It must be apparent that morals cannot be acquired by committing to memory a set of rules, but are unconsciously fashioned by every influence which strikes the impressionistic and receptive character of youth and leaves its indelible imprint for good or evil throughout the life of the individual. Character is formed during the short period of boyhood. It is, therefore, of superlative importance that all character forming influences to which the boy is subjected, including his reading, shall be of the best and highest type. Ideal companions for our sons are more difficult to find in real life than in fiction. The perfect boy may live somewhere--but not in my immediate neighborhood. The companions of our boy are usually worse than he--at any rate we think them so; if one is good-natured he may be a bully; if another is of high moral character he may be so lazy and untidy that his influence is unwholesome; a third may be untruthful, while still another may be so goody-goody that his influence is positively depressing. But in the carefully selected literature of today may be found suitable companions for your son--the heroes who exemplify in the achievement of enterprises of adventure and daring the virtues which all boys should seek to emulate. Manly models are unconsciously copied. From the intimate companionship with such heroes gained by reading, the boy obtains inspiration for bravery, truth, obedience, honor, loyalty, industry, manliness, courtesy, and ambition. Chumming with virtue inspires virtue. “There is a world,” says Walter Taylor Field, “into which children may enter and find noble companionship. It is the world of books. Let your boy escape for a time from the meanness of the boy across the street, and let him roam the woods with Hiawatha, sail the seas with Sindbad, build stockades with Crusoe, fight dragons with Jason, joust with Galahad; let him play at quoits with Odysseus, and at football with Tom Brown. These are playmates who will never quarrel with him nor bully him, but from whom he will learn to be brave, self-reliant, manly, quick to do for others, and set with his face toward the light.” The character-building qualities of such books are as unquestioned as their intellectual value.