Nothing but an ideal ever endures upon earth. It is 

 therefore impossible to overestimate the practical import- 

 ance of literature, which preserves these ideals from fathers 

 to sons, while men, cities, governments, civilizations, van- 

 ish from the face of the earth. It is only when we remem- 

 ber this that we appreciate the action of the devout Mus- 

 sulman, who picks up and carefully preserves every scrap 

 of paper on which words are written, because the scrap 

 may perchance contain the name of Allah, and the ideal is 

 too enormously important to be neglected or lost. — William 

 J. Long in "English Literature." 



Perhaps the real reason why we see so little in the 

 woods is the way we go through them — talking, laughing, 

 rustling, smashing twigs, disturbing the peace of the soli- 

 tudes by what must seem strange and uncouth noises of the 

 little wild creatures. They, on the other hand, slip with 

 noiseless feet through their native coverts, shy, silent, lis- 

 tening, more concerned to hear than to be heard, loving 

 the silence, hating noise and fearing it, as they fear and 

 hate their natural enemies. — William J. Long in Secrets of 

 the Woods." 



