[*]MannerofReading.Where found.16. Lincoln.Gettysburg Oration. Famous for its calm, clear, simple beauty, breadth, and powerm.R.C.No. 2.Irving,our greatest master of style; his prose is poetry.Rip Van Winklee.R.D.C.Sketch Book.The Spectre Bridegroome.R.D.C.Sketch Book.The Art of Book-Makinge.R.D.C.Sketch Book.The Legend of Sleepy Hollowe.R.D.C.Sketch Book.17. Bacon.Essay on Studies. Note the clearness and completeness of Bacon, and his tremendous condensation of thoughtm.R.D.C.Bacon's Essays.Carlyle.Apostrophe to Columbus, p. 193 of Past and Present,— Carlyle's finest passagem.R.D.C.Await the Issuem.R.D.C.Monroe.The account of the conversational powers of Coleridge, given in Carlyle's Life of Sterlinge.R.D.C.18. Webster.Liberty and Union,—a selection from the answer to Hayne in the United States Senate, on the question of the power of a State to nullify the acts of Congress, and to withdraw from the Union,—the greatest of American orations, and worthy to rank side by side with the world's bestm.R.D.C.No. 1.Phillips.Comparison of Toussaint L'Ouverture with Napoleon, in his oration on Toussaintm.R.D.C.Phillips's Speeches.19. Everett.Discoveries of Galileom.R.No. 1.Burritt.One Niche the Higheste.R.No. 7.20. Hugo.The Monster Cannon, one of the great Frenchman's master strokes,—a very thrilling scene, splendidly paintede.R.No. 11.Rome and Carthagem.R.No. 6.De Quincey.Noble Revengem.R.No. 7.21. Poe.Murders in the Rue Morgued.R.Little Classics.Ingersoll.Oration at the funeral of his brotherm.R.Ingersoll's Prose Poems.22. Scott.Thirty-sixth chapter of the Heart of Midlothianm.R.Curtis.Nations and Humanitym.R.No. 11.23. Taylor.The sections on Temperance and Chastity in the Holy Living and Dyingm.R.D.Brooks.Pamphlet on Tolerance,—the best book in the world on a most vital subjectm.R.D.
Group IV.—Wit and Humor—Short List.
[*]MannerofReading.Where found.24. Lowell.Biglow Paperse.R.D.Lowell's Poems.Fable for Criticsd.R.D.The Courtin'e.R.D.Holmes.Autocrat of the Breakfast-Tablem.R.D.25. Carleton.Farm Ballads, especially the Visit of the School Committee, and The Rivalse.S.Stowe.Laughin' in Meetin'e.S.No. 11.Twain.On New England Weathere.S.No. 13.European Guides, and Turkish Bathse.S.Innocents Abroad.26. Dickens.Pickwick Paperse.S.James De Mille.Cumnock's Choice Readings.A Senator Entanglede.S.Lover.The Gridirone.S.Cumnock's Choice Readings.Whately.Historic Doubts regarding Napoleone.S.Publ. separately.
SUPPLEMENTARY GENERAL READING.
In addition to the short courses set forth in Tables II. and III., at the same time, if the reader has a sufficiency of spare hours, but always in subordination to the above courses, it is recommended that attention be given to the following books:—
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. (e. R. D.)Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. (e. S.)Dickens' Christmas Carol (m. R. D.); Cricket on theHearth. (m. R. D.)Ruskin's Crown of Wild Olive (m. R. D.); Ethics ofthe Dust (m. R. D.); Sesame and Lilies. (m. R. D.)Emerson's Essays (d. R. D. C.); especially those onManners, Gifts, Love, Friendship, The Poet, and on RepresentativeMen.Demosthenes on the Crown. (m. R. D. C. G.)Burke's Warren Hastings Oration. (m. R. D. C. G.)Phillips' Speeches on Lovejoy and Garrison. (m. R.D. C. G.)La Fontaine's Fables. (m. R. D.)Short Biographies of the World's Hundred Greatest Men.(m. R. D.)Marshall's Life of Washington. (m. R. D. G.)Carlyle's Cromwell. (m. R. D. G.)Tennyson's In Memoriam. (d. R. D. C.)Byron's Childe Harold. (m. R. D. C.)Burns' Cotter's Saturday Night. (m. R. D.)Keats' Endymion. (d. R. D. C.)Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. (d. R. D. C. G.)Campbell's Pleasures of Hope. (m. R. D. C.)Goldsmith's Deserted Village. (m. R. D. C.)Pope's Essay on Man. (m. R. D. C.)Thomson's Seasons. (m. R. D. C.)
So far we have spoken of reading for grown people. Now we must deal with the reading of young folks,—a subject of the utmost importance. For to give a child good habits of reading, to make him like to read and master strong, pure books,—books filled with wisdom and beauty,—and equally eager to shun bad books, is to do for him and the world a service of the highest possible character; and to neglect the right care of a child in this matter is to do him an injury far greater than to mutilate his face or cut off his arm.
Parents, teachers, and others interested in the welfare of young people have not only to solve the problem of selecting books for their own nourishment, but also the more difficult problem of providing the young folks with appropriate literary food. As literature may be made one of the most powerful influences in the development of a child, the greatest care should be taken to make the influence true, pure, and tender, and give it in every respect the highest possible character, which requires as much care to see that bad books do not come into the child's possession and use, as to see that good books do. The ability to read adds to life a wonderful power, but it is a power for evil as well as good. As Lowell says, "It is the key which admits us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination,—to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moments. It enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time. More than that, it annihilates time and space for us,—reviving without a miracle the Age of Wonder, and endowing us with the shoes of swiftness and the cap of darkness." Yes, but it opensour minds to the thoughts of the vile as well as to those of the virtuous; it unlocks the prisons and haunts of vice as well as the school and the church; it drags us through the sewer as well as gives us admission to the palace; it feeds us on filth as well as the finest food; it pours upon our souls the deepest degradation as well as the spirit of divinity. Parents will do well to keep from their children such books as Richardson's "Pamela" and "Clarissa Harlowe;" Fielding's "Joseph Andrews," "Jonathan Wild," and "Tom Jones;" Smollett's "Humphrey Clinker," "Peregrine Pickle," and "Adventures of an Atom;" Sterne's "Tristram Shandy;" Swift's "Gulliver," and their modern relatives. Many of these coarse pictures of depravity and microscopic analyses of filth I cannot read without feeling insulted by their vulgarity, as I do when some one tells an indecent story in my presence. Whatever the power or wit of a book, if its motive is not high and its expression lofty, it should not come into contact with any life, at least until its character is fixed and hardened in the mould of virtue beyond the period of plasticity that might receive the imprint of the badness in the book. There are plenty of splendid books that are pure and ennobling as well as strong and humorous,—more of them than any one person can ever read,—so that there is no necessity of contact with imperfect literature. If a boy comes into possession of a book that he would not like to read aloud to his mother or sister, he has something that is not good for him toread,—something that is not altogether the very best for anybody to read. Some liberty of choice, however, ought to be allowed the children. It will add much to the vigor and enthusiasm of a boy's reading if, instead of prescribing the precise volume he is to have at each step, he is permitted to make his own selection from a list of three or four chosen by the person who is guiding him. What these three or four should be, is the problem. I cannot agree with Lowell, when he says that young people ought to "confine themselves to the supreme books in whatever literature, or, still better, choose some one great author and make themselves thoroughly familiar with him." It is possible to know something of people in general about me without neglecting my best friends. It is possible to enjoy the society of Shakspeare, Goethe, Æschylus, Dante, Homer, Plato, Spencer, Scott, Eliot, Marcus Aurelius, and Irving, without remaining in ignorance of the power and beauty to be found in Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Byron, Burns, Goldsmith, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, and Lowell, Ingersoll, Omar, Arnold, Brooks, and Robertson, Curtis, Aldrich, Warner, Jewett, Burroughs, Bulwer, Tourgée, Hearn, Kingsley, MacDonald, Hawthorne, Dickens, Thackeray, Carlyle, Ruskin, Hugo, Bronté, Sienkiewicz, and a host of others. Scarcely a day passes that I do not spend a little time with Shakspeare, Goethe, Æschylus, Spencer, and Irving; but I should be sorry to have any one of those I have named beyond call at anytime. There are parts of Holmes, Lowell, Brooks, Emerson, Omar, Arnold, Tourgée, and Hearn that are as dear to me as any passages of equal size in Goethe or Irving. So it does not seem best to me toconfinethe attention to the supreme books; a justproportionis the true rule. Let the supreme books have the supreme attention, absorb them, print them on the brain, carry them about in the heart, but give a due share of time to other books. I like the suggestion of Marietta Holley: "I would feed children with little sweet crumbs of the best of books, and teach them that a whole rich feast awaited them in the full pages," only taking care in each instance that the crumb is well rounded, the picture not torn or distorted. There are paragraphs and pages in many works of the second rank that are equal to almost anything in the supreme books, and superior to much the latter contain. These passages should be sought and cherished; and the work of condensing the thought and beauty of literature—making a sort of literary prayer-book—is an undertaking that ought not to be much longer delayed. Until it is done, however, there is no way but to read widely, adapting the speed and care to the value of the volume. Some things may be best read by deputy, as Mark Twain climbed the Alps by agent; newspapers, for example, and many of the novels that flame up like a haystack on fire, and fade like a meteor in its fall, striking the earth never to rise again. The time that many a young man spends upon newspaperswould be sufficient to make him familiar with a dozen undying books every year. Newspapers are not to be despised, but they should not be allowed to crowd out more important things. I keep track of the progress of events by reading the "Outlook" in the "Christian Union" every week, and glancing at the head-lines of the "Herald" or "Journal," reading a little of anything specially important, or getting an abstract from a friend who always reads the paper. A good way to economize time is for a number of friends to take the same paper, the first page being allotted to one, the second to another, and so on, each vocally informing the others of the substance of his page. If time cannot be found for both the newspaper and the classic, the former, not the latter, should receive the neglect.
This matter of the use of time is one concerning which parents should strive to give their children good habits from the first. If you teach a child to economize time, and fill him with a love of good books, you ensure him an education far beyond anything he can get in the university,—an education that will cease only with his life. The creation of a habit of industrious study of books that will improve the character, develop the powers, and store the mind with force and beauty,—that is the great object.
A good example is the best teacher. It is well for parents to keep close to the child until he grows old enough to learn how to determine for himself what he should read (which usually is not before fifteen ortwenty, and in many cases never); for children, and grown folks too for that matter, crave intellectual as much as they do physical companionship.
The methods of guiding the young in the paths of literature fall naturally into two groups,—the first being adapted to childhood not yet arrived at the power of reading alone, the second adapted to later years. There is no sharp line of division or exclusion, but only a general separation; for the methods peculiarly appropriate to each period apply to some extent in the other. Some children are able to read weighty books at three or four years of age, but most boys and girls have to plod along till they are eight or ten before they can read much alone. I will consider the periods of child life I have referred to, each by itself.
The Age of Stories.—It is not necessary or proper to wait until a child can read, before introducing it to the best literature. Most of the books written for children have no permanent value, and most of the reading books used in primary and grammar schools contain little or no genuine literature, and what they do contain is in fragments. Portions of good books are useful, if the story of each part is complete, but children do not like the middle of a story without the beginning and end; they have the sense of entirety, and it should be satisfied. And it is not difficult to do this. Literature affords a multitude of beautiful stories of exceeding interest to children, and of permanent attractiveness through all the after years oftheir lives. Such literature is as available, as a means of teaching the art of reading, as is the trash in dreary droning over which the precious years of childhood are spent in our public schools. The development of the child mind follows the same course as the development of the mind of the race. The little boy loves the wonderful and the strong, and nearly everything is wonderful to him except himself. Living things especially interest him. Every child is a born naturalist; his heart turns to birds and beasts, flowers and stars. He is hungry for stories of animals, giants, fairies, etc. Myths and fairy tales are his natural food. His power of absorbing and retaining them is marvellous. One evening a few weeks ago a little boy who is as yet scarcely able to read words of two and three letters asked me for a story. I made an agreement with him that whatever I told him, he should afterward repeat to me, and then gave him the story of the elephant who squirted muddy water over the cruel tailor that pricked his trunk with a needle. No sooner had I finished than he threw his arms around my neck and begged for another story. I told him eight in rapid succession, some of them occupying three or four minutes, and then asked him to tell me about the elephants, dogs, bears, etc., that I had spoken of. He recited every story with astonishing accuracy and readiness, and apparently without effort, and would have been ready for eight more bits of Wood or Andersen, if his bedtime had not intervened. If parents wouldtake as much pains to satisfy the mind hunger of their children as they do to fulfil their physical wants, and give them the best literature as well as the best beef and potatoes, the boys and girls would have digested the greater part of mythology, natural science, and the best fiction by the time they are able to read. Children should be fed with the literature that represents the childhood of the race. Out of that literature has grown all literature. Give a child the contents of the great books of the dawn, and you give him the best foundation for subsequent literary growth, and in after life he will be able to follow the intricate interweaving of the old threads throughout all modern thought. He has an immense affinity for those old books, for they are full of music and picturesqueness, teeming with vigorous life, bursting with the strange and wonderful. In the following list parents and teachers will find abundant materials for the culture of the little ones, either by reading aloud to them, or still better by telling them the substance of what they have gathered by their own reading of these famous stories and ditties. Pictures are always of the utmost value in connection with books and stories, as they impart a vividness of conception that words alone are powerless to produce. One plea for sincerity I must make,—truth and frankness from the cradle to the grave. Do not delude the children. Do not persuade them that a fairy tale is history. I have a sad memory of my disgust and loss of confidence in human probity whenI discovered the mythical character of Kriss Kringle, and I believe many children are needlessly shocked in this way.
List of Materials for Story-telling and for the Instruction and Amusement of Childhood.
"Mother Goose," "Jack and the Bean-Stalk," "Jack the Giant-Killer," "Three Bears," "Red Riding-Hood," "The Ark," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Puss in Boots," "Samson," "Ugly Duckling," "The Horse of Troy" (Virgil), "Daniel in the Lion's Den," etc.Andersen's "Fairy Tales." Delightful to all children.Grimm's "Fairy Tales."De Garmo's "Fairy Tales."Craik's "Adventures of a Brownie.""Parents' Assistant," by Maria Edgeworth, recommended by George William Curtis, Mary Mapes Dodge, Charles Dudley Warner, etc."Zigzag Journeys," a series of twelve books, written by Hezekiah Butterworth, one of the editors of the "Youth's Companion." As might be supposed, they are among the very best and most enduringly popular books ever written for young people.Wood's books of Anecdotes about Animals, and many other works of similar character, that may be obtained from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 19 Milk Street, Boston. The literature distributed by this Society is filled with the spirit of love and tenderness for all living things, and is one of the best influences that can come into a child's life.Mary Treat's "Home Book of Nature." One of the best books of science for young people.Bulfinch's "Age of Fable." A book that is exhaustive of Greek and Roman mythology, but meant for grown folks.Bulfinch's "Age of Chivalry."Fiske's "Myths and Myth Makers." Brief, deep, and suggestive.Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." Books that no house containing children should lack.Cox's "Tales of Ancient Greece."Baldwin's "Stories of the Golden Age."Forestier's "Echoes from Mist Land." An interesting study of the Nibelungenlied.Lucian's "Dialogues of the Gods." Written to ridicule ancient superstitions.Curtin's "Folk Lore of Ireland."Stories of Greek Heroes, Kingsley.Stories from Bryant's Odyssey.Stories from Church's "Story of the Iliad."Stories from Church's "Story of the Æneid."Stories from Herodotus, Church.Stories from the Greek Tragedians, Church.Stories of Charlemagne, Hanson.Stories from "Arabian Nights," Bulfinch.Stories from "Munchausen," and Maundeville.Stories from Chaucer, especially "Griselda." (From Chaucer, or from Mrs. Haweis' book.)Stories told to a Child, by Jean Ingelow.Stories from the "Morte D'Arthur," Malory or Lanier.Stories from Lanier's "Froissart."Stories from Shakspeare.Stories of the Revolution, Riedesel.Stories from American and English History about the Magna Charta, Henry VIII., Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell,Pitt, Gladstone, Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Independence, Washington, Rebellion, Lincoln, etc.Stories of American life, from "Oldtown Folks," "Sam Lawson's Fireside Stories," and from the best novels.Stories from the "Book of Golden Deeds," Miss Yonge.Stories from Bolton's "Poor Boys who became Famous," and "Girls who became Famous."Stories from Smiles's "Self-Help." Full of brief, inspiring stories of great men.Stones from Todd's "Students' Manual."Stories from Irving's "Sketch Book," Rip Van Winkle, etc.Stories from Green's "Short History of the English People."Stories from Doyle's "History of the United States." One of the very best brief histories.Stories from Mackenzie's "History of the Nineteenth Century."Stories from Coffin's "Story of Liberty."Stories from Freeman's "General Sketch of History."Stories from the "Stories of the Nations." (Putnam's Series.)Stories from the books of Columns 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, and 14 ofTable I.The story of Christ and his Apostles. (It is scarcely needful to mention Bible stories in general. Every child born into a civilized family is saturated with them; but the simple story of Christ's life as an entirety is too seldom told them.)The story of Buddha, from the "Light of Asia."The story of Mahomet, Irving.The story of Confucius.The story of Socrates drinking the hemlock, from Plato, or from Fénelon's "Lives of the Philosophers," which contains many splendid Greek stories.The story of Prometheus, from Æschylus.The story of Diogenes in his Tub.The story of Thermopylæ and other battles, from Cressy.The story of Carthage, from Putnam's series of the "Stories of the Nations." (Nine to eleven years.)The story of Roland, Baldwin.The story of the Cid, Southey.The story of the Nibelungenlied. (See Baldwin's "Story of Siegfried.")The story of Faust, from "Zigzag Journeys."The story of "Reynard the Fox," Goethe.The story of Pythagoras and the transmigration of souls.The story of Astronomy, from Herschel, Proctor, etc.The story of Geology, from Lyell, Dawson, Miller, etc., or from Dana's "The Geological Story, Briefly Told."The story of Athena, Pluto, Neptune, Apollo, Juno, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Charon, Vulcan, Zeus, Io, Orpheus, and Eurydice, Phaeton, Arachne, Ariadne, Iphigenia, Ceres, Vesta, Herakles, Minerva, Venus, Scylla and Charybdis, Hercules, Ulysses, Helen, Achilles, Æneas, etc., from Bulfinch's "Age of Fable," "Zigzag Journeys," etc.The story of William Tell, the Man in the Moon, etc., from S. Baring Gould's "Curious Myths."The story of the Courtship of Miles Standish.The story of the Nürnburg Stove, from Ouida's "Bimbi."The story of Robert Bruce.The story of Circe's Palace, from "Tanglewood Tales."The story of Pandora's Box, from the "Wonder Book."The story of Little Nell, from "The Old Curiosity Shop."The story of the Boy in "Vanity Fair."Many other books might be placed on the list of parent-helpers. Indeed, the perfect guidance of youth would require a perfect knowledge of literature throughout its breadth and depth; but the above suggestions, if followed in any large degree, will result in a far better training than most children now receive.
"Mother Goose," "Jack and the Bean-Stalk," "Jack the Giant-Killer," "Three Bears," "Red Riding-Hood," "The Ark," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Puss in Boots," "Samson," "Ugly Duckling," "The Horse of Troy" (Virgil), "Daniel in the Lion's Den," etc.
Andersen's "Fairy Tales." Delightful to all children.
Grimm's "Fairy Tales."
De Garmo's "Fairy Tales."
Craik's "Adventures of a Brownie."
"Parents' Assistant," by Maria Edgeworth, recommended by George William Curtis, Mary Mapes Dodge, Charles Dudley Warner, etc.
"Zigzag Journeys," a series of twelve books, written by Hezekiah Butterworth, one of the editors of the "Youth's Companion." As might be supposed, they are among the very best and most enduringly popular books ever written for young people.
Wood's books of Anecdotes about Animals, and many other works of similar character, that may be obtained from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 19 Milk Street, Boston. The literature distributed by this Society is filled with the spirit of love and tenderness for all living things, and is one of the best influences that can come into a child's life.
Mary Treat's "Home Book of Nature." One of the best books of science for young people.
Bulfinch's "Age of Fable." A book that is exhaustive of Greek and Roman mythology, but meant for grown folks.
Bulfinch's "Age of Chivalry."
Fiske's "Myths and Myth Makers." Brief, deep, and suggestive.
Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." Books that no house containing children should lack.
Cox's "Tales of Ancient Greece."
Baldwin's "Stories of the Golden Age."
Forestier's "Echoes from Mist Land." An interesting study of the Nibelungenlied.
Lucian's "Dialogues of the Gods." Written to ridicule ancient superstitions.
Curtin's "Folk Lore of Ireland."
Stories of Greek Heroes, Kingsley.
Stories from Bryant's Odyssey.
Stories from Church's "Story of the Iliad."
Stories from Church's "Story of the Æneid."
Stories from Herodotus, Church.
Stories from the Greek Tragedians, Church.
Stories of Charlemagne, Hanson.
Stories from "Arabian Nights," Bulfinch.
Stories from "Munchausen," and Maundeville.
Stories from Chaucer, especially "Griselda." (From Chaucer, or from Mrs. Haweis' book.)
Stories told to a Child, by Jean Ingelow.
Stories from the "Morte D'Arthur," Malory or Lanier.
Stories from Lanier's "Froissart."
Stories from Shakspeare.
Stories of the Revolution, Riedesel.
Stories from American and English History about the Magna Charta, Henry VIII., Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell,Pitt, Gladstone, Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Independence, Washington, Rebellion, Lincoln, etc.
Stories of American life, from "Oldtown Folks," "Sam Lawson's Fireside Stories," and from the best novels.
Stories from the "Book of Golden Deeds," Miss Yonge.
Stories from Bolton's "Poor Boys who became Famous," and "Girls who became Famous."
Stories from Smiles's "Self-Help." Full of brief, inspiring stories of great men.
Stones from Todd's "Students' Manual."
Stories from Irving's "Sketch Book," Rip Van Winkle, etc.
Stories from Green's "Short History of the English People."
Stories from Doyle's "History of the United States." One of the very best brief histories.
Stories from Mackenzie's "History of the Nineteenth Century."
Stories from Coffin's "Story of Liberty."
Stories from Freeman's "General Sketch of History."
Stories from the "Stories of the Nations." (Putnam's Series.)
Stories from the books of Columns 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, and 14 ofTable I.
The story of Christ and his Apostles. (It is scarcely needful to mention Bible stories in general. Every child born into a civilized family is saturated with them; but the simple story of Christ's life as an entirety is too seldom told them.)
The story of Buddha, from the "Light of Asia."
The story of Mahomet, Irving.
The story of Confucius.
The story of Socrates drinking the hemlock, from Plato, or from Fénelon's "Lives of the Philosophers," which contains many splendid Greek stories.
The story of Prometheus, from Æschylus.
The story of Diogenes in his Tub.
The story of Thermopylæ and other battles, from Cressy.
The story of Carthage, from Putnam's series of the "Stories of the Nations." (Nine to eleven years.)
The story of Roland, Baldwin.
The story of the Cid, Southey.
The story of the Nibelungenlied. (See Baldwin's "Story of Siegfried.")
The story of Faust, from "Zigzag Journeys."
The story of "Reynard the Fox," Goethe.
The story of Pythagoras and the transmigration of souls.
The story of Astronomy, from Herschel, Proctor, etc.
The story of Geology, from Lyell, Dawson, Miller, etc., or from Dana's "The Geological Story, Briefly Told."
The story of Athena, Pluto, Neptune, Apollo, Juno, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Charon, Vulcan, Zeus, Io, Orpheus, and Eurydice, Phaeton, Arachne, Ariadne, Iphigenia, Ceres, Vesta, Herakles, Minerva, Venus, Scylla and Charybdis, Hercules, Ulysses, Helen, Achilles, Æneas, etc., from Bulfinch's "Age of Fable," "Zigzag Journeys," etc.
The story of William Tell, the Man in the Moon, etc., from S. Baring Gould's "Curious Myths."
The story of the Courtship of Miles Standish.
The story of the Nürnburg Stove, from Ouida's "Bimbi."
The story of Robert Bruce.
The story of Circe's Palace, from "Tanglewood Tales."
The story of Pandora's Box, from the "Wonder Book."
The story of Little Nell, from "The Old Curiosity Shop."
The story of the Boy in "Vanity Fair."
Many other books might be placed on the list of parent-helpers. Indeed, the perfect guidance of youth would require a perfect knowledge of literature throughout its breadth and depth; but the above suggestions, if followed in any large degree, will result in a far better training than most children now receive.
As the child learns to read by itself, the books from which were drawn the stones it has heard may be given to it, care being taken that every gift shall be adapted to the ability of the little one. The fact that the boy has heard the story of Horatius at the Bridge does not diminish, but vastly increases, his desire to read the "Lays of Ancient Rome." When he comes to the possession of the book, it seems to him like a discovery of the face of a dear friend with whose voice he has long been familiar. I well remember with what delight I adopted the "Sketch Book" as one of my favorites on finding Rip Van Winkle in it.
Below will be found a list of books intended as a suggestion of what should be given to children of various ages. The larger the number of good books the child can be induced to read each year, the better of course, so long as his powers are not overtaxed, and the reading is done with due thoroughness. But if only four or five are selected from each year's list, the boy will know more of standard literature by the time he is sixteen, than most of his elders do. Eachbook enters the list at the earliest age an ordinary child would be able to read it with ease, and it may be used then or at any subsequent age; for no books are mentioned which are not of everlasting interest and profit to childhood, manhood, and age. Many of the volumes named below may also be used by parents and teachers as story-mines. There is no sharp line between the periods of story-telling and of reading. Most children read simple English readily at eight or ten years of age; many do a large amount of reading long before that, and nearly all do some individual work in the earlier period. The change should be gradual. For the stimulus that comparison gives, story-telling and reading aloud should be continued long after the child is able to read alone; in truth, it ought never to cease. Story-telling ought to be a universal practice. Stories should be told to andbyeverybody. One of the best things grown folks can do is to tell each other the substance of their experience from day to day; and probably no finer means of education exists than to have the children give an account at supper or in the hour or two following, of what they have seen, heard, read, thought, and felt during the day. In the same way readingsolusshould lap over into the early period as far as possible. One of the greatest needs of the day is a class of books that shall putsolid senseintoverysimple words. A child can grasp the wonderful, strong, loving, pathetic, and even the humorous and critical, long before it can overcome the mechanicaldifficulties of reading. By so much as we diminish these, we push education nearer to the cradle. Charles Dudley Warner says, "As a general thing, I do not believe in books written for children;" and Phillips Brooks, Marietta Holley, Brooke Herford, and others express a similar feeling. But the trouble is not with theplanof writing for children, but with the execution. If the highestthoughtsand feelings were written in the simplest words,—written as a wise parenttellsthem to his little ones,—then we should have a juvenile literature that could be recommended. As it is, most writers for babies seem to have far less sense than the babies. Their books are filled with unnatural, make-believe emotions, and egregious nonsense in the place of ideas. The best prose for young people will be found in the works of Hawthorne, Curtis, Warner, Holmes, Irving, Addison, Goldsmith, Burroughs, and Poe; and the best poets for them are Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Burns, and Homer. Books that flavor sense with fun, as do those of Curtis, Holmes, Lowell, Holley, Stowe, Irving, Goldsmith, Warner, Addison, and Burroughs, are among the best means of creating in any heart, young or old, a love for fine, pure writing. P. T. Barnum, a man whose great success is largely due to his attainment of that serenity of mind which Lowell calls the highest result of culture, says: "I should, above almost everything else, try to cultivate in the child a kindly sense of humor. Wherever a pure, hearty laugh rings through literature, he should be permitted and taught to enjoyit." This judgment comes from a knowledge of the sustaining power a love of humor gives a man immersed in mental cares and worriments. Lincoln is, perhaps, the best example of its power.
It is often an inspiration to a boy to know that a book he is reading has helped and been beloved by some one whose name is to him a synonym of greatness,—to know, for example, that Franklin got his style from the "Spectator," which he studied diligently when a boy; that Francis Parkman from fifteen to twenty-one obtained more pleasure and profit from Scott than from any other writer; that Darwin was very fond of Mark Twain's "Treatise on the Frog;" that Marietta Holley places Emerson, Tennyson, and Eliot next to the Bible in her list of favorites; that Senator Hoar writes Emerson, Wordsworth, and Scott next after the Bible and Shakspeare; that Robert Collyer took great delight in Irving's "Sketch Book," when a youth; that the great historian Lecky is said to be in the habit of taking Irving with him when he goes to bed; that Phillips Brooks read Jonson many times when a boy, and that Lockhart's Scott was a great favorite with him, though the Doctor attaches no special significance to either of these facts; that Susan Coolidge thinks "Hans Brinker" is the best of all American books for children, etc. Similar facts may be found in relation to very many of the best books, and will aid much in arousing an interest in them.
Plato, Bacon, Goethe, Spencer, Emerson, and manyothers of the best are for the most part too difficult to be properly grasped until the mind is more mature than it usually is at sixteen. No precise rules, however, can be laid down on this subject, I have known a boy read Spencer's "First Principles" and Goethe's "Faust" and "Wilhelm Meister" at sixteen, and gain a mastery of them. All I have attempted to do is to make broad suggestions; experiment in each case must do the rest.
Literature adapted to a Child Six or Eight Years of Age and upward.
Little Lord Fauntleroy. A book that cannot fail to delight and improve every reader.King of the Golden River, Ruskin."Rosebud," from "Harvard Sophomore Stories."Christmas all the Year round, Howells.Mrs. Stowe's "Laughin' in Meetin'." An exceedingly funny story."Each and All" and "Seven Little Sisters," by Jane Andrews. Used in the Boston Public Schools as supplementary reading.Classics in Babyland, Bates.Scudder's "Fables and Folk Stories." Fine books for little ones.Æsop.Rainbows for Children, Lydia Maria Child.Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell. The autobiography of a splendid horse, and the best teacher of kindness to animals we know of.Burroughs' "Birds and Bees." In fact, all his beautiful and simple stories of Nature—"Pepacton," "Fresh Fields," "Wake Robin," "Winter Sunshine," "Signs and Seasons," etc.—are the delight of children as soon as they can read.Winslow's "Fairy Geography."By Sea-side and Wayside, Wright.
Little Lord Fauntleroy. A book that cannot fail to delight and improve every reader.
King of the Golden River, Ruskin.
"Rosebud," from "Harvard Sophomore Stories."
Christmas all the Year round, Howells.
Mrs. Stowe's "Laughin' in Meetin'." An exceedingly funny story.
"Each and All" and "Seven Little Sisters," by Jane Andrews. Used in the Boston Public Schools as supplementary reading.
Classics in Babyland, Bates.
Scudder's "Fables and Folk Stories." Fine books for little ones.
Æsop.
Rainbows for Children, Lydia Maria Child.
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell. The autobiography of a splendid horse, and the best teacher of kindness to animals we know of.
Burroughs' "Birds and Bees." In fact, all his beautiful and simple stories of Nature—"Pepacton," "Fresh Fields," "Wake Robin," "Winter Sunshine," "Signs and Seasons," etc.—are the delight of children as soon as they can read.
Winslow's "Fairy Geography."
By Sea-side and Wayside, Wright.
Literature adapted to a Child Eight to Nine Years of Age and upward.
Sandford and Merton, Day. One of the very best of children's books.Play Days, Sarah Orne Jewett.Andersen's "Fairy Tales." Cannot be too highly praised.Stories from King Arthur, Hanson. A good foundation for the study of Malory, Tennyson, etc."Winners in Life's Race," and "Life and her Children," by Miss Arabella Buckley. Books that charm many children of eight or nine.Fairy Frisket; or, Peeps at Insect Life. Nelson & Sons.Physiology, with pictures.Queer Little People, Mrs. Stowe.Kingsley's "Water Babies." A beautiful book, as indeed are all of Kingsley's.Longfellow's "Building of the Ship."The Fountain, Lowell.Ye Mariners of England, Campbell.Carleton's "Farm Ballads and Farm Legends." Humorous, pathetic, sensible.
Sandford and Merton, Day. One of the very best of children's books.
Play Days, Sarah Orne Jewett.
Andersen's "Fairy Tales." Cannot be too highly praised.
Stories from King Arthur, Hanson. A good foundation for the study of Malory, Tennyson, etc.
"Winners in Life's Race," and "Life and her Children," by Miss Arabella Buckley. Books that charm many children of eight or nine.
Fairy Frisket; or, Peeps at Insect Life. Nelson & Sons.
Physiology, with pictures.
Queer Little People, Mrs. Stowe.
Kingsley's "Water Babies." A beautiful book, as indeed are all of Kingsley's.
Longfellow's "Building of the Ship."
The Fountain, Lowell.
Ye Mariners of England, Campbell.
Carleton's "Farm Ballads and Farm Legends." Humorous, pathetic, sensible.
Literature adapted to a Child Nine to Ten Years of Age and upward.
Story of a Bad Boy, Aldrich. A splendid book for boys.Boys of '76, Coffin. An eight-year-old boy read it five times, he was so pleased with it.New Year's Bargain, Coolidge.Pussy Willow, Stowe.Hanson's "Homer and Virgil." Brief, clear, simple, clean.Stories from Homer, Hanson.Stories from Pliny, White.Grimm's "Fairy Tales."Legend of Sleeping Beauty.Clodd's "The Childhood of the World." A splendid book to teach children the development of the world."Friends in Feathers and Fur," "Wings and Fins," "Paws and Claws," by Johonnot. Books much liked by the little ones.First Book of Zoölogy, Morse.Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris."Wordsworth's "Peter Bell."Mary, Queen of Scots, Strickland.The Prince and the Pauper, Twain. A book that mingles no small amount of sense with its abounding fun and occasional tragedy.
Story of a Bad Boy, Aldrich. A splendid book for boys.
Boys of '76, Coffin. An eight-year-old boy read it five times, he was so pleased with it.
New Year's Bargain, Coolidge.
Pussy Willow, Stowe.
Hanson's "Homer and Virgil." Brief, clear, simple, clean.
Stories from Homer, Hanson.
Stories from Pliny, White.
Grimm's "Fairy Tales."
Legend of Sleeping Beauty.
Clodd's "The Childhood of the World." A splendid book to teach children the development of the world.
"Friends in Feathers and Fur," "Wings and Fins," "Paws and Claws," by Johonnot. Books much liked by the little ones.
First Book of Zoölogy, Morse.
Halleck's "Marco Bozzaris."
Wordsworth's "Peter Bell."
Mary, Queen of Scots, Strickland.
The Prince and the Pauper, Twain. A book that mingles no small amount of sense with its abounding fun and occasional tragedy.
Literature adapted to a Child Ten or Eleven Years of Age and upward.
Being a Boy, Warner.Little Women, Alcott. One of the most popular books of the day.A Dog's Mission, Stowe.Two Years before the Mast, Dana. Recommended by Sarah Orne Jewett, George William Curtis, and others.Ten Boys on the Road, Andrews. A great favorite with the boys.Jan of the Windmill, Ewing. The story of a poor boy who becomes a famous painter.Hawthorne's "Celestial Railroad."Little People of Asia, Miller.Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales" and "Wonder Book" should belong to every child old enough to read ordinary English.Adventures of a Brownie, Craik.Stories from Chaucer, Seymour.Stories from Livy, Church.Lives of the Philosophers, Fénelon. An excellent book.What Darwin saw in his Trip round the World in the Ship Beagle.Fairy Land of Science, Miss Buckley. An author who writes for children to perfection.Animal Life in the Sea and on the Land, Cooper. Very fine indeed.Darwin's chapter on the "Habits of Ants" (in the "Origin of Species") is very interesting and amusing to little ones, and together with Burroughs' books prepares them to read such works as Lubbock's "Ants, Bees, and Wasps."Ragozin's "Chaldea." One of the indispensable books for children.Longfellow's "Psalm of Life."Longfellow's "Hiawatha."Lowell's "Under the Old Elm."Wordsworth's "White Doe of Rylstone."Lamb's Essay on Roast Pig. A piece of fun always enjoyed by boys and girls.
Being a Boy, Warner.
Little Women, Alcott. One of the most popular books of the day.
A Dog's Mission, Stowe.
Two Years before the Mast, Dana. Recommended by Sarah Orne Jewett, George William Curtis, and others.
Ten Boys on the Road, Andrews. A great favorite with the boys.
Jan of the Windmill, Ewing. The story of a poor boy who becomes a famous painter.
Hawthorne's "Celestial Railroad."
Little People of Asia, Miller.
Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales" and "Wonder Book" should belong to every child old enough to read ordinary English.
Adventures of a Brownie, Craik.
Stories from Chaucer, Seymour.
Stories from Livy, Church.
Lives of the Philosophers, Fénelon. An excellent book.
What Darwin saw in his Trip round the World in the Ship Beagle.
Fairy Land of Science, Miss Buckley. An author who writes for children to perfection.
Animal Life in the Sea and on the Land, Cooper. Very fine indeed.
Darwin's chapter on the "Habits of Ants" (in the "Origin of Species") is very interesting and amusing to little ones, and together with Burroughs' books prepares them to read such works as Lubbock's "Ants, Bees, and Wasps."
Ragozin's "Chaldea." One of the indispensable books for children.
Longfellow's "Psalm of Life."
Longfellow's "Hiawatha."
Lowell's "Under the Old Elm."
Wordsworth's "White Doe of Rylstone."
Lamb's Essay on Roast Pig. A piece of fun always enjoyed by boys and girls.
Literature adapted to a Child Eleven to Twelve Years of Age and upward.
Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice."Marcus Aurelius. In a school where the book was at their call children from ten to thirteen carried it to and from school, charmed with its beautiful thoughts.Hans Brinker, Mary Mapes Dodge. One of the very best stories for children.Dickens' "Christmas Carol."Hawthorne's "Great Stone Face." Highly appreciated by the young folks.Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mrs. Stowe. A book that every child should have as soon as he is able to read it.Another Flock of Girls, Nora Perry.At the Back of the North Wind, Macdonald. A beautiful story, with a high motive.A Hunting of the Deer, Warner.Crusade of the Children, Gray. A thrilling story.Bryant's translation of the Odyssey.Story of the Iliad, Church.Stories from Herodotus, Church.Mary Treat's "Home Book of Nature."Half Hours with the Stars, Proctor.Guyot's "Earth and Man." A most excellent book.First Book in Geology, Shaler.First Steps in Chemistry, Brewster.First Steps in Scientific Knowledge, Best.Abou Ben Adhem, Hunt.Scott's "Lady of the Lake."Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome."Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn."Whittier's "Snow Bound."How they Brought the Good News to Aix, Browning.Wordsworth's "We are Seven."Franklin's Autobiography.Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech.Samantha at the Centennial.
Shakspeare's "Merchant of Venice."
Marcus Aurelius. In a school where the book was at their call children from ten to thirteen carried it to and from school, charmed with its beautiful thoughts.
Hans Brinker, Mary Mapes Dodge. One of the very best stories for children.
Dickens' "Christmas Carol."
Hawthorne's "Great Stone Face." Highly appreciated by the young folks.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mrs. Stowe. A book that every child should have as soon as he is able to read it.
Another Flock of Girls, Nora Perry.
At the Back of the North Wind, Macdonald. A beautiful story, with a high motive.
A Hunting of the Deer, Warner.
Crusade of the Children, Gray. A thrilling story.
Bryant's translation of the Odyssey.
Story of the Iliad, Church.
Stories from Herodotus, Church.
Mary Treat's "Home Book of Nature."
Half Hours with the Stars, Proctor.
Guyot's "Earth and Man." A most excellent book.
First Book in Geology, Shaler.
First Steps in Chemistry, Brewster.
First Steps in Scientific Knowledge, Best.
Abou Ben Adhem, Hunt.
Scott's "Lady of the Lake."
Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome."
Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn."
Whittier's "Snow Bound."
How they Brought the Good News to Aix, Browning.
Wordsworth's "We are Seven."
Franklin's Autobiography.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech.
Samantha at the Centennial.
Literature adapted to a Child Twelve to Thirteen Years of Age and upward.
Shakspeare's "Julius Cæsar."Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan. Indispensable.Meditation of Thomas à Kempis. A strong influence for sweetness and purity.Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. Full of fun and good feeling; one of the most indispensable of books.Cooper's novels, especially "The Spy" and the "Last of the Mohicans." Books that are fascinating and yet wholesome."My Summer in a Garden," and "In the Wilderness," Warner. Very humorous."The Dog of Flanders," from "Little Classics."Picciola, Saintine. A great favorite.The Story of Arnon, Amélie Rives.Drake's "Culprit Fay."Dr. Brown's "Rab and his Friends.""The Man without a Country," "My Double and How He Undid Me," etc., by E. E. Hale. The cast is extremely funny.The Hoosier Schoolmaster, Eggleston.Boots and Saddles, Mrs. Custer.Story of the Æneid, Church.Stories from Greek Tragedians, Church.Plumptre's "Sophocles."Ruskin's "Athena."Boys and Girls in Biology, Stevenson.Other Worlds than Ours, Proctor.Captains of Industry, Parton.Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal." One of the great poet's finest productions.Byron's "Eve of Waterloo."Longfellow's "Evangeline."Scott's "Marmion."Milton's "Comus.""The Two Runaways," "The Born Inventor," "Idyl of Sinkin' Mountain," etc., by Edwards. Very funny.
Shakspeare's "Julius Cæsar."
Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan. Indispensable.
Meditation of Thomas à Kempis. A strong influence for sweetness and purity.
Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith. Full of fun and good feeling; one of the most indispensable of books.
Cooper's novels, especially "The Spy" and the "Last of the Mohicans." Books that are fascinating and yet wholesome.
"My Summer in a Garden," and "In the Wilderness," Warner. Very humorous.
"The Dog of Flanders," from "Little Classics."
Picciola, Saintine. A great favorite.
The Story of Arnon, Amélie Rives.
Drake's "Culprit Fay."
Dr. Brown's "Rab and his Friends."
"The Man without a Country," "My Double and How He Undid Me," etc., by E. E. Hale. The cast is extremely funny.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster, Eggleston.
Boots and Saddles, Mrs. Custer.
Story of the Æneid, Church.
Stories from Greek Tragedians, Church.
Plumptre's "Sophocles."
Ruskin's "Athena."
Boys and Girls in Biology, Stevenson.
Other Worlds than Ours, Proctor.
Captains of Industry, Parton.
Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal." One of the great poet's finest productions.
Byron's "Eve of Waterloo."
Longfellow's "Evangeline."
Scott's "Marmion."
Milton's "Comus."
"The Two Runaways," "The Born Inventor," "Idyl of Sinkin' Mountain," etc., by Edwards. Very funny.
Literature adapted to a Child Thirteen to Fourteen Years of Age and upward.
Shakspeare's "Coriolanus" and "Taming of the Shrew."Scott's "Ivanhoe," "Heart of Midlothian," "Guy Mannering," etc. It is the making of a boy if he learns to love Scott. He will make a gentleman of him, and give him an undying love of good literature.Journal of Eugénie de Guerin. Full of delicacy and quiet strength.Tom Brown, Hughes. An universal favorite.Curtis' "Prue and I." One of the very choicest books, both in substance and expression,—especially remarkable for its moral suggestiveness.Craddock's "Floating down Lost Creek." Most excellent.Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson. A story with apowerful moral,—if we give scope to our evil nature, it will master us.Goldsmith's "Good-Natured Man."Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship."Ben Hur, Wallace.The Fool's Errand, Tourgée.The Boys' King Arthur, Lanier.Epictetus.Physiology for Girls, Shepard.Physiology for Boys, Shepard.What Young People should Know, Wilder. A book that no boy or girl should be without.How Plants Behave, Gray.Goethe's "Erl King."Browning's "Ivan Ivanovitch." A favorite.The Forsaken Merman, Matthew Arnold. An exquisite poem.Longfellow's "Miles Standish."Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel."The Veiled Statue of Truth, Schiller.Gütenburg, and the Art of Printing.Doyle's "United States History."John Bright's "Speeches on the American Question."Backlog Studies, Warner."Encyclopædia of Persons and Places," and "Encyclopædia of Common Things," by Champlin, should be within the reach of every child over twelve or thirteen years of age.
Shakspeare's "Coriolanus" and "Taming of the Shrew."
Scott's "Ivanhoe," "Heart of Midlothian," "Guy Mannering," etc. It is the making of a boy if he learns to love Scott. He will make a gentleman of him, and give him an undying love of good literature.
Journal of Eugénie de Guerin. Full of delicacy and quiet strength.
Tom Brown, Hughes. An universal favorite.
Curtis' "Prue and I." One of the very choicest books, both in substance and expression,—especially remarkable for its moral suggestiveness.
Craddock's "Floating down Lost Creek." Most excellent.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson. A story with apowerful moral,—if we give scope to our evil nature, it will master us.
Goldsmith's "Good-Natured Man."
Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship."
Ben Hur, Wallace.
The Fool's Errand, Tourgée.
The Boys' King Arthur, Lanier.
Epictetus.
Physiology for Girls, Shepard.
Physiology for Boys, Shepard.
What Young People should Know, Wilder. A book that no boy or girl should be without.
How Plants Behave, Gray.
Goethe's "Erl King."
Browning's "Ivan Ivanovitch." A favorite.
The Forsaken Merman, Matthew Arnold. An exquisite poem.
Longfellow's "Miles Standish."
Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel."
The Veiled Statue of Truth, Schiller.
Gütenburg, and the Art of Printing.
Doyle's "United States History."
John Bright's "Speeches on the American Question."
Backlog Studies, Warner.
"Encyclopædia of Persons and Places," and "Encyclopædia of Common Things," by Champlin, should be within the reach of every child over twelve or thirteen years of age.
Literature adapted to a Child Fourteen to Fifteen Years of Age.
Shakespeare's "Henry Fourth" and "Henry Fifth."Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Holmes; and Irving's "Sketch Book." Two of the best books in all the world.George Eliot's novels, especially "Silas Marner," "The Mill on the Floss," "Romola," and "Adam Bede."The Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot.Our Best Society, Curtis.Bulwer's "Rienzi."The Marble Faun, Hawthorne.Sad Little Prince, Fawcett.Chita, or Youma, by Hearn, a master of English style.Grande Pointe, Cable.La Fontaine's Fables.Plutarch's "Morals."Ethics of the Dust, Ruskin.Lady How and Madam Why, Kingsley.Sketches of Creation, Winchell. Very interesting to children of fourteen or fifteen.The Geological Story, Briefly Told, Dana.Ready for Business, or Choosing an Occupation, Fowler and Wells.Ode to a Skylark, Shelley.Birds of Aristophanes, Frere.Alfred the Great, Hughes.Plutarch's "Lives."Green's "Short History of the English People."Demosthenes on the Crown. The finest of all orations.The Biglow Papers, Lowell. The best of fun and sense.Sweet Cicely, Holley. Quiet humor and unfailing wisdom.Higginson's "Vacations for Saints." A splendid example of humorous writing.
Shakespeare's "Henry Fourth" and "Henry Fifth."
Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Holmes; and Irving's "Sketch Book." Two of the best books in all the world.
George Eliot's novels, especially "Silas Marner," "The Mill on the Floss," "Romola," and "Adam Bede."
The Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot.
Our Best Society, Curtis.
Bulwer's "Rienzi."
The Marble Faun, Hawthorne.
Sad Little Prince, Fawcett.
Chita, or Youma, by Hearn, a master of English style.
Grande Pointe, Cable.
La Fontaine's Fables.
Plutarch's "Morals."
Ethics of the Dust, Ruskin.
Lady How and Madam Why, Kingsley.
Sketches of Creation, Winchell. Very interesting to children of fourteen or fifteen.
The Geological Story, Briefly Told, Dana.
Ready for Business, or Choosing an Occupation, Fowler and Wells.
Ode to a Skylark, Shelley.
Birds of Aristophanes, Frere.
Alfred the Great, Hughes.
Plutarch's "Lives."
Green's "Short History of the English People."
Demosthenes on the Crown. The finest of all orations.
The Biglow Papers, Lowell. The best of fun and sense.
Sweet Cicely, Holley. Quiet humor and unfailing wisdom.
Higginson's "Vacations for Saints." A splendid example of humorous writing.
Literature adapted to a Child Fifteen to Sixteen Years of Age and upward.
Shakspeare's "Hamlet" and "The Tempest."Dante's "Inferno."Dickens' "Pickwick Papers," "David Copperfield," "Old Curiosity Shop," etc.Thackeray's "Vanity Fair."Tourgée's "Hot Plowshares," and "With Fire and Sword," by Sienkiewicz. Two of the greatest historical novels.Carlyle's "Past and Present."Arnold's "Sweetness and Light."Ruskin's "Crown of Wild Olive."Emerson's Essays on "Manners," "Self-Reliance," "Eloquence," "Friendship," "Representative Men," etc.Mrs. Whitney's "Sights and Insights." A book that is filled with beautiful thoughts and unselfish actions.Spencer's "Data of Ethics." Indispensable to a complete understanding of ethical subjects."The Light of Asia." A book that cannot fail to broaden and deepen every life it touches.Ten Great Religions, Clarke.Omar. Superb poetry.Bryant's "Thanatopsis."Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." A lesson of the awfulness of cruelty.Auld Lang Syne, Burns.Toilers of the Sea, Hugo.Huxley's "Man's Place in Nature."Tyndall's "Forms of Water."Our Country, Strong. A book that ought to be in the hands of every young person.Bryce's "American Commonwealth."Guizot's "History of Civilization."Mill's "Logic." No young man can afford to remain unacquainted with this book.The Hand and Ring, Green. One of the finest examples of reasoning in the language.Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is another such example, and his "Gold Bug" is another.Phillips' SpeechesWebster's "Liberty and Union."Golden Treasury, Palgrave.The Spectator. One of the very best books to study, in order to form a good style. Franklin and others attribute their success largely to reading it carefully in boyhood.The Fable for Critics, Lowell.The Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, Twain. Fun and sense welded together to make the most delightful book the author has written.
Shakspeare's "Hamlet" and "The Tempest."
Dante's "Inferno."
Dickens' "Pickwick Papers," "David Copperfield," "Old Curiosity Shop," etc.
Thackeray's "Vanity Fair."
Tourgée's "Hot Plowshares," and "With Fire and Sword," by Sienkiewicz. Two of the greatest historical novels.
Carlyle's "Past and Present."
Arnold's "Sweetness and Light."
Ruskin's "Crown of Wild Olive."
Emerson's Essays on "Manners," "Self-Reliance," "Eloquence," "Friendship," "Representative Men," etc.
Mrs. Whitney's "Sights and Insights." A book that is filled with beautiful thoughts and unselfish actions.
Spencer's "Data of Ethics." Indispensable to a complete understanding of ethical subjects.
"The Light of Asia." A book that cannot fail to broaden and deepen every life it touches.
Ten Great Religions, Clarke.
Omar. Superb poetry.
Bryant's "Thanatopsis."
Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner." A lesson of the awfulness of cruelty.
Auld Lang Syne, Burns.
Toilers of the Sea, Hugo.
Huxley's "Man's Place in Nature."
Tyndall's "Forms of Water."
Our Country, Strong. A book that ought to be in the hands of every young person.
Bryce's "American Commonwealth."
Guizot's "History of Civilization."
Mill's "Logic." No young man can afford to remain unacquainted with this book.
The Hand and Ring, Green. One of the finest examples of reasoning in the language.
Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is another such example, and his "Gold Bug" is another.
Phillips' Speeches
Webster's "Liberty and Union."
Golden Treasury, Palgrave.
The Spectator. One of the very best books to study, in order to form a good style. Franklin and others attribute their success largely to reading it carefully in boyhood.
The Fable for Critics, Lowell.
The Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, Twain. Fun and sense welded together to make the most delightful book the author has written.
Next in value to a love of good reading is a habit of concentrating the attention upon one subject through a long course of reading. In this way only can any thorough mastery be obtained. The child should be taught not to be satisfied with the thought of any one writer, but to investigate the ideas of all upon the topic in hand, and then form his own opinion. Thus he will gain breadth, depth, tolerance, independence, and scientific method in the search for truth. Of course it is impossible in a work of this kind tomap out lines of study for the multitudinous needs of young people. The universities and the libraries provide the means of gaining full information as to the literature of any subject that may be selected. A few topic-clusters may, however, be of use here in the way of illustration. Many examples will be found in Baldwin's "The Book Lover."
The Industrial Question.—Suppose a young man desired to study the industrial question, which is one of the most important subjects of to-day, the proper method would be to go to one of the great libraries, or examine the catalogues of the large publishing-houses, to discover the names of recent books on the given topic, or on such subjects as Labor and Capital, Socialism, Co-operation, etc. Such books usually refer to others, and name many kindred works on the last pages. Thus the student's list will swell. I have myself investigated more than two hundred books on this topic and those it led me to. A few of the more important I will name as a starting-point for any one wishing to follow this research.
Labor, Thornton.Conflict of Labor and Capital, Bolles; also, Howell.Political Economy, Mill.Progress and Poverty, George.Profit-Sharing, Gilman.In Darkest England, Booth.Wages and the Wages Class, Walker.Book of the New Moral World, Owen.Communistic Societies of the United States, Nordhoff.Dynamic Sociology, Ward.Looking Backward, Bellamy.Destinée Sociale, Considérant.More's "Utopia."Co-operative Societies, Watts.History of Co-operation, Holyoake.The Margin of Profits, Atkinson.Gronlund's "Co-operative Commonwealth."Capital, Karl Marx.The State in relation to Labor, Jevons.Organisation du Travail, Louis Blanc.Co-operative Stores, Morrison.Labor and Capital, Jervis.Newton's "Co-operative Production and Co-operativeDistribution in the United States."Property and Progress, Mallock.Principles of Sociology, Spencer.Mill on Socialism.The Progress of the Working Classes, Giffen.Ely's "French and German Socialism," "Problems of To-day,"and "Labor Movement in America."Dilke's "Problems of Greater Britain."Contemporary Socialism, Rae.Outlines of an Industrial Science, Symes.Early History of Land-holding among the Germans,Ross; etc.
Malthusianism.—To take a smaller example. Suppose the student wishes to make a thorough study of the doctrine of Malthusius in regard to population, he will have to refer to Macaulay's "Essay on Sadler," and the works on Political Economy of Ricardo, Chalmers, Roscher, etc., in support of Malthus, andto George's "Progress and Poverty," Spencer's "Biology" (Vol. II.), Sadler's "Law of Population," and the works of Godwin, Greg, Rickards, Doubleday, Carey, Alison, etc., against him.
For an example of a very different kind, cluster about the myth of Cupid the poems "Cupid and my Campaspe," by Lilly; "The Threat of Cupid," translated by Herrick; "Cupid Drowned," by Leigh Hunt; and "Cupid Stung," by Moore.
A great deal depends on selecting some department of thought and exhausting it. To know something of everything and everything of something is the true aim. If a child displays fine musical or artistic ability, among the books given it ought to be many that bear upon music and art,—the "Autobiography of Rubenstein;" the Lives of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn; and Rocksho's "History of Music," Upton's "Woman in Music," Clayton's "Queens of Song," Lillie's "Music and the Musician," Haweis' "Music and Morals," Jameson's "Lives of the Painters," Crowest's "Tone Poets," Clement's "Painting and Sculpture," Mereweather's "Semele, or the Spirit of Beauty," etc.
Probably these examples, with those to be found in thenotes to Table I., are amply sufficient to show what is meant by grouping the lights of literature about a single point so as to illuminate it intensely; but one more specimen will be given, because of the interest the subject has for us now and is likely to have for many years.
The Tariff Questionmay be studied in Ely's "Problems of To-day," Greeley's "Political Economy," Carey's "Principles of Social Science," E. P. Smith's "Manual of Political Economy," Byles's "Sophisms of Free Trade," Thompson's "Social Science and National Economy," Bastiat's "Sophisms of Protection," Mill's "Political Economy," Sumner's "Lectures on the History of Protection in the United States," Fawcett's "Free Trade and Protection," Mongredien's "History of the Free Trade Movement," Butt's "Protection Free Trade," Walters' "What is Free Trade," "The Gladstone-Blaine Debate," etc.
Showing the Distribution of the Best Literature in Time and Space, with a Parallel Reference to some of the World's Great Events.
[It was impossible to get the writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into the unit space. The former fills a space twice the unit width, and the latter, when it is complete, will require five units.]
[It was impossible to get the writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into the unit space. The former fills a space twice the unit width, and the latter, when it is complete, will require five units.]