The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-07
HOW TO BE
No Fixed Rule for the Development of
the Individual.
The Outlook.

H OuliOOh.
Name the dozen books" is the request of
several friendly readers. 1t is easier to
make the request than to comply with II,
because tastes and aptitudes vary, and the
essential thing in culture is the result, not
the process. A man may cultivate himself
as Goethe did, by long study Of art and ma
ture; as Mr.. Beecher ala, by questioning
a man has. By the intimate study of one or
two books. He may cultivate himself by
literature, as Mr.. Lowell did; by science,
as Professor Tyndall did; by history, as
Mr.. John Fiske has done. Each man must
choose for himself the material which has
the greatest attraction for him and from
which he gets. the largest returns. TIE es-
sential thing is not the material, but the
purpose, the spirit and the steady fidelity.
appreciate natural beauty. Let him get
Ruskin's Modern Painters and begin to
study the country about him; let him form
the habit of observing trees, clouds and
birds. In a little time the world about him
will begin to open on every side. Let him
read Emerson's Nature" the selection of
Wordsworth's poems made by Matthew
Burns. the books of Thoreau, J~eferies and
Burroughs. One need not read all books in
to be found in the great books-the books
of the race. The richest material for the
unfolding and enlargement of the Individual
is found in intimate contact with the soul
of the race; for the race has comprised all
experience. sounded all life. and gotten, at
the heart of it,. not only by thinking, but
" III iii AL
ing. This final deposit. this vi
found in the dozen greatest books,
because the great writers are the men who
have seen deepest into the life OF their
race, mastered it's secrets most completely
and revealed them most clearly. The man,
therefore,. VINO would get the richest ma
terial upon which TO feed his spirit-th1t
which the whole race has lived to secre.e
and accumulate-will have at hand his BIZ
BILE, in some respects a unique literature,
In all respects a literature OF surprising
variety. power and beauty; his Homer is
the translation he likes best; his Dante.
his Shakspeare-and Shakespeare comes TO
us now in such available forms that a man
may always have a play in MS pocket for
the odd ten minutes OF waiting or travel;
his Goethe, his Plato. also put into the
most portable shape. The habitual reading
and rereading of these books, or any one
Of them-living with them year after year
will cultivate the man, who thus becomes
intimate with the greatest minds and the
the starting joints from which one may
read, as he has opportunity, the books OF
power In every literature. the books OF his
tory and the books OF science. The reader
who is bent on culture VIII read to get at
the heart OF his book. he will brood over
it: return to IL again and again: keep IL at
hand, and finally get IL into his heart He
will read always the best books; he VIII
make use. not only of his leisure hours.
have definite suggestions at frequent inter-
walls. let him buy Hamerton's Intellectual
Life and II he would confirm his devotion
to his pursuit and have his faith rein
forced. let him read AmieTs journal and
the essays Of Arnold. Emerson and Lowell