Acknowledgments are due to the following persons for permission to use in this volume the selections here named: Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers of the works of Longfellow and Hawthorne, for "Evangeline in Acadia" and "The Gray Champion"; American Publishers' Corporation, publishers of "The Little Minister," for "The Boyhood of Gavin Dishart"; Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers of the works of J. G. Holland, for the poem entitled "Gradatim"; Dr. Robert Collyer, for his essay on "Charles and Mary Lamb"; Mr. J. Lewis Stackpole, executor of the estate of J. Lothrop Motley, for the sketch entitled "The Relief of Leyden "; Professor John Bach McMaster, author of "School History of the United States, ́ ́ for the selection "Early Highways of Travel in the United States."

SCHOOL READING.

SEVENTH YEAR.

5

ON READING.

Of all the privileges we enjoy in this nineteenth century there is none, perhaps, for which we ought to be more thankful than for the easier access

to books.

The debt we owe to books was well expressed by Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, author of "Philobiblon," written as long ago as 1344, and the earliest 10 English treatise on the delights of literature: "These," he says, "are the masters who instruct us without rods and ferules, without hard words. 15 and anger, without clothes or

Sir John Lubbock.

money. If you approach them, they are not asleep; if investigating you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them, they never grumble; if you are ignorant, they can not laugh at you. The library, there20 fore, of wisdom is more precious than all riches, and

7

nothing that can be wished for is worthy to be compared with it. Whosoever, therefore, acknowledges himself to be a zealous follower of truth, of happiness, of wisdom, of science, or even of the faith, must of necessity make himself a lover of books." But if the debt were great then, 5

how much more now. "He that loveth a book," says Isaac Barrow, “will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and 10 pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, so in all fortunes."

Macaulay had all that wealth and fame, rank and talents could give, yet, we are told, he derived his greatest happiness from books. Sir G. Trevelyan, in his charming 15 biography, says that," of all the feelings which Macaulay entertained towards the great minds of bygone ages it is not for any one except himself to speak. He has told us how his debt to them was incalculable; how they guided him to truth; how they filled his mind with noble 20 and graceful images; how they stood by him in all vicissitudes - comforters in sorrow, nurses in sickness, companions in solitude, the old friends who are never seen with new faces; who are the same in wealth and in poverty, in glory and in obscurity. Great as were the honors 25 and possessions which Macaulay acquired by his pen, all who knew him were well aware that the titles and rewards which he gained by his own works were as nothing in the balance compared with the pleasure he derived from the works of others."

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