the literary tastes of the public and at the same time serve the best interests of your pupils books relating to history to biography and to travel will form a the book lover veiy large portion of your but books of fiction � such as are known to be � should not be excluded and poetry should occupy the place of honor upon your shelves for the younger children you should not neglect to supply a few books of that type referred to in the preceding chapter � stories which cultivate the imagination and strengthen the understanding while they at the same time allow a and from the studies of the no book should be bought merely because it is a good book but because it can be made in the of certain desired ends the brief lists in the following chapters it is hoped will assist you somewhat in making a wise selection as well as in directing to a judicious use of books for the selection of a book is only half of a teacher s or a parent s duty the proper and profitable use of it is the other half and this lesson should be early taught to all young people the proper and profitable use of books � the library in the school this many things in the first place eveiy child should learn how to handle them as things of greater worth than mere dead matter there is scarcely anything more painful to the book lover than to see books abused and yet how few people seem to regard them as more than so many of waste paper having a certain money value how few among au those who read appear to recognize in a good book the precious life blood of a master spirit how few treat these silent yet expressive friends with anything approaching due respect the example of may be quoted as that genuine love of books which their owner to care for them as for his dearest companions he had an almost fondness for books � books themselves � and said that he could not bear to treat them or see them treated with he told us it gave him pain to see them turned on their faces stretched open or dog s or carelessly flung down or in any way the book lover he told us this holding a in his hand with a caressing gesture as though he it affectionately and for the pleasure it had given him he spoke like one who had known what it was in former years to buy a when its involved a sacrifice of some other object horn a not over stored purse we have often noticed this in book lovers who like ourselves have had volumes come into cherished possession at times when their glad owners were not rich enough to easily book purchases charles lamb had this tenderness for books caring nothing for their gaudy clothing but a rare all the nearer to ins heart for its worn edges and shabby binding the first lesson learned by pupils having access to a school library should be such as will lead them to have this reverence for good books care should be taken that no species of injury shall occur a book when once taken of writers hy charles and mary the library in the school from its shelf should be returned in due time in perfectly good condition soiled hands should not be permitted to much less to open a volume the child should be taught that imder no circumstances should he turn the leaves with fingers or fold the comers to mark the place or lay the open book down upon its face where he has left off reading he should moreover be led to a proper admiration of handsome � an admiration which will handling and induce that instinctive respect which all feel for beauty of dress for this latter reason i the custom � useless as it seems to me � of covering library books with those covers which do but provoke and if teachers do their duty in this matter uncovered books will those subjected to such and how much more pleasant when standing in front of the shelves to see the smiling faces of our looking down upon us than to a monotonous array of brown bundles w the book lover as devoid of expression as they are lacking in beauty to the care of the books should be considered the order and manner in which they are read i would not advise that teachers or even parents should every time select the books which a child is to read a boy will generally read with much more zest and interest a book which he has chosen for himself but the teacher should give such general instruction and directions as will while they leave some latitude for choice always lead to a wise selection as the pupil advances in the acquisition of knowledge he should be given more definite instruction as to the manner in which he may his reading so as to lead to the best possible results more than this he should on occasion be held to as strict in the matter of his reading as in that of any other part of his school work and he should be brought so constantly into contact with books that he will acquire a ready skill in using them for of reference the library in the school it too often happens in schools where the ordinary methods of instruction are closely followed that the pupil s interest in his studies is upon the and ends with the examination the text book to ordinary minds is a of � or theories � so that only the brightest succeed in discovering any relationship between its world of and the real world of life and thought around us but suppose that in each school there were a small 