But there is something better still in this little volume. It gives a true opportunity to enjoy the company of the ablest men and women who have ever put pen to paper. Until now a college course of three or four years has been the only means of getting in touch with the best of good, sensible reading. Our schools do not teach us how to understand and take pleasure in these books; our libraries only store them for us to use if we already know about them. Recent figures show that for some time past more than 10,000 new books have been published in the United States each year, an equal number in England, and even more in Germany and Russia. The public libraries contain millions upon millions printed in the past. It would be impossible for even a hundred men giving their whole lifetime of eighty years to do as much as scan the pages of all the world's literature. Therefore it is only too evident that for the sensible use of the little time which we can give to reading we should be enabled to make a selection. We must be started on the right road. This is the express aim of THE LIBRARY OF ENTERTAINMENT. Until now the pleasure and the distinction that come from being well-read have belonged to a few. The combination that opens the treasure-vaults of literature was only given in college lectures. The outside world has been left to shift for itself. But this is utterly wrong; with the simple introduction that is given in Part Two of this book the world of literature and its lasting delights are open to all. PART I SIDE-LIGHTS ON GREAT WRITERS To many of us it seems as if an author with an assured reputation must be one of the happiest of men; yet some of the very greatest have suffered almost intolerably. Bobby Burns was a victim of drink largely because of his brilliant imagination and extreme sensitiveness. He was petted by society and praised as the poet of the future; all England was at his feet. Yet he gave way to his passions, took to drink, and ruined the lives of several of his dearest friends, as well as his own. In almost anyone else this would condemn him absolutely; but the truth is that his poetic powers, the gift of his genius, rendered him too sensitive to moods of the moment, and his will could not hold out under the strain.