On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books

by Karen Swallow Prior

And because “the end of all earthly learning is virtuous action,”22 poetry is more likely than either philosophy or history to cultivate virtue.

Prudence is wisdom at work on the ground, doing good and avoiding evil in real-life situations.

Temperance is liberating because it “allows us to be masters of our pleasure instead of becoming its slaves.”9

Today conspicuous consumption has spread even more throughout American culture. A recent four-year study, for example, found that the lives of the middle class are “overwhelmed” by stockpiled supplies, clutter, and toys. Three out of four garages are too full to hold cars, and while the United States has 3.1 percent of the world’s children, it has 40 percent of the world’s toys.25