t being to while away an idle day or to gain a superficial
reputation at the next dinner party at which he may be present; nor is
he the collector of gaudy bindings; nor one who has never possessed nor
desired to possess a library of his own, who has never read a book more
than once, and has never committed to memory a single passage. He is not
the man, in short, who fails to realize that 'the utility of reading
depends not on the swallow but on the digestion.'

From the American Westerner who buys an Encyclopaedia in parts, and finds
in it all that he requires of instruction and amusement, to the princely
founders of libraries--the Spencers and Parkers, the De Thous, the
Sunderlands, and the Beckfords--is a wide interval, and includes all
sorts and conditions of men, diverse from one another in everything but
their love of books.

Sir John Lubbock, by his eminence in the world of science and the world
of commerce, is admirably qualified to draw up a list of works on
science and trade. But these he has unfortunately excluded from his
consideration. Such lists would be invaluable to the thousands who from
intellectual, or more purely mercenary motives, are now seeking for
light. Had Sir John classified his list on some simple and
discriminating plan, such as we have suggested, we might, as a result of
the discussion, have obtained a summary of works on art by Mr. Ruskin,
or a soldier's library by Lord Wolseley. Others, whose replies have been
published, would have furnished special lists; and a still wider circle
would, no doubt, have seen their way to rendering much help and service.
We should, moreover, have been spared some rather irrelevant and wayward
criticisms to which the discussion has given rise.

Two or three of the 'guides' have, with more or less success, adopted
for themselves a definite system. Mr. William Morris has given us a
list, the perusal of which may perchance arouse serious misgivings in
the heart of the general reader, who cannot 'even _with_ great
difficulty read Old German,' and who has not yet been educated up to the
point of regarding Virgil and Juvenal as 'sham classics.' The
'Admiral's' list is good, if somewhat too technical; and we would plead
for the admission of Southey's 'Life of Nelson,' even, if need be, to
the exclusion of the 'Annual Register' in 110 volumes. The Head Master
of Harrow 'tried to think how he should answer a boy's question if he
were to ask, at any point of his sch