generous natures, the heroic mood becomes
natural to us.

There are of course but few histories which have this tonic effect upon
the mind and the will, but with these the lover of culture should make
himself familiar. Each one must find the book he needs; and though he
should find no help in a volume which time and the consent of the
learned have consecrated, let him not be discouraged, but continue to
seek and to read until he meet with the author who fills his soul with
joy and opens to his wondering eyes visions of new worlds. To love any
great book so that we read it--or at least those portions of it which
especially appeal to us--many times, and always with new pleasure (as a
mother never wearies of looking upon her child), until the thought and
style of the author become almost our own, is to learn the secret of
self-education; for he who understands and loves one great book is sure
to find his way to the love and knowledge of other works of genius. He
will not read chiefly to gain information, but he will read for
exaltation of spirit, for enlightenment, for strength of soul, for the
help which springs from contact with generous and awakened minds. He
will mark his favorite passages and refer to them often, as one loves to
revisit places where he has been happy; and these very pencil-marks will
become dear to him as tokens of truth revealed, of wisdom gained, of joy
bestowed. The best reading is that which most profoundly stimulates
thought, which brings our own minds into active, conscious communion
with the mind of the author; and hence the best poetry is the most
efficacious and the most delightful aid to mental improvement.

Poetry is, as Aristotle says, the most philosophic of all writing. It is
also the writing which is most instinct with passion, with life. It
springs from intense thought and feeling, and bears within itself the
power to call forth thought and feeling. It is thought transfused with
the glow of emotion, and consequently thought made beautiful,
attractive, contagious. It is, to quote Wordsworth, "the breath and
finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is
in the countenance of all science." The poet has more enthusiasm and
tenderness than other men, a more sensitive soul, a more comprehensive
mind. His wider sympathy gives him greater insight; and his power to see
absent things as though they were present enables him to bring the
distant and the past before our