The World's Best Books : A Key to the Treasures of Literature Part 10

There have been, since the waters of thought began to flow, two great streams running side by side,--Rationalism and Mysticism. Those who sail upon the former recognize Reason as king; those upon the latter enthrone some vague and shadowy power, in general known as Intuition. The tendency of the one is to begin with sense impressions, and out of these to build up a universe in the brain corresponding to the outer world, and to arrive at a belief in G.o.d by climbing the stairway of induction and a.n.a.logy. The tendency of the other is to start with the affirmed nature of G.o.d, arrived at, the thinker knows not how, and deduce the universe from the conception of the Divine Nature. If this matter is kept in mind, the earnest student will be able to see through the mists sufficiently to discover what the philosophers are talking about whenever it chances that they themselves knew. Spencer, Plato, Berkeley, Kant, Locke, are all worthy of a thorough reading; and Comte's philosophy of Mathematics is of great importance.

The manner of reading good philosophic works should be: R. D. G.

[186] Spencer's Philosophy is the grandest body of thought that any one man has ever given to the world. No one who wishes to move with the tide can afford to be unfamiliar with his books, from "First Principles" to his Essays. He believes that all ideas, or their materials, have come through the avenues of the senses. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[187] Plato and Socrates are a double star in the sky of Philosophy that the strongest telescopes have failed to resolve. Socrates wrote nothing, but talked much. Plato was a pupil of his, and makes Socrates the chief character in his writings. Ten schools of philosophy claimed Socrates as their head, but Plato alone represented the master with fulness.

Considering the times in which he lived, the grandeur of his thought, the power of his imagination, and the n.o.bility, elegance, originality, and beauty of his writings, Plato has no superior in the whole range of literature. With Plato, ideas are the only realities, things are imperfect expressions of them, and all knowledge is reminiscence of what the soul learned when it was in the land of spirit, face to face with ideas unveiled. Read his dialogues, especially "Phaedo" and the "Republic." (Greece, 429-348 B. C.)

[188] A most acute idealist, whose argument against the existence of matter is one of the great pa.s.sages of literature. (Eng., 18th cent.)

[189] Kant argues that the _forms_ of _thought_, _time_, and _s.p.a.ce_ are necessarily intuitive, and not derived from sensation, since they are prerequisites to sensation. Read the "Critique of Pure Reason,"

"Critique of Practical Reason," in which he treats moral philosophy, and "Observations on the Sublime and Beautiful." (Germany, 18th cent.)

[190] Locke bases knowledge on sensation. His "Essay on the Conduct of the Understanding" is one of the most valuable books in the language.

Spencer, Mill, and Locke have so fully imbibed all that was good in Hobbes that it is scarcely necessary to read him. (Eng., 17th cent.)

[191] Comte's "Positive Philosophy" rejects intuitive knowledge. It is characterized by force of logic, immense research, great power of generalization (which is frequently carried beyond the warrant of facts), and immense bulk. (France, 19th cent.)

[192] Sensationalist. A very strong writer. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[193] "Limits of Religious Thought." A very powerful exposure of the weakness of human imagination. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[194] "Matter and Force." A powerful presentation of Materialism. (Ger., 19th cent.)

[195] "Freedom of the Will." A demonstration of the impossibility of free will. (Amer., 18th cent.)

[196] A very acute English philosopher. (Eng., 1748-1832.)

[197] Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[198] A deep, clear thinker, of sceptical character, who laid bare the flaws in the old philosophies. (Eng., 1711-1776.)

[199] One of the most profound metaphysicians the world can boast, and inventor of quaternions, the latest addition to Mathematics. (Scot., 19th cent.)

[200] Aristotle was the Bacon of the Old World. His method was the very opposite of Plato's. He sought knowledge chiefly by carefully looking out upon the world, instead of by introspection. No one has exerted a greater influence on the thought of the world than this deep and earnest thinker. (Greece, 4th cent. B. C.)

[201] A very beautiful writer of the idealist school, though he claims to be eclectic. (France, 19th cent.)

[202] Hegel endeavored, by the method set forth in his "Absolute Logic,"

to reduce all knowledge to one science. (Ger., 1770-1831.) Sch.e.l.ling, in his "Philosophy of Ident.i.ty," tries to prove that the same laws hold in the world of spirit as in the world of matter. Sch.e.l.ling bases his system on an _intuition_ superior to reason, and admitting neither doubt nor explanation. (Ger., 1775-1854.)

[203] Fichte carries the doctrines of Kant to their limit: to him all except the life of the mind is a delusion. (Ger., 18th cent.)

[204] A great German philosopher of the time of Luther (16th cent.), very learned, refined, and witty. Read his "Familiar Colloquies."

[205] "Cosmic Philosophy." (Amer. 19th cent.)

[206] "Rational Cosmology, or the Eternal Principles and Necessary Laws of the Universe." (U. S., 19th cent.)

[207] Scottish Philosophy. (U. S., 19th cent.)

[208] Theologico-politico-moral, voluminous dissertations. (Amsterdam, 17th cent.)

ESSAYS.

Next to Shakspeare's Plays, Emerson's Essays and Lectures are to me the richest inspiration. At every turn new and delightful paths open before the mind; and the poetic feeling and imagery are often of the best. Only the music and the power of discriminating the wheat from the chaff were lacking to have made one of the world's greatest poets. To pour into the life the spirit of Emerson, Bacon, and Montaigne is a liberal education in itself. Addison's "Spectator" is inimitable in its union of humor, sense, and imagination. A number of eminent men, Franklin among them, have referred to it as the source of their literary power.

Read these essays: R. D. C. G.

[209] Emerson's Essays and Lectures certainly deserve our first attention in this department, because of their poetic beauty and stimulating effect upon the imagination and all that is pure and strong and n.o.ble in the character. (Amer., 19th cent.)

[210] Nowhere can be found so much wit and wisdom to the square inch as in Bacon's Essays. (Eng., 1600.)

[211] Montaigne is the most popular of all the world's essayists, because of his common-sense, keen insight, and perfect frankness. The only author we certainly know to have been in Shakspeare's own library.

(France, 1580.)

[212] Ruskin's "Ethics of the Dust," "Crown of Wild Olives," "Sesame and Lilies," while somewhat wild in substance as well as in t.i.tle, are well worthy of reading for the intellectual stimulus afforded by their breadth of view, novelty of expression and ill.u.s.tration, and the intense force--almost fanaticism--which characterizes all that Ruskin says.

Ruskin is one of three living writers whom Farrar says he would first save from a conflagration of the world's library. Carlyle is another of the same sort. Read his "Past and Present," a grand essay on Justice.

(Eng., 19th cent.)

So far as style is concerned, Addison's Essays in the "Spectator" are probably the best in the world.

FICTION.

In modern times much that is best in literature has gone into the pages of the novel. The men and women of genius who would in other days have been great poets, philosophers, dramatists, essayists, and humorists have concentrated their powers, and poured out all their wealth to set in gold a story of human life. Don't neglect the novels; but be sure to read _good_ ones, and don't read too many.

In fiction, England, America, and France are far ahead of the rest of the world. Scott may well be held to lead the list, considering the quant.i.ty and quality of what he wrote; and d.i.c.kens, I presume, by many would be written next, though I prefer the philosophic novelists, like George Eliot, Macdonald, Kingsley, Hugo, etc. Fielding, Richardson, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Defoe, Jane Austen, Cooper, and Marryat all claim our attention on one account or another.

The United States can boast of Hawthorne, Tourgee, Wallace, Hearn, Aldrich, Warner, Curtis, Jewett, Craddock, and many others.

France has a glorious army, led by Victor Hugo, George Sand, Balzac, Dumas, Gautier, Merimee, etc. But the magnificent powers of these artists are combined with sad defects. Hugo is the greatest literary force since Goethe and Scott; but his digressions are sometimes terribly tedious, his profundity darkness, and his "unities," his plot, and reasons for lugging in certain things hard to find. Balzac gives us a monotony of wickedness. George Sand is p.r.o.ne to idealize l.u.s.t. "Notre Dame" and "Les Miserables," "Le Pere Goriot" and "Eugenie Grandet,"

"Consuelo" and "La Mare au Diable," "Capitaine Fraca.s.se" and "Vingt Ans Apres," are great books; but they will not rank with "Tom Jones"

artistically, nor with the "Vicar of Wakefield," "Ivanhoe," "Adam Bede,"

"Romola," or "The Scarlet Letter," considering all the elements that go to make a great novel.

Germany, Italy, and Spain have no fiction that compares with ours.

No doubt many will be surprised to find Fielding, Balzac, Tolsto, and others placed so low in the list as they are. The reason is that the moral tone of a book is, with us, a weightier test of its claims on the attention of the general reader, than the style of the author or the merit of his work from an artistic point of view. There might be some doubt whether or no we ought not to exclude from our tables entirely all books that are not n.o.ble enough in character to admit of their being read aloud in the family. The trouble is that much of the finest literature of the world would have to be excluded. So there seems to be no course but to admit these men, with a note as to their character.