Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-08-31

!
following inquiry, which comes from
clergyman in Fayetteville n. c., wrote /
Professor Harry Thurston Peck. editor
of The Bookman. in, the New York
Journal:
what are the best six books. SUPP
posing that an intelligent and fairly
educated person could have. but SIN
books" +r.
This limitation in the number OF
books makes the selection difficult be-
cause the list is not intended for some
particular individual whose tastes and
interests one is supposed to be familiar
with. but list which one could con-
fidently recommend to any person
whatever who is ''intelligently and
fairly educated. What then, are the
best six books?
If we take very high ground in this
matter and select the six books which
have in all probability done the most to
influence human thought and. there
fore. human action throughout the
centuries and of which the power
seems destined To endure. the task OF
selection. perhaps. is not 50 very diff
cult.
In choosing them. however. one
must obviously restrict himself to those
books which have had the greatest eff
feet upon western civilization. exclud-
ing those which belong altogether. or
nearly 50. to the East Thus the say
ingS Of Confucius and the sacred books
of India. while they are Of immense
interest and importance. lie outside
the concern of an occidental reader.
So. too. the Koran. in spite of all
that it means to the millions who still
follow the teachings of the prophet.
has no appropriate place here. The
following are. think. the books
which. in one way or another. have
most profoundly affected the develop
ment of western civilization in its
different phases:
|. The Bible. ;. lomer's odyssey"
s. Aristotle's Ethics and Politics
T. Bacon's "Novum Organum" y Rols-
scaus Social ana Political Trcatises"
8. Darwin's Origin of Species.
In the foregoing list | fancy that
nothing requires explanation. except.
perhaps, Homer's odyssey" Many
persons would say at once that the
odyssey" is, in reality. a finer piece
in such list, since from the point of
literature alone it is supposed to be in
terror to the 'Iliad.' while from any
other point Of view it would seem to he
altogether out of place
These assertions however would he
incorrect. In the first place. the
odyssey" is in realiyt a finer piece
of literature than the "Iliad." and in
the second place. from it rather than
from the Had comes the great
stream of literary and semiphilosophi-
cal tradition which is traceable in Viz
gil and the later Latin poets. in Dante
in Spenser and in Milton.
The six books named above. how
ever. represent a sort Of council Of
perfection. They are the most re-
marka Bile six books that can be gath
cred together. Yet | doubt whether
any person. if he We're restricted to six
books for the rest of his life. would
wish the six just named. | know. for
one that | should not.
To make any other list. however. is
like firing gun in the dark or like
prescribing for patient whom you
have never seen. You may possibly
hit the target with the gun. and you
may possibly cure the patient with
the prescription, but the chances in
either case are Very much against
YOU.
50. if you recommend six books III
representing supreme excellence. cacn
after lie az, l,;,d ,.o,,. ,;,-o,.
" " ,i''' Wy llhelS nan
the persons who read the list will adj
nit the excellence. but will say that
they want excellence of different
sort
For even the casual person has gen
orally some sort of mental bias or
other one has "A taste for history.
another for science. another for ~
lieious reading. another far f,tinn
Here is the sort Of LIST that wise Am
good men usually make m when thay
arc recommending books ia OTHER nan-
ole:
Tho nm. , n,,,.., .r;,.i,,.. ~,
.dy.' .. Shakespear,'S pIavs Mil
ton S Paradise Lost :. Piutarch :
i''N'S' w. t"Srlih Progress.
This is, of course, a perfectly pre-
MYSTERIOUS l'S'. ana II a man had only
tneSe SIN DOCKS there would be at
ieaSt three 81 them whose covers he
would never open. except. perhaps in
, pressing wild flowers. Suppose, how
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