The Best Thoughts of Great Men about Books and Reading [171]-[190]
APPENDIX II.
Books Used in the Boston Public Schools as Supplementary Reading, Text-Books, etc. [191]-[207]
THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
This book is the result of much reading and thought, teaching, lecturing, and conversation, in the direction of its subject-matter. Its purpose is fivefold: First, to call attention to the importance of reading the best literature to the exclusion of all that is inferior, by setting forth the benefits that may be derived from the former and the injuries that are sure to result from the latter. Second, to select the best things from all the literatures of the world; to make a survey of the whole field of literature and locate the mines most worthy of our effort, where with the smallest amount of digging we may find the richest ore; and to do this with far greater precision, definiteness, and detail than it has ever been done before. Third, to place the great names of the world's literature in their proper relations of time and space to each other and to the great events of history,—accompanying the picture with a few remarks about the several periods of English Literature and the Golden Age of literature in each of the great nations. Fourth, to discuss briefly the best methods of reading, and the importance of system, quantity, quality, due proportion, and thoroughness in reading, and of the ownership of books and the order in which they should be read. Fifth, to gather into a shining group, like a constellation of stars, the splendid thoughts of the greatest men upon these subjects.
The book is meant to be a practical handbook of universal literature for the use of students, business men, teachers, and any other persons who direct the reading of others, and for the guidance of scholars in departments other than their own.