Various

“ WHAT is the real test of a man's fondness for a book? Most of the lists which we have hitherto published have been furnished by scholars, who, sitting no doubt in well-stocked libraries, where they can sip first here and first there, have told off their favourites at their ease. ”

“ In his list of books treating of theology and devotion I do not find the Bible or even the New Testament. The "Apostolic Fathers" is of doubtful value Spinoza, to the ordinary man, is caviare. The Bible, Matthew Henry's or Barnes's Commentaries on it, and the "Imitation of Christ," by Thomas à Kempis, are all-sufficient for a healthy and simple theology. From Sir John's classics I would expunge Aristotle's "Politics;" we have too many modern essays on the same subject more appropriate and far more applicable to the needs of the present generation. ”

“ The real test, it might well be urged, of a man's fondness for his books is the selection he would make for his travelling library. There can be no question, therefore, about the sincerity of the following lists.
MR. H. M. STANLEY.
Dear Sir,—If the list of books which you have sent me are really the favourite books of Sir John Lubbock, I should be inclined, without further knowledge of him, to set him down as being partial to classics, philosophy, and theology. Out of his list of non-Christian moralists we might, for the use of busy men, altogether exclude Confucius and Mohammed. ”