works the biographies of the authors should be read in
order to appreciate the conditions under which the works were produced.
But far better is it to gain a thorough acquaintance with one great
writer's life and works than to learn a few fragmentary facts at second
hand about the lives and writings of many.

One of the most difficult questions to settle in these days in the
selection of books for a library or in directing the reading of the
young is, how large shall be the proportion of fiction in a library or
in the reading of any one. Just now we are flooded with fiction,
stretching from the short story of the magazine to the two-volume novel.
I observe that nearly two-thirds of the volumes drawn from this library
in 1901-02 are classed under the two heads of juvenile fiction and
fiction. And I suppose the experience of other popular libraries is
similar to yours. This shows at least that there is a great craving for
fiction. That craving a library like this must to a fair degree strive
to meet. Nor need we regret that there is a strong desire for sterling
works of fiction. They stimulate and nourish the imagination. They give
us vivid pictures of life. They portray for us the working of human
passions. They give a reality to history. Sometimes they cultivate a
taste for reading in those who would otherwise be inclined to read
little, and so lead them to other branches of literature. But, on the
other hand, I think it must be confessed that a great deal of the
fiction which is deluging the market is the veriest trash, or worse than
trash. Much of it is positively bad in its influence. It awakens morbid
passions. It deals in most exaggerated representations of life. It is
vicious in style.

It is a most delicate task for the authorities of a library like this to
draw the line between the works of fiction which should be and those
which should not be found on its shelves. As to the individual reader,
the best we can do is to elevate his taste as rapidly as we can by
placing in his hands fiction attractive at once in its matter and in its
style. We must hope that with the cultivation of taste to which our best
schools aspire, we can rear a generation which will prefer the best
things in literature to the inferior. That is the reason why the
teachers of languages and literature in our schools should be not mere
linguists, but persons of refined literary taste, who will imbue their
pupils with a love for the truest and h