5. Information books and supplementary readers in history, geography, and natural science have been excluded, in the main, from our lists. The test of literary excellence has been applied to most of the books chosen. De Quincey's distinction between the literature of knowledge and that of power is our line of demarkation. It seems to us probable that the future will call for a still more stringent adherence to this principle of selection. Information readers are good and necessary in their place in geography, history, and natural science; but they are not good enough to take the place of classics in reading lessons. The only exceptions to the rule of classics are the prose renderings of the old classics, as the "Story of the Odyssey," and the biographical stories from history. Both these have so much of interest and stimulus for the young that they seem to harmonize with our plan. But criticism may yet expose their inadequacy. It is our plan, in brief, to limit the reading work mainly to the choice masterpieces of the best authors, and to render these studies as fruitful as possible in spiritual power. If supplementary readings are used at all, let them be those which will strengthen the influence of the classics. It has been our plan to collect in the Special Method Books devoted to geography, history, and natural science, a full list of the supplementary readers and information books in those subjects. 6. In our list, however, is included quite a number of classic renderings of science and nature topics. Such are "Wake Robin," "Birds and Bees," "A Hunting of the Deer," etc., "Sharp Eyes" etc., "Succession of Forest Trees," "Up and Down the Brooks," "Water Babies," "The Foot-path Way," "Madam How and Lady Why," "Wilderness Ways," "In Bird Land," and many others. These books, however, belong to the literature of power. They look at nature through the eyes of poet and artist and enthusiast. They are not cold, matter-of-fact delineations. They unfold the æsthetic and human side of nature, the divinity of flower and tree. These books are the communings of the soul with nature, and are closely related in spirit to the poems of nature in Bryant, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and other poets. There has been a chasm between them and our text-books in science which needs bridging over. Now that science is beginning to be taught objectively, experimentally, and inductively, there will be much less of a hiatus at this stage, because there is so much that is powerfully stimulating in nature study.