The Washington times., 1920-11-14
Today
Four Greatest Books.
llterature's Beginning.
When Vulcan Caught Venus.
Ulysses and Sirens.
, ARTHUR BRISBANE
copyright. fisssl


acquaintances, friends and men,
bers Of the family.
Friends and family, In human
life, we cannot control. But In
book life we select and frequent
them a. we please. They are al
ways ready, waiting, always new,
surprising and inspiring.
This Is about books that are OF
the family, father. mother, grand
father and grandmother to be
rsvered; brothers and sisters, al
ways with you,
Some books you avoid, some
read once, some look through,
some read ten times. The best
you read all your life, finding them
entirely new every seven years.
Tho three greatest writer's are
Homer, Dante and. Shakespeare.
You cannot finish with them or
any one of them in one lifetime.
IL an intelligent ghost came back,
you would find him In the library
reading one Of the three, with the
other two at hand, saying to HIM
self. ~ hope I'll find these three
hooks in heaven when ] get there"
Eternity would not exhaust them,
for genius is inexhaustible.
To Homer, Dante and Shake
spcare add the Bible, and you have
the four works that should be
read all through life. The Bible
is included in the list because of
its magnificent writing, apart
from spiritual value. Read Isaiah
and job dozen times, at least,
and the Sermon on the Mount at
least twice for every year OF your
life.
Homer, Dante, Shakespeare anil
the Bible any man can own. Every
book store has them. If you
KNOW those four books, you know
your language, and you do your
thinking seated on the high peaks
Of genius.
"A dwarf on the shoulders of
q giant sees farther than the
giant" You will never see as far
as Homer, Dante or Shakespeare
could see, for you have not their
eyes. But read them thoroughly
and you add 1000 per cent to your
intellectual eyesight.
Homer, born only about 5000
years ago, when the human race
was already hundreds of thou
sands Of years old, was the first
great writer. His work Is ac-
curately called "The beginning Of
all literature"
Like all works Of genius,
Homer's "Iliad" and Odyssey"
will inspire q thousand different
men in a thousand different ways.
Homer made of Alexander the
worlds most ambitions and sue
cessful fighter. And Homer made
of Keats a beautiful poet. Read
Keats "On Looking Into Chap
mans Homer" Then look into
Chapman's translation of Homer
yourself, keep on looking and
reading, and see what Homer will
do for you.
He will make a salesman a bet
ter salesman, for he could de-
scribe the thighs Of oxen offered to
the Gods in a way that would
make any man buy an OK. Armour,
Swift, Wilson and the others
should give a copy of Chapman's
Homer to each salesman.
Homer will make you a better
advertisement writer, for adVer-
tising is describing. And the man
who wrote of "'The Moist Ways OF
the Sea-" could describe anything.
Aristotle, greatest of all philoso-
piers, says that Homer surpasses
all in diction and in thought. 1t
was Aristotle that taught Alex
ander to study Homer, and Alexan-
der, in gratitude. spent on natural
history collections for Aristotle a
fortune greater than that left to
Alexander by King Philip, his
father. 80 shines a good deed"
as Shakespeare remarked later.
Read first the "Iliad," then the
"Odyssey." Waste no time on dis
cussion as to whether Homer COM
posed both, whether, living before
the Greeks knew how to write, it
was possible for him to COM
pose so much and icommit it all to
memory.
The "Iliad" was composed when
Homer was young, the Odyssey"
when he was old. The difference
between the two is less than be-
tween the first and second parts of
"Faust"-no one doubts that
Goethe wrote both. 1t is said by
solemn critics that in the "Iliad"
Homer spoke Of the gods as filled
with human vices and frailties,
worse than human. And in the
odyssey" described the same gods
as dignifed rewarders of good
deeds and punishers of sin.
That is critical nonsense. Read
In the thirteenth book Of the
"Odyssey," of Ulysses meeting his
friend and protectress, the wise
Goddess Minerva, or Athena, dis
guised as shepherd. Ulysses, not
Recognizing her, lies, fluently and
ingeniously. Minerva, who loves