Now, a guide to reading--if he be of the right sort--can do for the beginner in literature very much the same degree of service as the Maine woodsman. The literary guide is merely one who has lived longer among books than the unprofessional reader. Since he has elected to pass his life in the literary woods, he may be supposed to have a good nose for interesting clews, and sharp eyes and alert ears for leading signs. He knows what novels are good fishing and what poetic trees are sound and what are hollow. But his services, however willingly tendered and skillfully performed, have limitations. You must do your own thinking and your own reading, and understand that only when you cease to be in floundering need of a guide will you begin to receive the richest benefits of reading. The guide’s idea of his duty is to help you to get along altogether without him. No guide, no literary adviser can give you ears for poetry or eyes for truth. The wisest companion can only persuade you to live among good books in order that your ear may have opportunity to reveal its fine capacities if it has them, and in order that your eye, dwelling upon beautiful things, may grow practiced in discernment. He cannot read for you. If you do not intend or hope to read any of the books mentioned in this volume, it will be waste of time for you to turn this page. If you passively receive every judgment of your guide about the merits of the scores of books we shall discuss, and never once question or try his judgment for yourself, you may be learning something about this guide, but you will not be learning about literature. It is not the part of a good pupil to surrender right of private judgment, but it is his part to give his judgment solid matter to work upon. On the other hand, too much independence, especially if it is not grounded in experience, is not modest. Even those who have read a good deal and arrived at mature opinions about books, may be content to accompany for a while a new guide whose experience has, necessarily, been different from that of others. Whatever your hope or intention, your guide is only a guide; he has not power to lead you against your will, he has not the schoolmaster’s right to prescribe a set course of reading. The reading must be voluntary, and to have value it must involve some hard work. Healthful entertainment and recreation we can safely promise. As for wisdom, reverence, the deeper delights of communion with noble minds, whether you meet these great spiritual experiences depends on you. The guide can merely indicate where they may be sought.