FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141  
142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   >>   >|  
Future, the servants of Humanity--both its philosophical and its practical servants--come forward to claim as their due the general direction of the world. Their object is to constitute at length a real Providence in all departments--moral, intellectual and material. --_Auguste Comte_ [Illustration: AUGUSTE COMTE] A little city girl asked of her country cousin, when honey was the topic up for discussion, "Does your papa keep a bee?" Let the statement go unchallenged, that a single bee has neither the disposition nor the ability to make honey. Bees accomplish nothing save as they work together, and neither do men. Great men come in groups. Six men, three living at the village of Concord, Massachusetts, and three at Cambridge, fifteen miles away, supplied America really all her literature, until Indiana suddenly loomed large on the horizon, and assumed the center of the stage, like the spirit of the Brocken. Five men made up the Barbizon school of painting, which has influenced the entire art education of the world. And that those who have been influenced and helped most, deny their redeemer with an oath, is a natural phenomenon psychologists look for and fully understand. Greece had a group of seven thinkers, in the time of Pericles, who made the name and fame of the city deathless. Rome had a similar group in the time of Augustus; then the world went to sleep, and although there were individuals, now and then, of great talent, their lights went out in darkness, for it takes bulk to make a conflagration. Florence had her group of thinkers and doers when Michelangelo and Leonardo lived only a few miles apart, but never met. Yet each man spurred the other on to do and dare, until an impetus was reached that sent the names of both down the centuries. Boswell gives us a group of a dozen men who made each other possible--often helped by hate and strengthened by scorn. The Mutual Admiration Society does not live in piping times of peace, where glowing good-will strews violets; often the sessions of this interesting aggregation are stormy and acrimonious, but one thing holds--the man who arises at this board must have something to say. Strong men, matched by destiny, set each other a pace. Criticism is full and free. The most interesting and the most successful social experiment in America owed its lease of life largely to its sch
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141  
142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
interesting
 

influenced

 

America

 
servants
 

thinkers

 

helped

 

Augustus

 

spurred

 

Florence

 

reached


conflagration

 
impetus
 

similar

 
darkness
 
talent
 

Leonardo

 

lights

 

Michelangelo

 

individuals

 

Strong


matched

 

destiny

 

acrimonious

 

arises

 

largely

 
experiment
 

social

 

Criticism

 

successful

 

stormy


Mutual

 

deathless

 
Admiration
 

Society

 

strengthened

 

Boswell

 

strews

 

violets

 

sessions

 

aggregation


glowing
 
piping
 

centuries

 

redeemer

 

statement

 
discussion
 

country

 
cousin
 
unchallenged
 

accomplish