"The trouble with the 'Five-foot shelf of books' is that it is too long for the average man and intellectually it is up out of his reach. He can, perhaps, manage the Bible, for he can get commentaries on almost any part of it, and on occasion can hear sermons preached, but he will get very little benefit from a perusal of most of the others for the simple reason that he has not education enough in order to understand them. To read Shakespeare one should have at least a high school education, and about all the others need something even better in the way of schooling. Is it not possible to obtain this comfort, instruction and entertainment by a perusal of more modern books that the average man can understand? "We are apt to look back to the days of our youth as a time of sunshine and flowers, a time, in fact, of all things good; so, also, we are prone to give the men of ancient days some a golden crown, and some a halo, and ascribe to them an importance beyond their real value to us of these later days. Modern times and modern nations are rich in material well worth reading. Such books have the advantage in that the average man can understand them, and can be entertained and edified thereby. "People who are already in possession of culture and education are not so much in need of advice concerning their choice of books, for they have the ability to make proper discrimination. It is the common people, those who have been unable to obtain this higher education and culture, that need the assistance to promote the proper growth of their intellectual and spiritual lives." There is much in this letter which is worthy of thought. It is evidently the sincere expression of a man who has tried to appreciate the world's great classics and has failed, mainly because he has had this mental consciousness that he was not prepared to read and appreciate them. It is this attitude toward the world's great books which I wished to remove in these articles. It has been my aim to write for the men and women who have not had the advantage of a high school or college education. Any higher education is of great benefit, but my experience has shown me that the person who has a genuine thirst for knowledge will gain more through self-culture than the careless or indifferent student who may have all the advantages of the best high school or university training.