Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

i6 THI Contributed 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