Life — May 6, 1897 — page 2: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ncing through one of the early volumes Charles Dudley Warner's ‘Library of the World's Best Li ture,” we met, in the Emer- son section, an extract from one of the sage’s fine pages that ran in this wise:— “Meantime the colleges, whilst they provide h libraries, furnish us no professor of nd I think no chair is so much wanted.” doubtful if any phrase could so happily describe at once the function and the achieve- ment of Mr. Warner in his new and great wor! He himself is essentially a “professor of books,” although the charm of his work has tended to make us forget his wide and varied learning. And knowing not only books, but living writers and critics as well, Mr. Warner has gathered around him as advisers and aids other “‘profes- sors of books,” not men of the Dryasdust school, but those who possess the same salient charm and graphic power as himself. The result of this remar! literary move- ment has been to provide the great reading pub- lic, the busy public of ever scant leisure, with just what Emerson declared, more than half a century ago, we so much needed; namely, a guide to the best reading. Emerson indeed likens a library of miscel- laneous books to a lottery wherein there area hundred blanks to one prize, and finally ex- claims that ‘some charitable soul, after losing a great deal of time among the false books and alighting upon a few true ones, which made him happy and wise, would do a right act in naming those which have been bridges or ships to carry him safely over dark morasses and barren oceans into the heart of sacred cities, into and temple: This is precisely what Mr. Warner's new RALPH WALDO EMERSON. library does in the fine, critical articles whig preface the master-works of the gre: Exactly as the professor of chemistry or physics or astronomy or biology gives the studenta vier of the whole field of his science, the summary ¢ its achievements, its great names and its grew work Mr. Warner and his associates given tillation not merely of the whee world's literature—in itself a colossal attemp— but, in addition, its history, biograph cism as well. It is only when we gr: import that we realize the truly vast and more. mental character of the Library. It suredly rank as one of the most notab! ments of the century. The first edition of an important work like the Library is indisputabl valuable because printed from the n plates, thus bringing out both type a’ ings with noticeable clearness and t . superiority of first editions is best shown by th universal custom of publishers to de: for them than for those issued later. publishers of Mr. Warner's Library have so reduced the price of their most valuable desirable first edition that just at present its obtainable for about half of the regular subscrip tion price, and the additional privilege of eas monthly payments is also accorded, i These material cone Ss are mad quickly place a few sets in each communit inspection, Butas only a few of these introde: tory sets from the much sought-after first editir now remain, it becomes necessary for readen who desire a particularly choice set of the wo (and at about half price besides) to write at or for particulars to Harper's Weekly Club, 91 Fil Avenue, New York. A Sure Thing. ExtYa Super The WALTHAM watch movement Web. fe nest Nickel “Trimming s. $/human ingenuity and skill have yet come. Look for the trade marks represents absolute accuracy, as near as LADIES’ SUITS. IMPORTED GOWNS. Figured India Silk Dresses, from our own workre Eton Tailor-made Costumes, |New materials and fashionable col fy “RIVERSIDE” or “ROYAL.” Our name ings, Silk lined throughout. ir engraved on the plate of all our watches BLAZER SUITS LJ GstonButton 9|'S a sufficient guarantee. Lies flat totheleg. For sale by all retail jewelers. of Serge and Canvas Cloth, Taffes Silk lined. Imported Evening Waists, cannot Unfasten § §| AMERICAN WALTHAM WATCH COMPAN SHIRT WAISTS, accidentally. p> SLO SWHERE by Sarpolepait, GEORGE FROST, Boston, Mass. of Plaid and Check Silks. Broadway K 19tb 4. NEW YORK.