Neither is a dictionary a bad book to read. There is no cant in it, no excess of explanation, and it is full of suggestions, the raw material of possible poems and histories.
I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.
How beautiful is youth! How bright it gleams with its illusions, aspirations, dreams! Book of beginnings, story without end, each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!
