THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 73 



and just here lies our deepest interest in litera- 

 ture. Real books, born of heart and brain, 

 reveal necessities and capabilities in our being 

 never before suspected. Not every book finds 

 us in our depths and heights. Some do and 

 we re-read them oft because they are medicinal 

 and authoritative. How well we recall the 

 days and nights when we first read them, the 

 thoughts inspired, the determinations regis- 

 tered, the new doors that opened and the old 

 ones that were shut, the revelations and evolu- 

 tions and the larger life that came of it all and 

 the beautiful mountain-top visions far out over 

 life so full of spiritual suggestion. The litera- 

 ture which comes from the best books is the 

 most intelligible of all the arts, it is the truest 

 exponent of cultured life and the truest incen- 

 tive to a cultured life. The study of the best 

 literature then is both a duty and a delight, a 

 pleasure in and of itself of highest grade, and a 

 positive help toward what is best and purest. 

 By it one masters those books ranked as gen- 

 uine works of art, by it one fits one's self to 

 enter into communion with great minds of the 

 world's best ages. The talking together about 

 books and what they stand for is one of the 

 most delightful of social pleasures, out of it 

 come mental poise and culture and power. So 



