those who compiled these lists have been largely
influenced in making their selection by their own peculiar tastes and
fancies. Probably there is not one of their lists which any young man
would care to follow out in its entirety. We give elsewhere the one
which seems most likely to be useful to those into whose hands this
text-book may probably come,[1] though it is evident that many young
men might profitably leave out some of the books mentioned and
substitute others. Still one thing is clear, that it is possible to
make a selection of outstanding works in literature. After
consultation with others better informed than himself, a young man can
make a list suitable to his capacities and tastes, of books that really
are _great_ books, and in this way he may acquire knowledge that is
worth having, and which will furnish a good and solid foundation for
his intellectual culture. It is with books of this kind that he should
begin, and a few such books thoroughly mastered will probably do him
more good than all others that he may afterwards read.

It is hardly necessary to say that there is _one_ book that may be
termed specially great, and which all young men should make the special
subject of their study. (_a_) The Bible, even as a means of
intellectual culture, stands alone and above all others. "In the
poorest cottages," says Carlyle, "is one book wherein for several
thousands of years the spirit of man has found light and nourishment,
and an interpreting response to whatever is deepest in him." No man
can be regarded as an educated man unless he is familiar with this
book. To understand its history and position in the world is in itself
a liberal education. Those who have been indifferent to its spiritual
power and divine claims have acknowledged its great importance in
regard to self-culture. "Take the Bible," says Professor Huxley, "as a
whole, make the severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate
for shortcomings and for positive errors, and there still remains in
this old literature a vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur; and
then consider the great historical fact that for three centuries this
book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in
English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, and
is familiar to noble and simple from John o' Groat's house to Land's
End; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds
in exquisite beauties