THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 71 



with beauty of style, not merely to be Informed 

 and made wise, not merely to be encouraged 

 and ennobled in spirit, but to receive an impetus 

 in all these directions. It is the man behind 

 the book that makes the book worth reading. 

 The book is the living image of the man. That 

 is why real books have power over us. It is 

 individuality that counts. Books are indi- 

 viduals. They are the symbols of literature. 

 There is no mystery about literature, it is the 

 record of thought and emotion in all ages. To 

 know it is to know what best things have been 

 thought and said and done. It is more than 

 this, it is to know the real and better and higher 

 lives of the thinkers and doers. The man who 

 leaves wide reading and thinking out of his 

 mental and spiritual composition and out of his 

 means of enjoyment, is most leanly furnished, 

 for he does not know the best things said and 

 done; and one can't afford such a dire loss. 

 Long before books there was literature, tradi- 

 tion carried it on from man to man in legend 

 and song, and these were the best thoughts and 

 feelings and aspirations of life, and so trans- 

 mitted from age to age — a survival of the fit- 

 test. 



Books are a power. They stand for intel- 

 lect and ideas, and ideas rule the world. The 



