is much to be gained both in pleasure and knowledge by reading
historical novels, and the lives of great men. The books of Sir Walter
Scott and James Fenimore Cooper are rated among the best in the world.
Grant's autobiography and the personal stories of other famous Americans
provide fascinating material with which to establish and fortify our
test for good literature. The tales of modern American financiers is
another field of absorbing interest.

The man with small means can provide himself with a working library for
a very little money. Books are cheap. The public library is always
nearby and there is hardly a town of any size but what has one. When we
purchase a book we should be sure to obtain the best edition and be
careful that it is printed from good type and on clear paper. Books are
likely to become warm friends. We should never purchase an abridged
edition.

Binding is not such an important factor, although we like to have _our
favorite books_ put up in a handsome fashion. With Shakespeare, Emerson,
Roosevelt, Scott, Cooper, Marden and Hubbard one would have quite a
representative collection for a start. It would be easy to expand the
list into many more. Of course, those collecting a small library who
have a specialty, will want books dealing with the subjects in which
they are interested. However, every practical library includes books of
inspirational character, and if one makes a study of the books written
by great authors it will be found that all of them profited by the
reading of books which caused them to think. _The Bible causes us to
think!--and no library is complete without it._

CHAPTER XII

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PREPAREDNESS

It is not the object of this chapter to deal with a set course of
physical culture, but rather to emphasize the necessity of keeping our
physical house in order. There are plenty of books on physical culture
which can be relied upon and also any number of physical instructors who
are able to advise and help along a set program. There are hundreds of
places, institutions, clubs, Y.M.C.A.'s, and the like, which provide
gymnasiums and every other facility for those who determine to build
themselves up through consistent physical exercise. That is all very
well to begin with, but afterward we must have some simple methods of
our own which will not make it a hardship or a chore to keep ourselves
in trim--_a state of physical preparedness_. It should become a part of