whether of setting a table, of trimming a hat, or teaching a child
to read. And this taste for perfection can be cultivated; indeed,
it must be cultivated, if our standards of living are to be raised.
There is now scientific knowledge enough, there is money enough,
to prevent the vast majority of the evils which afflict our social
organism, if mere knowledge or wealth could avail; but the greater
difficulty is to make intelligence, character, good taste,
unselfishness prevail.

What, then, are the interests which powerfully appeal to mind
and heart, and so are fitted to become the strengthening companions
of a woman's life? I shall mention only three, all of them such
as are elaborately fostered by college life. The first is the love
of great literature. I do not mean that use of books by which a
man may get what is called a good education and so be better
qualified for the battle of life, nor do I mention books in their
character as reservoirs of knowledge, books which we need for
special purposes, and which are no longer of consequence when
our purpose with them is served. I have in mind the great books,
especially the great poets, books to be adopted as a resource and
a solace. The chief reason why so many people do not know how
to make comrades of such books is because they have come to them
too late. We have in this country enormous numbers of readers,
probably a larger number who read, and who read many hours in the
week, than has ever been known elsewhere in the world. But what
do these millions read besides the newspapers? Possibly a
denominational religious weekly and another journal of fashion
or business. Then come the thousands who read the best magazines,
and whatever else is for the moment popular in novels and poetry--
the last dialect story, the fashionable poem, the questionable but