APPENDIX F 521 



Greek dramatists (with whom in the same canto Dante shows his ac- 

 quaintance), and includes one poet whose works come about in the class 

 of the "Columbiad." 



With such an example before us, let us be modest about dogmatizing 

 overmuch. The ingenuity exercised in choosing the "Hundred Best 

 Books" is all right if accepted as a mere amusement, giving something 

 of the pleasure derived from a missing-word puzzle. But it does not 

 mean much more. There are very many thousands of good books; some 

 of them meet one man's needs, some another's; and any list of such books 

 should simply be accepted as meeting a given individual's needs under 

 given conditions of time and surroundings. 



KHARTOUM, March 15, 1910. 



