A little incident will illustrate the diffi-
culty of selecting books for others. A young friend of ours desiring
to make a birthday present to another of a useful book, did not know
what to choose. By accident his eye fell upon a sentence in one of
Bulwer Lytton's novels which ran thus : " Whoever you are, and
whatever your condition in life, read the ' Life of Robert Hall.' "
Here the question seemed settled for him, and he lost no time in
making the purchase. Some time afterward he asked his friend how
he liked the book, for he himself had not read it. The answer was
that Robert Hall was a great preacher and a good man, who must
have suffered much in mind and body, but he did not see that his
life was more interesting than the lives of other good men. Then
our friend read the book himself, and sought eagerly for any special
reason why the great novel writer had urged every one to read the
" Life of Robert Hall " as more instructive and valuable than other
good lives. Robert Hall had been subject to spells of insanity, but so
had Cowper, and Collins, and Swift, and many other great minds.
He had suffered much also from bodily pain, but there were numbers
of greater men who had suffered more. He wondered why Lord
Lytton had selected and commended it above all others, and he
THE LIBKAKV IX THE HOME. 1 33
resolved to judge for himself before choosing for another in
future.
As lives that should be read by every one, those of Columbus, Sir
Walter Raleigh, Sir Isaac Newton, Nelson, Wellington, Napoleon.
Michael Angelo and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, occur readily
in addition to those already referred to. The lives of Raleigh
and Michael Angelo are conspicuous beyond all others for thju
versatility of powers they exhibit ; that of Newton for patience in
study and discovery; that of Charles the Twelfth for an indomitable
will-power never exceeded and perhaps hardly equalled. Beside the
great commanders on sea and land whom I have named, the heroes of
the reign of Elizabeth, who made Great Britain the mistress of the
seas, ought to fix the attention in reading the history of England.
Charles Dickens' " Child's History of England " is good to start with
in the nursery. Hume will come bye-and-bye, and after that the
imagination and the memory will find the volumes of ]Macaulay and
Froude more interesting than romance.
It is well in the library at home to have some fav^orite representative
of every art, science and profession, although we must not carry
our hero-worship too far or be too exclusive in the choice of our
representative men. Carlyle and Emerson have both chosen for
their readers, but every one can make a selection of his own. In
music, painting, sculpture, poetry, history, we may choose our own
favorites as we come to know them. Gibbon preferred Livy to any
other Latin historian, and Addison preferred Virgil to any other
Latin poet. Addison himself ought not to be neglected as one of
the greatest masters of gentle humor and delicate satire in the
English language. His papers in the "Spectator" are delightful as
well as instructive.
For boys, it is not necessary to recommend " Robinson Crusoe,"
the "Arabian Nights " or " Don Quixote." They are sure to find their
way into every home library.
Page 81
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
A little incident will illustrate the difficulty of selecting books for others. A young friend of ours desiring to make a birthday present to another of a useful book, did not know what to choose. By accident his eye fell upon a sentence in one of Bulwer Lytton's novels which ran thus : " Whoever you are, and whatever your condition in life, read the ' Life of Robert Hall.' " Here the question seemed settled for him, and he lost no time in making the purchase. Some time afterward he asked his friend how he liked the book, for he himself had not read it. The answer was that Robert Hall was a great preacher and a good man, who must have suffered much in mind and body, but he did not see that his life was more interesting than the lives of other good men. Then our friend read the book himself, and sought eagerly for any special reason why the great novel writer had urged every one to read the " Life of Robert Hall " as more instructive and valuable than other good lives. Robert Hall had been subject to spells of insanity, but so had Cowper, and Collins, and Swift, and many other great minds. He had suffered much also from bodily pain, but there were numbers of greater men who had suffered more. He wondered why Lord Lytton had selected and commended it above all others, and he
THE LIBRARY IN THE HOME. 133
resolved to judge for himself before choosing for another in future.
As lives that should be read by every one, those of Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Isaac Newton, Nelson, Wellington, Napoleon. Michael Angelo and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, occur readily in addition to those already referred to. The lives of Raleigh and Michael Angelo are conspicuous beyond all others for the versatility of powers they exhibit ; that of Newton for patience in study and discovery; that of Charles the Twelfth for an indomitable will-power never exceeded and perhaps hardly equalled. Beside the great commanders on sea and land whom I have named, the heroes of the reign of Elizabeth, who made Great Britain the mistress of the seas, ought to fix the attention in reading the history of England. Charles Dickens' " Child's History of England " is good to start with in the nursery. Hume will come bye-and-bye, and after that the imagination and the memory will find the volumes of ]Macaulay and Froude more interesting than romance.
It is well in the library at home to have some fav^orite representative of every art, science and profession, although we must not carry our hero-worship too far or be too exclusive in the choice of our representative men. Carlyle and Emerson have both chosen for their readers, but every one can make a selection of his own. In music, painting, sculpture, poetry, history, we may choose our own favorites as we come to know them. Gibbon preferred Livy to any other Latin historian, and Addison preferred Virgil to any other Latin poet. Addison himself ought not to be neglected as one of the greatest masters of gentle humor and delicate satire in the English language. His papers in the "Spectator" are delightful as well as instructive.
For boys, it is not necessary to recommend " Robinson Crusoe," the "Arabian Nights " or " Don Quixote." They are sure to find their way into every home library.