Fifteen Minutes a Day
January February March April May June July August September October November December
September 1
(Penn arrested for preaching in London, Sept. 1, 1670.)
While at Oxford, Penn rejected the student’s gown and thereby created a furore. Later he founded a city where he sought to put his new ideas into practice.
Read: Penn's SOME FRUITS OF SOLITUDE Vol. 1, pp. 321-331 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Wealth · God · Man · Temperance
September 2
(Battle of Actium, Sept. 2, 31 B. C.)
While his soldiers fought the battle of Actium, Antony fled to the arms of Cleopatra. By his flight he forfeited his right to an empire. Dryden’s story of Antony’s love makes us realize the folly of his infatuation for the Nile siren.
Read: Dryden's ALL FOR LOVE Vol. 18, pp. 88-100 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Life and Death · Friendship · Emotion
September 3
(Treaty between England and the United States signed Sept. 3, 1783.)
Until 1783 the British refused to believe that the Liberty Bell had rung. Then they signed a treaty formally recognizing the Colonies as free and independent states.
Read: TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN Vol. 43, pp. 174-179 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Wealth · Justice · Punishment
September 4
Voltaire’s daring courage led him to publish a series of letters which contained unfavorable comparisons of French customs with the English. For this he was threatened with the Bastille.
Read: Voltaire's LETTERS ON THE ENGLISH Vol. 34, pp. 85-93 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Liberty · Aristocracy · National Character · Wealth
September 5
(Darwin first outlines his theory of natural selection, Sept. (5) 105%)
Just as the individual has a definite length of life, so have species a limited duration. The progress and transition of the world, Darwin declares, will see the extinction of certain variants of human life.
Read: Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES Vol. 11, pp. 353-357 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Evolution · Geology · Life and Death · Cause
September 6
Many sons of Scotland have striven eagerly for the great place held by Sir Walter Scott. Carlyle describes the qualities that combined to make him the idol of his people and the master of historical romance.
Read: Carlyle's SIR WALTER SCOTT Vol. 25, pp. 393-403 read · scan
September 7
There she was undoing her hair—the loveliest woman the eyes of men ever beheld, the light of wooing in her regal eyes. A longing for her overwhelmed the warrior-king.
Read: DESTRUCTION OF DA DERGA'S HOSTEL Vol. 49, pp. 199-209 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Monarchy · Prophecy · Fate · Custom and Convention
September 8
(Helmholtz died Sept. 8, 1894.)
There was a time when the snow fell and did not melt in summer. Then from the frozen north there descended huge masses of ice that covered northern Europe and most of North America. Glaciers reveal a new world to us.
Read: Helmholtz's ICE AND GLACIERS Vol. 30, pp. 211-223 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Geology · Physics · Nature · Beauty
September 9
(Emerson retires from the ministry, Sept. 9, 1832.)
“There are days during the year,” says Emerson, “when the world of nature reaches perfection.” Can anyone escape this call, especially in the glorious Indian Summer?
September 10
One of America’s famous New Englanders, Oliver Wendell Holmes, devoted his life principally to medicine. His name, however, was made famous through his poem, “Old Ironsides,” by which he saved America’s most famous battleship from destruction when her fighting days were ended.
Read: Holmes' POEMS Vol. 42, pp. 1365-1370 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Time · Wealth · Life and Death · Happiness
September 11
What regulates wages, on what do they depend? Adam Smith, world’s authority on economic problems, advances his theories on these matters.
Read: Adam Smith's WEALTH OF NATIONS Vol. 10, pp. 66-74 read · scan
September 12
(Browning married Elizabeth Barrett, Sept. 12, 1846.)
In all literary history there is no happier love story than that of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. During their secret courtship Miss Barrett sent Browning many beautiful love letters written in verse.
Read: SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE Vol. 41, pp. 923-932 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Love · Emotion · God · Life and Death
September 13
(John Bunyan liberated and pardoned, Sept. 13, 1672.)
From cockfighting, bear baiting, and like sports, the wife of John Bunyan converted him to a life of humility and reverence. While imprisoned for preaching, he used his idle time in writing a fantastic story of a soul’s salvation—probably the most famous allegory ever written.
Read: Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS Vol. 15, pp. 13-23 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Immortality · Sin · Family
September 14
(Dante died Sept. 14, 1321.) *
Dante, having journeyed through Hell and Purgatory, comes at last to St. Peter on his throne. St. Peter calls for the aid of St. James and St. John before passing final judgment on Dante’s righteousness.
Read: Dante's DIVINE COMEDY Vol. 20, pp. 387-395 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Religion · Theology · God · Definition
September 15
(George Washington published “Farewell Address,” Sept. 15, 1796.)
George Washington retired to private life in 1796, entrusting “the preservation of the Union” to the “love of liberty.” His last appeal is a vital message to American citizens, as pertinent today as when he penned it.
Read: Washington's FAREWELL ADDRESS Vol. 43, pp. 233-249 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Patriotism · Government · War and Peace · Citizen
September 16
“Such felons as stand mute [do not confess] are pressed to death by huge weights laid upon a board that lieth over their breast and a sharp stone under their backs.” Old English punishments, recorded by Holinshed, make startling reading.
Read: HOLINSHED'S CHRONICLES Vol. 35, pp. 363-370 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Punishment · Law · Justice · Family
September 17
(Whittier died Sept. 17, 1892.)
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’” On this theme Whittier based the story of a fair farmer girl and a rich judge.
Read: WHITTIER'S POEMS Vol. 42, pp. 1351-1364 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Family · Happiness · Courage · War and Peace
September 18
(Dana returns from two-year voyage, Sept. 18, 18 36.)
“Every sight was full of beauty. We were coming back to our homes, and the signs of civilization from which we had been so long banished—“ wrote Dana, as his ship entered Boston Harbor.
Read: Dana's TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST Vol. 23, pp. 348-356 read · scan
September 19
(Cervantes ransomed from slavery, Sept. 19, 1580.)
Held as a Moorish slave for five years, Cervantes was submitted to almost daily tortures. But even the horrors of slavery could not dull his sense of humor, as evinced by his most witty and amusing novel.
Read: Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE Vol. 14, pp. 48-54 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Poetry · Chivalry · Language · Judgment
September 20
(Mohammed arrives at Kuba after “The Flight,’ Sept. 20, 622.)
The Koran defines the powers of a husband over his wives. Thus a woman unfaithful to her lord may be walled up alive.
September 21
(Virgil died Sept. 21, 19 B. C.)
The Sybil, an old witch, personally conducts Eneas through the gate and into the jaws of hell, where terrors abound on every hand and frightful mysterious forms rule. There he is told of the greatness and glory that was to come.
Read: Virgil's AENEID Vol. 13, pp. 207-218 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Fate · Life and Death · Family · Punishment
September 22
(Froissart dates Battle of Poitiers, Sept. 22, 1356.)
In the days when kings rode to battle leading their troops it was possible to make good the boast of the doughboy: “I’ll bring you a king for a souvenir.”
Read: FROISSART'S CHRONICLES Vol. 35, pp. 42-53 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Chivalry · Courage · Honor
September 23
The Romans made an art of dying. The Egyptians looked on death with complacency. Moderns fear it. Montaigne argues that the purpose of philosophy is to teach men how to die.
Read: Montaigne's TO LEARN HOW TO DIE Vol. 32, pp. 9-22 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Life and Death · Emotion · Pleasure and Pain · Courage
September 24
When the serpent of Minerva disappeared from her temple, the priests said that the goddess had left Athens for the sea. Moreover, the oracles urged the Athenians to seek safety in their ships. Themistocles prompted these deceits. Why?
Read: Plutarch's THEMISTOCLES Vol. 12, pp. 13-23 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: War and Peace · Prudence · Prophecy · Honor
September 25
John Stuart Mill-in his autobiography boldly tells of his love for his friend’s wife. After twenty years, she was freed from her first husband and was happily married to John Stuart Mill. Read the account of Mill’s courtship.
Read: Mill's AUTOBIOGRAPHY Vol. 25, pp. 116-120, 149 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · Democracy · Progress · Government
September 26
(Printing of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” licensed, Sept. 26, 1604.)
The gaunt lunatic, Don Quixote, saw the world through glasses colored with romanticism that had gone out of style hundreds of years before he was born. Cervantes made the world laugh at the exaggerated stories it had been devouring.
Read: Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE Vol. 14, pp. 29-35 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Chivalry · Custom and Convention · Madness · Hospitality
September 27
(Pascal confers with Descartes, Sept. 27, 1647.)
To-day we have Fundamentalists and Modernists, each striving for the same goal. Pascal, two hundred and fifty years ago, gave his precepts of the fundamentals of religious thought.
September 28
(Louis Pasteur died Sept. 28, 1895.)
Proof that germs cause many contagious diseases was established by Louis Pasteur. His discoveries revolutionized modern science and lessened the ravages of every type of disease.
Read: Pasteur's THE GERM THEORY Vol. 38, pp. 364-370 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Medicine · Cause · Experience · Science
September 29
Confucius was a Chinese magistrate in 500 8. c. He lost the favor of the Emperor and wandered from city to city, teaching and giving counsel. After his death, Emperor and people alike bowed before his shrine.
Read: SAYINGS OF CONFUCIUS Vol. 44, pp. 5-14 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Virtue and Vice · Family · Education · Custom and Convention
September 30
(Emerson’s first marriage, Sept. 30, 1829.)
An etiquette book and a good tailor do not always produce a gentleman—neither does the Social Register include only gentlemen. Emerson by quaint stories tells how fashion and manners combine to make that rare product—a gentleman.
Read: Emerson's MANNERS Vol. 5, pp. 199-208 read · scan
Great Ideas in these pages: Custom and Convention · Aristocracy · Truth · Chivalry
January February March April May June July August September October November December