HUNDRED BEST BOOKS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 588, 17 August 1909, Page 8

HUNDRED BEST BOOKS.

.. ,; h ,,^, r ~v . . ~, ...... ■.. Some wooks'ago'thc'oH controversy as' to ■''•' the "hundred best books" was , revived,.in ii 'slightly''different form',' by Dr.;' Eliot,'; late. President of Harvard University, jnho. de- ', clared that a. sft. sbelt' would contain:books enough to give .-any. man the essentials of a liberal education. , . '. i ' ; Tho New York correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" gives a partial list of the twentyfive volume's already niado ■ public by. tno : President. Some'of the books in tho list are, of course, iu. theory, to be bound into ■ one volumo:— . "Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." , . "Fruits of 'Solitude," ■ by William Penn. "Journal of John Woodman." • Bacon's "Essays" and l "The New. Atlantis." " . -.' ■■-.-■ Milton's " Areopagitica " and'"Tractate' on Education."-. ' ■ ' Sir Thomas Browne's "ReligiV Medici." Plato's . ."Apology,! , "Phaodo," , :ancl' "Crito." ' , ■ ' ■ . "•',•■■ . '■■ . ; "The Golden Sayings' of Epictetus." "Meditations of M.nrcus Aiirelius." Embrson's "Essays" and '.'English Traits." "Complete Poems of Milton." • Ben Jonson's "Volpone." Beaumont and Fletcher's "The '; Maid'a . Tragedy." ~ ■• . . ."'•'■"■ Webster's'"Duohess of Main." • ■ Middleton's "The Changeling." ; Drydon's "AH for.Love." .'■,.'■ ' Shelley's "Cenci." : . i ' Browning!s "Blot.on the Scutcheon." TonnVson's "Bc'cket." . '..:■■■■" • ••■ Goethe's. "Faust."- ' ■. ' . -Marlowe's ''Dr. Fatistus." ' . Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." "The Letters of Cicero and Pliny." Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." , Burns's "Tam.o' Shanter." , .'■'.. : Walton's. "Compleat i Angler." . ■ : , "Tho lives of Donne and Herbert." "Autobiography of St. Angustino." . .Plutarch's' "Lives.". ■'..■.' . :■ • Dryden's "/Enoid." . ' Chaucer's "Canterbnry Tales." "Tlic Imitation of Christ," by Thomas'a Kempis. ■ •■■• ■' . ■•'■ ■'.' •: Dante's "Divine Comedy." . -x Darwin's "Orirrin of Species."' 1 "The Arabian Niehts." '. ■ .. The omission of Shakespeare strikes one.ai romai'kable; but.it will be seen ;that several/ of the books , are the same as those.figuring in Lord Avebury's "hundred best" list. ■ .■, The "Telegraph"- correspondent says tKa<>,' Dr. , MacCrackon, of New York. University, in commenting upon Dr. Eliot's intention rather thaii upon his list, observed >' Eliot allows himself to say that.the fajth- ,■ ful and considerate reading of these books r will gko: any man the essentials of a liboral v education. If he is right, why mainUiii' , a college at Harvard, merely to* give the non-■' essentials of a liberal education ?■ Tho atmosphere to-day is full of criticism of the college. A corporation has been chartered in Now York city, with 300,000 dollars of stock, for tho investigation and reorganisation ot American colleges." '■-'■' ■ ,'. .;. ■,