"THE PLEASURES OF LIFE" 245 



claims for gratitude beside that which this book 

 involved : 



Dear Sir — I feel under a debt of gratitude to you for 

 having induced me by your Pleasures of Life to read 

 your Beauties of Nature. This work led me to read 

 Geikie's Geology and a number of the Best Hundred Books, 

 with the result that I now seem to live in a new world, 

 and subjects which before seemed dry are now intensely 

 interesting. 



I have read 38 books out of your final list, but 

 cannot say that I appreciated all. 



Some of Montaigne's essays are still unread. The 

 Shi King I could make but little of, and Locke on the 

 Understanding is a little too heavy for me yet. 



Formerly I was one of the unfortunate class of 

 drapers' apprentices who had to take their recreation 

 before 7.30 a.m. and do their reading between 8.30 and 

 10 p.m., and am consequently a warm admirer of your 

 efforts for early closing. 



You will gather from this that I have had no classical 

 education, and therefore appreciate such introductions 

 as " Dr. Gillies' to Aristotle's Ethics" I greatly missed 

 something of the kind in reading Demosthenes and had 

 to search for it in a classical dictionary and a Greek 

 history. The reader has to infer from the oration the 

 charges Demosthenes is rebutting, and I think cannot 

 follow the argument so well in consequence. 



Again thanking you for the new interests you have 

 awakened in me by the perusal of your books. — I remain, 

 yours gratefully. 



The following is one among several proposals 

 for a translation into an Indian dialect : 



Dear Sir — I have read your Pleasures of Life, and 

 except the last essay on " The Destiny of Man " have 

 liked it so much that I asked my friend, Mr. W. S. 

 Caine, M.P., to introduce me to you, but he does not 

 know you sufficiently well to introduce me to you, and 

 so I introduce myself and venture to address this letter. 

 I am son of a magistrate and landed proprietor of the 

 North Western Provinces of India, reading for the Bar 

 here. 



