an address, a list of one hundred of what he considered the best
books—the word books being extended in some cases to mean
authors. The list included religion, law, morals, science, phil
osophy and literature, and at the head of it stood the Bible. A
few weeks afterward, on request, John Ruskin made out a list of
the one hundred best books, but of Mr. Lubbock's list about all
that he retained was the Bible. Mr. Gladstone bore a hand later
and so did several other public men. All these lists varied great
ly. But they all retained the Bible. They all made selections
from old and long-tried literature. Not one of them took any cur
rent book or any book that had been on the market less than twen
ty years.
Now these lists taken together are much more interesting than
any one of them taken separately and furnish some invaluable
lessons.
The first and most obvious of these lessons is—the variety of
men's tastes in books as in everything else. No man must ex
pect to lay clown a list which any other man shall accept without
challenge. Every man should use his own taste and make the
selections which are most valuable to him. Just as no man may
coerce our labor or our vote, so no man ought to expect to force
us in the matter of what books we shall read. It is, however,
our duty to yield to advice in this as in other matters.
The next obvious lesson is that men of all callings and pro
fessions agree in recommending the Bible. They all, whether
scientists, statesmen, art critics or literary men, put that in the
list, and put it first. That they do so ought to be argument suffi
cient for any young person, The Bible is a history, almost a
series of biographies. It is a good deal like Plutarch. It is some
what like Boswell's Life of Johnson. But it is a great deal richer
and more profitable than they are, because it embraces more
character and ranges over more time and places. It includes more
phases of history and gives us life under varied inspiration and
press'ure. The finest achievements men have made in morals and
religion are in it.' There is in it much of action, little of specula
tion. When we say it contains the story of Joseph, the life of
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