Men, however, must have manly books. Real solid literature alone will arrest their attention. They grudge the trouble of reading what they do not accept as truth, unless it is some book whose fame has reached their ears, and to have read which they regard as an achievement. Where grown men are subscribers to a library, it should have standard works of well-known reputation. Travels, biographies, not too long, poetry, histories of contemporaneous events, and fiction of the kind that may be called classical, should be the staple for them. It is hardly advisable to attempt to give a list for them. Their books belong to general literature, with which I do not wish to meddle, and besides, reading men mostly inhabit towns where there are generally Institutes from which they can obtain books. In the country, when the clever cobbler or gardener soars above the village library, he will generally have a decided notion of what he wants, and will respect a special loan from our own shelves. He may take to some line in natural science, or have some personal cause for interest in a colony; but in general, the labourer would rather smoke than read in his hours of rest, and even when laid aside in a hospital, newspaper scraps pasted into a book are often more welcome to him than more continuous subjects. Above all, he resents being _written down to_ or laughed at; and calling him Hodge and Chawbacon is the sure way to alienate him. Books with strong imitations of dialect are to be avoided. They are almost unintelligible to those who know the look of a word in its right spelling, though they might miscall it, and do not recognise it when phonetically travestied to imitate a local dialect, as for instance by _ah_ for _I_. Moreover, they feel it a caricature of their language, and are very reasonably insulted. They do not appreciate simplicity, but are in the stage of civilisation when long words are rather preferred, partly as a compliment, partly as a new language. Complicated phrases are often too much for them, but polysyllables need not be avoided, if such are really needed to express an idea, and will do it better than any shorter word.