220 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK 



CH. 



He told me, later, how immensely surprised 

 he was to find that so widely read a scholar 

 as Sir Stafford Northcote should be ignorant 

 of the very existence of such a work as the 

 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The following 

 letter is from him, who had by that time taken 

 the title of Iddesleigh. 



Pynes, Exeter, 

 November 25th, 1885. 



My dear Sir J. Lubbock — I am afraid I cannot make 

 any useful suggestions with regard to your list of books. 

 I do not feel as if I fully realised your conception. 



There are in your list about a dozen books which I 

 humbly confess to not having read myself, — Marcus 

 Aurelius, Epictetus (barely glanced at once or twice), 

 Confucius, Spinoza, Wake, Mahabharata, Ramayama, 

 Shahnameh ; and I am afraid I must add Miss Mar- 

 tin eau's two books, and that I could not stand an 

 examination in Lewis. 



By so much, at least, do I fall short of your standard 

 and feel myself disqualified for passing a judgment. 

 Of the remainder of your favourites I would say that I 

 divided them, as Miss Edgeworth makes Frank divide 

 human wants, — into " Man's must wants " and " Man's 

 may wants." Or to take an Aristotelian distinction, I 

 should regard some of them as being important aTrAws, 

 to all persons, and under all conditions of life, and others 

 as important rj/xfi/, to some persons or under some 

 conditions only. 



Of course you do not contemplate the reading of 

 these books only. Your pupil would have studies of 

 his own, which would carry him far afield, and which at 

 the same time would take up so much time as to make it 

 difficult for him to complete your prescribed course. 

 But you think that there is a certain amount of book- 

 knowledge which every man {qua the new county 

 elector ?) ought to acquire in order to enable himself 

 to understand the mental condition — past and present — 

 of the world he lives in, irrespectively of his individual 

 place and occupation therein. Very good : this is 

 knowledge which is one of Man's " must wants," which 

 he requires. 



