And first it may be said that no kind of culture is possible without a knowledge of the great literature of the Past. You must, therefore, read and study what has survived through centuries of time. Have you ever reflected on the immortality of books, and what it means? Written in the most perishable of materials, nay, at first not written, but handed down by word of mouth, they have outlasted the triumphal arch, the mighty column, the impregnable city of old; have continued, while empires have tottered to their doom, and while one civilisation has risen upon the ruins of another. The shocks of contending armies have affected them not: they have endured, from generation to generation, the same, while all else has changed. What respect, then, and reverence should be paid to the books of olden time! First, of course, comes the Bible. We are not accustomed to study this Book for literary reasons, and rightly think its claim to our love and reverence rests upon other grounds. But we must never forget that the sublimest poetry, the most beautiful simplicity of diction mingled with grandeur, are to be found in the Old and New Testaments. “Intense study of the Bible will keep any man from being vulgar in point of style,” said Coleridge. Also, if anyone anxious for self-culture could take the Bible as a starting-point, and follow up all the different allusions to the nations of the earth—study the early civilisations of Egypt and Assyria, going on to Greece, Rome and Asia Minor, for example—he would find himself well educated in ancient history before he was aware of it. The influence of Bible study upon the character, even in the way of culture, is very wonderful. Take, for instance, the Scotch peasantry of a generation or two ago. Devout, versed in the Scriptures and probably little else, what a fine mental type many of their children have exhibited! One could name novelists, philosophers, divines, who have traced their power of thought and charm of diction to the influence of the home where riches were not, but a sturdy, simple, religious faith, based upon a daily study of the Bible, prevailed. “Every several mind needs different books,” but every mind needs the Book of books. Apart from the Bible, there are two books of which you should know something: the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ of Homer. This possibly sounds far too learned to many girls who read this page. They have a vague idea that they must know Greek before they can approach what their schoolboy brothers regard as a task. And if they never hear of these names in the daily run of life, they feel all the more reluctant to attack what sounds repellent and incomprehensible.