Consciously or unconsciously we are influenced by the characters we admire. A book that exerts a deep as well as a wide influence must produce changes in the reader's way of thinking, and excite him to activity; the world for him can never be quite the same that it was before. Such books have an important part in moulding the character of a people.It is because the books represented in this volume have been doing just that for many years that they have become so prized. (Edited by Willam Patten.)
