shows itself chiefly in his
realization of mental conditions foreign to his own, and his style,
though still rich in color and warm with feeling, is mastered, trained,
and directed by his intellectual purpose. In the first epoch he is the
painter, in the second the preacher, in the third the teacher.

Judgments will differ: in mine the last epoch is the best, and its
utterances will long live a classic in pulpit literature. The pictures
of the first epoch are already fading; the fervid oratory of the second
epoch depends so much on the personality of the preacher, that as the
one grows dim in the distance the other must grow dim also; but the
third, more enduring though less fascinating, will remain so long as the
heart of man hungers for the truth and the life of God,--that is, for a
rational religion, a philosophy of life which shall combine reverence
and love, and a reverence and love which shall not call for the
abdication of the reason.

[Illustration: Signature: Lyman Abbott]

BOOK-STORES AND BOOKS

From 'Star Papers'

Nothing marks the increasing wealth of our times, and the growth of the
public mind toward refinement, more than the demand for books. Within
ten years the sale of common books has increased probably two hundred
per cent., and it is daily increasing. But the sale of expensive works,
and of library editions of standard authors in costly bindings, is yet
more noticeable. Ten years ago such a display of magnificent works as is
to be found at the Appletons' would have been a precursor of bankruptcy.
There was no demand for them. A few dozen, in one little show-case, was
the prudent whole. Now, one whole side of an immense store is not only
filled with admirably bound library books, but from some inexhaustible
source the void continually made in the shelves is at once refilled. A
reserve of heroic books supply the places of those that fall. Alas!
where is human nature so weak as in a book-store! Speak of the appetite
for drink; or of a _bon vivant's_ relish for a dinner! What are these
mere animal throes and ragings compared with those fantasies of taste,
those yearnings of the imagination, those insatiable appetites of
intellect, which bewilder a student in a great bookseller's
temptation-hall?

How easily one may distinguish a genuine lover of books from a worldly
man! With what subdued and yet glowing enthusiasm does he gaze upon the
costly front of a thousand embattled volumes! How gently he