The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-05-28
BOOKS PRICED BY WRITERS.
Works That Have Given Decisive
Bent To Great Careers.

tho first book Lincoln owned and from
the great character reflected In tina
humble mirror he drew incentive for hi,
own high ambition. Another lad. borr
on the same day In another hemisphere
writes Ella Gilbert Ives in the Congre.
odtfondist. came upon n guide post tc
greatness OF another sort. Darwin said
OF Humboldt's personal Narrative"
This work M Sir John Herschel's
Introduction 10 the study of Natura'
Philosophy stirred up in me a burning
zeal to d even the most humble con-
tril,ution To the noble structure Il
natural science. No one or a dozen other
books influenced me nearly as much as
these two
Robert Browning was tho grandson q.
n man who read the Bib and Tom
Jones' through m a year. As a Cllld
at his mothers knee. listening to Bible
stories. he became ''passiouately re-
liglous." In later life he used TO read
the New Testament aloud with his wife
each winter. At Is browning nance
upon n volume Of Sheiley's poems in "A
bookstall and prevailed upon his mother
10 get IL for him. She wisely added
Keats. II was an eventful evening for
the boy when he read the ode TO q
nightingale and Epipsychidion to the
music OF two nightlngalcs singing In n
laburnum tree and d copper beech. out
side hts window.
More eventful stlll was the day whom
Browning felt the first flush Of delight
over the poems OF Elizabeth barrett
that great living poetry, not a flower Of
which but took root and grew" as he
asserted in his frs, letter to its nm
known author. a fortnight later the
poet was in his study with her books
lying on his table, stretching out n hand
FOR either green covered volume as II
II were So much fresh tref H."
Elizabeth Barrett's great epic"
written when sh" was ~ or IL. the
battle OF Narration, was ropes Homer
done over again or, rather, uudone
The Creek poets We're her masters. How
She paid the debt in "A Vision of Poets
let Robert Browning say! "IIow per-
feet. absolutely perfect. are those three
or four pages In the vision which pre-
sent the poets-a line. a few words. and
the man there-one twaug 90 the bow.
and tho arrowhead IN the white
Mrs. Browning hccam. in turn the
inspiration Of other women of genius
Among them was Elizabeth stuart
Phelps. whose .iu,elle tual life was
aroused 10y her fathers reading aloud
the prose Of De Quincy and the poet,y
of Wordsworth. The same year sh.
happened on Elizabeth Barrett brown
Ing. y was ID" She wrote. and ! read
aurora LslRn. There may u.
greater poems In our language than
Aurora Leigh but Il was many years
before II was possible for m. TO suppose
II. Each To his own and
what Shakespeare or the Latin fathers
have done for some other Impression
able girl Mrs. browning dil
for me. ! owe 10 her distinctly the
first visible aspiration ,amhition is too
low a word) to do some honest. hsr,'
u..pk ns V..s ANua L. .1- .---l
and for It"
George Eliot was q young woman
when she made this observation. The
writer's who have most profoundly In
ftuenced me-Nho have rolled away the
waters from their bed. raised new noun
tains and spread delicious valleys FOR
me--are not in the least oracles To me"
She then instanced Rousseau as one
who had quickened her faculties u, the
rushing. mighty wine of his !nsp!ra-
ton. and George Sand as one whom
she bowed before IN eternal gratitude
10 that great power Of God manifest
IN her In the same letter she said.
i have at last the most delightful DE
lmita:.one Christi Verify i.s
piety has It's foundation in the depth
o: the divine human soul" The ini,u-
cnce OF this book She has shown in tina,
revelation u her own girlhood Maggie
Tullirer.' only one religious book had
a more powerful influence over ,;eo-r.
Eliot. and that was the English Bible.
During her last years at Whitley In,
daily readings began with some chapters
or the Rible-'a very precious and sa-
cred book 10 her; and Isaiah. Jeremiah
-. Iaul lent their majestic thought
To the deep organ music of her reading
voice.
Robert o Stevenson was drawn IN
Ihortiu as steel 10 a magnet. ",
wrote ~ ion me this pure, narrow
snnn!ly ascetic Thoreau had exercised n
great cha IN. ! have scarce written ton
sentences sliA'e was Introduced To
MN but his intlurnr" might Ice some
where detected 10y a close Observer 80
The list of St"ycusou's literary init
mates * short Scott, Shakespeare.
Moliere. Montaisne, Meredith. Dumas.
The closest ~ these was Dumas. His
"Ni'omte de i~ragelonnc" was Steven
sons favorl,c o He found I'm II.
after five readings, "a pleasant and "A
tonic sadness"
The first volume to Influence william
Morris was THE Heir of Eedciyffe'
During his student life at oxford he was
introduced 10y Rurue-Jon,s to Thorpe.
Northern Mythology" that great new
worh az the Scandinavian epic which
eventually opened his own Earthly
PARADISE" Ruskir WAS hero and prophc,
to both Morris and liurnc-Jones Morris
read ituskln aloud, says his biographer.
In "a mighty singing vo.ce, and chante8
rather than read those weltcrlng oceans
OF eloquenre" His early poems, by his
own admission, We're limitations OF Mrs
Browning. but ChauCcr was his poetic
master.
Gen. Lew Wallace was led to write
"Ben Hur" by III" extraordinary hold
upon his imagination Of the passage in
ST. Matthews Gospel ahoL., Jesus and
tho Maei. He not only wrot. n book
OF permanent Value to mankind, but
ended his research by becoming a he.
lever in ,iod and Christ. When Pres,-
dent Clarified commissioned ten. Lew
Wallace as United States Minister To
Turkey he wrote across his credentials,
"F'or the sake of Rem lIur Said Gar.
field with this beautiful and rcyerent
book YOU have lichtencd the burden OF
my daily life"
found in Cotton Mathcr's "Magualia" a
wealth of stories about her own roun- /
try: Stories" sh" wrote. that made
me feel the very ground | trod on 10
be "onsecratcd lay some special dealing
OF Gods providence
Cotton Mather profoundly affected an
other great life. benjamin Franklin said
Mither's Essays to DO Good" read
in childhood This volume gave IN.
such II turn TO- thinking ms To have an
influence on my conduct through life. for
] nave always set a greater value on the
character of 4 door Of good than on any
other Kind of reputation, and il have