Fifteen Minutes a Day
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April 1
Everyone knows the pangs of homesickness in the spring. Even bright, sparkling Italy could not wean Browning’s affection from the green hedgerows of misty England.
Read: BROWNING'S POEMS Vol. 42, pp. 1068-1074 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Honor · Poetry · Virtue and Vice
April 2
A huge spoon dressed in human finery, placed on a grave, appears to become convulsed when the moon’s rays fall on it and dances to the tune of chanting natives. Weird sights, according to Darwin, abound in the South Seas.
Read: Darwin's VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE Vol. 29, pp. 462-471 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Geology · Animal · Nature · Cause
April 3
(George Herbert born April 3, 1593.)
“As a conqueror enters a surprised city; love made such resolutions as neither party was able to resist. She changed her name into Herbert the third day after*this first interview.”
Read: Walton's LIFE OF GEORGE HERBERT Vol. 15, pp. 392-404 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Virtue and Vice · Charity · Family
April 4
(Oliver Goldsmith born April 4, 1774.)
Genial and rollicking fun are provided in this highly entertaining story of a man who mistakes a private house for an inn, and who treats his host’s daughter like a serving maid.
Read: SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER Vol. 18, pp. 205-215 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Custom and Convention · Love · Education
April 5
(Hobbes born April 5, 1588.)
Dreams and their causes interested Hobbes. Without superstition, the philosopher weighed the evidence of ghosts, goblins, and witches.
Read: Hobbes' LEVIATHAN Vol. 34, pp. 313-322 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Memory and Imagination · Sense · Experience · Religion
April 6
(Marcus Aurelius born April 6, 121 A. D.)
Badness has many interpretations, a different definition has beem the dictate of each new generation. The solution of the eternal ‘ riddle was earnestly sought by Marcus Aurelius.
Read: MARCUS AURELIUS' MEDITATIONS Vol. 2, pp. 243-253 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Life and Death · Virtue and Vice · Duty · Man
April 7
(Wordsworth born April 7, 1770.)
Wordsworth was so closely in touch with Nature that the simple beauty of flowers, woods, and fields is reflected in his poems as if Nature herself took up the pen and wrote.
April 8
Orestes, holding an avenging sword over his mother, is told: “Beware thy mother’s vengeful hounds.” How he pays for disregarding his mother’s warning is told in this drama where a mother is slain to avenge a father’s ghost.
Read: Aeschylus' THE LIBATION BEARERS Vol. 8, pp.111-121 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Justice · Revenge · Fate
April 9
(Francis Bacon died April 9, 1629.)
West of Peru there was reported to be a land where Truth and Science were used to promote the happiness and freedom of man. Here is Bacon’s description of this ideal commonwealth.
Read: Bacon's NEW ATLANTIS Vol. 3, pp. 145-155 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Hospitality · Miracles · Medicine
April 10
(King James grants charter to Virginia, April 10, 1606.)
Before English adventurers could attempt settlement in America it was necessary first to get permission from the King. The charter of King James to the oldest American colony is an extremely important historical document.
Read: First Charter of Virginia Vol. 43, pp. 49-58 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · Government · Monarchy · Law
April 11
The virgin beauty of Margaret enchanted Faust, who dazzled her with the brilliance of many gems. Margaret innocently took his gifts, believing that beauty should not “blush unseen”—but unmindful of consequences to follow.
Read: Goethe's FAUST Vol. 19, pp. 115-131 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Wealth · Religion · Love
April 12
You would doubtless like to know how to hold your own in any argument. Read what Leslie Stephen declares the finest specimen in our language of the conduct of argument.
Read: Berkeley's THREE DIALOGUES Vol. 37, pp. 230-240 read · scan
April 13
Kings, emperors, the greatest artists and sculptors of the Renaissance at its most magnificent period, walk through the pages of his autobiography—not as cold, austere, historical character, but as the intimate friends of Cellini.
Read: CELLINI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY Vol. 31, pp. 23-35 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Art · Friendship · Family · Honor
April 14
Spanish towns in the New World were rich in treasure and tempting booty for English soldiers of fortune, who were venturesome and merciless. “Ho! for the Spanish Main!” was the rallying cry for all freebooters and buccaneers.
Read: Biggs' DRAKE'S GREAT ARMADA Vol. 33, pp. 229-242 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Wealth · Justice · Punishment
April 15
(Lincoln died April 15, 1865.)
The rugged, genuine Lincoln was idealized by Walt Whitman— the founder of the new school of American poetry. Two of Whitman’s finest poems were inspired by Lincoln.
Read: WHITMAN'S POEMS Vol. 42, pp. 1412-1420 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Life and Death · Emotion · Poetry · Nature
April 16
(Dante urges attack on the city of Florence, April 16, 1311.)
The city of Dis, within the gates of Hell, was guarded by monsters and surrounded by a moat filled with the tormented. Dante, protected by Virgil, entered the forbidden city, and viewed sights never before seen by living man.
Read: Dante's DIVINE COMEDY Vol. 20, pp. 32-39 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Angel · Punishment · Courage · Sign and Symbol
April 17
(Benjamin Franklin died April 17, 1790.)
In 1731 there were not many books in America. Franklin saw the need for more books and by house-to-house canvassing persuaded Philadelphians to aid him in founding a public library which to-day stands as a lasting memorial to Franklin.
Read: FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY Vol. 1, pp. 66-77 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Education · Virtue and Vice · National Character · Friendship
April 18
(Cervantes receives the last sacraments April 18, 1616.)
Reading too many romances of knights and valorous deeds caused a poor Spanish gentleman to polish up his great-grandfather’s armor, rechristen his old nag, and sally forth. “Don Quixote,” besides holding a secure niche in literature as the work that quashed the romantic school of knight-errantry, is at the same time one of the most widely-read stories in the world.
Read: Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE Vol. 14, pp. 17-28 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Chivalry · Madness · Memory and Imagination · Honor
April 19
(Fought April 19, 1775.)
Dr. Eliot says of the opening stanza of the “Concord Hymn”: “In twenty-eight words here are the whole scene and all the essential circumstances . . . what an accurate, moving, immortal description is this!”
Read: Emerson's CONCORD HYMN Vol. 42, pp. 1245-1246 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wisdom · Love · Time · War and Peace
April 20
(At Missolonghi, Greece, 37 guns honor Byron, April 20, 1824.)
England’s romantic poet died while fighting against the Turks on the side of the Greeks. His poems, “The Isles of Greece” and “The Prisoner of Chillon,” proclaim freedom.
Read: BYRON'S POEMS Vol. 41, pp. 801-815 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Liberty · Family · Honor · Emotion
April 21
(H. A. Taine born April 21, 1828.)
Through the pages of a book the reader sees the life of past days. Carnivals, processions, battles, coronations, voyages—the whole history of the world and its people is revealed in a stupendous pageant. Taine was a Frenchman who wrote an unsurpassed history of English literature; its introduction reveals the unusual combination of an imaginative and an analytical style.
Read: INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LITERATURE Vol. 39, pp. 410-418 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: History · Soul · Custom and Convention · Man
April 22
(Immanuel Kant born April 22, 1724.)
Immanuel Kant, the most influential of German philosophers, taught that it was man’s duty to be happy, for an unhappy man is tempted to sin. Seekers after happiness find aid and inspiration in Kant’s writings.
Read: FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF MORALS Vol. 32, pp. 310-317 read · scan
April 23
(Shakespeare died April 23, 1616.)
Shaken and disillusioned by the treachery of his elder daughter, King Lear suspected even the faithful Cordelia of evil designs. Her most tender efforts to comfort him failed to drive away the insistent specter of his madness.
Read: Shakespeare's KING LEAR Vol. 46, pp. 293-303 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Madness · Emotion · Desire
April 24
At the rate at which elephants naturally increase, Darwin estimated that in 750 years there could be nearly 19,000,000 elephants. But did Darwin consider the ravages of civilization and circuses?
Read: Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES Vol. 11, pp. 74-86 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Evolution · Cause · Nature · Animal
April 25
Men who danced among sharp swords—who gambled with their lives—who took their women to the battlefields to encourage the brave and shame the cowardly—these were the primitive Germans who made Roman emperors tremble. |
Read: Tacitus' ON GERMANY Vol. 33, pp. 106-120 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: National Character · War and Peace · Custom and Convention · Race and Nationality
April 26
(David Hume born April 26, 17121.)
Just what constitutes a miracle? Does Science indorse miracles? One wonders why such marvelous things do not happen often nowadays. Hume tells why.
Read: Hume ON MIRACLES Vol. 37, pp. 375-385 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Miracles · Reasoning · Religion · Experience
April 27
(Emerson died April 27, 1882.)
The Puritan world feared Beauty. Emerson, great American essayist and philosopher, declared that the world was made for beauty, and openly worshiped at beauty’s shrine.
April 28
Three hundred years before Christ, a preacher in Jerusalem complained that there was no new thing under the sun. Everything considered new had really existed in the time of the fathers. Sophisticated and modern is this writer of 2,300 years ago.
Read: THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES Vol. 44, pp. 335-341 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Pleasure and Pain · Labor · Wealth · Life and Death
April 29
How I Got Rich—by Sindbad the Sailor Sindbad, a poor man, recited woeful verses before the magnificent dwelling of Sindbad of the Sea. The great Sindbad, hearing him, ‘ invited the poor Sindbad to a feast and told the wonderful story of his fabulous fortune.
Read: THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Vol. 16, pp. 231-242 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · Hospitality · Fate · God
April 30
(Washington inaugurated April 30, 1789.)
Washington declared that the strength of the new nation lay in the “pure and immutable principles of private morality.” A free government, fortified by the virtues and affection of its citizens, can command the respect of the world.
Read: Washington's FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS Vol. 43, pp. 225-228 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Patriotism · Constitution · God · Liberty
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