The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-01-22
Great Literary Bibles.

Literary blbles. 1neSe are the lilac
and the Odyssey OF Homer, the Divine
Comedy of Dante, the greater dramas
of Shakespeare, and Goethe's Faust
Each of these is the embodiment anC
revelation of the ideals OF race, an
age, or civilization. They came out
of the hearts and minds of the people,
for whom their authors were only the
spokesman. They are therefore sim
pie, fundamental, and comprehensive.
They appeal to the hearts and grip the
minds of all people everywhere, young
and old, learned and unlearned, OF what
ever race or creed. They are human
books and take firm hold on the human
life which we all live, which few under
stand, but which in all its phases has
interest without end" They are
broad-minded, catholic books. Their
authors saw life steadily and saw it
whole. Kings and priests to God and
humanity, they interpreted for man the
eternal mysteries. Prophetic men, they
stood on the mountain tops and caught
the glow of the ever dawning new day.
Finely organized men, they felt the
heart-throb and pulse-beat of the hu,
man race and understood the hopes and
fears and aspirations of humanity bet
ter than most, and have set these to the
music of rhythmic, winged words.
These books should be read by all
who would know the worlds literature
and life. The United States Bureau of
Education has, therefore, chosen them
for its first course in reading, and in
vites all serious-minded young men and
women to join this, its first national
reading circle, the members of which
will undertake to read each of these
books at least twice within the next
three years from the time of joining
the circle.
For admission to this circle it is only
necessary to write to the Home Edu-
cation Division of the Bureau of Edu-
cation, Washington, D. Co." giving
your name, postoffice address, your age,
and very brief statemento of your edu-
cation and occupation. You should
also write the home education division
Of the bureau when you have finished
reading any book of the course.
To each person giving satisfactory
evidence of having read all the books
on the list there will be awarded GER
tifcate bearing the seal of the United
States Bureau of Education and signed
by the Commissioner of Education. All
young men and women who want to
know the best there is in the literature
Of the world and to gain the inspiration
it gives are invited to join this national
reading circle, and it is hoped many
thousands may do SO.
Charles Alphonso Smith, Edgar Allen
Poe, Professor of English in the Uni
versity of Virginia; Charles Foster
Smith, Professor of Greek in the Uni
1ersity of Wisconsin; Richard Burton,
Professor of English Literature in the
University of Minnesota, and William
Lyon Phelps, Professor of English Lit
srature in Yale University, will assist
he Bureau Of Education in directing
his course of reading.
State school officers are asked to CO.
operate with the Bureau of Education
n directing this and other reading
courses arranged by the bureau. In
hose States in which this is done the
certificates may bear also the signature
If the chief school officer.
In writing about this course refer to
t as United States Bureau of Educa-
,ation, Home Education Division, Read
ng Course No. l, or as The Literary
Bibles Reading Course"
Very sincerely,
P. P. CLAYTON,