Fifteen Minutes a Day
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October 1
(Machiavelli’s model prince sent to France as papal legate, Oct. 1, 1498.)
To-day the chief duty of a prince is to be the nation’s friend maker. Years ago princes desired supreme power and, by fair means or foul, strove for control. Machiavelli was a guide for such ambitious princes.
Read: Machiavelli's THE PRINCE Vol. 36, pp. 36-44 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Government · Liberty · Religion
October 2
(Darwin returns from South America, Oct. 2, 1836.)
Just before Darwin visited Bahia Blanca, an Indian insurrection had been ruthlessly put down. A veteran of the Indian war told Darwin how Indians had been treated.
Read: Darwin's VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE Vol. 29, pp. 107-111 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Race and Nationality · Courage · Exploration
October 3
When polite English society conversed in French—considering English a vulgar tongue, fit only for servants and working people—Chaucer, nevertheless, wrote poems in this “vulgar” English, which charm us because of their quaint words.
Read: CHAUCER'S POEMS Vol. 40, pp. 11-20 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Virtue and Vice · Wealth · Chivalry
October 4
The man who put pebbles in his mouth and orated to the sea, shaved one-half of his head so that he would be obliged to stay at home until he had perfected his oratory—a strange method of attaining eminence, but a successful one.
Read: Plutarch's DEMOSTHENES Vol. 12, pp. 196-205 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Rhetoric · Courage · Virtue and Vice · War and Peace
October 5
A boxer in public games desired to study philosophy at Athens. There were no furnaces to tend, no tables to wait on, no books or magazines to peddle, yet this sturdy young Greek managed to work his way through college.
Read: Newman's UNIVERSITY LIFE AT ATHENS Vol. 28, pp. 51-61 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Education · Wealth · Philosophy · Patronage
October 6
Wakened by the death cries of her sentry, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, fled by a secret passage from the fury of a vile mob. The royal family was arrested and taken to Paris to await their fate.
Read: Burke's REVOLUTION IN FRANCE Vol. 24, pp. 208-217 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Revolution · Emotion · Custom and Convention · Monarchy
October 7
(John Woolman died Oct. 7, 1772.)
John Woolman was the foremost leader of the early Quakers and contributed much to the spiritual life of the American Colonies. He was a pioneer in the crusade against slavery.
Read: THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WOOLMAN Vol. 1, pp. 283-288 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Slavery · Wealth · Duty
October 8
(Henry Fielding died Oct. 8, 1754.)
Fielding wrote a lengthy story to burlesque a novel of Richardson. But the travesty overshot its mark. Instead of a mere parody, it became a masterpiece.
Read: Fielding's PREFACE TO JOSEPH ANDREWS Vol. 39, pp. 176-181 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Poetry · Art · Virtue and Vice · Emotion
October 9
(Newman, author of “Lead, Kindly Light,’ baptized Oct. 9, 1845.)
Do you know that many of your favorite hymns have echoed for hundreds of years through vast cathedrals, and resounded from the walls of Jericho during the Crusades?
Read: LATIN HYMNS Vol. 45, pp. 546-556; also pp. 567-568 read · scan · read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Sin · God · Immortality
October 10
(Cervantes aided in the capture of Tunis, Oct. 10, 1573.)
The romance-stricken Don Quixote sees a fair youth seated by the side of a stream, “his feet like two crystals, his hands like snowflakes.” The youth was a charming girl!
Read: Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE Vol. 14, pp. 252-266 read · scan
October 11
ZEneas, mythological founder of the Roman race, leaving Carthage and its lovely Queen Dido, was driven by a storm to the coast of Sicily. There the hospitality of King Acestes helped him to forget his relinguished love.
Read: Virgil's AENEID Vol. 13, pp. 178-188 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Diversion · Honor · Religion · Courage
October 12
(Columbus Day.) } ;
Historical documents, now priceless, were often used as wrapping paper. Rescued by chance was a letter of Columbus telling of his voyages—of the amazing bargains made with timid natives— of Amazon women who fought like men and made marriage treaties with cannibals.
Read: LETTER OF COLUMBUS Vol. 43, pp. 21-27 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Exploration · Religion · Wealth · Monarchy
October 13
A man of virtue, although a pagan, Marcus Aurelius ruled with benevolence and wisdom. Cruel in persecution of Christians as lawbreakers, no trace of this sternness appears in his writings.
Read: Marcus Aurelius' MEDITATIONS Vol. 2, pp. 193-199 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · Family · Temperance · Friendship
October 14
All colonies are founded to gain territory or treasure. Spain expected spice and gold from Columbus’s expedition, but got no spice and little gold. Adam Smith tells the true motive of the colonizing Greeks, Romans, English, and Spaniards.
Read: Adam Smith's WEALTH OF NATIONS Vol. 10, pp. 395-404 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · Exploration · History · Desire
October 15
(Amerigo Vespucci returns from first American voyage, Oct. 15, 1498.)
“They are a people smooth and clean of body because of continually washing themselves—they eat all their enemies whom they kill or capture.” Amerigo Vespucci thus writes of the New World inhabitants.
Read: VESPUCCI'S ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST VOYAGE Vol. 43, pp. 28-44 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Exploration · Custom and Convention · War and Peace · Wealth
October 16
Once physicians treated the sick with a mixture of medicine and charms. In those days medicine was regarded as a dark art like magic, and those practicing it formed guilds to protect themselves.
Read: HIPPOCRATES' OATH AND LAW Vol. 38, pp. 3-5 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Education · Medicine · Knowledge · Religion
October 17
(Browne visited by Evelyn of “Evelyn Diary,” Oct. 17, 1671.)
The religion of Thomas Browne—a liberal man in a most intolerant time—was not taken from either Rome or Geneva, but from his own reason.
Read: Browne's RELIGIO MEDICI Vol. 3, pp. 253-265 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Theology · God · Opinion
October 18
From the title of a recently popular novel, we know that one prominent fiction writer of to-day was inspired by the verses of Shelley. Many others have also felt the stirring vigor of his poetry. What is your reaction?
Read: SHELLEY'S POEMS Vol. 41, pp. 829-835 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Poetry · Love · Life and Death · Pleasure and Pain
October 19
(James Henry Leigh Hunt born Oct. 19, 1784.)
Weep if you must. It is far better than to repress your tears. But Leigh Hunt finds greater virtue in cheerfulness. Fanciful and graceful—his writings exerted a wholesome influence on all nineteenth century journalism.
Read: Hunt's ESSAYS Vol. 27, pp. 285-295 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Memory and Imagination · Family · Poetry · Pleasure and Pain
October 20
The gods met in council and decreed that Odysseus be set adrift. Poseidon, God of the Sea, shattered the raft and Odysseus was cast ashore to encounter further adventures.
October 21
Cicero agrees with Browning that old age is the golden time of life, when the fruits of a well-spent life are harvested. Cicero, the wise Roman, welcomed old age for its gifts: wisdom, sound judgment, and contentment.
Read: Cicero's ON OLD AGE Vol. 9, pp. 45-56 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Old Age · Life and Death · Virtue and Vice · Happiness
October 22
Swift was embarrassed by two women; Stella, whom he really loved, and Vanessa, with whom he had flirted and who had taken him seriously. Marriage to either one would break the heart of the other.
Read: Thackeray's JONATHAN SWIFT Vol. 28, pp. 23-28 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Friendship · Emotion · Poetry
October 23
When only a boy, Czsar was captured by pirates. While awaiting ransom he entered into every sport and game with them. Once freed, he quickly returned with forces that captured the outlaws. Then he took deliberate revenge.
Read: Plutarch's CAESAR Vol. 12, pp. 264-273 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Honor · Desire · Revolution · Democracy
October 24
Zou Cassandra knew through a prophetic vision that a sword would pierce her heart. Agamemnon, her captor, took her to his home where an avenging wife, Clytemnestra, awaited. The tragedies of the doom that requited the sins of the House of Atreus are among the most powerful ever written.
Read: Aeschylus' AGAMEMNON Vol. 8, pp. 52-64 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Revenge · Prophecy · Family · Justice
October 25
(Thomas Babington Lord Macaulay born Oct. 25, 1800.)
After the publication of Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” the Sultans became more addicted to strangling their brothers, tyrants became more merciless, and murderous plots increased. The influence of that book, as Macaulay points out, spread over Europe and Asia.
Read: Macaulay's MACHIAVELLI Vol. 27, pp. 363-372 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · National Character · Patronage · Art
October 26
(Franklin made U. S. plenipotentiary in France, Aug. 26, 1778.)
Poor at twenty, rich at forty, internationally famous at fifty. Benjamin Franklin once walked the streets of Philadelphia alone, poor, and with no education. Yet he rose to be a leader because he learned the secret of careful reading.
Read: Franklin's AUTOBIOGRAPHY Vol. 1, pp. 14-21 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Rhetoric · Family · Education · Dialectic
October 27
Siddhartha Gautama, who became the god Buddha, renounced the world and spent seven years in meditation. Then one day, while sitting under a fig tree, he became inspired with exalted and sublime conceptions of life and death. The rest of his life was spent in teaching and converting mankind.
Read: BUDDHIST WRITINGS Vol. 45, pp. 661-674 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Cause · Virtue and Vice · Punishment · Desire
October 28
(John Locke died Oct. 28, 1704.)
Locke taught children by means of games. He tells of a game whereby children were taught to spell with dice on which the letters of the alphabet were pasted. This was more than 200 years before modern kindergarten methods. Today’s children would respond to such wise direction as Locke recommends.
Read: SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION Vol. 37, pp. 128-136 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Education · Diversion · Religion · Language
October 29
(John Keats born Oct. 29, 1795.) :
Though the son of a stable man, John Keats wrote the most exquisite and sublime poetry in our language. He was the friend of Shelley, Lord Byron, and the other literary leaders of the time— his genius recognized by all.
Read: KEATS' POEMS Vol. 41, pp. 874-882 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Poetry · Memory and Imagination · Life and Death · Immortality
October 30
Lyell has been called the founder of modern geology. Darwin, the master scientist, called him “Geology’s Greatest Benefactor.” Lyell’s research revolutionized ideas on that subject.
Read: Lyell's THE PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY Vol. 38, pp. 385-391 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Geology · Time · Cause · Opinion
October 31
(All Hallows’ Eve.) ‘
Beware of magic! Once a year uneasy spirits are released and walk the earth from midnight until dawn. Spooks and goblins invade the most secure homes and the canniest must watch out for danger lurking in every dark corner.
Read: BURNS' POEMS Vol. 6, pp. 110-119 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Prophecy · Custom and Convention · Emotion · Love
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