ABSTRACT
“Go with mean people and you think life is mean. Then read Plutarch, and the world is a proud place, peopled with men of positive quality, with heroes and demigods standing around us, who will not let us sleep.” So said Emerson in his essay on books. What a splendid kind of optimism this holds out to the reader! And how truly it reveals the opportunities which are to be found by any person, rich or poor, who will yield himself or herself up to the pleasure and excitement of good reading.
