ON "CULTURE" AND 
 "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 With Lists of Books 
 Which Can Aid In Acquit: ng Them 
 
 JESSE LEE BENNETT 
 
fli 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL 
 EDUCATION" 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND 
 "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 With Lists of Books Which Can 
 Aid In Acquiring Them 
 
 By 
 JESSE LEE BENNETT 
 
 "Men go to books not Heaven forbid for 
 instruction, but for warmth and light, for a 
 thousand new perceptions that struggle in- 
 articulately within themselves, for the en- 
 largement of their experience, the echo of 
 their discords and the companionship of 
 beauty and terror for their troubled souls. 
 They go to literature for life, for more life 
 and keener life, for life as it crystallizes 
 into higher articulateness and deeper sig- 
 nificance. The enlargement and clarifi- 
 cation of men's experience that is the 
 function of literature" 
 
 Ludwig Lewisohn 
 
 BALTIMORE 
 
 THE ARNOLD COMPANY 
 1922 
 
Copyright, 1922 
 By JESSE LEE BENNETT 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Printed in the United States of America at the Press of G. ALFRED PETERS CO. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 During journalistic experience of fifteen 
 years, the author of this book has received 
 many scores of letters from men and women 
 of all ages and classes requesting lists of books 
 which could help them to gain "culture" or 
 "a liberal education". 
 
 This book has been prepared to meet the 
 demand evidenced by these letters. 
 
 It seeks to show that there is nothing mys- 
 terious or artificial about culture. It seeks 
 to show that culture is not something tepid 
 and weak to be gained by repression and re- 
 straint, but a thing vigorous and robust to be 
 won by the unfolding and developing of the 
 whole nature of the individual. 
 
 It seeks to show that anyone who suf- 
 ficiently desires can secure "a liberal educa- 
 tion" without the assistance of colleges or of 
 teachers. 
 
 It seeks to direct reading in such fashion 
 that broad comprehension of the field of 
 knowledge can be gained. It seeks to afford 
 a coordinated understanding which sets of 
 "classics" and "masterpieces" and "best 
 
 49691*3 
 
Foreword 
 
 books" cannot possibly give until mental 
 framework has been constructed into which 
 the various volumes comprising such sets can 
 properly be fitted. 
 
 It is obvious that an essay upon culture 
 should have some of the quality of rhythm 
 and serenity which any real culture must 
 bestow. Yet it may be found that the fol- 
 lowing essay has, rather, a somewhat argu- 
 mentative almost controversial -tone. It 
 may appear a defense as well as an exposition 
 of culture. 
 
 Some explanation of this anomaly is due. 
 It follows: 
 
 The excessively materialistic phase of Amer- 
 ican civilization is obviously beginning to 
 pass. Wealth and ease have now been pos- 
 sessed so long that aspirations toward aes- 
 thetic and cultural development are every- 
 where manifest. The bitter arraignments of 
 American lack of culture made by such writers 
 as Mencken, VanWyck Brooks, Sinclair Lewis, 
 Sherwood Anderson and many others have 
 had effect. All classes of the population have 
 become conscious of certain deficiencies in the 
 national life and are beginning to attempt to 
 correct them. 
 
Foreword 
 
 The first response to this changed national 
 attitude has been the immediate rise of a 
 swarm of quacks seeking to supply the de- 
 mand for some indesignate thing called "cul- 
 ture" by all sorts of meretricious schemes and 
 devices. 
 
 The journals of the country are flooded with 
 advertisements offering "culture" much as if 
 it were a predigested breakfast food. By 
 some of these advertisements "culture" is 
 made synonymous with a highly artificial and 
 unreal etiquette. By others it is made synon- 
 ymous with mere voluble patter about the 
 most sensational and artificial aspects of lit- 
 erature, music and art. Even by the adver- 
 tisements of legitimate and able publishers it 
 is often made synonymous with mere sterile 
 and uncoordinated information. 
 
 Everywhere there is the implicit assumption 
 that culture can be standardized, packed and 
 labelled for our purchase and consumption, 
 that little effort is necessary for its acquisition. 
 
 It is not to be denied that the stridency of 
 the assertions of these multitudinous quacks 
 has left some influence upon the minds even 
 of those who deeply and sincerely desire to 
 develop themselves and to gain that real cul- 
 ture which dignifies and ennobles life. 
 
foreword 
 
 At the present time, therefore, it appears 
 essential not only to insist upon what culture 
 is but also to insist upon what it is not. 
 
 Destructive as well as constructive efforts 
 are necessary. And destructive efforts can- 
 not be suave and gentle. 
 
 That is the explanation of any staccato, un- 
 rhythmic quality which may be felt in the 
 following essay. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL 
 EDUCATION" 
 
 Culture is not a mere veneer, a garment, 
 something apart from life. It is an integral 
 part of life. 
 
 Colleges and universities do not always give 
 it. Truly cultured men ar^ JnHeed,. almost 
 as rare in colleges and universities as they are 
 outside them. 
 
 The only really educated men are self- 
 educated. 
 
 Certainly the only truly cultured men are 
 s elPcul t i v a ted 
 
 The first and inexorable essential to cul-^ 
 ture is a sincere desire for growth and self- 
 development, a sincere desire to live the fullest 
 and richest life that is possible. 
 
 Culture is the art of life. Culture broad- 
 ens, deepens, quickens the current of life. 
 
 The only culture worth consideration be- 
 comes as much a part of a man's or woman's 
 being as the lungs or stomach as necessary 
 to them as air or food. 
 
 The acquiring of culture is the developing 
 of an avid hunger for knowledge and beauty. 
 
14 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 Such culture cannot be bought as one buys 
 a house or clothes or a motor-car. 
 
 It cannot be gained by one who desires only 
 to impress other people with allegedly "su- 
 perior" knowledge. 
 
 1 1 can _be_ acujre^only JbjLthe jy^&jEin d exer- 
 cise :~of a great and sincere curiosity a desire 
 toTknow about, to absorb and to enjoy all 
 the infinite treasures of knowledge, of beauty, 
 of art and thought and aspiration which the 
 finest and rarest men and women of all ages 
 have created or produced. 
 
 It can be acquired only through effort act- 
 uated by a sincere desire to "cultivatelljane's 
 'mind and sympathies and appreciation much 
 as a farmer must cultivate his plants. 
 
 The world is an infinitely complicated 
 place. And every man and woman is, ulti- 
 mately, alone. Alone in a universe filled with 
 terror and pain and misery but also filled with 
 wonder, with beauty and with splendor. 
 
 Knowledge of this wonder^ this beauty, this 
 splendor can do much to remove the dread of 
 the harsher aspects of existence which comes 
 at times to all of us. 
 
 To pass through life without knowledge or 
 understanding of what the great adventure of 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 15 
 
 living has meant to millions of other men and 
 women of other times and lands, to pass 
 through life without knowledge or under- 
 standing of all the great treasures of thought, 
 of literature, of music, of science, of art which 
 are the common heritage of all truly cultivated 
 men throughout the world is to rob oneself of 
 the most enduring satisfaction of life. 
 
 Such knowledge and understanding consti- 
 tutes the background of culture. 
 
 It can be acquired by anyone who suf- 
 ficiently desires. No teachers are necessary. 
 No college is necessary. ^All that is required 
 is a guide to take you a short distance through 
 the first confusing wilderness of books and to 
 point out some of the paths and directions 
 which will take you to the treasure house 
 which contains the common heritage of all 
 mankind. 
 
 Such knowledge and understanding is the 
 birthright of all the ardent, generous and am- 
 bitious souls who really desire it. Nothing 
 but their own inertia or apathy can deprive 
 them of it once the keys which open the first 
 few doors and gates which lead to their king- 
 dom have been put in their hands. 
 
 It is the object and purpose of this little 
 book to seek to serve as a guide to your her- 
 
16 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 itage, to serve as a key which will open a few 
 of the many doors which lead from the tan- 
 gled, muddled and confused world of every- 
 day to the serene, spacious and nobly-ordered 
 world of culture. 
 
 But, inasmuch as mere information does 
 not constitute culture, no mention of specific 
 books can wisely be made until the true na- 
 ture of culture has been depicted from many 
 
 ewpoints. 
 
 T^or the acquisition of culture requires more 
 than mere reading. It requires a certain at- 
 titude toward life. It requires a certain con- 
 ception of one's place in the great scheme of 
 things. It requires not only a keen desire 
 for personal growth and expansion but a de- 
 liberate enlargement of one's sympathies and 
 tolerances; a study and appraisal of one's 
 prejudices and preconceptions. 
 
 Not, alone, what books you read matters. 
 More depends upon what you bring to those 
 books, what attitude you adopt toward 
 them. Few books can teach you very much. 
 But they can stimulate you. They can help 
 to clarify your own thoughts, your own per- 
 sonality. They can widen your horizon. 
 Above all they can give you a new sense of 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 17 
 
 the infinite complexity, the beauty, the mar- 
 vellous potentialities of life. And that is the 
 only real culture. Its essence is toleration, 
 openness of mind, self-discipline, aspiration 
 and desire for growth. 
 
 Culture is the art of life. It's acquisition 
 implies the deliberate shaping of one's self in 
 order to live the greatest possible number of 
 hours of one's life on the highest, noblest 
 plane of being. 
 
 Let us repeat most emphatically: Mere 
 information does not constitute culture. 
 
 Information is a part of culture but a rela- 
 tively unimportant part. 
 
 There are innumerable well-informed men 
 and women who are not, nor ever will be, 
 cultivated men and women. 
 
 The mere reading of endless books cannot, 
 of itself, entitle a man or women to be con- 
 sidered "cultivated." 
 
 It is not so simple as that. 
 
 Culture is something infinitely more com- 
 plex than knowledge. 
 
 Culture is always keen, alive, alert. 
 Knowledge may often be dead, dull, tedious. 
 
 Let us repeat again: Culture is an attitude 
 toward life. 
 
18 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 It is the deliberate "cultivation" of the 
 whole personality senses, intellect, emotions, 
 sympathies and interests. 
 
 It first begins to germinate when one sin- 
 cerely seeks growth, development, wider 
 knowledge, richer experience. 
 
 It begins to develop when the disinterested 
 use of the mind, and contact with nature, with 
 literature, with music, with the fine arts be- 
 comes as vitally necessary to a man or woman 
 as food or drink. It flowers when the actual 
 hunger for knowledge and beauty becomes as 
 great as any other hunger. 
 
 Culture exists when one has learned to de- 
 light in the free use of the mind and of the 
 imagination. Culture exists when one has 
 learned to delight in thought, in art, in music, 
 in ever-increasing understanding of all that is 
 beautiful, gracious, well-ordered in the aspi- 
 rations of man. 
 
 Keep always in mind that culture can never 
 be secured by painful effort. Information 
 and knowledge can be secured in that fashion. 
 And information and knowledge are essential 
 preliminaries to culture/ But they become cul- 
 ture only when they are acquired with and bring 
 delight, when they are not painstakingly sought 
 but ardently, avidly and eagerly absorbed. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 19 
 
 Some wise man has said: "Do not pursue 
 culture. You will scare her to death/' 
 There is truth in the witticism. 
 
 Culture cannot possibly be gained by fren- 
 zied pursuit. 
 
 It must be gained, rather, as a tree draws 
 sustenance by putting roots ever deeper into 
 the soil of reality, of sympathy, of aspiration, 
 of life at its keenest and finest. 
 
 Culture is sap the sap of life. 
 
 You must reach down roots of sincerity 
 and aspiration for it to be able to flow into 
 your mind and heart. 
 
 But keep this axiom clearly in mind: If 
 you seek culture read no book which bores you 
 or seems dull or stupid to you. You may ac- 
 quire valuable information in that way. You 
 may acquire practical knowledge which will 
 help you to make a living in that way. 
 
 But not culture. The book which bores you 
 is a book either which has no message for you 
 or a book for which you are not yet ready^. 
 
 If you have a real curiosity and a sincere 
 desire to learn, no book capable of benefiting 
 you can possibly appear dull or stupid to you. 
 It may appear strange. It may require much 
 concentration and close attention to understand. 
 But that concentration and close attention will 
 
 
20 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 be pleasurable to you if you feel that you are 
 really learning any thing worth while. If the book 
 cannot hold your interest something is wrong. 
 
 Books, music, pictures, thoughts, people 
 whenever these bore you they are either not 
 for you or you are not ready for them Do 
 not force yourself to try to like them. For 
 the chances are that you will never succeed. 
 
 There are endless books. There is endless 
 music. There are endless pictures, thoughts, 
 people. Somewhere no matter who or what 
 you are there are books, music, pictures, 
 thoughts, people which will delight you. 
 
 You must seek until you find them. Seek 
 without ever losing hope. For you will find 
 them if you seek sufficiently. And inevitably 
 they will lead you to others which you will 
 also like. And, after a space, you may even 
 discover that you can find joy and zest in 
 things which once bored you illimitably. 
 
 But remember always: Nothing which bores 
 you can give you culture. The essential quality 
 of culture is zest and delight. 
 
 Culture is not a soft thing. 
 
 It is not a mere decorative thing for tea- 
 parties and dinner-tables. It is not a mere 
 class distinction nor a mere luxury. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 21 
 
 There are people without culture in the so- 
 called highest circles of society. There are 
 people with the essentials of rich and true 
 culture in the so-called lowest circles of society. 
 
 For rnlfnrp is fhe fullest pOSSJH? growth of 
 the finesf hnrpan qualifies. It is the rounded 
 and harmonious development of the whole 
 nature. True, it requires at some time in 
 the life a certain leisure, a certain oppor- 
 tunity for contact with art and the amenities. 
 But do not make the mistake of believing that 
 these opportunities will, of themselves, pro- 
 duce cultured people in any real sense. They 
 will produce a surface culture, a culture which 
 is veneer. But that is ^\Lj 
 
 A poor man with the attitude of culture is 
 infinitely better equipped to derive enduring 
 satisfaction and happiness from life than a 
 rich man without culture and dependent upon 
 physical activity and physical pleasures for 
 gratification. 
 
 On the other hand a wealthy man who is 
 truly cultivated is enabled to derive from his 
 wealth satisfactions and delights little 
 dreamed of by mere plutocrats. 
 
 .Culture refines. Thaf fc jrjpvifahle. But 
 
 it is of value only when there is something 
 worth refining. 
 
22 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 To be worthy of the description: "a cul- 
 tured man or woman" one must, first, be a 
 real man or woman. 
 
 The "freaks/' the top-lofty "high-brows," 
 the offensive "superior" people who prate so 
 much of "culture," do not be fooled or mis- 
 led or thrown off your course by them. 
 They are the parasites, the froth of culture. 
 They are not men and women of culture. 
 
 Never forget this fact: the great thought, 
 the great art of the world has not been pro- 
 duced for the amusement of, or the monopoly 
 by, "the short-haired women and the long- 
 haired men." It has been produced, through 
 an irresistible urge, by real men and women 
 for real men and women. 
 
 It is the common heritage of us all a her- 
 itage of which nobody but ourselves can rob us. 
 
 Innumerable great minds and souls, down 
 long thousands of years, have abstracted from 
 their experience -- and genius thoughts, 
 dreams, beauties, aspirations to assist, to in- 
 spire, to gladden all their fellows in their pas- 
 sage through life. 
 
 All men and women, who will, may have 
 their lives vitalised, broadened and bright- 
 ened by this great inheritance of the entire 
 race. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 23 
 
 There has prevailed altogether too long the 
 sinister and terrible mistake that culture is 
 some mysterious thing which only the rich, 
 the wise, the learned can hope to possess. 
 
 All that constitutes culture has been produced 
 and now exists for normal^ average ', wholesome ', 
 sincere men and women. 
 
 It can afford joys and delights as vital as 
 business, as exciting as poker, as wholesome 
 as golf or motoring. 
 
 It can open a wonderful and inspiring world 
 utterly unknown or little suspected by those 
 who have failed to find the right key. 
 
 Too long have misconceptions and faulty 
 methods of education hidden that key, de- 
 prived millions of men and women of the new 
 life and vigor, the glorious vision and the 
 rich color which should and can suffuse 
 their daily lives. 
 
 The life of every man and woman is defi- 
 nitely limited. It is divided into a certain 
 number of years, of months, of weeks, of 
 days, of hours, of minutes, of seconds. 
 
 In a certain sense every one of those sec- 
 onds is the center of eternity. 
 
 It is one of the seconds of our life. It 
 passes. And it will never return. 
 
24 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 It can represent growth. It can represent 
 mere stagnation. It can represent retrogres- 
 sion. We can go forward, we can stand 
 still, we can go backward. 
 
 Surely it seems to be the part of wisdom to 
 seek to make most of our seconds represent 
 growth. Surely it seems to be the part of 
 wisdom to seek to live as greatly, as nobly, as 
 splendidly as possible for the largest possible 
 number of the seconds, minutes and days of 
 our life. 
 
 Instinct prompts us to seek the greatest 
 possible physical gratifications. Few of us 
 are content with second-rate food, or shelter 
 or clothing if we can secure first-rate food or 
 shelter or clothing. 
 
 But instinct and proper education do 
 not yet prompt us to seek the greatest mental, 
 emotional and spiritual gratification during 
 our limited lives. 
 
 We are too often content to waste our pre- 
 cious hours of leisure on second- or tenth-rate 
 books and music and thoughts when we might 
 just as well have the best books, the best 
 music, the best thoughts. 
 
 The analogy is absolute. The mind and 
 heart and soul need food as much as the body. 
 What can be more absurd then to demand 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION*' 25 
 
 and to struggle for the best food for our 
 bodies and to be content with dirty or adul- 
 terated or unwholesome food for our higher 
 natures? 
 
 The truly cultured man does not waste the 
 precious moments of his life on vulgar tri- 
 vialities. He does not starve his mind and 
 emotions nor feed them trash and offal. 
 
 Do not imagine that culture is of no prac- 
 tical value. Culture broadens horizons. It 
 lessens the distress caused by confusing per- 
 sonal maladjustments to life. It accustoms 
 one to think in broad terms. It gives un- 
 derstanding of the broad essentials of life and 
 affairs. All of this is invaluable in the prac- 
 tical details of life. Statistics show that even 
 in a severely practical country like America 
 the liberally educated man is usually the em- 
 ployer of the technically educated man. 
 
 We see that culture is not as simple a thing 
 as we may have believed. 
 
 Let us consider one more aspect of culture 
 which is essential to any successful journey 
 through the wilderness of books or to any suc- 
 cessful use of the scepter of that "kingdom of 
 the mind" of which a wise poet sang. 
 
26 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 There are over 1,700,000,000 human beings 
 now on earth. 
 
 Billions of billions of human beings have 
 lived during the past 500,000 years. 
 
 Yet can it be denied that most human be- 
 ings merely duplicate and reduplicate the ex- 
 periences, the emotions, the thoughts of each 
 other? 
 
 Only here and there do you find the highly 
 individualized man or woman who strives to 
 think new thoughts, to experience new emo- 
 tions; who seeks deliberately to shape and 
 mold his or her life as a sculptor molds plastic 
 clay. 
 
 Only here and there most infrequently 
 
 do you find a man or woman who appears at 
 
 \ all aware of the infinite possibilities for growth 
 
 I that life affords us all, if we will but seize them. 
 
 Yet that man or woman is, really, the only 
 truly cultivated man or woman. 
 
 All civilization, all progress, all knowledge, 
 all beauty have been produced by the dis- 
 ciplined aspiration of such men down the ages. 
 
 Their imagination has rendered possible the 
 dream of finer ways of life. 
 
 Their intelligence has rendered possible the 
 formulation of a method of realizing that 
 dream. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 27 
 
 Their will has caused them to forge ahead 
 despite all obstacles. 
 
 Their courage has kept the will from falter- 
 ing. 
 
 Imagination. Intelligence. Will. Courage. 
 
 Those are the four supreme human quali- 
 ties which have brought man out of barbarism. 
 
 Those are the four supreme qualities which 
 must be nurtured and developed and exer- 
 cised by all who would acquire or add to that 
 great store of knowledge and beauty which 
 constitutes culture. 
 
 Again : 
 
 Every man and woman of the more highly 
 developed races certainly every man and 
 woman ever likely to read this far in this 
 took has millions of brain cells which are 
 never used. Yet, with proper stimulation 
 and training, all these cells may be made to 
 function. And the passing years will, bring 
 not the usual boredom, complacency and 
 inertia but an infinite capacity for growth 
 and enjoyment, an insatiable appetite for all 
 the inexhaustible stores of recorded experi- 
 ence and of created beauty which constitute 
 literature and the arts. 
 
 So we come to these inevitable conclusions: 
 
28 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 Each of us is an adventurer in the great 
 mystery of life. 
 
 Each of us has infinite possibilities for 
 growth. 
 
 When we begin to gain some conception of 
 our real place in the scheme of things we grow 
 eager to know all that there is to be known 
 about this mysterious universe in which we 
 live; about those who have inhabited our 
 planet before us; about all the life that is 
 lived on the planet with us. We grow eager 
 to enjoy all the treasures that the wisest and 
 finest and best of our predecessors and our 
 contemporaries have produced. We grow 
 eager to develop to the limit of our capacities. 
 
 We are ready for self-cultivation. 
 
 It will not be an abrupt, sudden and im- 
 mediate process. We will not have a sudden 
 transition from one condition to another. 
 
 There is nothing sudden in these matters. 
 
 Rather they represent a slow and gradual 
 unfolding, development and growth. 
 
 Like seeds. 
 
 We plow certain parts of our mind which 
 are like rich fields that have long lain fallow. 
 We plant certain seeds of new understanding, 
 new aspiration. Slowly but surely the seeds 
 germinate and send out little roots and ten- 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 29 
 
 drils. These we must nurture carefully. We 
 must cultivate the fields; relentlessly root upj 
 the weeds of cynicism, apathy, vulgarity, pet-j 
 tiness, crude animal instincts. 
 
 The plants will grow. They will become 
 strong. Our minds and souls will become 
 rich gardens bearing splendid blossoms and 
 fruits. 
 
 The degree of our ardent sense of the mys- 
 tery and wonder and purpose of life will regu- 
 late the strength and vigor of these plants as 
 the sun regulates the strength and vigor of 
 flowers and trees. 
 
SECTION II 
 
 SOME LISTS OF BOOKS WITH 
 COMMENT 
 
 And so we come from these abstract con- 
 siderations of the nature of culture to the 
 practical problem of how we can hope to find 
 our way through the millions of books to the 
 books which are worth while; how we can 
 find the key which will open the magic door 
 to the treasury of the world's real knowledge 
 and beauty. 
 
 In the accustomed sense of the word, " cul- 
 ture" implies, of course, the possession of that 
 knowledge and appreciation of the outstand- 
 ing figures and achievements in history, sci- 
 ence, literature, drama, music, painting and 
 sculpture which is possessed in common by all 
 "cultivated" men of all races. 
 
 Why are these figures" outstanding"? 
 
 Because they have vitally altered, shaped 
 or influenced the history of the world. Or 
 because they have produced works of such 
 excellence that men of all ages and races are 
 delighted or influenced by them. 
 
32 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 We must certainly gain knowledge of these 
 figures. But it must be real and understand- 
 ing knowledge. Merely to learn the names 
 of great writers, poets, dramatists, painters, 
 musicians, sculptors can add little to our 
 enjoyment of life. 
 
 Merely to read great books, to look at great 
 pictures and statues or to listen to great 
 music can add little to our development un- 
 less we truly and sincerely enjoy and delight in 
 such things and have some understanding 
 why they are entitled to be considered great. 
 
 Mere knowledge about them constitutes 
 information. 
 
 It is delight in them and true appreciation 
 of them which constitutes culture. 
 
 So it appears that we should have some 
 broad and general comprehension of what is 
 known about the life of all men everywhere 
 in order to understand why certain men or 
 their works are to be considered great. For, 
 inevitably, their "greatness" will consist in 
 the wideness of their range, the universality 
 of their appeal, the new dignity or poignancy 
 or comprehension which their work has added 
 to the common life of the world. 
 
 As a preliminary to culture we must gain 
 some clear comprehension of just what we 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 33 
 
 are in relation to the world in which we live, 
 to the past which has produced us, to our fel- 
 lows who surround us, to the interplay of 
 ideas, ideals, greeds and passions which have 
 always been reflected in human society. 
 
 Then we can move on to knowledge of the 
 decoration of the structure of society to 
 knowledge of all the lovely, serene, gracious 
 things which exist naturally in the world or 
 have been produced by art, music, literature 
 or science as man's expression of his own deep- 
 est and keenest emotional and spiritual reac- 
 tions to life. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 Two fine books of the past few years which 
 can give this preliminary knowledge are the 
 much-discussed "Outline of History'* by H. 
 G. Wells and "The Story of Mankind" by 
 Hendrik Willem Van Loon. The first of these 
 is recommended for adult readers. The sec- 
 ond for young readers. 
 
 Both of these books are excellent and stim- 
 ulating syntheses of the most important basic 
 facts and ideas underlying history. 
 
 It has only recently become possible to 
 write such books - - books which give the 
 reader a comprehensible idea of the origin of 
 
34 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 the planet and of the life upon the planet; 
 which give broad and sweeping pictures of 
 the early development of civilization, of the 
 spread of man over the earth, of the rise and 
 fall of empires and of the forces and events of 
 the past which have produced the present in 
 which we now live. 
 
 These books can afford the average reader 
 what many years of college and university 
 instruction have all too often failed to give 
 students up to this time a consistent and 
 really informative, broad understanding of the 
 essential facts and ideas of history and of the 
 origin and development of life and civilization. 
 
 As an introduction to that lively interest in 
 life which is essential to culture these synthe- 
 ses of essential facts if ably and competently 
 made as in the case of the Wells and Van 
 Loon histories are vastly superior to the 
 huge sets of "classics" and "masterpieces." 
 They are, indeed, superior to years of study 
 at the typical American college. 
 
 For the syntheses give a stimulating new 
 sense of the unity of life and history; they 
 place things in perspective and give under- 
 standing of life and of the past as a whole. 
 They permit the reader to understand his 
 place in the general scheme of things. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 35 
 
 Too often the sets of "classics" and "mas- 
 terpieces" give only a sense of confusion and 
 loss. There is no essential unity to them. 
 There is no coordination of them. 
 
 The "Outline of History" gives that com- 
 prehension of the past which is analagous to 
 the view of a landscape secured from an air- 
 plane. The sets of "classics" afford at 
 best the comprehension of some period, or 
 phase or personality which is analagous to 
 the careful study on foot and close at hand 
 of some of the largest trees or the most 
 beautiful valleys or largest streams in the 
 landscape. One may well know some of the 
 trees and valleys and streams most intimately 
 without having any clear vision or under- 
 standing of the country as a whole. In man's 
 past, moreover, there are so many millions of 
 trees, so many wonderful and intricate val- 
 leys and streams that it is not possible to 
 have detailed knowledge of all of them. 
 
 There is another grave objection to the use 
 of sets of "classics" and "masterpieces" as a 
 means of education or culture. However 
 alive and interesting they may be to a mind 
 which has broad comprehension of history 
 and literature as a whole, they cannot but 
 seem remote and far removed from actuality 
 
36 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 to a mind which has no such comprehension. 
 
 Between the real and vital life of everyday 
 the life of interest and excitement and 
 the life sensed in these old books dealing with 
 remote times and faraway events there ap- 
 pears a tremendous and unbridgable gulf. 
 
 Once a keen and ardent interest in all life 
 and thought has been awakened, once the 
 unity of life everywhere and at all times has 
 been understood, once the growth of knowl- 
 edge and civilization has been seen as touch- 
 ing our own lives closely these classics and 
 masterpieces are, of course, beheld in a dif- 
 ferent light. We begin to understand why 
 they have survived the ages; why millions of 
 men down the centuries have greatly es- 
 teemed and valued them. But we cannot 
 understand this until we have some such pre- 
 liminary broad comprehension as Wells and 
 Van Loon can give us. 
 
 Education up to this time has, at best, 
 attempted to start with the past and come 
 very slowly down to the present. 
 
 Too many millions of students have fallen 
 by the wayside in this terrible progress. 
 
 Today adult education is, increasingly, 
 seeking to give an initial broad, synthetic, 
 coordinated outline of all the past. And 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 37 
 
 then to start with the vivid problems, the 
 outstanding personalities, the main currents of 
 modern life and thought and to work back to 
 the past when the past can no longer appear 
 remote and detached from today, but a fas- 
 cinating and illuminating record of other 
 men's experiences with the same world, the 
 same problems, the same ideas, ideals and 
 aspirations; the same mysteries, passions and 
 terrors which confront us. 
 
 SCIENCE 
 
 "The Outline of History" should give new 
 understanding of the origin and development 
 of life, the development of civilization, the 
 broad outlines of the division of races, the 
 location of the chief branches of the human 
 family, the rise of the great empires and pow- 
 ers which largely control the world, and the 
 interplay of those forces which constitute the 
 more important aspects of past history and of 
 world affairs today. 
 
 Similar broad understanding is necessary of 
 the development of knowledge, and particu- 
 larly of that exact, verifiable and communi- 
 cable knowledge which forms the science 
 which permits human intelligence to deal 
 with the conditions which surround mankind. 
 
38 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 A voluminous work entitled "The Outline 
 of Science" by J. Arthur Thomson has re- 
 cently been published. It is a comprehensive 
 work but requires much time to read. 
 
 A most admirable shorter work is: 
 
 SEDGWICK AND TYLER: A Short History of Sci- 
 
 ence 
 
 This is a splendid book which is remarkably 
 informative. 
 
 The field of science is so very great that no 
 man can hope to be well informed concerning 
 all its branches. Culture does not require 
 such knowledge. It requires, only, a broad 
 comprehension of the nature and aims of sci- 
 ence and some knowledge concerning the 
 various divisions and new developments of 
 science. 
 
 Most of the books to be recommended in 
 this essay have been selected because they 
 give new sense of the pleasure to be derived 
 from the disinterested use of the mind. They 
 are books calculated to whet intellectual ap- 
 petite. It is assumed throughout that, once 
 appetite is awakened, contact will be sought 
 with books more important and authoritative 
 but not so immediately interesting. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 39 
 
 Some unusually stimulating books in vari- 
 ous broad fields of science follow: 
 
 H. F. OSBORN: 
 
 ROBERT H. LOWIE: 
 C. W. SALEEBY: 
 
 CARL KELSEY: 
 GEORGE W. CRILE: 
 
 WILLIAM A. LOCY: 
 W. C. CURTIS: 
 
 JACQUES LOEB: 
 SIGISMUND FREUD: 
 
 RENE VALLEREY-RADOT: 
 E. RAY LANKESTER: 
 CARL SNYDER: 
 
 WILLIAM McDouGALL: 
 THOMAS HUXLEY: 
 PERCIVAL LOWELL: 
 
 The Origin and Evolu- 
 tion of Life 
 Men of the Old Stone 
 
 Ag?. 
 
 Primitive Culture 
 
 Evolution The Master 
 Key 
 
 The Cycle of Life Ac- 
 cording to Modern Sci- 
 ence 
 
 The Physical Basis of 
 Society 
 
 Man An Adaptive Me- 
 chanism 
 
 Biology And Its Makers 
 
 Science and Human Af- 
 fairs 
 
 The Mechanistic Con- 
 ception of Life 
 
 General Introduction to 
 Psychoanalysis 
 
 The Life of Pasteur 
 
 Extinct Animals 
 
 New Conceptions in Sci- 
 ence 
 
 The World Machine 
 
 Psychology 
 
 Man's Place in Nature 
 
 The Solar System 
 
 Mars and Its Canals 
 
40 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 SVENTE ARRHENIUS: Worlds in the Making 
 
 WILLIAM OSLER: The Evolution of Mod- 
 
 ern Medicine 
 
 E. G. CONKLIN: . Heredity and Environ- 
 
 ment 
 
 R. C. PUNNETT: Mendelism 
 
 EDWIN SLOSSEN: Creative Chemistry 
 
 H. H. NEWMAN: Readings in Evolution 
 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
 After knowing the main facts about the 
 past, about the world and about life one needs 
 to know the chief ways in which various men 
 of various kinds have looked at these facts, 
 what explanation they have given of them. 
 
 It is possible to approach this great field 
 of philosophy by way of the remote past and 
 through famous but often tedious books 
 which are somewhat analagous to dark, moss- 
 grown and forbidding gates. 
 
 It is, also, fortunately, possible to approach 
 this field by way of the immediate present and 
 its vital concerns through books which are 
 analagous to the garden gates of a friend to 
 whom we go for discussion of personal con- 
 cerns and questions. 
 
 It is doubtful if any book can afford a bet- 
 ter introduction to the broad field of philoso- 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 41 
 
 phy that the remarkable little volume by G. 
 Lowes Dickinson entitled: "A Modern Sym- 
 posium." It is difficult to believe that any 
 man or woman can read this inspired book 
 without gaining a wider conception of life 
 from its pages. 
 
 The plan of the book is this : 
 
 At a great English country house one night 
 a group of men of contrasting types sit up 
 until dawn and talk about their individual re- 
 actions to life. The whole gamut of modern 
 reactions to life is voiced in the talk of these 
 men. We go from the direst, forlornest pes- 
 simism to the most undiscriminating praise 
 of life; we pass from the most reactionary doc- 
 trines to the most radical doctrines; we see 
 life through the eyes of multitudinous clear- 
 eyed thinkers. And in thus seeing it, our own 
 opinions are clarified, our own mental horizons 
 widened. 
 
 Here are given the thoughts of the world 
 which fight today for ascendency as they 
 have fought down all the centuries. 
 
 It is as essential to understand these 
 thoughts as it is to understand past history 
 if there are to be deep roots to our culture. 
 
 The great merit of "A Modern Sympo- 
 sium/' however, is its interest. It is a little 
 
42 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 book tingling with life. It radiates ideas as 
 an electric bulb radiates light. It can give 
 to many people a totally new conception of 
 what pleasure and delight are to be found in 
 thought and discussion. 
 
 The man or woman who has read and en- 
 joyed Wells' "Outline of History", Sedgwick 
 and Tyler's "History of Science" and Lowes 
 Dickinson's "A Modern Symposium" will not 
 only have a better fundamental knowledge 
 than is possessed by nine out of every ten 
 graduates of American colleges, but will 
 also have those primary requisites of culture 
 a new sense of the immensity and complexity 
 of life, a new sense of the pleasure to be derived 
 from the intense, disinterested use of the mind. 
 
 As an introduction to philosophy "A Mod- 
 ern Symposium" has been suggested because 
 it is a book of rare charm and because experi- 
 ence has shown that it brings remarkable 
 stimulation and interest to many types of 
 mind. There are numerous other books 
 which deal interestingly with the general rela- 
 tion of the individual to the past and the 
 world about him and may awaken that interest 
 in philosophy which will send the reader to 
 the world-famous philosophers whose thoughts 
 have greatly influenced the world. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 43 
 
 The following books are suggested because 
 they have charm and hold the attention: 
 
 WILL DURANT: Philosophy and the So- 
 
 cial Problem 
 
 GEORGE SANTA YANA: Winds of Doctrine 
 
 SIGURD IBSEN: Human Quintessence 
 
 F. S. MARVIN: The Living Past 
 
 The Century of Hope 
 
 BERTRAND RUSSELL: Problems of Philosophy 
 
 The Faith of a Free Man 
 
 HENRI BERGSON: Creative Evolution 
 
 JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON: The Mind in The Mak- 
 ing 
 
 PLATO: Symposium 
 
 JOHN DEWEY: Reconstruction in Phil- 
 
 osophy 
 
 THE GATES GROW NUMEROUS 
 
 These books give breadth of view. 
 
 They will very fully indicate how tremen- 
 dously wide is the range of human interests. 
 
 After emerging from their pages there are 
 infinite directions in which, according to tem- 
 perament, one may proceed. 
 
 In many instances these books will have 
 stimulated curiosity or interest concerning 
 matters discussed in their pages. It is always 
 wise to follow where real interest leads. 
 
44 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 If one has already a love of reading, has 
 felt no sense of strain in reading the Wells 
 and Dickinson volumes and seeks to build 
 even broader backgrounds before dealing 
 with purely cultural subjects, it may be ad- 
 visable to gain the kind of understanding of 
 human relations that is given in such books 
 as are listed in the following pages under the 
 heading " Political Speculation." Logically 
 these should probably follow. But culture is 
 far from being a logical thing. And the great- 
 est purpose of this book is to introduce its 
 readers to volumes which stir and stimulate 
 and awaken rather than merely instruct. 
 
 If one has not a real love of reading (see 
 footnote) one should certainly seek to develop 
 it. It is entirely a matter of temperament. 
 
 A real love of reading is essential to any continuous intellectual 
 development. Yet there are many people, greatly desirous of self- 
 improvement, who find reading a task and a duty rather than a 
 pleasure. 
 
 The love of reading can be acquired by almost anyone. It is es- 
 sential only that the proper book at the proper time develop it. It 
 is advisable that one seek at any cost to gain a love of books and 
 reading before starting on any course of reading for any purpose. 
 
 Below is given a list of books which have delighted many readers 
 of many kinds. They do not belong in the category of great litera- 
 ture, perhaps, and they have little relation to any high type of "cul- 
 ture" but they have that quality of charm which catches and holds 
 attention and interest. They are books for amusement and relaxa- 
 tion. They are suggested here simply because they may create a 
 love of reading in some who lack it. They are particularly advised 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 45 
 
 The books which are suggested in the foot- 
 note or those which appear most appealing 
 in the sections entitled " Science/' "Imagina- 
 tive Literature" and "Travel" might be ex- 
 amined and tried with such a purpose in mind. 
 If one is tremendously interested in one's 
 personal problems and one's personal rela- 
 tions to the general scheme of life it might 
 
 for young people, 
 for boys: 
 
 Books marked with * are especially recommended 
 
 MARK TWAIN: 
 WALTER SCOTT: 
 R. D. BLACKMORE: 
 RICHARD HARDING DAVIS: 
 
 W. J. LOCKE: 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY: 
 JULES VERNE: 
 
 C. HANFORD HENDERSON: 
 HENRY C. ROWLAND: 
 JEFFREY FARNOL: 
 EDWIN LESTER ARNOLD: 
 EDWARD LUCAS WHITE: 
 R. L. STEVENSON: 
 
 A. CONAN DOYLE: 
 
 RIDER HAGGARD: 
 
 HUGH WALPOLE: 
 BRAM STOKER: 
 GEORGE DUMAURIER: 
 LEW WALLACE: 
 A. NEIL LYONS: 
 
 J. FENIMORE COOPER 
 CHARLES READE: 
 
 "Huckleberry Finn 
 
 Ivanhoe 
 "Lorna Doone 
 "Soldiers of Fortune 
 "Captain Macklin 
 
 Derelicts 
 
 The Beloved Vagabond 
 
 Septimus 
 
 The Morals of Marcus 
 
 Hypatia 
 
 "Around the World In Eighty Days 
 X "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the 
 Sea 
 
 John Percyfield 
 
 Germaine 
 
 X The Broad Highway 
 "Phra The Phoenician 
 "El Supremo 
 v The Wrong Box 
 "The Black Arrow 
 "Treasure Island 
 "The White Company 
 "Sherlock Holmes 
 "The Sign of the Four 
 "King Solomon's Mines 
 > She . 
 
 Fortitude 
 
 Dracula 
 
 Peter Ibbetson 
 "Ben Hur 
 
 Arthurs 
 
 Sixpenny Pieces 
 "The Last of the Mohicans 
 
 The Cloister and the Hearth 
 
46 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 bring unexpected interest or satisfaction to 
 read such books as: 
 
 HENRY DAVID THOREAU: Walden 
 
 RICHARD JEFFERIES: The Story of My Heart 
 
 GEORGE GISSING: The Private Papers of 
 
 Henry Ryecroft 
 
 H. G. WELLS: First and Last Things 
 
 EDWARD CARPENTER: The Drama of Love and 
 
 Death 
 HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL: Journal 
 
 Perusal of the sections dealing with various 
 kinds of books may suggest some books which 
 seem peculiarly appealing to one's particular 
 type and temperament. 
 
 BELLES-LETTRES 
 
 Perhaps a wise way for the average person 
 fond of reading, not excessively serious- 
 minded and really eager for contact with some 
 of the outstanding brilliant aspects and per- 
 sonalities of today would be to plunge into 
 certain stimulating volumes dealing not with 
 broad conceptions of life and history, but with 
 ideas and theories vigorously advanced or 
 attacked by brilliant men delighting in the 
 free use of the mind and imagination as men 
 delight in the free use of the muscles and the 
 senses. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 47 
 
 To read such a book as G. K. Chesterton's 
 " Heretics/' for example, will be to gain new 
 understanding of the pleasures and excite- 
 ments to be found in the realm of the mind. 
 
 In this book Mr. Chesterton appraises a 
 number of his contemporaries some of the 
 foremost literary men of the period. But 
 the merit of the book to those who have not 
 always been booklovers lies in its keenness, 
 its spirit, its cleverness the new knowledge 
 it gives that absolutely impersonal and dis- 
 interested concern with literature and thought 
 can awaken as much and intense excite- 
 ment as a poker game or a golf match. 
 
 Similar pleasure is to be derived from the 
 stimulating book compiled by Ludwig Lew- 
 isohn entitled "A Modern Book of Criti- 
 icisms." Here have been gathered together 
 excerpts from the writings of some of the 
 shrewdest and keenest critics of life and letters 
 of France, Germany, England and America. 
 They form part of a little book brimming 
 over with vivid and stimulating ideas which 
 awaken and invigorate the mind like a power- 
 ful tonic. 
 
 Such books as "Heretics" and "A Modern 
 Book of Criticisms" form part of that division 
 of literature called "belles-lettres" And here, 
 
48 ON "CULTURE'* AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 of course, the attitude towards life called cul- 
 ture is to be found at its keenest. For the 
 worth-while books of belles-lettres deal with 
 literature, with art, with music, with all 
 that is most gracious and harmonious in the 
 spirit of those to whom these things are the 
 most important things in life. Such a divi- 
 sion of literature necessarily implies that the 
 problems, the disharmonies, the crudities, the 
 confusions and vulgarities of everyday life 
 have been left behind, or seen in new perspec- 
 tive, and that the writers of such books have 
 dealt with those phases and aspects of life 
 which are either serene, gracious and well- 
 rounded or else vividly keen or intensely vital. 
 
 It is for this reason that the broad field of 
 belles-lettres affords, possibly, the best intro- 
 duction to the world's culture since the world's 
 culture is the material with which it deals. 
 
 Some excellent modern books of belles-lettres 
 which will open endless doors into spacious 
 new worlds are these: 
 
 ARTHUR SYMONS: Studies in Seven Arts 
 
 Studies in Prose and 
 
 Verse 
 
 Figures of Several Cen- 
 turies 
 HOLBROOK JACKSON: The Eighteen Nineties 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 49 
 
 G. K. CHESTERTON: The Victorian Age in 
 
 Literature 
 HAVELOCK ELLIS: The New Spirit 
 
 Affirmations 
 
 REMY DEGOURMONT: The Book of Masks 
 
 DIXON SCOTT: Men of Letters 
 
 JAMES HUNEKER: Egoists 
 
 Iconoclasts 
 
 Overtones 
 
 H. L. MENCKEN: A Book of Prefaces 
 
 STUART P. SHERMAN: On Contemporary Lit- 
 
 erature 
 VAN WYCK BROOKS: Letters and Leadership 
 
 All of these deal with brilliant personalities 
 of recent times who have done much to affect 
 the life, the thought, the literature, art and 
 music of the past two generations. 
 
 Each of them will doubtless send the aver- 
 age man who reads them seeking for other 
 books by the same writers or by the writers 
 with whom the books deal or to whom they 
 refer. 
 
 And so the "guidance through the first 
 confusing wilderness of books, the pointing 
 out of some paths and directions to the treas- 
 ure house of culture' ' will have been accom- 
 plished. For every really worth-while book 
 is certain to be inextricably bound up with 
 other worth-while books. And, once vital 
 interest is awakened, one finds lines of thought 
 
50 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION " 
 
 or study to pursue with little or no need of 
 further guidance. Any one personality, or 
 line of thought, or branch of knowledge which 
 stirs something deep in oneself will lead one 
 inevitably to other similar personalities, lines 
 of thought or branches of knowledge. 
 
 While the world's culture is endlessly intri- 
 cate, it is also entirely unified. It is like a 
 garden with myriad gates and thousands of 
 winding, criss-crossing paths and roads. 
 It can be entered from almost any point to 
 which real curiosity, real enthusiasm, real 
 interest leads one. And, once entered, the 
 paths circle and intertwine so that one has but 
 to follow them to see as much of that great 
 garden as is possible to one person in one 
 lifetime. 
 
 It is necessary to say in reference to these 
 books which are recommended that they open 
 up only certain very brilliant corners of the 
 modern world. They introduce one to many 
 vivid and outstanding personalities but these 
 personalities, of course, constitute only a 
 small part of contemporary culture and a 
 tiny part, indeed, of all culture. 
 
 The great service these books perform is in 
 giving the right atmosphere, the right atti- 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 51 
 
 tude. They are not solemn, dull, dryasdust. 
 On the contrary they are keen, clever, in- 
 tensely alive. 
 
 The man who gains from them the best 
 that they have to give will be inexorably im- 
 pelled to trace back the main currents of the 
 ideas with which they deal; will be inexorably 
 impelled to appraise these modern prophets 
 and semi-prophets in the light of the classic 
 figures which all the world holds to be great. 
 But he will go to these figures with new ap- 
 preciation, new understanding, new point of 
 view. 
 
 In other words, the classic system of edu- 
 cation has been to take men from the colorful 
 life of everyday and to force them to become 
 acquainted with the great and austere figures 
 of the past. These figures seemed impossibly 
 remote from life and reality. One learned 
 about them by rote and usually failed to as- 
 sociate them with the vivid concerns of one's 
 own life. One acquired mere information. 
 
 The books suggested here furnish a new 
 method of approach. They give contact 
 with contemporary thought at its keenest. 
 Any man or woman capable of acquiring cul- 
 ture will not only recognise the relative value 
 and importance of these men of yesterday and 
 
52 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 today but will be drawn back to the fountain 
 head of thought by a curiosity welling up 
 from a new sense of the unity and continuity 
 and slow development of all thought and art. 
 
 THE MIDDLE GROUND OF CULTURE 
 
 It is essential that one have not only the 
 broad background of fact given by Wells and 
 the scientists, the broad understanding of 
 philosophies touched on by Dickinson, and 
 the immediate foreground of culture consti- 
 tuted by knowledge of the glowing, exciting, 
 stimulating and delightful writers, artists and 
 musicians of today. 
 
 There must also be a middle-ground com- 
 posed of well-rounded and well-understood 
 knowledge of the countries of the world (with 
 their past and contemporary culture and out- 
 standing celebrities), of imaginative literature, 
 world-politics, music and art if one is not to 
 have unpleasant blank spots in one's mind in 
 general association with truly educated and 
 cultivated people. 
 
 OUR WORLD 
 
 A knowledge of geography is absolutely 
 necessary. One need not study geography as 
 children study it in school but there must be 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION*' 53 
 
 some consistent and continuous effort to fix 
 the general map of the world in one's memory. 
 
 For it is on this world that we live. It is 
 with the past of this world and with the peo- 
 ple of this world that we are all concerned. 
 Its general form and outline must be clear in 
 our minds if we are to understand what we 
 read about it. 
 
 A most entertaining and enlightening book 
 which can give us a new conception and un- 
 derstanding of geography is: 
 
 HUNTINGTON AND GUSHING: Principles of Human Ge- 
 ography 
 
 It will explain many mysteries to us. 
 
 Monthly perusal of The National Geogra- 
 phic Magazine and of the magazine entitled 
 "Asia" will afford very great pleasure to 
 every family. If a small desk globe and an 
 atlas are used to locate the situation of all 
 the interesting lands pictured and described, 
 a very excellent knowledge of geography 
 should be gained amost without effort. 
 
 TRAVEL, EXPLORATION, ADVENTURE 
 
 There is, moreover, tremendous pleasure 
 and information to be derived from books of 
 travel and adventure, or books showing the 
 
54 
 
 ON "CULTURE*' AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 life and manner of living of men of other races, 
 lands and times. A brief list of such books, 
 which have been picked because of their 
 strong general appeal, follows: 
 
 HERMAN MELVILLE: 
 
 ROBERT M. PEARY: 
 ROALD AMUNDSON: 
 GEORGE CATLIN: 
 
 CAPTAIN COOK: 
 RICHARD BURTON: 
 
 L'ABBE Hue: 
 HARRY FRANCK: 
 JOSHUA SLOCUM: 
 
 HENRY M. STANLEY: 
 LEWIS AND CLARKE: 
 HAKLUYT'S VOYAGES 
 
 FRIDTJOF NANSEN; 
 
 Typee 
 
 Omoo 
 
 The North Pole 
 
 The South Pole 
 
 The North American In- 
 dians 
 
 Voyages 
 
 Pilgrimage to El Medi- 
 nah and Mecca 
 
 Travels in Tartary, Tibet 
 and China 
 
 A Vagabond Journey 
 Around the World 
 
 Sailing Alone Around the 
 World 
 
 In Darkest Africa 
 
 Journal 
 
 (May be obtained in 
 eight volumes in the 
 
 "Everyman's Library") 
 
 Across Greenland 
 
 These books will bring delight and enjoy- 
 ment to almost anyone of any age. They 
 will give a sense of the wonder of the world 
 which will make the thought of geography 
 take on a new form in the mind. 
 
ON " CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 55 
 
 ARCHAEOLOGY 
 
 There are other temperaments which may 
 find stimulation, rather, in books which 
 awaken a vivid new interest in the past by 
 giving accounts of archaeological excavations. 
 Some admirable books of this sort which can 
 open wide vistas are: 
 
 HENRY SCHLIEMANN: Ilios 
 
 JAMES BAIKIE: Sea Kings of Crete 
 
 JOHN L. STEPHENS: Incidents of Travel in 
 
 Yucatan, etc. 
 
 W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE: Ten Years* Digging 
 
 AUSTEN HENRY LA YARD: Nineveh and Its Re- 
 mains 
 
 JOYCE T. ATHOL: South American Archae- 
 
 ology 
 
 Central American Arch- 
 aeology 
 
 HIRAM BINGHAM: Inca Land 
 
 However gained, one must possess, sooner 
 or later a sense of the unity of the world and 
 of the world's peoples with a corresponding 
 understanding of the artificiality and real 
 significance of national boundaries if one is 
 to have a satisfactory middleground to knowl- 
 edge. A great Roman once declared in a 
 sentiment which has come down the ages: 
 
 / am a man. I believe that nothing which is 
 human is alien to me. 
 
56 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 Such an attitude toward all our fellowmen 
 is necessary if we are to gain the best that our 
 fellowmen are able to give us. 
 
 IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE 
 
 The imaginative literature poetry, drama 
 and fiction of the past and present consti- 
 tutes one of the most important and prepond- 
 erant aspects of world culture. 
 
 For the writers of such literature have 
 best depicted and explained life and human- 
 ity, given new meaning and color to existence. 
 The great imaginative authors are the glory 
 of the countries and ages which have produced 
 them. The field of the world's imaginative 
 literature is one of the world's supreme pos- 
 sessions. Few things have given more hap- 
 piness and pleasure to mankind. 
 
 A lifetime of reading is, of course, necessary 
 to acquire any full knowledge of the great 
 imaginative literature of all the countries of 
 the world. But most Americans read pro- 
 digiously in any case and the time generally 
 spent upon the trashy fiction so prevalent 
 today can be so much more profitably ex- 
 pended upon the novels and plays which have 
 lasting merit. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION " 57 
 
 One loses nothing in deciding to read famous 
 books which have gained world-wide appreci- 
 ation or stood the test of generations, or cen- 
 turies, rather than the latest magazine stories 
 of "best-sellers" which will be forgot in a 
 week or a month or a year. The books of 
 real merit are indubitably more enjoyable, 
 more delightful, more exciting. For no other 
 reasons are they esteemed by critics and peo- 
 ple of culture. 
 
 A list of novels and plays which have 
 brought great pleasure to many people of 
 many kinds is appended. It makes no pre- 
 tense at being anything save a list of excellent 
 books from many lands which will give pleas- 
 ure, and serve as an introduction to the liter- 
 ature of other peoples and times. It is not 
 a learned list to give information but a list 
 to give enjoyment. It does not deal with the 
 most famous American and English writers of 
 recent generations nor with the most widely 
 discussed writers of the present moment. Haw- 
 thorne, Poe, Dickens, Thackeray and similar 
 writers are too well known to need mention 
 here. The younger writers of today are well 
 advertised and few of them are yet defin- 
 itely placed. 
 
58 
 
 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 COMPARATIVELY RECENT BOOKS 
 
 (Books marked * are plays) 
 
 AMERICA: 
 
 HENRY JAMES: 
 W. DEAN HOWELLS: 
 MARK TWAIN: 
 FRANK NORRIS: 
 STEPHEN CRANE: 
 
 O. HENRY: 
 
 OWEN WISTER: 
 
 MARY WILKENS FREEMAN: 
 
 JACK LONDON: 
 
 BOOTH TARKINGTON: 
 
 DAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPS: 
 GERTRUDE ATHERTON: 
 EDITH WHARTON: 
 ROBERT HERRICK: 
 MARGARET DELAND: 
 
 MARY AUSTIN: 
 UPTON SINCLAIR: 
 
 GEORGE ADE: 
 WM. VAUGHAN MOODY: 
 THEODORE DREISER: 
 ERNEST POOLE: 
 EUGENE WALTER: 
 JOSEPH HERGESHEIMER: 
 EUGENE O'NEILL: 
 SHERWOOD ANDERSON: 
 
 Daisy Miller 
 
 The Rise of Silas Lapham 
 
 The Mysterious Stranger 
 
 The Pit L 
 
 The Red Badge of Cour- 
 age 
 
 Cabbages and Kings 
 
 The Virginian 
 
 A New England Nun 
 
 The Sea Wolf 
 
 The Magnificent Amber- 
 sons 
 
 The Plum Tree 
 
 The Conqueror 
 
 The House of Mirth 
 
 Together 
 
 The Awakening of He- 
 lena Ritchie 
 
 A Woman of Genius 
 
 The Journal of Arthur 
 Stirling 
 
 In Babel 
 
 The Great Divide* 
 
 Sister Carrie 
 
 The Harbor 
 
 The Easiest Way* 
 
 Java Head 
 
 Beyond the Horizon* 
 
 Winesberg, Ohio 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 59 
 
 SINCLAIR LEWIS: 
 WILLA GATHER: 
 
 Babbitt 
 My Antonio 
 
 ENGLAND: 
 
 SAMUEL BUTLER: 
 GEORGE MEREDITH: 
 
 THOMAS HARDY: 
 GEORGE GISSING: 
 ROBERT Louis STEVENSON: 
 GEORGE MOORE: 
 
 OSCAR WILDE: 
 
 RUDYARD KIPLING: 
 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: 
 H. G. WELLS: 
 W. H. HUDSON : 
 ARTHUR WING PINERO: 
 
 JAMES BARRIE: 
 JOSEPH CONRAD: 
 JOHN GALSWORTHY: 
 JOHN MASEFIELD: 
 G. K. CHESTERTON: 
 
 HILAIRE BELLOC: 
 ARNOLD BENNETT: 
 HENRY ARTHUR JONES: 
 
 The Way of All Flesh 
 
 The Ordeal of Richard 
 Feverel 
 
 Tess of the D'Urbervilles 
 
 The New Grub Street 
 
 The Wreckers 
 
 Confessions of a Young 
 Man 
 
 The Picture of Dorian 
 Grey 
 
 Kim 
 
 Man and Superman* 
 
 Tono-Bungay 
 
 Green Mansions 
 
 The Second Mrs. Tan- 
 queray* 
 
 Sentimental Tommy 
 
 Lord Jim 
 
 The Country House 
 
 The Tragedy of Nan* 
 
 The Napoleon of Net- 
 ting Hill 
 
 Emmanuel Burden 
 
 Buried .Alive 
 
 Michael and His Lost 
 Angel* 
 
 FRANCE: 
 
 GEORGE SAND: 
 GUSTAVE FLAUBERT: 
 
 The Devil's Pool 
 Madame Bovary 
 
60 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 HONORE DEBALZAC: Old Goriot 
 
 VICTOR HUGO: Les Miserables L 
 
 ALPHONSE DAUDET: Sapho 
 
 EMILE ZOLA: The Crime of Abbe 
 
 Mouret 
 
 GUY DEMAUPASSANT: One Life 
 
 PIERRE LOTI: An Iceland Fisherman 
 
 ANATOLE FRANCE: The Crime of Sylvestre 
 
 Bonnard 
 
 EDMOND ROSTAND: Cyrano deBergerac* 
 
 EUGENE BRIEUX: Damaged Goods* 
 
 ROMAIN ROLLAND: Jean-Christophe 
 
 HENRI BARBUSSE: Under Fire 
 
 HENRI BORDEAUX: The Fear of Life 
 
 OCTAVE MIRBEAU: Business Is Business* 
 
 REMY DE GOURMONT: A Night in The Luxem- 
 
 bourg 
 
 GERMANY AND AUSTRIA: 
 
 THEODOR STORM: Immensee 
 
 HERMAN SUDERMANN: Dame Care 
 
 GERHART HAUPTMANN: The Weavers 
 
 FRIEDRICH HEBBEL: Gyges and His Ring 
 
 HERMAN BAHR: The Concert 
 
 LUDWIG FULDA: The Talisman 
 
 ARTHUR SCHNITZLER: The Lonely Way 
 
 FRANZ WEDEKIND: Spring's Awakening* 
 
 GUSTAVE FRENSSEN: J^rn Uhl 
 
 J. WASSERMANN: The Great Illusion 
 HUGO VONHOFFMANNSTHAL: Elektra 
 
 RUSSIA: 
 
 IVAN TURQUENIEV: A Sportsman's Sketches 
 
 FEDOR DOSTOIEVSKY: Crime and Punishment 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 61 
 
 NIKOLAI GOGOL: Dead Souls 
 
 LEO TOLSTOY: Anna Karenina 
 
 MAXIM GORKI: Foma Gordeyev 
 
 ANTON TCHEKOFF: Uncle Vanya 
 
 LEONID ANDREYEV: The Seven Who Were 
 
 Hanged 
 
 ITALY: 
 
 GABRIELLE D'ANNUNZIO: The Flame of Life 
 
 ANTONIO FOGAZARRO: The Saint 
 
 ROBERTO BRACCO: The Hidden Spring* 
 
 MATHILDE SERAO: The Land of Cockayne 
 
 SPAIN: 
 
 A. PALACCIO VALDES: The Joy of Captain Ribot 
 
 B. PEREZ GALDOS: Dona Perfecta 
 JOSE ECHEGARY: Mariana 
 
 JACINTO BENAVENTE: The Evil Doers of Good* 
 
 HOLLAND: 
 
 Louis COUPERUS: Small Souls 
 
 I. QUERIDO: Toil of Men 
 
 FREDERIK VAN EEDEN: The Quest 
 
 BELGIUM: 
 
 MAURICE MAETERLINCK: The Blue Bird 
 
 GEORGES EEKHOUD: The New Carthage 
 
 EMILE VERHAEREN: The Dawn 
 
 GEORGES RODENBACH: Bruges The Dead 
 
 PIERRE HAMP: People 
 
 THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES: 
 
 HENRIK IBSEN: The Doll's House* 
 
 AUGUST STRINDBERG: Swan white 
 
62 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION'* 
 
 BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON: The Fisher Maiden 
 
 SELMA LAGERLOF: The Emperor of Portu- 
 
 gallia 
 
 MARTIN ANDERSON NEXO: Pelle The Conqueror 
 
 CARL EWALD: Tie Old Room 
 
 KNUT HAMSUM: Growth of the Soil 
 
 JOHAN BOJER: The Face of the World 
 
 These books are typical of the countries 
 from which they come. They cast new light 
 upon the real life of these countries. They 
 are among the books of recent years which 
 most cultured people throughout the world 
 have read or about which, at least, they know. 
 
 There are many books of the past which 
 can give very great pleasure. The list which 
 follows has been carefully selected in order to 
 present merely books which are very human 
 and interesting and can give a new and fav- 
 orable idea of some of the literature of the 
 past. 
 
 It does not deal with such great world clas- 
 sics as Homer, Aeschylus, Horace and Virgil 
 nor with such national classics as Shakes- 
 peare, Chaucer, Milton, Spenser; Dante, Pe- 
 trarch; Corneille, Racine, Moliere; Goethe, 
 Schiller and similar figures. An ultimate 
 knowledge of and acquaintance with the 
 works of these masters is, of course, essential 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 63 
 
 to any well-rounded culture. But, in order 
 to gain true appreciation of such writers, it 
 is necessary that one approach them with 
 intense curiosity and some comprehension. 
 Many passably well educated men and women 
 throughout the world have a high degree of 
 culture and yet possess but the haziest ac- 
 quaintanceship with the true classics. The 
 following list will serve to show how much 
 superior some of the great literature of the 
 past is to the current popular fiction. De- 
 light in these books and they can give de- 
 light should, at least, introduce the reader 
 into the ante-room of the world's greatest 
 literature. If he desires to enter" further he 
 will know how to proceed for himself and will 
 be able to proceed with less trepidation. 
 
 A FEW ANCIENT BOOKS WHICH ARE 
 DELIGHTFUL TO READ: 
 
 LONGUS: Daphnis and Chloe (^Published in the 
 
 TATIUS: Clitophe and Leu-J Bohn Library as 
 cippe T "Ancient Greek 
 
 HELIODORUS: The Ethiopics [Romances" 
 
 APULEIUS: The Golden Ass 
 
 PETRONIUS: Trimalchio's Dinner 
 
 LUCIAN: Dialogues of the Dead. 
 
64 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 A FEW FAMOUS BOOKS WHICH ARE 
 EXCITING AND INTERESTING: 
 
 ENGLAND: 
 
 FIELDING: Tom Jones 
 
 SMOLLETT: Roderick Random 
 
 DEFOE: Moll Flanders 
 
 BORROW: Lavengro 
 
 FRANCE: 
 
 LESAGE: Gil Bias 
 
 VOLTAIRE: Candide 
 
 DUMAS: The Three Musketeers 
 
 L'ABBE PREVOST: Manon Lescaut 
 
 SPAIN: 
 CERVANTES: Don Quixote 
 
 Any one of these books can be read with 
 more complete assurance of finding real pleas- 
 ure than any of the much-advertised recent 
 books of fiction. They are books known to 
 practically all cultivated men of all races. 
 Characters or phrases from many of these 
 books have entered into general conversation 
 all over the world. Not to know these books 
 is to deprive yourself of pleasure. They do 
 not constitute the world's greatest literature 
 but they afford a most agreeable introduction 
 to it. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 65 
 
 The modern literature of the Oriental peo- 
 ples and of the South American Countries is 
 not yet a part of general culture and many of 
 the most highly cultivated people have little 
 knowledge concerning it. One must not for- 
 get these parts of the world, however. To 
 gain a general outline of some of these lands 
 one may use the books which are generally 
 known and do form part of the mental equip- 
 ment of the average well-read person: 
 
 SOUTH AMERICA: 
 
 GEORGE ISAACS: Maria 
 
 HARRY FRANCK: Vagabonding Down The 
 
 Andes 
 Working North From 
 
 Patagonia 
 W. H. PRESCOTT: The Conquest of Mexico 
 
 The Conquest of Peru 
 JAMES BRYCE: South America 
 
 JAPAN: 
 LAFCADIO HEARN: Japan-An Interpretation 
 
 CHINA: 
 HERBERT GILES: The Civilization of China 
 
 INDIA: 
 
 THE OXFORD HISTORY OF INDIA 
 RABINDRANATH TAGORE: Chitra 
 
 ARABIA: 
 
 EDWARD WILLIAM LANE: Arabian Night's Enter- 
 tainment 
 
66 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 POETRY 
 
 The poetry which must be known and loved 
 by a truly cultivated person covers a very 
 wide field. The one essential preconception 
 to blast away before approaching the subject 
 of poetry is that true poetry need be either 
 obscure, difficult or must deal with impossibly 
 remote subject matter. On the contrary, the 
 poetry which survives is the poetry which 
 gives pleasure to the greatest number of men 
 poetry which is easily comprehensible and 
 deals with subject matter of interest to all 
 truly alive men and women. 
 
 In the case both of music and poetry one 
 must develop finer appreciation by contact 
 and experience. One finds an introduction to 
 the worlds of poetry and music through some 
 minor work. As one progresses the appreci- 
 ation becomes keener and the work first 
 greatly liked may be seen in a new and less 
 favorable light. Nevertheless it will have 
 served a great purpose. 
 
 The poetry in the following books should 
 certainly give pleasure to almost any type of 
 person capable of that deep feeling which is 
 essential to the love of poetry. If these 
 books give the pleasure they are capable of 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 67 
 
 giving they will create such a love for poetry 
 as will send you to other poets. 
 
 F. T. PALGRAVE: 
 ERNEST DOWSON: 
 WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY: 
 ARTHUR SYMONS: 
 EDWARD FITZGERALD: 
 
 ALGERNON SWINBURNE: 
 JOHN MASEFIELD: 
 
 THE OXFORD BOOK OF 
 
 ENGLISH VERSE 
 SIEGFRIED SASSOON: 
 EDGAR LEE MASTERS: 
 
 EUGENE LEE HAMILTON: 
 
 RUDYARD KIPLING: 
 ARTHUR WALEY (translator) 
 
 OSCAR WILDE: 
 
 The Golden Treasury 
 
 Poems 
 
 Poems 
 
 Poems 
 
 The Rubaiyat of Omar 
 
 Khayyam 
 
 Songs Before Sunrise 
 The Widow in the Bye 
 
 Street 
 
 The Old Huntsman 
 
 The Spoon River An- 
 thology 
 
 Sonnets of the Wingless 
 Hours 
 
 Collected Verse 
 
 A Hundred and Seventy 
 Chinese Poems 
 
 The Ballad of Reading 
 Gaol 
 
 This list covers a very great range. Some 
 of these books contain poems which must 
 perforce appeal to any man of any tempera- 
 ment. They are suggested in order to create 
 a love for poetry. 
 
 Once created, the names of the great poets 
 of the world will become familiar to anyone 
 
68 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 who reads widely. It is always to be remem- 
 bered that their work exists primarily to in- 
 spire or to give pleasure. 
 
 Printed in grim looking volumes, however, 
 the work of the finest poets often appears for- 
 midable, and remote both from beauty and 
 life. If it has endured it has beauty or inter- 
 est of some kind. As our sensibilities and un- 
 derstanding develop we grow better equipped 
 to appreciate this beauty or interest. Do not 
 make painful efforts to appreciate the work 
 of men who wrote merely to delight you. 
 Learn to love poetry from such books as are 
 recommended above. Then go to Shelley and 
 Keats, to Gray and Wordsworth, to Brown- 
 ing even to Milton and Spenser determined 
 to discover whether similar or greater 
 pleasure cannot be found from their pages. 
 
 Possibly you will end by studying Latin in 
 order to appreciate and enjoy the beauties of 
 Horace ! 
 
 But remember always that poetry exists to 
 please you. It does not exist as something 
 to be reverently and fearfully admired and 
 respected. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 69 
 
 WORLD POLITICS, " RECONSTRUC- 
 TION" AND POLITICAL 
 SPECULATION 
 
 Certain types of mind may be prompted 
 to go immediately from the pages of "The 
 Outline of History" to books which deal suc- 
 cinctly and informatively with the current 
 problems which are so much discussed in 
 newspapers and magazines. 
 
 Basically, all these problems are bound up 
 with all the important phases of man's life. 
 It is essential that one have information about 
 them and opinions concerning them. 
 
 Little guidance is needed here but certain books 
 may be found illuminating and stimulating: 
 
 HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS: World Politics 
 
 This book will show the broad outlines of 
 the recent and present relations of the great 
 powers. 
 
 G. T. W. PATRICK: The Psychology of Re- 
 
 construction 
 
 BERTRAND RUSSELL: Principles of Social Re- 
 
 construction 
 
 These are two very wide-visioned books 
 which must almost inevitably stimulate and 
 broaden the mind of any reader. 
 
70 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 The matter of the reconstruction of the 
 world according to some great plan touches 
 all thoughtful people of today so closely that 
 books like these, which deal with it in a man- 
 ner to indicate the responsibility of every 
 individual, are especially fitted to stir and 
 quicken imagination and thought. 
 
 The political and economic organization of 
 nations and of the world is a matter with 
 which all modern peoples are greatly con- 
 cerned since the Great War and the Russian 
 Revolution. The books in this field are, in- 
 deed, a wilderness. The following are recom- 
 mended either because of their fame or be- 
 cause of their detached viewpoint: 
 
 R. H. TAWNEY: The Acquisitive Society 
 
 THOROLD ROGERS: The Economic Interpre- 
 
 tation of History 
 
 WALTER LIPPMANN: Drift and Mastery 
 
 JAMES BRYCE: Modern Democracies 
 
 BERTRAND RUSSELL: Proposed Roads to Free- 
 
 dom 
 
 WALDO BROWN (editor): Man or the State 
 W. G. SUMNER: Folkways 
 
 J. J. ROUSSEAU: The Social Contract 
 
 FRANCIS NEILSON: The Old Freedom 
 
 EDWARD P. CHEYNEY: Industrial and Social 
 
 History of England 
 
 JOHN REED: Ten Days Which Shook 
 
 the World 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 71 
 
 SEYMOUR DEMING: A Message To The Mid- 
 
 dle Class 
 
 G. H. D. COLE: Social Theory 
 
 E. A. Ross: Principles of Sociology 
 
 A. LAWRENCE LOWELL: Essays on Government 
 
 SIDNEY Low: The Governance of Eng- 
 
 land 
 
 M. I. OSTROGORSKI: Democracy And The Or- 
 
 ganization of Political 
 Parties 
 
 S. AND B. WEBB: A Constitution for The 
 
 Socialist Common- 
 wealth of Great Bri- 
 tain 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN: Unto This Last 
 
 JAMES BRYCE: The American Common- 
 
 wealth 
 
 The imagination of young readers has often 
 been caught by the famous books dealing 
 with ideal commonwealths Utopias. The 
 following list is suggested as affording likeli- 
 hood of giving both pleasure and profit: 
 
 PLATO: Republic 
 
 SIR THOMAS MORE: Utopia 
 
 CAMPANELLA: The City of the Sun 
 
 SAMUEL BUTLER: Erewhon 
 
 WILLIAM MORRIS : News From Nowhere 
 
 EDWARD BELLAMY: Looking Backward 
 
 W. H. HUDSON: A Crystal Age 
 
 H. G. WELLS: A Modern Utopia 
 
72 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 All the main currents of world politics and 
 of the important immediate social and politi- 
 cal problems confronting the world are dealt 
 with in the better type magazines. Knowl- 
 edge of the developments of the contempor- 
 ary culture of each country and the rise of 
 celebrities in the various fields can scarcely 
 be secured save from periodicals. The popu- 
 lar American magazines give some material 
 along these general lines but it is sensation- 
 ally featured and is unnecessarily sugar- 
 coated with scatter-brained fiction. 
 
 The Yale Review and The Atlantic Monthly 
 rather successfully deal with important 
 events and outstanding personalities. 
 
 There is an admirable weekly magazine 
 published in America which to a degree rare 
 in the American magazines assumes inform- 
 ation and intelligence on the part of its read- 
 ers. This magazine prints nothing written 
 in America but gives the most important ar- 
 ticles on a wide range of subjects which appear 
 in the best papers of the whole world outside 
 America. The paper is ably edited. It is 
 entitled: The Living Age. Weekly perusal 
 of it will give a wide view of the world and 
 much highly interesting cultural mater- 
 ial. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 73 
 
 The Nation is a weekly magazine which 
 represents some of the best aspects of Ameri- 
 can culture and brings a wide range of valu- 
 able material to its readers. 
 
 Both of these magazines are almost essen- 
 tial to any American with real curiosity con- 
 cerning the life of the world about him. In 
 their brief compass they give information and 
 understanding not to be gained so easily if 
 at all from any other sources. 
 
 MUSIC 
 
 The sincere enjoyment of good music and 
 some knowledge of the best music are essen- 
 tial parts of culture. There are few people 
 who lack the capacity for enjoyment of good 
 music if it is once properly brought before 
 them. 
 
 In this day of ubiquitous phonographs there 
 is little excuse for failure to attempt to learn 
 the secret of the universal appeal of that 
 music which is only considered fine and great 
 because it has given so much pleasure to so 
 many people of all ages, races, types and 
 kinds. 
 
 So-called popular music delights at first 
 but grows wearisome very quickly. 
 
74 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 Good music may not make such an immedi- 
 ate favorable impression but is more greatly 
 enjoyed the more it is heard and never grows 
 tiresome or tedious. 
 
 A splendid way to learn to love good music 
 is simply to keep playing records that are 
 worth while over and over until the music 
 has become familiar. Amost imperceptibly 
 one will discover that a new world of enjoy- 
 ment has been opened up and the music, 
 previously loved, will appear very tawdry and 
 tiresome. 
 
 It is not without reason that what is called 
 good music lasts for years, for generations and 
 for centuries, while the popular music which 
 seems so delightful for a week or a month 
 becomes so tedious and tiresome after a brief 
 time. 
 
 Some people have a natural love for good 
 music. Most Americans probably because 
 of the great prevalence of popular music 
 find it necessary to acquire appreciation and 
 love for it. 
 
 How can such appreciation and love be 
 acquired ? 
 
 Certainly not by mere forceful effort or by 
 pretense. 
 
 But there are other ways. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 75 
 
 One may not be able to find enjoyment at 
 a symphony concert where Beethoven's Fifth 
 Symphony is heard for the first time. One 
 may not be able to find enjoyment on first 
 hearing Madame Butterfly or Boheme or Pag- 
 liacci sung. For the untrained and unmusical 
 man has to hear such music many times before 
 the truest and fullest enjoyment is derived from 
 it. And, too often, one evening of boredom 
 establishes an assurance that: "I have no ear 
 for music" and no future efforts are made to 
 hear it. 
 
 There is some good music which is univer- 
 sally known and even if hackneyed gives 
 pleasure to many people who think they do 
 not like music. It gives pleasure simply be- 
 cause it has been heard until it is known and 
 can be followed. The average non-musical 
 person, for example, likes Mendelssohn's 
 "Spring Song" and Schubert's "Serenade", 
 Wagner's "Prize Song", Chopin's "Funeral 
 March" and similar pieces which are fre- 
 quently played in places of public resort. 
 
 Equal or greater pleasure can be secured 
 from the greatest music existing if one pro- 
 ceeds properly. 
 
 Let the average man who thinks that he 
 does not like "grand opera," for example, buy 
 
76 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 some of the records from Puccini's "La 
 Boheme" or "Madame Butterfly" or from 
 Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" which are listed 
 below. Let him adopt toward them as bored 
 and hostile or as indifferent an attitude as 
 he may choose. Only let him play them 
 interspersed with music which he does like. 
 Let him play them over at intervals until he 
 has heard each of them eight or ten times 
 until the themes and melodies have grown 
 familiar to him. Then when opportunity 
 offers let him go to hear the operas from 
 which they are taken and it is most improbable 
 whether that man will ever again say that he 
 "does not like opera." So with other truly 
 fine operas, so with symphony or chamber 
 music. If it is really meritorious and is 
 heard frequently enough it will be liked. 
 
 Some of the music listed below will be liked 
 at first hearing. Other pieces may be thought 
 stupid or incomprehensible at first hearing. 
 The author of this book ventures to believe, 
 however, that if the records are played in the 
 right atmosphere and frequently enough, many 
 of them will be liked and enjoyed by almost 
 any man or woman of any temperament. 
 If they are so liked the feeling that "classic 
 music" or "grand opera" music is some dull 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 77 
 
 and incomprehensible thing will be removed 
 and the first introduction to the wealth and 
 glory of the world's music will be given. 
 Once given, there should be little difficulty 
 experienced in penetrating as far into the 
 treasure house of music as one cares to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 And what a tremendous new pleasure will 
 have been added to life! 
 
 ITALY 
 
 Puccini: 
 La Boh erne: Che gelida manina 
 
 Musetta Waltz 
 
 Mi chiamano Mimi 
 Madama Butterfly: O quanti occhi fisi 
 
 Un bel di vedremo 
 
 Tutti i fior 
 
 Leoncavallo: 
 Pagliacci: Prologo 
 
 Coro delle campane 
 Che volo d'augelli 
 
 FRANCE: 
 
 Charpentier: 
 Louise: Depuis le jour 
 
 Debussy: 
 
 En bateau 
 
78 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 RUSSIA: 
 
 Glazounow: 
 
 Meditation 
 Borodin: 
 Prince Igor: Chorus of the Tartar 
 
 Women 
 Rimsky-Korsakow: 
 
 Chanson Indoue 
 Tschaikowsky: 
 
 Chanson triste 
 Andante cantabile 
 
 GERMANY: 
 
 Wagner: 
 Die Walkure: Ride of the Valkyries 
 
 Each: 
 Suite in D. Major: Air for the G string 
 
 Mozart: 
 Quartet in D. Major: Andante 
 
 THE FINE ARTS 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge about, and 
 appreciation of, the great art of the world will 
 probably be found more difficult than any 
 other aspect of culture. In America it is par- 
 ticularly difficult for the man outside the 
 great cities where are museums, galleries and 
 the print rooms of great libraries. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 79 
 
 Several facts must be kept in mind: the 
 mere looking at miles of pictures in galleries, 
 the mere efforts to force oneself to appreciate 
 and like these pictures will never get one very 
 far. 
 
 There is no particular merit in a picture as 
 a picture. It might be well for the cultural 
 development of man if a large number of 
 existing paintings were destroyed. 
 
 Particularly in the field of art our funda- 
 mental axiom that one must delight in things 
 in order to advance culturally holds true. 
 
 Amid the hundreds of thousands of pictures 
 and statues of the world there are pictures 
 and statues which must, perforce, delight 
 and please you no matter what your tempera- 
 ment or type. 
 
 Much fun has been made of the person who 
 says: "I don't know much about art but I 
 know what I like." 
 
 And, of course, if such a thing is said in an 
 arrogant, intolerant spirit it is rather tiresome. 
 
 But one must "like" works of art. That 
 is what they are for. If certain works of art 
 are universally admired, if we see that they 
 do give very great pleasure to many kinds of 
 people we should certainly try to analyze our 
 own failure if such exists to appreciate or 
 
80 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 enjoy them. Pretense or frenzied effort will 
 not help. Only cultivation of our under- 
 standing, of our sense of beauty, of our desire 
 to add every wholesome new pleasure and inspir- 
 ation to our lives, can develop appreciation. 
 
 When Whistler's famous "Battersea 
 Bridge" was first painted, a great art critic 
 John Ruskin condemned it severely and said 
 that "an ignorant charlatan" was "flinging a 
 pot of paint in the British public's face." 
 When Whistler's portrait of" Miss Alexander" 
 was first exhibited it was so caustically crit- 
 icised by all the journals that the little girl 
 whose portrait it was grew ashamed to be 
 known as the subject of it. 
 
 Today we see that these two pictures are 
 works of very great and distinguished beauty. 
 They have shown us beauty where we had 
 not, before, seen it. 
 
 The incidents are mentioned in order to 
 show that there is no inflexible criterion of 
 taste and beauty. Great painters and critics 
 who knew much about art did not "like" 
 Whistler's novel work. Yet it was beautiful 
 and is now so considered. 
 
 Let us consider certain phases of the fine 
 arts not generally made clear. 
 
 There are two aspects of all the fine arts: 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 81 
 
 There is the art which is spiritual stimula- 
 tion which embodies some great concept, or 
 uplifts and ennobles the beholder. 
 
 There is the art which merely decorates 
 which embellishes, refines life, expresses some 
 rare type of personality or opens new aspects 
 of physical beauty. 
 
 The first kind of art is the greater. But it 
 is rare. 
 
 In it the artist has first acquired great 
 facility, perfected technique and has, then, 
 used these to embody, or portray or express 
 some great idea or ideal. His work may not 
 be immediately and obviously beautiful to the 
 beholder who does not understand it. 
 
 The famous statue by August Rodin en- 
 titled "Le Penseur" is art of this sort. This 
 great statue expresses the mystery of man's 
 existence and his tremendous curiosity as to 
 the meaning and purpose of his life. 
 
 A man appreciative of such work who 
 suddenly sees this statue while lost in thought 
 about some immediate personal problem or 
 about some trivial or banal experience or ad- 
 venture, is brought hard and fast up against 
 the thought of the tremendous mystery of his 
 own mere existence. He is lifted out of im- 
 mediate trivialities into a higher plane of 
 
82 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 thought. "Le Penseur" is not pretty or 
 graceful. It has nothing to say to the shal- 
 low, the vulgar, the stupid. But, neverthe- 
 less, it is a great work of art. It has rhythm 
 and great beauty for those who understand. 
 It embodies a great, eternal conception. 
 
 So with the famous drawings of Albrecht 
 Diirer made about the time America was 
 being discovered. Here is marvellous tech- 
 nique, almost unbelievable capacity, used to 
 express great universal ideas. To those whose 
 taste and understanding have been vitiated 
 or destroyed by the mere prettiness which is 
 called "art" in America these prints may ap- 
 pear not only incomprehensible but even ugly. 
 Yet study the print entitled "Melancholia" 
 or the one entitled "Ritter, Tod und Teufel" 
 (The Knight, Death and the Devil). 
 
 The first of these symbolizes the melan- 
 cholia, the hopelessness and despair, which 
 come at some time to all men. All the 
 instruments of science are left unused. And 
 the winged figure broods as men brood when 
 all effort seems hopeless. 
 
 In the second picture the knight repre- 
 senting the disciplined aspiration of man 
 progresses despite all obstacles. The pleas- 
 ure city on the hill does not allure him, death 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 and the devil do not hinder him, the knowl- 
 edge that life is fleeting and incomprehensible 
 does not stop him. He goes on his way 
 as the aspiration of man must always go 
 despite melancholia, despite doubt and 
 evil. 
 
 Over each of these pictures one can ponder 
 and study for hours discovering new ex- 
 cellences, new beauties. The fact that any 
 man could draw as these pictures are drawn is, 
 in itself, remarkable while the fact that the 
 great facility is used to express universal ideas 
 of life renders the pictures like the statue of 
 Rodin's great works of art. 
 
 A Corot painting of a misty landscape is a 
 very fine type of decorative art. 
 
 Most art is decorative art. It is infinitely 
 diverse. It assumes a million forms. It 
 shows every aspect of life as seen by every 
 type of man. There is no normal man or 
 woman who cannot find some great picture 
 or statue or other work which will delight 
 them. It may be one of the sun-saturated 
 paintings of the Spaniard Sorolla; it may be 
 an ancient Greek head of a lovely youth; it 
 may be a virile and startling picture by the 
 German Stuck or an etching or painting by 
 the Swede Zorn. 
 
84 
 
 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 The field is so great, so wide that one can- 
 not write of it except in broad and sweeping 
 terms. But the great fact remains: the fine 
 arts exist to inspire or to delight you. You 
 must equip yourself with the understanding 
 and appreciation to receive what they have 
 to give. 
 
 There follows a list of books which deal 
 with art and artists in such manner as may 
 cast new light upon the subject of art and 
 may awaken imagination and appreciation 
 and send one seeking to see the great works 
 described. 
 
 ELIE FAURE: 
 AUGUST RODIN: 
 JULIUS MEIER-GRAEFFE: 
 CARL LARSSON: 
 JAMES HUNEKER: 
 
 CAMILLE MAUCLAIR: 
 
 GEORGE MOORE: 
 S. REINACH: 
 
 ROCKWELL KENT: 
 E. A. PARKYN: 
 BANISTER F. FLETCHER: 
 ROYAL CORTISSOZ: 
 
 History of Art 
 
 Art 
 
 Modern Art 
 
 Das Haus in der Sonne 
 
 Promenades of an Im- 
 pressionist 
 
 The French Impression- 
 ists 
 
 Modern Painters 
 
 Apollo An illustrated 
 manual of the history 
 of art through the ages 
 
 Wilderness 
 
 Prehistoric Art 
 
 History of Architecture 
 
 Art and Common sense 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 85 
 
 RICHARD MUTHER : History of Modern Paint- 
 
 ing 
 
 FRANK WEITENKAMPT: How to Appreciate Prints 
 
 SAMUEL ISHAM: History of American 
 
 Painting 
 
 CONTACTS 
 
 Books, music, pictures, magazines these 
 are accessible to almost everyone. They are 
 valuable, indeed essential, to the development 
 of culture or of a broad and liberal and in- 
 formed outlook upon life. 
 
 But personal contacts are also necessary. 
 The clarification of thought, the stimulation 
 of interest which come from discussion or 
 from enjoyment shared with others these 
 make life infinitely more zestful and colorful. 
 They give a mellowness and joy which solitary 
 enjoyment of literature and art can seldom 
 give. 
 
 All who desire culture should seek contact 
 with people of similar tastes, inclinations and 
 enthusiasms. 
 
 The essence of culture is growth, develop- 
 ment like ripples spreading in water. Per- 
 sonal contact with other growing and aspiring 
 minds can stimulate this growth and develop- 
 ment illimitably. 
 
86 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 There is a free masonry between men of real 
 culture before which barriers of race and age 
 and class go quickly down. Two men, for 
 example, who discover that each has read and 
 liked W. H. Hudson's "Green Mansions" 
 have an immediate bond of understanding 
 which sport or business can rarely give. De- 
 velop a sincere and enthusiastic appreciation 
 of music and art and you will find new con- 
 tacts without effort. Like is drawn to like. 
 Develop an enthusiastic interest in life, in lit- 
 erature, in disinterested knowledge and you 
 will find that your acquaintance with culti- 
 vated people will enlarge surprisingly. 
 
 The mere surface qualities which so many 
 Americans look upon as "culture" need little 
 attention. Make yourself a fine person and 
 automatically these qualities will develop. 
 For a fine person, of necessity, thinks, feels 
 and acts finely. Acquire a proper sense of 
 the dignity and mystery of life, a proper sense 
 of the beauty and splendor of the world and, 
 inevitably, dignity and fine courtesy must 
 develop. 
 
 Efforts to acquire the mere surface aspects 
 of culture without the reality underneath are 
 quite like the efforts to secure rosy cheeks with 
 rouge rather than by wholesome life and pro- 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 87 
 
 per exercise and food. Little satisfaction is 
 gained and few observers are fooled. 
 
 A wise man has said: " Produce fine people. 
 The rest will follow." Make yourself a sin- 
 cere and aspiring person. The rest will follow. 
 
 THE TECHNIQUE OF READING, BOOK 
 
 COLLECTING AND LIBRARY 
 
 BUILDING 
 
 To develop mentally, the reading of obvi- 
 ously trivial, silly or foolish books must be 
 abandoned completely. Any kind of pleasure 
 which such books are capable of giving can be 
 secured in greater measure from worth-while 
 books. 
 
 The vocabulary cannot be enlarged unless 
 resort is made to a good dictionary to gain the 
 real meaning of unfamiliar words. A good 
 dictionary is, hence, indispensable. The 
 habit of referring to atlases and encyclopae- 
 dias must also be acquired if knowledge and 
 understanding are to be other than very su- 
 perficial. The famous encyclopaedias are 
 very desirable if they can be secured. The 
 smaller and inexpensive Nelson and Every- 
 man's Encyclopaedias, however, occupy little 
 space and have much merit. 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION*' 
 
 Too much reading is inadvisable. There 
 are many men who have read themselves stu- 
 pid. Wisely planned and directed reading is 
 not likely, however, to produce such an ef- 
 fect. 
 
 Excellent books can now be obtained 
 in small pocket editions. The Haldeman- 
 Julius Company at Girard, Kansas, publishes 
 some hundreds of volumes by the most fa- 
 mous writers of all lands and ages. These 
 little books can be bought for less than ten 
 cents apiece. Carried in pocket or handbag 
 they can render pleasant and profitable many 
 hours which might otherwise be frittered 
 away on newspapers or magazine fiction. 
 The Everyman's Library publishes nearly a 
 thousand volumes of the greatest books of all 
 time. Excellent material is to be found in 
 the "Home University Library," u The Mod- 
 ern Library," "The Wayfarers' Library" and 
 similar small and inexpensive volumes put out 
 in uniform binding by various publishers. 
 
 New books must be purchased from book- 
 shops selling such books. But it is to be re- 
 membered that the great books of the past 
 can be secured at "second-hand" or "old" 
 book stores for amounts sometimes almost 
 incredibly small. True book lovers have al- 
 
ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 89 
 
 ways been drawn to old book-stores. Brows- 
 ing among their shelves one encounters un- 
 expected and unimagined volumes on every 
 conceivable subject. Such stores are fre- 
 quented by interesting men who know and 
 love books. The best old-book shops have 
 something of the atmosphere of the literary 
 clubs and coffee houses of an earlier period in 
 England. 
 
 Those who would build a library should 
 certainly seek out such stores. And all those 
 who seek continuous mental growth should 
 seek to build libraries no matter how small. 
 If a book is worth reading it is worth possess- 
 ing. A true library is merely an external 
 reflection of the owner's knowledge and inter- 
 ests and aspirations. 
 
 Collections of framed prints of great master- 
 pieces and if one plays no instrument a 
 collection of fine graphaphone records can 
 also give enduring satisfaction and pleasure. 
 They turn a house into a home. They create 
 an oasis of beauty and peace in a restless 
 world. They are not expenditures in any 
 real sense but investments which pay divi- 
 dends of thousands per cent while retaining 
 the principal almost intact. 
 
90 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 In building a library or any collection- 
 destruction and wise selection are almost as 
 essential as acquisition. If your library is to 
 be a true delight it must be filled only with 
 keen and alive books which have really stimu- 
 lated or delighted you. To intermix such 
 books with dull or stupid volumes which one 
 has inherited or acquired in boyhood is to 
 lose the essential feeling of your library as a 
 perfect thing, however small. Discard from 
 your shelves all stupid and dull and stodgy 
 books. You would not mix stupid and dull 
 and stodgy people with your brilliant and 
 stimulating friends if you could help it. Your 
 favorite books are your friends. Your fav- 
 orite pictures and records are your friends. 
 Do not insult them by putting them in com- 
 pany with trivial or silly or vulgar books and 
 pictures and records. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 The colleges and universities of America 
 cost the country hundreds of millions of dol- 
 lars each year. 
 
 The students at these colleges and univer- 
 sities give from four to eight years to attend- 
 ance at thousands of lectures. 
 
 Many highly trained technicians in the var- 
 ious sciences are graduated from the colleges 
 each June. 
 
 But it is an indubitable fact that the aver- 
 age college or university graduate in America 
 is scarcely to be considered either a cultured 
 or a liberally educated man if any valid stand- 
 ards are used by which to gauge him. 
 
 A small book of this kind can scarcely hope 
 to give in a few hours what costly and elab- 
 orate institutions of learning do not give in 
 many years. 
 
 Yet all real education is self-education. 
 Too often the very intricacy of colleges causes 
 confusion and lack of perspective. The stu- 
 dent cannot see the forest for the trees. He 
 rather expects knowledge to be instilled into 
 him by some mysterious process without much 
 
92 ON "CULTURE" AND "A LIBERAL EDUCATION" 
 
 effort on his part. Often he studies in order 
 to pass examinations rather than to learn for 
 his own benefit. The social relations and the 
 many highly specialised courses cause forget- 
 fulness of the main object. 
 
 There are numerous very real and practical 
 reasons why solitary reading according to a 
 plan and program, as suggested in this book, 
 may give many men and women what col- 
 leges might not give them. 
 
 The great essential whether at college or 
 outside college is to develop a new curiosity 
 about every phase of life, and to set to work 
 to gratify that curiosity, to utilize every brain 
 cell, to know and to feel to the limit of one's 
 possibilities. 
 
 Your mind is more than a kingdom. It is 
 an illimitable empire. 
 
 Reign in it! 
 

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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY