Chapter XXVIII: Reading for What You Want to Be

Biography is not only interesting reading, it helps us to understand other people. In this chapter we may discover that there are few better ways of finding out what kind of work we want to undertake than by reading biography.

First of all, let us think of a very few famous biographies, such books as Plutarch's _Lives_, Boswell's _Johnson_, Lockhart's _Scott_, Forster's _Dickens_, Morley's _Life of Gladstone_, Churchill's _Lord Randolph Churchill_, Page's _Life and Letters_, Sir Sidney Lee's _Shakespeare_.

Numberless people have read and used Plutarch's _Lives of Illustrious Men_. We know that Shakespeare did. If you will turn to the last life in Plutarch's book, the life of Brutus, you will find that Shakespeare must have used this biography of Brutus when he wrote the play _Julius Cæsar_.

Now we may think of biography as a magic key that will help you to unlock the door behind which you may find what work you are going to do. Let us ask ourselves what occupations these famous men followed whose lives appear in the list given above.

Johnson was a journalist, and an author, and he made a dictionary. Scott was a lawyer, an officer of the Crown, and a novelist; one might {195} almost add that he was something of a farmer. You remember how he loved the land he owned at Abbotsford, and used to ride over it and talk with his men about their work. Dickens was a reporter, a novelist, and, towards the end of his life, he gave public readings from his works. Gladstone was a statesman; he had great skill in finance; and on account of his associations at home, he had somewhat of the training of a business man. He also was interested in the land. You may read in his biography how he used to employ himself cutting down trees, that needed to be felled, on his estate. Lord Randolph Churchill was a statesman. Page was an editor, and a diplomatist. Shakespeare was an actor, the manager of a theatre, and a dramatist. Already you know how to find in biography some knowledge of a good many different occupations.

A great many of you will be farmers. The well-being and health of the world depend directly on farming; and the life of a farmer and of a farmer's family may be happy, independent and wonderfully useful and interesting. To learn about the life of a farmer, one must read other books as well as biography. Three of the novels that we have enjoyed reading contain vivid, true pictures of the life of people who live on a farm. The first of these novels is Scott's _Guy Mannering_. You remember the farm called Charlies-hope, and Dandie Dinmont and his wife and children. Scott dearly loved and thoroughly understood country life, and there is no more charming picture in a book of the natural, happy life of the farmer and his wife and children than in this {196} novel by Scott. The second novel is George Eliot's _Adam Bede_. Mr. and Mrs. Poyser had much skill in their occupation. It is interesting to discover how well Mrs. Poyser understands farming, especially dairy farming. _Lorna Doone_ is another novel about farm people. A Scottish poet, Robert Burns, was the son of a tenant farmer, and was himself a ploughman and a farmer. He has written much that is exquisite about country life. Ask someone to read aloud to you "The Cotter's Saturday Night", a wonderful picture of family affection and good living. You may find some of the words hard to understand. But whoever it is that reads the poem aloud to you will likely find the difficult words explained in a glossary. These are all English and Scottish writers. Hamlin Garland has written a good deal about the life of an American farmer, moving to new settlements, in his book called _A Son of the Middle Border_. In Will Carleton's verse and James Whitcombe Riley's verse we find songs and stories of farm life. Peter McArthur's books, _In Pastures Green_, _The Red Cow and Her Friends_, and _Around Home_, contain true, intimate, delightful pictures of farming in the older provinces of Canada.

And so we see how interesting reading about occupations may be. In the list that follows most of the books are biographies, lives of sailors, soldiers, architects, teachers, clergymen, business men, bankers, lawyers, actors, doctors, painters, craftsmen, journalists, nurses, musicians, explorers, scientists, workmen. There are other books, as well, about animals, and plants, nature and country walks, flying, mountain climbing, inventions, {197} hobbies, and science, about some of the many wonderful pursuits in which you are interested already, or in which you will be interested soon.

If you look in the list for the name of some particular book and do not find it, whether it is the name of a biography belonging to some occupation, or of a book telling about some recreation of which you want to learn, you may go to a library and ask for help in finding the book. Or if you cannot go to the library, write to the librarian and ask him to tell you.

Some day you may make a list of your own favourite books. No one person needs to read all the books named here, but boys and girls may choose from the list a few of the books they want to read. In the case of birds, flowers, and the study of nature, each neighbourhood or district of country needs to be classified according to its latitude and longitude. Birds, flowers and plants vary according to climate; look for their descriptions in books belonging to your own district of country.

Life of Nelson Robert Southey
Sir John Franklin A. H. Markham
Life and Voyages of Washington Irving
Christopher Columbus
My Mystery Ships Gordon Campbell
There Go the Ships Archibald MacMechan
The Life of Marlborough Viscount Wolseley
James Wolfe, Man and Soldier W. T. Waugh
Life of Gordon Sir Wm. Francis Butler
(English Men of Action)

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Life of Lord Kitchener Sir George Arthur
Personal Memoirs U. S. Grant
Lee the American Gamaliel Bradford
Life of St. Francis St. Bonaventura (Everymans)
Life of Dean Stanley R. E. Prothero
Life of Alexander White, G. F. Barber
D.D., of Free St.
George's Edinburgh
Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893 A. V. G. Allen
Margaret Ogilvy, by her son J. M. Barrie
Bonnet and Shawl Philip Guedalla
The Life of Florence Nightingale Sir E. T. Cook
Sister Dora M. Lonsdale
Life of Sophia Jex-Blake Margaret Todd, M.D.
Mary Slessor of Calabar W. P. Livingstone
In the House of My Pilgrimage Lilian Faithfull, J.P.
The Heart of Ellen Terry Ellen Terry
Louisa May Alcott, her Ednah D. Cheney
life, letters and journals
The Life of Alice Freeman Palmer G. H. Palmer
Life and Correspondence A. P. Stanley
of Thomas Arnold
Life of Charles W. Eliot E. H. Cotton
Life and Correspondence Ernest Hartley Coleridge
of Lord Coleridge
Richard Burdon Haldane,
An Autobiography
Reminiscences of Sir Ed. by Richard Harris
Henry Hawkins
Life of Joseph H. Choate E. S. Martin

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A Memoir of Sir James Prof. J. Duns, D.D.
Young Simpson
Lord Lister Sir Rickman J. Godlee
Life of Sir William Osler H. W. Cushing
The Beloved Physician, Sir R. McNair Wilson
James MacKenzie
Pierre Curie Marie Curie
Life and Letters of Charles Francis Darwin
Robert Darwin
The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin (Everymans)
Life and Letters of Thomas Leonard Huxley
Henry Huxley
The Life of Louis Pasteur René Vallery-Radot
Autobiography Benjamin Franklin (Everymans)
From Immigrant to Inventor Michael I. Pupin
Alexander Graham Bell Catherine MacKenzie
Delane of The Times E. T. Cook
Life and Letters of E. L. Godkin R. Ogden
Abraham Lincoln Lord Charnwood
Our Inheritance Stanley Baldwin
Memoirs of Sir John Alexander Sir Joseph Pope
Macdonald
Sir Wilfrid Laurier and J. S. Willison
the Liberal Party
Self-Help Samuel Smiles
The Rise of the House of Count Corti
Rothschild
From Workhouse to Westminster, George Haw
The Life of Will Crooks.
Sir Christopher Wren Sir Lawrence Weaver

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Life of Michelangelo J. A. Symonds
Buonarroti
Valasquez R. A. M. Stevenson
Life of Sir Edward Burne-Jones Lady Burne-Jones
Life of William Morris J. W. Mackail
William de Morgan and his Wife A. M. D. W. Stirling
Life of Purcell W. H. Cummings
Beethoven Romaine Holland
Life of Felix Mendelssohn W. A. Lampadius
Bartholdy
Life of Sir Henry Irving Austin Brereton
Empty Chairs Squire Bancroft
The Compleat Angler Isaak Walton (Everymans)
Natural History of Selborne Gilbert White (Everymans)
Walden H. D. Thoreau (Everymans)
Afoot in England W. H. Hudson
Rambles of a Canadian S. T. Wood
Naturalist
The Outline of Science J. Arthur Thomson
Scenery of Scotland Sir Archibald Geikie
Elementary Geology A. P. Coleman
Introduction to Geology W. B. Scott
Stories of Starland Mary Procter
Astronomy for Amateurs C. Flammarion
Conquest of the Air C. L. M. Brown
14,000 Miles Through the Air Sir Ross MacPherson Smith
Winged Warfare Col. W. A. Bishop, V.C.
The Ascent of Mount Everest Sir Francis Younghusband

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The Canadian Rockies A. P. Coleman
Handbook of Birds of Frank M. Chapman
Eastern North America
Field Book of American F. Schuyler Mathews
Wild Flowers
Garden Cities of Tomorrow E. Howard
A Book About Roses Dean Hole
The Little Garden Mrs. Francis King
The Canadian Garden Mrs. Annie L. Jack
The Boys' Own Book of Morley Adams
Pets and Hobbies
Models to Make A. Duncan Stubbs
Model Airplanes Elmer Adam
Health, Strength and Happiness C. W. Saleeby

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