Fifteen Minutes a Day
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June 1
(Marlowe died June 1, 1593.)
For the best blank verse in English, read “Dr. Faustus,” the masterpiece of Marlowe, who gave Shakespeare lessons in playwriting. This genius knew the secret of gripping drama.
Read: Marlowe's DR. FAUSTUS Vol. 19, pp. 241-250 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Sin · Beauty · Religion · Immortality
June 2
(Jean Jacques Rousseau born June 2, 1712.)
A “Back to Nature” movement in the seventeenth century was headed by Rousseau, who believed that civilization was degrading. To save money for his work, he entrusted each of his children to the tender mercies of a foundling house.
Read: Rousseau's A SAVOYARD VICAR Vol. 34, pp. 239-249 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Knowledge · Truth · Cause · Philosophy
June 3
(Dr. William Harvey died June 3, 1657.)
Galileo, by holding his pulse while watching a swinging cathedral lamp, evolved a theory that made clocks possible. Harvey, by feeling his pulse, educed that arteries carry blood. Read from Morion or THE HEART AND BLoop
Read: MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD Vol. 38, pp. 75-86 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Experience · Animal · Life and Death · Science
June 4
(Egmont sentenced to death June 4, 1658.)
Spain sent the Duke of Alva to subdue the Netherlands. In quelling disorder he killed the people’s hero, Count Egmont. From this story Goethe made a famous play.
Read: Goethe's EGMONT Vol. 19, pp. 253-259 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Liberty · Religion · National Character
June 5
(Adam Smith born June 5, 1723.)
Even to-day rent is paid in terms of human food. It sounds primitive, but it happens right at your door—here in the United States, in compliance with a law as old as man.
Read: Adam Smith's WEALTH OF NATIONS Vol. 10, pp. 149-157 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · Labor · Government · Cause
June 6
(R. H. Dana on watch, night of June 6, 18 36.)
A crew faced the hazardous prospect of rounding the bleak Cape Horn in midwinter. Imagine the terror when a sudden scream pierced the misery-laden air. What was it? A man overboard or a lost soul?
Read: Dana's TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST Vol. 23, pp. 285-295 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Labor · Pleasure and Pain · Prudence · Courage
June 7
(Edwin Booth, famed Shakespearian actor, died June 7, 1893.)
Do you know the rest of Ophelia’s famous line? “Hamlet” is the most popular play in the entire world. It has been quoted so often that reading it is like meeting an old friend.
Read: HAMLET Vol. 46, pp. 176-183 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Emotion · Family · Madness · Revenge
June 8
(John Woolman arrives in London for Friends’ meeting, June 8, 1772.)
The plain, homely appearance of Woolman impressed unfavorably the orthodox Quakers in London whom he was sent to meet. They told him his coming was not necessary. But Woolman spoke with such simplicity and sincerity that even those most opposed became his friends.
Read: WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL Vol. 1, pp. 302-312 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Wealth · Slavery · Labor
June 9
The songs of David pleased King Saul, but when David became too popular with the people, the king feared for his throne and banished him.
June 10
King CEdipus of Thebes as a babe was abandoned on Mount Cithzron to die. Years after he was thought dead he returns to Thebes and unknowingly slays his father, marries his mother— and thus fulfills the word of the oracle.
Read: Sophocles' OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES Vol. 8, pp. 209-223 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Prophecy · Religion · Emotion · Life and Death
June 11
(Edmund Spenser married Elizabeth Boyle, June 11, 1594.)
To commemorate his marriage to the beautiful Elizabeth, Spenser wrote one of the most enchanting nuptial hymns.
Read: Spenser's THE EPITHALAMIUM Vol. 40, pp. 234-245 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Love · Beauty · Religion
June 12
Two armies of ancient India were about to engage in a momentous battle. Arjuna, heroic leader of the Pandu hosts, foreseeing great slaughter, hesitates. He implores the divine Vishnu to intervene. The conversation of the warrior and the god is a gem of Hindu literature.
Read: THE BHAGAVAD-GITA Vol. 45, pp. 785-798 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Duty · Life and Death · Immortality · Eternity
June 13
Athenians gave Aristides the title of “The Just.” Later they wanted to banish him. One voter wanted Aristides banished merely because he was weary of hearing him called “The Just.”
Read: Plutarch's ARISTIDES Vol. 12, pp. 85-94 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Courage · Honor · Prudence
June 14
Socrates unceasingly strove for beauty, truth, and perfection. Sentenced to death on a false charge, he refused to escape from the death cell, even when opportunity was offered.
Read: Plato's CRITO Vol. 2, pp. 31-43 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Opinion · Justice · Law · Friendship
June 15
(Wat Tyler’s Rebellion suppressed June 15, 1381.)
Led by Wat Tyler in 1381, great troops of villagers and rustics marched on London—laid siege to the Tower—sacked the apartments of the King and murdered his ministers. Froissart gives first-hand information of this rebellion.
Read: Froissart's WAT TYLER'S REBELLION Vol. 35, pp. 60-72 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Revolution · Slavery · Monarchy · Wealth
June 16
(Byron publishes “Manfred,” June 16, 1817.)
The inaccessible mountain tops were ever venerated as the haunts of all mysteries. Manfred, hero of Byron’s play, seeks upon the high Alps the aid of spirits, specters, and goblins. What unearthly adventures await him!
Read: Byron's MANFRED Vol. 18, pp. 415-428 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Life and Death · Sin · Nature · Madness
June 17
John Eliot put his life at the mercy of the redmen to get them to listen to his preachings. He wrote vividly about his settlements of Christian Indians. Now villages and Indians have disappeared. Only his story remains. VJohn Eliot holds Indian prayer meeting June 17, 1670.)
Read: Eliot's BRIEF NARRATIVE Vol. 43, pp. 138-146 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Government · Labor · War and Peace
June 18
Cinderella inspires all alike—the artist’s brush, the author’s pen, the child’s fancy. To-day she is a living, vital character to be seen on stage and screen. No one ever forgets her lightning change.
Read: GRIMM'S TALES Vol. 17, pp. 98-104 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Virtue and Vice · Truth · Labor
June 19
A writer of Elizabethan times said that no other country had as many dogs as England. Once Henry VII ordered all mastiffs to be hung because they “durst presume to fight against the lion,” England’s regal beast.
Read: Holinshed's OUR ENGLISH DOGS Vol. 35, pp. 350-356 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Animal · Diversion · Custom and Convention · Family
June 20
Galapagos Islands are the home of fearless birds, to which horses, cows, and men are only roosting places. Darwin saw the South Pacific when few travelers knew that wonderland.
Read: Darwin's VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE Vol. 29, pp. 403-413 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Nature · Animal · Exploration · Beauty
June 21
Why gossip with lesser persons when you might be talking to queens and kings? Just how we may get to talk to queens and kings, Ruskin delightfully points out and escorts us to the very doors of the audience chamber.
Read: Ruskin's SESAME Vol. 28, pp. 99-110 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Language · Poetry · Education
June 22
Pliny, who lived in the first century after Christ, tells of a ghost who dragged his jangling chains through a house in Athens and so terrified the inmates that they fled panic-stricken. But the ghost met his equal.
Read: Pliny's LETTERS Vol. 9, pp. 311-314 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Angel · Prophecy · Courage · Memory and Imagination
June 23
(James Mull, father of John Stuart Mill, died June 23, 1836.)
John Stuart Mill—one of the greatest intellects in England—tells how his father educated him. At the early age of three years he began the study of Greek, and at twelve started writing a book of his own.
Read: Mill's AUTOBIOGRAPHY Vol. 25, pp. 9-20 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Education · Poetry · Dialectic · Family
June 24
A handsome young man was seen to eat only with his left hand, which was contrary to the customs of Arabia. The youth, when urged, told why he used only his left hand, and revealed a story of love and adventure and the lover’s need for gold—all happening in ancient Cairo.
Read: THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Vol. 16, pp. 120-133 read · scan
June 25
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today, to-morrow will be dying?” Herrick was only a humble country minister with a wealth of wisdom and a keen appreciation of life, which he expressed in lyrics of wonderful beauty and melody.
Read: HERRICK'S POEMS Vol. 40, pp. 334-340 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Life and Death · Beauty · Time
June 26
At the bottom of the ocean was the home of the monster who had desolated the king’s halls. Beowulf, bravest of warriors, descended beneath the waves to fight the beast. The king’s men, waiting above, saw the waves become colored with blood. Hero or monster—who had won?
Read: BEOWULF Vol. 49, pp. 45-50 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: God · Courage · Honor · War and Peace
June 27
(Francis Bacon enrolled at Cambridge University, June 27, 1576.)
There is a human trait most poisonous to a man’s blood. Man seeks to avoid it because he knows that it lies like a curse upon him. Just what is the poisonous human failing? Who are most subject to it? Bacon tells you in one of his best essays.
Read: BACON'S ESSAYS Vol. 3, pp. 22-26 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Emotion · Love · Family · Old Age
June 28
A very definite etiquette is followed by a stranger on the vast plains of South America. “Ave Maria” is the common salutation. If the stranger is on horseback, he does not alight until invited to do so by his host. Once in the house, the stranger must converse a while before asking shelter for the night.
Read: Darwin's VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE Vol. 29, pp. 51-60 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Animal · Cause · Nature · Hospitality
June 29
(Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre burned June 29, 1613.)
Macbeth, spurred on by the ambitious and crafty Lady Macbeth, committed murder to secure the crown of Scotland. But he paid dearly for his gain. Ghostly guests appeared at his banquet and threatened him with dire threats.
Read: Shakespeare's MACBETH Vol. 46, pp. 357-365 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Sin · Emotion · Courage · Prophecy
June 30
“Democracy” has not always been the choice of oppressed people. The tyranny of the majority is a recognized evil as harmful as the misrule of a king. And rather than exchange a lesser evil for a greater, a rule by king has often been preferred to a republic.
Read: Mill's ON LIBERTY Vol. 25, pp. 195-203 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Tyranny · Liberty · Opinion · Government
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