It is true that a girl who has free access to a good library, a love of books, and ample leisure, will not in all probability go very far wrong. When a lad, Dr. Johnson imagined that his brother had hidden some apples behind a large folio upon an upper shelf in his father’s shop. He climbed up to search for them; there were no apples, but the large folio proved to be Petrarch. He sat down with avidity and there and then read a great part of the book. During two years which he spent at home he read and read as the fancy prompted him, and when he went to Oxford Dr. Adams, a great authority, told him he was the best qualified student who had ever come there. Perhaps this experience is what prompted Dr. Johnson’s dictum, “Read anything for five hours a day, and you will soon be learned.” The great majority, however, of the girls who scan this page have not “five hours a day” to spend in pasturing among books, and need advice how to parcel out the very limited leisure they possess to the best possible advantage. How shall they read? This is to the full as important a question as the one which follows—What shall they read? To begin with; they should husband the precious moments for reading. You daughters in leisurely homes who are conscious now and then of a vague desire for more mental resources—_your_ moments are not precious! You pass your days from morning to night in doing “nothing particular.” Are you making the best use of your time in this respect? How many hours a week do you spend in reading—that is, of reading what is not entirely ephemeral? Are you not content to “take as read” the great mass of English literature? And yet, do you know how far you have it in your own power to add to the delight and worth of life? The days of many girls at home must needs be desultory—a little practising, a little housekeeping, a little bicycling, a little visiting and seeing visitors, a little shopping and attention to dress—and the evening comes, and not a page has been read or a new idea gained. An infinity of trifles makes up the day’s routine—the girl is always busy, and yet at the close of the week she seems to have accomplished nothing.