and the teachings of Buddha, Confucius and Mahomet.  The Bible is of course a library in itself, and many of its books are suited to very widely different circumstances and temperaments.  The Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistle of St James, and parts of those great poems known as the “prophetical books” and the more personal and less doctrinal portions of Paul’s epistles are perhaps of widest application.  From the words of Buddha, Confucius and Mahomet there are many admirable selections—­and one remembers a wonderful compilation of more than thirty years ago, called The Sacred Anthology, and wonders if it be out of print.  It does not follow that these works should not be studied at other times than “tragic episodes.”  If this were more often the case, perhaps there would be fewer “tragic episodes”!

 Next to these come such wonderful books of spiritual experience as A
 Kempis’s Imitation of Christ, the Pilgrim’s Progress, the Devout
 Life of Francis of Sales and others which will occur to the memory.

Allusion to the Pilgrim’s Progress brings us to the remark that no books are more truly wholesome than some that can be enjoyed by those of all ages, and of very varied types of “culture”:  in which the children can delight, and which refresh the aged and weary.  Like Nature herself, they have hedgerows where the little ones can gather flowers, little witting of the farther horizons of earth and sky lifted up for the eyes of the elders.  Let the children read the Pilgrim’s Progress simply as “a story,” its eternal verities will sink into their souls to reappear when they too are in Vanity Fair or in bitter conflict with Apollyon.

For the same reason, the Book of Proverbs should be commended to youthful study.  Under wise supervision—­or rather, in mutual study—­it becomes at once a series of vivid pictures of primitive Eastern life—­for all allusions should be explained, where possible, pictorially—­while at the same time the memory will be insensibly stored with shrewd common sense and knowledge of the world, to be turned to, and drawn upon, as needed.

And then, while the children revel in the fun and the fancy of Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, let the sorrowful or sore or wounded heart turn to them for solace, soothing or healing.  Hans Andersen enjoys a very special “popularity” and yet some, who have learned to love and value him, doubt whether justice has yet been done to his work.  Because it is matchless for the young, it may be easily forgotten that it can be so, only by some quality which makes it matchless for all others.  Perhaps some of his most popular stories are not his most wonderful, but have simply caught the popular fancy, because of some artist’s illustration, or some personal application to the writer’s own history, as in the case of his Ugly Duckling.  How many—­or rather, how few!—­can