Various

“ Above all, they do not distinguish between books for the labourer and the schoolman; and the idea that any well-conducted mortal life could find leisure enough to read a hundred books would have kept me wholly silent on the matter, but that I was fain, when you sent me Sir John's list, to strike out, for my own pupils' sake, the books I would forbid them to be plagued with.
For, of all the plagues that afflict mortality, the venom of a bad book to weak people, and the charms of a foolish one to simple people, are without question the deadliest ”

“ But a man may reasonably say to another that there are certain epochs in the history of the race so significant, certain men as the creature forces in those epochs so prominent, and certain types, aspects, and attitudes of physical nature so eloquent with divine wisdom, that to be ignorant of them shows a man to be of a narrow, isolated nature, cut off from all those streams of moral and intellectual wealth which the past is ever pouring into the veins of the present, and with which the powers of the physical world are constantly stimulating the unblunted sense ”

“ You see the best books are not the best books for everybody. Some of the best, say Michael Angelo's Sonnets, are appreciated by a very small circle of friends indeed. But take the most famous writers, those whose names you would find on every list of the "Best Books," and you will see that what is called gold by one critic is called rubbish by another. Aristotle's name would hardly be absent from any list of world literature ”

“ Dear Sir,—You will find it difficult to guide young people in their reading by merely forming a list of good books. Literature has many branches, each of which has its "best books." Let a young choose his line of study, and he will find no difficulty in discovering the best authority in it. ”

“ I cannot here enter into another very grave and wide question which neither the Pall Mall nor its respondents ask, respecting literature for the young, but will merely point out one total want in the present confused supply of it—that of intelligible books on natural history. I chanced at breakfast the other day, to wish I knew something of the biography of a shrimp, the rather that I was under the impression of having seen jumping shrimps on a sandy shore express great satisfaction in their life. ”

“ But if all the books of the world were in a blaze the first twelve which I should snatch out of the flames would be the Bible, the "Imitatio Christi," Homer, Æschylus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Virgil, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, Shakspeare, Milton, Wordsworth. ”

“ Of course, if we have any object in reading books beyond the mere delight which they give us, works artistically most imperfect may claim their place among the best books of the world. What can be more tedious than the Vedas, and yet what can be more interesting, if once we know that it is the first word spoken by the Aryan man? ”

“ I believe that scarce anything can be more absurdly said in natural philosophy than that which now is called Aristotle's Metaphysics, nor more repugnant to government than that much that he hath said in his Politics, nor more ignorantly than a great part of his Ethics. ”

“ Is a person with this good reason to blush for himself (if he was only young enough to do it) the right sort of person to produce a list of books for readers in search of a liberal education? You will agree with me that he is capable of seriously recommending Sterne's "Sentimental Journey," as the best book of travels that has ever been written, and Byron's "Childe Harold" as the grandest poem which the world has seen since the first publication of "Paradise Lost." ”

“ Sir,—You have proposed that I should recommend to inexperienced readers some of the books which are necessary for a liberal education; and you have kindly sent a list of works drawn out by Sir John Lubbock with this object in view, and recently published in your journal.
I am sincerely sensible of the compliment to myself which is implied in your suggestion; but I am at the same time afraid that you have addressed yourself to the wrong man. Let me own the truth. ”

“ We happened to read them at a specially susceptible period of our lives, and they are more to us than other books, not only through what they are in themselves, but through what they have suggested. For myself, I would say that three books not in the lists have, on the whole, done more for me than almost any others, excepting the few great masterpieces that have become a part of the intellectual life of every thoughtful man. ”

“ Many of the best books ever written have perished of their own success. They have rendered themselves unnecessary by becoming a part of the universal heritage of thought and knowledge. Such books, for instance, as Copernicus's "De Revolutionibus Calestium Orbium" in science, or Luther's "Commentary on the Galatians" in theology, or Kant's "Kritik der reinen Vernunft" in philosophy, are types of books which have created an epoch, but which your correspondents do not mention because (I suppose) they have so completely achieved the work for which they were intended. ”

“ I am a freethinker, yet I constantly recommend to my son, who hopes to be my successor, the reading of the Bible (not on Sir John's list) , and even the study of the "Lives of the Saints of the Roman Church." The thorough knowledge of both is necessary for a man who wishes to understand the history of painting, and to enjoy the masterpieces of the great artists. ”

“ Dear Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 13th inst., I beg to say that my reading has been for the most part so desultory, and so much less in amount than I could have wished, that I feel myself in no way qualified to advise others what they should read or avoid reading. ”

“ But in attempting to frame such a list as that put forth by Sir John Lubbock, it is also of the utmost importance to keep in view what sort of persons we are favouring with our advice; and here I see two altogether different classes of readers, those who have large leisure and have gone through a regular process of severe intellectual discipline, and those who can only redeem a few hours daily, if so much, to fill up the gaps left in the hasty architecture of their early attempt at self-culture. ”

“ There are gems in the most famous, there are gems in the least known of poets, but there is not a single poet, so far as I know, who has not written too much, and who could claim a place for all his works in what may be called a Library of World Literature.
The passages, and in many cases the whole poems too, which I should really place on those historic shelves are those which I can read again and again, wondering more and more every time how a man could have written them. ”

“ Let the general reader follow my advice, and he will find himself not only introduced to the greatest genius that has ever written novels, but provided with the example of a man modest, just, generous, resolute, and merciful; a man whose very faults and failings have been transformed into virtues through the noble atonement that he offered, at the peril and the sacrifice of his life.
Let me not forget that the question of literary value must also be considered in recommending books, for this good reason, that positive literary value means positive literary attraction to the general reader. ”

“ If a man like Hobbes speaks thus of Aristotle, what right have I to do what you ask me to do, and to leave in or to leave out the very first name on Sir John Lubbock's list of the Classics of the World—namely, that of Aristotle? I pray thee, have me excused.
PROFESSOR J. S. BLACKIE (Edinburgh) .
No man, it appears to me, can tell another what he ought to read. A man's reading, to be of any value, must depend on his power of assimilation ”

“ No doubt he felt some delicacy in either mentioning or omitting the names of writers who were his personal friends. Sir John Lubbock's delicacy of feeling detracts from the value of his teaching, and a man who assumes the position of a public instructor ought to be able to put personal feelings altogether aside. The result of this limitations is, for instance, that in Sir John Lubbock's list Hume's is the only History of England recommended, and Tennyson's name is omitted from the list of poets whom it is desirable to read. ”

“ NO class of people's opinion on the best books would be more interesting than that of the publishers. How much of all the literature that they present to the world do they genuinely think worth the world's acceptance? Frank answers here are hardly to be expected, and our readers will not be surprised at the fewness of the letters given under this head.
MR. A. BLACK.
Dear Sir,—To draw up a detailed list of books suitable for a liberal education is not an easy task in itself, and in some senses of doubtful advantage. ”