Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-04-25
rHE VERMONT PHdNX. BRArrEBORO friday ApRII % $50
THE HOUSEHOLD.


Wnen editors ana hulnofs AL over Jne Wollu
are plying their pens for her entertainment
and instruction Travellers are visiting
the remote corners Of the earth's surface
for her The hammer Of the geologist,
the telescope of the astronomer, aud the
delicate instruments of the physicist are
for her revealing natures mysteries.
Poets indite for her their choicest fancies,
and historians peer into the past and seek
out the hidden motives of lives which have
influenced the world.
Above all things the literature which is
set before the girl must be bright and fresh.
She is young her heart fresh in fancy her
Imagination ever seeking food She must
have life activity pleasant repasts for her
intellectual palate. These she will have. |
In all the range Of literature there is moth
ing more inspiring to the human mind than
the story of human living. To this fact is
attributable the strong hold which writers |
of fiction have upon their readers. But |
far more inspiring than the fictitious histo-
ry is the record of a real life told by sym
pathetic biographer. The girl who is not
already familiar with them should read the
lives of such men aud women as Madame
Roland, Josephine, Margaret of Aniou,
Elizabeth Fry, Fidelia Fisk Charles and
Mary Lamb, the Cary sisters Joan of Arc,
Rosa Bonheur, Madame de Sta6l, Lady Jane
Grey, Harriet Hosmer, Dorothy Words
worth, Caesar, Scott, Napoleon, Frederick
the Great Cromwell, Webster, Lincoln,
| Washington, Luther, Savonarola, Colum
bus, Dante, Michael Angelo, Phidias, Cali
leo, Henry Of Navarro, Charlemagne
| Wycliffe and Hannibal, with others whose
lives have marked some era of thought or
action in the history of mankind. Nearly
all of these have been written during the
last few years by able hands. DR.. John
| Lords lectures on noted characters, which
were such an educational power few
| years ago, are now printed in a set Of five
disconnected volumes, under the title of
Beacon Lights of History" They are
comprehensive, critical and entertaining.
From the study of any of these noted
people side tracks may be laid, so to speak,
which shall take the reader into regions Of
great richness and beauty. Whoever reads
the life of Madame Roland, for instance,
would wish to know something more Of the
Girondists and the Red Republicans the
Feuillants and the causes and results of the
French revolution. A bright girl, whose
tastes have not been vitiated by previous
injudicious reading, will find that her mag
nation has been kindled her ideals glori
fed, and her ambition to make the best use
of all her powers awakened by such a stim
uating course of biographical reading
If the young reader be interested in mu-
sic or art. she will study either more intel
igently, hence with greater pleasure and
profit. if she become familiar with the sto
ry of the great masters whose works she
attempts to render Such reading has a
reflex influence The musical study in
creases interest in the great musician who
composed it, and the story of his life en-
hances the charm of the composition. The
girl artist has a still broader field from
which to choose. The entertaining histo-
ries of art and artists are almost number
less, and it is quite possible to become ia
misr with the works of the great masters
by means of books, and to know some
thing of the best galleries in the world even
if one never has an opportunity to travel
in other countries.
There is broad field of literature, half
fiction, half essay, wholly graceful and
and pleasing, comprising great variety of
themes which are refreshing and interest
ing to many young people. Among writers
in this field may be named c. d. Warner,
George William Curtis lin such sketches as
+, 'Prue and I'), Helen Hunt, Charles Lamb,
; O. w. Holmes, S. o. Jewett, and many
others All of the authors named stray at
times far beyond the comprehension of
5 some young people, but they are withal so
graceful and entertaining that no list of
t books for our young girl could be complete
I without them To these should also be
added the delightful out of-door recreations
of Thoreau. Burroughs and Hammerton.
If a young girls fancy inclines to poetry,
keep her from the weakly sentimental
I kind, and give her the strong, romantic,
but bracing poems of Scott, the wild Dor
der ballads of Bishop Percy's "Reliques of
English Poetry" and the early German and
Scandinavian legends, Whittier. Longfel-
!
e low, Burns, Adelaide Proctor, some OF
k Jean lngelo" poetry ana heleh huht may
il ne named as saie' Shakespeare may De
:; read with the student but 1t is not always
r enjoyed by young people VINO take theiI
? hrst taste "i MIN IN solitary readings Inc
/. rugged strength oil Homer HschyIus' Flu
: riPides' Sophocles' virgil TAKEN from th'
it best translatlons' may De helpIuiIy inter
r sPersed with the modern poets
onah we select novels LOT the girl u
q eighteen ny all means. Ana love sto
n rlesf why not-ProVided they are not al
x lowed IN such quantities OF oil such qualtl
e as to destroy the taste for all other books
sa She VIII read love stories IN the hVes o
n real people. Let her gratity her taste 1oI
stories by reading those In winch the entire
plot does not turn on the incidents oil low
no ana marriage dlve her scott ana DICKENS
in Mrs Mulock Craik Mrs oiiphant' Heller
" hunt, william BLACK, Charles Egoert GRAD
" stance Fenimore Woolson, the work O