erence, or the biography of all nations, Lippincott's
Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography is essential, as well as
Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, for our own country. For
Great Britain, the "Dictionary of National Biography" is a mine of
information, and should be added if funds are sufficient. Certain sets of
collective biographies which are important are American Statesmen, 26
vols., Englishmen of Letters, -- vols., Autobiography, 33 vols., Famous
Women series, 21 vols., Heroes of the Nation series, 24 vols., American
Pioneers and Patriots, 12 vols., and Plutarch's Lives. Then of
indispensable single biographies there are Boswell's Johnson, Lockhart's
Scott, Froude's Carlyle, Trevelyan's Macaulay, Froude's Caesar, Lewes'
Goethe, etc.

4. Of notable essays, a high class of literature in which there are many
names, may be named Addison, Montaigne, Bacon, Goldsmith, Emerson, Lamb,
De Quincey, Holmes, Lowell, etc.

5. Poetry stands at the head of all the literature of imagination. Some
people of highly utilitarian views decry poetry, and desire to feed all
readers upon facts. But that this is a great mistake will be apparent
when we consider that the highest expressions of moral and intellectual
truth and the most finely wrought examples of literature in every nation
are in poetic form. Take out of the world's literature the works of its
great poets, and you would leave it poor indeed. Poetry is the only great
source for the nurture of imagination, and without imagination man is a
poor creature. I read the other day a dictum of a certain writer,
alleging that Dickens's Christmas Carol is far more effective as a piece
of writing than Milton's noble ode "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity."
Such comparisons are of small value. In point of fact, no library can
spare either of them. I need not repeat the familiar names of the great
poets; they are found in all styles of production, and some of the best
are among the least expensive.

6. Travels and voyages form a very entertaining as well as highly
instructive part of a library. A good selection of the more notable will
prove a valuable resource to readers of nearly every age.

7. The wide field of science should be carefully gleaned for a good range
of approved text-books in each department. So progressive is the modern
world that the latest books are apt to be the best in each science,
something which is by no means true in literature.

8. In