Fifteen Minutes a Day
January February March April May June July August September October November December
May 1
Once Hazlitt and his friends took to discussing the famous people they would like to meet—Guy Fawkes, Sir Isaac Newton, Chaucer, Boccaccio, Cromwell, Garrick, and Judas.
Read: PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE SEEN Vol. 27, pp. 270-283 read · scan
May 2
Everything has to have a beginning, so too with the science of electricity. Here we learn the very rudiments, the inceptions of science that have revolutionized the world. Faraday explains in a simple way the truths of electricity.
Read: Faraday's MAGNETISM—ELECTRICITY Vol. 30, pp. 61-72 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Physics · Opposition · Experience · One and Many
May 3
(Machiavelli born May 3, 1469.)
Traveling from court to court in the stirring days of the Renaissance, Machiavelli studied the intrigues of princes. His writings have affected the destiny of mighty dynasties.
Read: Machiavelli's THE PRINCE Vol. 36, pp. 7-17 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Government · War and Peace · Prudence · Monarchy
May 4
(Huxley born May 4, 1825.)
When science was struggling for a place in popular education, Huxley distinguished himself as its champion. While the arts were to beautify life and increase pleasure, Huxley saw science as a means of benefiting man’s prosperity.
Read: SCIENCE AND CULTURE Vol. 28, pp. 209-319 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Race and Nationality · Language · History · Education
May 5
(Calderon, after a life of adventure, died May 5, 1681.)
Disguised as a man, a Russian noblewoman exploring the mountains of Poland came upon a secret prison. Fate linked the lives of this woman and the unknown prisoner.
Read: Calderon's LIFE IS A DREAM Vol. 26, pp. 7-21 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Fate · Emotion · Family · Liberty
May 6
“Benvenuto, the figure cannot succeed in bronze,” so spoke the patron Duke. Cellini, stung to fury, passionately burst out: “You do not understand art.” Feverishly he began the casting of the statue—but read his own account of the tilt with the Duke.
Read: CELLINI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY Vol. 31, pp. 373-384 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Art · Honor · Courage · Miracles
May 7
(Robert Browning born May 7, 1812.)
A haughty aristocrat, who murdered his wife for enjoying life more than he, now bargaining for a new bride; a crafty bishop begging and bullying his heirs for a tomb richer than that of his rival; these are subjects of Browning’s pen.
Read: BROWNING'S POEMS Vol. 42, pp. 1074-1078 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Life and Death · Wealth · Family · Virtue and Vice
May 8
(“School for Scandal” produced at Drury Lane, May 8, 1777.)
Lady Teazle hides in haste when her husband is unexpectedly announced, Situations which set many tongues wagging and fed the fire of gossip in Scandal-land, startle the reader.
Read: Sheridan's SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL Vol. 18, pp. 164-176 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · Hypocrisy · Family · Friendship
May 9
(Friedrich von Schiller died May 9, 1805.)
Who has ever thought the arts had anything to do with freedom? Schiller did. Forced by a German noble to enter a military school, he escaped. Struggling to achieve freedom, he wrote a series of letters on the relation of art to freedom.
Read: Schiller's ON AESTHETIC EDUCATION Vol. 32, pp. 209-217 read · scan
May 10
Savages who drink the powdered bones of their dead mixed with wine, Amazons who hold riotous festivals, the worship of golden statues, all the primitive wonders of Guiana are described by the famous Elizabethan gallant, Sir Walter Raleigh.
Read: Raleigh's DISCOVERY OF GUIANA Vol. 33, pp. 326-341 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Exploration · War and Peace · Wealth · Custom and Convention
May 11
Latest news abroad in Malfi: The Duchess has run off with her butler. But this happened before the days of newspapers or radio, so Webster made from it an exciting play.
Read: Webster's THE DUCHESS OF MALFI Vol. 47, pp. 755-771 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · Family · Honor · Love
The guide gives pp. 721-737, from a printing in which vol. 47 is paged 34 pages earlier; in this edition the play begins on p. 755.
May 12
(Rossetti born May 12, 1828.)
The manuscripts of many of the best poems of Rossetti were buried with his wife. Friends prevailed upon him to allow them to be exhumed—and these poems, once buried with the dead, are now a treasure of the living.
Read: ROSSETTI'S POEMS Vol. 42, pp. 1149-1153, 1178-1181 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Immortality · Religion · Angel
May 13
Two dogs fell a-gossiping about their masters and about a dog’s life among the humble Scotch folk. Each “rejoic’d they werena men but dogs; an’ each took aff his several way.”
Read: Burns' THE TWA DOGS Vol. 6, pp. 151-157 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Diversion · Happiness · Wealth · Virtue and Vice
May 14
(Edward Jenner makes his first vaccination May 14, 1796.)
Edward Jenner found that disease in the heel of a horse, transmitted through a cow to the dairy attendants, was an agent in making human beings immune from smallpox. His amazing experiments inaugurated a new epoch.
Read: VACCINATION AGAINST SMALLPOX Vol. 38, pp. 145-154 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Medicine · Experience · Animal · Cause
May 15
(Dante born May 15, 1265.)
The best part of the Divine Comedy for a few minutes’ reading is the “Inferno.” There the reader finds the most vivid descriptions, the most startling and unforgettable pictures.
Read: Dante's DIVINE COMEDY Vol. 20, pp. 102-114 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Punishment · Sin · Change · Exploration
May 16
Chessboards on which, of their own accord, black pieces played against white; chariots that swiftly turned hither and yon without a driver; pots in which a coward’s meat would not cook— all these are woven into bewitching stories.
Read: THE POETRY OF THE CELTIC RACES Vol. 32, pp. 145-155 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Poetry · Race and Nationality · Animal · Religion
May 17
Condemned for impiety, Socrates felt so justified in the virtue of his past action that instead of receiving a death sentence, he told the judges he should be maintained at public expense as a public benefactor.
Read: Plato's APOLOGY OF SOCRATES Vol. 2, pp. 24-30 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Life and Death · Virtue and Vice · Punishment · Hypocrisy
May 18
Flowers often tire of their stationary life and sometimes at night frolic away to a ball in a beautiful castle. Thus a fanciful storyteller accounts for their drooping condition in the morning.
Read: ANDERSEN'S TALES Vol. 17, pp. 334-341 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Memory and Imagination · Life and Death · Immortality · Sign and Symbol
May 19
When a man is invited to a banquet he must be satisfied with the dishes put before him. Epictetus reasoned that man should be content with what life offers, and in serenity find happiness.
Read: Epictetus' GOLDEN SAYINGS Vol. 2, pp. 128-138 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: God · Life and Death · Good and Evil · Slavery
May 20
(Sonnets entered in the London Stationers’ Register, May 20. 1609.)
The most concentrated beauty of Shakespeare’s unbounded creative genius is found in his sonnets. Written as personal messages to friends and not intended for publication, they reveal the inner Shakespeare more truly than do any of his great plays.
Read: Shakespeare's SONNETS Vol. 40, pp. 270-276 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Time · Poetry · Life and Death
May 21
(Alexander Pope born May 21, 1688.)
The sharp tongue of Alexander Pope made him celebrated, yet widely feared. In a representative product of his versatile pen, he gracefully combines his flashing wit with sage advice.
Read: Pope's ESSAY ON MAN Vol. 40, pp. 430-440 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · Happiness · Honor · Friendship
May 22
(Manzoni died May 22, 1873.)
Because of a fancy for a peasant girl, the tyrannical lord cf an Italian village sent desperadoes to threaten the priest if he married the girl to her village lover.
Read: Manzoni's I PROMESSI SPOSI Vol. 21, pp. 7-24 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Courage · Law · Emotion · Tyranny
May 23
(Thomas Hood born May 23, 1799.)
From the river her body was tenderly lifted—the girl who could find no place in the vast city. Thomas Hood pleads for her— eloquently and justly. Read this gem of pathos.
Read: HOOD'S POEMS Vol. 41, pp. 907-911 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Emotion · Life and Death · Charity · Religion
May 24
Debts were not always paid in money.” Not so long ago the butcher paid for his keg of beer with a slab of beef, and oxen were exchanged for land and wives. Adam Smith tells the interesting story of the origin and use of money.
Read: Adam Smith's WEALTH OF NATIONS Vol. 10, pp. 22-33 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · History · Labor · Exploration
May 25
(Emerson born May 25, 1803.)
Emerson startled the world by fearlessly declaring his beliefs. Such apparent paradoxes as we find in his inspirational essay, “Heroism,” makes him the most stimulating yet profound thinker America has produced.
Read: Emerson's HEROISM Vol. 5, pp. 121-131 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Courage · Life and Death · Virtue and Vice · Temperance
May 26
(Shakespeare’s first daughter, Susanna, baptized May 26, 1583.)
Goneril and Regan falsely swore they loved their father, King Lear, more than life itself. Cordelia could find no words to express her sincere devotion. Then King Lear made the decision that started a series of exciting events.
Read: Shakespeare's KING LEAR Vol. 46, pp. 215-225 read · scan
May 27
To advance freedom of thought, Lessing published an essay of one hundred paragraphs outlining the history of religion. The wrath of orthodox churchmen was hurled at his head, and Lessing was left alone to defend his daring theories.
Read: THE EDUCATION OF THE HUMAN RACE Vol. 32, pp. 185-195 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Education · God · Religion · Immortality
May 28
(Thomas Moore born May 28, 1779.) :
Any one of these poems, “The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls,” “The Last Rose of Summer,” “The Light of Other Days,” would alone have made Moore immortal.
Read: MOORE'S POEMS Vol. 41, pp. 816-822 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Memory and Imagination · Friendship · Life and Death
May 29
A Bagdad merchant dreamed of the money he would make from the sale of a tray of glassware, and of marrying the king’s daughter. But, daydreaming, he kicked over the tray.
Read: THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Vol. 16, pp. 177-184 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · Memory and Imagination · Desire · Punishment
May 30
(Memorial Day.)
At the close of the war, a torn and bleeding nation set about to rebuild its shattered frame. The result was a stronger nation rising from an almost disrupted union.
Read: Longfellow's THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP Vol. 42, pp. 1280-1290 read · scan
May 31
(Walt Whitman born May 31, 1819.)
Walt Whitman is the most original and startling of modern poets. An irony of his life is that while he wrote for the contemporary masses, only a limited number of followers appreciated his genius, now universally recognized.
Read: Whitman's PREFACE TO LEAVES OF GRASS Vol. 39, pp. 388-398 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Poetry · Man · Race and Nationality · Nature
January February March April May June July August September October November December