The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-01

However. in forming home library. 1t is not worth while to attach too much importance to fine bindings. The book itself Is the thing to seek for. and a good cloth binding satisfies most people. Rich and ornate bindings are for those who can pay for them with- out missing the money.
 A full set of Dickens and of Thack- cry. a set of Baizan and of Robert Louis Stevenson. should be added to the library which ts to be an integral part of the household life. If one can. not purchase a set a1l at once. buy 6 single book at time. setting aside a part of the weekly or monthly income for the purpose. Very tempting offers are made by publishers in the line of subscription books, and 1t Is difficult to resist the suave urbanity of tho agent who sets forth the reasons why one should avail himself of these induce ments. But be warned in time. TIn- less one is very certain of the future. anything bought on tho installment plan will probably hang like a mill stone around the neck in the days to coma
 Bosweips life of Johnson is a never failing source of pleasure to the reader who enjoys biography at it's best. A
 shelf should be set aside for the lives
 
 have done good service to their periods.
 Here we would find, were we setting out to form a hhrafy, wide room for wise selection. As rule, choose the lives of those who have done something for their time, and around whom great movements have focused. The life of William E. Gladstone issin its way political history of Mir. Gladstone's England. The life of George Washing ton is the story of the American rev olution The lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert P. Lee are the histories of tho civil war in the United States, in some of its issues the most tremendous and far-reaching conflict of the nine feenth century. The life of Herbert Spencer is a contribution to the story of modern education and contrasts wtts
 antique ideas. The life of Sir Edward Burne-Jones is the story of a wonder full movemet in mode-n art. So we 1 might proceed indefinitely. since biog- | raphy is the story of the human race represented by its foremost men. A home library wil be incomplete without poetry. Do not consider po- etry as merely decorative; 1t Is the fit
 food for the cultured mind. If one does Among the poets whose works should I be added to the shelves are Homer, I Dante. Milton, Wordsworth. Shelley, Keats, Tennyson. Browning, Longfel- | low. Whittier, Lowell Kipling and | stephen Phillips. This Is very short | list for the poets arc many. but these | would make an excellent beginning. Every home library should be fur- | ntshed with some sacred literature. The Modern Readers Bible in little volumes, arranged not in chapters and verses, but by subjects and paragraphs.
 should belong to the store of books In every household. An alarming ig- norance of the Bible is characteristic
 of our day. To this cause. more than | to any other, may be attributed the
 prevalence of graft. the incerase of cor ruption In politics and the general low erirg of old fashioned ideas of honor We shall never be independent or tne | Tren. c,omnnandments. The foundation
 stone nf good home library should be | the Modern Readers Bible. 1t costs little in money, but 1t will pay well in | the long run.