t the
principal thing is. It is that good thought, out of the heart, be
expressed in a scholarly way--"Great thought needs great
expression."[51] This teaches us the necessity for choosing good books
for our instruction and for our entertainment. They present beautiful
pictures to us truthfully, or they present truth to us beautifully.
And these are the first test of a written thought--its truth and its
beauty.

If you read good books you will have in every volume you get something
well worth owning. You should bestow upon it as much care as you would
want any other good friend to receive. And if it has contributed help
or pleasure to you it is surely worth an abiding place. A fine
pleasure will come from a good book even after we are quite done with
it. As we see it in years after it has been read there comes back to
one a remembrance of all the old pleasures, and with it a sense of
thankfulness for so pleasant a friendship. Hence any book that has
given us joy or peace or comfort is well worth not only good care, but
a place _for always_; as a worthy bit of property.

In the early days of your music study, it will be a pleasure to you to
know that there are many and delightful books _about_ music written,
sometimes by music-lovers, sometimes by the composers. The written
word-thoughts of the composers are often full of great interest. They
not only reveal to us many secrets of the tone-art, but teach us much
about the kinds of things and of thoughts which lived in the minds of
the composers. We learn definitely not only the music-interests of the
composers, but the life-interest as well. It really seems as if we
were looking into their houses, seeing the way they lived and worked,
and listening to their words. Never afterward do we regard the great
names in music as uninteresting. The most charming and attractive
pictures cluster about them and it all gives us a new inspiration to
be true to music, loyal to the truth of music, and willing to do as we
see others have done, and to learn by doing. The lesson we get from
the life of every man is, that he must _do_ if he would learn.

I am sure you will spend many delightful minutes with the Letters of a
great composer. Every one is like a talk with the writer. They are so
friendly, and so full of the heart, and yet so filled with the man
himself. Especially the Letters of Mendelssohn and Schumann will
please you. In truth the Letters of all the composers are among the