The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-01-03

BOOKS THAT HAVE HELPED ME"

1ooNA IfA-As INV f. lei I'D VII.
In a recent Issue Of The Christian
Endeavor World, We find what is gen
orally styled 4 symposium Many
eminent men and women. We are in
formed, were asked the question.
What book or books. outside OF the
Bible. have been most helpful to You
in Your life?"
Julia Ward Howe, author Of the
stirring battle. hymn. thought that she
had been literally aided by Bunyan.
Gibbon, Spinoza, and Theodore-no,
not Roosevelt-Parker: and ended by
believing in the church Of all re-
liglous people This conclusion re
calls the famous answer made by
Shaftesbury. Benjamin Disra eli-and A
number Of other wits-to the question
as TO what religion he belonged. Men
OF sense are of but one religion re
piled the Earl of Shaftesbury-we Sc
lect the most succinct and epigram-
matte of many swe And what
religion is that?' is the classic re-
joinder. To which the universal re-
ply is: Men of sense never tell it"
joaquin Miller admits bravely that
Plutarch helped him most. A gallant
choice, though he may have bettered
it, like Colligan. who lived Ito do
right and formed himself to virtue on
the Essays of Montaigne."
Henry Cabot Lodge, as usual. is
noncommittal- It required libraries 20
make or help Henry Cabot Lodge.
Uncle Joe" Cannon finds his
quorum in Plutarch. Rollin, Shak-
spere, Burns, Scott, Dickens. McMas-
ter, and Motley. We rise to a point
or order, and call for a new vote on
the question. The answer involves an
impoSSibility
Will Carleton-don't ask who he is
puts Cole first, Shakspere second.
Now, you don't need to ask.
Mr.. Bok-the order in which we
place the names has little If any sis
niicance-was too busy to answer:
but his associate is informed that
probably Emerson helped the editor
of The Ladies' Home Journa some.
Hamilton Wright Mabie of the Out
look was too modest probably to cite
the name of the Contributing Edi-
tor as the man that has helped him
most. and resorts to persitiage-say-
ing that he used to answer this Ques-
ton with considerable alacrity. but
that was when people first began to
ask it." OF course. he gets his reply
stuck in the abject rear of the SYM
postum.
Henry George, Jr.. confesses that
the book that helped him most was
you have only one guess, and it's a
sure thing-Progress and Poverty"
by his illustrious father. of course. 1t
was truly the making of young Henry.
Breezy John Burroughs found in
Emerson, Wordsworth and Whitman
the true pabulum for his mind. He
calls Walt whitman probably the
most liberating and expansive force Of
them all
But let US, before we take leave OF
this eternal question, turn to the one
great answer>to it. If you are mildly
curious to see it in full, you will find
it among the sonnets Of Matthew Ar
mold.
who prop, thou ask'st. in these bad
days, my mind?"
he says to the, friend that had
wondered how the poet and solitary
thinker sustained his spirit; and Ar
mold named three-surely a wonderful
triumvirate; Homer. Epictetus, So
phoc1es-Homer "clearest-souled Of
men," who. though blind. saw clearly
the Wide Prospect Of Europe and the
Asian Fen, Epictetus.
That hating slave, who in NicopolIs
Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's
Cleared Rome of most shamed
him;
but, chiefly, he owed his help and stay
to that seer,
= whose even-baIanced soul,
From first youth tested up to extreme
old age.
business could not make dull, nor
passion wild;
Who saw life steadily, and saw 1t
The mellow glory of the Attic stage,
Singer of sweet C~oIonus. and its child.
pE~
THEY MIGHT HAVE WRITTEN.