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waiting 'neath the heaven like blind Orion hungering for the 

 morn — the Lady of the Lake reaching our army in Portugal — 

 and the meeting of Spenser and Ealeigh.) On pictures such 

 as those adduced the mind loves to dwell. Living as we do 

 in a district resting under the glamour of poesy it would be 

 altogether without excuse if the taste for the poetic and historic 

 aspects of human life should languish and pine. Such studies, 

 taken in intervals of our daily work, will help us to attain that 

 " union of action and contemplation " which the large-browed 

 Verulam called the perfection of human nature. The noblest 

 eulogy was pronounced on Sir Philij) Sydney when his biographer 

 said of him that he was " the exact image of quiet and action, 

 happily united in him and seldom well divided in any." 



Literature includes much which is not known as poetry. The 

 essayist and the philosopher have claims on all who desire to 

 become acquainted with their country's literature. Lamb's 

 Essays comprise exactly the style of writing so grateful to a 

 man after a hard day's labour at what he called the low level of 

 the dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood. The work contains 

 thoughts rich in suggestion and lesson, and there is withal such 

 a geniality of style that the reader comes to love the gentle Elia. 

 Of essayists whose works are suitable for men of business may 

 be named Macaulay, Matthew Arnold, (one scarcely knows 

 whether he ought to be classed among the critics or the poets), 

 the Hares, Arthur Helps, and F. D. Maurice. Macaulay's works 

 are full of illustration and analogy. Choose any of Macaulay's 

 Essays and trace out every allusion to be found there — this will 

 take you to forgotten histories and books the most recondite. 

 You will be lead to read the old English and Scotch ballads, 

 where may be found some of the most charming lines ever 

 written. The history of the bards and minstrels of old is lull of 

 interest and is one of those studies which take one's mind 

 entirely away from the carking cares of daily life. Arnold 

 defined criticism as a disinterested endeavour to learn and prop- 

 agate the best that is known and thought in the world. He 

 preaches an exalted creed ; he is the gentle apostle of lucidity, 

 of sweetness and light — and are not these the very quahties of 

 which men of business stand in need ? Few of our poets have 

 been so happy as he in transferring to their pages the balmy 

 darkness of summer evenings, the dewy air and the moonlight : — 



" And strange and vain the earthly turmoil grows, 

 " And near and real the charm of thy repose, 

 " And night as welcome as a friend would fall." 



There are other writers in so-called prose whose books ought 

 to be as household friends to business men, and of these there is 

 none to approach John Euskin. There is as much genuine 



