There are other lives than those of purely literary men and women which
I should recommend.
You must have become aware of the great value of historical literature
in this age. Note what additions it has received from the intellects
of such historians as Macaulay, by his "Life of Frederick the Great"
and by his "History of England"; as Motley, by his "Dutch Republic";
as Prescott, by his "Ferdinand and Isabella"; as Alison, by his "History
of Europe"; as Froude, by his "Life of Caesar." One can hardly be
without such valuable reference-books as Green's "History of England,"
Freeman's various histories, and those included in the Epoch Series.
But, before reading any of these works, it would be well to read various
essays on how history should be written. There is an article by Macaulay
on this subject, very brilliantly written, and truthfully. There are
also valuable essays on the same subject by Froude, Freeman, Carlyle,
Emerson, Miss Cleveland.
You might profitably combine with this topic of history that of travels.
You know works of travel form a large, and certainly a delightful,
part of our reading.
You have doubtless noticed the popularity which fiction always receives.
It embraces the majority of the books written in this age. Try to study,
in a concise way, the development of the novel from the time of
Richardson and his immediate followers, and find its most perfect
expression in the works of George Eliot, Dickens, Thackeray, Hawthorne.
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