young person should know the general character of the principal writers
since the time of Shakespere, even though one should never read their
works. You may remember how, in the recently finished novel of "The Rise
of Silas Lapham," the novelist, with a few sentences, shows how
ridiculous a really beautiful and amiable girl with a high-school
education may make herself in conversation by her lack of knowledge of
standard literature. She was telling a young gentleman where the
book-shelves were to be in the splendid new house being built by her
father, and suggesting that the shelves would look nice if the books had
nice bindings.

"'Of course, I presume,' said Irene, thoughtfully, 'we shall have to
have Gibbon.'

"'If you want to read him,' said Corey, with a laugh of sympathy for an
imaginable joke.

"'We had a good deal about him in school. I believe we had one of his
books. Mine's lost, but Pen will remember.'

"The young man looked at her, and then said seriously, 'You'll want
Green, of course, and Motley, and Parkman.'

"'Yes. What kind of writers are they?'

"'They're historians, too.'

"'Oh, yes; I remember now. That's what Gibbon was. Is it Gibbon or
Gibbons?'