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Day 11 - Harvard Classics - 90 Day Challenge




Feb 10: Voltaire's LETTERS ON THE ENGLISH

No Fancy for a Plain Gentleman

Voltaire once visited Congreve. This famous dramatist requested
to be regarded only as a plain gentleman. "Had you been that 
I should never have come to see you," Voltaire cynically
replies.

Read from Voltaire's LETTERS ON THE ENGLISH ....   Vol. 34, pp. 130-140


Feb 11: Descartes' DISCOURSE ON METHOD

The Queen Freezes Her Philosophy

Descartes was slain through the eccentric whim of a queen who
demanded that he tutor her in the freezing dawn in the dead
of winter. His philosophy lives in this essay.

Read from Descartes' DISCOURSE ON METHOD ....  Vol. 34, pp. 5-20


Feb 12: LINCOLN'S WRITINGS

Oxford Corrects Lincoln's Mistake

Lincoln himself thought his famous Gettysburg Address was a
failure. To-day the whole world acclaims its greatness. Cast
in bronze, it hangs on the wall of Balliol College, Oxford, regarded
as the perfection of English prose.

Read: LINCOLN'S WRITINGS .......................   Vol. 43, pp. 415-420


Feb 13: CELLINI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The Frank Story of an Amazing Life

At the age of fifty-eight Benvenuto Cellini shaved his head
and retired to a monastery to write his own story of murder, passion,
and great deeds of the Renaissance. His life is a vivid picture
of the most colorful period in history, a period when statecraft
and religion and black magic and assassination were naively
mingled in men's lives.

Read from CELLINI'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY ..............   Vol. 31, pp. 68-80