three] growing the HOUSE 



common seeing and hearing. Most people see in 

 exceedingly narrow grooves. Besides, there is this 

 peculiar danger, not to be overlooked, that as we 

 come closer to nature, literary culture will lose too 

 large a share of its influence. I would have my 

 country-bred boys and girls as close to the so-called 

 " Humanities" as to the Sciences; that is, as close to 

 history and mathematics as to botany and geology. 

 They should learn to comprehend pure literature; 

 and to have a taste for Whittier and Burns and Scott 

 and Phillips Brooks, and all that is stimulating to 

 pure thought and art and poetry — climbing up to 

 Shakespeare and the Bible. So the library will be 

 a delightful cozy room, or alcove, where good books 

 lord it. The atmosphere must suggest great thoughts 

 and great men. You must feel the British essayists, 

 and the American essayists as well. Here the sup- 

 ply must be according to your purse somewhat, yet 

 it can easily include a hundred character-making 

 volumes — enough to establish an atmosphere. 

 The family and private rooms may also have books 

 of appropriate sort, but they ought not to prevent 

 at least a book nook, even in the homeliest cot- 

 tage. Be sure that you do not rely on borrowed 

 books. They smell of dirty hands and tobacco 



[47] 



