272 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



Books of more permanent value may, be- 

 cause of the very fact that they possess Hterary 

 interest, also yield consolation of a non-literary 

 kind. If any executive grows exasperated over 

 the shortcomings of the legislative body with 

 which he deals, let him study Macaulay's ac- 

 count of the way William was treated by his 

 parliaments as soon as the latter found that, 

 thanks to his efforts, they were no longer in 

 immediate danger from foreign foes; it is il- 

 luminating. If any man feels too gloomy about 

 the degeneracy of our people from the stand- 

 ards of their forefathers, let him read "Martin 

 Chuzzlewit"; it will be consoling. 



If the attitude of this nation toward foreign 

 affairs and military preparedness at the present 

 day seems disheartening, a study of the first 

 fifteen years of the nineteenth century will at 

 any rate give us whatever comfort we can ex- 

 tract from the fact that our great-grandfathers 

 were no less foolish than we are. 



Nor need any one confine himself solely to 

 the affairs of the United States. If he becomes 

 tempted to idealize the past, if sentimentalists 

 seek to persuade him that the "ages of faith," 

 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for in- 

 stance, were better than our own, let him read 

 any trustworthy book on the subject — Lea's 



