No one should read all the time, for people are more important than books. Yet it would be a pity for any boy or girl not to read at all. Francis Bacon, the essayist, of whom we learned a very little in the chapter on essays and essayists, says in one of his writings: "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." Bacon means by the first part of this saying that a man who does not read at all is sometimes empty-minded, while a man who reads well has many thoughts in his mind, good, sweet and profitable. If Bacon were in the world to-day, and noticed, as he would be certain to notice, for Bacon was a most observant man, how much time some people spend in reading, he might have added a sentence saying that continual reading may keep people from thinking. Rightly used, books are an aid in teaching us how to think. There are many books which have not been mentioned in these pages, some of them famous, many of them delightful, important or amusing. Some of these books you will find for yourselves {251} as time goes on; some you may know already. Perhaps you may have wondered why nothing has been said of this or that book. But it is true that there is always an individual choice in books, as in other things. You will find--and love--your own books, the books which belong to you. To discover one's own books for one's self is a great adventure. Some of you may be specially interested in French literature; and, presently, you will read the works of the great French dramatist Molière, one of whose characters is the famous Monsieur Jourdain, who had spoken prose all his life without knowing it. Balzac and Flaubert are two other names among a multitude of French writers. The literatures of other countries offer us reading which many people enjoy greatly. Numbers of fine books are continually being produced by writers in English. English novels especially make good reading. Among writers of a comparatively recent date who have not been mentioned are John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Henry James, an American, Anthony Trollope, William Morris, George Du Maurier, William de Morgan, and many others. Certainly, if you can find time, read the witty, entertaining Irish stories of two ladies, E. OE. Somerville and Martin Ross, especially their first book, _Some Experiences of an Irish R. M._