. Joslyn's fifteen-inch Terrestrial Globe, on 
 Tripod (one for each Grammar School). Nine-inch Hand 
 Globe, Loring's Magnetic (one for each Grammar School 
 room). Cosmograph. O. W. Gray & Son's Atlas. (To be 
 furnished as new atlases are needed.) 
 
 LATIN AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 Lingard's History of England. Harper's Latin Lexicon. 
 Liddell & Scott's Greek Lexicon, unabridged. Eugene's 
 French Grammar. Labberton's Historical Atlas and Gen- 
 eral History (one book for the desk of each teacher). Guy- 
 ot's and Cameron's Maps of the Roman Empire, Greece, 
 and Italy. Strang's English Lessons (for use on teachers' 
 desks). 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL. 
 
 Observation Lessons in Primary Schools, by Mrs. L. P. 
 Hopkins (one set). 
 
 NORMAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 
 
 Charts of Life. Wilson's Human Anatomical and Physi- 
 ological Charts. Hough's American Woods. 
 
i-vvjc? 
 
 •n:#l^^;Pil^ 
 
 
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