AQUARELLE EDITION. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PHOTOGRAVURES BY THE GEBBIE & HUSSON COMPANY, LIMITED, from ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY RENOWNED ARTISTS OF ALL NATIONS. THE LIBRARY OF CHOICE LITERATURE. THE CHOICE OF BOOKS. [Sir John Lubbock, born in England, 1834; son of John William, who took him into partnership in his bank in London in 1856, and upon whose death, in 1865, Sir John succeeded to the baronetcy. He was a member of the International Coinage Commission, the Public School Commission and the Advancement of Bcience Commission. In 1870 he was returned to Parliament, and re-elected in 1874 and again in 1880. In Parliament he carried through a number of important measures, such as the Falsification of Accounts Bill, the Bank Holidays Act, and the Absconding Debtors Act. error of the Greeks, and suppose that language and definitions can be instruments of investigation as well as of thought, but lest, as too often happens, we should waste time over trash. There are many books to which one may apply, in the sarcastic sense, the ambiguous remark said to have been made to an unfortunate author, I will lose no time in reading your book." It is wonderful, indeed, how much innocent happiness we thoughtlessly throw away. An Eastern proverb says that But he has most distinguished himself by his inquiries calamities sent by heaven may be avoided, into the condition of ancient man, and his writings on Zoological subjects. Sir John has published Prehistoric Times; Origin of Civilization; British Wild Flowers; Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects; Scientific Lectures; Monograph of the Thysanura and Collembola; The Pleasures of Life; and a volume of political and educational addresses. He is a Fellow of the Royal, Linnæan, and many other learned societies. From his book of Essays, The Pleasures of Life, we quote the following chapter: The Choice of Books.] but from those we bring on ourselves there is no escape. Many, I believe, are deterred from attempting what are called stiff books for fear they should not understand them; but, as Hobbes said, there are few who need complain of the narrowness of their minds, if only they would do their best with them. In reading, however, it is most im"All round the room my silent servants wait-portant to select subjects in which one is My friends in every season, bright and dim, Angels and Seraphim Come down and murmur to me, sweet and low, PROCTOR. interested. I remember years ago consulting Mr. Darwin as to the selection of interested me most, and advised me to a course of study. He asked me what choose that subject. This, indeed, applies to the work of life generally. I am sometimes disposed to think that the great readers of the next generation will be, not our lawyers and doctors, shop AND yet too often they wait in vain. One reason for this is, I think, that peo-keepers and manufacturers, but the laborers ple are overwhelmed by the crowd of books offered to them. There are books and books, and there are books which, as Lamb said, are not books at all. In old days books were rare and dear. Our ancestors had a difficulty in procuring them. Our difficulty now is what to select. We must be careful what we read, and not, like the sailors of Ulysses, take bags of wind for sacks of treasure-not only lest we should even now fall into the VOL. IX. and mechanics. Does not this seem natural? The former work mainly with their head; when their daily duties are over the brain is often exhausted, and of their leisure time much must be devoted to air and exercise. The laborer and mechanic, on the contrary, besides working often for much shorter hours, have in their worktime taken sufficient bodily exercise, and could therefore give any leisure they might have to reading and study. They have 194 |