Fifteen Minutes a Day: Franklin

Friday, January 1, 2016

January 1

JANUARY

ST. AGNES' Eve! - Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold. . .
KEATS (Vol. 41, p. 883)

Franklin's Advice for the New Year

"Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve"-was one of the rules for success framed by America's first "self-made" man.

Read: From FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY (The Harvard Classics: Vol. 1, pp. 79-85)

The Daily Reading Guide

PRESIDENT ELIOT wrote in his introduction to the Harvard Classics, "In my opinion, a five-foot shelf would hold books enough to give a liberal education to any one who would read them with devotion, even if he could spare but fifteen minutes a day for reading." With this very definitely in mind, we have prepared a daily reading guide in which the assignments chosen appropriately enough, will take the usual person about fifteen minutes to read with leisurely enjoyment. These selections assigned for each day in the year as you will see, are introduced by comments on the author, the subjects or the chief characters. They will serve to introduce you in the most pleasant manner possible to the Harvard Classics. They will enable you to browse enjoyably among the world's immortal writings with entertainment and stimulation in endless variety.

Form this Pleasant and Exhilarating Habit

To take a few minutes out of your busy day to commune with these great writers of all time is one of the finest habits possible. That fifteen minutes will carry you on wings of romance and adventure to other lands, to the scenes of other days and will break the monotony of your days, will change the course of your thinking, will give you the privilege of contact with the great minds whose writings have stimulated and inspired mankind over the centuries. As comprehensive as it is, the Daily Reading Guide does not presume to exhaust the wealth of interest and profit that lies between the pages of this great library. We believe that once you have been afforded a taste of the delights of the imperishable writings you will straightway turn back to read the larger works to which you have been so pleasantly introduced. In addition to the Reading Guide, you have Dr. Eliot's Reading Courses as outlined in volume fifty — the remarkable course of sixty lectures and the index with its seventysix thousand references, all of which will provide you with fascinating topics in an unfailing diversity. Thus the Harvard Classics afford you in generous measure entertainment and enchantment and intellectual stimulus.

Fifteen Minutes a Day

Friday, January 1, 2016

January 1

The Daily Reading Guide

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