PROSE SELECTIONS
- Humorous
- Pathetic
- Dramatic
- Dialect
THE JOY OF READING
Who can estimate the joy, comfort and inspiration reading has afforded to the human race, how many weary hours it has solaced, how many distracted minds it has quieted, how many harassed souls it has soothed into forgetfulness? Who has not felt the thrill of discovery when he has found a new author, a new poet who peculiarly affected his mind, his soul, his risibilities, his ambitions, his life? I shall never forget when I found Charles Warren Stoddard’s “Apostrophe to a Skylark.” It was buried in one of his books and few seemed ever to have read it. There was joy incalculable in putting it side by side with Shelley’s classic “Ode” and comparing the two conceptions. Thousands of souls have been inspired by reading to higher, nobler, more worthy endeavor. So, like Sancho Panza, we bless God and thank Him for the man who invented reading.
—George Wharton James.
HUMOROUS SELECTIONS
NATHAN FOSTER
By Paul L. Dunbar