and
manuscripts are the stock of his profession and to them he must show a
single-minded devotion. He must love his library as Pasteur did his
laboratory and must fill with delight most of the hours of the day in
reading or writing. To this necessity there is no alternative. Whether
it be in general preparation or in the detailed study of a special
period, there is no end to the material which may be read with
advantage. The young man of twenty-five can do no better than to devote
five years of his life to general preparation. And what enjoyment he has
before him! He may draw upon a large mass of histories and biographies,
of books of correspondence, of poems, plays, and novels; it is then for
him to select with discrimination, choosing the most valuable, as they
afford him facts, augment his knowledge of human nature, and teach him
method and expression. "A good book," said Milton, "is the precious life
blood of a master spirit," and every good book which wins our student's
interest and which he reads carefully will help him directly or
indirectly in his career. And there are some books which he will wish to
master, as if he were to be subjected to an examination on them. As to
these he will be guided by strong inclination and possibly with a view
to the subject of his magnum opus; but if these considerations be absent
and if the work has not been done in the university, I cannot too
strongly recommend the mastery of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" and
Bryce's "Holy Roman Empire." Gibbon merits close study because his is
undoubtedly the greatest history of modern times and because it is, in
the words of Carlyle, a splendid bridge from the old world to the new.
He should be read in the edition of Bury, whose scholarly introduction
gives a careful and just estimate of Gibbon and whose notes show the
results of the latest researches. This edition does not include Guizot's
and Milman's notes, which seem to an old-fashioned reader of Gibbon like
myself worthy of attention, especially those on the famous Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Chapters. Bryce's "Holy Roman Empire" is a fitting complement
to Gibbon, and the intellectual possession of the two is an education in
itself which will be useful in the study of any period of history that
may be chosen.

The student who reads Gibbon will doubtless be influenced by his many
tributes to Tacitus and will master the Roman historian. I shall let
Macaulay furnish the warrant for a close study