BOOKS FOR HOLIDAYS 267 



little old histories of Eugene of Savoy and 

 Turenne. In similar fashion my study of and 

 delight in Mahan sent me further afield, to read 

 queer old volumes about De Ruyter and the dar- 

 ing warrior-merchants of the Hansa, and to 

 study, as well as I could, the feats of Suffren 

 and Tegethoff. I did not need to study Farra- 

 gut. 



Mahaffy's books started me to reread — in 

 translation, alas ! — the post-Athenian Greek 

 authors. After Ferrero I did the same thing as 

 regards the Latin authors, and then industri- 

 ously read all kinds of modern writers on the 

 same period, finishing with Oman's capital es- 

 say on ''Seven Roman Statesmen." Gilbert 

 Murray brought me back from Greek history to 

 Greek literature, and thence by a natural sug- 

 gestion to parts of the Old Testament, to the 

 Nibelungenlied, to the Roland lay and the 

 chansons de gestes, to Beowulf, and finally to 

 the great Japanese hero-tale, the story of the 

 Forty-Nine Ronins. 



I read Burroughs too often to have him sug- 

 gest anything save himself; but I am exceed- 

 ingly glad that Charles Sheldon has arisen to 

 show what a hunter-naturalist, who adds the 

 ability of the writer to the ability of the trained 

 observer and outdoor adventurer, can do for 



