a talisman in all hours to
drive away the insolent pressure of the vulgar and common crowd.

5. CATULLUS. _Any Latin edition and the prose translation published
by Macmillan bound up with Tibullus_.

Catullus, the contemporary of Julius Caesar, is, of all the ancient
lyrical poets, the one most modern and neurotic in feeling. One
discerns in his work, breathing through the ancient Roman reserve, the
pressure of that passionate and rebellious reaction to life, which we
enjoy in the most magical of all later poets from Villon to Verlaine.

6. DANTE 'S DIVINE COMEDY. _Best edition the "Temple Classics," in
three small volumes, with the Italian original and English prose
translation on opposite pages_.

Dante's poetry can legitimately be enjoyed in single great passages,
of which there are more in the "Inferno" than in the other sections of
the poem. His peculiar quality is a certain blending of mordant
realism with a high and penetrating beauty. There is no need in
reading him to vex oneself with symbolic interpretations. He is at his
best, when from behind his scholastic philosophy, bursts forth, in
direct personal betrayal, his pride, his humility, his passion, and
his disdain.

7. RABELAIS. _The English translation with the Dore illustrations_.

Rabelais is the philosopher's Bible and his book of outrageous jests.
He is the recondite cult of wise and magnanimous spirits. He
reconciles Nature with Art, Man with God, and religious piety with
shameless enjoyment. His style restores to us our courage and our joy;
and his noble buffoonery gives us back the sweet wantonness of our
youth. Rabelais is the greatest intellect in literature. No one has
ever had a humor so large; an imagination so creative, or a spirit so
world-swallowing, so humane, so friendly.

8. CANDIDE. _Any French edition or English translation_.

Voltaire was a true man of action, a knight of the Holy Ghost. He
plunged fiercely into the human arena, and fought through a laborious
life, against obscurantism, stupidity and tyranny. He had a clear-cut,
aristocratic mind. He hated mystical balderdash, clumsy barbarity, and
stupid hypocrisy. Candide is not only a complete refutation of
optimism; it is a book full of that mischievous humor, which has the
power, more than anything else, of reconciling us to the business of
enduring life.

9. SHAKESPEARE. _In the Temple edition_.

It is time Shakespeare was read for the beauty of his poet