Time should already have died...

...because I've been killing it so much!

Some time ago, I decided to try to read through the Harvard Classics from Volume 1 to 49. The contents can be read in a number of different patterns, but I decided the simplest would be cover to cover. Some of it is pretty darn dry, and I have already skipped over an essay or two that I simply couldn't plow through, but still, it's amazing how the insights from vastly different eras are still valuable today; in fact, people could stand some reflection on some of those old insights, because they most certainly still apply today. So, I will share some here, because I know what a VAST audience I have! (Hello to both of you!)

I'm only in volume 3 so far. Wikipedia has the index, but I will share those three here:

• Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN
  • His Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin
  • Journal , by John Woolman
  • Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn
• Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
  • The Apology, Phædo and Crito, by Plato
  • The Golden Sayings, by Epictetus
  • The Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
• Vol. 3. BACON, MILTON'S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE
• Essays, Civil and Moral & The New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon
• Areopagitica & Tractate of Education, by John Milton
• Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne

Most people would be aware that Ben Franklin would be good for some input. I have to say, though, it would be worth anyone's time to revisit the autobiography. John Woolman was a Quaker, and traveled extensively preaching against slavery. Very interesting stuff. William Penn, also a Quaker, offers many insights on a topic-by-topic basis. Especially interesting to read the Wiki on him.

For the next volume, let's just say there is a ton of interesting fodder for the philosopher and everyone else there. There is a reason some of this stuff used to be part of a common education.

Bacon's New Atlantis was AMAZING. Considering when he wrote it, he is talking about NETWORKING INFORMATION SYSTEMS. Milton had some good stuff on education, one of my own passions, of course. And given that I have occasionally headed toward seminary, Sir Thomas Browne was awesome! He was a doctor who was accused of being an atheist. So he wrote his "little" book to refute that. Some really wonderful stuff. One quote I liked:

"The wisdom of God receives small honour from those vulgar heads that rudely stare about, and with a gross rusticity admire his works. Those highly magnify him, whose judicious enquiry into his acts, and deliberate research into his creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration."

There is so very much material to talk about in these books, I believe my fingers would melt into the disintegrating computer keyboard, were I to attempt a complete discourse... But I will try to share and expound as the mood strikes. Eh, it's something to do, anyhow. Better than sitting and staring at the snow. Or rain. Or whatever Michigan weather chooses to do at any particular moment.