The Harvard Classics in a Year: A Liberal Education in 365 Days

by Amanda Kennedy

The Harvard Classics in a Year A Liberal Education in 365 Days Collected and edited by Amanda Kennedy Copyright Amanda Kennedy 2014 This is an edited collection of reading material sourced from the public domain, inspired by Dr. Eliot's “reading guide” for the Harvard Classics anthology.

January 1st Franklin's Advice for the New Year Benjamin Franklin. (1706–1790). His Autobiography

but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen;

Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual

This being acquir’d and establish’d, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improv’d in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtain’d rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me

This and the next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my...

Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain al...

Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice...

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues.

I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.

Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day.

Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d, and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots.

so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should he happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks’ daily examination.

This my little book had for its motto these lines from Addison’s Cato: “Here will I hold. If there’s a power above us (And that there is, all nature cries aloud Thro’ all her works), He must delight in virtue; And that which he delights in must be happy.”

January 2nd School-Day Poems of John Milton John Milton, Complete Poems At the age of sixteen, Milton first appeared before the public eye as a promising young poet. These early verses, written while he was a boy in school, indicate his brilliant future.

January 3rd Cicero on Friendship Cicero (106 B.C.–43 B.C.). On Friendship. "Fire and water are not of more universal use than friendship" - such is the high value put upon this great human relationship by the most famous orator of Rome.

January 4th A Flounder Fish Story Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Household Tales. A fisherman, so the story goes, once caught a flounder that spoke, begging to be released. This was granted, whereupon the fisherman's wife demanded that it grant her one miracle after another, until even the flounder was disgusted.

January 5th The Soaring Eagle and Contented Stork Guiseppe Mazzini, Byron and Goethe Mazzini labored for the freedom of Italy, but was exiled. Byron and Goethe also battled for liberty. Mazzini wrote an essay in which he compared Byron to a soaring eagle and Goethe to a contented stork. (Byron arrived in Greece to fight for Greek freedom, Jan. 5, 1824.)

January 6th Warned by Hector's Ghost Virgil, ÆNEID In the dead of night Hector's ghost appeared to warn Æneas of the impending doom to come upon the walled city of Troy. Æneas lifted his aged father on his back and, taking his son by the hand, sought safety in flight. Off to Latium! (H. Schliemann, discoverer of ancient Troy, born Jan. 6, 1822.)

January 7th If He Yawned, She Lost Her Head! Stories from The Thousand and One Nights (Introduction) The Sultan had a habit of beheading each dawn his beautiful bride of the night before, until he encountered Scheherazade. Cleverly she saved her life a thousand and one mornings.

January 8th Trying the Patience of Job The Book of Job God was pleased with the piety of Job, but Satan accredited the piety to Job's prosperity and happiness. So a trial was made. See how each succeeding affliction visited on Job shook the depths of his nature, and how he survived.

January 9th A Treasure Hunt in Nombre de Dios Philip Nichols, Sir Francis Drake Revived With only fifty-two men, Sir Francis Drake conceives the idea of attacking his archenemy, Spain, at her most vulnerable point the treasure at Nombre de Dios. (Drake died at Nombre de Dios, Jan. 9, 1596.)

January 10th Where Love Lies Waiting Euripides (480 or 485–406 B.C.). The Bacchæ. King Pantheus of Thebes contended against Dionysus, the God, for the adoration of the Theban women. The god was winning by bewitching the women when the king interceded. Euripides tells the story in a masterpiece of Greek drama.

January 11th Hamilton - Father of Wall Street Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, No. 1 and 2 Hamilton organized the Treasury Department. He penned most of the Federalist papers, which were greatly influential in bringing New York into the Union - the first step toward its eminent position in national and world finance.

January 12th What Is Good Taste? Edmund Burke (1729–1797). On Taste. A Turkish sultan, relates Burke, when shown a picture of the beheaded John the Baptist, praised many things, but pointed out one gruesome defect. Did this observation show the sultan to be an inferior judge of art?

January 13th Rousseau Seeks Sanctuary in England Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). On the Inequality among Mankind. Rousseau taught that men were not created free and equal. To substantiate his daring beliefs he traced man's history back to his primitive beginnings. For his teachings, Rousseau was forced to seek refuge in England.

January 14th The First Step Toward Independence Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, adopted Jan. 14, 1639 The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is "the first written constitution as a permanent limitation on governmental power, known in history." It is the work of the Connecticut Yankee.

January 15th "The Moving Finger Writes" Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883), "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" Omar Khayyam laughed and enjoyed the good things of life. His "Rubaiyat," the most popular philosophic poem, is the best of all books to dip into for an alluring thought.

he sold a reasonable pennyworth and was a fairspoken man. It was his custom likewise to say, if any man hucked hard with him about the price of a gelding, “So God help me, gentlemen (or sir), either he did cost me so much, or else, by Jesus, I stole him!” Which talk was plain enough; and yet such was his estimation that each believed the first part of his tale, and made no account of the latter, which was truer indeed. Our third annoyers of the commonwealth are rogues,

November 12th Story of the First Dresses John Milton. (1608–1674). Paradise Lost. Vol. 4, pp. 278-290 of The Harvard Classics Milton's version tells how the Serpent induced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve offered it to Adam. Then they became conscious for the first time that they were not clothed. (John Milton married second wife, Nov. 12, 1656.)

The Ninth Book […] Queen of this Universe! do not believe Those rigid threats of death. Ye shall not die.

Thus they in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours, but neither self—condemning; And of their vain contest’ appeared no end.

November 13th When Carthage Was Monte Carlo Saint Augustine. (354–430). The Confessions of St. Augustine. Vol. 7, pp. 31-38 of The Harvard Classics Carthage was the playground of the ancient world. In that city of many sins, Augustine was a leader of the revels. His conversion to Christianity amazed those who knew him. (St. Augustine born Nov. 13, 354.)

November 14th He Worried About It Charles Lyell (1797–1875). Scientific Papers. Vol. 38, pp. 398-405 of The Harvard Classics We wonder if the man who worried about the "scientifical" prediction that "The sun's heat will give out in ten million years more," had read Lyell on the gradual changes in the earth's surface. (Sir Charles Lyell born Nov. 14, 1797.)

November 15th Food Profiteers 300 Years Ago Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873). I Promessi Sposi. Vol. 21, pp. 450-460 of The Harvard Classics Food profiteering was as active in plague-stricken Milan 300 years ago as in modern times. Shops were stormed for food. Read how the Council strove heroically to fix fair rates. (Sale of corn and flour regulated in Milan, Nov. 15, 1629.)

November 16th Just Before the Gold Rush Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815–1882). Two Years before the Mast. Vol. 23, pp. 164-168 of The Harvard Classics When the glorious Western coast was only partly settled, Dana visited the Presidios. He saw frontier life at a time when Spanish splendor still gilded California.

November 17th At Thirty Scott Began to Write Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881). Sir Walter Scott. Vol. 25, pp. 410-420 of The Harvard Classics Are you curious about famous people, their lives, habits, personalities? Carlyle discusses the intimate life of his illustrious countryman, and reveals Scott, the man, and Scott, the genius who entertained Christendom with his stories. (Scott writes dedication of "Ivanhoe," Nov. 17, 1817.)

November 18th Apple or Son the Arrow's Mark Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805). Wilhelm Tell. Vol. 26, pp. 441-449 of The Harvard Classics The arrow shot from his bow with a twang and whizzed through the air. Tell covered his eyes, fearing to see where the arrow hit. Then the shout of triumph, a shout of the people and not of the tyrant-but the end was not yet. (William Tell incident, legendary date, Nov. 18, 1307.)

November 21st Bargains in Wives François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778). Letters on the English. Vol. 34, pp. 93-97 of The Harvard Classics The beautiful daughters of the Circassians were in demand for the seraglios of the Turkish Sultan. Voltaire tells how these beauties were protected from smallpox centuries before modern vaccination. (Voltaire ill with smallpox, Nov., 1723.)

November 22nd How a Queen Died for Love Vergil (70 B.C.–19 B.C.). Æneid. Vol. 13, pp. 167-177 of The Harvard Classics Deserted by her lover, Queen Dido applied to her heart the only balm that could ease her pain.

November 24th The Book that Upset Tennessee Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882). Origin of Species. Vol. 11, pp. 23-30 of The Harvard Classics The signal for the beginning of a great controversy, still raging, was the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species." This was the first complete statement of the evolution theory, which had been privately advanced but never publicly taught. A new epoch in science dates from this great work. ("Origin of Species" published Nov. 24, 1859.)

November 25th Cupid as a Shoemaker Thomas Dekker (1570–1632). The Shoemaker’s Holiday. Vol. 47, pp. 469-483 of The Harvard Classics We are indebted to Thomas Dekker for one of the most humorous characters in all Elizabethan literature; namely, Simon Eyre, an old shoemaker whose affairs became hilariously involved with those of the gentry.

November 26th Shakespeare Should Be Heard Charles Lamb. On the Tragedies of Shakspere Considered with Reference to Their Fitness for Stage Representation. Vol. 27, pp. 299-310 of The Harvard Classics Charles Lamb, favorite essayist, thought that no stage could do justice to Shakespeare's tragedies. He advocated reading the plays, and with the imagination costuming the players and building the gorgeous scenery in a way equaled by no scene painter or costumer.

The truth is, the characters of Shakespeare are so much the objects of meditation rather than of interest of curiosity as to their actions, that while we are reading any of his great criminal characters,—Macbeth, Richard, even Iago,—we think not so much of the crimes which they commit, as of the ambition, the aspiring spirit, the intellectual activity which prompts them to overleap those moral fences.

The state of sublime emotion into which we are elevated by those images of night and horror which Macbeth is made to utter, that solemn prelude with which he entertains the time till the bell shall strike which is to call him to murder Duncan,—when we no longer read it in a book, when we have given up that vantage-ground of abstraction which reading possesses over seeing, and come to see a man in his bodily shape before our eyes actually preparing to commit a murder, if the acting be true and impressive, as I have witnessed it in Mr. K.’s performance of that part, the painful anxiety about the act, the natural longing to prevent it while it yet seems unperpetrated, the too close pressing semblance of reality, give a pain and an uneasiness which totally destroy all the delight which the words in the book convey, where the deed doing never presses upon us with the painful sense of presence: it rather seems to belong to history,—to something past and inevitable, if it has anything to do with time at all. The sublime images, the poetry alone, is that which is present to our minds in the reading.

November 27th What Land is This? Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). Utopia. Vol. 36, pp. 191-204 of The Harvard Classics In wondrous Utopia pearls and precious stones were used as playthings for little children. Gold rings and bracelets were only worn by outcasts, while great golden chains shackled criminals and felons. When ambassadors from foreign lands came in fine raiment, the Utopians treated the plainest dressed as the greatest; the others seemed to them like children.

November 28th Poems Made from Visions William Blake (1757–1827) Vol. 41, pp. 583-592 of The Harvard Classics "To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower-" Such was the exaltation of the mysticism of William Blake, who reflected in his poetry the ecstasy of his visions. Simplicity is the keynote of his genius. (William Blake born Nov. 28, 1757.)

Auguries of Innocence TO see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.

November 29th How Ideas Originate David Hume (1711–76). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Vol. 37, pp. 299-303 of The Harvard Classics Did you ever stop to think just how you thought? What inner emotions, what outer influences make up the fathomless depths of mind and intellect? Hume explains how we draw our thoughts, then clumsily put them into tangible shape called ideas.

November 30th "Dont's" for Conversation Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Vol. 27, pp. 91-98 of The Harvard Classics To harp on one's illnesses, giving all the symptoms and circumstances, has been a blemish on conversation for ages. Two hundred years ago Swift complained of persons who continually talked about themselves. (Jonathan Swift born Nov. 30, 1667.)