Chapter 3

Yet none of these external methods, useful as they may prove, can compare with a habit of thorough attention. We read far too hurriedly, too much in the spirit of the “quick lunch.” No doubt we do so a great deal from the misleading idea that there is so very much to read. Actually, there is very little to read,--if we wish for real reading-- and there is time to read it all twice over. We--Americans--bolt our books as we do our food, and so get far too little good out of them. We treat our mental digestions as brutally as we treat our stomachs. Meditation is the digestion of the mind, but we allow ourselves no time for meditation. We gorge our eyes with the printed page, but all too little of what we take in with our eyes ever reaches our minds or our spirits. We assimilate what we can from all this hurry of superfluous food, and the rest goes to waste, and, as a natural consequence, contributes only to the wear and tear of our mental organism.

Books should be real things. They were so once, when a man would give a fat field in exchange for a small manuscript; and they are no less real to-day--some of them. Each age contributes one or two real books to the eternal library--and always the old books remain, magic springs of healing and refreshment. If no one should write a book for a thousand years, there are quite enough books to keep us going. Real books there are in plenty. Perhaps there are more real books than there are real readers. Books are the strong tincture of experience. They are to be taken carefully, drop by drop, not carelessly gulped down by the bottleful. Therefore, if you would get the best out of books, spend a quarter of an hour in reading, and three-quarters of an hour in thinking over what you have read.

THE GUIDE TO DAILY READING

PREPARED BY ASA DON DICKINSON

The elaborate, systematic “course of reading” is a bore. After thirty years spent among books and bookish people I have never yet met anyone who would admit that he had ploughed through such a course from beginning to end. Of course a few faithful souls, with abundant leisure, have done this, just as there are men who have walked from New York City to San Francisco. Good exercise, doubtless! But most of us have not time for feats of such questionable utility.

Yet I myself and most of the booklovers whom I know have started at one time or another to pursue a course of reading, and we have never regretted our attempts. Why? Because this is an excellent way to discover the comparatively small number of authors who have a message that we need to hear. When such an one is discovered, one may with a good conscience let the systematic course go by the board until one has absorbed all that is useful from the store of good things offered by the valuable new acquaintance.

Each one has his idiosyncrasies. If I may be permitted to allude to a personal failing, let me confess that I have never read “Paradise Lost” or “Pilgrim’s Progress.” I have hopefully dipped into them repeatedly, but--I don’t like them. Some day I hope to, but until my mind is ready for these two great world-books, I do not intend to waste time by driving through them with set teeth. There are too many other good books that I do enjoy reading. “In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.”

The “Guide to Daily Readings” which follows makes no claim to be systematic. The aim has been simply to introduce the reader to a goodly company of authors--to provide a daily flower of thought for the buttonhole, to-day a glorious rose of poetic fancy, to-morrow a pert little pansy of quaint humor.

Yet nearly all the selections are doubly significant and interesting if read upon the days to which they are especially assigned. For example, on New Year’s Day it is suggested that one set one’s house in order by reading Franklin’s “Rules of Conduct,” Longfellow’s “Psalm of Life,” Bryant’s “Thanatopsis,” and Lowell’s “To the Future”; on January 19th, Poe’s Birthday, one is directed to an excellent sketch of Poe and to typical examples of his best work, “The Raven” and “The Cask of Amontillado”; and on October 31st, Hallowe’en, one is reminded of Burns’s “Tam O’Shanter” and Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

The references are explicit in each case, so that it is a matter of only a few seconds to find each one. For example, the reference to the “Cask of Amontillado” is 4-Pt. I =67-77; which means that this tale is ten pages long and will be found in Part I of volume 4, at page 67. Excepting volumes 10-15 (Poetry), two volumes are bound in one in this set, so it should be remembered that generally there are two pages numbered 67 in each book.

The daily selections can in most cases be read in from fifteen minutes to half an hour, and Dr. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, has said that fifteen minutes a day devoted to good literature will give every man the essentials of a liberal education. If time can be found between breakfast and the work-hours for these few minutes of reading, one will receive more benefit than if it is done during the somnolent period which follows the day’s work and dinner. It is a mistake, however, to read before breakfast. Eyes and stomach are too closely related to permit of this.

Happy is he who can read these books in company with a sympathetic companion. His enjoyment of the treasure they contain will be doubled.

One final hint--when reading for something besides pastime, get in the habit of referring when necessary to dictionary, encyclopædia, and atlas. If on the subway or a railway train, jot down a memorandum of the query on the flyleaf, and look up the answer at the first opportunity.

ASA DON DICKINSON.

There is no business, no avocation whatever, which will not permit a man, who has the inclination, to give a little time, every day, to study.

--DANIEL WYTTENBACH.

JANUARY 1ST TO 7TH

1st. I. Franklin’s Rules of Conduct, 6-Pt. II: 86-101 II. Longfellow’s Psalm of Life, 14:247-248 III. Bryant’s Thanatopsis, 15:18-20 IV. Lowell’s To the Future, 13:164-167

2nd. I. Arnold’s Self Dependence, 14:273-274 II. Adams’s Cold Wave of 32 B. C., 9-Pt. I:146 III. Thomas’s Frost To-night, 12:343

3rd. TOMASSO SALVINI, b. 1 Ja. 1829; d. 1 Ja. 1916 I. Tomasso Salvini, 17-II:80-108

4th. I. Extracts from Thackeray’s Book of Snobs, 1-Pt. I:3-37

5th. I. Ruskin’s Venice, 1-Pt. II:73-88 II. St. Marks, 1-Pt. II:91-100

6th. I. Shakespeare’s Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind, 12:256-257 II. Messenger’s A Winter Wish, 12:259-261 III. Emerson’s The Snow Storm, 14:93-94 IV. Thackeray’s Nil Nisi Bonum, l-Pt. I:130-143

7th. I. Adams’s Ballad of the Thoughtless Waiter, 9-Pt. I:147 II. Us Poets, 9-Pt. I:148 III. Spenser’s Amoretti, 13:177

No book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all. --THOMAS CARLYLE.

JANUARY 8TH TO 14th

8th. I. Fred Trover’s Little Iron-clad, 7-Pt. II:82-105

9th. I. Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King, 21-Pt. II:1-56

10th. I. Carlyle’s Boswell’s Life of Johnson, 2-Pt. I: 32-78

11th. I ALEXANDER HAMILTON, b. II Ja. 1757 Alexander Hamilton, 16-Pt. I:71-91

12th. I. Macaulay’s Dr. Samuel Johnson, His Biographer, 2-Pt. II:30-39 II. The Puritans, 2-Pt. II:23-29

13th. I. EDMUND SPENSER, d, 16 Ja. 1599 Prothalamion, 13:13-20

14th. I. Hawthorne’s Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment, 3-Pt. I:3-19

The novel, in its best form, I regard as one of the most powerful engines of civilization ever invented. --SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.

JANUARY 15TH TO 21ST

15th. EDWARD EVERETT, d. 15 Ja. 1865 I. Lincoln to Everett, 5-Pt. I:120 II. Irving’s Westminster Abbey, 3-Pt. II:75-92

16th. GEORGE V. HOBART, b. 16 Ja. 1867 I. John Henry at the Races, 9-Pt. II:107-113 II. Poe’s The Black Cat, 4-Pt. I:127-143

17th. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, b. 17 Ja. 1706 I. Poor Richard’s Almanac, 6-Pt. II:133-149 II. Maxims, 7-Pt. II:11 III. The Whistle, 6-Pt. II:156-159

18th. DANIEL WEBSTER, b. 18 Ja. 1782 I. Adams and Jefferson, 6-Pt. I:3-60

19th. EDGAR ALLAN POE, b. 19 Ja. 1809 I. Cask of Amontillado, 4-Pt. I:67-77 II. The Raven, 10:285-292 III. Edgar Allan Poe, 17-Pt. I:28-37

20th. N. P. WILLIS, b. 20 Ja. 1806 I. Miss Albina McLush, 7-Pt. I:25-29 RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, b. 20 Ja. 1866 II. May Is Building Her House, 12:328

21st. JAMES STUART, Earl of Murray, killed 21 Ja. 1570 I. The Bonny Earl of Murray, 10:21-22 II. Lincoln’s The Dred Scott Decision, 5-Pt. I:13-22 III. Fragment on Slavery, 5-Pt. I:11-12

He that revels in a well-chosen library has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour. His taste is rendered so acute as easily to distinguish the nicest shade of difference. --WILLIAM GODWIN.

JANUARY 22ND TO 28TH

22nd. LORD BYRON, b. 22 Ja. 1788 I. Macaulay’s Lord Byron the Man, 2-Pt. II: 80-94 II. On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year, 12:275-277 III. The Isles of Greece, 14:75-79

23rd. I. Lamb’s Dream Children, 5-Pt. II:34-40 II. On Some of the Old Actors, 5-Pt. II:52-76

24th. I. Spenser’s Epithalamium, 13:20-37

25th. ROBERT BURNS, b. 25 Ja. 1759 I. The Cotter’s Saturday Night, II:40-48 II. Robert Burns, 17-Pt. 1:43-64 II. Halleck’s Burns, 15:67-73

26th. THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES, d. 26 Ja. 1849 I. Wolfram’s Dirge, 15:42-43 II. How Many Times Do I Love Thee, Dear? 12:158-159 III. Dream-Pedlary, 12:227-228 IV. Franklin’s Philosophical Experiments, 6-Pt. II:125-130

27th. JOHN McCRAE, Died in France 28 Ja. 1918 I. In Flanders Fields, 15:214

28th. HENRY MORTON STANLEY, b. 28 Ja. 1841 I. Henry Morton Stanley, 17-Pt. II:97-124

We enter our studies, and enjoy a society which we alone can bring together. We raise no jealousy by conversing with one in preference to another; we give no offence to the most illustrious by questioning him as long as we will, and leaving him as abruptly.... --WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

JANUARY 29TH TO FEBRUARY 4th

29th. ADELAIDE RISTORI, b. 30 Ja. 1822 I. Adelaide Ristori, 17-Pt. II:109-119 II. Thackeray’s On Being Found Out, 1-Pt. I:104-115

30th. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, b. 30 Ja. 1775 I. Rose Aylmer,15:119 II. The Maid’s Lament, 15:119-120 III. Mother I Cannot Mind My Wheel, 12:273 IV. On His Seventy-fifth Birthday, 13:278 V. Ruskin’s The Two Boyhoods, 1-Pt. II:3-23

31st. I. Carlyle’s Essay on Biography, 2-Pt. I:3-3l

F.1st. I. Morris’s February,14:102-103 II. Belloc’s South Country,12:331 III. Early Morning, 13:294

2nd. W.R.BENET, b. 2 F. 1886 I. Tricksters, 13:288 II. Hodgson’s Eve, 11:324 III. The Gypsy Girl, 14:299

3rd. SIDNEY LANIER, b. 3 F. 1842 I. The Marshes of Glynn, 14:55-61 II. A Ballad of Trees and the Master, 12:316-317 III. The Stirrup Cup, 13:283

4th. THOMAS CARLYLE, d. 4 F. 1881 81 I. Mirabeau, 2-Pt. I:79-86 II. Ghosts, 2-Pt. I:134-137 III. Labor, 2-Pt. I:138-145

Borrow therefore, of those golden morning hours, and bestow them on your book. --EARL OF BEDFORD

FEBRUARY 5TH TO 11TH

5th. I. De Quincey’s On the Knocking at the Gate In Macbeth, 4-Pt. II:100-107

6th. SIR HENRY IRVING, b. 6 F. 1838 I. Sir Henry Irving, 17-II:39-47

7th. CHARLES DICKENS, b. 7 F. 1812 I. The Trial for Murder, 21-Pt. I:1-19

8th. JOHN RUSKIN, b. 8 F. 1819 I. The Slave Ship, 1-Pt. II:27-29 II. Art and Morals, 1-Pt. II:103-132 III. Peace, 1-Pt. II:135-137

9th. GEORGE ADE, b. 9 F. 1866 I. The Fable of the Preacher, 9-Pt. II:67-71 II. The Fable of the Caddy, 9-Pt. II:93-94 III. The Fable of the Two Mandolin Players, 9-Pt. II:13l-136

10th. SIR JOHN SUCKLING, baptized 10 F. 1609 I. Encouragements to a Lover, 13:122 II. Constancy, 12:122-123 E. W. TOWNSEND, b. 10 F. 1855 III. Chimmie Meets the Duchess, 9-Pt. I 109-114

11th. I. Brooke’s Dust, 12:341 II. 1914--V--The Soldier, 15: 228 III. Guiterman’s In the Hospital, 15:203

The scholar, only, knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain their steady value. --Washington Irving.

February 12th to 18th

12th. Abraham Lincoln, b. 12 F. 1809 I. Lincoln, 16-Pt. I:93-141

13th. I. Irving’s The Stout Gentleman, 3-Pt. II: 129-145

14th. W. T. Sherman, d. 14 F. 1891 I. General William Tecumseh Sherman, 16-Pt. II:32-61

15th. Charles Bertrand Lewis (“M. Quad”) b. 15 F. 1842 I. The Patent Gas Regulator, 9-Pt. II:3-7 II. Two Cases of Grip, 8-Pt. I:50-53

16th. Joseph Hergesheimer, b. 15 F. 1880 I. A Sprig of Lemon Verbena, 22-Pt. II:1-47

17th. Josephine Dodge Daskam, b. 17 F. 1876 I. The Woman Who Was Not Athletic, 9-Pt. II:78-80 II. The Woman Who Used Her Theory, 9-Pt. II: 80-81 III. The Woman Who Helped Her Sister, 9-Pt. II:81-82

18th. I. De Quincey’s The Affliction of Childhood, 4-Pt. II:3-30

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems though all the souls of all the writers were reposing here. --CHARLES LAMB.

FEBRUARY 19TH TO 25th

19th. I. Conrad’s The Lagoon, 22-Pt. I:17-37

20th. JOSEPH JEFFERSON, b. 20 F. 1829 I. Joseph Jefferson, 17-Pt. II:3-22

21st. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, b. 21 F. 1801 I. The Pillar of the Cloud, 12:323 II. Sensitiveness, 15:183-184 III. Flowers Without Fruit, 15:184 IV. Lincoln’s Address at Cooper Institute, 5-Pt. I:37-69

22nd. GEORGE WASHINGTON, b. 22 F. 1732 I. Washington, 16-Pt. I:3-42

23rd. I. Mrs. Freeman’s The Wind in the Rosebush, 20-Pt. II:12-38

24th. SAMUEL LOVER, b. 24 F. 1797 I. The Gridiron, 19-Pt. II:59-70

25th. I. Lamb’s Superannuated Man, 5-Pt. II: 80-91 II. Old China, 5-Pt. II:91-100

A little peaceful home Sounds all my wants and wishes; add to this My book and friend, and this is happiness. --FRANCESCO DI RIOJA.

FEBRUARY 26TH TO MARCH 4TH

26th. SAM WALTER FOSS, d. 26 F. 1911 I. The Prayer of Cyrus Brown, 9-Pt. II:8 II. The Meeting of the Clabberhuses, 8-Pt. I: 39-41 III. A Modern Martyrdom, 9-Pt. II: 84-86 IV. The Ideal Husband to His Wife, 9-Pt. I:103-104

27th. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, b. 27 F. 1807 I. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 17-Pt. I:3-27 II. Wreck of the Hesperus, 10:156-160 III. My Lost Youth, 12:263-266

28th. ELLEN TERRY, b. 27 F. 1848 I. Ellen Terry, 17-Pt. II:48-60

Mr.1st I. Morris’s March, 14:103-104 W. D. HOWELLS, b. 1 Mr. 1837 II. Mrs. Johnson, 8-Pt. II:107-128

2nd. I. Franklin’s Settling Down, 6-Pt. II:76-85 II. Public Affairs, 6-Pt. II:102-107

3rd. EDMUND WALLER, b. 9 Mr. 1606 I. On a Girdle, 12:132 II. Go, Lovely Rose, 12:136-137 III. De la Mare’s The Listeners, 11:327

4th. Inauguration Day I. Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, 5-Pt. I:74-89

A little library, growing larger every year, is an honorable part of a man’s history. It is a man’s duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life. --HENRY WARD BEECHER.

MARCH 5TH TO 11TH

5th. FRANK NORRIS, b. 5 Mr. 1870 I. The Passing of Cock-Eye Blacklock, 22-Pt. II:64

6th. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, b. 6 Mr. 1806 I. Mother and Poet, 11:297-302 II. A Musical Instrument, 12: 282-283 III. The Cry of the Children, 12: 296-302

7th. I. Thackeray’s On a Lazy Idle Boy, 1-Pt. I: 41-51

8th. HENRY WARD BEECHER, d. 8 Mr. 1887 I. Deacon Marble, 7-Pt. I:13-15 II. The Deacon’s Trout, 7-Pt. I:15-16 III. Noble and the Empty Hole, 7-Pt. I:17-18

9th. ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD, d. 9 Mr. 1825 I. Life, 14:260-261 II. Dunsany’s Night at an Inn, 18:I

10th. I. Ruskin’s The Mountain Gloom, 1-Pt. II: 33-56

11th. CHARLES SUMNER, d. n Mr. 1874 I. Longfellow’s Charles Sumner, 15:111-112 GILES FLETCHER, buried 11 Mr. 1611 II. Wooing Song, 12:101-102 III. Carlyle’s Reward, 2-Pt. I:146-160

Books that can be held in the hand, and carried to the fireside are the best after all. --SAMUEL JOHNSON.

MARCH 12TH TO 18TH

12th. I. A Family Horse, 9-Pt. I:3-14 II. Living in the Country, 7-Pt. I:82-95

13th. I. Macaulay’s Task of the Modern Historian, 2-Pt. II:3-22 II. Puritans, 2-Pt. II:23-29

14th. HENRY IV. defeated the “Leaguers” at Ivry, 14 Mr. 1590 I. Macaulay’s Ivry, 10:194-199

15th. JOHANN LUDWIG PAUL HEYSE, b. 15 Mr. 1830 I. L’Arrabiata, 20-Pt. I:130-157

16th. WILL IRWIN, b. 15 Mr. 1876 I. The Servant Problem, 7-Pt. I:132

17th. I. Hawthorne’s The Great Stone Face, 3-Pt. I:103-135

18th. I. Roche’s The V-A-S-E, 7-Pt. II:60-61 II. Roche’s A Boston Lullaby, 8-Pt. II:78 III. A Boston Lullaby (Anon.), 7-Pt. II:105 IV. Burgess’s The Bohemians of Boston, 7-Pt. II:141-143

The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend; when I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one. --OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

MARCH 19TH TO 25th

19th. THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH, d. 19 Mr. 1907 I. A Rivermouth Romance, 7-Pt. II:129-140 II. A Death Bed, 15:136-137

20th. CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, d. 20 Mr. 1903 I. Ballad, 7-Pt. II:51-52 II. Hans Breitmann’s Party, 7-Pt. I:96-97 III. De Quincey’s Levana, 4-Pt. II:145-157

21st. ROBERT SOUTHEY, d. 21 Mr. 1843 I. The Inchcape Rock, 10:153-156 II. My Days Among the Dead Are Past, 14: 261-262 III. Lincoln’s Springfield Speech, 5-Pt. I:23-36

22nd. I. Lamb’s Two Races of Men, 5-Pt. II:3-11

23rd. JOHN DAVIDSQN, disappeared 23 Mr. 1909 I. Butterflies, 12:345 II. Doyle’s Dancing Men, 22-Pt. I:63-l00

24th. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, d. 24 Mr. 1882 I. The Building of the Ship, ll:89-102 II. The Skeleton in Armor, 10:124-130 III. Resignation, 15:131-133 IV. The Arrow and the Song, 12:283-284

25th. I. Franklin’s George Whitefield, 6-Pt. II: 108-114 II. The Franklin Stove, 6-Pt. II:115-116 III. Civic Pride, 6-Pt. II:117-124 IV. Advice to a Young Tradesman, 6-Pt. II: 153-155

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learnings. --ST. PAUL.

MARCH 26TH TO APRIL 1ST

26th. A. E. HOUSMAN, b. 26 Mr. 1859 I. A Shropshire Lad-XIII, 12:340 II. Ferber’s Gay Old Dog, 22-Pt. II:81-114

27th. I. Thackeray’s Thorns in the Cushion, 1-Pt. I:51-64

28th. FOCH, made Commander Allied Armies, 28 Mr. 1918 I. Burr’s Fall In, 15:211 II. Coates’s Place de la Concorde, 15:226

29th. BONNIVARD, Prisoner of Chillon, liberated 29 Mr. 1536 I. Byron’s Prisoner of Chillon, 11:191-204

30th. DE WOLF HOPPER, b. 30 Mr. 1858 I. Casey at the Bat, 9-Pt. I:95-98 II. Butler’s Just Like a Cat, 8-Pt. I:152

31st. ANDREW MARVELL, b,. 31 Mr. 1621 I. The Garden, 14:20-22 II. Bermudas, 15:162-163 JOHN DONNE, d. 31 Mr. 1631 III. The Dream, 12:137-138 IV. The Will, 15:156-158 V. Death, 13:195-196 VI. A Burnt Ship, 13:272

Ap. 1st. AGNES REPPLIER, b. 1 Ap. 1858 I. A Plea for Humor, 8-Pt. II:3-25

Dreams, books are each a world; and books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good: Round these, with tendrils, strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow. --WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

APRIL 2ND TO 8TH

2nd. I. Jefferson, 16-Pt. I:43-70 Nelson’s Victory Over the Danish Fleet, 2 Ap. 1801 II. The Battle of the Baltic, 10:189-192

3rd. WASHINGTON IRVING, b. 3 Ap. 1783 I. Wouter Van Twiller, 7-Pt. I:3-10 II. The Voyage, 3-Pt. II:61-71

4th. I. Browning’s Home Thoughts from Abroad, 12:57-58 II. Macaulay’s Byron the Poet, 2-Pt. II:94-109

5th. FRANK R. STOCKTON, b. 5 Ap. 1834 I. Pomona’s Novel, 7-Pt. II:62-81 II. A Piece of Red Calico, 8-Pt. I:105-112

6th. COMMANDER ROBERT E. PEARY reached the North Pole, 6 Ap. 1909 I. At the North Pole, 16-Pt. II:125-151

7th. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, b. 7 Ap. 1770 I. Landor’s To Wordsworth, 14:148-150 II. To the Cuckoo, 12:38-40 III. Daffodils, 12:41-42 IV. Tintern Abbey, 14:47-52 V. Lucy Gray, 10:255-258 VI. Arnold’s Memorial Verses, 15:77-79

8th. PHINEAS FLETCHER, baptized, 8 Ap. 1582 I. A Hymn, 12:317 ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER, b. 8 Ap.1879 II. Earth’s Easter (1915), 15:224 III. Hagedorn’s Song Is So Old, 12:337

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew, upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --LORD BYRON.

APRIL 9TH TO 15TH

9th. I. Tennyson’s Early Spring, 14:94-96 II. Poe’s Ligeia, 4-Pt. I:37-63

10th. I. De Quincey’s The Vision of Sudden Death, 4-Pt. II:119-145

11th. NAPOLEON abdicated at Fontainebleau, 11 Ap. 1814 I. Byron’s Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, 13:109-115

12th. I. Franklin’s Autobiography, 6-Pt. II:3-35

13th. I. Burns’s To a Mountain Daisy, 14:109-111 II. Lamb’s Imperfect Sympathies, 5-Pt. II:21-34

14th. LINCOLN shot by John Wilkes Booth, 14 Ap. 1865 I. Markham’s, Lincoln the Man of the People, 14:296 II. Flecker’s Dying Patriot, 10:295 III. Ballad of Camden Town, 12:347

15th. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, d. 15 Ap. 1865 I. Farewell at Springfield, 5-Pt. I:70 II. Speech to 166th Ohio Regiment, 5-Pt. I:96-97 III. Letters to Mrs. Lincoln, 5-Pt. I:113-114 IV. To Grant, 5-Pt. I:121 V. Whitman’s O Captain! My Captain! 15:105-106 Titanic Sunk, 15 Ap. 1912 VI. Van Dyke’s Heroes of the Titanic, 10:305

Many times the reading of a book has made the fortune of a man--has decided his way of life. --RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

APRIL 16TH TO 22ND

16th. I. Herbert’s Easter, 15:152-153 II. Franklin’s Motion for Prayers, 6-Pt. II: 62-164 III. Necessary Hints, 6-Pt. II: 160-161

17th. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, d. 17 Ap. 1790 I. Franklin’s Autobiography, 6-Pt. II:35-75 DR. CHARLES H. PARKHURST, b. 17 Ap. 1842 II. A Remarkable Dream, 8-Pt. I:79-80

18th. RICHARD HARDING DAVIS, b. 18 Ap. 1864 I. Mr. Travers’s First Hunt, 22-Pt. I:135 II. A Slave to Duty, 8-Pt. I:66-67

19th. Battles of Lexington and Concord, 19 Ap. 1775 I. Emerson’s Concord Hymn, 12:218-219 Siege of Ratisbon, 19-23 Ap. 1809 II. Browning’s Incident of the French Camp, 10:213-214

20th. I. Campbell’s Ye Mariners of England, 10: 150-151 II. Lincoln’s Response to Serenade, 5-Pt. I: 98-100 WILLIAM H. DAVIS, b. 20 Ap. 1870 III. Davies’s Catharine, 11:327

21st. CHARLOTTE BRONTË, b. 21 Ap. 1816 I. Charlotte Brontë, 17-Pt. I:121-132 II. Thackeray’s De Juventute, 1-Pt. I:65-87

22nd. I. Riley’s The Elf-Child, 8-Pt. I:34-36 II. A Liz-Town Humorist, 8-Pt. I:48-49 III. Carlyle’s The Watch Tower, 2-Pt. I:129-133 UNITED STATES DAY CELEBRATED IN FRANCE 22 Ap. 1917 IV. Van Dyke’s The Name of France, 15:224

Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me, From my own library, with volumes that I prize above my dukedom. --WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

APRIL 23RD TO 29TH