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Lublin's Primer of German Literature is excellent for a condensed survey of the
writers of Germany, while W. Scherer's History of German Literature, two
volumes, covers a far wider field. For Spanish Literature in its full extent, there is
no work at all equal to George Ticknor's three volumes, but for a briefer history,
H. B. Clark's Hand-book of Spanish Literature, London, 1893, may be used.

I make no allusion here to the many works of reference in the form of
catalogues and bibliographical works, which may be hereafter noted. My aim has
been only to indicate the best and latest treatises covering the leading
literatures of the world, having no space for the Scandinavian, Dutch,
Portuguese, Russian, or any of the Slavonic or oriental tongues.

Those who find no time for studying the more extended works named, will find
much profit in devoting their hours to the articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
upon the literatures of the various countries. These are within reach of everyone.
The select list of books named in this chapter does not by any means aim to
cover those which are well worth reading; but only to indicate a few, a very few,
of the best. It is based on the supposition that intelligent readers will give far
less time to fiction than to the more solid food of history, biography, essays,
travels, literary history, and applied science.

The select list of books in the fields already named is designed to include only
the most improving and well-executed works. Many will not find their favorites in
the list, which is purposely kept within narrow limits, as a suggestion only of a
few of the best books for a home library or for general reading. You will find it
wise to own, as early in life as possible, a few of the choicest productions of the
great writers of the world. Those who can afford only a selection from a
selection, can begin with never so few of the authors most desired, or which
they have not already, putting in practice the advice of Shakespeare:
      "In brief, sir, study what you most affect."
      Says John Ruskin: ''1 would urge upon every young man to obtain as soon
as he can, by the severest economy, a restricted and steadily increasing series
of books, for use through life; making his little library, of all his furniture, the
most studied and decorative piece." And Henry Ward Beecher urged it as the
most important early ambition for clerks, working men and women, and all who
are struggling up in life, to form gradually a library of good books.
"It is a man's duty," says he, "to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one
of the necessaries of life."

And says Bishop Hurst, urging the vital importance of wise selection in choosing
our reading: ''If two-thirds of the shelves of the typical domestic library were
emptied of their burden, and choice books put in their stead, there would be
reformation in intelligence and thought throughout the civilized world."

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