But no man can be another’s sole guide and do his thinking for him. Every man must have standards and principles, and be able to judge for himself. Such standards for judgment I have tried in this book first of all to give by simple illustrations. So far as I know nearly every one who has written about books has recommended volumes in the lump, as Wordsworth’s Poems, Lamb’s Essays, Scott’s novels, etc., as if every collection between covers were good all the way through. The fact is, great books need to be sifted in themselves, as well as great collections of books. Only a few poems of Wordsworth’s or Coleridge’s or Keats’ or Shelley’s or Tennyson’s or Longfellow’s are first rate, and all the others in their complete works would better be left out as far as the average man I have in mind is concerned. Even the great novels have to be skimmed, and it is not every one who knows how to do that. I am therefore desirous of giving assistance not only in the selection of volumes, but of the contents of each volume recommended. I have tried my hand already with some success as far as the public is concerned in selecting “The Greatest Short Stories”, “The Best English Essays”, “The World’s Great Orations” and the work of “The Great English Poets.” It is now my hope to offer the public in convenient, well printed, prettily bound volumes a Nutshell Library of the World’s Best Literature for English Readers. Unlike other compilations of this kind it will not be a collection of fragments and patchwork, so comprehensive that it includes thousands of things one doesn’t care for, and so selective that it leaves out four fifths of the things one does want especially. In my library I shall make each volume complete in itself and an interesting evening’s reading. The reader will be pleasantly introduced to the author as man and man-of-letters, so that he will know him the next time he meets him, and will get on terms of something like familiarity with him. It is now almost impossible for the ordinary business man or even the busy woman of the house to read many books. Sometimes we get started on the latest novel, recommended by a friend, and sacrifice enough time to finish it; then we are usually sorry we did it. And yet we know that the delicate enjoyment of life is in our cultivation of leisure in a refined and noble way. For all of us life would be better worth living, would be fuller of satisfaction and more complete in accomplishment, if we could spend a certain amount of time every day or every week with the world’s best society. This I hope to make it practically possible for many to do. This little volume lays down the principles and maps out the field. It is entirely complete in itself; but at the same time it introduces an undertaking which I hope may develop into wide usefulness.