The Pleasures of Life Part 6

Among voyages and travels, perhaps those most frequently suggested are Cook's _Voyages_, Humboldt's _Travels_, and Darwin's _Naturalist's Journal_; though I confess I should like to have added many more.

Mr. Bright not long ago specially recommended the less known American poets, but he probably a.s.sumed that every one would have read Shakespeare, Milton (_Paradise Lost_, _Lycidas_, _Comus_ and minor poems), Chaucer, Dante, Spencer, Dryden, Scott, Wordsworth, Pope, Byron, and others, before embarking on more doubtful adventures.

Among other books most frequently recommended are Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_, Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_, _The Arabian Nights_, _Don Quixote_, Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, White's _Natural History of Selborne_, Burke's Select Works (Payne), the Essays of Bacon, Addison, Hume, Montaigne, Macaulay, and Emerson, Carlyle's _Past and Present_, Smiles' _Self-Help_, and Goethe's _Faust_ and _Autobiography_.

Nor can one go wrong in recommending Berkeley's _Human Knowledge_, Descartes' _Discours sur la Methode_, Locke's _Conduct of the Understanding_, Lewes' _History of Philosophy_; while, in order to keep within the number one hundred, I can only mention Moliere and Sheridan among dramatists. Macaulay considered Marivaux's _La Vie de Marianne_ the best novel in any language, but my number is so nearly complete that I must content myself with English: and will suggest Thackeray (_Vanity Fair_ and _Pendennis_), d.i.c.kens (_Pickwick_ and _David Copperfield_), G.

Eliot (_Adam Bede_ or _The Mill on the Floss_), Kingsley (_Westward Ho!_), Lytton (_Last Days of Pompeii_), and last, not least, those of Scott, which indeed const.i.tute a library in themselves, but which I must ask, in return for my trouble, to be allowed, as a special favor, to count as one.

To any lover of books the very mention of these names brings back a crowd of delicious memories, grateful recollections of peaceful home hours, after the labors and anxieties of the day. How thankful we ought to be for these inestimable blessings, for this numberless host of friends who never weary, betray, or forsake us!

LIST OF 100 BOOKS.

_Works by Living Authors are omitted_.

The Bible The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Epictetus Aristotle's Ethics a.n.a.lects of Confucius St. Hilaire's "Le Bouddha et sa religion"

Wake's Apostolic Fathers Thos. a Kempis' Imitation of Christ Confessions of St. Augustine (Dr. Pusey) The Koran (portions of) Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Comte's Catechism of Positive Philosophy Pascal's Pensees Butler's a.n.a.logy of Religion Taylor's Holy Living and Dying Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress Keble's Christian Year

Plato's Dialogues; at any rate, the Apology, Crito, and Phaedo Xenophon's Memorabilia Aristotle's Politics Demosthenes' De Corona.

Cicero's De Officiis, De Amicitia, and De Senectute Plutarch's Lives Berkeley's Human Knowledge Descartes' Discours sur la Methode Locke's On the Conduct of the Understanding

Homer Hesiod Virgil Maha Bharata |Epitomized in Talboys Wheeler's Ramayana |History of India, vols. i. and ii.

The Shahnameh The Nibelungenlied Malory's Morte d'Arthur

The Sheking Kalidasa's Sakuntala or The Lost Ring Aeschylus' Prometheus Trilogy of Orestes Sophocles' OEdipus Euripides' Medea Aristophanes' The Knights and Clouds Horace

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (perhaps in Morris' edition; or, if expurgated, in C. Clarke's, or Mrs. Haweis') Shakespeare Milton's Paradise Lost, Lycidas, Comus, and the shorter poems Dante's Divina Commedia Spenser's Fairie Queen Dryden's Poems Scott's Poems Wordsworth (Mr. Arnold's selection) Pope's Essay on Criticism Essay on Man Rape of the Lock Burns Byron's Childe Harold Gray

Herodotus Xenophon's Anabasis and Memorabilia Thucydides Tacitus' Germania Livy Gibbon's Decline and Fall Hume's History of England Grote's History of Greece Carlyle's French Revolution Green's Short History of England Lewes' History of Philosophy

Arabian Nights Swift's Gulliver's Travels Defoe's Robinson Crusoe Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield Cervantes' Don Quixote Boswell's Life of Johnson Moliere Schiller's William Tell Sheridan's The Critic, School for Scandal, and The Rivals Carlyle's Past and Present

Bacon's Novum Organum Smith's Wealth of Nations (part of) Mill's Political Economy Cook's Voyages Humboldt's Travels White's Natural History of Selborne Darwin's Origin of Species Naturalist's Voyage Mill's Logic

Bacon's Essays Montaigne's Essays Hume's Essays Macaulay's Essays Addison's Essays Emerson's Essays Burke's Select Works Smiles' Self-Help

Voltaire's Zadig and Micromegas Goethe's Faust, and Autobiography Thackeray's Vanity Fair Pendennis d.i.c.kens' Pickwick David Copperfield Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii George Eliot's Adam Bede Kingsley's Westward Ho!

Scott's Novels

[1] Several longer lists have been given; for instance, by Comte, _Catechism, of Positive Philosophy_; Pycroft, _Course of English Reading_; Baldwin, _The Book Lover_; Perkins, _The Best Reading_; and by Mr.

Ireland, _Books for General Readers_.

[2] It is much to be desired that some one would publish a selection from the works of Seneca.

CHAPTER V.

THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS.

"They seem to take away the sun from the world who withdraw friends.h.i.+p from life; for we have received nothing better from the Immortal G.o.ds, nothing more delightful."--CICERO.

Most of those who have written in praise of books have thought they could say nothing more conclusive than to compare them to friends.

"All men," said Socrates, "have their different objects of ambition--horses, dogs, money, honor, as the case may be; but for his own part he would rather have a good friend than all these put together." And again, men know "the number of their other possessions, although they might be very numerous, but of their friends, though but few, they were not only ignorant of the number, but even when they attempted to reckon it to such as asked them, they set aside again some that they had previously counted among their friends; so little did they allow their friends to occupy their thoughts. Yet in comparison with what possession, of all others, would not a good friend appear far more valuable?"

"As to the value of other things," says Cicero, "most men differ; concerning friends.h.i.+p all have the same opinion. What can be more foolish than, when men are possessed of great influence by their wealth, power, and resources, to procure other things which are bought by money--horses, slaves, rich apparel, costly vases--and not to procure friends, the most valuable and fairest furniture of life?" And yet, he continues, "every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends."

In the choice, moreover, of a dog or of a horse, we exercise the greatest care: we inquire into its pedigree, its training and character, and yet we too often leave the selection of our friends, which is of infinitely greater importance--by whom our whole life will be more or less influenced either for good or evil--almost to chance.

It is no doubt true, as the _Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_ says, that all men are bores except when we want them. And Sir Thomas Browne quaintly observes that "unthinking heads who have not learnt to be alone, are a prison to themselves if they be not with others; whereas, on the contrary, those whose thoughts are in a fair and hurry within, are sometimes fain to retire into company to be out of the crowd of themselves." Still I do not quite understand Emerson's idea that "men descend to meet." In another place, indeed, he qualifies the statement, and says, "Almost all people descend to meet." Even so I should venture to question it, especially considering the context. "All a.s.sociation," he adds, "must be a compromise, and, what is worse, the very flower and aroma of the flower of each of the beautiful natures disappears as they approach each other."

What a sad thought! Is it really so; need it be so? And if it were, would friends be any real advantage? I should have thought that the influence of friends was exactly the reverse: that the flower of a beautiful nature would expand, and the colors grow brighter, when stimulated by the warmth and suns.h.i.+ne of friends.h.i.+p.

It has been said that it is wise always to treat a friend, remembering that he may become an enemy, and an enemy, remembering that he may become a friend; and whatever may be thought of the first part of the adage, there is certainly much wisdom in the latter. Many people seem to take more pains and more pleasure in making enemies, than in making friends.

Plutarch, indeed, quotes with approbation the advice of Pythagoras "not to shake hands with too many," but as long as friends are well chosen, it is true rather that

"He who has a thousand friends, Has never a one to spare, And he who has one enemy, Will meet him everywhere,"

and unfortunately, while there are few great friends there is no little enemy.

I guard myself, however, by saying again--As long as they are well chosen.

One is thrown in life with a great many people who, though not actively bad, though they may not wilfully lead us astray, yet take no pains with themselves, neglect their own minds, and direct the conversation to petty puerilities or mere gossip; who do not seem to realize that conversation may by a little effort be made most instructive and delightful, without being in any way pedantic; or, on the other hand, may be allowed to drift into a mere mora.s.s of muddy thought and weedy words. There is hardly anyone from whom we may not learn much, if only they will trouble themselves to tell us. Nay, even if they teach us nothing, they may help us by the stimulus of intelligent questions, or the warmth of sympathy.

But if they do neither, then indeed their companions.h.i.+p, if companions.h.i.+p it can be called, is mere waste of time, and of such we may well say, "I do desire that we be better strangers."

Much certainly of the happiness and purity of our lives depends on our making a wise choice of our companions and friends. If our friends are badly chosen they will inevitably drag us down; if well they will raise us up. Yet many people seem to trust in this matter to the chapter of accident. It is well and right, indeed, to be courteous and considerate to every one with whom we are brought into contact, but to choose them as real friends is another matter. Some seem to make a man a friend, or try to do so, because he lives near, because he is in the same business, travels on the same line of railway, or for some other trivial reason.

There cannot be a greater mistake. These are only, in the words of Plutarch, "the idols and images of friends.h.i.+p."

To be friendly with every one is another matter; we must remember that there is no little enemy, and those who have ever really loved any one will have some tenderness for all. There is indeed some good in most men.