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i6 THI
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FIVE FEET. OF BOOKS!
Dr. Eliot, former President of. Harvard
University, was asked by a book
publisher to furnish a* list of books to
fill a live foot shelf, "the reading of
which would give any man a liberal education."
He has given a partial list of
about forty books for this shelf, and it
is interesting reading.
Here is Dr. Eliot's list:
"AutoLiography of Benjamin Franklin."
' Journal of John Woolman."
"Fruits of Solitude," by William Penn.
Bacon's 'Essay" and "New Atlantic."
Milton's "Areopagitica" and '"fractate
on Education."
Sir Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici."
Plato's "Apology," "Phaede" and
4 Crito."
"Golden Sayings of Epictetus."
"Meditations of Marcus Aurelius."
Emerson's "Essays."
Emerson's "English Traits."
The complete poems of Milton.
Jonson's "Volpone."
Beaumont and Fletcher's "The Maids."
Tragedy.
Webster's "Duchess of Malfi."
Middleton's ' The Changeling."
Drrrton'o "All fnr T ovo "
Shelley's "Cenci."
Browning's. "Blot 011 the Scutcheon."
Tennyson's "Becket."
Goethe's "Faust."
Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus."
Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations."
4 Letters" of Cicero and Pliny.
Bunyan'8 "Pilgrim's Progress."
Burns' "Tarn o'Shanter."
Walton's ' Complete Angler" and
"Lives" of Donne and Herbert.
"Autobiography of St. Augustine."
Plutarch's "Lives."
Dryden's "Aeneid ."
4 Canterbury Tales."
"Imitation of Christ," by Thomas a
Kempls.
Dante's "Divine Comedy."
Darwin's "Origin of Species."
"Aro Vvl Q r? M1 nrV? * n "
It 1b interesting to know what books
so distinguished a man of literary culture
would select and commend as a
means to liberal education. For the
last week or two the list has been discussed
by the papers throughout the
country. A good number of these books
are by universal consent classics in Eng
lish literature. The absence of the Bible
we suppose is simply because the
Sacred Book is unquestionably, the lofty
standard, the Book of Books. "There is
hilt nnr-> Hnnlr " aoM ai*? ??4A A
v..w puiu Uli ?vauci OL'ULl LU
Lockhart on his death-bed. One of the
daily papers says:
"We assume that Dr. Eliot regarded
the Bible as a matter of course and a
natural part of the furnishing of every
American home. It is the foundation and
the basis of the literature, the education
and the training of J.he people of this
country."
* I
Z PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT
The absence of Shakespeare, the great
Master of English Letters, can not be. explained.
Very generally the absence of
fiction and of humor is commented on.
Of religious works, "St. Augustine,"
' The Immitation of Christ" and "The
Pilgrim's Progress" are certainly clasoioo
nrltl/iU nil -J * - J
o.^o, >. iiivn an euutiiit'u men snouia
know.
On the whole the list strikes us not as
a course of reading by which one may
attain a liberal education, nor yet as a
list by which to determine whether one
has reached a high degree of culture.
But rather as an approximate class of
reading for which we might expect a liberally
educated mind to have some taste.
It impresses us as a list of books selected
by an elderly and diletante man of
letters, not practical or specially useful
for life, but for the entertainment of leisurely
hours. Certainly there are great
minds doing great thinking, and inviting
leaders to converse with them on great
themes. No doubt the publication of the
list will suggest to many some reading
of the highest order. J. P. S.
THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD
AND ITS OFFER TO DAVIDSON
COLLEGE.
In talking with the friends of Davidson
I find much confusion of thought and
general misapprehension as to the organization
proposing to help Davidson
PAIIocvo on/1 +V?/x - ?**'
K/v<iv0v uuu cue VUUUIIIUIIB UI me gill.
To make the matter clear I wish all concerned
to read the following statements,
which are clear, concise, and based on
full and accurate knowledge:
The Three Boards.
Among the many philanthropic agencies
of the country there are *hree
Boards which are continually confused
in the minds of the Southern people.
1. The Southern Education Board,
popularly known as "The Ogden Movement,"
from the name of its founder,
chief promoter, and president, Robert C.
Ogden of New York. This Board meets
annually in the South to promulgate and
? -
i'ji nuiu a campaign ior me Detterment
of the public schools of the South. Its
work is the awakening of interest in
Public Schools and securing by taration
adequate revenues for their maintenance.
This Board has nothing to do with colleges
and contributes no money to them.
2. The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, known as "The
Carnegie Pension Fund." The object of
this Board, endowed by Andrew Carnegie
with fifteen millions of dollars, is the
pensioning of infirm or aged Professors
and their widows in the United States,
Pono/la f a "
viauoua, uuu ncn ruuiiumau. ino "sectarian
institutions" can be admitted to
the benefits of this fund. In Mr. Carnegie's
language, "Such as are under the
control of a sect or require Trustees,
(or a majority thereof), Officers, Faculty,
or Students, to belong to any specified
sect, or which impose any theological
test, are to be excluded."
The Central University case has to do
entirely with this Board. It was placed
on the Board's "accepted *1181," as soon
????
H. July 7, 1909.
as the Kentucky Synod relinquished all
legal control of the institution.
The establishment of this enormous
pension-fund and the exclusion of denominational
colleges from its benefits, add
much to the burden which the churches
must carry in maintaining their colleges
and holHinc * hoi r Prnfn.~>?= t* 1- -?
.. . .vivuduiii. II. IB Ut
once a threat, a challenge, and a bugle
.call, which should rally every denomination
to the support of its colleges. This
Hoard has, of course, nothing to do with
Davidson College or its endowment.
3. The General Education Board. This
Eoard has been endowed with over forty
millions of dollars by John D. Rockefeller.
It was incorporated in 1902, consists
of fifteen members, and has for its object
"the promotion of education in the Unit
ed States."
From its foundation its special work
seems, to have been the strengthening
ef church institutions. It has proved the
Providential antidote to the effect of the
Carnegie Fund, and the educational historian
of this period will doubtless recognize
in this Board, with its far-reaching
and enormous educational influence, the
strongest ally our church schools have
ever had.
The devout historian will recognize
that this ally was sent to the battle
field when the'church college was hard
beset, when the spirit of so-called "academic
freedom," the wonderful growth of
the public school system and the State
Universities, and the allurements of the
Carnegie Fund, were all attacking the
denominational college; when its foes
were already anticipating its speedy disappearance,
and many of its friends were
growing faint-hearted.
The Conditions Attached to the Gift.
Of a total of $300,000 which Davidson
has been trying to raise (including $70,000
subscribed since 1906) the General
Education Board offers to contribute for
endowment the sum of. $75,000, provided.
1 st. That the friends of the College
subscribe by June 1, 1910, the further
sum of $225,000, (including the above
$70,000).
2nd. That of the whole $300,000 not
less than $225,000 shall be preserved as
endowment.
3rd.. "That no part of the income of
the $75,000 contributed by this Goard
shall ever be used for specifically theological
instruction.
This is the only restriction placed on
tne use of the above $75,000. Its income
can be used for any and every branch of
college work, literary, athletic, or social.
Donors of Library Endowment, scholarships,
or lecture-funds, founders of Professorships,
loan funds, etc., not^ly forbids
the use of their income for theological
instruction, but definitely restrict it
to one specified channel. Not one contribution
in ten is so free from strings
or so unreservedly entrusted to the judgment
of the Trustees as this tine.
Future Supervision.
The above is the only restriction on
the use of the fund, and its fulfilment is
left entirely to the honor of the Board
of Trustees, Just as was the use. for ex