PR 2987 
 .112 
 Copy 1 
 
 How to Study Shakespeare 
 
 With Articles on General Literature and 
 Directions for Forming and 
 Conducting Study- 
 Circles 
 
 By 
 
 Hamilton Wright Mabie 
 Henry Van Dyck 
 Francis Hovey Stoddard 
 Nicholas Murray Butler 
 
 C. Alphonzo Smith 
 Lyman Abbott 
 Charles F. Richardson 
 Edward Everett Hale 
 
 AND others 
 
 PRICE 50 CENTS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY Inc. 
 
 1907 
 
BC 
 
 THE 
 duc( 
 resul 
 and Comi 
 With the ( 
 Shakesp 
 matter 
 
 ARE 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 COPYRIGHT OFFICE. 
 
 No registration 9J title of this book 
 as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
 tion has been found. Mc\\ is repro- 
 
 ..y p. , :essary by the 
 
 Forwarded to Order Division _ 'MJ.. ?^ MO- - - Critical Notes 
 
 1 on the Plays. 
 
 (Apr. 5, 1901-5,000.) JtP^ uthovity on 
 
 - Explanatory 
 
 ITie Booklovers tlditionTtherefore, rests upon a wider consensus of 
 
 Shakespearean knowledge than any other edition, and can be justly said to be 
 the best edition of Shakespeare's works in existence. The set 
 
 is complete in forty volumes. There are thirty -seven plays, a play to a volume ; 
 and the three remaining volumes contain respectively the Poems and Sonnets, a Life 
 of Shakespeare (with critical estimates by several eminent authorities), and a 
 Topical Index. 
 
 SPECIAL FEATURES 
 
 Glossaries 
 
 Each play is followed by its own glossary, which contains the definition of 
 every obsolete word in that play. It is a great convenience while readin'^ the 
 plays to be able to look up any desired word without referring to a separate volume. 
 
 Critical Notes 
 
 For the most scholarly student, dealing principally with textual criticisms. They 
 give the various renderings of the text in question, supplemented by the opinions 
 of eminent Shakespearean authorities. 
 
 Explanatory Notes 
 
 Adequate and clear explanations of such portions of the plays as might be 
 difficult to understand ; designed for the average reader. Like the Critical Notes, 
 these have been carefully selected from the works of prominent writers. 
 
 Critical Comments 
 
 Selections from the works of great Shakespearean scholars; designed to make 
 clear the larger meanings of the plays and the nature of the characters. The' 
 precede each play and are entirely different from both the Critical and t' 
 Elxplanatory Notes. 
 
 Arguments 
 
 Stories of the plays, embodying a more <lefinite description of the plot and 
 characters than could be obtained in any other way save by a perusal of the play. 
 These arguments are valuable as a pre-review for those who have not read 
 Shakespeare and as a concise synopsis for those who have. 
 
 (See third page of this cover for continued description.) 
 
How to Study Shakespeare 
 
 With Articles on General Literature and 
 
 Directions for Forming and 
 
 Conducting Study 
 
 Circles 
 
 By 
 
 Hamilton Wright Mabie 
 Henry Van Dyck 
 Francis Hovey Stoddard 
 Nicholas Murray Butler 
 
 C. Alphonzo Smith 
 Lyman Abbott 
 Charles F, Richardson 
 Edward Everett Hale 
 
 and others 
 
 fM 
 
 \ 
 art. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY Inc. 
 
 1907 
 
a? 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 .v^^ 
 
 How TO Study Shakespeare 1 
 
 By Hamilton Wright Mabie 
 
 Why Young Men Should Study Shakespeare . . 11 
 By Prof. C. Alonzo Smith 
 
 On Readers and Books 18 
 
 By Henry Van Dyke 
 
 Hints on Reading 22 
 
 By Lyman Abbott 
 
 Forming A Study Circle 27 
 
 By G. J. B. 
 
 The Study of Poetry 40 
 
 By Prof. Francis Hovey Stoddard 
 
 The Study of the Novel 52 
 
 By Prof Francis Hovey Stoddard 
 
 Reading Clubs for Women 64 
 
 By Prof. Chas. F. Richardson 
 
 Five Evidences of an Education 69 
 
 By Nicholas Murray Butler 
 
 How to Read 80 
 
 By Edward Everett Hale 
 
 The Study of English Literature . . . .85 
 By Various Authors 
 
 Outlines for the Study of Shakespeare ... 93 
 
 Copyright, 1902, by Thk Univkrsity Society. 
 
 Copyright, 1907, by The University Society Inc. 
 
 Copy ft ^. .At othcm: 
 
 •lAy 14 1910 
 
HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 How to Study Shakespeare 
 
 By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE 
 
 " You might read all the books in the British Museum, if you could 
 live long enough, and remain an entirely illiterate, uneducated per- 
 son. But if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter— that 
 is to say, with real accuracy — you are forevermore, in some measure, 
 an educated person." — Ruskin. 
 
 IT is one thing to read and another thing to study; and 
 yet reading is the chief means and the best method of 
 study when one is trying to understand a writer or a piece 
 of literature. The lover of Shakespeare begins by reading 
 the plays for pure pleasure and ends by reading them for 
 greater pleasure. In the meantime, he may, so to speak, 
 have taken them to pieces, examined their construction, 
 looked at the words in which they are written with a micro- 
 scope, traced their historical connections, gone back to their 
 sources. In doing this work of analysis — for it is necessary 
 to take a thing to pieces in order to find out how it is put 
 together^ — he may become so much interested in the detail 
 of the work that he loses sight of Shakespeare altogether 
 and becomes a student of language, grammar, the structure 
 of style, the evolution of the drama. This is what some- 
 times happens to the scholar ; in studying what may be called 
 the mechanics of a work of art he loses sight of the art itself. 
 To such a student the plays of Shakespeare become a quarry 
 out of which great masses of knowledge may be taken. 
 This is the study of Shakespeare's language, methods, con- 
 
 1 
 
2 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 struction; but it is not the study of Shakespeare ; and it is 
 with the study of Shakespeare that this paper concerns itself. 
 
 The best approach to a great book is by the way of simple 
 enjoyment. If I am to see the Sistine Madonna for the first 
 time I wish, above all things, to give myself up to the pure 
 delight of looking at the most beautiful picture ever painted 
 by man ; I wish to surrender myself to the great painter and 
 let his thought, expressed on the canvas, sink clear and 
 deep into my spirit. I wish to keep myself out of sight; 
 to postpone analysis, minute study of detail, the critical at- 
 titude. First and foremost I want to hear what Raphael has 
 to say, and I can best do that by keeping silent myself. 
 After I have heard him I can argue with him, criticise him, 
 condemn him if I choose ; but I must first hear him to the 
 end and without interruption. 
 
 In like manner, if I wish to know Shakespeare, I must 
 give him a full, free opportunity of telling me what he thinks 
 of life, how he understands it, what it means as its workings 
 are revealed in the careers of men and women ; and if I am 
 to get any impression of his way of telling his story I must 
 surrender myself to him and let him do what he can with 
 me. These are the first things I must do; and, if I care 
 more for the substance of things than for their peculiarities 
 of structure, more for the truth they have to impart than for 
 the order of words in which they impart that truth, more for 
 the living spirit than for the skeleton in which it is lodged, 
 these are the things to which I shall come back when I have 
 taken the plays to pieces and examined their mechanism 
 with a microscope. The end of art is to deepen the sense of 
 life and to give delight and exhilaration ; any kind of study 
 which secures these results is good; all kinds which miss 
 them are bad. 
 
 To begin with, then, the student of Shakespeare is to 
 remember that he is dealing with a great human spirit and 
 not with a mass of literary material ; that he is never to lose 
 the feeling of reverence which such a spirit inspires; that 
 he is handling human documents and not the stuff of which 
 grammars and rhetorics are made. To keep the mind open, 
 
HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 3 
 
 the heart tender, the imagination responsive: these are 
 the prime qualities in our friendships for one another, and 
 they are the prime quahties in our friendships with the great 
 writers. 
 
 This vital study, for the man who wishes to know Shake- 
 speare and does not expect to gain an expert's knowledge of 
 Shakespeare's works, is a very simple matter. All funda- 
 mental ways of dealing with the great realities are simple ; 
 it is the tricks of manner, the skill with small details, which 
 are abstruse and obscure. To know Shakespeare one needs, 
 first of all, a good edition of his works; this means a well- 
 printed and well-bound set of his plays and poems, of a size 
 that is easy and comfortable to the hand. There are sev- 
 eral editions of small size, but printed from large, clear type, 
 which have the advantage of fitting into a pocket without 
 discomfort. If one has little, or even a great deal of time 
 at command it is a matter of prime importance to keep 
 Shakespeare within reach ; to be able to put ten or twenty 
 minutes into reading '' Hamlet " or '' The Tempest " on a 
 train, in a cable car, or while one is waiting at a station. 
 Many men have educated themselves by using the odds and 
 ends of time which most people waste because they have 
 never learned what Mr. Gladstone called *' thrift of time." 
 
 Having become the possessor of a good edition of the 
 works, read them through as you would read a novel, giving 
 yourself up to the interest of the story. People forget that 
 many of the plays were suggested to Shakespeare by the 
 stories of his time and of earlier times, and that every one 
 of them is a condensed novel. If Shakespeare were not 
 placed so high on the shelves as a great classic it is probable 
 that more people would read him for simple entertainment; 
 for he is one of the most interesting writers in the world. 
 Many of the plays carry the reader along without any effort 
 on his part; just as ''The Mill on the Floss," "Vanity 
 Fair," *' The Tale of Two Cities," and - The Scarlet Let- 
 ter " carry him along. Many men have gained their most 
 vivid impressions of English history from the historical 
 plays, and at least one English statesman has not hesitated 
 
4 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 to confess that Shakespeare taught him nearly all the Eng- 
 lish history he knew. ^ 
 
 Read the plays, therefore, and re-read them continually : 
 for after one is familiar with the story one begins to be in- 
 terested in the people, anxious to understand them and to 
 know why they think, speak, and act as they do. Great 
 books hke f.e men who make them, are many-sided and 
 cannot be seen at the first glance; one must approach them 
 from different points of view, as one must approach a moun- 
 tain If one is to have an adequate idea of its size and shape 
 One must read the plays many times before one hears all 
 they have to say and sees clearly what Shakespeare is try- 
 ing to do; and as one reads he reads with increasing in- 
 sight and with more deliberation. He gets first a view of 
 the whole scene which Shakespeare spreads before him, and 
 then he begins to recognize the number and variety of the 
 objects which are grouped together and combined in a whole 
 Ihis familiarity is the beginning of intimacy, and so nat- 
 urally and inevitably leads on to the best and truest knowl- 
 edge that very little suggestion need be made to the man 
 who has begun to read the plays frequently and regularly 
 because he enjoys them. Have the plays at hand in a con- 
 venient form, carry one with you if you are to have any 
 leisure moments, cut down the time you give to newspapers ' 
 put aside the miscellaneous books you have been in the habit 
 of reading or are tempted to read, and study your Shake- 
 speare as often and regularly as you can; if you do this 
 Shakespeare will meet you more than half way and reveal 
 himself to you in ways you will not suspect at the start 
 
 You will not need, at the beginning, any elaborate ap- 
 paratus of books of reference. There are many admirable 
 books about Shakespeare which you may wish to read and 
 to own later, but at the start you will not need them The 
 best editions of Shakespeare supply all the information essen- 
 tial to the beginner. They contain introductions which tell 
 you when each play was written, where the materials were 
 found, how each play is related to the other plays, and con 
 vey other information which helps you to understand each 
 
HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 5 
 
 play and put it in its proper place; and they also contain 
 notes which explain historical and other references and allu- 
 sions, the uses of words, obscure passages, and disputed 
 points. Add to a good edition of the plays Mr. Sidney 
 Lee's biography, a concordance of the plays, Professor 
 Dowden's ''Shakespeare's Mind and Art," and read the 
 essays on Shakespeare by Coleridge, Lowell, Bagehot, and 
 other standard writers, whose works you will find in the 
 libraries, and you have all the machinery of study you need. 
 Read, in addition, the history of Shakespeare's age in Eng- 
 lish history as it is told in Green's ♦* History of the English 
 People." 
 
 The time will probably come when you will desire a 
 closer intimacy with the dramatist who has so broadened 
 your knowledge of human nature. It will be stimulating, 
 too, with one or more friends who are of your mind, to 
 begin a more systematic study, which need not demand too 
 much time. There are a number of excellent manuals which 
 present suggestions for careful and thorough study of the 
 plays. 
 
 The following *' Suggestions for Study " are taken from 
 the programme of a literary society in New York City, and 
 may serve as one example of the kind of guidance needed 
 by students in the earlier stages of Shakespearean study. 
 This society devoted a number of evenings to the play of 
 ** Macbeth," and to the special consideration of *'The 
 Nature of Poetry. ' ' 
 
 i 
 The Tragedy of Macbeth 
 
 Suggestions for Study: Read the whole play carefully, 
 then read it a second time. Consider the plot and principal 
 characters. Has it a distinct moral purpose ? Has it a his- 
 torical basis ? Sources of plot, and incidents. Reasons 
 why it is a great drama. What is a drama > a tragedy ? a 
 comedy ? Does ' * Macbeth ' ' contain genuine and lofty 
 poetry .-* Which is the strongest passage in the play and 
 why ? Name some of the character qualities of Lady Mac- 
 
6 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 beth. Are Shakespeare's women inferior to his men ? Was 
 Macbeth a poet ? What does the knocking at the gate 
 typify ? What the sleep-walking scene ? The weird sis- 
 ters; why does Shakespeare make them real, instead of in- 
 troducing them to Macbeth in a dream ? what do they stand 
 for in the play ? Who has the more conscience, Macbeth 
 or Lady Macbeth ? What utterances or what actions prove 
 it ? How do you explain Macbeth 's hesitancy before the 
 murder, and his resolute energy and audacity afterward ? 
 What is the clew to the great change in the will power of 
 Macbeth ? 
 
 What is the difference between Lady Macbeth and the 
 two sisters in "King Lear"? In what does Macbeth's 
 punishment consist ? What one word contains it all ? Was 
 Macbeth a coward ? If he was a coward how do you ex- 
 plain his bravery in battle? If he was not a coward, how 
 do you explain his hesitancy and scruples ? What broke 
 down Lady Macbeth at the end ? Was it the same cause 
 which broke down Macbeth himself? Malcolm and Mac- 
 duff: were they cowards in fleeing for their lives ? Did any- 
 thing justify Macduff in leaving his fam^ily ? What is there 
 essentially significant about the play of " Macbeth," more 
 than the obvious truth that * ' murder will out ' ' ? Do you 
 regard this as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy ? If so, why ? 
 What elements determine the greatness of a play ? 
 
 Required Reading: "Macbeth." 
 
 Suggested Readings: Tennyson's "The Foresters," 
 "Hamlet." 
 
 Suggestions for Study : What is poetry ? What are the 
 qualities that differentiate it from prose ? What is lyric 
 poetry ? Are psalms and hymns l}'ric poetry ? What is the 
 meaning of the phrase, "Lyric beauty in Shakespeare's 
 plays"? Describe "epic," "lyric," and "dramatic" 
 poetry. Define the words ' ' ode, ' ' ' ' sonnet, ' ' and ' ' elegy. 
 Is Shakespeare the greatest English dramatist ? Define the 
 essential qualities of a great drama. Can love of poetry 
 and other literature be acquired ? Elements of great poetry ; 
 originality; charm; great subjects greatly treated; correct 
 
HOW TO STUDY SHEAKSPEARE 7 
 
 poetic construction ; vital ideas coherently worked oat must 
 quicken the emotions. Beauty of simple poetry in " Dora ' ' 
 and Book of Ruth. No metaphor, figure of speech, or dec- 
 orative adjective in ' ^ Dora. ' ' The meaning of iambic 
 pentameter, dactyllic hexameter, etc. What is ''Society 
 Verse '' ? Is there such a thing as ' ' American ' ' poetry ? 
 Characteristics of the poetry of the nineteenth century. The 
 spiritual element in poetry. Contemporary and universal 
 interest in poetry. Literature of knowledge and literature 
 of power; define each. The Bible in Tennyson and other 
 poets. Study a poem as a whole, its plan, story, plot, vital 
 idea, and larger teaching ; note the meaning of paragraphs, 
 sentences, phrases, and the use of words. 
 
 Suggested Readings : A selection of the best short poems 
 in the English language. Mr. Edmund Clarence Sted- 
 man's " The Nature of Poetry." 
 
 The following example is by Samuel Thurber, Girls' 
 High School, Boston, and is taken from Prof. Homer 
 Sprague's edition of the " Merchant of Venice. " 
 
 Every good teacher will have methods of his own ; but 
 the following suggestions, or some of them, may be of prac- 
 tical value to most instructors: 
 
 The poem should be read very hastily, at first, for the 
 outline of the story or course of thought. 
 
 Having thus grasped it as a whole, it should again be 
 read through; this time with some care for the details of 
 the story and course of thought. 
 
 Then the thorough study of each and every part should 
 be begun. 
 
 At the beginning of the class exercise, or as often as 
 needful, require of the pupil a statement of — (a) The main 
 object of the author in the whole poem, oration, play, or 
 other production of which to-day's lesson is a part. (<5) 
 The object of the author in this particular canto, chapter, 
 act, or other division or subdivision of the main 
 work. 
 
 Read or recite from memory (or have the pupils do it) 
 the finest part or parts of the last lesson. The elocutionary 
 
8 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 talent of the class should be utilized here, in order that the 
 author may appear at his best. 
 
 Require at times (often enough to keep the whole fresh 
 in memory) a resume oi the "argument," story, or succes- 
 sion of topics, up to the present lesson. 
 
 Have the student read aloud the sentence, paragraph, 
 or lines, now (or previously) assigned. The appointed por- 
 tion should have some unity. 
 
 Let the student interpret exactly the meaning by sub- 
 stituting his own words; explain peculiarities. This trans- 
 lation or paraphrase should often be in writing. 
 
 Let him state the immediate object of the author in these 
 lines. Is this object relevant } important } appropriate in 
 this place } 
 
 Let him point out the ingredients (particular thoughts) 
 that make up the passage. Are they in good taste ^ just } 
 natural } well arranged } 
 
 Let him point out other merits or defects — anything 
 noteworthy as regards nobleness of principle or sentiment, 
 grace, delicacy, beauty, rhythm, sublimity, wit, wisdom, 
 humor, naivete, kindliness, pathos, energy, concentrated 
 truth, logical force, originality; give allusions, kindred pas- 
 sages, principles illustrated, etc. 
 
 From '* Shakespeariana " for January, 1887, we take the 
 following character analysis by M. W. Smith: 
 
 Antonio. His intellect. Adapted to business, I, i. 
 Prudence blinded by affection, I, i. Deceived by Shylock's 
 hypocrisy, I, iii; Practically philosophical, IV, i. His 
 moral nature. Generous, III, iii; Good, III, i; Affection- 
 ate, I, i; II, -viii; III, ii, iii, iv; IV, i; Sincere, II, viii; 
 Frank, I, iii; Magnanimous, III, ii; Honest, III, i; Op- 
 posed to usury, I, iii; Melancholy, I, i; IV, i; Patient and 
 resigned, IV, i. 
 
 Bassanio. His intellect. Philosophical, III, ii; Good 
 executive ability, II, ii; Forethought, II, ii ; Easily de- 
 ceived by Shylock, I, iii; A scholar, I, ii. His moral 
 nature. Too proud to economize, I, i; Trusts to luck, I, 
 i; Takes advantage of friendship, I, i; Frank, II, ii; III, 
 
HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 9 
 
 ii; Energetic, II, ii; Good at making promises, III, ii; IV, 
 i; V, i; Knows how to flatter, V, i; Generous, IV, i; 
 Grateful, V, i; Undemonstrative, III, ii. 
 
 Portia. Her personal appearance. In general, I, i; II, 
 viii; III, ii; Stature, I, ii; Color of hair, I, i; III, ii. Her 
 intellect. Philosophical, I, ii; II, ix; IV, i; V, i; Shrewd in 
 reading character, I, ii; Practical, III, ii; Satirical, I, ii; II, 
 ix; Humorous, II, ix; IV, ii; V, i; Has good common 
 sense. III, ii; Intellect predominates, III, ii. Her moral 
 nature. In general, I, i; Extremely obedient. III, ii; 
 Frank and unaffected. III, ii; Generally hospitable. III, ii; 
 V, i; Generous, III, ii; Undemonstrative, V, i; Has faith 
 in good luck, III, ii; Can equivocate. It, i; Somewhat vain, 
 V. i; Somewhat silly. III, iv. 
 
 Shylock. His intellect. Philosophical, III, i; IV, i; 
 Logical, IV, i; Cool-headed, IV, i; Sharp in business, I, 
 iii; Quick at repartee, II, v; IV, i. His moral nature. 
 True to his religion, I, iii; IV, i; Patient under persecu- 
 tion, I, iii; Sensitive to wrong, I, iii; III, i; Superstitious, 
 
 II, v; Untruthful, I, iii; Ironical, I, iii; Miserly, II, ii; V, 
 viii; Extremely avaricious. III, i; IV, i; A good hater, I, 
 iii; II, viii; IV, i; Revengeful, I, iii; III, i; II, iii; Mali- 
 cious, IV, i; Pitiless, IV, i; Relentless, IV, i; Heartless, 
 
 III, iii; IV, i.— Verify! 
 
 The writer just quoted suggests the following questions 
 to evoke criticism : How could Antonio so love a man ? Is 
 not going to Shylock to borrow money a defect in Shake- 
 speare's art ? Would Shylock make such a confession to 
 Antonio (as in Act I, sc. iii) ? Why is the episode of 
 Lorenzo and Jessica introduced ? Did Jessica give this ducat 
 for the sake of friendship, II, iii ? Is this natural, II, iii, 
 14-17? Did Shylock contrive against Antonio's life? 
 Why did not Shylock manifest this exultation after line 
 33 in scene i of the third act. III, i, 83-89? Does Portia 
 do most of the love-making ? Was the bond a legal one ? 
 Does the bond say * * nearest his heart ' ' ? What is the con- 
 nection between Bassanio and Gratiano, II, ii; III, ii ? 
 Why do we believe that Antonio will not be hurt, and that 
 
10 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Shylock will be defeated in his purpose, III, i ? Is Portia 
 correct in her estimate of Antonio, 111, iv ? Does the like- 
 ness between persons tend to promote friendship ? Would 
 Shylock make such a statement in court as in IV, i, about 
 hating Antonio ? Could Portia so completely disguise her- 
 self, IV, i ? Is not her decision purely technical, IV, i, 
 297, etc. ? Would Shylock say this [the expression of ac- 
 quiescence, IV, i, 385, etc.] to save his hfe ? Did Portia 
 have large hands, IV, i, 417, etc.? Why is scene ii. Act 
 IV, introduced ? Why is Act V usually omitted on the 
 stage ? 
 
HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 Why Young Men Should Study 
 Shakespeare 
 
 By C. ALPHONSO SMITH 
 
 FOR a Knowledge of History. ' * Men differ from the 
 lower animals, in part," says Professor C. C. Everett, 
 in his * ' Ethics for Young People, " ' ' because whatever one 
 generation gains is passed on to the next, so that each 
 starts with some little advantage over the one that went 
 before it." But we do not inherit this knowledge; we are 
 not born ''heirs of all the ages." Every young man or 
 woman who wishes to get the advantage of the generations 
 that have gone before and make a fair start with the one 
 that is just beginning must study history; for history, in the 
 largest sense, is the record of what the race has thought and 
 done. And in the realm of history, as both teacher and 
 interpreter, it would be hard to overestimate the influence of 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Shakespeare's historical dramas give history in so vital 
 and attractive a form that for many readers they have 
 usurped the place of text-books of history. Walter Scott, 
 the founder of the historical novel, did little more than carry 
 on the work begun by Shakespeare, that of popularizing the 
 great characters and the leading events of history. So vivid 
 is the dramatist's portrayal that the names of C?£sar, Brutus, 
 Antony, Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Troilus, Cressida, and others 
 are inseparably linked with the name of Shakespeare. 
 
 11 
 
12 WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 But in the domain of English history our debt to Shake- 
 speare is still greater. "All the English history that I 
 know," said the Duke of Marlborough, *'I learned from 
 Shakespeare." In Shakespeare's day, Warwickshire, in 
 whose borders the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses 
 had been fought, was a storehouse of history and legend. A 
 wealth of material had been handed down by oral tradition. 
 The battle of Bosworth Field was fought only eighty years 
 before Shakespeare's birth. Thus the history that he nar- 
 rates is the history that he must have heard recounted in his 
 youth and early manhood. 
 
 This gives a peculiar value to Shakespeare's English his- 
 torical plays, a value that historians are just beginning to 
 appreciate. In the preface to ''The Houses of York and 
 Lancaster," Mr. James Gairdner says: *' For this period of 
 English history we are fortunate in possessing an unrivaled 
 interpreter in our great dramatic poet Shakespeare. Fol- 
 lowing the guidance of such a master-mind, we realize for 
 ourselves the men and actions of the period in a way we 
 cannot do in any other epoch. . . . The doings 
 of that stormy age, the sad calamities endured by kings, the 
 sudden changes of fortune endured by great men, the glitter 
 of chivalry, and the horrors of civil war, all left a deep im- 
 pression upon the mind of the nation, which was kept alive 
 by vivid traditions of the past al the time that our great 
 dramatist wrote. ' ' 
 
 Shakespeare's nearness, therefore, in time and place to 
 the events that he records — to say nothing of his unrivaled 
 powers of insight and presentation — not only gives him an 
 advantage over modern historians, but makes him a pecul- 
 iarly fitting guide for those who are just entering upon the 
 serious study of English history. 
 
 For Maxims of Conduct. ''Three-fourths of our daily 
 thought," says Matthew Arnold, " is devoted to questions 
 of conduct. In the case of the young, in whom conduct 
 has not yet crystallized into matured and unconscious habit, 
 the proportion would be nearer four-fifths. ' ' 
 
 To realize the influence of Shakespeare in the direction 
 
WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 13 
 
 of conduct and in the formation of character one needs only 
 to remember that as an English classic Shakespeare ranks 
 next to the Bible, Shakespeare and the Bible having long 
 since become a current phrase. And one has only to glance 
 over a book of Shakespeare quotations, noting the number 
 and familiarity of those that interpret or enforce conduct, to 
 see that there is sound basis for the popular grouping of 
 Shakespeare with so authoritative a book of conduct as the 
 English Bible. 
 
 As a guide in conduct Shakespeare is quoted consciously 
 and unconsciously by learned and unlearned alike, for his 
 dramas are essentially studies in conduct. In these dramas 
 personal responsibility is never merged or abjured ; a man 
 remains the architect of his own fortunes. The ghosts, 
 dreams, and witches occasionally employed by Shakespeare 
 do not compel conduct; they only illustrate it. Hamlet 
 suspected his uncle before the appearance of his father's 
 spirit; Clarence's dream was but the confession of guilt; 
 Macbeth was a murderer at heart before he became a prey 
 to " supernatural soliciting. " 
 
 When Cassius says, 
 
 " The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings," 
 
 he touches upon one of the central differences between the 
 Greek drama and the Elizabethan drama; he suggests also 
 the chief reason why Shakespeare has furnished so many 
 more maxims of conduct than ^schylus, Sophocles, or 
 Euripides. The Greek dramatists portrayed man as evil- 
 starred or fortune-starred at birth ; he was a mere puppet in 
 the hands of fate. With wider vision and clearer insight 
 Shakespeare puts the emphasis not on fate or destiny but on 
 character and conduct; not only crimes but venial sins, 
 mere errors of judgment, carry within them the seeds of 
 their own punishment. It is this fruitful and essentially 
 ethical point of view that has stored Shakespeare's pages 
 with maxims of daily conduct. It is this that invests his 
 characters with so vital a significance for all those who are 
 
14 WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 reaching- up into maturity, and who, beginning to feel the 
 possibilities of life, wish to probe deeper into its meaning 
 and to know the principles of its right conduct. 
 
 For a Better Knowledge of Human Nature. '* All the 
 world's a stage," says Shakespeare, and of the men and 
 women who play their parts upon it he has not merely 
 sketched, but completely individualized two hundred and 
 forty-six. In mere number Balzac surpasses Shakespeare; 
 but when we consider not only the gross number but the 
 variety of types and the clearness and fullness with which 
 they are portrayed, Shakespeare takes easy supremacy over 
 all other writers, ancient and modern. George Eliot has 
 individuaHzed one hundred and seven characters, Dickens 
 one hundred and two, and Thackeray forty, their sum total 
 being hardly more than equal to Shakespeare's single out- 
 put. 
 
 It is a mere truism to say that no one may hope for suc- 
 cess in any calling to-day without a knowledge of human 
 nature. In many vocations — and these the highest — suc- 
 cess is not only conditioned on, but proportioned, to an 
 insight into character. No one can expect to become a suc- 
 cessful preacher, teacher, doctor, editor, lawyer, or business 
 man, who does not have a keen appreciation of the motives 
 that govern men in the ordinary affairs of life. Knowledge 
 in this domain is power and influence, while ignorance is 
 weakness and inefficiency. 
 
 The knowledge of human nature that a young man or 
 woman has gained from experience and observation may be 
 good as far as it goes; but it is neither wide enough nor 
 deep enough, and is purchased in many cases by needless 
 errors and heartaches. **The essence of provincialism," 
 says Mr. Mabie, in *' Books and Culture," '*is a substitu- 
 tion of a part for the whole; the acceptance of the local 
 experience, knowledge, and standards as possessing the 
 authority of the universal experience, knowledge, and stand- 
 ards ; the local experience is entirely true in its own sphere ; 
 it becomes misleading when it is accepted as the experience 
 of all time and all men." 
 
WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 15 
 
 For a knowledge of men and women as deep as it is 
 wide, for insight into social life as well as individual life, for 
 appreciation of the depths to which an over-tempted nature 
 may descend or the heights to which, in spite of hostile en- 
 vironment, a determined spirit may rise — Shakespeare re- 
 mains our supreme teacher. There is no text-book of human 
 nature taught in our schools or colleges ; such a text-book 
 maybe found in Shakespeare. Three centuries have served 
 only to accentuate his preeminence and to enhance his 
 authority as a guide through the mazes and inconsistencies 
 of our common nature. 
 
 For Training in Expression. It would seem at first 
 glance as if blank verse written three hundred years ago 
 could help but little to-day in training one to speak and 
 write clear and forceful prose. While it is true that Mac- 
 aulay, Hawthorne, and Kipling, for example, furnish some- 
 thing not found in Shakespeare, it is also true that Shake- 
 speare furnishes still more that is not found in them. 
 
 The art of composition is to see clearly and to see whole. 
 Whatever be the theme, if the writer or speaker has first 
 individualized it, his words will be clear and apt; if he has 
 then viewed it in its relations^ whether these be the relations 
 of similarity or contrast, of mere analogy or illustration, his 
 treatment will be vital and impressive. In these two re- 
 spects, the ability to see clearly and to see whole, Shake- 
 speare is as yet unrivaled. 
 
 Every character that he has portrayed, every plot that 
 he has employed, every incident narrated, every scene de- 
 scribed, and every sentence constructed shows that the great 
 dramatist had seen before he wrote. He had so communed 
 with his characters and so thought through his plots that he 
 knew the very lineaments of the one and every possible un- 
 folding of the other. Shakespeare's work may have been 
 done quickly ; it could not have been done hastily. Thought 
 and emotion were held in solution until they precipitated in 
 sharp and definite outline. In spite of obsolete words and 
 idioms, his style is a model of clearness and vividness; it is 
 a series of pictures the study of which is a liberal education 
 
16 WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 
 
 in that clearness and directness of vision which must precede 
 any attempt at clearness of presentation. 
 
 But clearness is not enough. Euclid and Blackstone are 
 as clear as Shakespeare. What is the secret of Shake- 
 speare's wealth of illustration, analogy, and contrast? May 
 the secret be learned.'' The principle at least may be 
 learned ; it is the principle followed by every writer or 
 speaker who has touched the heart and imagination. Shake- 
 speare not only visualized his characters and incidents as 
 units in themselves, he saw them as organic parts of a larger 
 whole. To see a thing in its entirety one must see it in its 
 relations to other things. Every illustration employed by a 
 writer or speaker — whether it be drawn from nature, art, his- 
 tory, or experience — is the statement of a suggested relation- 
 ship and is prompted by this faculty of seeing things in their 
 connections. 
 
 To see clearly one must see individually; to see as a 
 whole one must see collectively. Both faculties may be 
 greatly increased by training; the first demands more of the 
 intellect, the second of the imagination ; the one separates, 
 the other combines ; the one may be compared to a straight 
 line, the other to a surface. And in both, Shakespeare 
 offers to young and old alike an inexhaustible store of ma- 
 terial for study and practice. At his touch the abstract 
 becomes concrete, the ideal real, the remote near, the 
 shadowy substantial, the invisible visible. To appreciate his 
 style at the very outset of one's career, before vague and 
 ineffective methods of expression have become ingrained, 
 is to drink at a source of unfailing pleasure and of increas- 
 ing power. 
 
 For Culture. "Culture implies growth. It is the un- 
 folding of the mind and heart that comes from contact with 
 what is best and highest. It means enrichment of character 
 and emancipation from what is low and provincial. No one, 
 especially if in the impressionable years of early manhood or 
 womanhood, can commune with Shakespeare's characters or 
 think Shakespeare's tli oughts after him without receiving 
 an access of culture Intellect, imagination, and sympathy 
 
WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 17 
 
 are enlarged. The limitations of time and space cease to 
 be felt. The reader shares in the fullness of universal truth; 
 he feels afresh the depth of Shakespeare's remark that — 
 
 " All places that the eye of Heaven visits 
 Are to a wise man ports and happy havens"; 
 
 he assimilates the wit and wisdom and beauty of a race that 
 was already *'in the foremost files of time" when Shake- 
 speare became its spokesman ; he sees new meanings in life, 
 feels a new awe in its mysteries, a new depth even in its 
 homelier aspects, and a new stimulus in its possibilities. 
 Old things seem new to him by the novelty of their presen- 
 tation, and new things seem old because of the force and 
 directness with which they are brought home to his con- 
 sciousness. Insensibly he ceases to admire what is crude, 
 shallow, fragmentary, and inartistic ; and grows into appre- 
 ciation of what is true, vital, whole, and harmonious. He 
 is made to realize, that life is more than thought, and that 
 sympathy and imagination have a depth and richness be- 
 yond the reach of intellect and learning. 
 
 But culture is not only growth through ideas and feel- 
 ings; it is growth through will and service. Shakespeare 
 portrays men not in isolated but in close relation to the so- 
 ciety about them. He viewed them, as we have seen, not 
 only as individuals, but as social factors. The most fruitful 
 lesson to be learned from Shakespeare is culture as social 
 service, a lesson incomparably phrased in the dramatist's 
 own words: 
 
 " Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
 Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
 Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
 As if we had thern not. Spirits are not finely touched 
 But to fine issues." 
 
HOW TO READ 
 
 On Readers and Books 
 
 By HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 THERE are readers and readers. For purposes of con- 
 venience they may be divided into three classes. 
 
 First, there is the " simple reader " — the ordinary book- 
 consumer of commerce. He reads without any particular 
 purpose or intention, chiefly in order to occupy his spare 
 time. He has formed the habit and it pleases him. He 
 does not know much about literature, but he says he knows 
 what he likes. All is fish that comes to his net. Curiosity 
 and fashion play a large part in directing his reading. He 
 is an easy prey for the loud-advertising bookseller. He 
 seldom reads a book the second time, except when he for- 
 gets that he has read it before. For a reader in this stage 
 of evolution the most valuable advice (if, indeed, any coun- 
 sel may be effectual) is chiefly of a negative character. Do 
 not read vulgar books, silly books, morbid books. Do not 
 read books that are written in bad English. Do not read 
 books simply because other people are reading them. Do 
 not read more than five new books to one old one. 
 
 Next comes the '' intelligent reader " — the person who 
 wants to know, and to whom books are valuable chiefly for 
 the accuracy of the information which they convey. He 
 reads with the definite purpose of increasing his acquaintance 
 with facts. Memory is his most valuable faculty. He is 
 ardent in the following of certain lines of investigation; he 
 is apt to have a specialty, and to think highly of its impor- 
 
 18 
 
ON READERS AND BOOKS 19 
 
 tance. He is inclined to take notes and to make analyses. 
 This particular reader is the one to whom lists of books and 
 courses of reading are most useful. Miss Repplier makes 
 light of them as ''Cook's Tours in Literature," but the 
 reader whose main interest is the increase of knowledge is 
 often very glad to be " personally conducted ' ' through a 
 new region of books. 
 
 Last comes the '' gentle reader " — the person who wants 
 to grow, and who turns to books as a means of purifying 
 his tastes, deepening his feelings, broadening his sympa- 
 thies, and enhancing his joy in life. Literature he loves 
 because it is the most humane of the arts. Its forms and 
 processes interest him as expressions of the human striving 
 towards clearness of thought, purity of emotion, and har- 
 mony of action with the ideal. The culture of a finer, fuller 
 manhood is what this reader seeks. He is looking for the 
 books in which the inner meanings of nature and life are 
 translated into language of distinction and charm, touched 
 with the human personality of the author, and embodied in 
 forms of permanent interest and power. This is literature. 
 And the reader who sets his affections on these things enters 
 the world of books as one made free of a city of wonders, a 
 garden of fair delights. He reads not from a sense of duty, 
 not from a constraint of fashion, not from an ambition of 
 learning, but from a thirst of pleasure, because he feels that 
 pleasure of the highest kind — a real joy in the perception of 
 things lucid, luminous, symmetrical, musical, sincere, pas- 
 sionate, and profound — such pleasure restores the heart and 
 quickens it, makes it stronger to endure the ills of life, and 
 more fertile in all good fruits of cheerfulness, courage, and 
 love. This reader for vital pleasure has less need of maps 
 and directories, rules, and instructions, than of companion- 
 ship. A criticism that will go with him in his reading, and 
 open up new meaning in familiar things, and touch the 
 secrets of beauty and power, and reveal the hidden relations 
 of literature to life, and help him to see the reasonableness 
 of every true grace of style, the sincerity of every real force 
 of passion — a criticism that penetrates, illuminates, and 
 
20 ON READERS AND BOOKS 
 
 appreciates, making the eyes clearer and the heart more 
 sensitive to perceive the Hving spirit in good books — that is 
 the companionship which will be most helpful and most 
 grateful to the gentle reader. 
 
 Whichever class of readers we may belong to (and I, for 
 one, decline to commit myself), we can all find something 
 to please and profit us. All can unite in prayers for the 
 simple reader, that he may not spend his last dollar for the 
 435,999th copy of the newest popular book, but expend his 
 money more wisely in the purchase of — What? 
 
 Here is a real difficulty. The variety of opinions among 
 guides and instructors seems to me a most cheerful and en- 
 couraging fact. Doubtless each has a good reason to give 
 for his preferences. Doubtless there are treasures to be found 
 in various regions of literature — not a solitary pot of gold 
 hidden in a single field, and a terrible chance that we may 
 not happen to buy the right lot — but veins of rich ore run- 
 ning through all the rocks, and placers in all the gravel beds. 
 Doubtless we may follow any one of a half dozen roads and 
 not go far astray after all. 
 
 Let us not take our reading too anxiously, too strenu- 
 ously. There are more than a hundred good books in the 
 world. The best hundred for you may not be the best hun- 
 dred for me. We ought to be satisfied if we get something 
 thoroughly good, even though it be not absolutely and un- 
 questionably the best in the world. The habit of worrying 
 about the books that we have not read, destroys the pleasure 
 and diminishes the profit of those that we are reading. Be 
 serious, earnest, sincere in your choice of books, and then 
 put your trust in Providence and read with an easy mind. 
 
 Any author who has kept the affection, interest, and 
 confidence of thoughtful, honest readers through at least one 
 generation is fairly sure to have something in him that is 
 worth reading. 
 
 Let us keep out of provincialism in literature — even that 
 which comes from Athens. 
 
 You like Tolstoi and George Eliot; I like Scott and 
 Thackeray, You like Byron and Shelley; I like Words- 
 
ON READERS AND BOOKS 21 
 
 worth and Tennyson. You admire the method of Stubbs 
 and Seignobos ; I still find pleasure in Macaulay and Carlyle. 
 Well, probably neither of us is altogether wasting time. 
 Jordan is a good river. But there is also plenty of water in 
 the streams cf Abana and Pharpar. 
 
 There is a large number of courses of reading that any 
 one of us might take with profit. It is foolish to stand too 
 long hesitating at the cross-roads. Choose your course with 
 open eyes and follow it with a cheerful heart. And take 
 with you a few plain maxims drawn from experience. 
 
 Read the preface first. It was probably written last. 
 But the author put it at the beginning because he wanted to 
 say something particular to you before you entered the book. 
 Go in through the front door. 
 
 Read plenty of books about people and things, but not 
 too many books about books. Literature is not to be taken 
 in emulsion. The only way to know a great author is to 
 read his works for yourself. That will give you knowledge 
 at first-hand. 
 
 Read one book at a time, but never one book alone. 
 Well-worn books always have relatives. Follow them up. 
 Learn something about the family if you want to understand 
 the individual. If you have been reading the ' ' Idylls of the 
 King " go back to Sir Thomas Malory; if you have been 
 keeping company with Stevenson, travel for a while with 
 Scott, Dumas, and Defoe. 
 
 Read the old books — those that have stood the test of 
 time. Read them slowly, carefully, thoroughly. They 
 will help you to discriminate among the new ones. 
 
 Read no book with which the author has not taken 
 pains enough to write it in a clean, sound, lucid style. Life 
 is short. If he thought so little of his work that he left it 
 in the rough, it is not likely to be worth your pains in read- 
 ing it. 
 
 Read over again the best ten books that you have already 
 read. The result of this experiment will test your taste, 
 measure your advance, and fit you for progress in the art 
 of reading. 
 
WHY TO READ 
 
 Hints for People that do not Read 
 
 By LYMAN ABBOTT 
 
 YOUR time is limited; your books are few. There is 
 work in the kitchen, in the parlor, in the office de- 
 manding your attention ; clients to be pacified or provoked, 
 patients to be cured or killed, goods to be bought and sold, 
 children to be tended, furniture to be dusted, table to be set 
 and table to be cleared away again ; and for a library the 
 family Bible, Webster's Dictionary, the well-thumbed and 
 oft-read books in the sitting room, and the genteel and gilt- 
 edged poetry in the parlor, with a limited purse from which 
 to replenish the exhausted library, and limited time with 
 which to use it if it were replenished. This is no fancy 
 sketch, but a photograph of many an American life. How 
 find time, how find means for study in such circumstances, 
 is the problem of many a would-be student who lays down 
 his intellectual life in despair; who in the first twenty years 
 of his life gets an appetite for learning and in the other forty 
 starves to death. Especially is this true of wives and moth- 
 ers. How shall a would-be student so situated pursue sys- 
 tematic reading and study? 
 
 America gives a library to almost every home, in the 
 periodical publications — the daily journal, the weekly paper, 
 and the monthly magazine. Study the newspaper; if pos- 
 sible, study it with cyclopedia, with atlas, with gazetteer; 
 but study it. Waste no time on the shameful scandals, the 
 bitter political controversies, the ecclesiastical broadsword 
 
 22 
 
HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 23 
 
 exercises, and the idle paragraph gossip. A war of words 
 is no more dignified in a journal than on the street; gossip 
 is no worthier your attention because printed by ^/le daily 
 tattler than when whispered by a daily tattler. There is no 
 more fascinating intellectual occupation than watching the 
 course of contemporaneous history. The denouements of 
 Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade are nothing to those of 
 life's actual drama. The romance of fiction is inane by the 
 side of the romance of facts, and the newspaper is where 
 they are recorded. In this study the monthly periodical 
 will aid you. The world has never known such storehouses 
 of well-selected mental food as are furnished by the maga- 
 zines. The ablest writers of America are laid under con- 
 tribution. The ablest artists are called on to add both the 
 attractions and illuminations of the pencil. 
 
 But to the journal — weekly or daily — and the magazine 
 you will want to add some study of books. Periodical read- 
 ing may become desultory reading. It need not, but there 
 is always danger. For courses of study in books observe 
 three rules : 
 
 (i) Begin with what is congenial. Choose not what you 
 ought to know but what you want to know. It is a rare 
 mind that can keep itself to a course of distasteful study. 
 It is not safe for any one to assume, without proof, that he 
 has a rare mind. 
 
 (2) Begin with a short course. Do not lay out, for his- 
 tory, Hume, Macaulay, and Miss Martineau, with the idea 
 that when you have finished these fifteen volumes you will 
 be well versed in English history. That is very true ; but 
 you will never finish them. Read Jacob Abbott's " Life of 
 Charles I." or 'TL," or Macaulay's Lord Chatham, or Temple, 
 or Thomas Hughes' ''Alfred the Great.*' One thing at a 
 time ; and that thing short and simple. Putting the word 
 done opposite a purpose is a wonderful incentive to a large 
 achievement in the next attempt. 
 
 (3) Buy a dictionary, an atlas, and, if possible, a cyclo- 
 pedia. If you have not the money make over an old bon- 
 net. No harm will be done if it cultivates a habit of making 
 
24 HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 
 
 over old bonnets. If a man, dispense with cigars for a year. 
 No harm will be done if this cultivates a habit of dispensing 
 with cigars. If this does not supply the increasing demand 
 for increasing facilities try some other economies. I visited 
 not long since the home of one of the most eminent of 
 America's younger astronomers. He lived in a little box 
 of a house, in an out-of-the-way street, with not an easy- 
 chair in the house. But his wife had a fine piano, and he a 
 microscope that cost him $300. Equipped with dictionary 
 and atlas, never pass a word the meaning of which you do 
 not know ; the name of a place the location of which you 
 have not fixed ; or reference to an event which you do not 
 comprehend. In invading a new territory never leave an 
 unconquered garrison behind you. 
 
 Theme and tools selected, it still remains to secure time. 
 For the best advantage this should be regular, systematic, 
 uninterrupted. The early hours are the best; when the 
 brain is fresh and the mind alert. To the mind and body 
 trained for it, half an hour before breakfast is worth an hour 
 and a half after supper. But this requires an opportunity to 
 shut out intrusion which perhaps the housekeeper cannot 
 secure ; facility to shut out the more subtle intrusion of a thick 
 on-coming crowd of cares, which only a stalwart power of 
 concentration can secure. Some cannot lock the door of 
 the library; others cannot lock the door of the mind. But 
 if time cannot be taken at one hour seize it from another; if 
 it cannot be taken with regularity take it when chance offers. 
 The blacksmith's forge is not a convenient desk; but it was 
 at the blacksmith's forge, blowing the bellows with one 
 hand and holding a book with the other, that Elihu Burritt 
 learned his first languages. The nursery is not the place 
 one would choose for astronomical calculations; but it was 
 in the nursery, beset by her children, whom she never neg- 
 lected, and interrupted by callers, whom she rarely refused, 
 that Mary Somerville wrought out her *' Mechanism of the 
 Heavens," which elected her an honorary member of the 
 Royal Astronomical Society, and put her in the first rank of 
 the scientists of her day. Where there is a will there is a 
 
HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 25 
 
 way. He or she that can find no time for study has little 
 real heart for it. 
 
 The home ought no more to be without a library than 
 without a dining room and kitchen. If you have but one 
 room, and it is lighted by the great wood fire in the flaming 
 fireplace, as Abraham Lincoln's was, do as Abraham Lincoln 
 did ; pick out one corner of your fireplace for a library, and 
 use it. Every man ought to provide for the brain as well 
 as for the stomach. This does not require capital ; there 
 are cheap editions of the best books ; it only requires time 
 and forecast. We write in a private library, and a fairly 
 good one for working purposes, of three thousand and odd 
 volumes; we began it many years ago, on a salary of 
 $i,ooo a year, with five books — a commentary in four vol- 
 umes and a dictionary. The best libraries are not made; 
 they grow. 
 
 In forming a library, if your means are small, do not 
 buy what you can beg or borrow. Depend, as many of the 
 greatest authors have done, on public libraries — the District 
 Library, the Lyceum, the Book Club, the Circulating 
 Library — or on more fortunate friends. Buy only what you 
 cannot borrow. 
 
 At first buy only books that you want immediately to 
 read. Do not be deluded into buying books because they 
 are classics, or cheap, or that you may get rid of an agent. 
 One book read is worth a dozen books looked at. No 
 book is possessed till it is read. Reference books constitute 
 an exception, and an important exception, to this rule. 
 These are the foundations of a good library. The essential 
 reference books are a dictionary, a good atlas, and a cyclo- 
 pedia. Any school atlas will do though, if you are able to 
 purchase it, a good atlas is much better; and best of all is 
 a wise selection of atlases. There is no best cyclopedia; 
 your choice must depend upon your resources, pecuniary 
 and mental. 
 
 In purchasing books exercise a choice in editions. The 
 lowest-priced books are not always the cheapest. Buy 
 books of transient interest or minor importance — all novels, 
 
26 HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 
 
 for example, and current books of travel — in cheap forms. 
 On the other hand, histories, classics of all sorts, and gen- 
 erally all permanent books, should be bought in good bind- 
 ing and good type. It takes well-seasoned lumber to make 
 a good family library. 
 
 Have a place for your -library. A dollar spent in pine 
 lumber, and a little mechanical skill, will make a larger and 
 better one. Varnished pine is handsome enough for any 
 parlor. A place for books will cry to be filled till it gets 
 its prayer answered. Book shelves preserve books. One 
 shelf of books gathered together is a better library than 
 twice the number scattered from attic to cellar. 
 
 Finally, a taste for reading is an essential prerequisite to 
 a useful library. A well is of no use if you never draw 
 water from it. At the same time a good library in the 
 household, accessible to all, from baby to grandmother, is 
 one of the best influences with which to develop a taste for 
 reading. Have no books so fine that they cannot be used. 
 
HOW TO STUDY 
 
 Forming a Study Circle 
 
 By GEORGE J. BRYAN 
 
 IN the multitude of books there is wisdom indeed, but wis- 
 dom obscured by their multiplicity. The problem for 
 busy people, eager to increase their acquaintance with litera- 
 ture, is to find out, first, which are the accepted best books, 
 and, second, which are the best books for our particular 
 needs. A general knowledge of the accepted best books is 
 essential if we aspire to the level of culture which marks the 
 man and woman of the world, the standard of what our 
 fathers termed polite society, rather than that of the literary 
 profession. 
 
 There are many lists of " best books," each excellent of 
 its kind yet all open to modification from the individual point 
 of view. Peruse them all and it will be found that there are 
 from a hundred down to a select group of twenty or so, 
 which are universally held to be books that are necessary to 
 a well-rounded, rather than a profound, literary culture. Of 
 these a few will, by their own fascination, allure us to use 
 them as life companions. Others will prove so serviceable 
 in various ways that our reading of them will deepen into 
 pleasing study. Again, others will commend themselves as 
 being invaluable as keys to storehouses of inexhaustible 
 treasures of book lore, of character insight, of world 
 knowledge, of profitable entertainment. Each must make 
 his own choice of what are the best books for his individual 
 case, governed by his tastes and circumstances, but he will 
 
 27 
 
28 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 
 
 scarcely be in a position to decide on the best books for 
 himself until he has fairly read those which the general ver- 
 dict has pronounced supreme. 
 
 Having- made our selection comprehensively the ques- 
 tions arise, Where shall I begin ? What books shall I read ? 
 How shall I read them ? 
 
 To the young man and young woman these questions 
 are more important than are the transient questions of Im- 
 perialism or Municipal Ownership of Franchises. Did you 
 ever ask them ? Did you ever receive an intelligent and sat- 
 isfactory answer ? Are you desirous of obtaining light on 
 these subjects ? If you are, it will at least prove a very in- 
 teresting story, and probably a most profitable and helpful 
 exercise, to read the following account of the work done by 
 a Study Circle, on a method designed to give a thorough, 
 if necessarily an incomplete, answer to the above questions. 
 
 Intelligent young men and maidens who have finished 
 their school education — clerks, mechanics, stenographers, 
 teachers, publishers, and preachers — often grow weary of 
 the trivialities of ordinary reading and ordinary society, and 
 long for progress in the direction of genuine self-culture and 
 self-improvement. They know that the truest culture comes 
 from wisely reading the best books. But who shall name 
 the best books for them, and who shall show them how to 
 read wisely and well ? 
 
 The thoughtful young man knows — though he may know 
 it dimly — that there is satisfaction and exhilaration and glory 
 in thinking new and lofty thoughts. He has splendid and 
 inspiring visions of communion, through books, with the 
 master-spirits who have created literature worthy of the 
 name. But he meets with difficulties at the very beginning 
 of his quest. He asks: "What books should I read first, 
 and what next in order .? " '' How can I acquire a taste for 
 the highest and best kinds of literature.?" But the wise and 
 satisfactory answers to these questions are long in coming. 
 
 The sensible young woman who reads only the lighter 
 and the trashier books knows that she is reading herself 
 down instead of up. She knows — or ought to know — that 
 
FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 29 
 
 the trashy literature in which she dehghts points its votaries 
 in the direction of frivohty of thought, weakness of feeling, 
 and irresoluteness of purpose. In her truer and loftier mo- 
 ments she longs for an acquaintance with those writers who 
 would elevate her taste, inspire the purest and tenderest 
 emotions and confirm good and noble principles. 
 
 An Object Lesson in Reading 
 
 The Circle referred to is the literary department of the 
 Epworth League in connection with Sumner Avenue Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church, Brooklyn. A recent Syllabus con- 
 tains features that invite the attention of persons contemplat- 
 ing a systematic study of general or special literature. It is 
 quoted liberally here as showing the actual working of a 
 plan which has been exceptionally successful in its practical 
 results and in holding the interest of its members. The 
 conductors of th€ department announce their intention to 
 answer the questions stated above. 
 
 *' We have selected a series of good novels, essays, and 
 poems for study. We have tried to illustrate, by sugges- 
 tions and questions, correct methods of reading. We ear- 
 nestly desire to assist you in an effort to secure self-culture 
 through the judicious reading of good books. We trust that 
 these studies may help you to find more pleasure in litera- 
 ture — to discover more than ever before that it gives 
 strength to the mind and truth to the heart. 
 
 *' The Syllabus and the accompanying description pro- 
 vide a plan for the formation of circles or societies, the object 
 of which shall be to begin and pursue the serious study of 
 literature, its nature and significance in human life and edu- 
 cation. It is distinct from any of the courses of study now 
 used in church 'young peoples' societies' orMeagues.' 
 It may be used either to supplement or to supersede them. 
 Its object is the study of pure and genuine literature, not 
 the study of science or history, except as they are related 
 to literature. The committee believe the course has been 
 wisely arranged to the end that all working members will 
 
30 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 
 
 obtain a broader knowledge of, and a truer love for, pure 
 literature. 
 
 * ' This year three typical forms of English literature will 
 be studied — the Essay, the Novel, and the Poem. 
 
 " The course provides for studies reaching over thirty- 
 two weeks, and arranges for sixteen meetings of the Circle. 
 Six evenings are devoted to novels, five to poetry, and five 
 to essays. Under each of these general divisions are given 
 reading lists, topics for special study and suggestive ques- 
 tions. The work to be done by the members consists of 
 home reading, writing essays, and taking part in the discus- 
 sions at the meetings of the Circle. Each member should 
 do the required reading, and should come to the meetings 
 with suggestions, helpful thoughts, questions, and quotations. 
 
 " The Syllabus, or outline of study, is particularly full of 
 suggestions and directions. It contains not only a general 
 outline of the entire course, but also an abundance of topics 
 for special investigation. It ' blazes the way ' to wide read- 
 ing and serious thought. Long before the first meeting in 
 October the Syllabus should be read and re-read by each 
 member. The suggestions for study are neither too easy 
 nor too difficult. Not all of them apply directly to the sub- 
 jects under which they appear. They are partly designed 
 to bring to the attention of the members, and into the dis- 
 cussions, many important thoughts on general literature. 
 They are intended to help in teaching the best method of 
 studying a Novel, an Essay, or a Poem. 
 
 '* It is by carefully and attentively reading a few well- 
 chosen books that we make progress in the direction of true 
 culture. To make the reading of a book most profitable, 
 we should have some object in view — the writing of an essay 
 on the book, or discussing it with some friend, or taking 
 part in a debate on it in a Study Circle. Most of us, before 
 we can read a good novel or a great poem in such a manner 
 as to make it the means of the greatest self-improvement, 
 need to be wisely directed and guided. These truths have 
 been constantly in the minds of the Committee which pre- 
 pared this Syllabus. 
 
FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 31 
 
 Books that are Books 
 
 * * Our system provides for the study of genuine literature. 
 Some courses of instruction with which the writer is famihar 
 provide for studies about or concerning Hterature. We be- 
 lieve that the best way to study literature is to study litera- 
 ture. We believe that a great poem like ' The Deserted 
 Village ' or * Locksley Hall ' is just as interesting to a 
 healthy mind as is alleged poetry of the. base and trivial 
 sort, and that great novels like ' A Tale of Two Cities ' or 
 
 * Jane Eyre ' can be made as interesting to the average 
 young person as the ephemeral novels of the day which are 
 now selling by the hundred thousand, but which will be en- 
 tirely forgotten in a dozen years. And so 've attempt a 
 serious and earnest study of enduring literature — of great 
 masterpieces — not masterpieces that might be considered 
 'too good for human nature's daily food' — but such as 
 'Vanity Fair,' 'The Idylls of the King,' 'Macbeth,' and 
 
 * Kenilworth.' 
 
 Literature and More 
 
 "The basis of our work is literary masterpieces. On 
 this foundation we build a course of study that includes some 
 history, politics, sociology, theology, literary criticism, and 
 many other things. Thus, in connection with our study of 
 ' Elsie Venner, ' the physician of our Circle reads an essay 
 on Heredity. When our subject is ' The Biglow Papers, ' 
 we read and discuss the history of the Mexican and Civil 
 Wars. The evening with Kingsley and ' Hypatia ' will show 
 that our members have not only studied the author and the 
 book, but also the period and place in which the scene of 
 the story is laid. Thus we study literature both as an out- 
 growth and as an exponent of life — personal, social, and 
 national. 
 
 ' ' The course for the present year has been carefully 
 arranged for those who have but little time for study, as 
 well as for those of ample leisure and studious habits. To 
 
32 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 
 
 do the ' required reading ' will take, on an average, thirty or 
 forty minutes daily. This much should be done by every 
 member of the Circle. Those who have time and inclina- 
 tion will find that the ' suggested readings ' and the ' study 
 hints ' point the way to the use of two hours or more daily, 
 in earnest reading and research. 
 
 " To secure the best results from the course of study for 
 the present year, every member of the Circle should own 
 the books which constitute the required readings. [Their 
 names and prices are given.] We believe they have been 
 wisely selected, not only on account of the high quality of 
 the literature they contain, but also because they can all be 
 obtained in inexpensive editions. 
 
 * ' The Syllabus gives a list of * required ' or necessary 
 readings. The study of these selections, as stated elsewhere, 
 will take only about thirty or forty minutes daily. All of 
 them should be read by each member. The ' Suggested ' 
 readings broaden the field of study and research, but do not 
 lead away from the general plan. They map out a broad 
 course of interesting study in harmony with the ' Required ' 
 readings and the ' Hints for Study. * 
 
 Aids to Sound Reading 
 
 ** Very few young people, and not many of any age, 
 know the best and most approved methods of reading a 
 poem, a novel, or an essay. Most reading is careless and 
 desultory. Our Study Circle attempts to teach correct 
 methods of reading masterpieces of literature. The carefully 
 prepared Study Suggestions for each evening excite the 
 spirit of investigation and point the way to proper methods 
 of study. They have been arranged by those who recog- 
 nize that the proper study of a poem, an essay, or a novel, 
 should be broad and general as well as specific and minute. 
 
 ' ' Some wise members of our Circle have methods of 
 keeping clippings and memoranda of thoughts pertaining 
 to the meetings, or to each subject or author studied. One, 
 at least, uses a series of large common envelopes for the 
 
FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 33 
 
 preservation of these notes. If, at the beginning of the sea- 
 son, one masters and memorizes a general outHne of the 
 course, it will be found that many ideas, many bits of in- 
 formation, pertaining to the subjects studied, will constantly 
 be found in miscellaneous reading and general conversation. 
 
 Importance of Good Leaders 
 
 *' The success of this course of study largely depends upon 
 the efficiency of the leader or leaders. Each leader should 
 become especially familiar with the subjects for the particu- 
 lar evenings of which he has charge. His preparation should 
 cover all the required readings and all the suggested topics 
 for study; it should go still further and enable him to sug- 
 gest other topics. His research and thought should have 
 been so broad that he will be able to grasp — and grasp 
 quickly — any question, suggestion, or statement of fact, in 
 harmony with the subject of the evening, that comes from 
 the Circle. He should personally answer but few questions. 
 His success is to be measured partly by his ability to guide 
 and control the discussions, giving to the Circle full op- 
 portunity to answer questions or amplify suggestions. He 
 should be an autocrat in his peculiar field, allowing no 
 member to talk too long, and firmly stopping the discussion 
 of a subject whenever he deems the fit moment to have 
 arrived. It may be necessary for him to repress the over- 
 talkative, as it will surely be his duty and pleasure to en- 
 courage the modest to take part in the debates. If he has 
 any reason to believe that a sufficient number of the Circle 
 will not prepare to take intelligent part in the discussion, he 
 should, in advance, assign some of the suggested topics to 
 other members, and ask for their special study of those top- 
 ics along certain lines indicated. A poor leader may not 
 spoil a good Circle ; but a good leader is a most important 
 force for inspiration and efficiency. Leaders should see 
 that discussions do not degenerate into trivialities or plati- 
 tudes, or wander far away from the subject of the evening. 
 Any leader who finds it necessary to be absent from a meet- 
 ing should provide a substitute. 
 
34 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 
 
 "In order to render a study Circle ideally efficient, pro- 
 vision should be made for one leader for the entire course. 
 It is seldom, however, that any one member can give the 
 time necessary to assume the leadership of every meeting. 
 We therefore recommend that for the present year there be 
 three leaders appointed — one for poetry, one for essays, and 
 one for the study of the novel. Each one should commence 
 his special preparation one or two months before the date 
 of the first meeting of which he is to take charge. We be- 
 lieve that in every church of considerable size competent 
 leaders can be found. Often the ^ elect ' person is a woman ; 
 and frequently it is some one who is not a college graduate. 
 It is strange how few of our college-bred men or women 
 have a genuine love for good literature. 
 
 ** Every Circle should have a president, a secretary, and 
 a treasurer. The duties of the president are obvious — the 
 calling of meetings to order, conferring with the leaders, 
 and presiding in the absence of the regular leader unless 
 other arrangements have been made. One person should 
 act as both secretary and treasurer. He should keep in 
 touch with the writers of essays, and should secure a substi- 
 tute in case a regularly appointed essayist fails to respond. 
 He should have charge of the funds of the Circle — not 
 usually a burdensome task. At the last Social of the sea- 
 son, in June, the secretary should read a paper on the study 
 of the year. At regular meetings no minutes are read. 
 
 General Suggestions 
 
 ** Experience has clearly demonstrated the advisability of 
 having two essays read at each meeting. Both should be 
 on kindred, related topics. For example, a biographical 
 estimate of Tennyson may well be followed by a paper on 
 'The Idylls of the King.' These essays should be from 
 fifteen to twenty-five minutes (usually not more than twenty 
 minutes) in length. They should be carefully prepared a 
 sufficient length of time before the date of the meeting at 
 which they are to be read, to become seasoned. Being thus 
 
FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 35 
 
 made ready in advance, they can be read by the secretary 
 or some other member, in case of the absence of the writer. 
 
 * ' We believe that a well-conducted Study Circle should 
 hold two meetings each month, and that the sessions should 
 begin promptly at eight o'clock, and close promptly at ten. 
 It is proposed to hold our meetings on the second and fourth 
 Tuesdays of each month. Soon after the meeting is called 
 to order the first essay should be read, and this should be 
 followed by a discussion of some forty minutes' duration. 
 With or without an intermission of five minutes the second 
 essay should be read, and a discussion or conversazione of 
 forty minutes would then bring the meeting to a close. The 
 best place to hold all meetings, including the ' Social, ' is in 
 the church parlor, or in some other suitable room in the 
 church edifice. It should be understood that the meetings 
 are not public, and that only members should regularly be 
 permitted to attend. Occasional visitors, however, should 
 be made welcome. 
 
 ' ' The annual dues of members should be about fifty cents 
 each, depending somewhat upon the size of the Circle. 
 Money is necessary to defray the cost of the Syllabus or out- 
 line of study, to furnish refreshments at * Socials,' and to pay 
 small incidental expenses. 
 
 ' ' ' We have deemed it advisable to have two or three 
 * Socials ' during the season. Light refreshments should be 
 served, and an Entertainment Committee should provide for 
 games, recitations, or singing. A query box (or hat) in 
 which may be deposited questions, suggestions, or com- 
 ments, may be a feature of the * Socials. ' Bright men and 
 women, drawn together by the desire to study genuine lit- 
 erature, will find that the exercises and conversation of their 
 social evenings become more and more serious, earnest, and 
 thoughtful." 
 
 The Novel 
 
 Here follow examples of the method in which the Novel, 
 the Essay, and the Poem were studied. 
 
 * ' Some Thoughts on Novels and Novel- writing. ' ' Sug- 
 
36 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 
 
 gestions for Study: Some best methods of novel reading and 
 study. How can you distinguish between novels of charac- 
 ter and novels of incident ? Consider the various classes of 
 fiction, as novels of sentiment, satire, life, and manners. 
 The historical novel. Are the best novels ''feigned his- 
 tory " ? In what sense is a well-written novel a biography.? 
 What class of novels are bad morally ? Should novelists 
 depict scenes of vice and moral degradation ? Meaning of 
 *' decadent " novels ? Difference between ** moral," '' im- 
 moral, ' ' and ' ' unmoral ' ' books ? Mention a few great 
 novels containing critical and philosophical reflections in- 
 termingled with pure fiction ; do you prefer them to novels of 
 incident and thrilling situations ? Do the words '* fiction,'^ 
 ** romance, " and ''novel," mean the same ? 
 
 Suggested Readings: Encyclopedic articles on "Novel," 
 "Fiction," and "Romance." See Poole's Index to Peri- 
 odical Literature. 
 
 " 'Jane Eyre ' and the Novel of Sentiment." Sugges- 
 tions for Study: Life of Charlotte Bronte. Her rank as a 
 novelist; perception of character; lack of restraint; lack of 
 humor. Is "Jane Eyre" autobiographical? In what re- 
 spect does this novel mark a decided advance in the develop- 
 ment of the novel ? What is its attitude toward the social 
 system of the day ? Point out in what respect it was con- 
 sidered immoral. Would it be so considered to-day ? Does 
 it shadow forth a prophecy of " woman's rights " ? What 
 new and radical truth became a part of the social life of to- 
 day ? What is the greatest moral teaching of the book, as 
 given in a short passage } Consider the purity, loveliness, 
 and redeeming power of true love as depicted in novels. 
 How may novel-reading become injurious? What propor- 
 tion of our reading should novels be allowed ? What is 
 meant by "knowledge " literature and "power " literature.? 
 Is it better to read the great novels of many authors or all 
 the novels of a few great authors ? 
 
 Required Reading: "Jane Eyre." 
 
 Suggested Reading: Life of Charlotte Bronte. 
 
FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 37 
 
 Poetry 
 
 '* Some Thoughts on Poetry." Suggestions for Study: 
 Elements of great poetry, originality, and perpetual charm ; 
 great subject greatly treated; correct poetic construction; 
 vital idea coherently worked out; must quicken the emo- 
 tions. Beauty of simple poetry in ''Dora" and Book of 
 Ruth. No metaphor, figure of speech, or decorative adjec- 
 tive in '*Dora." The meaning of iambic pentameter, dac- 
 tyllic hexameter, etc. What is " Society Verse "? Name 
 the ten greatest poets of all ages. Have all great poets 
 believed in immortality.^ Is there such a thing as '* Ameri- 
 can " poetry.? The poetry which delights and sustains. 
 Characteristics of the poetry of this century. The spiritual 
 element in poetry. Great hymns, are they great poetry .? 
 Contemporary and universal interest in poetry. Literature 
 of knowledge and literature of power, define each. The 
 Bible in Tennyson and other poets. Study a poem as a 
 whole, its plan, story, plot, vital idea, and larger teaching; 
 note the meaning of paragraphs, sentences, phrases, also 
 the poet's use of words. 
 
 Suggested Readings : The best short poems in the Eng- 
 lish language. Consider the real meaning and lesson of 
 each poem studied. The secret of its music and beauty. 
 The secret of power to move or inspire. 
 
 ''Tennyson, the Man and the Poet." Suggestions for 
 Study: An uneventful life. Development of his mind and 
 art. From form to spirit. The poet's ideals; reverence 
 for law; sacredness of home life. The sanctity and degra- 
 dation of love. Friendship with Arthur Hallam. The story 
 of a true friendship. The poet's conception of ideal man- 
 hood. Redemption through love. The power to feel, 
 rather than the power to think, the safeguard in the conduct 
 of life. The poet's treatment of patriotism, death, immor- 
 tality, "nature. The larger hope. The finding of God. 
 Immortal love. Is Tennyson a great poet ? Has he bor- 
 rowed from earlier poets ? 
 
 Suggested Reading : Life of Tennyson. 
 
38 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 
 
 *** Idylls of the King.'" Suggestions for Study: 
 Sources of the poet's information. Consider the story in 
 the poems. Are the poems a history, allegory, or parable ? 
 Is this a true epic ? Treatment of chivalry, of loyalty, of 
 kingly duty. Profounder teachings. The poem contains 
 thought of an earlier age and also of the present age. Is 
 the poem a ''great picture of man's conflict with sin and 
 fate "? How long did the poet work on the composition of 
 the poems ? Are they real ' ' Idylls ' ' ? Was Arthur a real 
 king? Consider the style of the poems, music of rhythm, 
 beauty of diction and richness of illustrations. Consider the 
 substance of the poems, history, allegory, conflict between 
 the soul and false ambition, false love and other forms of sin. 
 The character of King Arthur. What other writers have 
 treated the Arthurian legends f Is the poet a master of 
 blank verse ? 
 
 Required Readings : ' ' The Coming of Arthur " ; * * The 
 Holy Grail " ; '* Lancelot and Elaine " ; '' The Passing of 
 Arthur " ; ' ' Dedication. ' ' 
 
 Suggested Readings: All the ''Idylls." 
 
 *' Poetry and Poets. " Suggestions for Study: What is 
 poetry ? Its essential qualities that differentiate it from 
 prose. Our need of poetry. Aims and methods in the 
 study of poetry. The relation of poetry to music, painting, 
 and oratory. Poetry gives enjoyment, and teaches duty, 
 endurance, etc. Can love of poetry and other literature be 
 taught.^ Correct methods of reading. How to study a 
 poem. 
 
 Suggested Readings: Stedman's " Nature and Elements 
 of Poetry." Gummere's " Handbook of Poetics. " Articles 
 on poetry in cyclopedias. 
 
 The Essay 
 
 **The Rise and Fall of the Essay." Suggestions for 
 Study: Beginnings and development of the essay in Greece, 
 in Rome, in France. The essay in ancient times — -Seneca, 
 Plutarch. Its esteem among the classicists; its lapse during 
 
FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 39 
 
 the mediaeval epoch; its regeneration — when, where, and 
 how? The height of its power in England; in America; 
 its position to-day. Modern newspaper editorials as a dom- 
 inant factor; '* tracts " ; the mission of the essay. What is 
 an essay ? Why is Dr. Johnson's definition inadequate ? 
 Decline of the essay — when, where, and whether temporary 
 or permanent? The '' coffee-house " and its influence. 
 
 Suggested Readings: Mabie's "The Essay and Some 
 Essayists" ('* Bookman, " Vol. 9). Encyclopedic articles. 
 Henley's "A Book of English Prose." 
 
 "Francis Bacon, the Man and the Essayist." Sugges- 
 tions for Study: Did Bacon follow any school ? Did he owe 
 anything to Montaigne ? Contrast his essay on " Friend- 
 ship ' ' with that of Montaigne. Contrast his type or essay 
 with that of his English successors. His grasp of subject; 
 temper of feeling; purpose; trend of thought. Lobban's 
 opinion of the "typical essayist." Are Bacon's essays 
 " typical ' ' ? What did /le think of them ? His use of Latin, 
 and obligation to classics. His predilection for pithy, 
 learned epigrams. His ode at thirteen an indicator of the 
 coming man. In above essays, what striking characteristic 
 do we find ? Do you agree with the epigrams beginning 
 " Reading maketh a full man," etc. ? Why ? 
 
 Required Readings : "Of Seeming Wise " ; "Of 
 Studies." 
 
 Suggested Readings: Life of Bacon. Life of Montaigne. 
 Further essays by these authors. "Bacon's Essays with 
 Memoirs and Notes. ' ' 
 
HOW TO STUDY 
 
 The Study of Poetry 
 
 By FRANCIS HOVEY STODDARD 
 
 CLEVER men of action, according to Bacon, despise 
 studies, ignorant men too much admire them, wise men 
 make use of them. ' ' Yet, ' ' he says, ' * they teach not their 
 own use, but that there is a wisdom without them and above 
 them, won by observation." These are the words of a 
 man who had been taught by years of studiousness the 
 emptiness of mere study. It does not teach its own useful- 
 ness, and gives its most important lesson if through it we 
 learn that beyond lies a region from which may come a 
 truer wisdom won by observation. This, when all is said, 
 is the one great defect of any system of study, in that it 
 teaches not its own use. No amount of study of the prin- 
 ciples of barter will make a man a great merchant. One 
 can study painting and learn all the characteristics and 
 methods and schools of the art and yet not be able to paint 
 a picture. No amount of study of poetry will make a man 
 a poet. So the crafty men of action ** contemn studies," 
 and the wise men who use them look beyond them for their 
 value. ''English Hterature," said a noted professor not 
 long ago, " cannot be taught " ; and certain it is that even 
 with the most advanced analytical text-book one cannot get 
 a final satisfaction from ** doing a sum " in English literature 
 as one would work a problem in arithmetic. When applied 
 to the higher arts, study, deep and true as one can make it, 
 
 40 
 
THE STUDY OF POETRY 41 
 
 leaves one the surer that there is a wisdom beyond, which 
 Cometh not by study alone. 
 
 Least of all can the deepest things in poetry be learned 
 by mere study. Poetry deals with feeling, which study ex- 
 cludes. Study, indeed, seems to belong exclusively to the 
 prose habit; it seems to be of the intellect and not of the 
 emotions; to be of the mind and not of the spirit. We can- 
 not write a text-book in poetry, nor can we ever in a text- 
 book written in prose put all the secret of poetry. Beyond 
 the text-book always lies the higher wisdom born of that 
 which Bacon called observation, which most of us now 
 call insight, that immediate apprehension of the highest 
 relations which comes as a revelation in our inspired 
 moments. 
 
 In spite of all this the study of poetry has an important 
 function, and it is the purpose of this article to show how to 
 use it most effectively. Poetry is one of the most difficult 
 of all arts to study, so difficult that it has had few text- 
 books and no complete exposition. The inquirer searching 
 for help will find only a few hand-books, the most useful of 
 which are these : Gummere : ' * Beginnings of Poetry ' ' and 
 * ' Hand-book of Poetry ' ' ; Schipper : ' ' Metrik ' ' ; Lanier : 
 '' Science of English Verse " ; Guest: *' EngHsh Rhythms " ; 
 Stedman: " The Nature and Elements of Poetry." Excel- 
 lent as these are he may lament when he has read them that 
 he has found the history of poetic forms, and the technique 
 of poetic method, where he hoped to find the secret of poetry. 
 He will be likely to get as much help from writings on 
 poetry that are not text-books, such as Matthew Arnold's 
 Essays : '* On Translating Homer, ' ' ''Last Words on Trans- 
 lating Homer," "Celtic Poetry," ''Introduction to the 
 Poetry of Wordsworth " ; and the " Introduction to Hum- 
 phry Ward's English Poets"; Emerson's Essays: "The 
 Poet" and "Poetry and Imagination"; Wordsworth's 
 Introduction to the " Lyrical Ballads " ; Poe's striking little 
 essays on the art of poetry; Aristotle's "Rhetoric"; 
 Macaulay's *' Essay on Milton"; Lowell's "Essay on 
 Dryden " ; and many a passage of illuminative comment from 
 
42 THE STUDY OF POETRY 
 
 Milton, from Pope, from Dryden, from Coleridge and from 
 many another. For one who has not known and read much 
 poetry the best introduction to its study may well be the 
 pleasurable reading of some, or of all, of these works, 
 though remembering that such reading is not study, but 
 only the reviewing of records of work done by others, use- 
 ful mainly as a preparation for the real study which is to 
 follow. 
 
 From all these works the student will not be likely to 
 get a definition of poetry which will satisfy him. One may 
 say indeed with truth that poetry is such expression as par- 
 allels the real and the ideal by means of some rhythmic 
 form. But this is not a complete definition. Poetry is not 
 to be bounded with a measuring line or sounded with a 
 plummet. The student must feel after its limits as these 
 authors have done, and find for himself its satisfactions. 
 One can feel more of its power than the mind can define; 
 for definitions are prose-forms of mind action, while poetry 
 in its higher manifestations is pure emotion, outpassing prose 
 Hmits. Yet one can know poetry if he cannot completely 
 define it. The one essential element which distinguishes it 
 from prose is rhythm. In its primal expressions this is 
 mainly a rhythm of stresses and sounds — of accents and 
 measures, of alliterations and rhymes. Poetry began when 
 man, swaying his body, first sang or moaned to give ex- 
 pression to his joy or sorrow. Its earliest forms are the 
 songs which accompany the simplest emotions. When 
 rowers were in a boat the swinging oars became rhythmic, 
 and the oarsman's chant naturally followed. When the 
 savage overcame his enemy, he danced his war dance, and 
 sang his war song around his camp fire at night, tone and 
 words and gesture all fitting into harmony with the move- 
 ment of his body. So came the chants and songs of work 
 and of triumph. For the dead warrior the moan of lamen- 
 tation fitted itself to the slower moving to and fro of the 
 mourner, and hence came the elegy. In its first expres- 
 sion this was but inarticulate, half action, half music, dumbly 
 voicing the emotion through the senses ; its rhythms were 
 
THE STUDY OF POETRY 43 
 
 all for the ear and it had little meaning beyond the crude 
 representation of some simple human desire and grief. 
 
 It became poetry when it put a thrill of exultation in 
 work, of delight in victory, or of grief at loss by death, into 
 some rhythmic form tangible to the senses. There grew 
 up thereafter a body of rhythmic forms — lines, stanzas, ac- 
 cents, rhythms, verbal harmonies. These forms are the 
 outward dress of poetry, and may rightly be the first subject 
 of the student's study. We properly give the name of poetry 
 to verses such as Southey's "Lodore," Poe's ** Bells," 
 or Lanier's '' Song of the Chattahoochee," which do little 
 more than sing to our ears the harmonies of sound, the 
 ultimate rhythms of nature. Yet it is not merely the brook 
 or the bell or the river, that we hear in the poem, but the 
 echoing of that large harmony of nature of which the sound 
 of the brook or the bell is only the single strain. Through 
 the particular it suggests the universal, as does all poetry, 
 leading through nature up to something greater, far be- 
 yond. This rhythm is best studied in poems that were 
 written to be sung or chanted. If one could read Greek, or 
 Anglo-Saxon, or Old High German, or the English of Chau- 
 cer's day, he could quickly train his ear to be independent 
 of the handbooks on versification, by reading aloud, or lis- 
 tening as one read aloud, the * ' Odyssey ' ' or the ' * Beowulf, ' ' 
 or the ''Nibelungen Lied" or the *' Canterbury Tales." 
 These would be better for this purpose than any modern 
 verses, for the reason that they were intended to be sung or 
 chanted, and so all the rhythms are real to the senses. 
 Since the barrier of language bars out for most of us this 
 older verse, we can read the early ballads, the lyrics of the 
 Elizabethan time, when as yet verses spoke mainly to the 
 ear, or some modern poems of the simpler type, such as 
 ''Evangeline" or ''Hiawatha." 
 
 Such poetry, which is mainly to delight and charm the 
 ear, is really a primal form of verse and we may properly 
 call it the poetry of the senses. In studying it Lanier's 
 " Science of English Verse " is a delightful companion and 
 many minor hand-books besides those named above, such as 
 
44 THE STUDY OF POETRY 
 
 are found in most schools, and some of the shorter accounts 
 of versification such as are found in works on rhetoric, will 
 give assistance. 
 
 Yet the pathway to the mastery of the problems of meter 
 is for each student to tread alone. The best plan is to read 
 aloud a considerable quantity. Then the technical language 
 of the books will lose its terrors and the simplicity of 
 construction of good poetry will become apparent. If the 
 student will read so much of this poetry that his senses be- 
 come responsive to its music, he will no longer need a hand- 
 book. For this purpose let him read such poems as can be 
 sung, chanted, or spoken to the ear; such as Macaulay's 
 *' Lays of Ancient Rome," Scott's *'Marmion," Browning's 
 *' Pied Piper," and '' How They Brought the Good News," 
 Tennyson's *' Charge of the Light Brigade." Let him 
 read mainly for the senses rather than for the mind, getting 
 the reward in the quickening of life through the throbbing 
 rhythms ; then the metrical system of poetry will become as 
 real to him as the rhythmic movements of the planets are 
 to an astronomer. There is no other way to get a feeling 
 for the pulsations of poetry than through this intimate 
 acquaintance. Without this, months of reading of amphi- 
 brachs and trochees and dactyls will not avail. It should 
 be read aloud as much as possible to make the swing of its 
 verses perfectly clear. When it sings to us as we read, it 
 has begun to teach the message of its rhythms. 
 
 Thus far the text-books have been pleasant companions, 
 even when unable to give as much aid to the student as he 
 could wish; but the fact will come to him at length that 
 there is something more in poetry than the hand-books per- 
 mit him to consider. These books deal with the forms, and 
 most of them with the forms only. They analyze the meth- 
 ods, work out the meters, show how the parts are woven 
 together, explain how the chords produce the harmonies. 
 But just in proportion as the student becomes learned in 
 these rhythms, and can distinguish minute or subtle varia- 
 tions of metrical structure, does he realize that this study 
 teaches not its own use and that there is something beyond 
 
THE STUDY OF POETRY 45 
 
 which must be won by his own observation. He finds in his 
 search for rhythmical perfection that there are poems which 
 make Httle appeal to his senses, whose lines do not sing 
 themselves through his day-dreams, which yet affect his 
 imagination even more powerfully than the musical strains 
 thrilled his senses. He finds that there is much more in 
 poetry than its rhymes and jingles, that there is a rhythm 
 greater than that of the senses. In its more complex forms 
 poetry is rhythm of thought, leading the mind to find relations 
 which prose may describe, but which poetry alone can re- 
 create. There is such a thing as a prose thought and such 
 a thing as a poetic thought. The one gives with exactness 
 the fact as it exists, clearly, honestly, directly, and for all 
 completed and tangible things is the natural medium of ex- 
 pression. The other parallels the actual with a suggestion 
 of an ideal rhythmically consonant with the motive underly- 
 ing the fact. Justice, for example, deals in prose fashion 
 with a crime and awards the punishment which the law 
 allows; poetic justice suggests such recompense as would 
 come of itself in a community perfectly organized. The 
 prose of life is honest living, a worthy endeavor to do the 
 best one can in the world as it is ; the poetry of life is the 
 feeling for, and the striving after, the bringing of this life 
 into harmony with a nobler living. So we rightly give the 
 name of poetry to such verse as Goldsmith's ** Deserted 
 Village," Johnson's '* London," Gray's '* Elegy," Words- 
 worth's ' * Excursion, ' ' Milton's ' * Paradise Lost, ' ' Chaucer's 
 "Knight's Tale," Browning's "Ring and the Book," 
 Tennyson's "In Memoriam," which do not much stir our 
 senses. They parallel the real with the ideal, suggesting 
 the eternal rhythms of infinite mind as the poetry of the 
 senses suggests the eternal rhythms of omnipotent nature. 
 
 This Poetry of the Intellect is the second great division 
 of the poetic realm. Beyond it lies still another; for there 
 are spiritual harmonies which the mind alone cannot com- 
 pass, and which the senses alone cannot interpret. The 
 hand-books know little of spiritual harmonies, and do not 
 go beyond their academic classifications of lyric and epic, 
 
46 THE STUDY OF POETRY 
 
 and their catalogues of pentameters, hexameters, or alex- 
 andrines. But the student can for himself push his observa- 
 tion beyond, and come to the poetry of the higher 
 imagination, where he can be forgetful of the mere form and 
 disdainful of the merely logical relations, where his spirit can 
 as it were see face to face the truth beyond the seeming. 
 This is the poetry of the spirit, and ought to come as a rev- 
 elation to the searcher. He may first find it in some pure 
 lyric such as Shelley's *' Skylark, " or in some mystical fan- 
 tasy such as Moore's '*Lallah Rookh " or Coleridge's 
 *' Christabel," or in some story of human abnegation such 
 as Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," or some wail of a soul in 
 pain, as in Shelley's " Adonais," or in some outburst of ex- 
 ultant grief such as Whitman's ''Captain, My Captain," or 
 in some revelation of the unseen potencies close about us as 
 in Browning's ''Saul," or in som'e vision of the mystery of 
 this our earthly struggle such as " Childe Roland to the 
 Dark Tower Came, "or in some answer of the spirit to a 
 never stilled question such as Wordsworth's *' Ode on Inti- 
 mations of Immortality. ' ' When he thus finds it he has 
 come to poetry in its highest use. In his "Alexander's 
 Feast ' ' Dryden hints at two great functions of poetry in the 
 lines : 
 
 " He raised a mortal to the skies, 
 She drew an angel down." 
 
 The office of poetry is to parallel the actual with the ideal, 
 to cast upon an earthly landscape something of a heavenly 
 glow, to interpret earthly things in terms of the spirit. The 
 poetry of the senses lifts a mortal to the skies, thinking the 
 thought of one higher than itself as the poet muses, singing 
 the song of an angelic choir in harmony with the rhythm 
 of the verse. The poetry of the spirit brings the message 
 of the angels down to men and makes the harmonies they 
 speak the music of this earthly life. 
 
 The highest type of poetry lends itself perfectly to earnest 
 and profound study. In class work it is usually better to 
 study poets as well as poems, and to study thoroughly a few 
 works of a great master. Poetry is essentially a synthetic 
 
THE STUDY OF POETRY 47 
 
 art ; it unites the wandering desires of our hearts and spirits 
 to make one single and enduring impression. Poetry speaks 
 also the mood, the aspiration and the deepest intent of its 
 author, so that the great poet is the one who brings us most 
 directly to understand its art. For most student classes it 
 is best to take a single poet for interpretation, and to study 
 in succession a small number — say six to ten — of his works, 
 making one, or at least, two or three, the subject of the con- 
 ferences for each week. The choice of author will be de- 
 pendent on many considerations and cannot here be positively 
 advised, but one will not go astray in choosing Wordsworth, 
 Tennyson, Browning, Longfellow, or Whittier, or three of 
 them, for a season's work. Intelligent direction is of great 
 assistance in making the study definite and progressive. 
 Choose first of all the poems which seem to have influenced 
 men, for to move men is the final test of poetry. If there is 
 no class, and no leader, let the student make his choice by 
 a preliminary examination. Let him read rapidly, and for 
 the single impression, the poems of Wordsworth whose titles 
 seem most familiar to him as he scans them over; such 
 as **Tintern Abbey," ** Yarrow Un visited," "Solitary 
 Reaper," *'Lucy," "We are Seven," "The Intimations 
 of Immortality, " " She was a Phantom of Delight, ' ' and a 
 few of the lyrical ballads; then let him read Tennyson's 
 "Locksley Hall," "Maud," "The Idylls of the King," 
 and a few of the shorter poems; let him read Browning's 
 "Saul," " Abt Vogler," "The Grammarian's Funeral," 
 " Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," " Pippa 
 Passes," one or two dramas, and a few of the brief poems 
 in the volume "Men and Women." Then let him make 
 his own list for study, taking those poems which have most 
 stirred him, those which he remembers vividly after his read- 
 ing, those which have become a part of himself. If the 
 student makes his choice frankly and sincerely, he has, in 
 making it, begun his study. Then let him frame for him- 
 self or get from his leader, if he has one, a list of the ques- 
 tions whith each poem is to answer for him. If the work 
 be really poetry, its study ought to give a help toward the 
 
48 THE STUDY OF POETRY 
 
 solution of the first great problems: '' What is poetry?" and, 
 ' ' What is its revelation to the life of our senses, our hearts, 
 and our souls ?" We have a right to ask of each poem 
 three questions : ' ' How does it charm our senses ? " ; " How 
 does it make the meaning of things clearer for us ?" ; " How 
 does it bring to us a renewal of life? " The first question is 
 better fitted for private study than for class investigation, 
 the senses being delicate organs and shy in company. Let 
 the minute matters of form and structure be gone over at 
 home. Let the student work out the meter, the typical line, 
 and the variations by which the poet gets his effects, the 
 metaphors, the alliterations, the consonant and vowel har- 
 monies. It will aid if this work be made as definite and as 
 exact as an investigation in a scientific laboratory. But all 
 this should be the student's home work. In the class the 
 large divisions of the poem should be sympathetically shown, 
 so that each student will comprehend the poem as a whole 
 as the poet must have conceived it. Then as some one 
 reads aloud the lines the music of the rhythms will come by 
 assimilation rather than by analysis. Poetry parallels the 
 real with the ideal to make a harmony before undreamed of. 
 So in the lines sound re-echoes sound, and a subtle music 
 but half perceived sings itself out of the moving notes. 
 
 What burden this music bears is the second question. 
 Poetry differs from prose in that it lifts the thought so that 
 its highest relations and suggestions are made known. We 
 have a right therefore to parallel the prose sight with the 
 poetic visions and to find in what the one transcends the 
 other. If we are studying the "Idylls of the King," for 
 instance, we may fitly ask what was the story as the poet 
 took it, and into what he has transformed it for us. This 
 study of the thought of the poem is an excellent subject for 
 class work. The questions should be made definite and so 
 grouped that sections of the class can choose one or another 
 phase of the problem ; the conferences should be so directed 
 that a few clearly worked-out and thoroughly unified poetic 
 thoughts will be left in the mind of each student. 
 
 In all things practice may fitly supplement precept. In 
 
THE STUDY OF POETRY 49 
 
 1 reading circle of which one of the editors of this series was 
 i member the poems of Tennyson were studied by a method 
 :losely resembHng that advocated in this article. As a sug- 
 gestion the topics and questions for one of the poems are 
 lere given. One of the members acted as leader. A brief 
 issay reciting the history of the poem was read. The en- 
 ;ire poem was read aloud by one of the members of the 
 :lass. Then the topics given below were discussed as pre- 
 sented in turn by groups of students who had given especial 
 ittention to one of the topics. In the discussions the entire 
 :lass joined, and at the close a very brief summing up by the 
 eader gathered up the threads of thought. 
 
 Topic : ' ' Locksley Hall ' ' and ' ' Locksley Hall Sixty 
 i^ears After. ' ' 
 
 Required Readings : ' ' Locksley Hall " ; * ' Locksley Hall 
 Mxty Years After " ; ' ' Lady Clara Vere de Vere " ; "Sir 
 jalahad." 
 
 Suggested Readings: In connection with the earlier 
 3oem, '* Ulysses " and " Ths Two Voices," in connection 
 ^ith the later poem, " Maud "; " Memoir of Tennyson,." 
 Dy Lord Hallam Tennyson. 
 
 Suggestions for Study: (A) The physical basis of the 
 )oem. 
 
 Study the meter. Why called Trochaic Octameter ? In 
 vhat way does this meter resemble and in what way differ 
 rom Lowell's '* Present Crisis," Swinburne's " Triumph of 
 rime," Browning's ''There's a woman like a dewdrop " 
 from '' The Blot i' the Scutcheon "), and Mrs. Browning's 
 ' Rhyme of the Duchess May ' ' ? Why is this meter pecul- 
 arly adapted to the sentiment of *' Locksley Hall " ? How 
 loes the meter differ in effect from that of Mrs. Julia Ward 
 riowe's ''Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Bryant's 
 'The Death of the Flowers" and Tennyson's "May 
 3ueen "? Is the effect of the rhythm optimistic as opposed 
 the pessimism of the ' ' Triumph of Time, * ' and why ? 
 Nhy are the lines of this poem so easily carried in the mem- 
 )ry.? What is there in the use of words which gives such 
 
50 THE STUDY OF POETRY 
 
 sweetness to the verses as one reads them aloud ? Has the 
 poem for you a music of its own which haunts you Hke a re- 
 membered vision? Find out, if you can, something of the 
 secret of this music. (B) The intellectual interest of the 
 poem. 
 
 (i) Consider the meaning of difficult passages, such as 
 " Fairy tales of science." Explain the meaning of stanzas 
 containing the following quotations: ** Smote the chord of 
 self"; ** Cursed be the social wants"; *'That a sorrow's 
 crown of sorrow"; *'But the jingling of the guinea"; 
 ** Slowly comes a hungry people"; "Knowledge comes, 
 but wisdom lingers." 
 
 (2) How long an interval elapsed between the writing 
 of the above two poems ? Does any change in style or 
 trend of thought indicate the lapse of time ? The earlier 
 poem was and is immensely popular. Why ? Why is the 
 later one less popular ? 
 
 (3) What is the story in the poem, and in what manner 
 is it told? How is the story continued in *< Sixty Years 
 After ' ' ? Was Locksley Hall an inland or a seashore resi- 
 dence, and why ? Describe the surroundings from sugges- 
 tions in the poems. Sum up what the hero tells of himself 
 and his love-story. What suggestions are there regarding 
 the characters of Amy and Edith ? Is the emotional side 
 of the hero as finely balanced as the intellectual side ? 
 What light is thrown on the character of his love by his out- 
 bursts against Amy ? Would it be fair to judge of Amy 
 and her husband by what he says of them in his first 
 anguish ? Does he ever admit that he judged them harshly ? 
 If so, do you agree with him altogether ? Was it well for 
 Amy to marry as she did ? When obedience to parental 
 wishes and love are in conflict, which should be followed ? 
 Did the hero's evil prophecies come true ? Whose love do 
 you think was the greatest, Amy's, or his, or the squire's ? 
 
 (4) How does Tennyson all through the poem make it a 
 parable of human life ? 
 
 (C) The emotional influence of the poem. How has this 
 poem influenced you ? For many persons, Tennyson, out 
 
THE STUDY OF POETRY 51 
 
 of a simple love-story, has made a prophecy of ideal love. 
 Has he for you ? For many persons Tennyson made poetry 
 out of this simple story when he paralleled the tale of earthly 
 passion with a vision of completer life, so vivid that the pain 
 and tragedy of this present life come to be for us but the 
 preparation for the better life to come, as the poet sings to 
 us that 
 
 " Through the ages one increasing purpose runs 
 And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
 suns." 
 
 Has he to you in like manner through this poem given a 
 truer conception of the nature and use of poetry ? 
 
 Systematic study such as that suggested above will help 
 in answering the questions, * ' What charm has this poem for 
 us ? " and ' * How does it put a deeper meaning into the 
 events it records ?" But it is difficult to frame formal ques- 
 tions the answers to which will show how a poem quickens 
 life. The influence of a poem is so much a matter of tem- 
 perament arid of emotion, both of the author and of the 
 reader, that one has to feel its power rather than to work it 
 out logically. Poetry passes beyond prose in that it quick- 
 ens life by moving us to feel its nobler emotions. It will 
 teach its own lesson to the appreciative reader, and the 
 student who gets fully into sympathy with a great poem will 
 have his whole life made brighter. Class work, done sym- 
 pathetically and sincerely, will aid in finding the truest in- 
 terpretations. Yet studies teach not their own use. The 
 higher blessings come to us unbidden if we as little children 
 hope for them. We shall find the highest uses of poetry in 
 remembering always that it may at its best come to us as an 
 
 " Angel of light 
 Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night." 
 
HOW TO STUDY 
 
 Study of the Novel 
 
 By FRANCIS HOVEY STODDARD 
 
 IT has not till very recent years been easy to connect the 
 notion of serious study with novel-reading. To most of 
 us a novel is an appropriate amusement for an idle hour, and 
 suggests a hammock on a cottage piazza in the summer days 
 of rest. To the appointed guardians of books and of read- 
 ing fiction is rather a trial. Librarians are apt to advise 
 readers to take other literature than novels, and to be proud 
 when they show at the end of a year that the proportion of 
 readers of fiction is somewhat lessened. They urge the 
 reading of history, of philosophy, of poetry, of criticism, of 
 biography, in preference ; they place special restrictions on 
 romances; they put forth lists of useful books to draw the 
 novel-reader back to earnest work ; they oppose * ' serious 
 literature ' ' to fiction in the reports. By one founder of 
 libraries the proposal is made that no novel less than two 
 years old shall be bought. The general attitude seems to 
 be that the serious study of fiction is hardly to be consid- 
 ered, and that the reading of stories is a habit to be tol- 
 erated rather than to be encouraged. 
 
 Even this condition of toleration, however, is something 
 gained for fiction as compared with its earlier standing in 
 professional circles. In former days it was rather dreaded 
 than tolerated. The distinction between that which has not 
 actually happened and that which is not in accord with truth 
 was not very clear when the novel first made its appeal, and 
 
 52 
 
STUDY OF THE NOVEL 53 
 
 a prejudice against it on the score of lack of verity had to be 
 overcome. Serious objections were urged against all fic- 
 tion, on the ground of the distorted views of life which it 
 presented, on the ground of the dissatisfaction with the 
 routine of life which it engendered, and on the ground of 
 the emotional unrest which it brought to young minds. For 
 reasons such as these many parents forbade their children to 
 read any works of fiction; most teachers kept such works 
 rigidly out of their courses ; many clergymen openly con- 
 demned them. Taken as a whole, fiction, up to a very 
 recent period, was limited in its province to the field of 
 amusement and light diversion; to keep it in its proper 
 place the older disciplines felt themselves in honor bound to 
 wage continual war. 
 
 Against this feeling of distrust, which now seems to us 
 to have been born partly of prejudice and partly of justifiable 
 hesitancy in accepting cordially a new method of expression, 
 fiction has certainly made some head. In quarters where it 
 was first feared it is now enjoyed; where it was first only a 
 means of enjoyment, it is now seriously entreated. Certain 
 of the greater works of fiction are now approved even by the 
 librarians ; certain of the older works of fiction are now ap- 
 pointed to be read in schools, discussed in academies, 
 lectured upon in universities. Even in the list of books 
 required to be read as preparation for entrance to college 
 three or four novels are to be found. In the courses offered 
 in literature in colleges fiction has taken a permanent place. 
 
 Clubs study novels ; social movements are based upon 
 them or helped by them ; the most serious religious prob- 
 lems are discussed in them. That which seemed lighter 
 than the finger of a man's hand has come to be the whip of 
 scorpions to modern society; now more than ever the essay, 
 the drama, and fiction are the means of teaching the serious 
 lessons of manners and of morals. So great a change as 
 this is an indication that fiction has found its place in mod- 
 ern life. It is the purpose of this article to show what are 
 its relations and influences and how we may best make use 
 of the opportunities which it affords. 
 
54 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 
 
 A good novel is a composite biography. It becomes a 
 novel because it tells the story of a life. If veritable biog- 
 raphy could always be written, if the story of an actual life 
 as lived could always be told by an ideal biographer, with- 
 out malice and without extenuation, with inter-play of influ- 
 ence and desire, of circumstance, intention and propinqui- 
 tous association, the field of the novel would be taken. A 
 few such biographies each one of us knows, told by some 
 Boswell who builded better than he knew. But they are 
 very few. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of 
 riches choke the word when the biographer speaks. The 
 biography he writes becomes even less historical than most 
 histories, far more unreal than most romances. The novel 
 in its best estate is a real biography told by an artist who 
 has studied his hero, who has lived with him in his days 
 of passion, trial, or achievement, and who is unhampered 
 in the telling of the story. The novel thus has a field as 
 broad as life, and in common with the drama has become a 
 great exponent, in literature, of human relations. Its scope 
 is broader than the drama, though less absolute, for the 
 reason that the novel can tell us the story of the quiet, un- 
 vexed soul living itself upward through the serene years, 
 while the drama must speak of action. The crash of broken 
 commandments, to use the happy phrase of Thomas Hardy, 
 is as necessary to tragedy as is the clash of cymbals to a 
 military march, while, on the other hand, life's calm deeps 
 are but lightly skimmed in comedy. 
 
 There are whole regions of living that are essentially 
 undramatic though palpitant with life, and of these the novel 
 is the fit historian . It is both less and more than biography. 
 It is less in that the final touch of reality can never be given 
 by any artist, be he ever so skillful, to that which is after all 
 but a creation of his fancy; it is more, in that it is a com- 
 posite portrait which the artist draws for us, showing a life 
 into whose web of existence have been woven threads to form 
 a pattern, the secret motives of which he only can fully 
 know whose outlines print themselves upon our memory. 
 So the novel rightly moves us, for it is begotten of desire. 
 
STUDY OF THE NOVEL 55 
 
 and in its highest state is a true record of emotional life. It 
 is biography touched with emotion. 
 
 In real life the days of extreme emotion are somewhat 
 rare, and so in fiction the novel of extreme emotion is like- 
 wise rare. Yet at the basis of all fiction is the emotion 
 motive. One may even define a novel in terms of emo- 
 tion, and say that a novel is a story of the progress of some 
 passion and its effect upon a life. The type-form is the 
 story of a life influenced by a passion of attraction, or a 
 passion of aversion — by a strong hate or a strong love. 
 Since we all love loving more than we love hating, the love 
 novel has the broadest field of influence ; and since we all 
 love to be in a winning game, the novel of love triumphant 
 over obstacles — the old three-decker of which Kipling sings, 
 riding into its haven in the last chapter, and ** taking tired 
 people to the Islands of the Blest ' ' — is the one dearest to 
 most of us. It gives us an ideal hero and heroine ; it takes 
 us back to summer days of gladness ; it keeps us young with 
 its pictures of youth. Had the novel no other mission than 
 this of rest and recreation, it could justify itself. The bur- 
 dens of life roll off from us as we read how the hero won his 
 victory. 
 
 To some weak minds every-day duties grow distasteful in 
 comparison with the pleasant trials of life in fiction, and so 
 far as this is true, novel reading works harm. But minds 
 are more healthful than we are apt to think, and to healthful 
 minds contact with the heroes and heroines of fiction is a 
 stimulant. If it does nothing more for the reader than to 
 extend the boundary of acquaintance, it has served its pur- 
 pose. What a gallery of portraits of friends have the novels 
 we have read painted for us! Strike out Trollope, Dickens, 
 Thackeray, Dumas, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Hawthorne, 
 and Walter Scott from our memories and how slight is the 
 acquaintance we have left. Leaving study quite out of the 
 reckoning, taking the novel simply as a companion for hours 
 of rest and easy desire, who can say it has not been a solace 
 and a charm ? 
 
 The pleasures of life gain, rather than lose, when made 
 
56 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 
 
 intelligent. The pleasure of looking at pictures increases 
 with every broadening of knowledge of art, and the pleasure 
 of traveling grows greater with study of the regions to be 
 visited. So the intelligent study of the art of fiction gives 
 assistance even to the page-skimmer of a summer afternoon 
 and mightily strengthens the enjoyment of the serious reader. 
 For such study there are two methods which appeal with 
 unequal interest to different minds. The first is to learn 
 what can be known of the history of the art, of its begin- 
 nings, progress, and present state, of its methods, oppor- 
 tunities, and limitations, and then to set the particular work 
 in hand in its proper place in the entire recital. 
 
 The second method of study begins with a single work, 
 and by finding its secret, gains the key to the other forms. 
 In the one case we study inward from the general, and nar- 
 row the search to the work in hand ; in the other we study 
 outward from the single example. To the scholarly mind 
 the second method has most attraction ; and the earnest 
 student, however he may begin, will be apt to come to it in 
 any case as his work goes on. But there is an advantage 
 in beginning with at least an opening glance at the history 
 and essentials of the art. The novel as we know it belongs 
 to the last two centuries. It is modern in its every charac- 
 teristic — as in its insistence on equal rights of men and 
 women in affairs of love, in its interest in social problems, 
 in its interest in the individual man whatever his degree or 
 condition, in its interest in the conduct of life — and its his- 
 torical study is therefore easily within reach. 
 
 For such study there are now several excellent hand- 
 books * which treat of the ancestry of fiction and of its his- 
 tory since Defoe and Richardson made it a fact in English 
 literature. In using all such hand-books students will be 
 aided by adopting some system of classification so that the 
 study can be by development of kind as well as by sequence 
 in order of time. 
 
 ♦ Dunlop : " History of Fiction." Warren : " History of the Novel Previous to ttie 
 Seventeenth Century." Raleigh: "The English Novel." Cross: "The Devel- 
 opment of the Novel." Stoddard : *• The Evolution of the English Novel;" 
 
STUDY OF THE NOVEL 57 
 
 The universe about us is an orderly system so that any 
 scientific study becomes of necessity an orderly grouping of 
 facts. We distinguish species in birds and orders of families 
 in plants ; we work out the relations of constellations in 
 astronomy; we group the metals and non-metals in chem- 
 istry; we find periods of activity in geology. The mind 
 naturally expects to find that a family system will show it- 
 self in the productions of the mind as well as in the phe- 
 nomena of nature. We have the feeling that ' * consciousness 
 of kind " will come to literary works and that they can be 
 grouped like living organisms. To a great extent this ex- 
 pectation on the student's part is justified, for some system 
 of classification, more or less natural and more or less com- 
 plete, is sure to come to his aid. 
 
 In fiction we find well-defined groups. A novel is an 
 artistic biography. It has a motive, which is emotion, and 
 an object, which is the telling of the story of a life in such 
 an artistic fashion as shall illuminate its incidents, recreate 
 its environment, make clear its hidden secrets, and suggest 
 its moral. Three fields of activity are thus opened to fic- 
 tion. The first is that of contemporaneous actual life, and 
 gives us the fiction of personality. The second is that of 
 past life, and gives us historical fiction. The third is of the 
 unrealized life, which has no limit of date, and gives us the 
 fiction of romance. Under these three heads — the novel of 
 the present, the novel of the past and the novel uncon- 
 ditioned — may be grouped all serious fiction. 
 
 The fiction of contemporaneous life gives us the novel of 
 manners, of satire, of problem, of purpose. The fiction of 
 past life gives us that historical study of the real or imaginary 
 hero of the past of which the world will never tire. The 
 fiction of romance gives us the fascinating recital of the im- 
 possible life of a hero whose deeds make the incredible as 
 natural as our desires, or whose soul-struggles make distress 
 delightful. 
 
 Taking these three divisions as the beginning of study, 
 serious work can readily be planned. The novel of con- 
 temporaneous life — that novel which in any period tells the 
 
58 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 
 
 story of the emotional passages in the life of some hero of 
 that day and generation — is the most common form. If the 
 student is working alone, the best plan of study will be for 
 him to read first the general story of the predecessors of the 
 novel, as found in Dunlop and Warren, and then, with more 
 care, to read the history of fiction as it has existed in Eng- 
 lish literature since the novel first found itself in the pages 
 of Richardson, Smollett, Sterne, and Fielding. 
 
 If a group of students are working together in a club, 
 class, or reading circle, this historical, preliminary work will 
 be much lightened by having part of it given in lectures 
 by the leader, and part in special studies, by members of 
 the class, of periods, divisions, or special questions of in- 
 terest. This preliminary work may properly occupy two or 
 three weeks, at the end of which time a bird's-eye view of 
 the whole field should have been gained by every student. 
 Its best result will be to locate for the inquirer the works 
 that are worth his attention in subsequent study. It is as 
 if an explorer, entering a region totally new to him, had 
 the fortune to climb a mountain from which the surrounding 
 country was all in view. He could not from such quick view 
 get the detail or know the country with any thoroughness, 
 but he would get a knowledge of the high places and the 
 low places, of the general trend of things, which no amount 
 of valley exploration could give him. 
 
 In like manner, not to press the figure too far, the student, 
 from this preliminary survey, can get a clear notion of the 
 high places and the low places in fiction's history, of the 
 trend of things, and of the works worth minute study. Hav- 
 ing completed this the student, if he be alone, or the leader, 
 or better still, the whole class if there is a club, should 
 choose a series of master- works to be read and studied. 
 These works must be chosen, of course, on information and 
 belief, as the lawyers say, as to their logical sequence, but 
 they will be well chosen if the list be confined to works that 
 have reputation and are in each case representative of an 
 idea. 
 
 Each book taken should stand for a personality. There 
 
STUDY OF THE NOVEL 59 
 
 IS a wealth of choice — Pamela, Roderick Random, Clarissa 
 Harlowe, Tom Jones, Dr. Primrose, Emma, Hawkeye, 
 Jane Eyre, Pickwick, David Copperfield, Adam Bede, 
 Romola, Hester Prynne, Becky Sharp, Lorna Doone, Pen- 
 dennis — and every life is told by a biographer untrammeled 
 by social pride or family feeling. Let the class choose half 
 a dozen typical personages whose biographies as told in fic- 
 tion they would like to study. These may be taken in chro- 
 nological order as far as possible, but the basis of selection 
 should be the vitality of the hero, or heroine, remembering 
 that since the novel of personality is a biography its hero 
 must live for us in its pages. 
 
 In studying these examples, it is better to follow a def- 
 inite line of inquiry. Let the student ask for himself, or the 
 leader ask for him, specific questions — as to the type of char- 
 acter represented, as to the clearness with which it is painted, 
 as to the growth of the art of story-telling shown in the suc- 
 cessive examples, as to the honesty and truth of the tale 
 that is told, and as to the worth of the life that is there un- 
 folded. The last question especially we have a perfect right 
 to ask in studying the novel of personality. Life should be 
 fruitful, and any study of a life, even in a novel, must be a 
 study of one made fruitful through experience, or of one 
 whose failures show us how a better life might have been 
 lived. It is not that the great novel teaches a moral so 
 much as that it is moral. All the issues of things are so 
 brought out that the harmony of true living is shown even 
 in the failures. We have a right to ask, also, if the novel- 
 ist's art is just and strong. If such a series can be chosen 
 as shall answer these questions, their study will educate as 
 well as inform the student. 
 
 The historical novel presents a somewhat simpler field, 
 and it is for most students better to take it up before under- 
 taking the subdivisions of the personality novel — the novels 
 of satire, introspection, purpose, and problem. Scott is still 
 the great master of the lighter historical novel. After read- 
 ing him a series of half a dozen subsequent examples down 
 to the latest success of the present day, will fairly illustrate 
 
60 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 
 
 the delightful mingling of real and ideal which gives the his- 
 torical novel its charm. The student may well remember 
 that a poor historical novel is neither history nor fiction, and 
 that only a few works in this field are masterpieces worthy 
 of serious study. Yet he will not keenly feel the need of a 
 guide until he reaches the third great division, that of the 
 romantic novel. 
 
 I have called this the novel of the unrealized life, for its 
 motive is always the desire of an unsatisfied soul exploring 
 the dim days of the past, or the misty regions beyond the 
 physical, mental, or spiritual horizon, in search of something 
 which the present day and the present experience has failed 
 to give. Romantic fiction is as old as time and as new as 
 to-morrow. Its illusiveness and intangibility make it one 
 of the most difficult of all fields of study, as it is one of the 
 most fascinating of all fields of intellectual pleasure. It is 
 best approached, even by the serious student, through the 
 gateway of desire. In romance let him study what he loves, 
 and the lesson of the search will come unasked. 
 
 These general studies will probably make up about half 
 of the year's work. To follow them may come the special, 
 detailed, and critical — though, if to be beneficial, always 
 appreciative — examination of a few of the greater works. 
 When possible make this also the study of a great author, 
 for the personality of a biographer molds the biography, be 
 it a real or an imaginary one. Take also, when possible, 
 the greatest work of a novelist, and give all the sessions of 
 a definite period — say a week or a fortnight — to this one 
 work. If the circle is large, the range of study may well be 
 large also, separate groups of students taking the various 
 phases of the subject. For illustration a study of ^'Vanity 
 Fair, ' ' made by a reading circle of which one of the editors 
 of this series was a member, is appended, but only as a sug- 
 gestion. If the group is small the study can be correspond- 
 ingly intensive and special. But it will be, in either case, 
 productive of best results when made most definite. 
 
 With such a scheme of work a class can in a year read 
 with reasonable thoroughness all of the history of fiction that 
 
STUDY OF THE NOVEL 61 
 
 is necessary for the understanding of the existing state of the 
 art ; can get a clear idea of the various methods of novel- 
 writing, their possibilities and opportunities ; and can get an 
 intimate acquaintance with a dozen masterpieces. And ever 
 afterward fiction will be reality to such students. 
 
 ** William Makepeace Thackeray — a Biographical and 
 Critical Estimate." Suggestions for Study: Thackeray as 
 a man and as a man of letters; as the castigator of social 
 shams. Compare with Dickens. The quality of his humor 
 and pathos. Is he a great historical novelist } His boy- 
 hood and college days; life-story; artistic ambitions; first 
 literary venture. His attractive and peculiar personality. 
 Does he '' put himself into his books ''} In what way is he 
 a moralist, or '' week-day preacher "? Consider him as an 
 artist, satirist, and poet. Did he attempt to reform society .-* 
 Had he deep insight into the human heart, like Shake- 
 speare } Was he a cynic } Does he attempt to describe 
 men and women as they actually are } 
 
 Suggested Reading: 
 
 ''Vanity Fair — A Novel of Social Satire." Sugges- 
 tions for Study: Is " Vanity Fair " a realistic novel } Are 
 the villains too villainous and the good people too " goody- 
 goody ".'* Make a brief character sketch of Amelia, Becky, 
 and Crawley. Which is the most powerful scene in the 
 novel } Becky seems thoroughly bad ; can anything be said 
 in her defense "^ Are all the minor characters consistently 
 and completely depicted } Is this a book of which every 
 word should be read .'' In what v/ay is this a story of social 
 satire ? Is there any authentic history in the novel .'* Is it 
 a story without a hero ? Has it a heroine } Is the magnifi- 
 cent Becky immoral or only unmoral .^ Note her skill as a 
 player of the ' ' bluff ' ' game. Does Thackeray correctly de- 
 scribe the foibles and shams of fashionable life .^ Does he 
 picture the pathos of human life? Does he not seem to for- 
 get that some women are tender, true, and intellectual as 
 well; and that some men are brave and upright ? Define 
 idealism; realism. Is Thackeray an idealist or a realist.? 
 How does he display supreme art in the treatment of Becky ? 
 
62 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 
 
 Required Reading : * ' Vanity Fair. ' ' 
 
 Suggested Reading: Trevyllian's Life of Thackeray. 
 
 The three following studies are selected from the list 
 given by Dr. Richard G. Moulton, in his "Four Years of 
 Novel Reading," an account of the systematic study of fic- 
 tion by an English circle. 
 
 * * Martin Chuzzlewit. ' ' Points to be noted (suggested 
 by Professor R. G. Moulton) — (i) Four different types of 
 selfishness — Old Martin, Young Martin, Antony, and Peck- 
 sniff. (2) Four different types of unselfishness — Mary, Mark 
 Tapley, Old Chuffey, and Tom Pinch. 
 
 Debate: That the two swindles in the story (Scadder's 
 Land Office and the English Insurance Company) are in- 
 conceivable. 
 
 Essays: (i) Is Mark Tapley 's character overdrawn.!^ 
 (2) Changes in the characters of the book from Selfish- 
 ness to Unselfishness. 
 
 Difficulty Raised : How could Tom Pinch go so long un- 
 deceived in Pecksniff.? 
 
 *' Elsie Venner. " Points to be noted (suggested by T. 
 L. Brunton) — (i) Note the effect of inherited tendencies on 
 the actions of individuals. (2) The effect of accidental cir- 
 cumstances (e.g., disease affecting a parent) on the charac- 
 ter of the offspring. 
 
 Debate: How far was Bernard Langdon justified in pun- 
 ishing Abner Briggs and his dog, considering that they were 
 both acting according to their natures, which they had partly 
 inherited from their ancestors, and which were partly de- 
 veloped by the circumstances in which they were brought up ? 
 
 Essay: How far is the character of Elsie Venner to be 
 regarded as a description of fact } and how far as a parable ? 
 
 * * Jane Eyre. ' ' Points to be noted (suggested by Dr. 
 A. S. Percival) — (i) The book is neither artistic nor realistic, 
 yet it possesses an engrossing interest. On what does the 
 interest depend ? (2) The characters : Jane Eyre, a woman 
 of little human sympathy, upright by rule rather than from 
 any impulsive love of right. Note the vulgarity of her dis- 
 trust of Rochester during her engagement. Rochester, a 
 
STUDY OF THE NOVEL 63 
 
 woman's false type of manliness. He has a certain nobility, 
 though his roughness and coarseness detract from the strength 
 of his character. St. John Rivers, a selfish prig; his up- 
 rightness based purely on hope of future reward. 
 
 Debate: Can Rochester's conduct to Jane Eyre be justi- 
 fied ? 
 
 Essay: The character of the author as revealed in the 
 book. 
 
HOW TO STUDY 
 
 Reading Clubs for Women 
 
 By CHARLES F. RICHARDSON 
 
 SOME helpful hints on social literary work for women — 
 hints which apply, for the most part, equally well to 
 men, or to the literary clubs composed of both sexes — may 
 well be reprinted here, from '' The Christian Union," in lieu 
 of further words of my own. '' In every community, ' ' says 
 that journal, ''there are intelligent women, with consider- 
 able leisure at their command, who have a desire to be help- 
 ful, and in the same community there is a class of young 
 women who need intellectual stimulus and guidance. How 
 shall the two be brought together so that the supply shall 
 meet the demand ? Newspapers, magazines, and public 
 libraries all serve an admirable purpose in the intellectual 
 life of the community, but they are not sufficient. What 
 is needed is personal influence and power, and this is just 
 the element which intelligent women are able to supply. 
 Almost every village, certainly every larger town, contains 
 a number of recent graduates from high schools and semi- 
 naries, who are not able, for one reason or another, to com- 
 plete their school education by a full college course. Now 
 to girls of this class a woman of tact and intelligence can 
 render the greatest possible service by helping them to pre- 
 serve the habits of study they have already formed, to keep 
 alive the intellectual interest and curiosity that have been 
 awakened in them, and by giving them just that impulse 
 which shall keep them drinking continually at the running 
 
 64 
 
READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 65 
 
 streams of knowledge. The training of the best schools 
 fails unless it emphasizes the importance of continual and 
 systematic study as the habit of a lifetime, but it is just this 
 which large numbers of bright and promising graduates from 
 the higher schools fail to carry away with them. They go 
 home from their last term with a latent desire for fuller 
 knowledge, but that desire is not strong enough to carry 
 them through the interruptions home life brings to a regular 
 course of study, and what they need is an impulse from with- 
 out, and the guidance of some mature and trained mind. 
 Any intelligent woman can find a noble work for herself by 
 opening her doors to girls of this class, and providing in her 
 home a kind of post-graduate course for them. No study 
 and no teaching is so delightful as that which is full of the 
 element of personality, in which teacher and scholars meet 
 on a social basis, and as friends mutually interested in the 
 same work, in which the methods are entirely informal and 
 conversational, and the result the largest and freest discus- 
 sion of the subject. An experiment of this kind need not 
 be a heavy task on the teacher either in time or effort. A 
 class may be formed which shall meet for an hour once or 
 twice a week, taking any subject for study that has vital con- 
 nection with life. Nothing could be more stimulating and 
 interesting, for instance, than a study of the age of Pericles 
 in Greek history, taking Curtius as a historical basis, and 
 reading in connection an account of the Greek poets of that 
 period, ... to which may be profitably added 
 discussions on the Grecian art of the day, and chapters 
 from such books as Mahaffy's "Social Life among the 
 Greeks. ' ' Half a dozen other historical epochs are quite 
 as interesting and fruitful; that of Louis XIV., for in- 
 stance, in French history; that of Elizabeth in English 
 history, the richest and most fascinating epoch in the de- 
 velopment of the English race. No subject will be more 
 entertaining in itself or open up so many paths of private 
 reading and study as English literature. An excellent plan 
 would be to take Stopford Brooke's "■ Primer of English Lit- 
 erature " as a connecting thread of study, and with it as a 
 
m READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 
 
 guide to make the grand tour of English literature, taking 
 each great author in his turn and making such study of his 
 life and work as would be within the power of an ordinarily 
 intelligent person. Different authors may be assigned to 
 different members of the class, who shall specially study up 
 and give account of them, so that the principal facts of their 
 lives, the special qualities of their work, and the particular 
 impulse which they imparted to their age may be made the 
 possession of the whole class. Then there is the great field 
 of art, which by the aid of the admirable text-books now 
 being published may be intelligently and profitably traversed 
 by those who have no opportunities for technical knowledge, 
 but who desire to know art in its historical aspects, and to 
 be able by knowledge of its historical development to under- 
 stand the school of the present day. These hints will sug- 
 gest a m.ultiplicity of topics that might with the utmost 
 profit be studied in this way. Every woman who desires to 
 make the experiment can easily settle the question of what 
 subject she shall take, by consulting her own culture, her 
 own tastes, and the needs of those whom she wishes to help. 
 The special knowledge to be imparted is not of so much 
 value as the habit of study, which is to be strengthened and 
 made continuous in the life of the student." 
 
 In the formation of classes like those indicated above — 
 in which reading aloud must of course play a large part — 
 or of Shakespeare clubs, or social literary organizations in 
 general, two things should never be forgotten; that almost 
 any kind of a beginning is better than none ; and that the 
 constitution and by-laws of the society, if it is deemed nec- 
 essary to have any, should be of the simplest character pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Edward Everett Hale says that, in his experience as a 
 parish minister, he looks back on the work which the read- 
 ing-classes have done with him, with more satisfaction than 
 on any other organized effort in which he has shared for the 
 education of the young. His most important hints for the 
 management of such classes are as follows : 
 
 *' It seems desirable that a class shall be of such a size that 
 
READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 67 
 
 free conversation may be easy. If the number exceeds 
 thirty, the members hardly become intimate with each other, 
 and there is a certain shyness about speaking out in meet- 
 ing. The size of the room has some effect in this matter. 
 
 ' ' I think that in the choice of the subject the range may 
 easily be too large. It seems desirable that the members of 
 the class shall know at the beginning what their winter's 
 work is to be so specifically that they can adjust to it their 
 general readings. Even the choice of novels for relaxation, 
 or the selection of what they will read and what they will 
 not, in newspapers, magazines, and reviews, depends on 
 this first choice of subject. The leader of the class should 
 give a good deal of time to preparation. The more he 
 knows, the better of course; but all that is absolutely nec- 
 essary is that he shall keep a little in advance of the class 
 and shall be willing to work and read. A true man or 
 woman will, of course, confess ignorance frankly. I should 
 rather have in a leader good practical knowledge of books 
 of reference and the way to use public libraries than large 
 specific knowledge of the subject in hand. Of course it 
 would be better to have both. And I think a class is wise 
 in leaving to its leader the selection of the topic. Granting 
 these preliminaries, I should urge, and almost insist, that 
 no one should attend the class who would not promise to 
 attend to the end. Nothing is so ruinous as the presence of 
 the virgins who have no oil in their vessels, and are in the 
 outer darlmess before the course is half done. I think it is 
 well to agree in the beginning on a small fee — a dollar, or 
 half a dollar — which can be expended in books of reference, 
 or supper, or charity, or anything else desirable. The real 
 object of the fee is weeding out unreliable members. 
 
 ** Every member should have a note-book and pencil, 
 and those who do not take notes should be expelled. What 
 is heard at such classes, with no memorandum to connect it 
 with after work, goes in at one ear and out at the other. 
 
 ** To make sure that each member takes notes, it is well 
 to keep one class journal. At the end of each meeting 
 assign the making up of this journal to some one of the class. 
 
68 READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 
 
 selected by accident. The length of this journal should be 
 limited — say to a single page of a writing-book. Otherwise 
 the ambitious members vie with each other in making them 
 long, which is in no way desirable. All you want is the 
 merest brief of the work done at each meeting. 
 
 * * The leader will very soon get a knowledge of what 
 the different members of the class can and will do. Indeed, 
 the consideration of what they want to do will become an 
 important part of his arrangements. He should remember 
 that they are all volunteers, that it is no business of his to 
 drive up a particular laggard to his work, but rather to make 
 the class as profitable as he can for all. ' * 
 
WHY TO STUDY 
 
 Five Evidences of an Education 
 
 By NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER * 
 
 *' TF you had had children, sir," said Boswell, ** would 
 -L you have taught them anything ?" *' I hope," re- 
 plied Dr. Johnson, "that I should have willingly lived on 
 bread and water to obtain instruction for them ; but I would 
 not have set their future friendship to hazard for the sake 
 of thrusting into their heads knowledge of things for which 
 they might not perhaps have either taste or necessity. You 
 teach your daughters the diameters of the planets, and won- 
 der when you have done that they do not delight in your 
 company." From which it appears that Dr. Johnson, by 
 a sort of prolepsis, was moved to contribute to the discus- 
 sion of one of the vexed questions of our time. Who is the 
 educated man? By what signs shall we know him? 
 
 ''In the first golden age of the world," Erasmus ob- 
 serves, in his ''Praise of Folly," " there was no need of 
 these perplexities. There was then no other sort of learn- 
 ing but what was naturally collected from every man's com- 
 mon-sense, improved by an easy experience. What use 
 could there have been of grammar, when all men spoke the 
 same mother-tongue, and aimed at no higher pitch of ora- 
 tory than barely to be understood by each other? What 
 need of logic, when they were too \\qse to enter into any 
 dispute? Or what occasion for rhetoric, where no difference 
 arose to require any laborious decision? ' ' Surely, in con- 
 
 * President of Columbia University. 
 
 69 
 
70 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 
 
 trasting this picture of a far-off golden age with our present- 
 day strenuous age of steel, we must be moved to say, with 
 the Preacher, ** in much wisdom is much grief; and he that 
 increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." 
 
 It is only two hundred and fifty years ago that Comenius 
 urged, with ardent zeal, the establishment in London of a 
 college of learned men who should bring together in one 
 book the sum total of human wisdom, so expressed as to 
 meet the needs of both the present and all future genera- 
 tions. This scheme for a Pansophia, or repository of all 
 learning, proved very attractive in the seventeenth century, 
 for it easily adjusted itself to the notions of a period which 
 looked upon learning as a substantial and measurable quan- 
 tity, to be acquired and possessed. Unfortunately this quan- 
 titative ideal of education, with its resultant processes and 
 standards, is still widely influential, and it tempts us to seek 
 the evidences of an education in the number of languages 
 learned, in the variety of sciences studied, and generally in 
 the quantity of facts held in the memory reserve. But, on 
 the other hand, any serious attempt to apply quantitative 
 standards to the determination of education quickly betrays 
 their inadequacy and their false assumptions. If to be edu- 
 cated means to know nature in systematic fashion and to be 
 able to interpret it, then nearly every man of letters, ancient 
 or modern, must be classed with the uneducated. Or if to 
 be educated m.eans to have sympathetic, almost affectionate, 
 insight into the great masterpieces of art and of literature, 
 then innumerable great men of action, who have fully rep- 
 resented the ideals and the power of their time and who 
 manifested most admirable qualities of mind and of character, 
 were uneducated. The case is even worse to-day. A host 
 of knowledges compass us about on every side and bewilder 
 by their variety and their interest. We must exclude the 
 many to choose the one. The penalty of choice is depriva- 
 tion; the price of not choosing is shallowness and incapacity. 
 The quantitative method of estimating education breaks 
 down, then, of its own weight. A true standard is to be 
 sought in some other direction. 
 
EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 71 
 
 A full analysis of the facts of life as they confront us to- 
 day would show, I feel confident, that all knowledges and 
 all influences are not on a single plane of indifference toward 
 the human mind that would be educated. All parts of the 
 spiritual machine are not mutually interchangeable. There 
 are needs to be met and longings to be satisfied that will 
 not accept any vicarious response to their demands. The 
 scientific, the literary, the aesthetic, the institutional, and 
 the religious aspects of life and of civilization, while inter- 
 dependent, are yet independent of each other, in the sense 
 that no one of them can be reduced to a function of another 
 or can be stated in terms of another. Therefore each of 
 these five aspects must, I think, be represented in some de- 
 gree in every scheme of training which has education for its 
 end. Nevertheless this training when it arrives at educa- 
 tion will not suffer itself to be measured and estimated quan- 
 titatively in terms either of science, of letters, of art, of 
 institutions, or of religion. It will have produced certain 
 traits of intellect and of character which find expression in 
 ways open to the observation of all men, and it is toward 
 these traits or habits, not toward external and substantial 
 acquisition or accomplishment, that one must turn to find 
 the true and sure evidences of an education, as education is 
 conceived to-day. 
 
 First among the evidences of an education I name 
 correctness and precision in the use of the mother-tongue. 
 Important as this power is, and is admitted to be, it is 
 a comparatively new thing in education. The modern 
 European languages took on educational significance only 
 when the decentralization of culture began at the close of 
 the Middle Ages. So late as i 549 Jacques de Bellay sup- 
 ported the study of French with the very mild assertion that 
 it is '' not so poor a tongue as many think it. ' ' Mulcaster, 
 writing a little later, found it necessary to tell why his book 
 on education was put in English rather than in Latin, and 
 to defend the vernacular when he referred to its educational 
 usefulness. Melanchthon put German in a class with Greek 
 and Hebrew, and contrasted all three unfavorably with 
 
72 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 
 
 Latin. Indeed it was not until the present German Em- 
 peror plainly told the Berlin School Conference of 1890 that 
 a national basis was lacking in German education; that the 
 foundation of the gymnasium course of study must be Ger- 
 man ; that the duty of the schoolmasters was to train the 
 young to become Germans, not Greeks and Romans, and 
 that the German language must be made the center around 
 which all other subjects revolved, that a revision of the 
 official school program was brought about that made place 
 for the really serious study of the German language and lit- 
 erature. And to-day, where the influence of the English 
 universities and of not a few American colleges is potent, 
 the study of English is slight and insignificant indeed. The 
 superstition that the best gate to English is through the 
 Latin is anything but dead. 
 
 But for the great mass of the people the vernacular is 
 not only the established medium of instruction, but, fortu- 
 nately, also an important subject of study. A chief measure 
 of educational accomplishment is the ease, the correct- 
 ness, and the precision with which one uses this instru- 
 ment. 
 
 It is no disrespect to the splendid literatures which are 
 embodied in the French and the German tongues, and no 
 lack of appreciation of the services of those great peoples 
 to civilization and to culture, to point out that of modern 
 languages the English is easily the first and the most pow- 
 erful, for "it is the greatest instrument of communication 
 that is now in use among men upon the earth." It is the 
 speech of an aggressive people among whom individual lib- 
 erty and personal initiative are highly prized. It falls short, 
 no doubt, of the philosophical pliability of the Greek and 
 of the scientific ductility of the German ; but what is there 
 in the whole field of human passion and human action that 
 it cannot express with freedom and with a power all its 
 own.!^ Turn '' Othello " into German or compare the verse 
 of Shelley or of Keats with the graceful lines of some of their 
 French contemporaries, and learn the peculiar power of the 
 English speech. In simple word or sonorous phrase it is 
 
EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 73 
 
 unequaled as a medium to reveal the thoughts, the feeUngs, 
 and the ideals of humanity. 
 
 One's hold upon the English tongue is measured by his 
 choice of words and by his use of idiom. The composite 
 character of modern English offers a wide field for apt and 
 happy choice of expression. The educated man, at home 
 with his mother-tongue, moves easily about in its Saxon, 
 Romanic, and Latin elements, and has gained by long ex- 
 perience and wide reading a knowledge of the mental inci- 
 dence of words as well as of their artistic effect. He is 
 hampered by no set formulas, but manifests in his speech, 
 spoken, and written, the characteristic powers and appreci- 
 ation of his nature. The educated man is of necessity, 
 therefore, a constant reader of the best written English. 
 He reads not for conscious imitation, but for unconscious 
 absorption and reflection. He knows the wide distinction 
 between correct English on the one hand, and pedantic, or 
 as it is sometimes called, '♦ elegant," English on the other. 
 He is more likely to *'go to bed " than to ''retire," to 
 ' * get up ' ' than to ' ' arise, ' ' to have ' ' legs ' ' rather than 
 ''limbs," to "dress" than to "clothe himself," and to 
 "make a speech" rather than to "deliver an oration." 
 He knows that ' ' if you hear poor English and read poor 
 English you will pretty surely speak poor English and write 
 poor English," and governs himself accordingly. He 
 realizes the power and place of idiom and its relation to 
 grammar, and shows his skill by preserving a balance be- 
 tween the two in his style. He would follow with intelli- 
 gent sympathy the scholarly discussions of idiom and of 
 grammar by Professor Earle and would find therein the justi- 
 fication of much of his best practice. In short, in his use 
 of his mother-tongue he would give sure evidence of an edu- 
 cation. 
 
 As a second evidence of an education I name those re- 
 fined and gentle manners which are the expression of fixed 
 habits of thought and of action. "Manners are behavior 
 and good breeding," as Addison said, but they are more. 
 It is not without significance that the Latin language has 
 
74 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 
 
 but a single word {inores) both for usages, habits, manners, 
 and for morals. Real manners, the manners of a truly edu- 
 cated man or woman, are an outward expression of intel- 
 lectual and moral conviction. Sham manners are a veneer 
 which falls away at the dampening touch of the first selfish 
 suggestion. Manners have a moral significance, and find 
 their basis in that true and deepest self-respect which is built 
 upon respect for others. An infallible test of character is to 
 be found in one's manners toward those whom, for one 
 reason or another, the world may deem his inferiors. A 
 man's manners toward his equals or his superiors are shaped 
 by too many motives to render their interpretation either 
 easy or certain. Manners do not make the man, but man- 
 ners reveal the man. It is by the amount of respect, defer- 
 ence, and courtesy shown to human personality as such that 
 we judge whether one is on dress parade or whether he is 
 so well-trained, well-educated, and so habitually ethical in 
 thought and action that he realizes his proper relation to his 
 fellows and reveals his realization in his manners. As Kant 
 insisted more than a century ago, a man exists as an end in 
 himself and not merely as a means to be arbitrarily used by 
 this or that will ; and in all his actions, whether they con- 
 cern himself alone or other rational beings, he must always 
 be regarded as an end. True manners are based upon a 
 recognition of this fact, and that is a poor education indeed 
 which fails to inculcate the ethical principle and the manners 
 that embody it. 
 
 As a third evidence of an education I name the power 
 and habit of reflection. It is a frequent charge against us 
 moderns, particularly against Americans, that we are losing 
 the habit of reflection and the high qualities which depend 
 upon it. We are told that this loss is a necessary result of 
 our hurried and busy lives, of our diverse interests, and of 
 the annihilation of space and time by steam and electricity. 
 The whole world and its happenings are brought to our 
 very doors by the daily newspaper. Our attention leaps 
 from Manila to Pekin, from Pekin to the Transvaal, and 
 from the Transvaal to Havana. We are torn by conflicting 
 
EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 75 
 
 or unconnected emotions, and our minds are occupied by 
 ideas following each other with such rapidity that we fail to 
 get a firm and deep hold of any one of the great facts that 
 come into our lives. This is the charge which even sym- 
 pathetic critics bring against us. 
 
 If it be true — and there are some counts in the indict- 
 ment which it is difficult to deny— then one of the most 
 precious evidences of an education is slipping from us, and 
 we must redouble our efforts to keep fast hold upon it. For 
 an unexamined life, as Socrates unceasingly insisted, is not 
 worth living. The life which asks no questions of itself, 
 which traces events back to no causes and forward to no 
 purposes, which raises no vital issues of principle, and which 
 seeks no interpretation of what passes within and without, is 
 not a human life at all; it is the life of an animal. The 
 trained and the untrained mind are perhaps in sharpest con- 
 trast at this very point. An armory of insights and convic- 
 tions always ready for applications to new conditions, and 
 invincible save by deeper insights and more rational convic- 
 tions, is a mark of a trained and educated mind. The edu- 
 cated man has standards of truth, of human experience, and of 
 wisdom, by which new proposals are judged. These stand- 
 ards can be gained only through reflection. The undisci- 
 plined mind is a prey to every passing fancy and the victim 
 of every plausible doctrinaire. He has no permanent forms 
 of judgment which give him character. 
 
 Renan was right when he held that the first condition for 
 the development of the mind is that it shall have liberty; 
 and liberty for the mind means freedom from the control of 
 the unreasonable, and freedom to choose the reasonable in 
 accordance with principle. A body of principles is a neces- 
 sary possession of the educated man. His development is 
 always with reference to his principles, and proceeds by 
 evolution, not revolution. 
 
 Philosophy is, of course, the great single study by which 
 the power of reflection is developed until it becomes a habit, 
 but there is a philosophic study of literature, of politics, of 
 natural science, which makes for the same end. The ques- 
 
76 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 
 
 tion how, whose answer is science, and the question why, 
 whoee answer is philosophy, are the beginnings of reflection. 
 A truly educated man asks both questions continually, and 
 as a result is habituated to reflection. 
 
 As a fourth evidence of an education I name the power 
 of growth. There is a type of mind which, when trained to 
 a certain point, crystallizes, as it were, and refuses to move 
 forward thereafter. This type of mind fails to give one of 
 the essential evidences of an education. It has perhaps ac- 
 quired much and promised much ; but somehow or other the 
 promise is not fulfilled. It is not dead, but in a trance. 
 Only such functions are performed as serve to keep it where 
 it is ; there is no movement, no development, no new power 
 or accomplishment. The impulse to continuous study, and 
 to that self-education which are the conditions of permanent 
 intellectual growth, is wanting. Education has so far failed 
 of one of its chief purposes. 
 
 A human mind continuing to grow and to develop 
 throughout a long life is a splendid and impressive sight. 
 It was that characteristic in Mr. Gladstone which made his 
 personality so attractive to young and ambitious men. They 
 were fired by his zeal and inspired by his limitless intel- 
 lectual energy. To have passed from being **the rising 
 hope of the stern and unbending Tories "in 1838 to the 
 unchallenged leadership of the anti-Tory party in Great 
 Britain a generation later, and to have continued to grow 
 throughout an exceptionally long life, is no mean distinc- 
 tion ; and it is an example of what, in less conspicuous ways, 
 is the lot of every mind whose training is effective. Broad- 
 ened views, widened sympathies, deepened insights, are the 
 accompaniments of growth. 
 
 For this growth a many-sided interest is necessary, and 
 this is why growth and intellectual and moral narrowness 
 are eternally at war. There is much in our modern educa- 
 tion which is uneducational because it makes growth diffi- 
 cult, if not impossible. Early specialization, with its at- 
 tendant limited range both of information and of interest, is 
 an enemy of growth. Turning from the distasteful before it 
 
EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 77 
 
 is understood is an enemy of growth. Failure to see the 
 relation of the subject of one's special interest to other sub- 
 jects is an enemy of growth. The pretense of investigation 
 and discovery before mastering existent knowledge is an 
 enemy of growth. The habit of cynical indifference toward 
 men and things and of aloofness from them, sometimes sup- 
 posed to be peculiarly academic, is an enemy of growth. 
 These, then, are all to be shunned while formal education 
 is going on, if it is to carry with it the priceless gift of an 
 impulse to continuous growth. ** Life," says Bishop Spald- 
 ing in an eloquent passage, '' is the unfolding of a mysteri- 
 ous power, which in man rises to self-consciousness, and 
 through self-consciousness to the knowledge of a world of 
 truth and order and love, where action may no longer be 
 left wholly to the sway of matter or to the impulse of in- 
 stinct, but may and should be controlled by reason and con- 
 science. To further this process by deliberate and intelli- 
 gent effort is to educate" — and, I add, to educate so as to 
 sow the seed of continuous growth, intellectual and moral. 
 
 And as a fifth evidence of an education I name effi- 
 ciency, the power to do. The time has long since gone 
 by, if it ever was, when contemplation pure and simple, 
 withdrawal from the world and its activities, or intelligent 
 incompetence was a defensible ideal of education. To-day 
 the truly educated man must be, in some sense, efficient. 
 With brain, tongue, or hand he must be able to express his 
 knowledge and so leave the world other than he found it. 
 Mr. James is simply summing up what physiology and psy- 
 chology both teach when he exclaims : ' ' No reception with- 
 out reaction, no impression without correlative expression 
 — this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to 
 forget. An impression which simply flows in at the pupil's 
 eyes or ears, and in no way modifies his active life, is an 
 impression gone to waste. It is physiologically incomplete. 
 It leaves no fruits behind it in the way of capacity acquired. 
 Even as mere impression it fails to produce its proper 
 effect upon the memory; for, to remain fully among the ac- 
 quisitions of the latter faculty, it must be wrought into the 
 
78 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 
 
 whole cycle of our operations. Its motor consequences are 
 what clinch it. ' ' This is just as true of knowledge in gen- 
 eral as of impressions. Indefinite absorption without pro- 
 duction is fatal both to character and to the highest intellectual 
 power. Do something and be able to do it well; express 
 what you know in some helpful and substantial form ; pro- 
 duce, and do not everlastingly feel only and revel in feel- 
 ings — these are counsels which make for a real education 
 and against that sham form of it which is easily recognized 
 as well-informed incapacity. Our colleges and universities 
 abound in false notions, notions as unscientific as they are 
 unphilosophical, of the supposed value of knowledge, in- 
 formation, for its own sake. It has none. The date of the 
 discovery of America is in itself as meaningless as the date 
 of the birth of the youngest blade of grass in the neighboring 
 field; it means something because it is part of a larger 
 knowledge-whole, because it has relations, applications, 
 uses ; and for the student who sees none of these and knows 
 none of them, America was discovered in 1249 quite as 
 much as it was in 1492. 
 
 High efficiency is primarily an intellectual affair, and 
 only longo' intervallo does it take on anything approaching 
 a mechanical form. Its mechanical form is always wholly 
 subordinate to its springs in the intellect. It is the out- 
 growth of an established and habitual relationship between 
 intellect and will, by means of which knowledge is con- 
 stantly made power. For knowledge is not power, Bacon 
 to the contrary notwithstanding, unless it is made so, and it 
 can be made so only by him who possesses the knowledge. 
 The habit of making knowledge power is efficiency. With- 
 out it education is incomplete. 
 
 These five characteristics, then, I offer as evidences of 
 an education — correctness and precision in the use of the 
 mother-tongue ; refined and gentle manners, which are the 
 expression of fixed habits of thought and action ; the power 
 and habit of reflection ; the power of growth ; and efficiency, 
 or the power to do. On this plane the physicist may meet 
 
EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 79 
 
 with the philologian and the naturalist with the philosopher, 
 and each recognize the fact that his fellow is an educated 
 man, though the range of their information is widely differ- 
 ent and the centers of their highest interests are far apart. 
 They are knit together in a brotherhood by the close tie of 
 those traits which have sprung out of the reaction of their 
 minds and wills upon that which has fed them and brought 
 them strength. Without these traits men are not truly edu- 
 cated and their erudition, however vast, is of no avail; it 
 furnishes a museum, not a developed human being. 
 
 It is these habits, of necessity made by ourselves alone, 
 begun in the days of school and college, and strengthened 
 with maturer years and broader experience, that serve to 
 show to ourselves and to others that we have discovered 
 the secret of gaining an education. 
 
HOW TO READ 
 
 How to Read 
 
 By EDWARD EVERETT HALE 
 
 FOR reading, the first rules, I think, are: Do not read 
 too much at a time; stop when you are tired; and, in 
 whatever way, make some review of what you read, even as 
 you go along. 
 
 Capel Lofift says, in quite an interesting book, which 
 plays about the surface of things without going very deep, 
 which he calls "Self-Formation," that his whole life was 
 changed, and indeed saved, when he learned that he must 
 turn back at the end of each sentence, ask himself what it 
 meant, if he believed it or disbelieved it, and, so to speak, 
 that he must pack it away as part of his mental furniture 
 before he took in another sentence. That is just as a dentist 
 jams one little bit of gold-foil home, and then another, and 
 then another. He does not put one large wad on the hol- 
 low tooth, and then crowd it in all at once. Capel Lofft 
 says that this re-flection — going forward as a serpent does, 
 by a series of backward bends over the line — will make a 
 dull book entertaining, and will make the reader master of 
 every book he reads, through all time. For my part, I 
 think this is cutting it rather fine, this chopping the book up 
 into separate bits. I had rather read as one of my wisest 
 counselors did; he read, say a page, or a paragraph of a 
 page or two, more or less ; then he would look across at th'^ 
 wall, and consider the author's statement, and fix it on his 
 
 80 
 
HOW TO READ 81 
 
 mind, and then read on. I do not do this, however. I read 
 half an hour or an hour, till I am ready, perhaps, to put the 
 book by. Then I examine myself. What has this amounted 
 to.^ What does he say.-* What does he prove. ^ Does he 
 prove it.!* What is there new in it.-* Where did he get it? 
 If it is necessary in such an examination, you can go back 
 over the passage, correct your first impression, if it is 
 wrong, find out the meaning that the writer has carelessly 
 concealed, and such a process makes it certain that you your- 
 self will remember his thought or his statement. 
 
 I can remember, I think, everything I saw in Europe 
 which was worth seeing, if I saw it twice. But there was 
 many a wonder which I was taken to see in the whirl of 
 sight-seeing, of which I have no memory, and of which I 
 cannot force any recollection. I remember that at Malines 
 — what we call Mechlin — our train stopped nearly an hour. 
 At the station a crowd of guides were shouting that there 
 
 was time to go and see Rubens 's picture of , at the 
 
 church of . This seemed to us a droll contrast to the 
 
 cry at our stations, *' Fifteen minutes for refreshments!" It 
 offered such aesthetic refreshment in place of carnal oysters 
 that purely for the frolic we went to see. We were hurried 
 across some sort of square into the church, saw the picture, 
 admired it, came away, and forgot it — clear and clean forgot 
 it! My dear Laura, I do not know what it was about any 
 more than you do. But if I had gone to that church the 
 next day, and had seen it again, I should have fixed it for- 
 ever on my memory. Moral: Renew your acquaintance 
 with whatever you want to remember. I think Ingham says 
 somewhere that it is the slight difference between the two 
 stereoscopic pictures which gives to them, when one overlies 
 the other, their relief and distinctness. If he does not say 
 it, I will say it for him now. 
 
 I think it makes no difference how you make this mental 
 review of the author, but I do think it essential that, as you 
 pass fi-om one division of his work to another, you should 
 make it somehow. 
 
 Another good rule for memory is indispensable, I think. 
 
82 HOW TO READ 
 
 — namely, to read with a pencil in hand. If the book is 
 your own, you had better make what I may call your own 
 index to it on the hard white page which lines the cover at 
 the end. That is, you can write down there just a hint of 
 the things you will be apt to like to see again, noting the 
 page on which they are. If the book is not your own, do 
 this on a little slip of paper, which you may keep separately. 
 These memoranda will be, of course, of all sorts of things. 
 Thus they will be facts which you want to know, or funny 
 stories which you think will amuse some one, or opinions 
 which you may have a doubt about. Suppose you had got 
 hold of that very rare book, Veragas's ** History of the 
 Pacific Ocean and its Shores ' ' ; here might be your private 
 index at the end of the first volume : 
 
 Percentage of salt in water, ii; Gov. Revillagigedo, 19; 
 Caciques and potatoes, 23; Lime-water for scurvy, 29; 
 Enata, Kanaka, 42 ; Magelhaens vs. Wilkes, 57 ; Coral 
 insects, 72; Gigantic ferns, 84, etc., etc., etc. 
 
 Very likely you may never need one of these references ; 
 but if you do, it is certain that you will have no time to 
 waste in hunting for them. Make your memorandum, and 
 you are sure. 
 
 Bear in mind all along that each book will suggest other 
 books which you are to read sooner or later. In your mem- 
 oranda note with care the authors who are referred to of 
 whom you know little or nothing, if you think you should 
 like to know more, or ought to know more. Do not neg- 
 lect this last condition, however. You do not make the 
 memorandum to show it at the Philogabblian ; you make it 
 for yourself; and it means that you yourself need this 
 additional information. 
 
 Whether to copy much from books or not.!* That is a 
 question ; and the answer is : * ' That depends. ' ' If you have 
 but few books, and much time and paper and ink; and if 
 you are likely to have fewer books, why, nothing is nicer 
 and better than to make for use in later life good extract- 
 books to your own taste, and for your own purposes. But 
 if you own your books, or are likely to have them at com- 
 
HOW TO READ 83 
 
 mand, time is short, and the time spent in copying would 
 probably be better spent in reading. There are some very 
 diffusive books, difficult because diffusive, of which it is well 
 to write close digests, if you are really studying them. 
 When we read John Locke, for instance, in college, we had 
 to make abstracts, and we used to stint ourselves to a line 
 for one of his chatty sections. That was good practice for 
 writing, and we remember what was in the sections to this 
 hour. If you copy, make a first-rate index to your extracts. 
 They sell books prepared for the purpose, but you may just 
 as well make your own. 
 
 You see I am not contemplating any very rapid or slap- 
 dash work. You may try that in your novels, or books of 
 amusement, if you choose, and I will not be very cross about 
 it; but for the books of improvement, I want you to improve 
 by reading them. Do not '* gobble " them up so that five 
 years hence you shall not know whether you have read them 
 or not. What I advise seems slow to you, but if you will, 
 any of you, make or find two hours a day to read in this 
 fashion, you will be one day accomplished men and women. 
 Very few professional men, known to me, get so much time 
 as that for careful and systematic reading. If any boy or 
 girl wants really to know what comes of such reading, I 
 wish he would read the life of my friend George Livermore, 
 which our friend Charles Deane has just now written for the 
 Historical Society of Massachusetts. There was a young 
 man, who when he was a boy in a store began his sys- 
 tematic reading. He never left active and laborious busi- 
 ness; but when he died he was one of the accomplished 
 historical scholars of America. He had no superior in his 
 special lines of study; he was a recognized authority and 
 leader among men who had given their lives to scholar- 
 ship. 
 
 I have not room to copy it here, but I wish any of you 
 would turn to a letter of Frederick Robertson's near the end 
 of the second volume of his letters, where he speaks of this 
 very matter. He says he read, when he was at Oxford, 
 but sixteen books with his tutors. But he read them so 
 
84 HOW TO READ 
 
 that they became a part of himself, '*as the iron enters a 
 man's blood. ' ' And they were books by sixteen of the men 
 who have been leaders of the world. No bad thing to 
 have in your blood and brain and bone the vitalizing ele- 
 ment that was in the lives of such men. 
 
THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 
 
 By various AUTHORS 
 
 The following suggestions and observations are taken from 
 The Merchant oj Venice, edited by Homer B. Sprague, and 
 published by Silver, Burdett& Company. 
 
 [From J. M. Buchan, Inspector of High Schools, Ontario, 
 
 Canada.] 
 
 w 
 
 ITH all classes of pupils ahke^ the main thing to be aimed 
 . , at by the teacher is to lead them clearly and fully to 
 understand the meaning of the author they are reading, and to 
 appreciate the beauty, the nobleness, the justness, or the sub- 
 limity of his thoughts and language. Parsing, the analysis of 
 sentences, the derivation of words, the explanation of allusions, 
 the scansion of verse, the pointing-out of figures of speech, 
 the hundred and one minor matters on which the teacher may 
 easily dissipate the attention of the pupil, should be strictly 
 
 subordinated to this great aim It is essential that the 
 
 mind of the reader should be put en rapport with that of the 
 writer. There is something in the influence of a great soul 
 upon another, which defies analysis. No analysis of a poem 
 however subtle, can produce the same effect upon the mind 
 and heart as the reading of the poem itself. 
 
 Though the works of Shakespeare and Milton and our 
 other great writers were not intended by their authors to serve 
 as text-books for future generations, yet it is unquestionably 
 the case that a large amount of information may be imparted 
 and a very valuable training given, if we deal with them^ as 
 we deal with Homer and Horace in our best schools. Parsing, 
 
 85 
 
86 STUDY OF LITERATURE 
 
 grammatical analysis, the derivation of words, prosody, com- 
 position, the history of the language, and to a certain extent 
 the history of the race, may be both more pleasantly and more 
 profitably taught in this than in any other way. It is ad- 
 visable for these reasons, also, that the study of these subjects 
 should be conjoined with that of the English hterature. Not 
 only may time be thus economized, but the difficulty of fixing 
 the attention of flighty and inappreciative pupils may more 
 easily be overcome. 
 
 [From F. G. Fleay's ^^ Guide to Chaucer and Spenser.''] 
 
 No doubtful critical point should ever be set before the 
 student as ascertained. One great advantage of these studies 
 is the acquirement of a power of forming a judgment in cases 
 of conflicting evidence. Give the student the evidence; state 
 your own opinion, if you like, but let him judge for himself. 
 
 No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The 
 capabihty of appreciating a whole work, as a whole, is one of 
 the principal aims in aesthetic culture. 
 
 It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem 
 than to know details about all the dramatists and poets. The 
 former trains the brain to judge of other plays or poems; the 
 latter only loads the memory with details that can at any time 
 be found, when required, in books of reference. 
 
 For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as 
 thorough as our classical studies used to be. No difficult 
 point in syntax, prosody, accidence, or pronunciation; no 
 variation in manners or customs; no historical or geographical 
 allusions,— must be passed over without explanation. This 
 training in exactness will not interfere with, but aid, the higher 
 aims of literary training. 
 
 {From Dr. Johnson. 1765. J 
 
 Let him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shake- 
 speare, and who desires to feel the greatest pleasure that the 
 drama can give, read every play, from the first scene to the last, 
 with utter negHgence to all his commentators. When his fancy 
 
STUDY OF LITERATURE 87 
 
 is once on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or explanation. 
 Let him read on through brightness and obscurity, through 
 integrity and corruption; let him preserve his comprehension 
 of the dialogue, and his interest in the fable. And when the 
 pleasures of novelty have ceased, let him attempt exactness, 
 and read the commentators. 
 
 [From Professor Brainerd Kellogg.] 
 
 The student ought, first of all, to read the play as a pleasure; 
 then to read over again, with his mind upon the characters and 
 the plot; and, lastly, to read it for the meanings, grammar, etc. 
 
 1. The Plot and Story of the Play. 
 
 (a) The general plot ; 
 (6) The special incidents. 
 
 2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account of 
 
 all that is done and most of what is said by each char- 
 acter in the play. 
 
 3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon 
 
 Each Other. 
 
 (a) Relation of A to B, and of B to A; 
 
 (b) Relation of A to C and D. 
 
 4. Complete Possession of the Language. 
 
 (a) Meanings of words; 
 
 (b) Use of old words, or of words in an old meaning; 
 
 (c) Grammar; 
 
 (d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a grammatical 
 
 point. 
 
 5. Power to Reproduce, or Quote. 
 
 (a) What was said by A or B on a particular occasion; 
 
 (b) What was said by A in reply to B ; 
 
 (c) W^hat argument was used by C at a particular 
 
 juncture; 
 
 (d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of a 
 
 peculiar meaning. 
 
88 STUDY OF LITERATURE 
 
 6. Power to Locate. 
 
 (a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain person 
 
 on a certain occasion; 
 
 (b) To cap a line ; 
 
 (c) To fill in the right word or epithet. 
 
 [From BlaisdelVs ''Outlines for the Study of English Classics.''] 
 
 The following summary of points to be exacted . . . may 
 prove useful: — 
 
 I. — Points Relative to Substance. 
 
 1. A general knowledge of the purport of the passages, 
 
 and line of argument pursued. 
 
 2. An exact paraphrase of parts of the whole, pro- 
 
 ducing exactly and at length the author's meaning. 
 
 3. The force and character of epithets. 
 
 4. The meaning of similes, and expansions of meta- 
 
 phors. 
 
 5. The exact meaning of individual words. 
 
 II. — Points with Regard to Form. 
 
 1. General grammar rules; if necessary, peculiarities of 
 
 English grammar. 
 
 2. Derivations: (i) General laws and principles of 
 
 derivations, including a knowledge of affixes and 
 suffixes. (2) Interesting historical derivation of 
 particular words. 
 
 m. — The Knowledge of all Allusions. 
 
 IV. — A Knowledge of Such Parallel Passages and Illus- 
 trations AS THE Teacher has Supplied. 
 
 [From Professor Wm. Taylor Thom.] 
 
 To understand Shakespeare, we must understand his medium 
 of thought, his language, as thoroughly as possible. For this, 
 study is necessary; and one notable advantage of the thorough 
 study of this medium is that the student becomes unconsciously 
 
STUDY OF LITERATURE 89 
 
 more or less imbued with Shakespeare's turn of thought while 
 observing his turn of phrase. . . . 
 
 For the class-room, a non-aesthetic, prehminary study is best. 
 And this may be accomplished in the following way: By study- 
 ing carefully the Text, — the words themselves and their forms; 
 their philological content, so far as such content is essential to 
 the thought; and the grammatical differences of usage, then and 
 now; by observing accurately the point of view of life (Weltan- 
 schauung) historically and otherwise, as shown in the text; by 
 taking what may be called the actor's view of the personages of 
 the play; and, finally, by a sober and discriminating aesthetic 
 discussion of the characters, of the principles represented by 
 those characters, and of the play in its. parts and as a whole. 
 
 I. With regard to the words themselves and their jorms: 
 There is no doubt that Shakespeare's words and word-com- 
 binations need constant and careful explanation in order for 
 the pupil to seize the thought accurately or even approximately. 
 Here, as elsewhere, Coleridge's dictum remains true: *'In order 
 to get the full sense of a word, we should first present to our 
 minds the visual image that forms its primary meaning." . . . 
 
 II. But this does not exhaust the interest of the words them- 
 selves. They are frequently so full of a particular use and 
 meaning of their own that they have evidently been chosen by 
 Shakespeare on that account, and can only serve fully their 
 purpose of conveying his meaning when themselves compre- 
 hended. This opens up to the pupil one of the most interesting 
 aspects of words — their function of embalming the ideas and 
 habits of a past generation, thus giving little photographic 
 views, as it were, of the course of the national life. Thus, a 
 new element of interest and weird reality is added when we 
 find that *'And like a rat without a taiV^ is not stuffed into the 
 witch-speech in Macbeth merely for rhyme's sake {Mac. I, iii, 9). 
 It is doubtful if anything brings so visibly before the mind's eye 
 the age, and therefore the proper point of view, of Shakespeare 
 as the accurate following-out of these implied views of Hfe, these 
 old popular beliefs contained in his picturesque language. . . . 
 
 III. Difficulties consisting in the forms of words have been 
 already mentioned; but they constitute in reality only a part, 
 
90 STUDY OF LITERATURE 
 
 perhaps the least part, of the grammatical impediment to our 
 apprehending Shakespeare clearly. There is in him a splendid 
 superiority to what we call grammar which entails upon us 
 more or less of close, critical observation of his word-order, if 
 we would seize the very thought. Thus Lady Macbeth speaks 
 of Macbeth's "flaws and starts" as ''impostors to true fear" 
 (III, iv, 64). Here, if we understand " to " in its ordinary mean- 
 ing, we lose entirely the fine force of its use by Shakespeare, 
 ''compared to true fear," and fail to see how subtly Lady Mac- 
 beth is trying to persuade Macbeth that there is no cause for 
 fear, that he is not truly "afeard," but merely hysterical and 
 unbalanced; and, failing in that, we fail in part to realize the 
 prodigious nerve and force she was herself displaying, though 
 vainly, for Macbeth's sake. So, too, a few lines farther on, 
 Macbeth's fine saying, "Ere humane statute purged the ge7itle 
 weal," becomes finer when we see that "gentle" means for us 
 "gentled," or "and made it gentle" (III, iv, 76). But for the 
 apprehension of such, to us, unwonted powers in our noble 
 mother tongue, we must study: work, that is the word for it. 
 We appreciate Shakespeare, as we do other things, when he has 
 cost us something. . . . 
 
 IV. With such preliminary and coincident study, the pupil 
 prepares herself for that wider sweep of vision called for by the 
 views of life and of the universe expressed or implied by the 
 dramatis personce themselves. The habit of mind thus ac- 
 quired enables her to comprehend quickly the notions of God, 
 of life, of creation (Weltanschauung) found in ante-protestant 
 times; and she is ready to sympathize with humanity, no matter 
 as to age, or race, or clime. . . . 
 
 V. Another prolific source of the realization of Shakespeare's 
 conception is obtained by suggesting the actor^s view to the pupil. 
 There is much quickening of sympathy in representing to our- 
 selves the look, the posture, emphasis, of the character who 
 speaks. The same words have a totally different force accord- 
 ing as they are pronounced; and it is like a revelation to a 
 pupil sometimes to learn that a speech, or even a word, was 
 uttered thus and not so. . . . 
 
 VI. Now, all this is preliminary work and should lead up 
 
STUDY OF LITERATURE 91 
 
 to the (Esthetic appreciation of Shakespeare's characters; and to 
 that end, real conceptions, right or wrong, are essential. Let 
 it be distinctly understood : all study of words, of grammatical 
 construction, of views of life pecuhar to an age past, of bodily 
 posture and gesture — all are the preparation for the study of 
 the characters themselves; that is, of the play itself; that is, 
 of what Mr. Hudson calls the '' Shakespeare of Shakespeare." 
 If the student does not rise to this view of Shakespeare, she had 
 better let Shakespeare alone and go at something else. In 
 studying the lives of such men as Hamlet or Lear, and of such 
 women as Lady Macbeth or Cordeha, it is of the utmost con- 
 sequence that the attention of the pupil be so directed to their 
 deeds and words, their expression and demonstration of feel- 
 ing, — to the things, further, which they omit to say or do, — as to 
 make the conception of personality as strong as possible. . . . 
 
 For a class of boys or girls, I hold that the most effectual and 
 rapid and profitable method of studying Shakespeare is for them 
 to learn one play as thoroughly as their teacher can make them 
 do it. Then they can read other plays with a profit and a pleas- 
 ure unknown and unknowable, without such a previous drill 
 and study. 
 
 Applying now these principles, if such they can be called, 
 my method of work is this. One of the plays is selected, and 
 after some brief introductory matter the class begins to study. 
 Each pupil reads in turn a number of lines, and then is ex- 
 pected to give such explanations of the text as are to be found 
 in the notes, supplemented by her own knowledge. She has 
 pointed out to her such other matters also as may be of interest 
 and are relevant to the text. 
 
 When the play has been finished or when any character dis- 
 appears from the play, — as Polonius in Hamlet, Duncan in 
 Macbeth, the Fool in King Lear, — the class have all those pas- 
 sages in the play pointed out to them wherein this character 
 appears or mention is made of him; and then, with this, Shake- 
 speare's, biography of him before their eyes, they are required 
 to write a composition — bane of pupils, most useful of teachers' 
 auxiliaries — on this character, without other aesthetic assistance 
 or hints than they may have gathered from the teacher in the 
 
92 STUDY OF LITERATURE 
 
 course of their study. This is to be their work, and to express 
 their opinions of the man or the woman under discussion, and 
 is to show how far they have succeeded in retaining their 
 thoughts and impressions concerning the character, and how 
 far they wish to modify them under this review. They are thus 
 compelled to realize what they do and do not think; what 
 they do and do not know; in how far the character does or does 
 not meet their approval, and why. That is, the pupils are 
 compelled to pass judgment upon themselves along with the 
 Shakespeare character. . . # ■ 
 
OUTLINES FOR THE STUDY OF 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 THE following Outlines and Suggestions for the study of 
 The Merchant of Venice are based on the Booklovers 
 Edition of Shakespeare, and are designed to serve as a general 
 model for the study of the plays in connection with the 
 ''helps" contained in the Booklovers Edition. 
 
 I. Read carefully the "Argument," following the Preface 
 to the volume The Merchant oj Venice. 
 
 II. Read the play in order to learn its plot and incidents as 
 well as for the pleasure of the reading. 
 
 HI. Read the play again for a fuller knowledge of the plot 
 and acquaintance with the characters, and for a deeper ap- 
 preciation of the literary charm and value of the drama. 
 
 IV. Take up the serious study of the play, first using the 
 Questions — in themselves a Study Method — at the close of the 
 volume. 
 
 (i) Consider the general questions at the beginning and 
 at the end of this Study Method. 
 
 (2) Carefully study each Act separately, using as a basis 
 
 the Questions on each Act. 
 
 (3) Give attention to the meaning of unusual or obsolete 
 
 words, using the glossary. 
 
 (4) Endeavor to ascertain the sense of difficult passages, 
 
 using the Critical and the Explanatory Notes. 
 
 (5) It will be seen that the Questions bring up historical, 
 
 biographical, bibliographical, ethical, and other 
 considerations. Matters of dramatic construction 
 are left to the discrimination of the student or of 
 the study circle. 
 
 93 
 
94 STUDY OUTLINES 
 
 (6) The use of the Questions, with their suggestive im- 
 
 pHcations, will lead to a still more thorough study 
 of the play and to a careful reading of the Pre- 
 face, the Critical Comments, and the Explanatory 
 Notes. The student will find in these "helps" the 
 expert knowledge and the mature opinions of the 
 greatest Shakespearian scholars on every important 
 matter pertaining to the play. 
 
 (7) In the Index volume will be found descriptions and 
 
 commentaries relating to the characters. The 
 student should become familiar with this Index. 
 
 (8) The volume containing the life of Shakespeare 
 
 should be read by all who study the plays. In 
 the same volume are chapters on "Shakespeare, 
 the Man," by Walter Bagehot; "Self Revelation 
 of Shakespeare," by Leslie Stephen; "The EngHsh 
 Drama," by Richard Grant White; and "Culmi- 
 nation of the Drama in Shakespeare," by Thomas 
 Spencer Baynes. A more interesting and instruc- 
 tive collection of Shakespearian literature in like 
 compass is not to be found. 
 
 V. The special articles in this booklet on the study of litera- 
 ture and the study of Shakespeare should be read and reread. 
 Near the close of the essay by Hamilton Wright Mabie will be 
 found a character analysis of The Merchant oj Venice that is 
 interesting in itself and may serve as a model for a character 
 analysis of other plays. 
 
 VI. In the chapter in this booklet on the study of English 
 literature will be found unique general methods for the study 
 of each play. 
 
 VII. In the Questions that accompany each play in the 
 Booklovers Edition will be found suggestive subjects for essays. 
 
 VIII. The student of any play should read it aloud — in 
 whole or in part — and should memorize the choicest passages. 
 
Topical Index 
 
 By means of this index any desired passage in Shakespeare, as well as all 
 passages relating to any special subject, such as " Law," " Love," " Proverbs and 
 Proverbial Expressions," "Woman," etc., can be readily found. This index is 
 more valuable than an expensive concordance. 
 
 Study Methods 
 
 A carefully prepared and interesting plan of study, which gives sugges'ions 
 and questions relating to each act and scene. These study methods are modeled 
 upon the course of Shakespearean study pursued at the leading American and 
 English universities. 
 
 Prefaces 
 
 Critical accounts of the sources of the plot, with descriptions of earlier and 
 similar plays, discussion of the probable date of composition, and remarks on the 
 first editions. The question of Shakespeare's collaborators is interestingly treated. 
 
 Text 
 
 The famous "Cambridge" text, which has been the standard for more than 
 a generation. It is based on the folio of 1 623, the first collected edition, and has 
 been regarded as the most nearly accurate and most fully intelligible text. It is 
 not expurgated or changed. 
 
 Type 
 
 The largest and most readable that can be used without making the volumes 
 too bulky for convenient handling. The impression is sharp and clear-cut, the 
 type-page well proportioned, and the margin ample. 
 
 Paper 
 
 The very finest quality of pure white, smooth paper, manufactured expressly 
 for this work ; will not discolor with age ; has a finish agreeable to the eye and 
 suitable to the typography. 
 
 Binding 
 
 The books are faultlessly bound in half-leather style with a fine grade of red 
 leather and English art cloth on the sides. The back-stamping is done in genuine 
 leaf gold. The binding is most artistic and attractive, and made to withstand any 
 amount of handling and hard usage. 
 
 Illustrations 
 
 This edition excels all others in point of illustrations. It contains 40 full-page 
 colored plates, reproduced from famous paintings, which are inserted by hand. 
 Heretofore illustrations like these were to be found only in the high-priced editions, 
 ranging from $80 to $150 per set. Besides the color plates there are hundreds 
 of text and marginal illustrations. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014157 460 7 # 
 
 THE BEST SHAKESPEARE 
 
 HE Booklovers Edition is founded on the Cambridge text, which is 
 reproduced with only such few changes as have been made necessary 
 by the results of later scholarship. To this text have been added Critical 
 Notes and Comments, Arguments, Explanatory Notes, and Questions on the 
 Plays. Every recognized authority on Shakespeare is 
 represented in the notes and explanatory matter. The Book- 
 lovers Edition, therefore, rests upon a wider consensus of Shakespearean 
 knowledge than any other edition, and can be justly said to be the best 
 edition of Shakespeare's works in existence. The set is 
 complete in forty volumes. There are thirty-seven plays, a play to a volume; 
 and the three remaining volumes contain respectively the Poems and Sonnets, 
 a Life of Shakespeare, and a Topical Index. The entire set contains over 
 7,ooo pages (size, 7j^x5 in.), colored frontispieces to the volumes, and more 
 than 200 text illustrations. The bindings are English art cloth or half leather, 
 stamped in gold.