More awesome prose from the Harvard Classics people

I'm coming down with a cold, so I'm blue. When I'm blue, nothing refreshes me more than Grog A L'Americane reading some of the awesome prose that the admen concocted for the Daily Reading Guide. Here, enjoy some with me:

The Harvard Classics Embrace the Sum-Total of Literature and Life

Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books free you from the limitations of your age...They take you out of the rut of life in the town you live in and make you a citizen of the world...they make it possible for you to travel without leaving home, and to have vacations without taking time from your work. The offer you -- if you will only accept their gifts -- friends, travel, the knowledge of life; they offer you education, the means of making your life what you want it to be."

There's so much to make fun of here, but my head hurts too much to do more than italicize the "you," and to note that many actual Harvard graduates of the time probably had plenty of time to travel without ever having read Pliny.

Also, how do you embrace a sum-total?