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There are wise specialists whose published labors have illuminated for the
uninformed reader every nook and province of the mysteries of creation, from
the wing of a beetle to the orbits of the planetary worlds. There are few pursuits
more fascinating than those that bring us acquainted with the secrets of nature,
whether dragged up from the depths of the sea, or demonstrated in the
substance and garniture of the green earth, or wrung from the far-off worlds in
the shining heavens.

A word only can be spared to the wide and attractive realm of fiction. In this
field, those are the best books which have longest kept their hold upon the
public mind. It is a wise plan to neglect the novels of the year, and to read (or to
re-read in many cases) the master-pieces which have stood the test of time, and
criticism, and changing fashions, by the sure verdict of a call for continually new
editions. Ouida and Trilby may endure for a day, but Thackeray and Walter Scott
are perennial. It is better to read a fine old book through three times, than to
read three new books through once.

Of books more especially devoted to the history of literature, in times ancient
and modern, and in various nations, the name is legion. I count up, of histories
of English literature alone (leaving out the American) no less than one hundred
and thirty authors on this great field or some portion of it. To know what ones
of these to study, and what to leave alone, would require critical judgment and
time not at my command. I can only suggest a few known by me to be good. For
a succinct yet most skilfully written summary of English writers, there is no book
that can compare with Stopford A. Brooke's Primer of English Literature.

For more full and detailed treatment, Taine's History of English Literature, or
Chambers' Cyclopaedia of English Literature, two volumes, with specimens of the
writers of every period, are the best. E. C. Stedman's Victorian Poets is
admirable, as is also his Poets of America. For a bird's eye view of American
authors and their works, C. F. Richardson's Primer of American Literature can be
studied to advantage, while for more full reference to our authors, with
specimens of each, Stedman's Library of American Literature in eleven volumes,
should be consulted. M. C. Tyler's very interesting critical History of the Early
American Literature, so little known, comes down in its fourth volume only to the
close of the revolution in 1783.

For classical literature, the importance of a good general knowledge of which can
hardly be overrated, J. P. Mahaffy's History of Greek Literature, two volumes,
and G. A. Simcox's Latin Literature, two volumes, may be commended. On the
literature of modern languages, to refer only to works written in English,
Saintsbury's Primer of French Literature is good, and R. Garnett's History of
Italian Literature is admirable (by the former Keeper of Printed Books in the
British Museum Library).

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