How to Form a Library Part 24

Niebelungenlied.

Malory, _Morte d'Arthur_.

EASTERN POETRY.

_Mahabharata_ and _Ramayana_ (epitomised by Talboys Wheeler).

Firdausi, _Shah-nameh_ (translated by Atkinson).

_She-king_ (Chinese Odes).

GREEK DRAMATISTS.

aeschylus, _Prometheus_, _The House of Atreus_, Trilogy, or _Persae_.

Sophocles, _OEdipus_, Trilogy.

Euripides, _Medea_.

Aristophanes, _The Knights_.

HISTORY.

Herodotus.

Thucydides.

Xenophon, _Anabasis_.

Tacitus, _Germania_.

Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_.

Voltaire, _Charles XII._ or _Louis XIV._ Hume, _England_.

Grote, _Greece_.

PHILOSOPHY.

Bacon, _Novum Organum_.

Mill, _Logic_ and _Political Economy_.

Darwin, _Origin of Species_.

Smith, _Wealth of Nations_ (selection).

Berkeley, _Human Knowledge_.

Descartes, _Discourse sur la Methode_.

Locke, _Conduct of the Understanding_.

Lewes, _History of Philosophy_.

TRAVELS.

Cook, _Voyages_.

Darwin, _Naturalist in the Beagle_.

POETRY AND GENERAL LITERATURE.

Shakspeare.

Milton.

Dante.

Spenser.

Scott.

Wordsworth.

Pope.

Southey.

Longfellow.

Goldsmith, _Vicar of Wakefield_.

Swift, _Gulliver's Travels_.

Defoe, _Robinson Crusoe_.

_The Arabian Nights._ _Don Quixote._ Boswell, _Johnson_.

Burke, _Select Works_.

Essayists--Addison, Hume, Montaigne, Macaulay, Emerson.

Moliere.

Sheridan.

Carlyle, _Past and Present_ and _French Revolution_.

Goethe, _Faust_ and _Wilhelm Meister_.

Marivaux, _La Vie de Marianne_.

MODERN FICTION.

Selections from--Thackeray, d.i.c.kens, George Eliot, Kingsley, Scott, Bulwer-Lytton.

It must be borne in mind by the reader that this list, although the one sent round for criticism by the editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, is not really Sir John Lubbock's. This will be found on p. 240. Sir John Lubbock's address was not given in full, and the list drawn up by the _Pall Mall_, from the reports in the daily papers, contained in fact only about 85 books.

It seems necessary to allude particularly to this imperfect list, because it is the only one upon which the critics were asked to give an opinion, and their criticisms are peculiarly interesting, as they give us an important insight into the tastes and opinions of our teachers. In itself it is almost impossible to make a list that will be practically useful, because tastes and needs differ so widely, that a course of reading suitable for one man may be quite unsuitable for another. It is also very doubtful whether a conscientious pa.s.sage through a "cut-and-dried" list of books will feed the mind as a more original selection by each reader himself would do. It is probably best to start the student well on his way and then leave him to pursue it according to his own tastes. Each book will help him to another, and consultation with some of the many manuals of English literature will guide him towards a good choice. This is in effect what Mr. Bond, Princ.i.p.al Librarian of the British Museum, says in his reply, to the circular of the editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_. He writes "The result of several persons putting down the t.i.tles of books they considered 'best reading' would be an interesting but very imperfect bibliography of as many sections of literature;" and, again, "The beginner should be advised to read histories of the literature of his own and other countries--as Hallam's 'Introduction to the Literature of Europe,'

Joseph Warton's 'History of English Poetry,' Craik's 'History of English Literature,' Paine's History, and others of the same cla.s.s. These would give him a survey of the field, and would quicken his taste for what was naturally most congenial to him."

There probably is no better course of reading than that which will naturally occur to one who makes an honest attempt to master our own n.o.ble literature. This is sufficient for the lifetime of most men without incursions into foreign literature. All cultivated persons will wish to become acquainted with the masterpieces of other nations, but this diversion will not be advisable if it takes the reader away from the study of the masterpieces of his own literature.

Turning to the comments on the _Pall Mall Gazette's_ list, we may note one or two of the most important criticisms. The Prince of Wales very justly suggested that Dryden should not be omitted from such a list. Mr.

Chamberlain asked whether the Bible was excluded by accident or design, and Mr. Irving suggested that the Bible and Shakespeare form together a very comprehensive library.

Mr. Ruskin's reply is particularly interesting, for he adds but little, contenting himself with the work of destruction. He writes, "Putting my pen lightly through the needless--and blottesquely through the rubbish and poison of Sir John's list--I leave enough for a life's liberal reading--and choice for any true worker's loyal reading. I have added one quite vital and essential book--Livy (the two first books), and three plays of Aristophanes (_Clouds_, _Birds_, and _Plutus_). Of travels, I read myself all old ones I can get hold of; of modern, Humboldt is the central model. Forbes (James Forbes in Alps) is essential to the modern Swiss tourist--of sense." Mr. Ruskin puts the word _all_ to Plato, _everything_ to Carlyle, and _every word_ to Scott. Pindar's name he adds in the list of the cla.s.sics, and after Bacon's name he writes "chiefly the _New Atlantis_."

The work of destruction is marked by the striking out of all the _Non-Christian Moralists_, of all the Theology and Devotion, with the exception of Jeremy Taylor and the _Pilgrim's Progress_. The Nibelungenlied and Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_ (which, by the way, is in prose) go out, as do Sophocles and Euripides among the Greek Dramatists.

_The Knights_ is struck out to make way for the three plays of Aristophanes mentioned above. Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume, and Grote all go, as do all the philosophers but Bacon. Cook's Voyages and Darwin's Naturalist in the _Beagle_ share a similar fate. Southey, Longfellow, Swift, Hume, Macaulay, and Emerson, Goethe and Marivaux, all are so unfortunate as to have Mr. Ruskin's pen driven through their names. Among the novelists d.i.c.kens and Scott only are left. The names of Thackeray, George Eliot, Kingsley, and Bulwer-Lytton are all erased.

Mr. Ruskin sent a second letter full of wisdom till he came to his reasons for striking out Grote's "History of Greece," "Confessions of St.

Augustine," John Stuart Mill, Charles Kingsley, Darwin, Gibbon, and Voltaire. With these reasons it is to be hoped that few readers will agree.

Mr. Swinburne makes a new list of his own which is very characteristic.

No. 3 consists of "Selections from the Bible: comprising Job, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel; the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, the Gospel and the First Epistle of St. John and Epistle of St. James." No. 12 is Villon, and Nos. 45 to 49 consist of the plays of Ford, Dekker, Tourneur, Marston, and Middleton; names very dear to the lover of our old Drama, but I venture to think names somewhat inappropriate in a list of books for a reader who does not make the drama a speciality. Lamb's Selections would be sufficient for most readers.

Mr. William Morris supplies a full list with explanations, which are of considerable interest as coming from that distinguished poet.

Archdeacon Farrar gives, perhaps, the best test for a favourite author, that is, the selection of his works in the event of all others being destroyed. He writes, "But if all the books in the world were in a blaze, the first twelve which I should s.n.a.t.c.h out of the flames would be the Bible, _Imitatio Christi_, Homer, aeschylus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Virgil, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth. Of living authors I would save first the works of Tennyson, Browning and Ruskin."

Another excellent test is that set up by travellers and soldiers. A book must be good when one of either of these cla.s.ses decides to place it among his restricted baggage. Mr. H.M. Stanley writes, "You ask me what books I carried with me to take across Africa. I carried a great many--three loads, or about 180 lbs. weight; but as my men lessened in numbers, stricken by famine, fighting and sickness, they were one by one reluctantly thrown away, until finally, when less than 300 miles from the Atlantic, I possessed only the Bible, Shakespeare, Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, Norie's Navigation, and Nautical Almanac for 1877. Poor Shakspeare was afterwards burned by demand of the foolish people of Zinga.

At Bonea, Carlyle and Norie and Nautical Almanac were pitched away, and I had only the old Bible left." He then proceeds to give a list of books which he allowed himself when "setting out with a tidy battalion of men."

Lord Wolseley writes, "During the mutiny and China war I carried a Testament, two volumes of Shakespeare that contained his best plays, and since then, when in the field, I have always carried: Book of Common Prayer, Thomas a Kempis, Soldier's Pocket Book.... The book that I like reading at odd moments is 'The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.'" He then adds, for any distant expedition, a few books of History (Creasy's "Decisive Battles," Plutarch's "Lives," Voltaire's "Charles XII.,"

"Caesar," by Froude, and Hume's "England"). His Fiction is confined to Macaulay's "History of England" and the "Essays."