The Washington times., 1919-10-30

II
When man has crossed a swiftly flowing stream he
looks back the that helped him he stepped
from one to the other
In the rough stream of e solid books are the rocks
that hold you up
The important work that do is thinking. All
other work is based that The only foundation for
accurate thorough thinking is found in good books
you haven't read Shakespeare and the Bible you
know the English language and language the tool
with which your mind works in thinking and expressing
thought.
you haven't read and carefully digested at least one
sound book astronomy you know only by hearsay the
universe in which you live, the planet which you fly
through space.
necessary to know the universe astronomy shows it to
you in order the power that rules the universe
II you haven't read good book geology you do
not know the earth under your feet You may be compared
with the white rabbit behind the glass show window Of
animal dealer The rabbit knows he is there and that all
If you haven't read book on evolution, and are
ignorant of the forms through which life has passed this
earth during the millions Of years before your kind
pead you possess another interesting kind Of ignorance
If you haven't read good book philosophy you do
not know the history of human thought which the most
important part of human history
Unless you know how have struggled through the
ages solve the problems of eternal time infinite space
and the problem of man origin and descent have no
right to speculate your own account An oyster
3
size and character Of the ocean.
II you haven't read at least few of the great poets
Homer, Euripides Dante, Shakespeare Milton, Goethe
Schiller Shelley do not know what is in the human
brain or know its power.
II you haven't read q sound book on psychology You
cannot know yourself how why it is that through
your eyes, mouth and the ending the
surface Of your skim knowledge Of the world enters and
reaches the thinking machine in your skull
you don't know the lives of other men you cannot
Judge your life lives near you It is necessary read
biographies, carefully selected
Alexander, Aristotle, Archmedes, Michael Angelo,
Caesar, Keper, Newton Johnson Lincoln Benvenuto de
Celini Leonardo Confucius, Mohammed Gotama Nine de
Stael the two GATHERINGS of Russia, Nine Roland John
Brown Voltaire Napoleon Dante Beethoven Peter the
Great Of Russia Charles the Twelfth Jenghiz Khan Attia
Charemagne, Darwin, Franklin Cromwell Danton-these
taken at random and picked from different fields of human
EFFORT present lives that every must know and FEEL
cation.
Some may find comfort in the fact that Lincoln read
few books But Lincoln found comfort in that fact He
had at least read Putarch Lives and in those volumes
alone studied by the right mind there is the basis of edu
cation.
You know life unless you have read in addition
TO books on fact science and biography of the great
works Of fiction.
Hugo's "Mserables" "Notre Dame /" 81. 'Homme oui
Rt remove the lids from the tops of thousand brains
and enable you to look under the lid Vanity Fair is
half an education in social folly.
Westward Ho for the child is education and in
spration.
The Tale of Two Cities leads other more earnest
reading Dickens will teach you to know human and
also how to write
And Mark Twains "Innocents Abroad" shows you the
American character as Dickens shows you the English
You should read also works of imagination outside of
history, fiction science
Not to read Dante's Inferno" and "Paradise - Car
vantes Don Quxote, Molieres best comedies Homer's
picture OF primitive civilized man, is like living in cellar
when you might just as well move up to the open air
II you haven't read the history Of the earth and its
nations how Judge the present which vou ara
or plan for the future in which your effort thought and
work should be represented?