The Best Hundred Books/Introduction
INTRODUCTION.
THERE is no more delightful pastime than to lecture other people on the choice of books. Carlyle, in recent times, began the game, and since his Edinburgh address every lecturer has had his own select library to recommend. But the choice of books, if a pleasant pastime to the lecturer, is none the less an important matter for his audience, and Sir John Lubbock did well in selecting it for the subject of his inaugural address to the Working Men's College last month. Those who have seen the efforts made by the more intelligent working men and other uninstructed seekers after knowledge are well aware how many errors come from ignorance about the Best Books. There is something really pathetic, for instance, in the story of the Northumberland pitman who, after attending some science lectures, saved up his scanty money to buy a copy of Goldsmith's "Natural History," only to find when he took his treasure home that it was hopelessly antiquated. But the errors of choice made from carelessness are even greater than those made in ignorance; and hence no doubt it was that Sir John Lubbock, in giving the Working Men's College his list of the Best Hundred Books, added that "if a few good guides would draw up similar lists it would be most useful." Sir John Lubbock, like every other seriously minded and methodic man, had "often been astonished to see how little care people devoted to the selection of what they read." Ars longa, vita brevis; and with a view to neutralizing the inequality we determined to take up Sir John Lubbock's hint, and to invite all the best guides in England to place their clues to the bewildering labyrinth of books at the service of the public. The answers that we published from day to day created so much interest—both for the light that they threw on the idiosyncrasies of the writers and for the light that they gave to searchers after knowledge—that it became necessary to meet the continued demand for copies by this republication. We have included a few letters not hitherto published, as well as some additional matter, which, it is hoped, may enhance the value of this "Extra."
There is no doubt something bewildering at first sight in the multitude of counsellors and the striking diversity of their counsel. The total number of books included by one authority or another among the "best hundred" is, we find, considerably over 400, and there are surprisingly few books which appear in more than one of the lists. Now, there must be moderation in reading as in other good things; and the ordinary man will probably seek some halfway house between the "catholic taste" of Charles Lamb which excluded "all those volumes which no gentleman's library should be without" and the omnivorous appetite of Macaulay, who would master on a voyage to India what many men are labouring all their lives to skim. After all is said and done, we doubt whether Shakspeare's advice can be improved upon—
We do not take it that the contributors to this little volume expect the general reader to master more than the whole of any one list, certainly not the sum of them all. Every one will study what he most affects, and the value of this collection lies, we venture to think, in this—that among the variety of good judges here gathered in judgment every reader will find one to advise him according to his taste. The golden rule in the choice of books is not to attempt to read the best books in every department of knowledge, but to be sure of reading the best in any province that you take for your own. In the hope of meeting this end, we have arranged all the principal books recommended by our contributors in alphabetical order (p. 26), and have affixed the price and other necessary particulars of the most accessible editions. This list has been specially revised for the present edition. Further, we thought it would be both interesting and suggestive to add to what people ought to read what as a matter of fact they do read. The librarians of some typical Free Libraries have kindly supplied us with the necessary information under this head (p. 25). On the question of the choice of books we are happy to be able to add an interesting paper by Mr. Ruskin (p. 8), and a hitherto unpublished letter by Carlyle (p. 3), and we have further taken the liberty of reprinting from the American journals he report of a lecture which Mr. J. R. Lowell delivered shortly before Sir John Lubbock gave his list. Mr. Lowell's lecture contained, it seemed to us, some of the wisest and wittiest things that have been said on the subject.