At this time, too, interest is stirred to attempt an understanding of the 'reason for things'--the mind endeavors to arrive at some law or principle beneath the varied course of life and action in the world. In other words, boyhood and girlhood are past, and an older view of life and its responsibilities must naturally take the place of the carefree spirit of earlier days. The qualities of friendship that appear in "Tennessee's Partner" and the search for spiritual as well as intellectual companionship and understanding that is emphasized in Tennyson or Matthew Arnold are at this time beginning to be more fully appreciated and understood.
ADDISON Punning Good Nature Westminster Abbey
FROISSART Battles of Otterbourne and Crécy
=Nineteen and Twenty Years of Age.= Unquestionably, as the years pass on, we read again the books that have already given us so many hours of happiness and amusement. For this reason it is well for the young booklover to return to the lists for the previous years and renew acquaintanceships there. No doubt some of the authors whom he found but moderately amusing then will now win far more favor in his sight. Meanwhile, among the fresh material history and criticism naturally find a prominent place. Mommsen's estimate of Julius Cæsar and Chesterton's appreciative critique of Dickens stand among the foremost studies of great men that the world has yet produced. In the field of poetry it is high time to spend some quiet hours with Emerson, Browning, Shakespeare, Shelley, and Wordsworth. These five poets represent perhaps the very best that English verse has produced in the way of meditation--insight into the depths of nature and humanity.
At this point the reader will do well to consider other chapters in this Handbook, notably that on Literary Criticism, and the rest of Part II, which deals with the general principles underlying a fuller comprehension of literature. Part III, Studies of Great Authors, will be of even greater help to those readers who are finding increased pleasure in reading as students rather than for the sake of recreation or light reading alone. By following out the lines of thought presented in Parts II and III, especially if one does not attempt to carry too heavy a quantity of reading at a time, the enjoyment of books and thought will be immensely stimulated and broadened.