Lectures on the Harvard Classics

Charles William Eliot

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The Lecture Series on the contents of The Harvard Classics ought to do much to open that collection of literary materials to many ambitious young men and women whose education was cut short by the necessity of contributing in early life to the family earnings, or of supporting themselves, "and who must therefore reach the standing of a cultivated man or woman through the pleasurable devotion of a few minutes a day through many years to the reading of good literature" (Introduction to The Harvard Classics.)

The Series will also assist many readers to cultivate "a taste for serious reading of the highest quality outside of The Harvard Classics as well as within them." (Ibid.) It will certainly promote the accomplishment of the educational object I had in mind when I made the collection. - Summary by Charles William Eliot