THE BOOK-LOVER.
THE BOOK-LOVER
foe to tfje tot Eeafcing
BY
JAMES BALDWIN
Whosoever acknowledges himself to be a zealous follower of truth,
of happiness, of wisdom, of science, or even of the faith, must of
necessity make himself a Lover of Books.
RICHARD DE BURY
SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY
1889
COPYRIGHT,
BY JANSKN, McCLURG, & Co.
A.D. 1884.
COPYRIGHT,
BY A. C. MCCLURG & Co.
A.D. 1888.
JFore
/ T N HE titlepage of this book explains its plan
and purpose. The Courses of Reading
and the Schemes for Practical Study, herein
indicated, are the outgrowth of the Author's
long experience as a lover of books and director
of reading. They have been tested and found
to be all that is claimed for them. As to the
large number of quotations in the first part
of the book, they are given in the belief that
" in a multitude of counsels there is wisdom."
And the Author finds consolation and encour-
agement in the following words of Emerson :
" We are as much informed of a writer's genius
by what he selects, as by what he originates.
We read the quotation with his eyes, and find
a new and fervent sense." As the value of
the most useful inventions depends upon the
vi A FORE WORD.
ingenious placing of their parts, so the origi-
nality of this work may be found to lie chiefly
in its arrangement. Yet the writer confidently
believes that his readers will enjoy that which
he has borrowed, and possibly find aid and
encouragement in that which he claims as his
own ; and therefore this book is sent out with
the hope that book-lovers will find in it a safe
Guide to the Best Reading.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PRELUDE: IN PRAISE OF BOOKS 9
CHAPTER
I. ON THE CHOICE OF BOOKS 23
II. How TO READ 42
III. ON THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES 56
IV. BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR 69
V. WHAT BOOKS SHALL YOUNG FOLKS READ 7 84
VI. THE LIBRARY IN THE SCHOOL . . . . 108
VII. COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY . . 119
VIII. COURSES OF READING IN GEOGRAPHY
AND NATURAL HISTORY 144
IX. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION 154
X. POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE SCIENCE
OF GOVERNMENT 167
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
XI. ON THE PRACTICAL STUDY OF ENGLISH
LITERATURE 174
XII. "THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS" . . . 202
AN AFTER WORD 215
INDEX 217
PRELUDE.
Praise of
|ET us consider how great a com-
modity of doctrine exists in Books ;
how easily, how secretly, how safely
they expose the nakedness of hu-
man ignorance without putting it to shame.
These are the masters who instruct us with-
out rods and ferules, without hard words and
anger, without clothes or money. If you ap-
proach them, they are not asleep ; if inves-
tigating you interrogate them, they conceal
nothing; if you mistake them, they never
grumble ; if you are ignorant, they cannot
laugh at you.
You only, O Books, are liberal and in-
dependent. You give to all who ask, and
enfranchise all who serve you assiduously.
Truly, you are the ears filled with most pala-
table grains. You are golden urns in which
9
10 THE BOOK-LOVER.
manna is laid up ; rocks flowing with honey,
or rather, indeed, honeycombs ; udders most
copiously yielding the milk of life ; store-
rooms ever full ; the four-streamed river of
Paradise, where the human mind is fed, and
the arid intellect moistened and watered ;
fruitful olives ; vines of Engaddi ; fig-trees
knowing no sterility; burning lamps to be
ever held in the hand.
The library, therefore, of wisdom is more
precious than all riches ; and nothing that can
be wished for is worthy to be compared with
it Whosoever acknowledges himself to be
a zealous follower of truth, of happiness, of
wisdom, of science, or even of the faith, must
of necessity make himself a Lover of Books.
RICHARD DE BURY, 1344.
BOOKS are friends whose society is ex-
tremely agreeable to me ; they are of all ages,
and of every country. They have distin-
guished themselves both in the cabinet and in
the field, and obtained high honors for their
knowledge of the sciences. It is easy to gain
access to them ; for they are always at my
service, and I admit them to my company,
and dismiss them from it, whenever I please.
They are never troublesome, but immediately
answer every question I ask them. Some
relate to me the events of past ages, while
IN PRAISE OP BOOKS. 1 1
others reveal to me the secrets of Nature.
Some teach me how to live, and others how
to die. Some, by their vivacity, drive away
my cares and exhilarate my spirits; while
others give fortitude to my mind, and teach
me the important lesson how to restrain my
desires, and to depend wholly on myself.
They open to me, in short, the various avenues
of all the arts and sciences, and upon their
information I safely rely in all emergencies.
In return for all these services, they only ask
me to accommodate them with a convenient
chamber in some corner of my humble habi-
tation, where they may repose in peace ; for
these friends are more delighted by the tran-
quillity of retirement, than with the tumults
of society. FRANCESCO PETRARCA.
BOOKS are the Glasse of Counsell to dress
ourselves by. They are Life's best Business :
Vocation to them hath more Emolument
coming in, than all the other busie Termes
of Life. They are Feelesse Counsellours, no
delaying Patrons, of easie Accesse, and kind
Expedition, never sending away any Client
or Petitioner. They are for Company, the
best Friends ; in doubts, Counsellours ; in
Damp, Comforters ; Time's Perspective ; the
home Traveller's Ship, or Horse ; the busie
Man's best Recreation; the Opiate of idle
12 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Wearinesse; the Mind's best Ordinary; Na-
ture's Garden and Seed-plot of Immortality.
A WRITER OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
(quoted in " Allibone's Dictionary").
Bur how can I live here without my books ?
I really seem to myself crippled and only half
myself; for if, as the great Orator used to say,
arms are a soldier's members, surely books
are the limbs of scholars. Corasius says : "Of
a truth, he who would deprive me of books,
my old friends, would take away all the de-
light of my life ; nay, I will even say, all desire
of living."
BALTHASAR BONIFACIUS RHODIGINUS, 1656.
FOR books are not absolutely dead things,
but do contain a potency of life in them to
be as active as that soul was whose progeny
they are ; nay, they do preserve, as in a vial,
the purest efficacy and extraction of that
living intellect that bred them. I know they
are as lively and as vigorously productive
as those fabulous dragon's teeth, and, being
sown up and down, may chance to spring up
armed men. . . . Many a man lives, a burden
to the earth; but a good book is the pre-
cious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed
and treasured up on purpose for a life
beyond life.
JOHN MILTON.
IN PRAISE OP BOOKS. 13
BOOKS are a guide in youth, and an enter-
tainment for age. They support us under
solitude, and keep us from being a burden to
ourselves. They help us to forget the cross-
ness of men and things, compose our cares
and our passions, and lay our disappoint-
ments asleep. When we are weary of the
living, we may repair to the dead, who have
nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in
their conversation.
JEREMY COLLIER.
GOD be thanked for books ! They are the
voices of the distant and the dead, and make
us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.
Books are the true levellers. They give to
all who will faithfully use them, the society,
the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest
of our race. No matter how poor I am ; no
matter though the prosperous of my own
time will not enter my obscure dwelling; if
the sacred writers will enter and take up
their abode under my roof, if Milton will
cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise ;
and Shakspeare to open to me the worlds of
imagination and the workings of the human
heart ; and Franklin to enrich me with his
practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want
of intellectual companionship, and I may
become a cultivated man, though excluded
14 THE BOOK-LOVER.
from what is called the best society in the
place where I live.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING.
IN a corner of my house I have books,
the miracle of all my possessions, more won-
derful than the wishing-cap of the Arabian
tales ; for they transport me instantly, not only
to all places, but to all times. By my books
I can conjure up before me to a momentary
existence many of the great and good men of
past ages, and for my individual satisfaction
they seem to act again the most renowned of
their achievements ; the orators declaim for
me, the historians recite, the poets sing.
DR. ARNOTT.
WONDROUS, indeed, is the virtue of a true
book ! Not like a dead city of stones,
yearly crumbling, yearly needing repair;
more like a tilled field, but then a spiritual
field ; like a spiritual tree, let me rather say,
it stands from year to year and from age to
age (we have books that already number some
hundred and fifty human ages); and yearly
comes its new produce of leaves (commenta-
ries, deductions, philosophical, political sys-
tems; or were it only sermons, pamphlets,
journalistic essays), every one of which is
talismanic and thaumaturgic, for it can per-
suade man. O thou who art able to write a
book, which once in two centuries or oftener
IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 15
there is a man gifted to do, envy not him
whom they name city- builder, and inexpres-
sibly pity him whom they name conqueror or
city-burner ! Thou, too, art a conqueror and
victor ; but of the true sort, namely, over the
Devil. Thou, too, hast built what will out-
last all marble and metal, and be a wonder-
bringing city of mind, a temple and seminary
and prophetic mount, whereto all kindreds
of the earth will pilgrim.
THOMAS CARLYLE.
GOOD books, like good friends, are few and
chosen ; the more select, the more enjoyable ;
and like these are approached with diffidence,
nor sought too familiarly nor too often, hav-
ing the precedence only when friends tire.
The most mannerly of companions, accessible
at all times, in all moods, they frankly de-
clare the author's mind, without giving offence.
Like living friends, they too have their voice
and physiognomies, and their company is
prized as old acquaintances. We seek them
in our need of counsel or of amusement, with-
out impertinence or apology, sure of having
our claims allowed. A good book justifies
our theory of personal supremacy, keeping
this fresh in the memory and perennial. What
were days without such fellowship? We were
alone in the world without it.
A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
1 6 THE BOOK-LOVER.
CONSIDER what you have in the smallest
chosen library. A company of the wisest and
wittiest men that could be picked out of all
civil countries, in a thousand years, have set
in best order the results of their learning and
wisdom. The men themselves were hid and
inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption,
fenced by etiquette; but the thought which
they did not uncover to their bosom friend
is here written out in transparent words to
us, the strangers of another age. We owe
to books those general benefits which come
from high intellectual action. Thus, I think,
we often owe to them the perception of
immortality. They impart sympathetic ac-
tivity to the moral power. Go with mean
people, and you think life is mean. Then
read Plutarch, and the world is a proud place,
peopled with men of positive quality, with
heroes and demi-gods standing around us,
who will not let us sleep. Then they ad-
dress the imagination : only poetry inspires
poetry. They become the organic culture of
the time. College education is the reading
of certain books which the common sense of
all scholars agrees will represent the science
already accumulated. ... In the highest
civilization the book is still the highest
delight.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 1 7
A GREAT book that comes from a great
thinker, it is a ship of thought, deep-
freighted with truth, with beauty too. It
sails the ocean, driven by the winds of heaven,
breaking the level sea of life into beauty where
it goes, leaving behind it a train of sparkling
loveliness, widening as the ship goes on. And
what a treasure it brings to every land, scat-
tering the seeds of truth, justice, love, and
piety, to bless the world in ages yet to come !
THEODORE PARKER.
WHAT is a great love of books? It is
something like a personal introduction to the
great and good men of all past times. Books,
it is true, are silent as you see them on their
shelves ; but, silent as they are, when I enter
a library I feel as if almost the dead were
present, and I know if I put questions to
these books they will answer me with all the
faithfulness and fulness which has been left
in them by the great men who have left the
books with us. JOHN BRIGHT
I LOVE my books as drinkers love their wine ;
The more I drink, the more they seem divine ;
With joy elate my soul in love runs o'er,
And each fresh draught is sweeter than before !
Books bring me friends where'er on earth I be,
Solace of solitude, bonds of society.
I love my books ! they are companions dear,
Sterling in worth, in friendship most sincere ;
2
1 8 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Here talk I with the wise in ages gone,
And with the nobly gifted in our own :
If love, joy, laughter, sorrow please my mind,
Love, joy, grief, laughter in my books I find.
FRANCIS BENNOCH.
BOOKS are the windows through which the
soul looks out. HENRY WARD BEECHER .
BOOKS are our household gods ; and we
cannot prize them too highly. They are the
only gods in all the mythologies that are
beautiful and unchangeable ; for they betray
no man, and love their lovers. I confess my-
self an idolater of this literary religion, and
am grateful for the blessed ministry of books.
It is a kind of heathenism which needs no
missionary funds, no Bible even, to abolish
it ; for the Bible itself caps the peak of this
new Olympus, and crowns it with sublimity
and glory. Amongst the many things we
have to be thankful for, as the result of
modern discoveries, surely this of printed
books is the highest of all; and I, for one,
am so sensible of its merits that I never think
of the name of Gutenberg without feelings of
veneration and homage.
JANUARY SEARLE.
THE only true equalizers in the world are
books ; the only treasure-house open to all
comers is a library; the only wealth which
IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 19
will not decay is knowledge ; the only jewel
which you can cany beyond the grave is
wisdom. To live in this equality, to share in
these treasures, to possess this wealth, and
to secure this jewel may be the happy lot of
every one. Alt that, is needed for the acqui-
sition of these inestimable treasures is the
love of books.
J. A. LANGFORD.
LET us thank God for books. When I
consider what some books have done for the
world, and what they are doing; how they
keep up our hope, awaken new courage and
faith, soothe pain, give an ideal life to those
whose homes are hard and cold, bind to-
gether distant ages and foreign lands, create
new worlds of beauty, bring down truths
from heaven, I give eternal blessings for
this gift, and pray that we may use it aright,
and abuse it not.
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
BOOKS, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good ;
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
PRECIOUS and priceless are the blessings
which books scatter around our daily paths.
We walk, in imagination, with the noblest
20 THE BOOK-LOVER.
spirits, through the most sublime and en-
chanting regions, regions which, to all that
is lovely in the forms and colors of earth,
"Add the gleam,
The light that never was on sea or land,
The consecration and the poet's dream."
A motion of the hand brings all Arcadia to
sight. The war of Troy can, at our bidding,
rage in the narrowest chamber. Without
stirring from our firesides, we may roam to
the most remote regions of the earth, or soar
into realms where Spenser's shapes of un-
earthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton's
angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of
Paradise. Science, art, literature, philosophy,
all that man has thought, all that man has
done, the experience that has been bought
with the sufferings of a hundred generations,
all are garnered up for us in the world of
books. There, among realities, in a "sub-
stantial world," we move with the crowned
kings of thought. There our minds have a
free range, our hearts a free utterance. Rea-
son is confined within none of the partitions
which trammel it in life. In that world, no
divinity hedges a king, no accident of rank or
fashion ennobles a dunce or shields a knave.
We can select our companions from among
the most richly gifted of the sons of God;
IN PRAISE OF BOOKS. 21
and they are companions who will not desert
us in poverty, or sickness, or disgrace.
EDWIN P. WHIPPLE.
My latest passion shall be for books.
FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA.
FOR what a world of books offers itself, in
all subjects, arts, and sciences, to the sweet
content and capacity of the reader? In arith-
metic, geometry, perspective, optics, astron-
omy, architecture, sculptura, pictura, of which
so many and such elaborate treatises are of
late written ; in mechanics and their mysteries,
military matters, navigation, riding of horses,
fencing, swimming, gardening, planting, etc.
. . . What so sure, what so pleasant? What
vast tomes are extant in law, physic, and
divinity, for profit, pleasure, practice, specu-
lation, in verse or prose ! Their names alone
are the subject of whole volumes ; we have
thousands of authors of all sorts, many great
libraries, full well furnished, like so many
dishes of meat, served out for several palates,
and he is a very block that is affected with
none of them.
ROBERT BURTON.
EXCEPT a living man, there is nothing more
wonderful than a book ! a message to us
from the dead, from human souls whom we
never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of
22 THE BOOK-LOVER.
miles away; and yet these, on those little
sheets of paper, speak to us, amuse us, vivify
us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to
us as brothers. We ought to reverence books,
to look at them as useful and mighty things.
If they are good and true, . . . they are the
message of Christ, the maker of all things,
the teacher of all truth.
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
GOLDEN volumes I richest treasures 1
Objects of delicious pleasures 1
You my eyes rejoicing please,
You my hands in rapture seize.
Brilliant wits and musing sages,
Lights who beamed through many ages,
Left to your conscious leaves their story,
And dared to trust you with their glory;
And now their hope of fame achieved,
Dear volumes ! you have not deceived.
HENRY RANTZAU.
CHAPTER I.
n tfje Cfjotce of
THE choice of books is not the least part of the duty of
a scholar. If he would become a man, and worthy to deal
with manlike things, he must read only the bravest and no-
blest, books, books forged at the heart and fashioned by
the intellect of a godlike man. JANUARY SEARLE.
HE most important question for you
to ask yourself, be you teacher or
scholar, is this : What books shall
I read? For him who has incli-
nation to read, there is no dearth of reading
matter, and it is obtainable almost for the
asking. Books are in a manner thrust upon
you almost daily. Shall you read without dis-
crimination whatever comes most readily to
hand? As well say that you will accept as
a friend and companion every man whom you
meet on the street. Shall you read even
every good book that comes in your way,
23
24 THE BOOK-LOVER.
simply because it is harmless and interesting?
It is not every harmless book, nor indeed
every good book, that will make your mind
the richer for the reading of it. Never, per-
haps, has the right choice of books been
more difficult than at present ; and never did
it behoove more strongly both teachers and
scholars to look well to the character of that
which they read.
First, then, let us consider what books we
are to avoid. All will agree that those which
are really and absolutely bad should be
shunned as we shun a pestilence. In these
last years of the nineteenth century there is
no more prolific cause of evil than bad books.
There are many books so utterly vile that
there is no mistaking their character, and no
question as to whether they should be avoided.
There are others which are a thousand-fold
more dangerous because they come to us
disguised, " wolves in sheep's clothing,"
affecting a character of harmlessness, if not
of sanctity. I have heard those who ought to
know better, laugh at the silly jokes of a very
silly book, and offer by way of excuse that
there was nothing very bad in it. I have
heard teachers recommend to their pupils
reading matter which, to say the least, was of
THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 25
a very doubtful character. Now, the only
excuse that can be offered in such cases is
ignorance, "I did n't know there was any
harm in the book." But the teacher who
through ignorance poisons the moral char-
acter and checks the mental growth of his
pupils is as guilty of criminal carelessness as
the druggist's clerk who by mistake sells ar-
senic for quinine. Step down and out of that
responsible position which you are in no wise
qualified to fill ! The direction of the pupils'
habits of reading, the choice of reading mat-
ter for them, is by no means the least of the
teacher's duties.
The elder Pliny, eighteen hundred years
ago, was accustomed to say that no book was
so bad but that some part of it might be read
with profit. This may have been true in
Pliny's time ; but it is very far from correct
now-a-days. A large number of books, and
many which attain an immense circulation,
are but the embodiment of evil from begin-
ning to end ; others, although not absolutely
and aggressively bad, contain not a single
line that can be read with profit.
What are the sure criterions of a bad book ?
There is no better authority on this subject
than the Rev. Robert Collyer. He says : " If
26 THE BOOK-LOVER.
when I read a book about God, I find that it
has put Him farther from me ; or about man,
that it has put me farther from him ; or about
this universe, that it has shaken down upon it
a new look of desolation, turning a green field
into a wild moor; or about life, that it has
made it seem a little less worth living, on all
accounts, than it was ; or about moral prin-
ciples, that they are not quite so clear and
strong as they were when this author began
to talk ; then I know that on any of these
five cardinal things in the life of man, his
relations to God, to his fellows, to the world
about him, and the world within him, and
the great principles on which all things stable
centre, that, for me, is a bad book. It may
chime in with some lurking appetite in my
own nature, and so seem to be as sweet as
honey to my taste ; but it comes to bitter, bad
results. It may be food for another; I can
say nothing to that. He may be a pine while
I am a palm. I only know this, that in these
great first things, if the book I read shall touch
them at all, it shall touch them to my profit
or I will not read it. Right and wrong shall
grow more clear ; life in and about me more
divine ; I shall come nearer to my fellows,
and God nearer to me, or the thing is a poi-
THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 27
son. Faust, or Calvin, or Carlyle, if any one
of these cardinal things is the grain and the
grist of the book, and that is what it comes to
when I read it, I am being drugged and poi-
soned ; and the sooner I know it the better.
I want bread, and meat, and milk, not brandy,
or opium, or hasheesh." *
And Robert Southey, the poet, expresses
nearly the same thing : " Young readers, you
whose hearts are open, whose understandings
are not yet hardened, and whose feelings are
not yet exhausted nor encrusted with the
world, take from me a better rule than any
professors of criticism will teach you ! Would
you know whether the tendency of a book is
good or evil, examine in what state of mind
you lay it down. Has it induced you to sus-
pect that what you have been accustomed to
think unlawful may after all be innocent, and
that may be harmless which you have hitherto
been taught to think dangerous? Has it
tended to make you dissatisfied and impa-
tient under the control of others, and dis-
posed you to relax in that self-government
without which both the laws of God and man
tell us there can be no virtue, and, conse-
quently, no happiness ? Has it attempted to
1 Robert Collyer : Addresses and Sermons.
28 THE BOOK-LOVER.
abate your admiration and reverence for what
is great and good, and to diminish in you the
love of your country and your fellow-crea-
tures ? Has it addressed itself to your pride,
your vanity, your selfishness, or any other of
your evil propensities ? Has it defiled the im-
agination with what is loathsome, and shocked
the heart with what is monstrous? Has it
disturbed the sense of right and wrong which
the Creator has implanted in the human soul ?
If so, if you are conscious of any or all of
these effects, or if, having escaped from all,
you have felt that such were the effects it was
intended to produce, throw the book in the
fire, whatever name it may bear in the title-
page ! Throw it in the fire, young man,
though it should have been the gift of a
friend ; young lady, away with the whole set,
though it should be the prominent furniture
of a rosewood bookcase." x
" It is the case with literature as with life,"
says Arthur Schopenhauer, the German phi-
losopher. " Wherever we turn we come upon
the incorrigible mob of humankind, whose
name is Legion, swarming everywhere, dam-
aging everything, as flies in summer. Hence
the multiplicity of bad books, those exuberant
1 The Doctor, Interchapter V., 1856.
THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 29
weeds of literature which choke the true corn.
Such books rob the public of time, money,
and attention, which ought properly to belong
to good literature and noble aims ; and they
are written with a view merely to make money
or occupation. They are therefore not mere-
ly useless, but injurious. Nine tenths of our
current literature has no other end but to in-
veigle a thaler or two out of the public pocket,
for which purpose author, publisher, and
printer are leagued together. ... Of bad
books we can never read too little ; of the
good, never too much. The bad are intellec-
tual poison, and undermine the understand-
ing." '
From Thomas Carlyle's inaugural address at
Edinburgh on the occasion of his installation
as rector of the University in 1866, I quote
the following potent passage : " I do not know
whether it has been sufficiently brought home
to you that there are two kinds of books.
When a man is reading on any kind of subject,
in most departments of books, in all books,
if you take it in a wide sense, he will find
that there is a division into good books and
bad books : everywhere a good kind of a book
1 Arthur Schopenhauer : Parerga und Paralipomcna,
1851.
3O THE BOOK-LOVER.
and a bad kind of a book. I am not to assume
that you are unacquainted or ill-acquainted
with this plain fact ; but I may remind you
that it is becoming a very important consid-
eration in our day. . . . There is a number,
a frightfully increasing number, of books that
are decidedly, to the readers of them, not
useful. But an ingenious reader will learn,
also, that a certain number of books were
written by a supremely noble kind of people ;
not a very great number of books, but still a
number fit to occupy all your reading indus-
try, do adhere more or less to that side of
things. In short, as I have written it down
somewhere else, I conceive that books are
like men's souls, divided into sheep and goats.
Some few are going up, and carrying us up,
heavenward; calculated, I mean, to be of
priceless advantage in teaching, in forward-
ing the teaching of all generations. Others,
a frightful multitude, are going down, down ;
doing ever the more and the wider and the
wilder mischief. Keep a strict eye on that
latter class of books, my young friends ! "
Speaking of those books whose inward char-
acter- and influence it is hard at first to dis-
cern, John Ruskin says : " Avoid especially
that class of literature which has a knowing
THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 31
tone ; it is the most poisonous of all. Every
good book, or piece of book, is full of admi-
ration and awe : it may contain firm assertion
or stern satire, but it never sneers coldly, nor
asserts haughtily ; and it always leads you to
reverence or love something with your whole
heart. It is not always easy to distinguish
the satire of the venomous race of books from
the satire of the noble and pure ones ; but,
in general, you may notice that the cold-
blooded Crustacean and Batrachian books will
sneer at sentiment, and the warm-blooded, hu-
man books at sin. . . . Much of the literature
of the present day, though good to be read by
persons of ripe age, has a tendency to agitate
rather than confirm, and leaves its readers too
frequently in a helpless or hopeless indigna-
tion, the worst possible state into which the
mind of youth can be thrown. It may, in-
deed, become necessary for you, as you
advance in life, to set your hand to things
that need to be altered in the world, or apply
your heart chiefly to what must be pitied in
it, or condemned; but for a young person
the safest temper is one of reverence, and
the safest place one of obscurity. Certainly
at present, and perhaps through all your life,
your teachers are wisest when they make you
32 THE BOOK-LOVER.
content in quiet virtue ; and that literature
and art are best for you which point out, in
common life and familiar things, the objects
for hopeful labor and for humble love." '
There would be fewer bad books in the
world if readers were properly informed and
warned of their character ; and we may be-
lieve that the really vicious books would
soon cease to exist if their makers and pub-
lishers were popularly regarded with the same
detestation as other corrupters of the public
morals. " He who has published an inju-
rious book," says Robert South, " sins, as
it were in his very grave ; corrupts others
while he is rotting himself." Addison says
much the same thing : " Writers of great
talents, who employ their parts in propagating
immorality, and seasoning vicious sentiments
with wit and humor, are to be looked upon
as the pests of society and the enemies of
mankind. They leave books behind them to
scatter infection and destroy their posterity.
They act the counterparts of a Confucius or
a Socrates, and seem to have been sent into
the world to deprave human nature, and sink
it into the condition of brutality." 2
1 The Elements of Drawing, in Three Letters to Begin-
ners, 1857.
2 The Spectator, No. 166.
THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 33
And William Cobbett is still more severe
in his denunciation. In his "Advice to Young
Men," he says : " I hope that your taste will
keep you aloof from the writings of those
detestable villains who employ the powers of
their mind in debauching the minds of others,
or in endeavors to do it. They present their
poison in such captivating forms that it re-
quires great virtue and resolution to withstand
their temptations ; and they have, perhaps,
done a thousand times as much mischief in
the world as all the infidels and atheists put
together. These men ought to be held in
universal abhorrence, and never spoken of
but with execration."
But the shunning of bad books is only one
of the problems presented to us in the choice
of our reading. In the great multitude of
really good and valuable books, how shall we
choose those which are of the most vital im-
portance to us to know? The universal habit
of desultory reading reading simply to be
entertained is a habit not to be indulged
in, nor encouraged, by scholars or by those
who aspire to the station of teachers. There
are perhaps a score of books which should
be read and studied by every one who claims
the title of reader ; but, aside from these, each
3
34 THE BOOK-LOVER.
person should determine, through a process of
rigid self-examination, what course of reading
and what books are likely to produce the most
profitable results to him. Find out, if possible,
what is your special bent of mind. What
line of inquiry or investigation is the most
congenial to your taste or mental capacity?
Having determined this question, let your
reading all centre upon that topic of study
which you have made your own, let it be
Literature, Science, History, Art, or any of
the innumerable subdivisions of these sub-
jects. In other words, choose a specialty, and
follow it with an eye single to it alone.
Says Frederic Harrison : " Every book that
we take up without a purpose is an oppor-
tunity lost of taking up a book with a pur-
pose ; every bit of stray information which we
cram into our heads without any sense of its
importance is for the most part a bit of the
most useful information driven out of our
heads and choked off from our minds. . . .
We know that books differ in value as much
as diamonds differ from the sand on the sea-
shore, as much as our living friend differs
from a dead rat. We know that much in the
myriad-peopled world of books very much
in all kinds is trivial, enervating, inane, even
THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 35
noxious. And thus, where we have infinite
opportunities of wasting our effort to no end,
of fatiguing our minds without enriching them,
of clogging the spirit without satisfying it,
there, I cannot but think, the very infinity of
opportunities is robbing us of the actual power
of using them. ... To know anything that
turns up is, in the infinity of knowledge, to
know nothing. To read the first book we
come across, in the wilderness of books, is to
learn nothing. To turn over the pages of
ten thousand volumes is to Be practically
indifferent to all that is good." *
"It is of paramount importance," says
Schopenhauer, " to acquire the art not to read ;
in other words, of not reading such books as
occupy the public mind, or even those which
make a noise in the world, and reach several
editions in their first and last year of existence.
We should recollect that he who writes for
fools finds an enormous audience, and we
should devote the ever scant leisure of our cir-
cumscribed existence to the master-spirits of all
ages and nations, those who tower over human-
ity, and whom the voice of Fame proclaims :
only such writers cultivate and instruct us." 2
1 Fortniglitly Review (April, 1879), "On the Choice
of Books." * Parerqa und Paralipomena (1851).
36 . THE BOOK-LOVER.
And John Ruskin offers the following per-
tinent advice to beginners : " It is of the
greatest importance to you, not only for art's
sake, but for all kinds of sake, in these days
of book deluge, to keep out of the salt
swamps of literature, and live on a little rocky
island of your own, with a spring and a lake
in it, pure and good. I cannot, of course,
suggest the choice of your library to you, for
every several mind needs different books ;
but there are some books which we all need,
and assuredly, if you read Homer, Plato,
^Eschylus, Herodotus, Dante, Shakspeare,
and Spenser as much as you ought, you will
not require wide enlargement of your shelves
to right and left of them for purposes of per-
petual study. Among modern books, avoid
generally magazine and review literature.
Sometimes it may contain a useful abridg-
ment or a wholesome piece of criticism ; but
the chances are ten to one it will either waste
your time or mislead you. If you want to
understand any subject whatever, read the
best book upon it you can hear of; not a
review of the book. ... A common book will
often give you much amusement, but it is
only a noble book which will give you dear
friends."
THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 37
If any of us could recall the time which we
have spent in desultory and profitless reading,
and devote it now faithfully to the prosecution
of that special line of study which ought, long
ago, to have been chosen, how largely we
might add to our fund of useful knowledge,
and how grandly we might increase our in-
tellectual stature ! " And again," remarks
James Herbert Morse, " if I could recover the
hours idly given to the newspaper, not for
my own gratification, but solely for my neigh-
bor at the breakfast-table, I could compass
a solid course of English and American his-
tory, get at the antecedents of political parties
in the two countries, and give the reasons for
the existence of Gladstone and Parnell, of
Elaine and Edmunds, in modern politics
and there is undoubtedly a reason for them
all. Two columns a day in the newspapers
which I could easily have spared, for they
were given mainly to murder-trials and the
search for corpses, or to the romance of the
reporter concerning the same have dur-
ing the last ten years absorbed just about the
time I might have spent in reading a very re-
spectable course in history, one embracing,
say, Curtius and Grote for Greece, Mommsen,
Merivale, and Gibbon for Rome, Macaulay
38 THE BOOK-LOVER.
and Green for my roots in Saxondom, Ban-
croft, Hildreth, and Palfrey for the ancestral
tree in America, together with a very notable
excursion into Spain and Holland with Motley
and Prescott, a course which I consider
very desirable, and one which should set up
a man of middle age very fairly in historical
knowledge. I am sure I could have saved
this amount out of any ten years of my news-
paper reading alone, without cutting off any
portion of that really valuable contribution for
which the daily paper is to be honored, and
which would be needed to make me an intelli-
gent man in the history of my own times." x
It is not necessary that, in selecting a library
or in choosing what you will read, you should
have many books at your disposal. A few
books, well chosen and carefully read, will be
of infinitely more value to you than any mis-
cellaneous collection, however large. It is
possible for " the man of one book " to be
better equipped in knowledge and literary
attainments than he whose shelves are loaded
with all the fashionable literature of the day.
If your means will not permit you the luxury
of a library, buy one book, or a few books,
chosen with special reference to the line of
1 The Critic (July 5, 1884), " Leisure Reading."
THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. 39
reading which you have determined upon.
Let no honey-mouthed book-agent persuade
you to buy of his wares, unless they bear ex-
actly upon your specialty. You cannot afford
to waste money on mere catchpenny or ma-
chine publications, whose only recommenda-
tion is that they are harmless and that they sell
well. That man is to be envied who can say,
" I have a library of fifty or of a hundred
volumes, all relating to my chosen line of
thought, and not a single inferior or worthless
volume among them."
I have before me a list of books, " books
fashioned by the intellect of godlike men,"
books which every person who aspires to
the rank of teacher or scholar should regard
as his inheritance from the master-minds of
the ages. If you know these books or
some of them you know much of that
which is best in the great world of letters.
You cannot afford to live in ignorance of
them.
Plato's Dialogues (Jowett's translation).
The Orations of Demosthenes on the Crown.
Bacon's Essays.
Burke's Orations and Political Essays.
Macaulay's Essays.
Carlyle's Essays.
Webster's Select Speeches.
40 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Emerson's Essays.
The Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb.
Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott.
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens.
Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Hypatia, by Charles Kingsley.
The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot.
The Marble Faun, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The Sketch Book, by Washington Irving.
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.
Wilhelm Meister, by Goethe (Carlyle's trans.).
Don Quixote, by Cervantes.
Homer's Iliad(Derby's or Chapman's translation).
Homer's Odyssey (Bryant's translation).
Dante's Divina Commedia (Longfellow's trans.).
Milton's Paradise Lost.
Shakspeare's Works.
Mrs. Browning's Poems. .
Longfellow's Poetical Works.
Goethe's Faust (Bayard Taylor's translation).
I have named but twenty-five authors ; but
each of these, in his own line of thought and
endeavor, stands first in the long roll of im-
mortals. When you have the opportunity to
make the acquaintance of such as these, will
you waste your time with writers whom you
would be ashamed to number among your
personal friends? "Will you go and gossip
with your housemaid or your stable boy,
when you may talk with kings and queens,
while this eternal court is open to you, with
its society wide as the world, multitudinous
THE CHOICE OP BOOKS. 41
as its days, the chosen, the mighty, of every
place and time? Into that you may enter
always ; in that you may take fellowship and
rank according to your wish ; from that, once
entered into it, you can never be outcast but
by your own fault; by your aristocracy of
companionship there, your inherent aristoc-
racy will be assuredly tested, and the motives
with which you strive to take high place in the
society of the living, measured, as to all
the truth and sincerity that are in them, by
the place you desire to take in this company
of the dead." l
1 John Ruskin : Sesame and Lilies.
CHAPTER II.
to
AND as for me, though I con but lite,
On bookes for to rede I me delite,
And to hem yeve I faith and credence,
And in my herte have hem in reverence
So hertely, that there is game none,
That from my bookes maketh me to gone,
But it be seldome on the holy daie,
Save certainly, whan that the month of May
Is comen, and that I heare the foules sing,
And that the floures ginnan for to spring,
Farwell my booke, and my devotion.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER.
^VING chosen the books which are
to be our friends and counsellors,
the next question to be considered
is, How shall we use them ? Shall
we read them through as hastily as possible,
believing that the more we read, the more
learned we are ? Or shall we not derive more
profit by reading slowly, and by making the
subject-matter of each book thoroughly our
own ? I do not believe that any general rule
42
HOW TO READ. 43
can be given with reference to this matter.
Some readers will take in a page at a glance,
and will more thoroughly master a book in
a week than others could possibly master it
in six months. It required Frederick W.
Robertson half a year to read a small manual
of chemistry, and thoroughly to digest its con-
tents. Miss Martineau and Auguste Comte
were remarkably slow readers ; but then, that
which they read " lay fructifying, and came
out a living tree with leaves and fruit." Yet
it does not follow that the same rule should
apply to readers of every grade of genius.
It is generally better to read by subjects, to
learn what different writers have thought and
said concerning that matter of which you are
making a special study. Not many books are
to be read hastily through. " A person who
was a very great reader and hard thinker,"
says Bishop Thirlwall, " once told me that he
never took up a book except with the view of
making himself master of some subject which
he was studying, and that while he was so
engaged he made all his reading converge
to that point. In this way he might read
parts of many books, but not a single one
from ' end to end.' This I take to be an
excellent method of study, but one which
44 THE BOOK-LOVER.
implies the command of many books as well
as of much leisure."
Seneca, the old Roman teacher, says : " Def-
inite reading is profitable ; miscellaneous read-
ing is pleasant. . . . The reading of many
authors and of all kinds of works has in it
something vague and unstable."
Says Quintilian : " Every good writer is to
be read, and diligently ; and when the vol-
ume is finished, it is to be gone through again
from the beginning."
Martin Luther, in his " Table Talk," says :
" All who would study with advantage in any
art whatsoever ought to betake themselves to
the reading of some sure and certain books
oftentimes over; for to read many books
produceth confusion rather than learning, like
as those who dwell everywhere are not any-
where at home."
" Reading," says Locke the philosopher,
" furnishes the mind only with materials of
knowledge ; it is thinking that makes what
are read over. We are of the ruminating
kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves
with a great load of collections; unless we
chew them over again, they will not give us
strength and nourishment."
"Much reading," says Dr. Robert South,
HOW TO READ. 45
" is like much eating, wholly useless with-
out digestion."
" Desultory reading," writes Julius C. Hare,
"is indeed very mischievous, by fostering
habits of loose, discontinuous thought, by
turning the memory into a common sewer for
rubbish of all thoughts to flow through, and
by relaxing the power of attention, which of
all our faculties most needs care, and is most
improved by it. But a well-regulated course
of study will no more weaken the mind than
hard exercise will weaken the body ; nor will
a strong understanding be weighed down by
its knowledge, any more than oak is by its
leaves or than Samson was by his locks. He
whose sinews are drained by his hair must
already be a weakling." x
Says Thomas Carlyle : " Learn to be good
readers, which is perhaps a more difficult
thing than you imagine. Learn to be dis-
criminative in your reading ; to read faith-
fully, and with your best attention, all kinds
of things which you have a real interest in,
a real, not an imaginary, and which you
find to be really fit for what you are engaged in.
The most unhappy of all men is the man who
cannot tell what he is going to do, who has
* Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1848.
46 THE BOOK-LOVER.
got no work cut out for him in the world,
and does not go into it. For work is the
grand cure of all the maladies and miseries
that ever beset mankind, honest work,
which you intend getting done."
Says Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The best
rule of reading will be a method from nature,
and not a mechanical one of hours and pages.
It holds each student to a pursuit of his na-
tive aim, instead of a desultory miscellany.
Let him read what is proper to him, and not
waste his memory on a crowd of mediocrities.
. . . The three practical rules which I have
to offer are : i . Never read any book that is
not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed
books. 3. Never read any but what you like ;
or, in Shakspeare's phrase,
' No profit goes where is no pleasure ta'en :
In brief, sir, study what you most affect.' " '
"Let us read good works often over," says
another writer. 2 " Some skip from volume to
volume, touching on all points, resting on
none. We hold, on the contrary, that if a
book be worth reading once, it is worth read-
ing twice, and that if it stands a second
reading, it may stand a third. This, indeed,
1 Society and Solitude, " Books."
2 George Gilfillan.
HOW TO READ. 47
is one great test of the excellence of books.
Many books require to be read more than
once, in order to be seen in their proper
colors and latent glories, and dim-discovered
truths will by-and-by disclose themselves. . . .
Again, let us read thoughtfully ; this is a great
secret in the right use of books. Not lazily,
to mumble, like the dogs in the siege of
Corinth, as dead bones, the words of the
author, not slavishly to assent to his every
word, and cry Amen to his every conclusion,
not to read him as an officer his general's
orders, but to read him with suspicion, with
inquiry, with a free exercise of your own
faculties, with the admiration of intelligence,
and not with the wonder of ignorance, that
is the proper and profitable way of reading
the great authors of your native tongue."
Says Sir Arthur Helps : " There is another
view of reading which, though it is obvious
enough, is seldom taken, I imagine, or at
least acted upon ; and that is, that in the
course of our reading we should lay up in
our minds a store of goodly thoughts in well-
wrought words, which should be a living
treasure of knowledge always with us, and
from which, at various times and amidst all
the shifting of circumstances, we might be
48 THE BOOK-LOVER.
sure of drawing some comfort, guidance, and
sympathy. ... In any work that is worth
carefully reading, there is generally something
that is worth remembering accurately. A
man whose mind is enriched with the best
sayings of his own country is a more indepen-
dent man, walks the streets in a town or the
lanes in the country with far more delight
than he otherwise would have, and is taught
by wise observers of man and nature to
examine for himself. Sancho Panza, with his
proverbs, is a great deal better than he would
have been without them ; and I contend that
a man has something in himself to meet
troubles and difficulties, small or great, who
has stored in his mind some of the best things
which have been said about troubles and
difficulties." l
And John Ruskin : " No book is worth
anything which is not worth much ; nor is it
serviceable until it has been read, and re-
read, and loved, and loved again; and
marked, so that you can refer to the passages
you want in it, as a soldier can seize the
weapons he needs in an armory, or a house-
wife bring the spice she needs from her
store."
1 Friends in Council.
HOW TO READ. 49
"I am not at all afraid," says Matthew
Browne, "of urging overmuch the propriety
of frequent, very frequent, reading of the
same book. The book remains the same, I
but the reader changes; and the value of ft
reading lies in the collision of minds. It may '
be taken for granted that no conceivable
amount of reading could ever put me into the if'
position with respect to his book I mean
as to intelligence only in which the author /
strove to place me. I may read him a hun- , \
dred times, and not catch the precise right
point of view ; and may read him a hundred
and one times, and approach it the hundred
and first. The driest and hardest book that
ever was, contains an interest over and above
what can be picked out of it, and laid, so to
speak, on the table. It is interesting as my \
friend is interesting; it is a problem which
invites me to closer knowledge, and that
usually means better liking. He must be a
poor friend that we only care to see once or
twice, and then forget." *
"The great secret of reading consists in
this," says Charles F. Richardson, " that it
does not matter so much what we read, or
1 Views and Opinions^ by Matthew Browne (W. H.
Rands).
50 THE BOOK-LOVER.
how we read it, as what we think and how we
think it. Reading is only the fuel ; and, the
mind once on fire, any and all material will
feed the flame, provided only it have any
combustible matter in it. And we cannot
tell from what quarter the next material will
come. The thought we need, the facts we
are in search of, may make their appearance
in the corner of the newspaper, or in some
forgotten volume long ago consigned to dust
and oblivion. . . . The mind that is not
awake and alive will find a library a barren
wilderness. Now, gather up the scraps and
fragments of thought on whatever subject
you may be studying, for of course by a
note-book I do not mean a mere receptacle
for odds and ends, a literary dust-bin, but
acquire the habit of gathering everything
whenever and wherever you find it, that be-
longs in your line or lines of study, and you
will be surprised to see how such fragments
will arrange themselves into an orderly whole
by the very organizing power of your own
thinking, acting in a definite direction. This
is a true process of self-education ; but you
see it is no mechanical process of mere ag-
gregation. It requires activity of thought ;
but without that, what is any reading but
HOW TO READ. 51
mere passive amusement? And it requires
method. I have myself a sort of literary
book-keeping. I post my literary accounts,
bringing together in proper groups the fruits
of much casual reading." I
Edward Gibbon the historian tells us that
a taste for books was the pleasure and glory
of his life. " Let us read with method," he
says, "and propose to ourselves an end to
what our studies may point. The use of
reading is to aid us in thinking."
Among practical suggestions to those who
would read for profit, I have found nothing
more pertinent than the following from the
posthumous papers of Bryan Waller Procter :
"Always read the preface to a book. It
places you on vantage ground, and enables
you to survey more completely the book it-
self. You frequently also discover the char-
acter of the author from the preface. You
see his aims, perhaps his prejudices. You
see the point of view from which he takes
his pictures, the rocks and impediments
which he himself beholds, and you steer ac-
cordingly. . . . Understand every word you
read ; if possible, every allusion of the au-
thor, if practicable, while you are reading ;
1 The Choice of Books.
52 THE BOOK-LOVER.
if not, make search and inquiry as soon as
may be afterward. Have a dictionary near
you when you read ; and when you read a
book of travels, always read with a map of
the country at hand. Without a map the in-
formation is vague and transitory. . . . After
having read as much as your mind will
easily retain, sum up what you have read,
endeavor to place in view the portion or sub-
ject that has formed your morning's study ;
and then reckon up (as you would reckon
up a sum) the facts or items of knowledge
that you have gained. It generally happens
that the amount of three or four hours' read-
ing may be reduced to and concentrated in
half a dozen propositions. These are your
gains, these are the facts or opinions that
you have acquired. You may investigate
the truth of them hereafter. Although I
think that one's general reading should ex-
tend over many subjects, yet for serious
study we should confine ourselves to some
branch of literature or science. Otherwise
the mind becomes confused and enfeebled,
and the thoughts, dissipated on many things,
will settle profitably on none. A man whose
duration of life is limited, and whose powers
are limited also, should not aim at all things,
HOW TO READ. 53
but should content himself with a few. By
such means he may master one, and become
tolerably familiar perhaps with two or three
arts or sciences. He may indeed even make
valuable contributions to them. Without
this economy of labor, he cannot produce
any complete work, nor can he exhaust any
subject." '
Every scholar is familiar with Lord Bacon's
classification of books, some " to be tasted,
others to be swallowed, and some few to be
chewed and digested : that is, some books
are to be read only in parts ; others to be
read, but not curiously; and some few to
be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention." Coleridge's classification of the
various kinds of readers is perhaps not quite
so well known. He said that some readers
are like jelly-bags, they let pass away all
that is pure and good, and retain only what
is impure and refuse. Another class he typi-
fied by a sponge; these are they whose
minds suck all up, and give it back again,
only a little dirtier. Others, again, he likened
to an hour-glass, and their reading to the sand
which runs in and out, and leaves no trace
1 Temple Bar (September. 1884), " Barry Cornwall
on the Reading of Books."
54
THE BOOK-LOVER,
behind. And still others he compared to the
slave in the Golconda mines, who retains the
gold and the gem, and casts aside the dust
and the dross. Charles C. Colton, the author
of " Lacon," says there are three kinds of read-
ers : first, those who read to think, and they
are rare ; second, those who read to write,
and they are common ; third, those who read
to talk, and they form the great majority.
And Goethe, the greatest name in German
literature, makes still a different classification :
some readers, he tells us, enjoy without judg-
ment ; others judge without enjoyment ; and
some there are who judge while they enjoy,
and enjoy while they judge.
In these days, when, so far as reading-
matter is concerned, we are overburdened
with an embarrassment of riches, we cannot
afford to read, even in the books which we
have chosen as ours, those things which have
no relationship to our studies, which do not
concern us, and which are sure to be forgotten
as soon as read. The art of reading, says
Philip Gilbert Hamerton in his admirable
essay on " The Intellectual Life," " is to skip
judiciously. The art is to skip all that does
not concern us, whilst missing nothing that
we really need. No external guidance can
HOW TO READ, 55
teach this ; for nobody but ourselves can
guess what the needs of our intellect may be.
But let us select with decisive firmness, in-
dependently of other people's advice, inde-
pendently of the authority of custom." And
Charles F. Richardson, referring to the same
subject, remarks : " The art of skipping is,
in a word, the art of noting and shunning that
which is bad, or frivolous, or misleading, or
unsuitable for one's individual needs. If you
are convinced that the book or the chapter is
bad, you cannot drop it too quickly. If it is
simply idle and foolish, put it away on that
account, unless you are properly seeking
amusement from idleness and frivolity. If it
is something deceitful and disingenuous, your
task is not so easy ; but your conscience will
give you warning, and the sharp examination
which should follow will tell you that you are
in poor literary company."
CHAPTER III.
n tfte Falue anfc 390* of ^Libraries.
ALL round the room my silent servants wait,
My friends in every season, bright and dim
Angels and seraphim
Come down and murmur to me, sweet and low,
And spirits of the skies all come and go
Early and late ;
From the old world's divine and distant date,
From the sublimer few,
Down to the poet who but yester-eve
Sang sweet and made us grieve,
All come, assembling here in order due.
And here I dwell with Poesy, my mate,
With Erato and all her vernal sighs,
Great Clio with her victories elate,
Or pale Urania's deep and starry eyes.
BRYAN WALLER PROCTER.
LIBRARY is the scholar's work-
shop. To the teacher or profes-
sional man, a collection of good
books is as necessary as a kit of
tools to a carpenter. And yet I am aware
that many persons are engaged in teaching,
56
THE VALUE AND USE OP LIBRARIES. 57
who have neither a library of their own, nor
access to any other collection of books suit-
able to their use. There are others who,
having every opportunity to secure the best
of books, with a public library near at hand
offering them the free use of works most val-
uable to them, yet make no effort to profit
by these advantages. They care nothing for
any books save the text-books indispensable
to their profession, and for these only so far
as necessity obliges them to do so. The
libraries of many persons calling themselves
teachers consist solely of school-books, many
of which have been presented them by accom-
modating book-agents, " for examination with
a view to introduction." And yet we hear
these teachers talk learnedly about the intro-
duction of English literature into the common
schools of the country, and the necessity of
cultivating among the children a wholesome
love and taste for reading. If inquiry were
made, we might discover that such persons
understand a study of English literature to
consist simply of some memoriter exercises in
Shaw's " Manual " or Brooke's " Primer," and
that, as to good reading, they are oftener en-
tertained by the cheap slops of the news-
stands than by the English classics. Talk not
58 THE BOOK-LOVER.
about directing and cultivating the reading-
tastes of your pupils until you have successfully
directed and cultivated your own ! And the
first step towards doing this is the selection
and purchase of a library for yourself, which
shall be all your own. A very few books will
do, if they are of the right kind ; and they
must be yours. A borrowed book is but a
cheap pleasure, an unappreciated and un-
satisfactory tool. To know the true value of
books, and to derive any satisfactory benefit
from them, you must first feel the sweet de-
light of buying them, you must know the
preciousness of possession.
You plead poverty, the insufficiency of
your income ? But do you not spend for other
things, entirely unnecessary, much more every
year than the cost of a few books ? The im-
mediate outlay need not be large, the returns
which you will realize will be great in pro-
portion to your good judgment and earnest-
ness. Not only will the possession of a good
library add to your means of enjoyment and
increase your capacity for doing good, it may,
if you are worldly-minded, and we all are,
put you in the way of occupying a more
desirable position and earning a more satis-
factory reward for your labors.
THE VALUE AND USE OP LIBRARIES. 59
There are two kinds of books that you
will need in your library : first, those which
are purely professional, and are in the strictest
sense the tools of your craft ; second, those
which belong to your chosen department of
literature, and are to be regarded as your
friends, companions, and counsellors. I can-
not, of course, dictate to you what these
books shall be. The lists given in the chap-
ters which follow this are designed simply as
suggestive aids. But in a library of fifty or
even thirty well-chosen volumes you may
possess infinite riches, and means for a life-
time of enjoyment ; while, on the other hand,
if your selection is injudicious, you may ex-
pend thousands of dollars for a collection of
the odds and ends of literature, which will be
only an incumbrance and a hindrance to you.
" I would urge upon every young man, as
the beginning of his due and wise provision
for his household," says John Ruskin, "to
obtain as soon as he can, by the severest
economy, a restricted, serviceable, and stead-
ily however slowly increasing series of
books for use through life ; making his little
library, of all the furniture in his room, the
most studied and decorative piece ; every
volume having its assigned place, like a little
60 THE BOOK-LOVER.
statue in its niche, and one of the earliest and
strictest lessons to the children of the house
being how to turn the pages of their own
literary possessions lightly and deliberately,
with no chance of tearing or dog's-ears." I
And Henry Ward Beecher emphasizes the
same thing, remarking that, among the early
ambitions to be excited in clerks, workmen,
journeymen, and indeed among all that are
struggling up in life from nothing to something,
the most important is that of forming and
continually adding to a library of good books.
" A little library, growing larger every year, is
an honorable part of a man's history. It is
a man's duty to have books. A library is not
a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life."
"How much do you think we spend al-
together on our libraries, public or private, as
compared with what we spend on our horses ? "
asks another enthusiastic lover of books, al-
ready quoted. " If a man spends lavishly on
his library, you call him mad, a biblio-
maniac. But you never call any one a horse-
maniac, though men ruin themselves every
day by their horses, and you do not hear of
people ruining themselves by their books. . . .
We talk of food for the mind, as of food for
1 Sesame and Lilies.
THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 6 1
the body : now, a good book contains such
food inexhaustibly; it is a provision for life,
and for the best of us ; yet how long most
people would look at the best book before
they would give the price of a large turbot
for it ! Though there have been men who
have pinched their stomachs and bared their
backs to buy a book, whose libraries were
cheaper to them, I think, in the end than
most men's dinners are. We are few of us
put to such trial, and more the pity : for,
indeed, a precious thing is all the more pre-
cious to us if it has been won by work or
economy ; and if public libraries were half as
costly as public dinners, or books cost the
tenth part of what bracelets do, even foolish
men and women might sometimes suspect
there was good in reading, as well as in
munching and sparkling ; whereas the very
cheapness of literature is making even wise
people forget that if a book is worth reading,
it is worth buying."
" The truest owner of a library," says the au-
thor of " Hesperides," " is he who has bought
each book for the love he bears to it, who
is happy and content to say, ' Here are my
jewels, my choicest material possessions ! '
who is proud to crown such assertion thus :
62 THE BOOK-LOVER.
' I am content that this library shall rep-
resent the use of the talents given me by
Heaven ! ' That man's library, though not
commensurate with his love for books, will
demonstrate what he has been able to ac-
complish with his resources ; it will denote
economy of living, eagerness to possess the
particles that compose his library, and quick
watchfulness to seize them when means and
opportunities serve. Such a man has built
a temple, of which each brick has been the
subject of curious and acute intelligent exam-
ination and appreciation before it has been
placed in the sacred building."
" Every man should have a library ! "
exclaims William Axon. '' The works of the
grandest masters of literature may now be
procured at prices that place them within the
reach almost of the very poorest, and we
may all put Parnassian singing-birds into our
chambers to cheer us with the sweetness of
their songs. And when we have got our little
library we may look proudly at Shakspeare
and Bacon and Bunyan, as they stand in our
bookcase with other noble spirits, and one or
two of whom the world knows nothing, but
whose worth we have often tested. These
may cheer and enlighten us, may inspire us
THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 63
with higher aims and aspirations, may make
us, if we use them rightly, wiser and better
men." 1
Good old George Dyer, the friend of the
poet Southey, as learned as he was benev-
olent, was wont to say : " Libraries are the
wardrobes of literature, whence men, properly
informed, may bring forth something for or-
nament, much for curiosity, and more for
use." " Any library is an attraction," says the
venerable A. Bronson Alcott; and Victor
Hugo writes :
" A library implies an act of faith,
Which generations still in darkness hid
Sign in their night in witness of the dawn."
John Bright, the great English statesman
and reformer, in a speech at the opening of
the Birmingham Free Library a short time
ago, remarked : " You may have in a house
costly pictures and costly ornaments, and a
great variety of decoration ; yet, so far as my
judgment goes, I would prefer to have one
comfortable room well stocked with books to
all you can give me in the way of decoration
which the highest art can supply. The only
subject of lamentation is one feels that
1 Meliora (October, 1867).
64 THE BOOK-LOVER.
always, I think, in the presence of a library
that life is too short, and I am afraid I must
say also that our industry is so far deficient
that we seem to have no hope of a full en-
joyment of the ample repast that is spread
before us. In the houses of the humble a
little library, in my opinion, is a most precious
possession."
Jean Paul Richter, it is said, was always
melancholy in a large library, because it re-
minded him of his ignorance.
" A library may be regarded as the solemn
chamber in which a man can take counsel of
all that have been wise and great and good
and glorious amongst the men that have gone
before him," said George Dawson, also at
Birmingham. " If we come down for a mo-
ment and look at the bare and immediate
utilities of a library, we find that here a man
gets himself ready for his calling, arms him-
self for his profession, finds out the facts that
are to determine his trade, prepares himself
for his examination. The utilities of it are
endless and priceless. It is, too, a place of
pastime; for man has no amusement more
innocent, more sweet, more gracious, more
elevating, and more fortifying than he can
find in a library. If he be fond of books,
THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES. 65
his fondness will discipline him as well as
amuse him. ... A library is the strengthener
of all that is great in life, and the repeller of
what is petty and mean ; and half the gossip
of society would perish if the books that are
truly worth reading were read. . . . When we
look through the houses of a large part of the
middle classes of this country, we find there
everything but what there ought most to be.
There are no books in them worth talking of.
If a question arises of geography, they have no
atlases. If the question be when a great man
was born, they cannot help you. They can
give you a gorgeous bed, with four posts,
marvellous adornments, luxurious hangings,
and lacquered shams all round ; they can
give you dinners ad nauseam, and wine that
one can, or cannot, honestly praise. But use-
ful books are almost the last things that are to
be found there ; and when the mind is empty
of those things that books can alone fill it
with, then the seven devils of pettiness, fri-
volity, fashionableness, gentility, scandal, small
slander, and the chronicling of small beer
come in and take possession. Half this
nonsense would be dropped if men would
only understand the elevating influences of
their communing constantly with the lofty
5
66 THE BOOK-LOVER.
thoughts and high resolves of men of old
times."
The author of " Dreamthorpe," filled with
love and enthusiasm, discourses thus : " I go
into my library, and all history unrolls before
me. I breathe the morning air of the world
while the scent of Eden's roses yet lingers in
it, while it vibrates only to the world's first
brood of nightingales and to the laugh of
Eve. I see the pyramids building; I hear
the shoutings of the armies of Alexander ; I
feel the ground shake beneath the march of
Cambyses. I sit as in a theatre, the stage
is time ; the play is the play of the world.
What a spectacle it is ! What kingly pomp,
what processions file past, what cities burn to
heaven, what crowds of captives are dragged
at the chariot wheels of conquerors ! I hiss,
or cry ' Bravo,' when the great actors come
on, shaking the stage. I am a Roman em-
peror when I look at a Roman coin. I lift
Homer, and I shout with Achilles in the
trenches. The silence of the unpeopled As-
syrian plains, the out-comings and in-goings of
the patriarchs, Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac
in the fields at eventide, Rebekah at the well,
Jacob's guile, Esau's face reddened by desert
sun-heat, Joseph's splendid funeral procession,
THE VALUE AND USE OP LIBRARIES. 67
all these things I find within the boards of
my Old Testament. What a silence in those
old books as of a half-peopled world, what
bleating of flocks, what green pastoral rest,
what indubitable human existence ! Across
brawling centuries of blood and war, I hear
the bleating of Abraham's flocks, the tinkling
of the bells of Rebekah's camels. O men
and women, so far separated yet so near, so
strange yet so well-known, by what miraculous
power do I know you all ? Books are the true
Elysian fields, where the spirits of the dead
converse ; and into these fields a mortal may
venture unappalled. What king's court can
boast such company? What school of phi-
losophy, such wisdom? The wit of the an-
cient world is glancing and flashing there.
There is Pan's pipe, there are the songs of
Apollo. Seated in my library at night, and
looking on the silent faces of my books, I am
occasionally visited by a strange sense of the
supernatural. They are not collections of
printed pages, they are ghosts. I take one
down, and it speaks with me in a tongue not
now heard on earth, and of men and things
of which it alone possesses knowledge. I
call myself a solitary, but sometimes I think
I misapply the term. No man sees more
68 THE BOOK-LOVER.
company than I do. I travel with mightier
cohorts around me than did ever Timour or
Genghis Khan on their fiery marches. I am
a sovereign in my library ; but it is the dead,
not the living, that attend my levees."
CHAPTER IV.
far ebcrg Scfjolar.
THESE books of mine, as you well know, are not drawn
up here for display, however much the pride of the eye
may be gratified in beholding them ; they are on actual
service. SOUTHEY.
O assist teachers and scholars, and
those who aspire to become such,
in making judicious selection of
world-famous books for their libra-
ries, I submit the following list, which includes
the greater part of all that is the very best and
the most enduring in our language. It is not
intended to embrace professional works, nor
works suited merely for students of specialties.
The books named are such as will grace the
library of any scholar, no matter what his
profession or his preferences ; they are books
which every teacher ought to know ; they are
books of which no one can ever feel ashamed.
69
70 THE BOOK-LOVER.
"The first thing naturally, when one enters
a scholar's study or library," says Holmes, " is
to look at his books. One gets a notion very
speedily of his tastes and the range of his
pursuits by a glance round his book-shelves."
And, take my word for it, if you want a library
of which you will be proud, you cannot be
too careful as to the character of the books
you put in it.
POETRY.
Chaucer's Poetical Works, or, if not the complete
works, at least the " Canterbury Tales." In
speaking of the great works in English Poetry,
it is natural to mention Chaucer first, although,
as a general rule, he should be one of the last
read. " It is sufficient to say, according to the
proverb, that here is God's plenty."" DRYDEN.
Spenser's Faerie Qiieene, not to be read through, but
in selections. " We can scarcely comprehend
how a perusal of the Faerie Queene can fail to in-
sure to the true believer a succession of halcyon
days." HAZLITT.
The Works of William Shakspeare. The following
editions of Shakspeare have been issued within
the present century: The first Variorum (1813) ;
The Variorum (1821) ; Singer's (10 vols. 1826) ;
Knight's (8 vols. 1841); Collier's (8 vols. 1844);
Verplanck's (3 vols. 1847); Hudson's (u vols.
1857) ; Dyce's (6 vols. 1867) ; Mary Cowden
Clarke's (2 vols. 1860) ; R. G. White's (12 vols.
1862) ; Clark and Wright's (9 vols. 1866) ; The
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 71
Leopold Edition (i vol. 1877); The Harvard
Edition (20 vols. 1881); The Variorum ( vols.
1871 ); Rolfe's School Shakspeare (1872-81);
Hudson's School Shakspeare. "Above all poets,
the mysterious dual of hard sense and empyrean
fancy." LORD LYTTON.
Ben Jonsotfs Dramatic and Poetical Works, to be
read also in selections. " O rare Ben Jonson ! "
Christopher Marlowe's Dramatic Works, especially
" Tamburlaine," " Doctor Faustus," and " The
Jew of Malta." " He had in him all those brave
translunary things which the first poets did
have." DRAYTON.
Beaumont and Fletcher, and especially " The Faith-
ful Shepherdess," a play " very characteristic of
Fletcher, being a mixture of tenderness, purity,
indecency, and absurdity." HALLAM.
John Webster's Tragedies. " To move a horror skil-
fully, to touch a soul to the quick, to lay upon
fear as much as it can bear, to wean and weary
a life till it is ready to drop, and then step in with
mortal instruments to take its last forfeit: this
only a Webster can do." CHARLES LAMB.
George Herbert's Poems. " In George Herbert there is
poetry, and enough to spare ; it is the household
bread of his existence." GEORGE MACDONALD.
Milton's Poetical Works. The " Paradise Lost " was
mentioned in the former list; but you cannot well
do without his shorter poems also. " Milton
almost requires a solemn service of music to be
played before you enter upon him." CHARLES
LAMB.
Pope's Poetical Works. " Come we now to Pope, that
prince of sayers of acute and exquisite things."
ROBERT CHAMBERS.
Dryderfs Poems. " Dryden is even better than Pope.
He has immense masculine energies." IBID.
7-2 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Goldsmith 's Select Poems. "No one like Goldsmith
knew how to be at once natural and exquisite,
innocent and wise, a man and still a child."
EDWARD DOWDEN.
The Poems of Robert Burns. " Burns should be my
stand-by of a winter night." J. H. MORSE.
Wordsivorth 's Select Poems. " Nearest of all mod-
ern writers to Shakspeare and Milton, yet in
a kind perfectly unborrowed and his own."
COLERIDGE.
The Poems of Sir Walter Scott. "Walter Scott
ranks in imaginative power hardly below any
writer save Homer and Shakspeare." GOLDWIN
SMITH.
The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. " Mrs.
Browning's ' Aurora Leigh ' is, as far as I know,
the greatest poem which the century has pro-
duced in any language." RUSKIN.
Coleridge's Select Poems. " The Ancient Mariner,"
" Christabel," and " Genevieve." " These might
be bound up in a volume of twenty pages, but
they should be bound in pure gold." STOPFORD
BROOKE.
The Poems of John Keats. " No one else in English
poetry, save Shakspeare, has in expression quite
the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perfection of
loveliness." MATTHEW ARNOLD.
The Christian Year, by John Keble. " I am not a
churchman, I don't believe in planting oaks in
flower-pots, but such a poem as ' The Rosebud '
makes one a proselyte to the culture it grows
from." DR. HOLMES.
Tennyson's Poems. " Tennyson is a born poet, that
is, a builder of airy palaces and imaginary castles ;
he has chosen amongst all forms the most elegant,
ornate, exquisite." M. TAINE.
Longfellow's Poetical Works. " In the pure, amia-
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 73
ble, home-like qualities that reach the heart and
captivate the ear, no one places Longfellow
second." THE CRITIC.
Bryanfs Poetical Works. " The great characteristics
of Bryant's poetry are its strong common-sense,
its absolute sanity, and its inexhaustible imagi-
nation." R. H. STODDARD.
The Poems of John G. Whittier. " The lyric poet of
America, his poems are in the broadest sense
national." ANON.
In addition to the works named above,
there are several collections of short poems
and selections of poetry invaluable to the
student. They are " infinite riches in little
room." I name :
Bryant's Library of Poetry and Song.
Emerson's Parnassus.
Ward's English Poets.
Piatt's American Poetry and Art.
Appleton's Library of British Poetry.
Palgrave's Golden Treasury.
" A large part of what is best worth know-
ing in ancient literature, and in the literature
of France, Italy, Germany, and Spain," says
Lord Macaulay, " has been translated into our
own tongue. I would not dissuade any per-
son from studying either the ancient languages
or the languages of modern Europe ; but I
would console those who have not time to
make themselves linguists by assuring them
74 THE BOOK-LOVER.
that, by means of their own mother tongue,
they may obtain ready access to vast in-
tellectual treasures, to treasures such as might
have been envied by the greatest linguists of
the age of Charles the Fifth, to treasures sur-
passing those which were possessed by Aldus,
by Erasmus, and by Melanchthon."
I name some of the treasures which you
may thus acquire :
Homer's Iliad. Of this work, without which no
scholar's library is complete, many translations
have been made. The most notable are George
Chapman's (1611), Pope's (1715), Tickell's (1715),
Cowper's (1781), Lord Derby's (1867), Bryant's
( 1870). Americans will, of course, prefer Bryant's
translation; but Derby's is more poetical, and
the greatest scholars award the palm of merit to
Chapman. Says Lowell : " Chapman has made
for us the best poem that has yet been Englished
out of Homer."
sEsckylus. " Prometheus Bound " has been ren-
dered into English verse by Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, "Agamemnon" has been translated
by Dean Milman, and the entire seven tragedies
by Dean Potter. " The ' Prometheus ' is a poem
of the like dignity and scope as the Book of Job,
or the Norse Edda." EMERSON.
Aristophanes. The translation by John Hookham
Frere is admirable. " We might apply to the
pieces of Aristophanes the motto of a pleasant
and acute adventurer in Goethe : ' Mad, but
clever.' " A. W. SCHLEGEL.
VirgiFs ALneid. The best known translations of
Virgil are Dryden's (1697), Christopher Pitt's
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 75
(1740), John Conington's (1870), William Mor-
ris's (1876). Your choice among these will lie
between the last two. " Virgil is far below Ho-
mer; yet Virgil has genius enough to be two
men." LORD LYTTON.
Horace's Odes, Epodes, and Satires. There are ex- I/
cellent translations by Conington, Lord Lytton,
and T. Martin. "There is Horace, charming
man of the world, who will condole with you
feelingly on the loss of your fortune, . . . but
who will yet show you that a man may be happy
with a vile modicum or parva rura." IBID.
Dante's Divina Commedia. Translated by Long- ^
fellow. " The finest narrative poem of modern
times." MACAULAY.
Goethe's Faust. Translated by Bayard Taylor. " What
constitutes Goethe's glory is, that in the nine-
teenth century he did produce an epic poem -''
I mean a poem in which genuine gods act and
speak." H. A. TAINE.
Of the best poetry written in the modern
foreign tongues, you will have no difficulty
in finding excellent translations. There are
good English editions of Dante, Petrarch,
Ariosto, and Tasso ; of Calderon and Cam-
oens; of Moliere, Corneille, Racine, and
Victor Hugo; and of Goethe and Schiller.
And to make your collection complete for
all the purposes of a scholar, you will want
Longfellow's "Poets and Poetry of Europe,"
containing translations of the best short poems
written in the modern European languages.
76 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Of modern poetry, John Ruskin advises
beginners to "keep to Scott, Wordsworth,
Keats, Crabbe, Tennyson, the two Brownings,
Lowell, Longfellow, and Coventry Patmore,
whose 'Angel in the House ' is a most finished
piece of writing, and the sweetest analysis we
possess of quiet modern domestic feeling. . . ,
Cast Coleridge at once aside as sickly and
useless ; and Shelley as shallow and verbose ;
Byron, until your taste is fully formed, and
you are able to discern the magnificence in
him from the wrong. Never read bad or
common poetry, nor write any poetry your-
self; there is, perhaps, rather too much than
too little in the world already."
Says Frederic Harrison : " I am for the
school of all the great men ; and I am against
the school of the smaller men. I care for
Wordsworth as well as for Byron, for Burns
as well as for Shelley, for Boccaccio as well as
for Milton, for Bunyan as well as Rabelais, for
Cervantes as much as for Dante, for Corneille
as well as for Shakspeare, for Goldsmith as
well as Goethe. I stand by the sentence of
the world; and I hold that in a matter so
human and so broad as the highest poetry,
the judgment of the nations of Europe is
pretty well settled. . . . The busy world may
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 77
fairly reserve the lesser lights for the time
when it knows the greatest well. . . . Nor
shall we forget those wonderful idealizations
of awakening thought and primitive societies,
the pictures of other races and types of life
removed from our own : all those primeval
legends, ballads, songs, and tales, those prov-
erbs, apologues, and maxims which have come
down to us from distant ages of man's history,
the old idyls and myths of the Hebrew
race ; the tales of Greece, of the Middle Ages,
of the East; the fables of the old and the
new world ; the songs of the Nibelungs ; the
romances of early feudalism ; the ' Morte
d'Arthur ' ; the 'Arabian Nights ; ' the ballads
of the early nations of Europe."
PROSE.
In the following list I shall endeavor to
name only the truly great and time-abiding
books, books to be used not simply as
tools, but for the " building up of a lofty char-
acter," the turning of the soul inward upon it-
self, concentrating its forces, and fitting it for
greater and stronger achievements. They
embody the best thoughts of the best thinkers ;
and almost any one of them, if properly read
78 THE BOOK-LOVER.
and "energized upon," will furnish food for
study, and meditation, and mind-growth,
enough for the best of us.
ESSAYS, ETC.
The Works of Lord Bacon. (Popular edition.) "He
seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the great-
est men, and most worthy of admiration, that had
been in many ages." BEN JONSON.
Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne. " One of the
most beautiful prose poems in the language."
LORD LYTTON.
The Anatomy of Melancholy, by Robert Burton. By-
ron says that "if the reader has patience to go
through the ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' he will be
more improved for literary conversation than by
the perusal of any twenty other works with which
I am acquainted."
Montaigne's Essays. (Best edition.) " Montaigne
comes in for a large share of the scholar's regard ;
opened anywhere, his page is sensible, marrowy,
quotable." A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
Areopagitica, by John Milton. "A sublime treatise,
which every statesman should wear as a sign upon
his hand and as frontlets between his eyes."
MACAULAY.
The Spectator. " The talk of Addison and Steele is
the brightest and easiest talk that was ever put in
print." JOHN RICHARD GREEN.
Burke" 1 ! Orations and Political Essays. " In ampli-
tude of comprehension and richness of imagina-
tion, Burke was superior to every orator, ancient
or modern." LORD MACAULAY.
Webster's Best Speeches. " But after all is said, we
come back to the simple statement that he was
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 79
a very great man ; intellectually, one of the great-
est men of his age." HENRY CABOT LODGE.
The Orations of Demosthenes. A good translation is
that of Kennedy in Bohn's Classical Library.
Cicero's Orations ; also Cicero's Offices, Old Age,
Friendship, etc.
Plutarch's Lives. Arthur Hugh Clough's revision
of Dryden's Plutarch. " Without Plutarch, no
library were complete." A. BRONSON AL-
COTT.
The Six Chief Lives from Johns'on's Lives of the Poets,
edited by Matthew Arnold.
BoswelFs Life of Samuel Johnson. " Scarcely since
the days of Homer has the feat been equalled ;
indeed, in many senses, this also is a kind of
heroic poem." CARLYLE.
Charles Lamb's Essays. " People never weary of
reading Charles Lamb." ALEXANDER SMITH.
Carlyle's Works. " No man of his generation has
done as much to stimulate thought." ALFRED
GUERNSEY.
Macaulay's Essays. " I confess to a fondness for
books of this kind." H. A. TAINE.
Fronde's Short Studies on Great Subjects. " Models
of style and clear-cut thought." ANON.
The Works of Washington Irving. " In the depart-
ment of pure literature the earliest classic writer
of America."
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, by Oliver Wen-
dell Holmes. " Something more than an essayist ;
he is contemplative, discursive, poetical, thought-
ful, philosophical, amusing, imaginative, tender
never didactic." MACKENZIE.
Emerson's Essays. " A diction at once so rich and
so homely as his, I know not where to match in
these days of writing by the page ; it is like home-
spun cloth-of-gold." J. R. LOWELL.
8o THE BOOK-LOVER.
FICTION.
The novel, in its best form, I regard as one
of the most powerful engines of civilization
ever invented. SlR JOHN HERSCHEL>
Novels are sweets. All people with healthy
literary appetites love them, almost all wo-
men ; a vast number of clever, hard-headed
men, judges, bishops, chancellors, mathema-
ticians, are notorious novel-readers, as well as
young boys and sweet girls, and their kind,
tender mothers. w M> THACKERAY .
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. " ' Robinson
Crusoe ' contains (not for boys, but for men) more
religion, more philosophy, more psychology, more
political economy, more anthropology, than are
found in many elaborate treatises on these special
subjects." F. HARRISON.
Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Cervantes. " The work
of Cervantes is the greatest in the world after
Homer's Iliad, speaking of it, I mean, as a work
of entertainment." DR. JOHNSON.
Gulliver's Travels, by Dean Swift. " Not so indis-
pensable, but yet the having him is much to be
rejoiced in." R. CHAMBERS.
The Vicar of Wakefield, by Goldsmith. " The blot-
ting out of the ' Vicar of Wakefield,' from most
minds, would be more grievous than to know that
the island of Borneo had sunk in the sea."
IBID.
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 8 1
The Waverley Newels. If not all, at least the follow-
ing ""Ivanhoe; The Talisman; Kenilworth; The
Monastery; The Abbot; Old Mortality; The
Antiquary ; Guy Mannering ; The Bride of Lam-
mermoor; The Heart of Midlothian.
Cooper's Leather-Stocking Tales.
Dickens' s Novels. Not all, but the following : David
Copperfield; Dombey and Son; Nicholas Nick-
leby ; Old Curiosity Shop ; Oliver Twist ; and
The Pickwick Papers.
Thackeray's Novels. Vanity Fair ; Pendennis ; The
Newcomes ; The Virginians ; Henry Esmond.
George Eliot's Novels. "Adam Bede ;*The Mill on
the Floss ; Romola ; Middlemarch ; Daniel
Deronda.
Corinne, by Madame de Stael.
'Telemachus, by Fenelon. (Hawkesworth's trans-
lation.)
/Tom Jones, by Fielding. " We read his books as
we drink a pure, wholesome, and rough wine,
which cheers and fortifies us, and which wants
nothing but bouquet." H. A. TAINE.
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, by Goethe. (Car-
lyle's translation.)
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Novels. The Scarlet Letter ;
The Marble Faun; .The Blithedale Romance;
The House of Seven Gables.
Les Miserable*, by Victor Hugo.
Hypatia and Alton Locke, by Charles Kingsley.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Mrs. Stowe. " We have seen
an American woman write a novel of which a
million copies were sold in all languages, and
which had one merit, of speaking to the universal
heart, and was read with equal interest to three
audiences, namely, in the parlor, in the kitchen,
and in the nursery of every house." EMERSON.
Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain.
6
82 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Sulwer-Lytton's Novels. The Caxtons ; My Novel ;
Zanoni ; The Last of the Barons ; Harold ; The
Last Days of Pompeii.
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.
John Halifax, Gentleman, by Mrs. Craik.
This list might .be readily extended ; but I
forbear, resolved rather to omit some meri-
torious works than to include any that are
unworthy of the best companionship.
I close this chapter with Leigh Hunt's
pleasant word-picture descriptive of his own
library : " Sitting last winter among my books,
and walled round with all the comfort and
protection which they and my fireside could
afford me, to wit, a table of high-piled
books at my back, my writing-desk on one
side of me, some shelves on the other, and
the feeling of the warm fire at my feet, I
began to consider how I loved the authors of
those books ; how I loved them too, not only
for the imaginative pleasures they afforded
me, but for their making me love the very
books themselves, and delight to be in con-
tact with them. I looked sideways at my
Spenser, my Theocritus, and my Arabian
Nights ; then above them at my Italian Poets ;
then behind me at my Dryden and Pope, my
Romances, and my Boccaccio ; then on
BOOKS FOR EVERY SCHOLAR. 83
my left side at my Chaucer, who lay on my
writing-desk ; and thought how natural it was
in Charles Lamb to give a kiss to an old
folio, as I once saw him do to Chapman's
Homer. ... I entrench myself in my books,
equally against sorrow and the weather. If
the wind comes through a passage, I look
about to see how I can fence it off by a
better disposition of my movables ; if a mel-
ancholy thought is importunate, I give an-
other glance at my Spenser. When I speak
of being in contact with my books, I mean it
literally. I like to be able to lean my head
against them. . . . The very perusal of the
backs is a ' discipline of humanity.' There Mr.
Southey takes his place again with an old Rad-
ical friend ; there Jeremy Collier is at peace
with Dryden ; there the lion, Martin Luther,
lies down with the Quaker lamb, Sewell ;
there Guzman d'Alfarache thinks himself fit
company for Sir Charles Grandison, and has
his claims admitted. . . . Nothing, while I
live and think, can deprive me of my value
for such treasures. I can help the apprecia-
tion of them while I last, and love them
till I die ; and perhaps I may chance, some
quiet day, to lay my over-beating temples on
a book, and so have the death I most envy."
CHAPTER V.
Books sfcatl goiing Jfolfcs Beat ?
|HE greatest problem presented to
the consideration of parents and
teachers now-a-days is how prop-
erly to regulate and direct the read-
ing of the children. There is no scarcity of
reading-matter. The poorest child may have
free access to books and papers, more than he
can read. The publication of periodicals and
cheap books especially designed to meet the
tastes of young people has developed into an
enterprise of vast proportions. Every day,
millions of pages of reading matter designed
for children are printed and scattered broad-
cast over the land. But unlimited oppor-
tunities often prove to be a damage and a
detriment; and over-abundance, rather than
scarcity, is to be deplored. As a general rule,
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 85
the books read by young people are not such
as lead to studious habits, or induce correct
ideas of right living. They are intended
simply to amuse ; there are no elements of
strength in them, leading up to a noble man-
hood. I doubt if in the future it can be
said of any great statesman or scholar that
his tastes had been formed, and his energies
directed and sustained, through the influence
of his early reading ; but rather that he had
attained success, and whatever of true no-
bility there is in him, in spite of such
influence.
This was not always so. The experience
of a few well-known scholars will illustrate.
" From my infancy," says Benjamin Franklin,
" I was passionately fond of reading, and all
the money that came into my hands was laid
out in the purchasing of books. I was very
fond of voyages. My first acquisition was
Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. I
afterwards sold them to enable me to buy
R. Burton's Historical Collections. They were
small chapmen's books, and cheap ; forty
volumes in all. My father's little library con-
sisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity,
most of which I read. I have often regretted
that at a time when I had such a thirst for
86 THE BOOK-LOVER.
knowledge more proper books had not fallen
in my way, since it was resolved I should not
be bred to divinity. There was among them
Plutarch's Lives, which I read abundantly,
and I still think the time spent to great ad-
vantage. There was also a book of Defoe's
called ' An Essay on Projects,' and another of
Dr. Mather's, called ' An Essay to Do Good,'
which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking
that had an influence on some of the principal
future events of my life. This bookish in-
clination at length determined my father to
make me a printer. ... I stood out some
time, but at last was persuaded, and signed
the indenture when I was yet but twelve
years old. ... I now had access to better
books. An acquaintance with the appren-
tices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to
borrow a small one, which I was careful to
return soon, and clean. Often I sat up in
my chamber the greatest part of the night,
when the book was borrowed in the evening
and to be returned in the morning, lest it
should be found missing. . . . About this
time I met with an odd volume of the ' Spec-
tator.' I had never before seen any of them.
I bought it, read it over and over, and was
much delighted with it. I thought the writ-
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 87
ing excellent, and wished if possible to imi-
tate it With that view I took some of the
papers, and, making short hints of the sen-
timents in each sentence, laid them by a few
days, and then, without looking at the book,
tried to complete the papers again, by ex-
pressing each hinted sentiment at length, and
as fully as it had been expressed before, in
any suitable words that should occur to me.
Then I compared my ' Spectator ' with the
original, discovered some of my faults, and
corrected them. . . .
" Now it was, that, being on some occasions
made ashamed of my ignorance in figures,
which I had twice failed learning when at
school, I took Cocker's book on Arithmetic,
and went through the whole by myself with
the greatest ease. I also read Seller's and
Sturny's book on Navigation, which made me
acquainted with the little geometry it con-
tains ; but I never proceeded far in that
science. I read about this time ' Locke on
the Human Understanding,' and the 'Art of
Thinking,' by Messrs, de Port Royal.
"While I was intent on improving my
language, I met with an English Grammar
(I think it was Greenwood's), having at the
end of it two little sketches on the ' Arts of
88 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Rhetoric and Logic,' the latter finishing with
a dispute in the Socratic method. And soon
after, I procured Xenophon's 'Memorable
Things of Socrates,' wherein there are many
examples of the same method. I was
charmed with it, adopted it, dropped my
abrupt contradiction and positive argumen-
tation, and put on the humble inquirer." I
Hugh Miller, that most admirable Scotch-
man and self-made man, relates a similar
experience : " During my sixth year I spelled
my way through the Shorter Catechism,
the Proverbs, and the New Testament, and
then entered upon the highest form in the
dame's school as a member of the Bible
class. But all the while the process of learn-
ing had been a dark one, which I slowly
mastered, in humble confidence in the awful
wisdom of the schoolmistress, not knowing
whither it tended; when at once my mind
awoke to the meaning of the most delightful
of all narratives, the story of Joseph. Was
there ever such a discovery made before ! I
actually found out for myself that the art of
reading is the art of finding stories in books ;
and from that moment reading became one
of the most delightful of my amusements. I
1 Sparks's Life of Franklin, part i.
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 89
began by getting into a corner on the dis-
missal of the school, and there conning over
to myself the new-found story of Joseph ; nor
did one perusal serve ; the other Scripture
stories followed, in especial, the story of
Samson and the Philistines, of David and
Goliah, of the prophets Elijah and Elisha;
and after these came the New Testament
stories and parables. Assisted by my uncles,
too, I began to collect a library in a box of
birch bark about nine inches square, which I
found quite large enough to contain a great
many immortal works : Jack the Giant- Killer,
and Jack and the Bean-Stalk, and the Yellow
Dwarf, and Blue Beard, and Sinbad the
Sailor, and Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin
and the Wonderful Lamp, with several others
of resembling character. Those intolerable
nuisances, the useful-knowledge books, had
not yet arisen, like tenebrious stars on the
educational horizon, to darken the world, and
shed their blighting influence on the opening
intellect of the ' youthhood ; ' and so, from my
rudimental books books that made them-
selves truly such by their thorough assimilation
with the rudimental mind I passed on,
without being conscious of break or line of
division, to books on which the learned are
90 THE BOOK-LOVER.
content to write commentaries and disserta-
tions, but which I found to be quite as nice
children's books as any of the others. Old
Homer wrote admirably for little folk, espe-
cially in the Odyssey; a copy of which, in
the only true translation extant, for, judging
from its surpassing interest, and the wrath of
critics, such I hold that of Pope to be,
I found in the house of a neighbor. Next
came the Iliad ; not, however, in a complete
copy, but represented by four of the six vol-
umes of Bernard Lintot. With what power
and at how early an age true genius im-
presses ! I saw, even at this immature period,
that no other writer could cast a javelin with
half the force of Homer. The missiles went
whizzing athwart his pages ; and I could see
the momentary gleam of the steel, ere it
buried itself deep in brass and bull-hide. I
next succeeded in discovering for myself a
child's book, of not less interest than even the
Iliad, which might, I was told, be read on
Sabbaths, in a magnificent old edition of the
' Pilgrim's Progress,' printed on coarse whity-
brown paper, and charged with numerous
wood-cuts, each of which occupied an entire
page, which, on principles of economy, bore
letter-press on the other side. . . .
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 91
"In process of time, I devoured, besides
these genial works, Robinson Crusoe, Gul-
liver's Travels, Ambrose on Angels, the ' judg-
ment chapter ' in Howie's Scotch Worthies,
Byron's Narrative, and the Adventures of
Philip Quarll, with a good many other adven-
tures and voyages, real and fictitious, part of
a very miscellaneous collection of books made
by my father. It was a melancholy library to
which I had fallen heir. Most of the missing
volumes had been with the master aboard his
vessel when he perished. Of an early edition
of Cook's Voyages, all the volumes were now
absent, save the first ; and a very tantalizing
romance, in four volumes, Mrs. Radcliffe's
' Mysteries of Udolpho,' was represented by
only the earlier two. Small as the collection
was, it contained some rare books, among
the rest, a curious little volume entitled ' The
Miracles of Nature and Art,' to which we find
Dr. Johnson referring, in one of the dialogues
chronicled by Boswell, as scarce even in his
day, and which had been published, he said,
some time in the seventeenth century by a
bookseller whose shop hung perched on Old
London Bridge, between sky and water.
It contained, too, the only copy I ever saw
of the ' Memoirs of a Protestant condemned to
92 THE BOOK-LOVER.
the Galleys of France for his Religion,' a
work interesting from the circumstance that,
though it bore another name on its title-
page, it had been translated from the French
for a few guineas by poor Goldsmith, in his
days of obscure literary drudgery, and exhib-
ited the peculiar excellences of his style. The
collection boasted, besides, of a curious old
book, illustrated by very uncouth plates, that
detailed the perils and sufferings of an English
sailor who had spent the best years of his life
as a slave in Morocco. It had its volumes of
sound theology, too, and of stiff controversy,
Flavel's Works, and Henry's Commentary,
and Hutchinson on the Lesser Prophets, and
a very old treatise on the Revelations, with
the titlepage away, and blind Jameson's
volume on the Hierarchy, with first editions
of Naphtali, The Cloud of Witnesses, and the
Hind Let Loose. ... Of the works of fact
and incident which it contained, those of the
voyages were my special favorites. I perused
with avidity the Voyages of Anson, Drake,
Raleigh, Dampier, and Captain Woods Rog-
ers ; and my mind became so filled with con-
ceptions of what was to be seen and done in
foreign parts, that I wished myself big enough
to be a sailor, that I might go and see coral
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 93
islands and burning mountains, and hunt
wild beasts, and fight battles." *
William and Robert Chambers, the founders
of the great publishing-house of W. & R.
Chambers, Edinburgh, were self-educated men.
" At little above fourteen years of age,"
writes William, " I was thrown on my own
resources. From necessity, not less than
from choice, I resolved at all hazards to make
the weekly four shillings serve for everything.
I cannot remember entertaining the slightest
despondency on the subject. ... I made
such attempts as were at all practicable, while
an apprentice, to remedy the defects of my
education at school. Nothing in that way
could be done in the shop, for there reading
was proscribed. But, allowed to take home
a book for study, I gladly availed myself of
the privilege. The mornings in summer,
when light cost nothing, were my chief reli-
ance. Fatigued with trudging about, I was
not naturally inclined to rise ; but on this and
some other points I overruled the will, and
forced myself to rise at five o'clock, and have
a spell at reading until it was time to think of
moving off, my brother, when he was with
me, doing the same. In this way I made
1 My Schools and Schoolmasters.
94 THE BOOK-LOVER.
some progress in French, with the pronun-
ciation of which I was already familiar from
the speech of the French prisoners of war at
Peebles. I likewise dipped into several books
of solid worth, such as Smith's ' Wealth of
Nations,' Locke's ' Human Understanding,'
Paley's ' Moral Philosophy,' and Blair's ' Belles-
Lettres,' fixing the leading facts and theo-
ries in my memory by a note-book for the
purpose. In another book I kept for years
an accurate account of my expenses, not al-
lowing a single halfpenny to escape record."
And Robert, the younger brother, confirms
the story, with even more accurate attention
to details. " My brother William and I," he
says, '' lived in lodgings together. Our room
and bed cost three shillings a week. ... I
used to be in great distress for want of fire.
I could not afford either that or a candle my-
self; so I have often sat by my landlady's
kitchen fire, if fire it could be called, which
was only a little heap of embers, reading
Horace and conning my dictionary by a light
which required me to hold the books almost
close to the grate. What a miserable winter
that was ! Yet I cannot help feeling proud of
my trials at that time. My brother and I
he then between fifteen and sixteen, I between
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 95
thirteen and fourteen had made a reso-
lution together that we would exercise the
last degree of self-denial. My brother actually
saved money out of his income. I remember
seeing him take five-and-twenty shillings out
of a closed box which he kept to receive his
savings ; and that was the spare money of
only a twelvemonth." *
Rev. Robert Collyer, whose name is known
and honored by every American scholar, says :
" Do you want to know how I manage to talk
to you in this simple Saxon ? I will tell you.
I read Bunyan, Crusoe, and Goldsmith when
I was a boy, morning, noon, and night. All
the rest was task work ; these were my delight,
with the stories in the Bible, and with Shak-
speare when at last the mighty master came
within our doors. ... I took to these as I
took to milk, and, without the least idea what
I was doing, got the taste for simple words
into the very fibre of my nature. There was
day-school for me until I was thirteen years
old, and then I had to turn in and work thir-
teen hours a day. ... I could not go home
for the Christmas of 1839, and was feeling
very sad about it all, for I was only a boy ;
1 Memoir of Robert Chambers : -with Autobiographic
Reminiscences of William Chambers.
96 THE BOOK-LOVER.
and, sitting by the fire, an old farmer came
in and said, ' I notice thou 's fond o' read-
ing, so I brought thee summat to read.' It
was Irving's ' Sketch Book.' I had never
heard of the work. I went at it, and was ' as
them that dream.' No such delight had
touched me since the old days of Crusoe.
I saw the Hudson and the Gatskills, took
poor Rip at once into my heart, as every-
body has, pitied Ichabod while I laughed at
him, thought the old Dutch feast a most
admirable thing ; and long before I was
through, all regret at my lost Christmas had
gone down the wind, and I had found out
there are books and books. That vast
hunger to read never left me. If there was
no candle, I poked my head down to the
fire ; read while I was eating, blowing the
bellows, or walking from one place to another.
I could read and walk four miles an hour.
I remember while I was yet a lad reading
Macaulay's great essay on Bacon, and I could
grasp its wonderful beauty. . . . Now, give
a boy a passion like this for anything, books
or business, painting or farming, mechanism
or music, and you give him thereby a lever to
lift his world, and a patent of nobility, if the
thing he does is noble."
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 97
It may be questioned whether, in these
days of opportunities, it would be possible to
find boys of thirteen and sixteen who would
be able to read understandingly, much less
appreciate and enjoy, those masterpieces of
English literature so eagerly studied by Frank-
lin and Hugh Miller and the Chambers
brothers. Their mental appetites have been
treated to a different kind of diet. If their
minds have not been dwarfed and stunted by
indulgence in what has been aptly termed
"pen-poison," their tastes have been per-
verted and the growth of their reasoning
powers checked by being fed upon the milk-
and-water stuff recommended as harmless
literature. They are inveterate devourers of
stories, and novels, and the worthless material
which is recommended as good reading, but
which, in reality, is nothing but a " discipline
of debasement." Better that children should
not read at all, than read much of that which
passes current now-a-days for entertaining
reading.
All children like to read stories. The love
of- "the story," in some form or other, is
indeed a characteristic of the human mind,
and exists everywhere, in all conditions of
life. But stories are the sweets of our mental
7
98 THE BOOK-LOVER.
existence, and only a few of the best and
greatest have in them the elements which
will lead to a strong and vigorous mind-
growth. Constant feeding upon light litera-
ture however good that literature may be
in itself will debilitate and corrupt the
mental appetite of the child, much the same
as an unrestrained indulgence in jam and
preserves will undermine and destroy his
physical health. In either case, if no result
more serious occurs, the worst forms of dys-
pepsia will follow. Literary dyspepsia is the
most common form of mental disease among
us, and there is no knowing what may be the
extent of its influence upon American civili-
zation. Fifty per cent of the readers who
patronize our great public libraries have weak
literary stomachs ; they cannot digest any-
thing stronger than that insipid solution, the
last society novel, or anything purer than the
muddy decoctions poured out by the peri-
odical press. When, of all the reading done
in a public library, eighty per cent is of books
in the different departments of fiction, I doubt
whether, after all, that library is a public ben-
efit. Yet this is but the natural result of
the loose habits of reading which we encour-
age among our children, and cultivate in
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 99
ourselves, the habit of reading anything
that comes to hand, provided only that it is
entertaining.
How then shall we so order the child's
reading as to avoid the formation of desultory
and aimless habits?
Naturally, the earliest reading is the story,
simple, short, straightforward recitals of mat-
ters of daily occurrence, of the doings of
children and their parents, their friends or
their pets. "The Nursery," a little magazine
published in Boston, contains an excellent
variety of such stories. Now and then we
may pick up a good book, too, for this class
of readers ; but there are many worthless
books here, as elsewhere, and careful parents
will look well into that which they buy. The
illuminated covers are often the only recom-
mendation of books of this kind. Numbers
of them are made only for the holiday trade ;
the illustrations of many are from second-hand
cuts ; and the text is frequently written to fit
the illustrations. A pure, fresh book for a
little child is a treasure to be sought for and
appreciated.
Very early in child-life comes the period
of a belief in fairies; and the reading of
fairy-stories is, to children, a very proper, nay,
100 THE BOOK-LOVER.
a very necessary thing. I pity the boy or
girl who must grow up without having made
intimate acquaintance with " Mother Goose,"
and the wonderful stories of " Jack the Giant-
Killer," and " Blue Beard," and " Cinderella,"
and those other strange tales as old as the
race itself, and yet new to every succeeding
generation. They are a part of the inheritance
of the English-speaking people, and belong,
as a kind of birthright, to every intelligent
child.
As your little reader advances in knowledge
and reading-ability, he should be treated to
stronger food. Grimm's " Household Stories "
and the delightful " Wonder Stories " of Hans
Christian Andersen, should form a part of the
library of every child as he passes through the
" fairy-story period " of his life ; nor can we
well omit to give him " Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland," and Charles Kingsley's " Water
Babies." And now, or later, as circum-
stances shall dictate, we may introduce him
to that prince of all wonder-books, "The
Arabian Nights' Entertainment," in an edi-
tion carefully adapted to children's reading.
The tales related in this book " are not ours
by birth, but they have nevertheless taken
their place amongst the similar things of our
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. IOI
own which constitute the national literary
inheritance. Altogether, it is a glorious book,
and one to which we cannot well show enough
of respect."
And while your reader lingers in the great
world of poetic fancy and child-wonder, let
him revel for a while in those enchanting idyls
and myths which delighted mankind when the
race was young and this earth was indeed a
wonder-world. These he may find, apparelled
in a dress adapted to our modern notions of
propriety, in Hawthorne's " Wonder Book " and
" Tanglewood Tales," in Kingsley's " Greek
Heroes," and, in a more prosaic form, in
Cox's " Tales of Ancient Greece ; " and in
"The Story of Siegfried," and, later, in Mor-
ris's " Sigurd the Volsung," he may read the
no less charming myths of our own northern
ancestors, and the world-famous legend of
the Nibelungen heroes. Then, by a natural
transition, you advance into the border-land
which lies between the world of pure fancy
and the domains of sober-hued reality. You
introduce your reader to some wholesome
adaptations of those Mediaeval Romances,
which, with their one grain of fact to a thou-
sand of fable, gave such noble delight to lords
and ladies in the days of chivalry. These
102 THE BOOK-LOVER.
you will find in Sidney Lanier's " Boy's King
Arthur " and " Boy's Mabinogion ; " in "The
Story of Roland," by the author of the pres-
ent volume ; and in Bulfinch's " Legends of
Charlemagne " and " The Age of Chivalry."
Do you understand now to what point you
have led your young reader? You have
simply followed the order of nature and of
human development, and you have gradually
almost imperceptibly even to yourself
brought him out of the world of child-wonder
and fairy-land, through the middle ground of
chivalric romance, to the very borders of the
domains of history. He is ready and eager
to enter into the realms of sober-hued truth ;
but I would not advise undue haste in this
matter. The mediaeval romances have in-
spired him with a desire to know more of
those days when knights-errant rode over sea
and land to do battle in the name of God and
for the honor of their king, the Church, and
the ladies ; he wants to know something more
nearly the truth than that which the minstrels
and story-tellers of the Middle Ages can tell
him. And yet he is not prepared for a sud-
den transition from romance to history. Let
him read " Ivanhoe ; " then give him Howard
Pyle's " Story of Robin Hood " and Lanier's
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 103
" Boy's Percy ; " and if you care to allow him
so much more fiction, let him read Madame
Colomb's " Franchise " as translated and
adapted by Davenport Adams in his " Page,
Squire, and Knight." Can you withhold his-
tory longer from your reader? I think not.
He will demand some authentic knowledge of
Richard the Lion-hearted, and of King John,
and of the Saxons and Normans, and of the
Crusades, and of the Saracens, and of Charle-
magne and his peers. Lose not your oppor-
tunity, but pass over with your pupil into the
promised land. The transition is easy, im-
perceptible, in fact, and, leaving fiction and
" the story " behind you, you enter the fields
of truth and history. As for books, it is
difficult now to advise ; but there are Abbott's
little histories, give him the " History of
Richard I." to begin with, then get the whole
set for him. Yonge's " Young Folks' History
of England," or Dickens's " Child's History "
will also be in demand. The way is easy
now, the road is open, you need no further
guidance only, keep straight ahead.
There are other books, of course, which the
young reader will find in his way, and which
it is altogether proper and necessary that he
should read. For instance, there is " Robin-
104 THE BOOK-LOVER.
son Crusoe," without a knowledge of which
the boy loses one of his dearest enjoyments.
" How youth passed long ago, when there
was no Crusoe to waft it away in fancy to the
Pacific and fix it upon the lonely doings of
the shipwrecked mariner, is inconceivable ; but
we can readily suppose that it must have been
different," says Robert Chambers. And no
substitute for the original Robinson will an-
swer. Not one of the ten thousand tales of
adventure recently published for boys will fill
the niche which this book fills, or atone in the
least for any neglect of its merits. "The
Swiss Family Robinson" approaches nearest
in excellence to Defoe's immortal creation,
and may very profitably form a part of every
boy's or girl's library. Then, among the
really unexceptionable books, of the healthful,
hopeful, truthful sort, I may name "Tom
Brown's School Days at Rugby," Lamb's
" Tales from Shakspeare," Mitchell's " About
Old Story-Tellers," the inimitable " Bodley
Books," Bayard Taylor's "Boys of Other
Countries," Abbott's "Franconia Stories," and
a few others in the line of History or Travels,
to be mentioned in future chapters. These
I believe to be, in every sense, proper, whole-
some books, free from all kinds of mannerisms,
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 105
free from improper language, free from sickly
sentiment and "gush;" and these, if not the
most instructive books, are the sort of books
which the child or youth should read as a
kind of relish or supplement to the more
methodical course of reading which I have
elsewhere indicated.
In this careful direction of the child's
reading, and in the cultivation of his literary
taste, if you have succeeded in bringing him
to the point which we have indicated, you
have done much towards forming his char-
acter for life. There is little danger that bad
books will ever possess any attractions for
him ; he will henceforth be apt to go right of
his own accord, preferring the wholesome and
the true to any of the flashy allurements of the
" literary slums and grog-shops," which so
abound and flourish in these days.
But perhaps the fundamental error in deter-
mining what books children shall read lies in
the very popular notion that to read much,
and to derive pleasure and profit from our
reading, many books are necessary. And the
greatest obstacle in the way of forming and
directing a proper taste for good reading is
to be found, not in the scarcity, but in the
superabundance of reading matter. The great
106 THE BOOK-LOVER.
flood of periodical literature for young peo-
ple is the worst hindrance to the formation
of right habits in reading. Some of these
periodicals are simply unadulterated "pen
poison," designed not only to enrich their
projectors, but to deprave the minds of those
who read. Others are published, doubtless,
from pure motives and with the best inten-
tions ; but, being managed by inexperienced
or incapable editors, they are, at the best,
but thin dilutions of milk-and-water literature,
leading to mental imbecility and starvation.
The periodicals fit to be placed in the hands
of reading children may be numbered on half
your fingers ; and even these should not be
read without due discrimination.
Too great a variety of books or papers
placed at the disposal of inexperienced read-
ers offers a premium to desultoriness, and
fosters and encourages the habit of devouring
every species of literary food that comes to
hand. Hence we should beware not only of
the bad, but of too great plenty of the good.
" The benefit of a right good book," says Mr.
Hudson, " all depends upon this, that its vir-
tue just soak into the mind, and there become
a living, generative force. To be running and
rambling over a great many books, tasting a
BOOKS FOR YOUNG FOLKS TO READ. 107
little here, a little there, and tying up with
none, is good for nothing; nay, worse than
nothing. Such a process of unceasing change
is also a discipline of perpetual emptiness.
The right method in the culture of the mind
is to take a few choice books, and weave
about them
' The fixed delights of house and home,
Friendship that will not break, and love that cannot
CHAPTER VI.
ILifcrarg in tfje Stfjool.
WHAT sort of reading are our schools planting an appe-
tite for? Are they really doing anything to instruct and
form the mental taste, so that the pupils on leaving them
may be safely left to choose their reading for themselves ?
It is clear in evidence that they are far from educating the
young to take pleasure in what is intellectually noble and
sweet. The statistics of our public libraries show that
some cause is working mightily to prepare them only for
delight in what is both morally and intellectually mean
and foul. It would not indeed be fair to charge our public
schools with positively giving this preparation; but it is
their business to forestall and prevent such a result. If,
along with the faculty of reading, they cannot also impart
some safeguards of taste and habit against such a result,
will the system prove a success ? HENRY N. HUDSON.
UCH is being said, novv-a-days, about
the utility of school libraries ; and
in some instances much ill-directed,
if not entirely misdirected, labor is
being expended in their formation. Public
libraries are not necessarily public benefits;
108
THE LIBRARY IN THE SCHOOL. 109
and school libraries, unless carefully selected
and judiciously managed, will not prove to be
unmixed blessings. There are several ques-
tions which teachers and school officers should
seriously consider before setting themselves
to the task of establishing a library ; and no
teacher who is not himself a knower of books,
and a reader, should presume to regulate and
direct the reading of others. In the present
chapter it is my purpose to offer a few general
hints that may be of value to those who are
intrusted with the duty of forming libraries
for young people.
What are the objects of a school library?
They are twofold : First, to aid in cultivating
a taste for good reading ; second, to supply
materials for supplementary study and inde-
pendent research. Now, neither of these ob-
jects can be attained unless your library is
composed of books selected especially with
reference to the capabilities and needs of
your pupils. Dealing, as you do, with pupils
of various degrees of intellectual strength,
their minds warped by every variety of moral
influence and home training, the cultivation
of a taste for good reading among them is no
small matter. To do this, your library must
contain none but truly good books. It is a
110 THE BOOK-LOVER.
great mistake to suppose that every collection
of books is a library ; and yet that is the name
which is applied to many very inferior collec-
tions. It is no uncommon thing to find these
so-called libraries composed altogether of the
odds and ends of literature, of donations
entirely worthless to their donors ; of second-
hand school-books ; of Patent Office Reports
and other public documents ; and of the di-
lapidated remains of some older and equally
worthless collection of books ; and with these
you talk about cultivating a taste for good
reading ! One really good book, a single
copy of "St. Nicholas," is worth more than
all this trash. Get it out of sight at once !
The value of a library no matter for what
purpose it has been founded depends not
upon the number of its books, but upon their
character. And so the first rule to be ob-
served in the formation of a school library is,
Buy it at first hand, even though you should
begin with a single volume, and shun all kinds
of donations, unless they be donations of
cash, or books of unquestionable value.
In selecting books for purchase, you will
have an eye single to the wants of the stu-
dents who are to use them. A school library
should be in no sense a public circulating
THE LIBRARY IN THE SCHOOL, 1 1 1
library. You cannot cater to the literary
tastes of the public, and at the same time
serve the best interests of your pupils. Books
relating to history, to biography, and to travel
will form a very large portion of your library.
But books of fiction such as are known to
be meritorious should not be excluded ;
and poetry should occupy the place of honor
upon your shelves. For the younger children,
you should not neglect to supply a few books
of that type referred to in the preceding
chapter, stories which cultivate the imagi-
nation and strengthen the understanding while
they at the same time allow a healthful and
delightful relaxation from the severer studies
of the school-room. No book should be
bought merely because it is a good book, but
because it can be made useful in the attain-
ment of certain desired ends. The courses
of reading indicated in the following chap-
ters of this work, it is hoped, will assist you
largely in making a wise selection as well as
in directing to a judicious use of books. For
the selection of a book is only half of a teach-
er's or a parent's duty : the proper and pro-
fitable use of it is the other half; and this
lesson should be early taught to all young
people.
112 THE BOOK-LOVER.
The proper and profitable use of books,
this implies many things. In the first place,
every child should learn how to handle them
carefully, reverentially, as things of greater
worth than mere dead matter. There is
scarcely anything more painful to the book-
lover than to see books abused. And yet
how few people seem to regard them as more
than so many packages of waste-paper having
a certain money value ! How few, among all
those who read, appear to recognize in a good
book " the precious life-blood of a master-
spirit" ! How few treat these silent yet expres-
sive friends with anything approaching due re-
spect ! The example of Douglas Jerrold may
be quoted as illustrating that genuine love of
books which prompts their owner to care for
them as for his dearest companions. " He
had an almost reverential fondness for books,
books themselves, and said that he could
not bear to treat them, or see them treated,
with disrespect. He told us it gave him pain
to see them turned on their faces, stretched
open, or dog's-eared, or carelessly flung down,
or in any way misused. He told us this
holding a volume in his hand with a caressing
gesture, as though he tendered it affection-
ately and gratefully for the pleasure it had
THE LIBRARY IN THE SCHOOL. 113
given him. He spoke like one who had
known what it was in former years to buy a
book when its purchase involved a sacrifice
of some other object from a not over-stored
purse. We have often noticed this in book-
lovers who like ourselves have had volumes
come into cherished possession at times when
their glad owners were not rich enough to
easily afford book-purchases. Charles Lamb
had this tenderness for books, caring nothing
for their gaudy clothing, but hugging a rare
folio all the nearer to his heart for its worn
edges and shabby binding." 1
The first lesson learned by pupils having
access to a school library should be such as
will lead them to have this reverence for good
books. Care should be taken that no species
of injury shall occur. A book when once
taken from its shelf should be returned in
due time in perfectly good condition. Dirty
hands should not be permitted to touch, much
less to open a volume. The child should be
taught that under no circumstances should he
turn the leaves with wetted fingers, or fold the
corners to mark the place, or lay the open
book down upon its face where he has left
1 Recollections of Writers, by Charles and Mary Cow-
den Clarke.
8
1 14 THE BOOK-LOVER.
off reading. He should, moreover, be led to a
proper admiration of handsome bindings, an
admiration which will enjoin careful handling,
and induce that instinctive respect which all
feel for beauty of dress. For this latter reason
I deplore the custom useless, as it seems
to me of covering library books with those
unsightly manila covers which do but provoke
disrespect and vandalism. If teachers do their
duty in this matter, uncovered books will out-
last those subjected to such indignity. And
how much more pleasant, when standing in
front of the shelves, to see the smiling faces
of our friends looking down upon us, than
to confront a monotonous array of yellowish
brown bundles as devoid of expression as they
are lacking in beauty !
No matter how small the library, every
book should have its own place on the
shelves. The best way, when there is room
for it, is to have the shelves divided by parti-
tions into compartments, each compartment
just large enough to contain the book for
which it is intended. For the sake of con-
venience in finding and returning books, the
following method of numbering is perhaps the
best yet devised.
i. If there is more than one case, or more
THE LIBRARY IN THE SCHOOL. 115
than one set of shelves, designate each case or
set of shelves by a number, as i, 2, 3, etc., al-
ways beginning at the left and moving towards
the right.
2. Designate, in like manner, each shelf,
beginning with the lowest.
3. Then, attach a number to each compart-
ment on a shelf, beginning with number i, as
the compartment farthest to the left, and mov-
ing towards the right.
4. Give to each book a number which shall
include (i) the number of the case, (2) that
of the shelf, (3) that of the compartment to
which it belongs. For example, the book
bearing the number 1.2 3 is known to belong
in the first case to the left, on the second
shelf from the bottom of that case, and in
the compartment numbered 3 of that shelf.
The book numbered 15.3 21 will be found
in the fifteenth case, on the third shelf, and
in the twenty-first compartment of that shelf.
The period is used, for convenience, to sepa-
rate the number designating the case and that
indicating the shelf. When a book is taken
from its compartment, a card bearing the name
of the person to whom it is given should be
left in its place. In small libraries this is gen-
erally a sufficient record of the loan.
Il6 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Next to the care of the books should be
considered the order and manner in which
they are read. I would not advise that teach-
ers or even parents should every time select
the books which a child is to read. A boy
will generally read with much more zest and
interest a book which he has chosen for him-
self. But the teacher should give such general
instruction and directions as will, while they
leave some latitude for choice, always lead to
a wise choice.
As the pupil advances in the acquisition of
knowledge, he should be given more definite
instruction as to the manner in which he may
systematize his reading so as to lead to the
best possible results. More than this, he
should on occasion be held to as strict ac-
count in the matter of his reading as in that
of any other part of his school work ; and he
should be brought so constantly into contact
with books that he will unconsciously acquire
a ready skill in using them for purposes of
reference.
It too often happens in schools where the
ordinary catechetical methods of instruction
are closely followed, that the pupil's interest
in his studies is centred upon the recitation
and ends with the examination. The text-
THE LIBRARY IN THE SCHOOL. 117
book, to ordinary minds, is a dry compilation
of facts or theories, so dry that only the
brightest intellects succeed in discovering any
relationship between its world of abstractions
and the real world of life and thought around
us. But suppose that in each school there
were a small working library, such as I have
described, and an earnest, skilful teacher to
direct its use. The legitimate work of the
school, far from being hindered, is advanced
and perfected through the wise use of good
books ; the minds of the pupils are awakened
to a conception of grander things and nobler
possibilities than the ordinary narrow routine
of text-book instruction could ever open to
their view; and, more than this, they are
daily acquiring a healthful taste for the best
reading, a taste which does away with all
necessity for declamatory warnings against
bad literature. Moreover, the teacher having
put the key of knowledge into his pupils'
hands, and having taught them how to use
it, has in the most natural manner inspired
them with a love for the acquisition of learn-
ing and a wholesome ambition which, what-
ever may be their position in the world, will
henceforth be an important factor in their lives,
and an integral part of their happiness.
Il8 THE BOOK-LOVER.
In a former chapter I have shown you
how, with a library of only fifty volumes, you
may have in your possession the. very best
of all that the world's master-minds have ever
written, food, as I have said, for study, and
meditation, and mind growth enough for a life-
time. Such a library is worth more than ten
thousand volumes of the ordinary "popular"
kind of books. So, also, the reading of a
very few books, carefully and methodically,
by your pupils the constant presence of
the very best books in our language, and the
exclusion of the trashy and the vile will
give them more real enjoyment and infinitely
greater profit than the desultory or hasty read-
ing of many volumes. A small library is to
be despised only when it contains inferior
books.
CHAPTER VII.
of 3EUatu'ng in
HISTORY, at least in its state of ideal perfection, is a
compound of poetry and philosophy. MACAULAY.
LET us search more and more into the Past; let all
men explore it as the true fountain of knowledge, by
whose light alone, consciously or unconsciously employed,
can the Present and the Future be interpreted or guessed
at. CARLYLE.
HISTORY is a voice forever sounding across the centuries
the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners
change, creeds rise and fall ; but the moral law is written
on the tablets of eternity. . . . Justice and truth alone
endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived,
but doomsday comes at last to them in French revolutions
and other terrible ways. That is one lesson of history.
Another is, that we should draw no horoscopes ; that we
should expect little, for what we expect will not come to
pass. FROUDE.
THE student is to read history actively and not passively ;
to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary.
Thus compelled, the Muse of history will utter oracles, as
never to those who do not respect themselves. I have no
119
120 THE BOOK-LOVER,
expectation that any man will read history aright who
thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose
names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what
he is doing to-day. . . . The instinct of the mind, the pur-
pose of nature, betrays itself in the use we make of the
signal narrations of history. EMERSON.
VENTURE to propose the follow-
ing courses of reading in history.
Properly modified with reference to
individual needs and capabilities,
these lists will prove to be safe helps and
guides to younger as well as older readers, to
classes in high schools and colleges as well
as private students and specialists. To read
all the works here mentioned, as carefully and
critically as the nature of their contents de-
mands, would require no inconsiderable por-
tion of one's reading lifetime. Such a thing
is not expected. The wise teacher or the
judicious scholar will select from the list that
which is most proper for him, and which best
meets his wants, or aids him most in the pur-
suit of his native aim.
The titles, so far as possible, are given in
chronological order. Those printed in italics
are of books indispensable for purposes of
reference ; those printed in SMALL CAPITALS
are of works especially adapted to younger
readers.
CO URSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 1 2 1
I. GREEK HISTORY.
Dictionaries.
No reader can well do without a good clas-
sical dictionary. The following are recom-
mended as the best :
Anthon : Classical Dictionary.
Smith : Student's Classical Dictionary.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
Ginn & Heath's Classical Atlas.
Kiepert's Schulatlas.
General Histories.
Cox : General History of Greece.
Smith : Smaller History of Greece.
Felton : Ancient and Modern Greece.
Yonge : YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF GREECE.
Grote : History of Greece ( 1 2 vols.).
Curtius: History of Greece (5 vols.); translated
from the German, by A. W. Ward.
J. A. St. John : Ancient Greece.
Mythology.
Dwight : Grecian and Roman Mythology.
Murray : Manual of Mythology.
Keightley : Classical Mythology.
Gladstone : Juventus Mundi.
Ruskin : The Queen of the Air.
Cox: TALES OF ANCIENT GREECE.
Kingsley: THE GREEK HEROES.
Hawthorne : THE WONDER BOOK.
TANGLEWOOD TALES.
122 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Miscellaneous.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Chapman's translation
is the best. Of the later versions, that of Lord
Derby is preferable.
Church: STORIES FROM HOMER.
Butcher and Lang's prose translation of the Iliad
and the Odyssey.
Collins : The Iliad and the Odyssey (two volumes
of " Ancient Classics for English Readers").
Gladstone : Homer.
De Quincey: Homer and the Homeridae (essay in
" Literary Criticism ").
Fenelon : TELEMACHUS (translated by Hawkes-
worth).
Benjamin : Troy.
Goethe : Iphigenia in Tauris (drama, Swanwick's
translation).
The student of this period is referred also
to Dr. Schliemann's works : Ilios, Troja, My-
kenai, and Tiryns.
Church : STORIES FROM HERODOTUS.
Swayne : Herodotus (Ancient Classics).
Brugsch Bey : Egypt under the Pharaohs.
Freeman : Historical Essays (2d series).
Ebers : Uarda (romance, descriptive of Egyptian
life and manners fourteen centuries before Christ).
An Egyptian Princess (five centuries before
Christ).
Smith : Students History of the East.
Cox : The Greeks and the Persians.
Abbott : THE HISTORY OF DARIUS THE GREAT.
THE HISTORY OF XERXES THE GREAT.
Sankey : The Spartan Supremacy.
COURSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 123
Bulwer : Pausanias the Spartan (romance, 475 B. c.).
Glover : Leonidas (epic poem).
Croly: The Death of Leonidas (poem).
Robert Browning : Pheidippides (poem in " Dra-
matic Idyls").
Lloyd: The Age of Pericles (fifth century before
Christ).
Cox : The Athenian Empire.
Landor: Pericles and Aspasia (in "Imaginary Con-
versations ").
Mrs. L. M. Child : Philothea (romance of the time
of Pericles).
Curteis : The Macedonian Empire.
Abbott : THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
Butcher: Demosthenes (Classical Writers).
Greenough : Apelles and his Contemporaries (a
romance of the time of Alexander).
Dryden : Alexander's Feast (poem).
Bickersteth: Caubul (poem).
Literature.
Mahaffy : History of Greek Literattire.
Schlegel : History of Dramatic Literature (first
fourteen chapters).
Church : STORIES FROM THE GREEK TRAGE-
DIANS.
Copleston : ./Eschylus (Ancient Classics).
Mrs. Browning: Prometheus Bound (an English
version of the great tragedy).
Bishop Milman : Agamemnon.
Collins: Sophocles (Ancient Classics).
De Quincey : The Antigone of Sophocles (essay in
" Literary Criticism ").
Donne : Euripides (Ancient Classics).
Froude : Sea Studies (essay in " Short Studies on
Great Subjects ").
124 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Collins: Aristophanes (Ancient Classics).
Mitchell : The Clouds of Aristophanes.
De Quincey : Theory of Greek Tragedy (essay in
" Literary Criticism ").
Brodribb : Demosthenes (Ancient Classics).
Collins: Plato (Ancient Classics).
Jowett : The Dialogues of Plato (4 vols.).
The Phaedo of Plato (Wisdom Series).
Plato : The Apology of Socrates.
A Day in Athens with Socrates.
Plutarch: On the Daemon of Socrates (essay in
the " Morals ").
Grant : Xenophon (Ancient Classics).
Collins: Thucydides (Ancient Classics).
Life and Manners.
For a study of social life and manners in
Greece, read or refer to the following :
Becker: Charicles (romance, with copious notes
and excursuses).
Mahaffy : Social Life in Greece.
Old Greek Life.
Guhl and Koner : Life of the Greeks and Romans.
Special Reference.
Draper: History of the Intellectual Development
of Europe (vol. i.).
Clough : Plutarch's Lives.
Kaufman: THE YOUNG FOLKS' PLUTARCH.
White: PLUTARCH FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
It is good exercise, good medicine, the reading of Plu-
tarch's books, good for to-day as it \rasin times preced-
ing ours, salutary for all times. A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 125
II. ROMAN HISTORY.
For purposes of reference the following
books, already mentioned in the course of
Greek History, are indispensable :
Anthon : Classical Dictionary.
Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
Ginn & Heath : Classical Atlas.
Murray : Manual of Mythology.
General Histories.
Smith : Smaller History of Rome.
Merivale : Students' History of Rome.
Yonge : YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF ROME.
Creighton : History of Rome.
For the period preceding the Empire :
Mommsen : History of Rome (4 vols.).
Abbott : THE HISTORY OF ROMULUS.
Church : STORIES FROM VIRGIL.
STORIES FROM LIVY.
Macaulay : Horatius (poem in " Lays of Ancient
Rome ").
Arnold : History of Rome.
Ihne : Early Rome.
Shakspeare : The Tragedy of Coriolanus (490 B. c.).
Macaulay: Virginia (poem in "Lays of Ancient
Rome," 459 B.C.).
Abbott : THE HISTORY OF HANNIBAL.
Smith : Rome and Carthage.
Dale : Regulus before the Senate (poem, 256 B. c.}.
Beesly: The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla.
Mrs. Mitchell : Spartacus to the Gladiators (poem,
73 B.C.).
126 THE BOOK-LOVER.
For the period of the Caesars and the early
Empire :
Merivale : History of the Romans (4 vols.).
The Roman Triumvirates.
Abbott : THE HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR.
Addison : The Tragedy of Cato (drama).
Froude : Caesar ; a Sketch.
Trollope : Life of Cicero.
Ben Jonson : Catiline (drama).
Beaumont and Fletcher : The False One (dra-
ma).
Abbott : THE HISTORY OF CLEOPATRA.
Shakspeare : The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
Antony and Cleopatra.
Capes : The Early Empire.
De Quincey : The Caesars.
Ben Jonson : The Poetaster (drama, time of Au-
gustus).
Wallace : Ben Hur (romance, time of Tiberius).
Longfellow : The Divine Tragedy (poem).
Ben Jonson : Sejanus, his Fall (drama, time of
Tiberius).
Becker: Gallus (romance, with notes, time of Au-
gustus).
Schele De Vere: The Great Empress (romance,
time of Nero).
Abbott: THE HISTORY OF NERO.
W. W. Story: Nero (drama).
Hoffman : The Greek Maid at the Court of Nero
(romance).
Farrar : Seekers after God (Seneca, Epictetus).
Wiseman : The Church of the Catacombs (romance,
time of the Persecutions).
Mrs. Charles: The Victory of the Vanquished
(romance).
CO URSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 127
Church and Brodribb: Pliny's Letters (Ancient
Classics).
Bulwer : The Last Days of Pompeii (romance, time
of Vespasian).
Massinger : The Roman Actor (drama, time of
Domitian).
. The Virgin Martyr (drama).
Dickinson : The Seed of the Church.
De Mille : Helena's Household.
Lockhart : Valerius.
The last three works are romances, depict-
ing life and manners in the time of Trajan.
For the period of the later Empire and the
decline of the Roman power :
Curteis : History of the Roman Empire (395-800).
Gibbon : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Ebers : The Emperor (romance, time of Hadrian).
Capes : The Age of the Antonines.
Watson : Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
Hodgkin : Italy and her Invaders.
William Ware : Zenobia (romance, A. D. 266).
Aurelian (romance, A. D. 275).
Ebers : Homo Sum (romance, A. D. 330).
Eckstein : Quintus Claudius (romance, time of Domi-
tian).
Aubrey De Vere : Julian the Apostate (drama,
A. D. 363).
Beaumont and Fletcher: Valentinian (drama,
A. D. 375).
Edward Everett: Alaric the Visigoth; and Mrs.
Hemans : Alaric in Italy (poems, A. D. 410).
Kingsley : Hypatia (romance, A. D. 415).
Mrs. Charles : Conquering and to Conquer (ro-
mance, A. D. 418).
128 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Mrs. Charles : Maid and Cleon (romance of Alex-
andria, A. D. 425).
Kingsley : Roman and Teuton.
Church : The Beginning of the Middle Ages.
Literature.
Simcox : History of Roman Literature.
Schlegel : History of Dramatic Literature.
Collins: Livy (Ancient Classics).
Mallock : Lucretius (Ancient Classics).
Trollope : Caesar (Ancient Classics).
Collins : Cicero (Ancient Classics).
Morris : The JEneid of Virgil.
Collins : Virgil, Ovid, Lucian (three volumes of
Ancient Classics).
Epictetus : Selections from Epictetus.
Jackson: Apostolic Fathers (Early Christian Lit-
erature Primers).
Special Reference.
Clough : Plutarch's Lives.
White: PLUTARCH FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
Kaufman: THE YOUNG FOLKS' PLUTARCH.
Coulange : The Ancient City.
N- Draper: History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe.
Lecky : History of European Morals.
Milman : History of Christianity.
Stanley : History of the Eastern Church.
Fisher: Beginnings of Christianity.
Dollinger : The First Age of Christianity.
~y^ Montalembert : The Monks of the West.
-^ Reber : History of Ancient Art.
Hadley : Lectures on Roman Law.
Maine : Ancient Law.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 129
III. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY.
This course has been prepared with special
reference to English history. The right-hand
column, headed Collateral Reading, will assist
students desiring to extend their reading so
as to embrace the history of Continental
Europe. The figures affixed to some of
the titles indicate, as nearly as is thought
necessary, the time covered or treated of by
the work mentioned. Historical romances
and other prose works of fiction are desig-
nated thus (*) ; dramas thus (f) ; other
poems thus (J).
ENGLISH HISTORY. | COLLATERAL READ-
ING.
General Histories.
KNIGHT : History of England
(9 vols. ).
VONGK : YOUNG FOLKS' HIS-
TORY OF ENGLAND.
DICKENS : CHILD'S HISTORY
OF ENGLAND.
STRICKLAND : Lives of the
Queens of England (7 vols. ).
PEARSON: Historical Atlas of
England.
WHITE : History of France.
LEWIS : Students' History of
Germany.
HUNT: History of Italy.
YONGE: YOUNG FOLKS' HIS-
TORY OF FRANCE.
KIRKLAND : SHORT HISTORY
OF FRANCE.
HAI.LAM : View of the State of
the Middle Ages.
The Anglo-Saxon Period.
GRBEN : History of the Eng-
lish People, book i.
MRS. AKMITAGE : The Child-
hood of the English Nation.
GREEN : The Making of Eng-
land.
GUIZOT : History of France,
vol. i.
JAMES : History of Charle-
magne.
BRYCK: The Holy Roman
Empire.
I 3
THE BOOK-LOVER.
PALGRAVE: History of the
Anglo-Saxons.
t Paulinus and Edwin.
TURNER : History of the A n-
glo-Saxons.
GRANT ALLEN : Anglo-Saxon
Britain.
ABBOTT : ALFRED THE
GREAT.
HUGHES : Life of Alfred the
Great.
THIERRY : The Conquest of
England by the Normans.
ABBOTT : WILLIAM THE CON-
QUEROR.
GREEN : The Conquest of
England.
FREEMAN : History of the Nor-
man Conquest of England.
MRS. CHARLES : * Early
Dawn (romance of the Ro-
man occupation of Britain).
COWPER : \ Boadicea.
LANIER: *THE BOY'S KING
ARTHUR.
LOWELL : J The Vision of Sir
Launfal.
TENNYSON : t The Idylls of
the King.
SCOTT : % Harold the Dauntless.
TAYLOR : t Edwin the Fair.
BULWER : * Harold, the Last
of the Saxons (1066).
TENNYSON: t Harold; a Drama.
LEIGHTON : t The Sons of
Godwin.
KINGSLEY : * Hereward, the
Last of the English.
CUTTS : Scenes and Charac-
ters of the Middle Ages.
JOHNSON : The Normans in
Europe.
CARLYLE: The Early Kings
of Norway.
ANDERSON : Norse Mythology.
LETTSOM : t The Nibelungen-
lied.
DASENT : The Burnt Njal.
BALDWIN: *THE STORY OF
SIEGFRIED.
MALLET: Northern Antiqui-
ties.
JAMES : History of Chivalry.
BULFINCH : *The Age of
Chivalry.
LANIER : * KNIGHTLY LE-
GENDS OF WALES.
LUDLOW : Popular Epics of
the Middle Ages.
BULFINCH : Legends of Char-
lemagne.
BALDWIN: *THR STORY OF
ROLAND.
ARIOSTO: t Orlando Furioso.
LOCKHART: t Spanish Ballads.
YONGE: Christians and Moors
in Spain.
SOUTHEY: Chronicles of the
Cid.
TENNYSON : % Godiva (1040).
The Age of Feudalism.
JOHNSON : The Norman Kings
and the Feudal System.
GREEN : History of the Eng-
lish People, books ii. and iii.
GUIZOT : History of France,
vol. ii.
Cox : The Crusades.
COURSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 131
PALGRAVE: t Death in the
Forest (noo).
ABBOTT : RICHARD I.
HUMK : History of England.
FROUDE : Life and Times of
Thomas Becket.
AUBREY DE VKRE : t St.
Thomas of Canterbury.
JAMES: Life of Richard Gzur
de Lion.
FROUDE : A Bishop of the
Twelfth Century (1190).
STUBBS : The Early Plantage-
nets.
PYLB: THE STORY OF ROBIN
HOOD.
SCOTT : * The Talisman ( 1 193).
* Ivanhoe (1194).
JAMES: * Forest Days (1214).
SHAKSPEARE: t King John
(1215).
DRAYTON: tThe Barons'
Wars.
PAUL: : Life of Simon de
Montfort (1215).
PEARSON : English History in
the Fourteenth Century.
YONGE: *The Prince and the
Page (1280).
GRAY: tThe Bard (1282).
CUNNINGHAM: *Sir Michael
Scott (1300).
PORTER : * The Scottish
Chiefs.
AGUILAR : * The Days of
Bruce.
CAMPBELL: t The Battle of
Bannockbum.
SCOTT: tThe Lord of the
Isles (1307).
MARLOWE : t Edward II.
(1327)-
WARBURTON : Edward III.
(1327-77)-
ABBOTT : RICHARD II.
MICHAUD: History of the
Crusades.
GRAY: The Children's Cru-
sade.
GAIRDNER : Early Chroniclers
of Europe.
OLIPHANT: Francis of Assist.
ADAMS: *PAGE, SQUIRE, AND
KNIGHT (1180).
HENTY: *THE BOY KNIGHT
(1188).
SCOTT : * The Betrothed.
YONGE: * Richard the Fear-
less.
JAMES: * Philip Augustus.
SCOTT: * Count Robert of
Paris.
HALE : * In his Name.
OLIPHANT: The Makers of
Venice.
KINGSLEY : tThe Saint's
Tragedy (1220).
BROWNING : t Sordello ( 1230).
KINGTON-OLIPHANT : Fred-
erick II. (1250).
GUIZOT: History of France,
vol. iii.
HEMANS: tThe Vespers of
Palermo (1282).
BOKER : t Francesca di Rimini
(1300).
SCHILLER: t Wilhelm Tell.
BULWER : *Rienzi, the Last of
the Tribunes (1347).
BYRON : t Marino Faliero
('3 55)-
JAMISON : Life of Bertrand du
Guesclin.
LORD HOUGHTON: t Bertrand
du Guesclin (1380).
HOTTON: James and Philip
Van Artevelde.
132
THE BOOK-LOVER.
LANIER : THE BOY'S FROIS-
SART.
SOUTHEY: t Wat Tyler (1381).
CAMPBELL: $Wat Tyler's
Address to the King.
SHAKSPEARB: t Richard II.
(i399)-
BESANT AND RICE: Life of
Whittington.
PERCY : t The Ballad of Chevy
Chase.
GAIRDNER : The Houses of
Lancaster and York.
EDGAR: The Wars of the Roses.
GREEN : History of the Eng-
lish People, book iv.
SHAKSPEARB: tKing Henry
IV.
YONGE: *The Caged Lion
(1406).
TOWLK : History of Henry V.
EWALD : The Youth of Henry
V. (in " Stories from the
State Papers").
GAIRDNER : The Lollards.
DRAYTON : t The Battle of
Agincourt (1415).
SHAKSPEARE : t King Henry
VI.
BULWER: *The Last of the
Barons (1460).
GAIRDNER : History of Rich-
ard III.
The Paston Letters.
SHAKSPEARE : t King Richard
III.
ABBOTT: HISTORY OF RICH-
ARD III.
TAYLOR : t Philip Van Arte-
velde (1382).
MRS. BRAY : Joan of Arc and
the Times of Charles VII. of
France.
SOUTHEY : t Joan of Arc.
CALVERT : t The Maid of Or-
leans.
LEA: History of the Inquisi-
tion.
OLIPHANT: The Makers of
Florence.
BROWNING : t Luria (1405).
JAMES: * Agincourt.
KIRK : History of Charles the
Bold.
SCOTT: *Quentin Durward
(1430).
BYRON : t The two Foscari
d457).
HERZ : t King Rent's Daugh-
ter.
SCOTT: *Anne of Geierstein.
VICTOR HUGO : * The Hunch-
back of Notre Dame.
BROWNING : t The Return of
the Druses.
MACAULAY : Essay on Machi-
avelli.
Modern England.
BIRCHALL: England under the
Tudors.
GREEN : History of the Eng-
lish People, books v. and vi.
PRESCOTT: The History of
Ferdinand and Isabella.
ANITA GEORGE: Isabel the
Catholic.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 133
MANNING : The Household of
Sir Thomas More.
SCOTT: t Marmiou (1513).
JAMES : * Darnley (1520).
FROUDK : History of England
from the Fall of Wolsey to
the Death of Elizabeth.
MUHLBACH : * Henry VIII.
and Catherine Parr.
SHAKSPBARE: t King Henry
VIII.
GEIKIE : History of the Eng-
lish Reformation.
MILMAN : t Anne Boleyn
dS36).
AINSWORTH : * Tower Hill
dS38).
EWALD: Stones from the
State Papers.
MARK TWAIN: * THE PRINCE
AND THE PAUPER (1548).
AUBREY DB VERB : t Mary
Tudor.
TENNYSON : t Queen Mary.
SCOTT : t Lay of the Last
Minstrel.
MANNING: * Colloquies of
Edward Osborne (1554).
Rows : t Lady Jane Grey
(-554).
AINSWORTH: *The Tower of
London (1554).
ABBOTT : HISTORY OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH.
CREIGHTON : The Age of Eliza-
beth.
SCOTT: * Ken il worth (1560).
v MACAULAY : Essays on Lord
Burleigh and Bacon.
TOWLE : DRAKE, THE SEA
KING OF DEVON.
ABBOTT: HISTORY OF MARY
QUEEN OF SCOTS.
SCOTT : * The Monastery and
The Abbot.
IRVING: The Conquest of
Granada.
The Alhambra.
AGUILAR: *The Edict (1492).
ROBERTSON : History of
Charles V.
SEEBOHM : Era of the Protes-
tant Revolution.
FISHER: History of the Ref-
ormation.
YONGE: *The Dove in the
Eagle's Nest (1519).
MRS. CHARLES: * Chronicles
of the Schonberg-Cotta
Family.
GEORGE ELIOT : * Romola.
RBADB: *The Cloister and
the Hearth.
MRS. STOWE : * Agnes of
Sorrento.
MRS. MANNING: *Good Old
Times (1549).
PRESCOTT : History of Philip
II.
MOTLEY: The Rise of the
Dutch Republic.
History of the United
Netherlands.
YONGE: *The Chaplet of
Pearls (France, 1555).
BARRETT: William the Silent
(1533-1584).
BAIRD : Rise of the Hugue-
nots.
SMILES: The Huguenots in
France.
ABBOTT : HISTORY OF HENRY
IV. OF FRANCE.
GUIZOT : History of France,
vol. iv.
GOETHE: t Egmont (1568).
JAMES: *The Man-at-Arms
(572)-
SOOTHEY : $ St. Bartholo-
mew's iJay (1572).
134
THE BOOK-LOVER.
YONGE : * Unknown to His-
tory (1587).
SWINBURNE : t Chastelard.
t Bothwell.
t Mary Stuart (1587).
SCHILLER : t Marie Stuart
(-587)-
MELINE : Life of Mary Queen
of Scots (Catholic).
KINGSLEV: * Westward Ho!
WORDSWORTH : % The White
Doe of Rylstone.
MACAULAY : t The Armada.
TENNYSON : t The Revenge.
TOWLE: SIR WALTER RALEGH.
LANDOR : Elizabeth and Bur-
leigh (in " Imaginary Con-
versations").
GREEN : History of the Eng-
lish People, book vii.
CORDERV AND PHILLPOTT :
King and Commonwealth.
GARDINER: The Puritan
Revolution.
AINSWORTH : * Guy Fawkes
(1605).
SCOTT: *TheFortunesof Nigel.
AINSWORTH: *The Spanish
Match (1620).
ABBOTT: HISTORY OF
CHARLES I.
LETITIA E. LANDON: JThe
Covenanters (1638).
MARRYAT: *THB CHILDREN
OF THE NEW FOREST.
SCOTT : t Rokeby (1644).
* Legend of Montrose
(1646).
PRAED: t Marston Moor
(1644).
CARLYLE: History of Oliver
Cromwell.
GUIZOT : History of the Eng-
lish Revolution.
ASTOR : * Valentino ( 1505).
MACAULAY: $Ivry(i59o).
GOETHE : t Torquato Tasso
(-590). .
TROLLOPE: *Paul the Pope
and Paul the Friar.
ROBSON : Life of Cardinal
Richelieu (1585-1642).
JAMES: * Richelieu.
BULWER : t Richelieu.
MANZONI: *The Betrothed
(1628).
GOETHE: JThe Destruction of
Magdeburg.
SCHILLER : t Wallenstein
(1634)-
TOPELIUS: * Times of Gustaf
Adolf.
GINDELY : History of the
Thirty Years' War.
SCHILLER : History of the
Thirty Years' War.
MOTLEY : Life of John of
Barneveld.
PARDOE : * Louis XIV. and
the Court of France.
JAMES : Louis XIV.
GUIZOT: History of France,
vol. v.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 135
GOLDWIN SMITH : Three Eng-
lish Statesmen.
MACAULAY: The Cavalier's
March to London (1651).
MASSON : Life and Times of
John Milton.
YONGE: * The Pigeon Pie; a
Tale of Roundhead Times.
SHORT/HOUSE : * John Ingle-
sant.
JAMES: *The Cavalier (1651).
BUTLER : t Hudibras.
SCOTT : * Woodstock.
MARVELL : t Blake's Victory
(1657)-
ABBOTT: HISTORY OF
CHARLES II.
DRYDEN : J Annus Mirabilis
(1666).
BIRCHALL: England under the
Stuarts.
Fox: Life of James II.
AINSWORTH : * James II.
JAMES : * Russell.
MACAULAY : History of Eng-
land (1685-1702).
Essay on Sir William
Temple.
AYTOUN : t The Widow of
Glencoe (1692).
HALE: The Fall of the
Stuarts.
MORRIS: The Age of Anne.
COXE : Memoirs of the Duke
of Marlborough.
SCOTT: * Old Mortality.
*The Bride of Lam-
mermoor.
DEFOE : * Memoirs of a Cav-
alier.
* History of the Great
Plague in London.
ADDISON : The Spectator.
THACKBRAY : * Henry Es-
mond.
ABBOTT: HISTORY OF Louis
XIV.
MANNING: * Idyl of the Alps.
BUNGENER: BOURDALOUE AND
Louis XIV.
TOPELIUS : * Times of Battle
and Rest.
MACAULAY : t Song of the
Huguenots (1685).
BROWNING: tHervd Riel.
ABBOTT : HISTORY OF PETER
THB GREAT.
SCHUYLER": History of Peter
the Great.
MAHON : War of the Spanish
Succession.
MUHLBACH : * Prince Eugene
and his Times.
TOPELIUS : * Times of Charles
XII.
VOLTAIRE : History of Charles
XII.
MARTINEAU: * Messrs. Van-
deput and Snoek (1695).
LADY JACKSON: The Old
Regime (Louis XIV. and
XV.).
MACAULAY : Essay on the War
of the Succession in Spain.
136
THE BOOK-LOVER.
BLACKMORB : * Loma Doone.
ADDISON: t TJie Battle of
Blenheim (1704).
PEPYS : Diary (1659-1703).
GREEN : History of the Eng-
lish People, book viii.
LECKY : History of England in
the Eighteenth Century.
GREEN: History of the Eng-
lish People, book ix.
SCOTT: *Rob Roy (1713)-
*The Heart of Mid-
Lothian.
THACKERAY : Lectures on the
Four Georges.
STEPHEN : History of English
Thought in the Eighteenth
Century.
MACAULAY: Essays on Lord
Clive and Lord Chatham.
FROUDE : The English in Ire-
land in the Eighteenth Cen-
tury.
CAMPBELL : t LochiePs Warn-
ing.
SCOTT: *Waverley (1745).
MOIR : t The Battle of Pres-
tonpans(i74s).
SMOLLETT: tThe Tears of
Scotland.
GOLDSMITH: *The Vicar of
Wakefield.
SOUTHEY: Life and Times of
John Wesley.
MRS. CHARLES: * Diary of
Kitty Trevylyan.
MITFORD : * Our Village.
EDGEWORTH : * Castle Rack-
rent.
THACKERAY: *The Virgini-
ans (1775).
SCOTT : * Guy Mannering.
DICKENS : * Barnaby Rudge
(1780).
TOPELIUS : * Times of Fred-
erick I. (1721).
BUNGENER : LOUIS XV. AND
HIS TIMES.
HELPS : Ivan de Biron (1740).
MACAULAY : Essay on Fred-
erick the Great.
ABBOTT: HISTORY OF MARIE
ANTOINETTE.
DAVIS : t Fontenoy (1745).
LONGMAN : Frederick the
Great and the Seven Years'
War.
CARLYLE: Life of Frederick
the Great.
YONGE : Life of Marie Antoi-
nette.
MUHLBACH: * Frederick the
Great and his Family.
TOPELIUS: *Times of Lin-
MNM.
GUIZOT: History of France,
vol. vi.
TOPELIUS: *Timesof Alchemy.
TAINE : The Ancient Regime.
ABBOTT: The French Revo-
lution of 1789.
HISTORY OF THE EM-
PRESS JOSEPHINE.
HISTORY OF MADAME
ROLAND.
HISTORY OF QUEEN
HORTENSE.
ALISON: History of Europe
(1789-1815), abridged by
Gould.
COURSES OP READING IN HISTORY. 137
MACAULAY : Essays on Warren
Hastings, William Pitt, and
Barere.
GOLDWIN SMITH : Three Eng-
lish Statesmen.
TREVELYAN : Early History
of Charles James Fox.
WADE : Letters of Junius.
MORLEY: Edmund Burke, a
Historical Sketch.
BLACKMORE: *The Maid of
Sker.
GEORGE ELIOT : * Adam Bede.
COOPER : * Wing and Wing.
LEVER: * Charles O'Malley-
MRS. CHARLES: * Against the
Stream.
THACKERAY : * Vanity Fair.
MAGINN: Whitehall.
PALGRAVE : t Trafalgar (1805).
ROBERT BUCHANAN : t The
Shadow of the Sword.
KINGSLEY : * Alton Locke.
DISRAELI : * Sybil.
SOUTHEY : t The Battle of
Algiers (1815).
MCCARTHY: History of our
own Times.
MARTINEAU : History of the
Thirty Years' Peace.
CARLYLE: Latter-Day Pam-
phlets.
DISRAELI: Lothair.
KINGLAKE : The Invasion of
the Crimea.
TAINB : Origins of Contempo-
rary France.
VAN LAUN: The French
Revolutionary Epoch.
ADAMS : Democracy and Mon-
archy in France.
VICTOR HUGO : * Ninety-
Three.
COLERIDGE t Destruction ot
the Bastile.
RENAUD: tThe Last Ban-
quet.
ERCKMANN - CHATRIAN :
* Year One of the Republic.
DICKENS : * A Tale of Two
Cities.
BLACKMORE : * Alice Lor-
raine.
TROLLOPE : * La Vende'e.
SAINTINE : * Picciola.
FRITZ RBUTER : * In the Year
Thirteen.
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN : * The
Conscript ; The Invasion of
France in 1814; and Water-
loo.
BYRON : J The Battle of Water-
loo.
MOORE : * The Fudge Family
in Paris.
MARTINEAU: 'French Wine
and Politics.
VICTOR HUGO : * Les MiseYa-
bles.
GUIZOT : France under Louis
Philippe.
VICTOR HUGO : The History
of a Crime.
BULWER : *The Parisians.
WASHBURNE: Recollections of
a Minister to France.
FORBES : The Franco-German
War.
138 THE BOOK-LOVER.
IV. AMERICAN HISTORY.
General Histories.
Bancroft: History of the United States (12 vols.,
from the discovery of America to the adoption of
the Constitution).
Hildreth: History of the United States (6 vols., from
the discovery of America to 1820).
Bryant and Gay : History of the United States (from
the discovery to 1880).
Ridpath : History of the United States.
Higginson : YOUNG FOLK'S HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES.
Aboriginal America.
Baldwin : Ancient America.
Donnelly : Atlantis.
Foster : Prehistoric Races of the United States.
Short : North Americans of Antiquity.
Ellis : The Red Man and the White Man.
H. H. Bancroft : Native Races of the Pacific
States.
Charnay : The Ancient Cities of the New World.
The Period of the Discovery.
Irving: Columbus and his Companions.
Abbott: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
Towle : VASCO DA GAMA.
Helps : The Spanish Conquest of America (4 vols.).
Prescott : The Conquest of Mexico (3 vols.).
Abbott : HERNANDO CORTEZ.
Helps : Hernando Cortez.
Eggleston: MONTEZUMA.
Wallace : *The Fair God, or the Last of the 'Tzins.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 139
Prescott : The Conquest of Peru (2 vols.).
Towle : PIZARRO.
MAGELLAN.
Irving: The Conquest of Florida by De Soto.
Abbott: DE SOTO.
Simms: *Vasconselos (1538).
Towle : DRAKE, THE SEA-KING OF DEVON.
SIR WALTER RALEGH.
Hale : Stories of Discovery.
Simms : *The Lily and the Totem (the story of the
Huguenots at St. Augustine).
The Colonial Period.
Coffin : Old Times in the Colonies.
Simms : Life of John Smith.
Kingston: *The Settlers (1607).
Eggleston : POCAHONTAS.
Abbott : THE NORTHERN COLONIES.
Miles Standish.
Longfellow : J The Courtship of Miles Standish.
Mrs. Child : *The First Settlers of New England.
*Hobomok.
Drake : The Making of New England.
Clay : Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware.
Banvard : PIONEERS OF THE NEW WORLD.
J. G. Holland : * The Bay Path ( 1638).
Paulding: * Koningsmarke (a tale of the Swedes on
the Delaware).
Mrs. Lamb : History of the City of New York.
Abbott : PETER STUYVESANT.
Irving : * Knickerbocker's History of New York.
Abbott : KING PHILIP.
Markham : King Philip's War.
Cooper: *The Wept of Wish-ton- Wish (1675).
Palfrey : History of New England (4 vols.).
Hawthorne : * The Scarlet Letter.
140 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Spofford : New England Legends.
Longfellow : \ New England Tragedies.
Whittier: \ Ballads of New England.
Hale : Stories of Adventure.
Abbott : CAPTAIN KIDD.
Banvard: Southern Explorers.
Abbott: THE SOUTHERN COLONIES.
Cooke : Stories of the Old Dominion.
Simms : *The Cassique of Kiawah (a story of the
early settlement of South Carolina, 1684).
De Vere : Romance of American History.
Abbott : CHEVALIER DE LA SALLE.
Parkman : Discovery of the Great West.
The Jesuits in North America.
Sparks : Life of Father Marquette.
Shea : Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi.
Parkman : Frontenac, and New France under Louis
XIV.
Simms: * The Yemassee (1715).
Longfellow : \ Evangeline.
Johnson: The Old French War.
Parkman : Montcalm and Wolfe.
The Conspiracy of Pontiac.
Paulding: *The Dutchman's Fireside.
Cooper: *The Pathfinder.
* The Last of the Mohicans.
Kennedy: * Swallow Barn.
Mrs. Stowe : * The Minister's Wooing.
Thackeray : * The Virginians.
The Period of the Eevolution.
Abbott : THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Irving : Life of George Washington (5 vols.).
Headley : Washington and his Generals.
Longfellow : \ Paul Revere's Ride.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 141
Holmes : t Grandmother's Story of the Battle of
Bunker Hill.
Coffin: THE BOYS OF '76.
Cooper: *The Spy.
* The Pilot.
Neal : * Seventy-Six.
Greene : Life of Nathanael Greene.
Abbott: LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Parton : Life of Benjamin Franklin.
Sparks : The Works of Benjamin Franklin.
Treason of Benedict Arnold.
Arnold: Life of Benedict Arnold.
Campbell : } Gertrude of Wyoming.
Mrs. Child: *The Rebels.
Paulding: *The Old Continentals.
*The Bulls and the Jonathans.
Simms: *Eutaw.
Kennedy: * Horse-Shoe Robinson.
Grace Greenwood : * The Forest Tragedy.
Lossing : Field Book of the Revolution.
Carrington : Battles of the Revolution.
Wirt : The Life of Patrick Henry.
Dwight: Lives of the Signers.
Magoon : Orators of the American Revolution.
Greene : Historical View of the American Revolu-
tion.
From the Close of the Revolution.
McMaster: History of the People of the United
States from the Revolution to the Civil War.
Frothingham : Rise of the Republic in the United
States.
Curtis : History of the Constitution.
Von Hoist : Constitutional History of the United
States.
Nordhoff: POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS.
142 THE BOOK LOVER.
Coffin: BUILDING OF THE NATION.
Lodge : Life of Alexander Hamilton.
Morse : Life of John Adams.
Life of Jefferson.
Abbott: LIFE OF DANIEL BOONE.
John Esten Cooke : * Leatherstocking and Silk
(1800).
Cable: *The Grandissimes.
Cooper : * The Prairie.
Simms : * Beauchampe, or the Kentucky Tragedy.
Parton: Life of Aaron Burr.
Hale : * Philip Nolan's Friends.
' * The Man without a Country.
Drake : The Making of the Great West.
Lewis and Clarke's Journey across the Rocky
Mountains.
Irving : Astoria.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville.
Eggleston : Brant and Red Jacket.
Johnson: The War of 1812.
Lossing: Field Book of the War of 1812.
Iron: *The Double Hero.
Gleig : * The Subaltern.
Cooper : History of the American Navy.
Gay : Life of James Madison.
Gilman : Life of James Monroe.
Morse : Life of J. Q. Adams.
Sumner: Andrew Jackson.
Von Hoist: Life of J. C. Calhoun.
Lodge : Daniel Webster.
Whipple : Webster's Best Speeches.
Schurz : Henry Clay.
Ripley : The War with Mexico.
Kendall : The Santa Fe Expedition.
Wilson : History of the Rise and fall of the Slave
Power in America.
COURSES OF READING IN HISTORY. 143
King : The Great South.
Olmsted : The Sea-Board Slave States.
Mrs. Stowe : * Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Hildreth : * The White Slave.
Whittier : J Voices of Freedom.
Greeley: The American Conflict.
Lossing : The Civil War in the United States.
Draper : History of the American Civil War.
Stephens : Constitutional History of the War be-
tween the States (Southern view).
Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion.
Champlin : YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE WAR
FOR THE UNION.
Coffin: THE BOYS OF '61.
Arnold : Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Hale : Stories of War.
Richardson : Field, Dungeon, and Escape.
Swinton : Twelve Decisive Battles of the War.
Cooke : Life of General Lee.
Whittier: Jin War Time.
Lester : Our First Hundred Years.
Lossing : The American Centenary.
Coffin : Drum-Beat of the Nation.
Williams : History of the Negro Troops in the War
of the Rebellion.
Headley: HEROES OF THE REBELLION (6vols.).
Grant : Personal Memoirs.
" H. H." : A Century of Dishonor.
American Commonwealths, Virginia, Oregon,
Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Kansas,
California, New York, Connecticut (10 vols.).
CHAPTER VIII.
Courses of Ueatring in wgrap^g antj
Natural
EOGRAPHY is learned best by the
careful reading of books of travel.
Pupils would derive infinitely more
knowledge by the use, under judi-
cious instructors, of a library of this sort, than
by years of drudging through those masses of
inanity known as School Geographies. The
following list is designed chiefly to aid teach-
ers in the selection of books suitable for
geographical study at school, and to assist
private readers in the choice of useful and
entertaining works on the various subjects of
interest in our own and foreign countries.
A good atlas is the first desideratum, and
is an indispensable auxiliary to the course of
reading here indicated. Rand, McNally, &
Co.'s Atlas is one of the latest publications,
and perhaps the most accurate and complete
144
GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 145
in the market. Among other very good works
of this kind we may mention Gray's, Johnson's,
Colton's, and Zell's, any one of which will an-
swer all the ordinary purposes of the reader.
When no complete work is available, the maps
in the larger school geographies will render
very fair service.
The World.
Coffin: OUR NEW WAY ROUND THE WORLD.
Curtis : Dottings round the Circle.
Dana: Two YEARS BEFORE THE MAST.
Hall : DRIFTING ROUND THE WORLD.
Stevens : Around the World on a Bicycle.
Prime : Around the World.
Pumpelly : Across America and Asia.
Smiles : A BOY'S JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD.
Nordhoff : MAN-OF-WAR LIFE.
Knox : THE YOUNG NIMRODS AROUND THE WORLD.
Hale: STORIES OF THE SEA, TOLD BY SAILORS.
Verne : FAMOUS TRAVELS AND TRAVELLERS.
THE GREAT NAVIGATORS.
THE EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.
Figuier: The Ocean World.
The Insect World.
Mrs. Brassey : Voyage in the Sunbeam.
Ainsworth : All round the World.
Harper : WHAT DARWIN SAW.
Humboldt : Cosmos.
North America.
Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE OCCI-
DENT.
Knox : THE YOUNG NIMRODS IN NORTH AMERICA.
10
146 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Rideing: BOYS IN THE MOUNTAINS.
Hawthorne : AMERICAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAIN-
MENT.
Ingersoll : FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING ; Glimpses
of American Natural History.
Hale: STORIES OF DISCOVERY.
Say : Insects of North America.
Drake: Nooks and Corners of the New England
Coast.
Flagg : The Woods and By- Ways of New England.
Nordhoff : * Cape Cod and all along Shore.
Thoreau : The Maine Woods.
A Week on the Concord.
Cape Cod.
Excursions in Field and Forest.
Samuels : The Birds of New England.
Scudder : THE BODLEYS AFOOT.
Drake : AROUND THE HUB ; A Boy's Book about
Boston.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxvi.
Murray: Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp
Life in the Adirondacks.
Warner : The Adirondacks Verified.
Bromfield: Picturesque Journeys in America.
Jordan: Vertebrates of the Northern States.
Appleton : Picturesque America.
Our Native Land.
Howells: * Their Wedding Journey.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxvii.
King: The Great South.
Olmsted: The Sea-Board Slave States.
Baldwin : The Flush Times of Alabama and Mis-
sissippi.
Pollard: The Virginia Tourist.
GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 147
Twain : Life on the Mississippi.
Lanier : Florida ; its Scenery.
Porte Crayon : Virginia Illustrated.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxviii.
Lewis and Clarke's Expedition across the Rocky
Mountains.
Irving: Astoria.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville.
A Tour on the Prairies.
Meline: Two Thousand Miles on Horseback.
Richardson: Beyond the Mississippi.
Browne : Crusoe's Island.
Nordhoff: Northern California.
Taylor : Eldorado.
Codman: The Round Trip.
Bird : A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains.
Ingersoll : Knocking round the Rockies.
Cozzens: The Marvellous Country; or, Three Years
in Arizona and New Mexico.
Browne : The Apache Country.
Taylor : Colorado ; A Summer Trip.
Richardson : Wonders of the Yellowstone.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxix.
Robinson: The Great Fur Land.
Butler: The Great Lone Land.
The Wild North Land.
Hartwig : The Polar World.
Hayes : The Land of Desolation.
Blake : Arctic Experiences.
Nourse : American Explorations in the Ice Zones.
Burton : Ultima Thule.
Stephens : OFF TO THE GEYSERS.
Haven : Our Next-Door Neighbor.
Wilson : Mexico ; its Peasants and Priests.
148 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Brigham : Guatemala. The Land of the Quetzal.
Stephens : Travels in Yucatan.
Travels in Central America.
Squier : The States of Central America.
Ober: * THE SILVER CITY.
Kingsley : At Last ; a Christmas in the West Indies.
Hurlbert: Gan Eden; or, Pictures of Cuba.
Dana: To Cuba and Back.
South America.
Holton : New Granada.
Orton : The Andes and Amazon.
Agassiz: Journey in Brazil.
Ewbank : Life in Brazil.
Fletcher: Brazil and the Brazilians.
Bishop : A THOUSAND MILES' WALK ACROSS
SOUTH AMERICA.
Marcoy : Travels across South America.
Hassaurek: Four Years among Spanish Americans.
Squier : Peru.
Orton : * The Secret of the Andes.
Stephens : ON THE AMAZONS.
Dixie : Across Patagonia.
Reid: *THE LAND OF FIRE.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxx.
Europe.
Butterworth: ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN EUROPE.
Champney: THREE VASSAR GIRLS ABROAD.
Scudder : THE ENGLISH BODLEY FAMILY.
Hawthorne : Our Old Home.
Taine : Notes on England.
Escott : England.
Miller : First Impressions of England and its
People.
Emerson : English Traits.
GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 149
Hoppin : Old England ; Its Scenery, Art, and People.
Abbott : A Summer in Scotland.
Miller : Scenes and Legends of the North of Scot-
land.
White : Natural History of Selborne.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. i.-v.
Longfellow : Outre Mer.
Taylor: Views Afoot.
Macquoid : Through Normandy.
Hamerton : Round My House.
Hale : A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH FRANCE,
GERMANY, AND SWITZERLAND.
Walworth : THE OLD WORLD SEEN THROUGH
YOUNG EYES.
Bulwer : France, Literary, Social, and Political.
Longfellow: Poems of Places, vols. vi.-x.
Taine : Tour through the Pyrenees.
Hale : A FAMILY FLIGHT THROUGH SPAIN.
De Amicis : Spain and the Spaniards.
Bodfish : Through Spain on Donkey-Back.
Hare: Wanderings in Spain.
Hay : Castilian Days.
Irving: The Alhambra.
Spanish Papers.
Andersen : Pictures of Travel.
Latouche : Travels in Portugal.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. xiv., xv.
Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN CLASSIC LANDS.
Browne : Yusef ; Travels on the Shores of the
Mediterranean.
Eustis : Classical Tour through Italy.
Dickens : Pictures from Italy.
Hare : Cities of Northern and Central Italy.
Days near Rome.
150 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Hawthorne : English and Italian Notes.
Howells : Italian Journeys.
Venetian Life.
Taine : Italy (Florence and Venice).
Italy (Rome and Naples).
Di Cesnola : Cyprus.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. xi.-xiii.
Stephens: Travels in Greece and Turkey.
Mahaffy : Rambles and Studies in Greece.
Baird : Modern Greece.
Townsend : A Cruise in the Bosphorus.
De Amicis : Constantinople.
Gautier : Constantinople.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xix.
Waring : Tyrol and the Skirt of the Alps.
Whymper: Scrambles among the Alps.
Taylor: The By- Ways of Europe.
Hugo : Tour on the Rhine.
Browne : An American Family in Germany.
Hawthorne : Saxon Studies.
Hugo : Home-Life in Germany.
Baring-Gould : Germany, Past and Present.
De Amicis : Holland.
Scudder: THE BODLEYS IN HOLLAND.
Dodge : *HANS BRINKER, OR THE SILVER SKATES-
Havard: Picturesque Holland.
Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN NORTHERN
LANDS.
Taylor : Northern Europe.
Browne : Land of Thor.
Du Chaillu : The Land of the Midnight Sun.
Andersen : Pictures of Travel in Sweden.
MacGregor : Rob Roy on the Baltic.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vols. xvii., xviii.
GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 151
Butterworth : ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE ORIENT.
Gautier : A Winter in Russia.
Wallace : Russia.
Richardson : Ralph's Year in Russia.
Morley : Sketches of Russian Life.
Dixon : Free Russia.
Asia.
Kennan: Tent Life in Siberia.
McGahan : Campaigning on the Oxus.
Burnaby : A Ride to Khiva.
Schuyler : Turkistan.
Taylor : Central Asia.
Arnold : Through Persia by Caravan.
Stack: Six Months in Persia.
Vambery : Travels in Central Asia.
O'Donovan : The Merv Oasis.
Curtis : The Howadji in Syria.
Kinglake : Eothen.
MacGregor : Rob Roy on the Jordan.
Prime : Tent Life in the Holy Land.
Taylor: Travels in Arabia.
Geikie : The Holy Land and the Bible.
Keane : Six Months in Mecca.
Baker : Rifle and Hound in Ceylon.
Butler : The Land of the Vedas.
French : OUR BOYS IN INDIA.
Knox: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN INDIA AND
CEYLON.
THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SIAM AND JAVA.
Vincent : The Land of the White Elephant.
Leonowens : An English Governess at the Siamese
Court.
Kingston : * IN EASTERN SEAS.
152 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Wilson : The Abode of Snow.
Markham: Thibet.
Gordon : The Roof of the World.
Williams : The Middle Kingdom.
Taylor : India, China, and Japan.
French: OUR BOYS IN CHINA.
Eden : China, Japan, and India.
Oppert : Corea.
Knox : THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN JAPAN AND
CHINA.
Miller : LITTLE PEOPLE OF ASIA.
CHILD LIFE IN JAPAN.
Greey: THE WONDERFUL CITY OF TOKIO.
THE BEAR WORSHIPPERS.
Griffis : The Mikado's Empire.
Bird : Unbeaten Tracks in Japan.
Longfellow Poems of Places, vols. xxi.-xxiii.
Africa.
Hale: A FAMILY FLIGHT OVER EGYPT AND
SYRIA.
Knox: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN EGYPT.
THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
McCabe : OUR YOUNG FOLKS IN AFRICA.
Du Chaillu: WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR.
THE COUNTRY OF THE DWARFS.
Baker : * CAST UP BY THE SEA.
Stanley: *Mv KALULU.
Baker : Ismailia.
Albert N'Yanza.
Speke : Journal of the Discovery of the Source of
the Nile.
Edwards : A Thousand Miles up the Nile.
Taylor : Central Africa.
Schweinfurth : The Heart of Africa.
GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 153
Livingstone : Last Journals.
Stanley : How I found Livingstone.
Through the Dark Continent.
Du Chaillu : Explorations in Central Africa.
Journey to Ashango Land.
Knox : THE BOY TRAVELLERS ON THE CONGO.
Livingstone : South Africa.
Gumming : Hunter's Life in South Africa.
MacLeod : Madagascar and its People.
Longfellow : Poems of Places, vol. xxiv.
Australia and the Pacific.
Grant : Bush Life in Australia.
Cook: Voyages round the World.
Gironierre : Twenty Years in the Philippine Islands.
Nordhoff : Stories of the Island World.
Cheever : The Island World of the Pacific.
Lament : Wild Life among the Pacific Islanders.
Bird : Six Months among the Sandwich Islands.
Dana : Corals and Coral Islands.
Knox: THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN AUSTRALASIA.
CHAPTER IX.
;|iJjfI0g0pfjg anfc ifolfgion.
A LITTLE philosophy inclineth a man's mind to athe-
ism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about
to religion. BACON.
j|HE books which help you most
are those which make you think
the most," says Theodore Parker.
"The hardest way of learning is
by easy reading ; every man that tries it finds
it so."
And apropos of this, I present the following
list of books recommended by Dr. John
Brown as suitable for the reading of young
medical students. Yet not only medical stu-
dents, but students of other special subjects,
and teachers as well, will find it profitable to
dig into and through, to "energize upon"
and master, such books as these :
'54
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 155
1. Arnauld's Port Royal Logic ; translated by T.
S. Baynes.
2. Thomson's Outlines of the Necessary Laws of
Thought.
3. Descartes on the Method of Rightly Conduct-
ing the Reason and Seeking Truth in the
Sciences.
4. Coleridge's Essay on Method.
5. Whately's Logic and Rhetoric (new and cheap
edition).
6. Mill's Logic (new and cheap edition).
7. Dugald Stewart's Outlines.
8. Sir John Herschel's Preliminary Dissertation.
9. Isaac Taylor's Elements of Thought.
10. Sir William Hamilton's edition of Reid: Dis-
sertations and Lectures.
11. Professor Eraser's Rational Philosophy.
12. Locke on the Conduct of the Understanding.
" Taking up a book like Arnauld, and read-
ing a chapter of his lively, manly sense," says
Rab's friend, " is like throwing your manuals,
and scalpels, ahd microscopes, and natural
(most unnatural) orders out of your hand and
head, and taking a game with the Grange
Club, or a run to the top of Arthur Seat.
Exertion quickens your pulse, expands your
lungs, makes your blood warmer and redder,
fills your mouth with the pure waters of relish,
strengthens and supples your legs ; and though
on your way to the top you may encounter
rocks, and baffling ddbris, and gusts of fierce
winds rushing out upon you from behind
I5<6 THE BOOK-LOVER.
corners, just as you will find, in Arnauld and
all truly serious and honest books of the kind,
difficulties and puzzles, winds of doctrine, and
deceitful mists, still you are rewarded at the
top by the wide view. You see, as from a
tower, the end of all. You look into the per-
fections and relations of things ; you see the
clouds, the bright lights, and the everlasting
hills on the horizon. You come down the
hill a happier, a better, and a hungrier man,
and of a better mind. But, as we said, you
must eat the book, you must crush it, and
cut it with your teeth, and swallow it ; just as
you must walk up, and not be carried up, the
hill, much less imagine you are there, or look
upon a picture of what you would see were
you up, however accurately or artistically
done ; no, you yourself must do both."
The same may be said of all books that are
the most truly helpful to us, and mind-lifting.
It is the hard reading that profits most,
provided, always, that due care be taken to
digest that which is read. Yet I would not
recommend the same strong diet or the same
severe exercise to every person, or even to
any considerable proportion of readers. One
man may be a palm, as says Dr. Collyer, and
another a pine ; that which is wisdom to the
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 157
one may be incomprehensible folly to the
other. But those whose mental constitutions
are sufficiently vigorous to digest and assimi-
late the food which the philosophers offer,
may find comfort and health, not only in
the works above recommended, but in the
following :
Plato's Works : Jowett's translation.
G. H. Lewes : A Chapter from Aristotle.
Lord Bacon : Novum Organum.
Butler : Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed.
Hume : A Treatise on Human Nature.
Hamilton : Discussions on Philosophy and Litera-
ture.
Mill : Examination of Hamilton's Philosophy.
Lewes : Problems of Life and Mind.
Cousin : Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and
the Good.
Martineau: The Positive Philosophy of Auguste
Comte.
Mill : Comte and Positivism.
Mahaffy : Kant's Critical Philosophy for English
Readers.
Fichte : The Science of Knowledge.
Meiklejohn : Kant's Critique of the Pure Reason
(published in Bohn's Philosophical Library).
Spencer : First Principles of Philosophy.
Bowen : Essays on Speculative Philosophy.
Porter : Elements of Intellectual Science.
The Human Intellect.
McCosh : Intuitions of the Mind.
System of Logic.
Fiske : Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy.
Everett : Science of Thought.
158 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Wallace : The Logic of Hegel.
Hegel: The Philosophy of History (translated by
J. Sibree, in Bohn's Philosophical Library).
Schopenhauer: Select Essays of Arthur Schopen-
hauer (translated by Droppers and Dachsel).
Lewes : Biographical History of Philosophy.
Morell : An Historical and Critical View of the
Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nine-
teenth Century.
Ueberweg : History of Philosophy.
Masson : Recent British Philosophy.
Lecky : History of European Morals.
History of Rationalism in Europe.
Draper: History of the Intellectual Development
of Europe.
To the foregoing list the following may be
added :
Plutarch's Morals (translated by Goodwin).
Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (in the
" Wisdom Series ").
Selections from Fenelon.
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.
Sydney Smith's Sketches of Moral Philosophy.
Watts on the Mind.
Taine on Intelligence.
A course of reading which shall include any
number of the works here mentioned will be
no child's play; it will involve the severest
exercise of the thinking powers, but it will
enable you " to look into the perfections and
relations of things, and to see the clouds, the
bright lights, and the everlasting hills on the
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 159
horizon." The reading of such books is like
the training of a gymnast ; it will lead to the
healthy development of the parts most skil-
fully exercised, but the strength of him who
exercises should never be too severely tested.
Would you prefer a lighter course of reading,
but one which will probably lead you into
pleasanter paths of contemplation and reflec-
tion, and finally open up to your view a pros-
pect equally boundless and grand? Allow
me to suggest the following, which is neither
philosophical nor religious, in the strictest ac-
ceptation of these terms, but which leads us
to an acquaintance with that which is best in
both.
We shall begin with the Bible, and through-
out the course we shall make that book our
grand rallying-point. " Read the Bible rever-
ently and attentively," says Sir Matthew Hale ;
" set your heart upon it, and lay it up in your
memory, and make it the direction of your
life : it will make you a wise and good man."
From the reverential reading of the Bible,
which to most of us is rather an act of reli-
gious duty than of intellectual effort, we turn
to the great masterpieces of antiquity. In the
Phaedo and the Apology and Crito of Plato,
we find the ripest thoughts of the world's
160 THE BOOK-LOVER.
greatest thinker ; then we turn to Aristotle's
Ethics, and, afterwards, we compare the doc-
trines of the Greek philosophers with the
Teachings of Confucius and of Mencius. 1 If
we have supplemented these readings with
the proper acquaintance with ancient his-
tory, we shall now be ready to understand
the great poems of antiquity, and to read
them in a light different from that which we
have hitherto known. We read the Iliad, and
the Odyssey, and the Greek tragedians ; then
the old Indian epics, Arnold's " The Light
of Asia," and Swamy's " Dialogues and Dis-
courses of Gotama Buddha." Descending
now to more modern times, for we would
not make this course a long one, we turn
again to our Bible, and thoroughly acquaint
ourselves with " the unsurpassedly simple, lov-
ing, perfect idyls of the life and death of
Christ," as we find them in the New Testa-
ment. After this, we shall obtain more ex-
alted ideas of the brotherhood of the human
race and the "hope of the nations," if we
spend some time in the study of the majestic
expressions of the universal conscience found
in such works as the "Vishnu Sarma" of the
Hindoos, the "Gulistan" of Saadi, the "Sen-
1 Chinese Classics, by J. Legge. 3 vols.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 161
tences " of Epictetus, and the "Thoughts" of
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Then, to get at
the poetic interpretation of the teachings of
Mohammed, we read the " Pearls of Faith ;
or, Islam's Rosary," and Lane Poole's "Selec-
tions from the Koran." Returning to the
study of Christian ethics and poetry, we take
up the " Confessions of Saint Augustine,"
and the " Discourse " of Saint Bernard, and
then the " Imitation of Christ," by Thomas
a Kempis. We read Milton's "Paradise
Lost " again, and Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Pro-
gress ; " and we enjoy the wealth of imagery
in Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living and Holy
Dying." Holy George Herbert's " Sacred
Poems and Private Ejaculations " claim our
attention for a time, and then we take up
Pascal's "Thoughts," and selections from
Fenelon's " Telemachus " and " Dialogues of
the Dead." Finally, we read Wordsworth's
" Excursion," and Keble's " Christian Year,"
and return after all to a further perusal of
the Bible and the poems of antiquity.
You may say that this course is rather frag-
mentary, and so it is ; but it differs from the
other courses which I have indicated, in that
it is undertaken as a heart-work rather than a
head-work. Unlike the course just preceding,
1 62 THE BOOK-LOVER.
it has to do with our emotional and devotional
natures rather than with our highest powers
of thinking and reasoning. With few excep-
tions only, the books here mentioned are
voices out of the past, speaking to us of the
human soul's belief and experience in different
ages of the world and under different dispen-
sations. " I suppose," says George Eliot,
speaking of the " Imitation of Christ," "I
suppose that is the reason why the small old-
fashioned book, for which you need only pay
sixpence at a book-stall, works miracles to this
day, turning bitter waters into sweetness;
while expensive sermons and treatises, newly
issued, leave all things as they were before.
It was written down by a hand that waited for
the heart's prompting; it is the chronicle of
a solitary, hidden anguish, struggle, trust, and
triumph, not written on velvet cushions to
teach endurance to those who are treading
with bleeding feet on the stones. And so it
remains to all time a lasting record of human
needs and human consolations ; the voice of
a brother who, ages ago, felt and suffered
and renounced, in the cloister, perhaps with
serge gown and tonsured head, with much
chanting and long fasts, and with a fashion of
speech different from ours, but under the
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 163
same silent far-off heavens, and with the same
passionate desires, the same strivings, the
same failures, the same weariness."
Writing of works like these, Emerson says :
"Their communications are not to be given
or taken with the lips and the end of the
tongue, but out of the glow of the cheek,
and with the throbbing heart. . . . These are
the Scriptures which the missionary might
well carry over prairie, desert, and ocean, to
Siberia, Japan, Timbuctoo. Yet he will find
that the spirit which is in them journeys faster
than he, and greets him on his arrival, was
there long before him. The missionary must
be carried by it, and find it there, or he goes
in vain. Is there any geography in these
things ? We call them Asiatic, we call them
primeval ; but perhaps that is only optical,
for Nature is always equal to herself, and
there are as good eyes and ears now in the
planet as ever were. Only these ejaculations
of the soul are uttered one or a few at a
time, at long intervals, and it takes millen-
niums to make a Bible."
We are brought now naturally to the sub-
ject of Theological Literature. The number
of books in this department is very great, and
there are wide differences of opinion with
1 64 THE BOOK-LOVER.
regard to the merits of many of the best-known
works. Without attempting to select always
the best, I shall name only a sufficient num-
ber of books necessary for the use of such
non-professional readers as may desire to ac-
quire a moderate knowledge of the commonly
accepted theological doctrines :
McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia of Biblical,
Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (10
vols.).
Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible.
Barrow's Sacred Geography and Antiquities.
Dean Stanley's Sinai and Palestine in connection
with their History.
Clark's Bible Atlas, with Maps and Plans.
Bissell's Historic Origin of the Bible.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures.
Alford's The Greek Testament ; and The New Tes-
tament for English Readers.
Oehler's Theology of the Old Testament.
Weiss's Biblical Theology of the New Testament.
Geikie's Hours with the Bible.
Lenormant's The Beginnings of History, according
to the Bible and the Traditions of Oriental Peoples.
Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of the
Jewish Church.
Geikie's Life and Works of Christ.
Farrar's Life of Christ.
Farrar's Life and Work of St. Paul.
Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St.
Paul.
Schaff's History of the Christian Church.
Dean Milman's History of Latin Christianity (Svols.)-
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION. 165
Dean Stanley's Lectures on the History of the East-
ern Church.
Fisher : History of the Christian Church.
James Freeman Clarke's Ten Great Religions.
Moffatt's Comparative History of Religions.
Trench's Lectures on Mediaeval Church History.
Ullman's Reformers before the Reformation.
Fisher's History of the Reformation.
Ranke's History of the Popes during the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries.
Griesinger's History of the Jesuits.
Baird's Rise and Progress of the Huguenots in
France.
Stevens's History of Methodism.
Tyerman's Life and Times of John Wesley.
Hagenbach's History of Christian Doctrines (trans-
lated by C. W. Buch).
Fisher's Faith and Rationalism.
McCosh's Christianity and Positivism.
Farrar's Critical History of Free Thought in refer-
ence to the Christian Religion.
Royce's Religious Aspect of Philosophy.
Calderwood's Relations of Science and Religion.
Max Miiller's Science of Religion.
Drummond : Natural Law in the Spiritual World.
Trench's Shipwrecks of Faith.
Walker's Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation.
Smyth's Old Faiths in New Light.
Brooks's Yale Lectures on Preaching.
Dorner's System of Christian Doctrine.
Goulburn's Thoughts on Personal Religion.
Richard Baxter, speaking of this class of
books, says : " Such books have the advantage
in many, other respects : you may read an
1 66 THE BOOK-LOVER,
able preacher when you have but a mean one
to hear. Every congregation cannot hear the
most judicious or powerful preachers ; but
every single person may read the books of
the most powerful and judicious. Preachers
may be silenced or banished, when books
may be at hand; books may be kept at a
smaller charge than preachers : we may choose
books which treat of that very subject which
we desire to hear of. Books we may have at
hand every day and hour, when we can have
sermons but seldom, and at set times. If
sermons be forgotten, they are gone. But a
book we may read over and over until we
remember it ; and if we forget it, may again
peruse it at our pleasure or at our leisure."
CHAPTER X.
political lEconomg ant) the Science of
(Sobernment
THIS is that noble Science of Politics, which is equally
removed from the barren theories of the utilitarian sophists,
and from the petty craft, so often mistaken for statesman-
ship by minds grown narrow in habits of intrigue, jobbing,
and official etiquette, which of all sciences is the most
important to the welfare of nations, which of all sciences
most tends to expand and invigorate the mind, which
draws nutriment and ornament from every part of philos-
ophy and literature, and dispenses in return nutriment and
ornament to all. MACAULAY.
O the student of Political Economy
and the Science of Government I
offer the following lists of books,
embracing the best works on the
various subjects connected with this study.
The classification has been made solely with
reference to the subject-matter, without any
attempt to indicate the order in which the
books are to be studied, as this would be
impossible.
167
l68 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Constitutional History, etc.
Freeman : Growth of the English Constitution.
Creasy : Rise and Progress of the English Consti-
tution.
Stubbs : Constitutional History of England.
Hallam : Constitutional History of England (1485-
Curtis : History of the Constitution of the United
States.
Von Hoist : Constitutional History of the United
States.
De Tocqueville: Democracy in the United States.
Townsend: ANALYSIS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
Nordhoff : POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS.
Andrews : Manual of the United States Constitution.
Mulford : The Nation.
Story: Familiar Exposition of the United States
Constitution.
Bancroft : History of the United States (vol. xi.).
Amos : The Science of Politics.
General Works on Political Economy.
Perry : AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL ECON-
OMY.
Jevons: A PRIMER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Newcomb : Principles of Political Economy.
John Stuart Mill : Principles of Political Economy
(People's edition).
Cairnes : Some Leading Principles of Political
Economy Newly Expounded.
Walker: The Elements of Political Economy.
Perry : Elements of Political Economy.
Bastiat : Essays on Political Economy.
Bowen : American Political Economy.
Mason and Lalor: Primer of Political Economy.
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 169
On Population.
Malthus : The Principles of Population.
Mr. Malthus's doctrines are opposed in the
following works :
Godwin : On Population (1820).
Sadler: The Law of Population (1830).
Alison : The Principles of Population, and their
Connection with Human Happiness (1840).
Doubleday : The True Law of Population shown to
be connected with the Food of the People (1854).
Herbert Spencer : The Principles of Biology (vol. ii.).
Rickards : Population and Capital (1854).
Greg : Enigmas of Life (1872).
The Malthusian doctrine is supported
wholly or in part by
Macaulay, in his Essay on Sadler's Law of Popula-
tion ;
Rev. Thomas Chalmers, in Political Economy in con-
nection with the Moral State and Moral Prospects
of Society ;
David Ricardo, in Principles of Political Economy;
and some other writers. See, also, Roscher's
Political Economy.
On Wealth and Currency.
Adam Smith : An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of Wealth.
Probably the most important book that has ever been
written, and certainly the most valuable contribution ever
made by a single man towards establishing the principles
on which government should be based. H. T. BUCKLE.
170 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Jevons : Money and the Mechanism of Exchange.
A. Walker : The Science of Wealth.
F. A. Walker : Money.
Bagehot : Lombard Street ; a Description of the
Money Market.
Bonamy Price : Principles of Currency.
Currency and Banking.
Chevalier : Essay on the Probable Fall in the Value
of Gold (translated by Cobden).
Ricardo : Proposals for an Economical Currency.
Poor: Money; its Laws and History.
McCulloch : On Metallic and Paper Money, and
Banks.
Newcomb : The A B C of Finance.
Wells : Robinson Crusoe's Money.
Harvey : Paper Money, the Money of Civilization.
Sumner : History of American Currency.
Maclaren : History of the Currency.
Linderman : Money and Legal Tender of the United
States.
Bolles : Financial History of the United States, from
1789 to 1860.
On Banking.
Macleod : The Elements of Banking.
Theory and Practice of Banking.
Bonamy Price : Currency and Banking.
Gibbons : The Banks of New York.
Atkinson : What is a Bank ?
Gilbart : Principles and Practice of Banking.
Bagehot : Lombard Street.
Morse : Treatise on the Laws relating to Banks
and Banking.
On Labor and 'Wages.
Henry George : Progress and Poverty.
Mallock : Property and Progress.
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 171
Walker : Wages and the Wages Class.
Brassey : Work and Wages.
Jevons : The State in relation to Labor.
Jervis : Labor and Capital.
Thornton : On Labor ; its Wrongful Claims and
Rightful Dues.
Wright : A Practical Treatise on Labor.
Young : Labor in Europe and America.
Bolles : Conflict of Labor and Capital.
About : Hand-Book of Social Economy.
On Socialism and Co-operation.
Nordhoff : Communistic Societies of the United
States.
Noyes : History of American Socialism.
Ely : French and German Socialism in Modern
Times.
Holyoake : History of Co-operation.
Woolsey : Socialism.
Barnard : Co-operation as a Business.
The student of socialism will doubtless
be interested in reading some of the philo-
sophical fictions and other works, written in
various ages, describing fanciful or ideal
communities and governments. The follow-
ing are the best :
Plato's Republic.
Sir Thomas More's Utopia.
Bacon's New Atlantis.
Hall's Mundus Alter et Idem.
Harrington's Oceana.
Defoe's Essay on Projects.
172 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Disraeli's Coningsby, or the New Generation.
Bulwer's The Coming Race.
On Taxation and Pauperism.
Peto : Taxation ; its Levy and Expenditure.
Cobden Club Essay, On Local Government and
Taxation.
Encyclopaedia Britannica: The Article on Taxation.
Fawcett: Pauperism; its Causes and Remedies.
Sir George Nicholl : Histories of the English,
Scotch, and Irish Poor Laws.
Lecky: History of European Morals (vol. ii.).
On the Tariff Question.
The following works favor, more or less
strongly, the doctrine of Free Trade :
Adam Smith : On the Wealth of Nations.
Walter : What is Free Trade?
Sumner : Lectures on the History of Protection in
the United States.
Mongredien : History of the Free-Trade Movement.
Grosvenor : Does Protection Protect ?
Bastiat : Sophisms of Protection.
Fawcett : Free Trade and Protection.
Butts : Protection and Free Trade.
The following are the most important works
favoring Protection :
Horace Greeley : The Science of Political Economy.
E. Peshine Smith : A Manual of Political Economy.
R. E. Thompson : Social Science and National
Economy.
H. C. Carey: Principles of Social Science.
Byles : Sophisms of Free Trade.
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 173
Works of Keference.
McCulloch : Literature of Political Economy.
Macleod : A Dictionary of Political Economy, Bio-
graphical, Historical, and Practical.
Lalor : Cyclopaedia of Political Science and Political
Economy.
McCulloch : Dictionary of Commerce.
Tooke: History of Prices, 1793 to ^56.
Rogers : History of Agriculture and Prices in
England.
CHAPTER XL
n tit practical Stutog
SLtterature.
THE ocean of literature is without limit. How then shall
we be able to perform a voyage, even to a moderate dis-
tance, if we waste our time in dalliance on the shore ? Our
only hope is in exertion. Let our only reward be that of
industry. RINGELBERGIUS.
HE student of English literature has
indeed embarked upon a limitless
ocean. A lifetime of study will serve
only to make him acquainted with
parts of that great expanse which lies open
before him. He should pursue his explora-
tions earnestly, and with the inquiring spirit of
a true discoverer. His thirst for knowledge
should be unquenchable ; he should long
always for that mind food which brings the
right kind of mind growth. He should not
rest satisfied with merely superficial attain-
ments, but should strive for that thoroughness
STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 175
of knowledge without which there can be
neither excellence nor enjoyment.
English literature is not to be learned from
manuals. They are only helps, charts,
buoys, light-houses, if you will call them so ;
or they serve to you the purposes of guide-
books. What do you think of the would-be
tourist who stays at home and studies his
Baedeker with the foolish thought that he is
actually seeing the countries which the book
describes? And yet I have known students,
and not a few teachers, do a thing equally as
foolish. With a Morley, or a Shaw, or even a
Brooke in their hands, and a few names and
dates at their tongues' ends, they imagine
themselves viewing the great ocean of litera-
ture, ploughing its surface and exploring its
depths, when in reality they are only wasting
their time "in dalliance on the shore."
English literature does not consist in a
mere array of names and dates and short
biographical sketches of men who have writ-
ten books. Biography is biography ; litera-
ture " is a record of the best thoughts." But
the former is frequently studied in place of
the latter. " For once that we take down our
Milton, and read a book of that 'voice,' as
Wordsworth says, ' whose sound is like the sea,'
176 THE BOOK-LOVER.
we take up fifty times a magazine with some-
thing about Milton, or about Milton's grand-
mother, or a book stuffed with curious facts
about the houses in which he lived, and the
juvenile ailments of his first wife." l Instead
of becoming acquainted at first hand with
books in which are stored the energies of the
past, we content ourselves with knowing only
something about the men who wrote them.
Instead of admiring with our own eyes the
architectural beauties of St. Paul's Cathedral,
we read a biography of Sir Christopher Wren.
Again, it must be borne in mind that lit-
erature is one thing, and the history of litera-
ture is another. The study of the latter,
however important, cannot be substituted for
that of the former ; yet it is not desirable to
separate the two. To acquire any service-
able knowledge of a book, you will be greatly
aided by knowing under what peculiar con-
ditions it was conceived and produced,
the history of the country, the manners of
the people, the status of morals and politics
at the time it was written. Between history
and literature there is a mutual relationship
which should not be overlooked. " A book
1 Frederic Harrison: Fortnightly Review (April, 1879),
"On the Choice of Books."
STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 177
is the offspring of the aggregate intellect of
humanity," and it gives back to humanity, in
the shape of new ideas and new combinations
of old ideas, not only all that which it has
derived from it, but more, increased intel-
lectual vitality, and springs of action hitherto
unknown.
In the study of literature, one should begin
with an author and with a subject not too
difficult to understand. A beginner will be
likely to find but little comfort in Chaucer or
Spenser, or even in Emerson ; but after he
has worked up to them he may study them
with unbounded delight. For a ready under-
standing and correct appreciation of the great
masterpieces of English literature, a knowl-
edge of Greek and Roman mythology and
history is almost indispensable. The student
will find the courses of historical reading given
in a former chapter of this book of much
value in supplementing his literary studies.
The great works of the world's master-
minds should be studied together, with refer-
ence to the similarity of their subject-matter.
For example, the reading of Shakspeare will
give occasion to the study of dramatic lit-
erature in all its forms ; the reading of Mil-
ton's " Paradise Lost " will introduce us to
178 THE BOOK-LOVER.
the great epics, and to heroic poetry in gen-
eral ; Sir Walter Scott's " Lay of the Last
Minstrel " will lead naturally to the romance
literature of modern and mediaeval times;
Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales " fitly illustrate
the story-telling phase of poetry; the study
of lyric poetry may centre around the old
ballads, the poems of Robert Burns, and the
religious hymns of our language ; Bunyan's
" Pilgrim's Progress " introduces us to alle-
gory, and Milton's " Lycidas " to elegiac and
pastoral poetry ; and to know the best speci-
mens of argumentative prose, we begin with
the speeches of Daniel Webster and end with
the orations of Demosthenes.
The following schemes for the study of dif-
ferent departments of English literature have
been tested both with private students and
with classes at school. Of course, many of
the books mentioned are to be used chiefly
as works of reference ; some of them may be
conveniently omitted in case it is desirable
to abridge the course, and others may be
exchanged for similar works upon the same
subject.
DRAMATIC LITERATURE.
179
SCHEME I.
tfje Stutig of ramattc ^Literature.
LITERATURE.
For manuals use any or all
of the following works :
SHAW'S Manual of English
Literature.
MORLEY'S First Sketch of
English Literature.
BALDWIN'S English Litera-
ture and Literary Criticism.
BROOKE'S Primer of English
Literature.
WELSH'S Development of
English Literature.
RICHARDSON'S Familiar
Talks on English Litera-
ture.
To be read :
" Rise and Progress of the Eng-
lish Drama," in White's
Shakspeare, vol. i.
" Origin and Growth of the
Drama in England," in
Hudson's Life, Art, and
Characters of Shakspeare,
vol. i.
" Life of Shakspeare" in either
of the works just named.
To be referred to :
DOWDEN'S Shakspere Primer.
ABBOTT'S Shakspearian
Grammar.
TAINB'S English Literature,
the chapter on " Shak-
speare."
PARALLEL STUDIES.
English histories for study
and reference :
GREEN'S History of the Eng-
lish People.
KNIGHT'S History of Eng-
land.
VONGE'S Young Folks 1 Eng-
land.
Study the history of Eng-
land from 1066 to 1580.
Write an essay on one of the
following subjects :
1. Miracles and Mysteries.
2. Popular Amusements of the
Middle Ages.
3. The Church and the Early
Drama.
4. The Social Condition of
England in the Time of
Queen Elizabeth.
5. The Early Theatres.
i8o
THE BOOK-LOVER.
To be studied :
I. THE MERCHANT
VENICE.
II. CORIOLANUS or JULIUS
GfiSAR.
III. RICHARD III.
IV. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S
DREAM.
V. KING LEAR or MAC-
BETH.
VI. HAMLET.
Books for study and refer-
ence while studying Shak-
speare :
HAZLITT'S Characters of
Shakspearf i Plays.
COLERIDGE'S Literary Re-
mains.
LEIGH HUNT'S Imagination
and Fancy.
I. Study the history and to-
pography of Venice.
Write essays on various sub-
jects suggested by the play.
II. Read Plutarch's Life of
Coriolanus or of Julius
Caesar.
Study the peculiarities of
Roman life and manners.
Refer to Mommsen's Rome.
III. Study the history of Rich-
ard III. as related by
trustworthy historians.
Write an essay in his
defence.
IV. Study the sources from
which this play has been
derived. Write essays
on subjects suggested
by it.
V. Read Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth's account of King
Lear. Learn what you
can of the historical leg-
ends of early Britain and
Scotland.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these plays.
VI. HAMLET. Study the
sources of the play.
Write essays. Discuss
the question of Ham-
let's madness.
Write an essay on Shak-
speare's works, his life, his art.
Discuss the Baconian theory
of the authorship of Shak-
speare's plays.
DRAMATIC LITERATURE.
LAMB'S Essay on Shak-
speare's Tragedies.
DOWDEN'S Mind and Art of
Shakspeare.
MOULTON'S Shakspeare as a
Dramatic Artist,
WHITE'S Studies in Shak-
speare.
Also, the various works of the
Shakspeare Society and of
the New Shakspere Society.
Read Victor Hugo's William
Shakspeare, translated by
M. B. Anderson.
General Study of the Drama.
1. The Greek Drama. Re-
fer to, or read,
MAHAFFV'S Greek Literature,
SCHLEGEL'S Dramatic Litera-
ture.
COPLBSTON'S JEschylus.
CHURCH'S Stories from the
Greek Tragedians.
MRS. BROWNING'S translation
of Prometheus Bound.
DONNE'S Euripides.
FROUDE'S essay, Sea Stud-
ies.
DONALDSON'S Theatre of the
Greeks.
2. The Roman Drama. See
the following works :
SCHLEGEL'S Dramatic Litera-
ture.
SIMCOX'S History of Latin
Literature.
QUACKENBOS'S Classical Lit-
erature.
3. Mysteries and Miracle-
Plays. Refer to
"An Essay on the Origin of the
English Stage," in Percy's
Reliques of A ncient Eng-
lish Poetry.
1 . The Greek Drama.
Study the history of
Greece from some brief
text-book like Smith's
Smaller History. Study
the life and manners of
the Greeks by referring to
Becker's Charicles, or
Mahaffy's Old Greek
Life.
Refer to Grote and Curtius.
Read the old Greek Myths.
Write essays on the Greek
Stage, the Greek Tragedy, and
kindred subjects.
Discuss the subjects sug-
gested by reading " Prome-
theus Bound."
2. Refer to Mommsen's -<<%
especially the chapters re-
lating to literature and art.
3. Review the history of Eng-
land from 1066 to 1580,
with special reference to
the social, religious, and
. political progress of the
people.
182
THE BOOK-LOVER.
WARTON'S History of Eng-
lish Poetry.
MORLEY'S English Writers;
and the essays of White and
Hudson, already named.
4. The Elizabethan Drama.
See the works on Shak-
speare, mentioned above ;
also,
WHIPPLK'S Literature of the
Age of Elizabeth.
HAZLITT'S Age of Elizabeth.
LAMB'S Notes on the Eliza-
bethan Dramatists.
WARD'S English Dramatic
Literature.
Study selections from
JONSON'S Every Man in his
Humor.
MARLOWE'S Doctor Faustus,
or Tamburlaine.
Also, selections from Webster,
Beaumont and Fletcher, and
others.
5. Study Milton's Camus.
Read Milton's Samson Ago-
nistes.
6. The Drama of the Restora-
tion. Read
HAZLITT'S English Comic
Writers.
JOHNSON'S Life of Dryden.
THACKERAY'S English Hu-
morists.
4. Subjects for special study :
The history of the reigns of
Elizabeth and James I.
The causes and character of
the Renaissance in England.
Character of the Elizabethan
dramatists.
Causes of the decline of dra-
matic literature.
The character of James I.
The Puritans and their in-
fluence upon the manners of
the English people.
The Puritans and the drama.
PRYNNE'S Histrio-Mastix.
The reign of Charles I.
5. Study the history of Oliver
Cromwell and Puritan
England. Suppression of
the drama.
Read Macaulay's Essay on
Milton.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
Discuss the character of the
Puritans.
6. Study the state of society at
the time of the Restora-
tion.
The history of England from
1660 to 1760.
EPIC POETRY.
MACAULAY'S Essay on the
Comic Dramatists of the
Restoration.
WARD'S History of the Drama.
7. The Later Drama. See
the following :
FITZGERALD'S Life of David
Garrick,
The Life and Dramatic
Works of R. B. Sheridan.
Lives of the Kembles.
MACRKADY'S Reminiscences.
LEWES'S Actors and the Art
of Acting.
HUTTON'S Plays and Players.
GOLDSMITH'S She Stoops to
Conquer.
SHERIDAN'S School for Scan-
dal.
BULWER'S Richelieu.
TENNYSON'S Drama of Queen
Mary.
SHELLEY'S Prometheus Un-
bound.
SWINBURNE'S Atalanta in
Calydon.
ROBERT BROWNING'S Dramas.
Write essays on subjects
relating to the drama or the
public manners of this period.
JEREMY COLLIER'S work.
7. Study the history of England
tothecloseoftheeighteenth
century.
Write an essay on the " In-
fluence of the Drama."
Discuss the means by which
the stage may be made benefi-
cial as a means of popular edu-
cation.
Study the character of the
drama of our own times, and
how it may be improved.
SCHEME II.
JFor tije
of lEptc $oetrg.
LITERATURE.
For manuals, etc., see
Scheme I.
To be studied :
MILTON'S Paradise Lost.
Read
MACAULAY'S Essay on Milton.
DR. JOHNSON'S Life of Milton.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
For English histories, see
Scheme I.
Read the account of the Cre-
ation as related in the book of
Genesis.
Study the character of the
Puritans in England.
184
THE BOOK-LOVER.
STOPFORD BROOKE'S Milton.
MARK PATTISON'S Milton.
HAZLITT'S Essay on " Shak-
speare and Milton," in Eng-
lish Poets.
HAZHTT'S Essay on Milton's
Eve.
DE QUINCEV'S Essay on Milton
vs. Soutltey and Landor.
HIMES'S A Study of Paradise
Lost.
The Spectator; the numbers
issued on Saturdays from
Jan. 5 to May 3, 1712.
MASSON'S Introduction to Mil-
ton's Poetical Works.
GOSSE'S Essay on Milton and
Vondel, in " Studies in
Northern Literature."
Refer to
MASSON'S Life of Milton.
BOYD'S Milton's Paradise Lost
(with copious notes).
A notice of the other great
Epics :
1. HOMER'S Iliad and Odys-
sey. Selections read and
studied.
(See list of books suggested
for the study of Greek history,
etc.)
2. VIRGIL'S Mneid (Morris's
translation). General plan
of the work observed.
3. DANTE'S Divina Comme-
dia (Longfellow's or Ca-
rey's translation). Gen-
eral plan of the work ob-
served.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by the study of " Para-
dise Lost."
Study the mythological allu-
sions found in the poem. 'The
following works of reference
are recommended for this pur-
pose :
SMITH'S Classical Dictionary.
M u R R A Y 1 s Manual of Mythol-
ogy-
KEIGHTLEY'S Classical My-
thology.
Write an essay on the gen-
eral plan of the poem.
Discuss Milton's theory of
the universe as understood
from the reading of " Paradise
Lost."
See list of books elsewhere
given, relating to Greek My-
thology, the Trojan War, etc.
See
LOWELL'S Essay on Dante, in
A mong My Books.
SYMOND'S Introduction to the
Study of Dante.
BOTTA'S Dante as a Philoso-
pher, Patriot, and Poet.
CARLYLE'S Heroes and Hero-
Worship.
POETICAL ROMANCE.
Attempted Epics :
COWLEY'S Davideis.
GLOVER'S Leonidas.
SOUTHEY'S Joan of Arc,
Madoc, Thalabct) and The
Curse of Kehatna.
LAN DOR'S Gebir.
Why these poems fail to be
epips.
Heroic Poems :
HARBOUR'S Bruce.
DAVBNANT'S Gondibert.
The Mock-Heroic :
POPE'S Rape of the Lock.
The general plan. Selec-
tions studied.
i8 S
Historical studies suggested
by these attempted poems.
Write an essay on the quali-
ties requisite to a great epic
poem.
Discuss the possibility of
another great epic being
written.
Study the legends and his-
torical events upon which these
poems are founded.
Write an essay on some sub-
ject suggested by these studies.
SCHEME III.
Jar tfje Stutig 0f Poetical Romance.
LITERATURE.
For manuals, see Scheme I.
To be studied : Sir Walter
Scott's great poems,
The Lay of the Last Minstrel.
Marmiott.
The Lady of the Lake.
To be read :
CARLYLE'S Essay on Sir Wal-
ter Scott.
HAZLITT on Scott, in The
Spirit of the Age.
The chapter on Scott in Shaw's
Manual of English Liter-
ature.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
For histories, see Scheme I.
Read the history of Scotland
from the earliest period to the
reign of James V.
Miss PORTER'S Scottish
Chiefs.
SCOTT'S Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border.
AYTOUN'S Ballads of Scot-
land.
SCOTT'S Fair Maid of Perth.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
Discuss the character of the
Scotch people in feudal times.
i86
THE BOOK-LOVER.
R. H. BUTTON'S Sir Walter
Scott, in " English Men of
Letters."
How the Romance poetry
differed from Classic poetry.
See Macaulay's Essay on
Southey*s Life of Byron.
The Origin of Romance Lit-
erature. Refer to
WARTON'S History of Poetry.
The Introduction to Ellis's
Early English Metrical Ro-
mances.
RITSON'S Ancient English
Metrical Romances.
PERCY'S Reliques, introductory
essay to book iii.
To be studied :
TENNYSON'S Idylls of the
King.
Refer to Taine's criticism of
Tennyson's Poetry, in his
English Literature, vol. iv.
Read selected portions of
Byron's poetical romances :
The Giaour.
The Corsair.
The Bride of Abydos.
The Siege of Corinth.
Read Byron,\>y John Nichol,
in " English Men of Letters."
Read Matthew Arnold's In-
troduction to the Selected
Poems of Lord Byron.
Compare selections from
Scott with selections from
Pope. Find other illustrations
of the difference between the
two schools of poetry.
Read the chapter on the
Troubadours, in Sismondi's
Literature of Southern Eu-
rope ; also in Van Laun's His-
tory of French Literature.
Refer to Miss Prescott's
Troubadours and Trouveres.
Read the account of the ro-
mances of King Arthur as re-
lated in the books already
mentioned.
Also,
LANIER'S Boy's King Arthur.
BULFINCH'S Age of Chivalry.
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH'S
British History, books viii.
and ix.
Write an essay on the King
Arthur legends.
Compare Byron's poetry
with that of Sir Walter Scott,
ist. As to matter.
2d. As to style.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
Discuss reasons why Lord
Byron's poetry is much less
popular than formerly.
STORY-TELLING POETRY.
I8 7
Study selections from
Moore's Lalla Rookh.
Read Hazlitt's criticisms on
Moore, in his " English Poets."
Also, W. M. Rossetti's In-
troduction to the Poeins of
Thomas Moore.
Study selections from Mor-
ris' % Sigurd the Volsung ; also
from The Earthly Paradise
by the same author.
Study, from whatever sources
are available, Oriental life and
manners as portrayed in
Lalla Rookh. Write essays
on the same.
Study the myths of the
north, referring to Mallet's
Northern A ntiquities and An-
derson's Norse Mythology.
SCHEME IV.
tfje Stufcg of
LITERATURE.
Use manuals for reference
as indicated in Scheme I. To
these may be added Under-
wood's A merican Literature,
and White's Story of English
Literature.
CHAUCER'S Canterbury Tales.
Study the Prologue and
either the Knightes Tale or
the Clerkes Tale.
Refer to, or read,
The Riches of Chaucer, by
Charles Cowden Clarke.
LOWELL'S Essay on Chaucer,
in " My Study Windows."
CARPENTER'S English of the
Fourteenth Century.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Explained, by Saunders.
Canterbury Chimes, by Storr
and Turner.
ms $0etrg.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Use for reference, Green's
History of the English People,
or Knight's History of Eng-
land; also, some standard his-
tory of America.
Study the history of England
in the fourteenth century, and
especially the social condition of
the people during that period.
Make some acquaintance
with the great Italian writers
who flourished about this time,
and exerted a marked influ-
ence upon Chaucer's work.
Refer to
SISMONDI'S Literature of
Southern Europe;
CAMPBELL'S Life of Petrarch;
BOTTA'S Dante as Philoso-
pher, Patriot, and Poet; etc.
1 88
THE BOOK-LOVER.
Stories from Old English
Poetry, by Mrs. Richardson.
Read some of Scott's shorter
narrative poems,
Rokeby.
The Bridal of Triermain.
Harold the Dauntless.
For criticisms and essays on
Scott, see Scheme III.
Study The Prisoner of 'CM- See criticisms on Byron, in
Ion, by Lord Byron. Taine's English Literature.
Study the historical subjects
suggested by these poems.
See Parallel Studies in con-
nection with Scott's longer
poems, Scheme III.
Read Wordsworth's story-
poems,
The White Doe ofRylstone ;
Peter Bell;
IVe are Seven ; etc.
Study Coleridge's The An-
cient Mariner, and Keats's
The Eve of St. Agnes.
For criticisms on the poets
last read, refer to
HAZLITT'S English Poets.
SWINBURNE'S Studies and Es-
says.
SHAIRP'S Studies in Poetry.
LORD HOUGHTON'S Life of
Keats.
MATTHEW ARNOLD'S Essay
on Keats, in Ward's.Ef/-A
Poets.
CARLYLE'S Reminiscences.
Read Campbell's Gertrude
of Wyoming.
Read selections from Mrs.
Hemans.
Read Mrs. Browning' sLadjf
Geraldine's Courtship ; also
some of her shorter poems.
Read Hazlitt's estimate of
Wordsworth, in The Spirit
of the Age.
DE QUINCEY on Wordsworth's
poetry, in Literary Criti-
cism.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
Study the history of the Eng-
lish people from 1760 to 1820,
with special reference to their
social condition, and the pro-
gress of literature.
Write essays on suggested
subjects.
Read the historical account
of the Massacre of Wyoming.
Read biographies of Mrs.
Hemans and Mrs. Browning.
Discuss reasons why Mrs. He-
mans' poetry is no longer pop-
ular.
ALLEGORY.
189
Study Tennyson's poems,
The Princess.
Maud.
Enoch Arden.
Also his shorter poems.
Study at least two poems in
Morris's Earthly Paradise.
Study Longfellow's poems,
Evangeline.
Miles Standish.
Hiawatha.
Tales of a Wayside Inn.
The Skeleton in Armor.
Read Underwood's Life of
Longfellow.
Study the story-poems of
John G. Whittier : Maud Mid-
ler ; Fludfreson; etc.
Consult
STEDMAN'S Victorian Poets.
HADLEY'S Essays.
KINGSLEY'S Miscellanies.
Study the classical and Norse
legends upon which these sto-
ries are based.
See
BANCROFT'S History of the
United States, vol. iv.
ABBOTT'S Life of Miles Stan-
dish.
Study other historical refer-
ences, etc., suggested by these
poems.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
SCHEME V.
JFor the &tirtig of
LITERATURE.
JEsop's Fables.
Oriental parables and fables.
Study Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, as being the most
popular allegory in the English
language.
Read
MACAULAY'S Essay on John
Bunyan.
CHEEVKR'S Lectures on Bun-
yan.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
Rhetorical definition of alle-
gory. The distinction between
fables and parables.
Study the history of the rise
and progress of Puritanism in
England.
Refer to Green's History of
the English People, and to
Taine's English Literature.
190
THE BOOK-LOVER.
Anglo-Saxon parables and
allegories. The growth of the
allegory.
The Vision of Piers Plowman.
The great French allegory, the
Roman de la Rose.
CHAUCER'S Romaunt of the
Rose.
Other allegorical poems usu-
ally ascribed to Chaucer,
The Court of Love.
The Cuckow and the Night-
ingale.
The Parlament of Foules.
The Flower and the Leaf.
Refer to Taine's English
Literature.
Notice, next, Dunbar*s The
Thistle and the Rose ; also,
The Golden Terge, and the
Dance of the Seven Sins. .
STEPHEN HAWES'S Grand
A mour and la Bell Puce II.
Study selected passages from
Spenser's Faerie Queene ; also
the general plan of the poem.
See
LOWELL'S A mong My Books.
CRAIK'S Spenser and his Poe-
try.
Read
PHINEAS FLETCHER'S Purple
Island.
THOMSON'S Castle of Indo-
lence.
LOWELL'S Vision of Sir
Launfal.
GAY'S Fables.
BURNS'S The Twa Dogs, and
The Brigs of Ayr.
Abou Ben Adhem.
Consult
MOR LEY'S English Writers.
WARTON'S History of English
Poetry.
GEORGE P. MARSH'S Lectures
on the Origin and History
of the English Language.
SKEATS'S Specimens of Eng-
lish Literature.
Study the social condition of
England in the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth cen-
turies. Refer to the histories
already mentioned : also to
PEARSON'S History of Eng-
land in the Fourteenth Cen-
tury.
LANIER'S Boy's Froissart, or
the abridged edition ofFrois-
sarfs Chrojiicles.
TOWLE'S History of Henry V.
Study the social and literary
history of England during the
sixteenth century.
Refer to Froude's History
of England.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
Discuss the value of allegory
as an aid in education.
Why has the taste for alle-
gory steadily declined?
Write in plain prose the les-
son learned in each of the fa-
bles studied.
What relationship exists be-
tween fables and myths ?
DIDACTIC POETRY.
SCHEME VI.
iFot tfje &tutig of Bitmctic
LITERATURE.
DRYDEN'S Religio Laid; and
The Hind and the Panther.
Study selected passages from
Pope's Essay on Criticism,
and Essay on Man.
YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.
JOHNSON'S Vanity of Human
Wishes.
AKENSIDE'S Pleasures of the
Imagination.
WARTON'S Pleasures of Mel-
ancholy.
ROGERS' Pleasures of Mem-
ory.
CAMPBELL'S Pleasures of
Hope.
GRAHAME'S The Sabbath.
Study selected passages from
Wordsworth's Excursion.
Select and study some of the
best-known shorter didactic
poems in the language.
REFERENCES.
Refer to
HAZLITT'S English Poets;
Lowell's Among My Books
(essay on Dryden) ; Macau-
lay's Essay on Dryden ; and
Taine's English Literature.
JOHNSON'S Lives of the Poets ;
Stephen's Hours in a Libra-
ry; De Quincey's Literature
of the Eighteenth Century.
MACAULAY'S Essay on Samuel
Johnson; Bos well 's Life of
Dr. Johnson ; Carlyle's Es-
say on Boswelfs Life of
Johnson ; Stephen's John-
son, in " English Men of Let-
ters."
WHIPPLE'S Essay on Words-
worth, in "Literature and
Life."
SHAIRP'S Studies in Poetry
and Philosophy ; Hazlitt's
Spirit of the Age ; Charles
Lamb's Essay on Words-
worth's Excursion.
THE BOOK-LOVER.
SCHEME VII.
Jot tfje Stufcg of ILgric $oetrg.
LITERATURE. | PARALLEL STUDIES.
I.
The Early Ballads.
Read histories and stories of
the mediasval times.
Refer to Percy's Religues ;
Aytoun's Scottish Ballads ;
Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scot-
tish Border.
Ballads of Robin Hood.
Ballads of the Scottish Bor-
der.
Modern Ballads.
II.
Songi of Patriotism.
Read and study the best-
known patriotic poems in the
language.
Study the historical events,
or other circumstances which
led to the production of these
poems.
III.
Battle Songs.
The battle scenes in Scott's
poems. Burns : "Scots wha
hae wi' Wallace bled." Ma-
caulay's Battle oflvry, Nose-
by, Horatius at the Bridge.
Tennyson's Charge of the
Light Brigade. Dray ton's
Battle of Agincourt.
Study the historical events
which gave rise to these poems.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
IV.
Religious Songs and Hymns.
GEORGE HERBERT'S Temple.
Read selections from Cra-
shaw and Vaughan. Study
Milton's Hymn on the Na-
For specimens and extracts
of lyric poetry of every class,
consult Ward's English Poets ;
Appleton's Library of British
LYRIC POETRY.
'93
tivity, and selections from
Keble's Christian Year.
Read Pope's Universal
Prayer, and The Dying
Christian ; also selections
from Moore's Sacred Songs,
Byron's Hebrew Melodies,
and Milman's Hymns for
Church Service.
Poets; The Family Library of
British Poets; Emerson's Par-
nassus ; Chambers' Cyclopae-
dia of English Literature ;
Bryant's Library of Poetry
and Song ; and Piatt's A mer-
ican Poetry and A rt.
V.
Love Lyrics.
The Songs of the Trouba-
dours. Wyatt's Poems.
Marlowe's Passionate Shep-
herd. Raleigh's The
Nymph's Reply. Robert
Herrick's Poems. Selections
from the poems of Sir John
Suckling. The love poems
of Robert Burns. Coleridge's
Genevieve. Selections from
other poets.
Consult Miss Prescott's
Troubadours and Trouveres ;
Warton's History of English
Poetry. Study the biographies
of Marlowe, Raleigh, Herrick,
and Suckling. Read Carlyle's
Essay on Robert Burns; and
Principal Shairp's Burns, in
"English Men of Letters."
VI.
The origin of the sonnet. Se-
lections from the sonnets of
Wyatt, Spenser, Sidney,
Shakspeare, Drayton, Drum-
mond, Milton, Wordsworth,
Keats, and others. Mrs.
Browning's Sonnets from
the Portuguese.
See Leigh Hunt's Book of
the Sonnet ; Dennis's English
Sonnets ; French's Dublin
Afternoon Lectures ; Massey's
Shakspeare 11 s Sonnets ; Henry
Brown's Sonnets of Shak-
speare Solved; Tomlinson's
The Sonnet : its Origin,
Structure, and Place in
Poetry.
VII.
Odes.
DRYDEN'S A lexander's Feast.
POPE'S Ode on St. Cecilia's
Day.
See Husk's Account of the
Musical Celebrations on St.
Cecilia's Day, in the Sixteenth,
194
THE BOOK-LOVER.
COLLINS'S Ode on the Pas-
sions, and other odes.
GRAY'S Ode on the Progress
of Poesy, and The Bard.
KKATS'S Sleep and Poetry.
SHELLEY'S Ode to Liberty, and
To the West Wind.
COLEKIDGE'S Ode on France,
and To the Departing Year.
WORDSWORTH'S Ode on the
Intimations of Immortality.
Seventeenth, and Eighteenth
Centuries.
Study the construction of the
ode. Compare the English ode
with the Greek and Latin
ode. Learn something of the
odes of Horace.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
VIII.
Elegies.
Study Milton's Lycidas.
Read selections from Spen-
ser's Astrophel; Shelley's
A donais ; Tennyson's In Me-
moriam ; Ode on the Death
of the Duke of Wellington ;
Pope's Elegy on an Unfortu-
nate Lady. Study Gray's Ele-
gy in a Country Churchyard;
The Dirge in Cymbclitte ; and
Collins's Dirge in Cymbeline.
Read Shenstone's Elegies ;
Cowper's The Castaway ; and
Bryant's Thanatopsis.
For references to Milton and
Spenser, see other schemes.
For Shelley's Adonais, see
Mutton's Essays. See F. W.
Robertson's Analysis of In
Memoriam. See also, for sub-
jects connected with these
studies, Roscoe's Essays ; Haz-
litt's English Poets ; Dr. John-
son's Life of Gray; E. W.
Gosse's Gray, in " English
Men of Letters ; " Parke God-
win's Life of William Cullen
Bryant.
IX.
Miscellaneous Lyrics.
Study selections from the
poems of Burns, Ramsay, and
Fergusson ; Whittier, Bryant,
and Longfellow ; William
Blake ; Mrs. Browning, Tenny-
son, and Swinburne ; and oth-
ers, both British and American.
Refer to the manuals else-
where mentioned.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gested by these studies.
Discuss the distinctive quali-
ties of Lyric Poetry, and the
place which it occupies in Eng-
lish Literature.
DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.
195
SCHEME VIII.
Jor tfje Stuljg of Uesctipti&e $0etrg, 3Etc.
LITERATURE.
Study selections from the
poems of William Cullen Bry-
ant.
Study Whittier's Snow-
Bound, and other descriptive
poems.
Study Milton's L" Allegro
and // Penseroso.
Study selections from Thom-
son's Seasons, and Cowper's
Task.
Study Goldsmith's Traveller,
and The Deserted Village;
also, Shenstone's Schoolmis-
tress.
Find and read characteristic
descriptive passages in the
poems of Scott, Byron, Shelley,
Wordsworth, Keats, Brown-
ing, and others. Compare
Scott's descriptions with the
descriptions in Pope's Wind-
sor Forest and in Denham's
Cooper's Hill.
Select and study descriptive
passages from Chaucer's Po-
ems, and from Spenser's Faerie
Queene.
Read selections from Gay's
Rural S forts, and from Bloom-
field's Farmer's Boy,
PARALLEL STUDIES.
See Godwin's Life of Wil-
liam Cullen Bryant', and
Underwood's biography of
John G. Whittier. See Stop-
ford Brooke's Milton ; and
Mark Pattison's Milton, in
" English Men of Letters ; "
Irving's Life of Goldsmith;
Thackeray's English Humor-
ists of the Eighteenth Century;
William Black's Goldsmith, in
" English Men of Letters ; "
Hazlitt's English Poets; and
De Quincey's Literature of the
Eighteenth Century.
Read Macaulay's Essay on
Moore 's L ife of Byron.
Refer to Goldwin Smith's
Coivper, in "English Men of
Letters ; " also to Charles
Cowden Clarke's Life of Cow-
per.
See references to Chaucer
and Spenser elsewhere given.
Pastoral Poetry.
Study Milton's Arcades, and
selections from Pope's Pasto-
rals ; also from Spenser's
Shepherd's Calendar.
Read Pope's Essay on Pas-
toral Poetry.
Learn something about The-
ocritus and his Idyls, and
196
THE BOOK-LOVER.
See Drayton's Shepherd's
Garland; Browne's Britan-
nia's Pastorals ', Jonson's Sad
Shepherd; Fletcher's Faith-
ful Shepherdess; Gay's Shep-
herd's Week; Ramsay's Gen-
tle Shepherd; and Shenstone's
Pastoral Ballads.
about the Eclogues of Virgil.
A translation of the former
may be found in Bohn's Clas-
sical Library. The latest
translation of the Eclogues is
that by Wilstach.
SCHEME IX.
for tfje Stubs of Satire, TOt, anfc
LITERATURE.
DEAN SWIFT, the great Eng-
lish satirist. Study his life
and character. See Forster's
Life of Swift ; or Leslie
Stephen's Swift, in " Eng-
lish Men of Letters."
Read selections from Gulli-
ver^s Travels, and the Tale of
a Tub. Read, also, his Modest
Proposal.
DANIEL DEFOE'S Satirical Es-
says: The Shortest Way
with Dissenters, etc.
See Minto's Defoe, in " Eng-
lish Men of Letters."
The origin and growth of
satirical literature in England.
JOHN SKELTON'S Satires. See
Warton's History of English
Poetry, and Taine's English
Literature.
BARCLAY'S Shyp of Fooles.
See Warton's History.
The Satires of Surrey and
Wyatt. See Hallam's
PARALLEL STUDIES.
RABELAIS, the great satirist
of France. Read Besant's
French Humorists ; and
Rabelais, by the same au-
thor. Refer also to Van
Laun's History of French
Literature.
VOLTAIRE, the third of the
great modern satirists.
Read Parton's Life of Vol-
taire; or Voltaire, by John
Morley ; or Colonel Ham-
ley's Voltaire, in " Foreign
Classics for English Read-
ers."
Satirical literature in Rome.
The great poetical satirists of
ancient times, Horace and
Juvenal. See Lord Lytton's
translation of the Epodes
and Satires of Horace ; and
Dryden's Imitations of Ju-
venal. Dr. Johnson's Lon-
don and The Vanity of
SATIRE, WIT, AND HUMOR.
197
ary History, and Chalmers'
Collection vf the Poets.
GASCOIGNE'S The Steele Glass.
DONNE'S Satires. See Pope's
The Satires of Dr. Donne
Versified.
HALL'S Virgidemiarum. See
Warton's History,and Camp-
bell's Specimens of the Eng-
fish Poets.
Study selected passages from
Butler's Hudibras.
Refer to Hazlitt's Comic
Writers, and Leigh Hunt's
Wit and Wisdom.
DRYDEN'S A bsalom and Achi-
tophel, and the publications
which followed it.
DRYDEN'S MacFlecknoe.
POPE'S Dunciad.
BYRON'S English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers.
LOWELL'S Fable for Critics.
POPE'S Moral Essays,
SWIFT'S Satirical Poems.
The humor of Fielding, Smol-
lett, and Goldsmith, as ex-
hibited in their writings.
CHATTERTON'S Prophecy.
Read Burns' Holy Willie's
Prayer, and the Holy Fair.
SYDNEY SMITH. See the Wit
and Wisdom of Sydney
Smith (1861).
The Fudge Family in Paris,
by Thomas Moore-
The Humorous Essays of
Charles Lamb.
THOMAS CARI.YLE'S Sartor
Resartus, and Latter-Day
Pamphlets. Study selec-
tions.
Human Wishes are also
imitations of Juvenal. See
Dryden's Essay on Satire.
To understand the satires of
Hall, Butler, Dryden, and
Pope, it is absolutely necessary
to be well acquainted with the
history and social condition of
England during the seven-
teenth century.
Study Green's History of
the English People.
Study the political agitations
in England just preceding the
Revolution of 1688.
Compare these four personal
satires, and write essays on the
subjects suggested by their
study.
Read Thackeray's Humor-
ists of the Eighteenth Century,
and Hazlitt's Contic Writers.
Study the social condition of
England in the eighteenth
century.
Study the political agitations
in England during the first half
of the present century. Refer
to Knighfs History of Eng-
land, and to Justin McCarthy's
History of Our Own Times.
Miss Martineau's History of
the Thirty Years' Peace may
be read with profit.
Write essays on subjects sug-
gesjcd by these studies.
198
THE BOOK-LOVER.
THACKERAY as a humorist.
Read his Irish Sketch-Book,
and selections from the Book
of Snobs, but especially ob-
serve his power in Vanity
Fair.
Read and study Dr. Holmes'
Autocrat of the Breakfast-
Table.
Read Lowell's Biglow Pa-
pers.
Read selections from Mark
Twain and other living Ameri-
can humorists.
Compare the humor of the
present day with that of the
last generation. Read selec-
tions from Irving's Sketch
Book, and Knickerbocker's
New York.
Read Burns' Tarn O'Shan-
ter ; and selections from Hood,
John G. Saxe, and others.
Study the true distinctions
between Wit, Humor, and
Satire ; and select from what
you have read a number of illus-
trative examples.
Discuss questions which may
arise from these studies ; and
write essays on the same.
Study the biographies of
Irving, Lowell, Holmes, Mark
Twain, Saxe, and other Amer-
ican authors whose works have
been noticed in this scheme.
SCHEME X.
Jor tfje Stung of ISnglisfj $ro0e .fiction.
General Works of Reference.
LITERATURE.
DUNLOP'S History of Fiction.
JEAFFKESON'S Novels and
Novelists.
MASSON'S British Novelists
and their Styles.
TUCKERMAN'S History of
English Prose Fiction.
PARALLEL STUDIES.
The historical works and also
the literary manuals mentioned
in Scheme IV. should be at
hand for constant reference.
ENGLISH PROSE FICTION.
199
The First Romances.
SIDNEY'S Arcadia.
LYLY'S Euphues.
GREENE'S Pandosto, or the
Triumph of Time.
The Novels of Thomas Nash.
Study the conditions of life
and thought in England under
which these first attempts at
the writing of prose romance
were made.
II.
Fabulous Voyages and Travels.
GODWIN'S Man in the Moon.
HALL'S Mundus Alter et
Idem.
SWIFT'S Gulliver's Travels;
read selections.
Study Robinson Crusoe.
The Adventures of Peter
Wilkins.
EDGAR A. POE'S Narrative of
A rthur Gordon Pytn.
See Collins' Lucian, in "An-
cient Classics for English
Readers," for an account of
Lucian's Veracious History.
Read the voyage of Gargan-
tua by Rabelais ; or, better,
consult Besant's Rabelais.
Read Minto's Defoe, in
" English Men of Letters."
See Forster's Life of Dean
Swift; Scott's Memoir of
Dean Swift ; and Minto's
Manual of English Prose.
III.
Romances of the Supernatural
The Castle of
WALPOLB'S
Otranto.
MRS. RADCLIFFE'S Romances,
GODWIN'S St. Leon.
BULWBR'S Zanoni.
MRS. SHELLEY'S Franken-
stein.
LEWIS'S The Monk.
See Tuckerman's Literature
of Fiction (an essay) ; C. Ke-
gan Paul's Life of William
Godwin ; Macaulay's Essay on
Horace Walpole ; Miss Kava-
nagh's English Women of
Letters.
IV.
Oriental Romances.
BECKFORD'S Vathek.
HOPE'S A nastasius.
The Adventures of Hajji
Baba.
2OO
THE BOOK-LOVER.
V.
Historical Romances.
Miss PORTER'S Scottish
Chiefs.
SCOTT'S Waverley Novels.
The Novels of G. P. R.
James.
BULWER'S Last Days of Pom-
peii; Rienzi', Harold ', The
Last of the Barons.
LOCKHART'S Valerius.
KINGSLEY'S Hypatia.
GEORGE ELIOT'S Romola.
See Lockhart's Life of
Scott; Stephen's Hours in a
Library; Carlyle's Essay on
Sir Walter Scott; Shaw's
Manual of English Litera-
ture ; Hutton's Scott, in " Eng-
lish Men of Letters ; " Nassau
Senior's Essays on Fiction ;
The Life of Ed-ward Buliver-
Lytton. by his son, the present
Lord Lytton.
VI.
Novels of Social Life, etc.
RICHARDSON'S Novels.
FIELDING'S Tom Jones.
SMOLLETT'S Novels.
STERNE'S Tristram Shandy.
GOLDSMITH'S Vicar of Wake-
field.
Miss BURNEY'S Novels.
GODWIN'S Caleb Williams.
Miss EDGEWORTH'S Novels.
SCOTT'S Guy Mannering; The
Heart of Mid -Lothian;
The Bride ofLammermoor;
The A ntiquary ; etc.
Miss AUSTEN'S Works.
THACKERAY'S Vanity Fair.
DICKBNS'S Pickwick Papers.
Other Novels of Dickens and
Thackeray.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE'S Jane
Eyre.
BULWER'S Novels.
DISRAELI'S Vivian ; and Lo-
thair.
CHARLES KINGSLFV'S Noveh.
GEORGE ELIOT'S Works.
See Stephen's Hours in a
Library ; Hazlitt's English
Noz'elists ; Thackeray's Eng-
lish Humorists of the Eigh-
teenth Century ; Irving's Life
of Goldsmith ; Macaulay's Es-
say rn Madame d'Arblay ;
MissKavanagh's>z^/iiA Wo-
men of Letters; James T.
Fields' Yesterdays -with Au-
thors; Home's New Spirit of
the Age ; John Forster's Life
of Charles Dickens ; Hannay's
Studies on Thackeray ; Han-
nay's Characters and Sketches;
Anthony Trollope's Thack-
eray, in " English Men of
Letters;" Taine's English
Literature, vol. iv. ; Mrs.
Gaskell's Life of Charlotte
Bronte ; Miss Martineau's Bi-
ographical Sketches; Thack-
eray's Roundabout Papers ;
Life of Charles Brockden
Brown, in Sparks' "American
Biography ; '' Griswold's Prose
ENGLISH PROSE FICTION.
2OI
A merican Fiction :
CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN'S
Wieland, and other Novels.
COOPER'S Novels.
JAMES KIRKE PAULDING.
JOHN P. KENNEDY.
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS.
HAWTHORNE'S Works.
The later and living novelists.
Writers of America; Pres-
cott's Miscellaneous Essays ;
J. T. Fields' Hawthorne ; H.
A. Yzge?s Life of Hawthorne ;
Lathrop's Study of Haw-
thorne ; Roscoe's Essays ;
Hawthorne, by Henry James,
in " English Men of Letters ; "
Cooke's George Eliot : a Crit-
ical Study of her Life, Writ-
ings, and Philosophy ; (Round-
Table Series) George Eliot,
Moralist and Thinker.
VII.
Didactic Fiction.
MORB'S Utopia.
HARRINGTON'S Oceana.
DISRAELI'S Coningsby.
BULWER-LYTTON'S The Com-
ing Race.
BUNYAN'S Pilgrim's Pro-
gress.
HANNAH MORE'S Novels.
JOHNSON'S Rasselas.
The modern didactic novel.
See Hallam's Literary His-
tory; and references given in
the preceding schemes.
CHAPTER XII.
2T!)e
Best 33ookg."
HAVE often wished some one
would recommend a hundred
good books. In the absence of
such lists I have picked out the
books most frequently mentioned with ap-
proval by those who have referred directly
or indirectly to the pleasures of reading,
and have ventured to include some which
though less frequently mentioned, are espe-
cial favorites of my own." Such was the
prelude of an address delivered by Sir John
Lubbock, in January, 1886, to the members
of the Workingmen's College, London. That
address, with the list of books recommended
therein, was the beginning of a spirited discus-
sion among readers and book-lovers both in
England and in America, which resulted, among
other things, in proving that in so small ( ?J a
202
" THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS: 1 203
matter as the selection of a hundred books
no two scholars can agree. It resulted, also,
in the formation of several lists, each of a hun-
dred good books, from which any reader can
select without danger of serious error. Sir
John Lubbock's list is as follows :
The Bible.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
Epictetus.
Confucius, Analects.
Le Bouddha et sa Religion (St. Hilaire).
Aristotle, Ethics.
Mahomet, Koran (parts of).
Apostolic Fathers, Wake's Collection.
St. Augustine, Confessions.
Thomas a Kempis, Imitation.
Pascal, Penstes.
Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.
Comte, Catechism of Positive Philosophy (Congreve).
Butler, Analogy.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living and Holy Dying.
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress.
Keble, Christian Year.
Aristotle, Politics.
Plato's Dialogues, at any rate the Phado and Re-
public.
Demosthenes, De CoronA.
Lucretius.
Plutarch. .
204 THE BOOK-LOVER,
Horace.
Cicero, De Officiis, De Amicitid, De Senectute.
Homer, Iliad and Odyssey.
Hesiod.
Virgil.
Nibelungen Lied.
Malory, Morte d' 1 Arthur.
Maha-Bharata, Ramayana, epitomized by Talboys
Wheeler in the first two volumes of his History
of India.
Firdusi, Shah-N'ameh (trans, by Atkinson).
She-king (Chinese Odes).
^Eschylus, Prometheus, House of Atreus, Trilogy, or
Persa.
Sophocles, (Edipus, Trilogy.
Euripides, Medea.
Aristophanes, The Knights.
Herodotus.
Xenophon, Anabasis.
Thucydides.
Tacitus, Ger mania.
Livy.
Gibbon, Decline and Fall.
Hume, England.
Grote, Greece.
Carlyle, French Revolution.-'
Green, Short History of England.
Bacon, Novum Organum. .-
" THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS." 205
Mill, Logic and Political Economy.
Darwin, Origin of Species.
Smith, Wealth, of Nations (part of).
Berkeley, Human Knowledge.
Descartes, Discours stir la Methode.
Locke, Conduct of the Understanding.
Lewes, History of Philosophy.
Cook, Voyages.
Humboldt, Travels.
Darwin, Naturalist in the Beagle.
Shakspeare.
Milton, Paradise Lost, and the shorter poems.
Dante, Divina Commedia.
Spenser, Faerie Queene.
Dryden's Poems.
Chaucer, Morris's (or, if expurgated, Clarke's or
Mrs. Haweis's) edition.
Gray.
Burns.
Scott's Poems.
Wordsworth, Mr. Arnold's selection.
Heine.
Pope.
Southey.
Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield.
Swift, Gulliver's Travels.
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. .
The Arabian Nights.
Cervantes, Don Quixote.
Boswell, Johnson.
Burke, Select Works (Payne).
206 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Essayists, Bacon, Addison, Hume, Montaigne,
Macaulay, Emerson.
Moliere.
Sheridan.
Voltaire, Zadig.
Carlyle, Past and Present,
Goethe, Faust, Wilhelm Meister.
White, Natural History of Set bourne.
Smiles, Self Help.
Miss Austen, either Emma or Pride and Prejudice.
Thackeray, Vanity Fair and Pendennis.
Dickens, Pickwick and David Copperfield.
George Eliot, Adam Bede.
Kingsley, Westward Ho !
Bulwer-Lytton, Last Days of Pompeii.
Scott's Novels.
In a note of explanation directed to the
editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette," Sir John
says : " I may observe that I drew up the
list, not as that of the hundred best books,
but, which is very different, of those which
on the whole are best worth reading."
Commenting upon the above list, Mr.
Ruskin says : " Putting my pen lightly through
the needless and blottesquely through the
rubbish and poison of Sir John's list I leave
enough for a life's liberal reading, and choice for
any true worker's loyal reading. 1 have added
one quite vital and essential book, Livy (the
" THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS:' 207
first two books), and three plays of Aris-
tophanes (" Clouds," " Birds," and " Plutus ").
Of travels, I read myself all old ones I can
get hold of; of modern, Humboldt is the cen-
tral model. Forbes (James Forbes in Alps)
is essential to the modern Swiss tourist of
sense." And then Mr. Ruskin proceeds with
his demolition of Sir Lubbock's list. He strikes
out all the works on morals, theology, and
devotion at the head of the list, leaving only
Jeremy Taylor and the " Pilgrim's Progress."
He strikes out also Sophocles, Euripides, Gib-
bon, Voltaire, Hume, Grote, Southey, Swift,
Macaulay, Emerson, Thackeray, George Eliot,
Kingsley, and Bulwer-Lytton. Among the
philosophers he spares only Bacon ; among
the novelists, only Scott and Dickens ; among
the essayists, only Addison and Montaigne.
In a letter, written shortly afterward, he says :
" As for advice to scholars in general, I do
not see how any modest scholar coul'd ven-
ture to advise another. Every man has his
own field, and can only by his own sense dis-
cover what is good for him in it."
It has often been asked by lovers of good
fiction, " What are the hundred best novels? "
The following list, prepared some years ago
by Mr. F. B. Perkins for the " Library Jour-
208
THE BOOK-LOVER.
nal," although by no means perfect, contains,
without doubt, the titles of a very large pro-
portion of all that is best in the department
of prose fiction :
Don Quixote.^
Gil Bias.
Pilgrim's P' ^gress.
Tale of a i'ub.
Gulliver.
Vicar of Wakefield. -
Robinson Crusoe.
Arabian Nights.
Decameron.
Wilhelm Meister.
Vathek.
Corinne.
Undine.
Sintram.
Thisdolf.
Peter Schlemihl.
Anastasius.
Sense and Sensibility.
Pride and Prejudice.
Mary Powell.
Amber Witch.
Household of T. More.
Cruise of the Midge.
Guy Mannering.
Antiquary.
Bride of Lammermoor.
Legend of Montrose.
Rob Roy.
Woodstock.
Ivanhoe.
Talisman.
Fortunes of Nigel.
Old Mortality.
Quentin Durward.
Heart of Midlothian.
Kenilworth.
Fair Maid of Perth.
Vanity Fair.
Pendennis.
Newcomes.
Esmond.
Adam Bede.
Mill on the Floss.
Romola.
Middlemarch.
Pickwick.
Chuzzlewit.
Nickleby.
Copperfield.
Bleak House.
Tale of Two Cities.
Dombey.
Oliver Twist.
Tom Cringle's Log.
Japhet in Search of a
Father.
Peter Simple.
Midshipman Easy.
Scarlet Letter.
Seven Gables.
" THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS." 209
Wandering Jew.
Mysteries of Paris.
Humphry Clinker.
Eugenie Grandet.
Charles O'Malley.
Harry Lorrequer. x
Handy Andy. y
Challenge of Bartetta.
Betrothed (Manzoni's).
Counterparts.
Charles Auchester.
,/Tom Brown's School-
days.
Tom Brown at Oxford. ~
Lady Lee's Widowhood.
Horseshoe Robinson.
Pilot.
Spy.
Last of the Mohicans.
Jane Eyre.
Tom Jones.
My Novel.
On the Heights.
Three Guardsmen. -
Monte Christo. ^
Les Miserables. -
Notre-Dame.
Consuelo.
Fadette (Fanchon).
Woman in White.
Love Me Little Love Me
Long.
Two Years Ago.
Yeast.
Coningsby.
Young Duke.
Bachelor of Albany.
Hyperion.
Kavanagh.
Minister's Wooing.
Kn ickerbocker's New
York.
Elsie Venner.
JJncle Tom's Cabin.
Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer,
writing to the editor of the " Pall Mall Ga-
zette," says : " You asked me what books I
carried with me to take across Africa. I car-
ried a great many, 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
14
210 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Atlantic, I possessed only the Bible, Shak-
speare, Carlyle's ' Sartor -Resartus,' Norie's
Navigation, and the Nautical Almanac for
1877." Then follows the list of the books
with which he began his journey :
The Bible.
Norie's Navigation.
Inman's Navigation and Tables.
Nautical Almanacs, 1874, '75, '76, *77-
Manual of Scientific Inquiry.
What to Observe.
Darwin's Origin of Species.
Lyell's Principles of Geology.
Hugh Miller's Old Red Sandstone.
Dictionary of Biography.
Dictionary of Geography.
Dictionary of Dates.
Dictionary of the Bible.
Dictionary of Natural History.
Dictionary of Science and Literature.
Caesar's Commentaries.
Herodotus.
Horace.
Juvenal.
Thucydides.
Xenophon.
Plutarch.
Evelyn's Diary.
Pepys's Diary.
Gibbon's Decline and Fall.
The Koran.
The Talmud.
Johnson's Lives of Poets.
Gil Bias.
Don Quixote.
" THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS." 211
Arabian Nights.
Hudibras.
Homer's Iliad.
Homer's Odyssey.
Virgil's ^Eneid.
Shakspeare.
Milton.
Byron.
Scott.
Moore.
Pope.
Thomson.
Longfellow.
Tennyson.
Cowper.
The Faerie Queene.
Selections Old English Dramatists.
Dick's English Plays.
Boswell's Johnson.
Selections from Ruskin.
Roscoe's German, Italian, and Spanish Novelists.
Scott's Ivanhoe, Talisman, Guy Mannering, and
Quentin Durward.
Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Dickens's Mutual Friend.
Dickens's David Copperfield.
Thackeray's Esmond.
Hawthorne's Transformation.
George Eliot's Middlemarch.
Irving's Columbus.
Irving's Conquest of Granada.
Prescott's Conquest of Mexico.
John Halifax, Gentleman.
Whyte Melville's Gladiator.
Lytton's Rienzi.
Lytton's Last of the Barons.
Lytton's Harold.
212 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Lytton's Caxtons.
Sterne's Tristram Shandy.
Kingsley's Hypatia.
Kingsley's Hereward.
Archdeacon Farrar, being asked to name
what he considered the hundred best books,
replied : " If all the books in the world were
in a blaze, the first twelve which I would
snatch out of the flames would be, the Bible,
Imitatio Christi, Homer, ^Eschylus, Thucy-
dides, Tacitus, Virgil, Marcus Aurelius, Dante,
Shakspeare, Milton, Wordsworth. Of living
authors I would save first the works of Ten-
nyson, Browning, and Ruskin."
I can but close this chapter of book-lists by
complying with the wishes of many parents
and educators who desire a more extended
catalogue of works suitable for a young per-
son's library than I have yet given. The fol-
lowing list, although by no means including
all that are really praiseworthy, embraces one
hundred volumes that can be recommended
without hesitation :
Andersen's Fairy Stories.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Robinson Crusoe.
Swiss Family Robinson.
"THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS." 213
Hawthorne's Wonder Book.
Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales.
Kingsley's Heroes.
Kingsley's Water Babies.
Kingsley's Madame How and Lady Why.
Lanier's Boy's King Arthur.
Scott's Ivanhoe.
Lanier's Boy's Percy.
Abbott's Histories (30 vols.).
Dickens's Child's History of England.
Yonge's Young Folks' Histories (6 vols.).
Edgeworth's Parents' Assistant.
Aikin's Evenings at Home.
Scudder's Bodley Books (8 vols.).
Church's Stories from Homer.
Mrs. Dodge's Hans Brinker.
Andrews's Seven Little Sisters.
Bits of Talk, by " H. H."
Eliot's Poetry for Childhood.
Lamb's Tales from Shakspeare.
Coffin's Story of Liberty.
Coffin's Old Times in the Colonies.
Coffin's Boys of '76.
Coffin's Building the Nation.
Higginson's History of the United States.
Thaxter's Among the Isles of Shoals.
Whittier's Snow Bound.
Longfellow's Evangeline.
Starrett's Letters to a Daughter.
Starrett's Letters to Elder Daughters.
Notes for Boys, by an Old Boy.
Buckley's Oats or Wild Oats ?
Collyer's Talks to Young Men.
Munger's Lamps and Paths.
Butcher and Lang's Homer (2 vols.).
Alcott's Little Women.
Alice Gary's Clovernook Children.
214 THE BOOK-LOVER.
Scudder's Book of Folk Stories.
Mrs. Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Taylor's Boys of Other Countries.
Beard's American Boy's Handy Book.
Beard's American Girl's Handy Book.
Holder's Marvels of Animal Life.
Holder's Living Lights.
Jordan's Science Sketches.
Herrick's Chapters on Plants.
White's Plutarch for Boys and Girls.
Kale's Family Flight Series (4 vols.).
Nordhoff's Politics for Young Americans.
Bolton's Poor Boys who became Famous.
Ruskin's King of the Golden River.
after
ERE let us face the last question
of all : In the shade and valley of
Life, on what shall we repose ?
When we must withdraw from the
scenes which our own energies and agonies
have somewhat helped to make glorious ; when
the windows are darkened, and the sound of
the grinding is low, where shall we find the
beds of asphodel '? Can any couch be more
delectable than that amidst the Elysian leaves
of Books ? The occupations of the morning and
the noon determine the affections, which will
continue to seek their old nourishment when
the grand climacteric has been reached.
THE AUTHOR OF " HESPERIDES."
2I 5
INDEX.
217
INDEX.
Abbott, Jacob, 103, 104.
Addison, Joseph, 32, 78, 207.
" ./Eneid," Virgil's, 74.
jEschylus, 36, 74, 212.
Alcott, A. Bronson, 63, 78,
79-
Allegory, 189.
American Fiction, 201.
American History, 138.
Andersen, Hans Christian, 100.
"Arabian Nights," 77.
" Areopagitica," 78.
Ariosto, 75.
Aristophanes, 74, 207.
Arnold, Edwin, 160.
Arnold, Matthew, 72.
Arnott, Dr., 14.
Axon, William, 62.
Bacon, Lord, 53, 78, 96, 207.
Ballads, 192.
Banking, 170.
Battle Songs, 192.
Baxter, Richard, 165.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 71.
Beecher, Henry Ward, 18, 60.
Bennoch, Francis, 17.
Bible, The, 88, 159, 212.
Boccaccio, 76.
Books for Every Scholar, 69.
Borrowed Books, 58.
Boswell's Johnson, 79.
Bright, John, 17, 63.
Bronte, Charlotte, 82.
Brooke, Stopford, 72.
Brown, Dr. John, 154.
Browne, Matthew, 49.
Browne, Sir Thomas, 78.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett,
72, 76.
Bryant, William Cullen, 73.
Buddhism, 160.
Bulwer-Lytton, 82, 207.
Bunyan, John, 76, 178.
Burke, Edmund, 78.
Burns, Robert, 72, 76.
Burton, Robert, 21, 78.
Bury, Richard de, 9.
Byron, Lord, 76, 186.
Calderon, 75.
Camoens, 75.
" Canterbury Tales," 178.
Carlyle, Thomas, 15, 29, 45, 79,
119, 197.
Carr, Frank (" Launcelot
Cross "), 61, 215.
Cervantes, 76, 80.
Chambers, Robert, 71, 80, 93,
104.
Chambers, William, 93.
Channing, William Ellery, 13.
Chapman's Homer, 74, 83.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 42, 70, 187.
Children's Books, 84.
Chinese Classics, 160.
22O
INDEX.
Chivalry, Tales of, 102.
Choice of Books, 23.
Christian Year, The, 72.
Cicero's Orations, 79.
Clarke, James Freeman, 19.
Clarke, Charles and Mary
Cowden, 113.
Cobbett, William, 33.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 53,
72, 76.
Collier, Jeremy, 13, 83.
Collyer, Robert, 25, 95.
Colton, Charles C., 54.
Comte, Auguste, 43.
Constitutional History, 168.
Cook's Voyages, 91.
Cooper, James Fenimore, 81.
Corneille, 75, 76.
Cox, 101.
Crabbe, George, 76.
Craik, Dinah Mulock, 82.
Crusoe, Robinson, 80, 104.
Currency and Wealth, 169.
Dante's " Divina Commedia,"
36, 75, 76, 184.
Dawson, George, 64.
Defoe, Daniel, 80, 86, 104
Demosthenes, 79, 178.
Descriptive Poetry, 195.
Dickens, Charles, 81, 103, 207.
Didactic Fiction, 201.
Didactic Poetry, 191.
Dramatic Poetry, 179.
Drayton, Michael, 71.
Dowden, Edward, 72.
Dryden, John, 70, 71.
Dyer, George, 63.
Elegies, 194.
Eliot, George, 81, 162, 207.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 16, 46,
74, 79, 120, 163, 207.
English Literature, 174.
Epic Poetry, 183.
Fabulous Voyages, 199.
Fairy Stories, 99.
Farrar, Archdeacon, 212.
Fe'nelon's "Telemaque," St.
Fiction, English Prose, 198.
Fielding, Henry, 81.
Franklin, Benjamin, 85.
Friedrich II., 21.
Froude, James Anthony, 79,
119.
Geography, 144.
Gibbon, Edward, 51, 207.
Gilfillan, George, 46.
Goethe, 54, 75, 76, 81.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 72, 76, 80,
92.
Government, Science of, 167.
Greek Drama, 181.
Greek History, 121.
Greek Literature, 123.
Green, J. R., 78.
Grimm, 100.
Guernsey, Alfred, 79.
Hale, Sir Matthew, 159.
Hallam, Henry, 71.
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 54.
Hare, Julius C., 45.
Harrison, Frederic, 34, 76, 80,
176.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 81, 101.
Hazlitt, William, 70.
Helps, Sir Arthur, 47.
Herbert, George, 71.
Herodotus, 36.
Herschel, Sir J., 80.
" Hesperides," 61.
Historical Romances, 200.
History, Course of Reading
in, 119.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 70,
72. 79-
Homer, 36, 74, 90, 212.
Horace, 75.
INDEX.
221
Hudson, Henry N., 106, 108.
Hugo, Victor, 63, 75, 81.
Humor, Wit and, 196.
" Hundred Best Books," 202.
Hunt, Leigh, 82.
Hymns, 192.
Irving, Washington, 79, 96.
Jerrold, Douglas, 112.
Johnson, Samuel, 79, 80.
Jonson, Ben, 71, 78.
Keats, John, 72, 76.
Keble, John, 72.
Kempis, Thomas a, 162.
Kingsley, Charles, 22, 81, 100,
101, 207.
Koran, The, 161.
Labor and Wages, 170.
Lamb, Charles, 71, 79, 83, 113.
Langford, J. A., 19.
Libraries, 56, 108.
Locke, John, 44.
Lodge, H. Cabot, 79.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth,
72, 76, 189.
Love Lyrics, 193.
Lowell, J. R., 76, 79.
Lubbock, Sir J., 202, 206.
Luther, Martin, 44.
" Lycidas," 178.
Lyric Poetry, 194.
Lytton, Lord, 71, 75, 78, 82.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington,
73. 78, 79. 96, "9. 167,207.
MacDonald, George, 71.
Mackenzie, 79.
Marcus Aurelius, 161, 212.
Marlowe, Christopher, 71.
Martineau, Harriet, 43.
Mediaeval and Modern His-
tory, 129.
Mediseval Romances, 101.
Miller, Hugh, 88.
Milton, John, 12, 71, 76, 78,
183, 212.
Moliere, 75.
Montaigne's Essays, 78.
Morris, 101.
Morse, James Herbert, 37, 72.
Mythology, 101, 121.
Natural History, 144.
" Nibelungen Lied," 77, 101.
Novels, 80, 200.
Nursery Tales, 89.
Odes, 193.
Oriental Romances, 199.
" Paradise Lost," 177, 183.
Parker, Theodore, 17, 154.
Pastoral Poetry, 195.
Patmore, Coventry, 76.
Patriotism, Songs of, 192.
Pauperism, 172.
Perkins, F. B., 207.
Petrarca, Francesco, 10.
Petrarch, 75.
Philosophy and Religion, 134.
Plato, 36, 159.
Pliny the Elder, 25.
Plutarch's Lives, 79, 86, 124.
" Poets and Poetry of Europe,"
75-
Political Economy, 167.
Pope, Alexander, 71, 90.
Population, 169.
Praise of Books, 9.
Prefaces always to be read, 51.
Procter, Bryan Waller, 51, 56.
Prometheus, Tragedy of, 74.
Quintilian, 44.
Rabelais, 76, 196.
Racine. 75.
Radcliffe, Mrs., 91.
222
INDEX.
Rand, McNally, & Co.'s Atlas,
144.
Rands, W. H., 49.
Rantzau, Henry, 22.
Religious Books, 154.
Religious Poetry, 192.
Rhodiginus, Balthasar Boni-
facius, 12.
Richardson, Charles F., 49, 55.
Richter, Jean Paul, 64.
Ringelbergius, 174.
Robertson, F. W., 43,
" Robinson Crusoe," 80, 104.
Roman History, 125.
Roman Literature, 128.
Romances, 185, 199.
Romances of the Middle Ages,
101.
Rules for Reading, 42, 46.
Ruskin, John, 30, 36, 40, 48, 59,
72, 76, 206, 207, 212.
Saadi's " Gulistan," 160.
Satire, 196.
Schiller, 75.
Schlegel, A. W., 74.
Scholar, Books for every, 69.
School Libraries, 108.
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 28, 35.
Scott, Sir Walter, 72, 76, 81, 207.
Scripture Stories, 88.
Searle, January, 18, 23.
Seneca, 44.
Shakspeare, 36, 70, 76, 179,
180, 212.
Shelley, P. B., 76, 183, 194.
Smith, Alexander, 66, 79.
Smith, Goldwin, 72.
Socialism, 171.
Sonnets, 193.
South, Robert, 32, 44.
Southey, Robert, 27, 69, 207.
Spectator, The, 78, 86.
Spenser, Edmund, 36, 70.
Stae'l, Madame de, 81.
Stanley, Henry M., 209.
Stoddard, R. H., 73.
Story-telling Poetry, 187.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 81.
Swift, Dean, 80, 196, 207.
"Swiss Family Robinson,"
104.
Taine, H. A., 72, 75, 79, 81.
" Tales from Shakspeare," 104.
Tariff, Books on the, 172.
Tasso, 75.
Taxation, 172.
Taylor, Bayard, 104.
Tennyson, Alfred, 72, 76, 189,
212.
Thackeray, William Make-
peace, 80, 8 1, 207.
Theological Literature, 163.
Thirlwall, Bishop, 43.
" Tom Brown's School-Days,"
104.
Travels and Adventure, 144.
Troubadours, The, 186.
Twain, Mark, 81.
Value and Use of Libraries, 56.
" Vicar of Wakefield," 80.
Virgil's " ^Eneid," 74.
Wages and Labor, 170.
Waverley Novels, 81.
Wealth and Currency, 169.
Webster, Daniel, 78, 178.
Webster John, 71.
Whipple, Edwin P., 20.
Whittier, John G., 73.
Wit, Humor, and Satire, 196.
Wordsworth, William, 19, 72,
76, 212.
Yonge, 103.
Young Folks, Books for, 84.
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