FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323  
324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   >>  
unexpected success and a wide reputation, and from that time on he developed rapidly into one of the most skillful statesmen of the Conservative party. By tradition and by temperament he is an extreme Tory; and it is in the opposition, as a skillful fencer in debate and a sharp critic of pretentious schemes, that he has been most admired and most feared. However, he is kept from being narrowly confined to the traditional point of view by the philosophic interests and training of his mind, which he has turned into practical fairness. Some of his speeches are most original in suggestion, and all show a literary quality of a high order. His writings on other subjects are also broad, scholarly, and practical. 'A Defense of Philosophic Doubt' is thought by some philosophers to be the ablest work of destructive criticism since Hume. 'The Foundations of Belief' covers somewhat the same ground and in more popular fashion. 'Essays and Addresses' is a collection of papers on literature and sociology. [Illustration: ARTHUR J. BALFOUR] THE PLEASURES OF READING From his Rectorial Address before the University of Glasgow I confess to have been much perplexed in my search for a topic on which I could say something to which you would have patience to listen, or on which I might find it profitable to speak. One theme however there is, not inappropriate to the place in which I stand, nor I hope unwelcome to the audience which I address. The youngest of you have left behind that period of youth during which it seems inconceivable that any book should afford recreation except a story-book. Many of you are just reaching the period when, at the end of your prescribed curriculum, the whole field and compass of literature lies outspread before you; when, with faculties trained and disciplined, and the edge of curiosity not dulled or worn with use, you may enter at your leisure into the intellectual heritage of the centuries. Now the question of how to read and what to read has of late filled much space in the daily papers, if it cannot strictly speaking be said to have profoundly occupied the public mind. But you need be under no alarm. I am not going to supply you with a new list of the hundred books most worth reading, nor am I about to take the world into my confidence in respect of my "favorite passages from the best authors." Nor again do I address myself to the professed student, to the fortunate individual with whom literat
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323  
324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   344   345   346   347   >>  



Top keywords:

practical

 

papers

 

period

 

address

 
literature
 

skillful

 

compass

 

outspread

 
curriculum
 

success


rapidly
 
prescribed
 

developed

 

leisure

 

intellectual

 

dulled

 

trained

 

faculties

 

disciplined

 

curiosity


reaching
 

audience

 

unwelcome

 

Conservative

 

youngest

 

inappropriate

 
statesmen
 
recreation
 

afford

 
heritage

inconceivable

 

centuries

 
confidence
 

respect

 

favorite

 
reading
 
hundred
 

passages

 

fortunate

 

student


individual

 

literat

 

professed

 
authors
 

supply

 
filled
 

question

 

strictly

 

speaking

 
reputation