, he does no violence
to the reputation of these writers, but merely defines and classifies
himself.

=Authors as companions.=--Having learned or sensed these distinctions,
he elects to consort with Burns, Keats, Shelley, Southey, Homer, Dante,
Virgil, Hawthorne, Scott, Maupassant, Goethe, Schiller, and George
Eliot. In such society he never has occasion to explain or apologize for
his companions. He reads their books in the open and gains a feeling of
elation and exaltation. When he would see life in the large, he sits
before the picture of Jean Valjean. When he would see integrity and
fidelity in spite of suffering, he sits before the portrait of Job. When
he would see men of heroic size, he has the characters of Homer file by.
If he would see the panorama of the emotions of the human soul, he
selects Hugo as his guide. If he would laugh, he reads _Tam O'Shanter_;
if he would weep, he reads of the death of Little Nell. If he would see
real heroism, he follows Sidney Carton to the scaffold, or Esther into
the presence of the King. He goes to Shelley's _Skylark_ to find beauty,
Burns's _Highland Mary_ to find tenderness, Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_
to find tragedy, and the _Book of Job_ to find sublimity. Through his
books he comes to know Quasimodo and Sir Galahad; Becky Sharp and
Penelope; Aaron Burr and Enoch Arden; and Herodias and Florence
Nightingale.

=People.=--But his world would be incomplete without people, and here,
again, he is free to choose. And, since he wants people in his world who
will be constant reminders to him of qualities that he himself would
cultivate, he selects Ruth and Jephthah's daughter to represent
fidelity. When temptation assails him he finds them ready to lead him
back and up to the plane of high resolves. To remind him of indomitable
courage and perseverance he selects William the Silent, Christopher
Columbus, and Moses. When his courage is waning and he is becoming
flaccid and indolent, their very presence is a rebuke, and a survey of
their achievements restores him to himself. As examples of patriotic
thinking and action he invites into his world Samuel Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. They remind him that he is a product
of the past and that it devolves upon him to pass on to posterity
without spot or blemish the heritage that has come to him through the
patriotic service and sacrifice of his progenitors.

=Influence of people.=--That he may never lose sight of