THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 77 



knowledge is sectional and there are undiscov- 

 ered regions. Books like folks are often 

 moody, and only when the sign is right can they 

 be read to profit. There are times when one 

 can take up any book and master it with ease, 

 and there are times when you must pet the 

 mood. There are times when I demand the 

 virile Browning or the dramatic Shakespeare 

 or the scholarly Milton or the ornate Haw- 

 thorne or the nature-loving Jeffries or the story- 

 telling Scott ; then there are times when I do not 

 care for serious reading and want to swagger 

 with the "Three Musketeers," to sit down close 

 to "Jean Valjean," to dream with the Pynch- 

 eons in the old "seven-gabled house," to laugh 

 aloud with Mark Tapley, to sense the keen 

 manipulations of Becky Sharp, to feel the great 

 sorrows of Silas Marner or the splendid hero- 

 ism of John Ridd or affiliate with the gentle- 

 manly John Halifax. 



What a magical power of recalling past in- 

 tellectual experiences books possess; experi- 

 ences that were the beginnings of new epochs 

 in our personal history. One may almost re- 

 count the stages of mental growth by the titles 

 of great books that are here so quietly shelved. 

 Here is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." What 

 a marvelously new world it opened up to our 



