Things Learned By Living

Things Learlied Living By John Bascom Author o Social Theory, Growth of Nationality in the United States, An Historical Interpretation of Philosophy, etc. G. P. Putnams Sons New York and London 3be imfcfeerbocfcer press 1913 PREFACE TTHIS brief volume is so far of the nature of per sonal memorabilia, that I do not care to introduce it to the public except through an obvi ously open door. I leave it, therefore, to others to give or withhold as circumstances may make way for it. Clinging to my convictions with that te nacity which belongs to every healthy mind, I do not doubt that there are many truths in my pub lished works of which the world is finding or will find, the need. I am by no means as certain, however, that these principles will be consciously derived from this source. The truths themselves lie on the horizon of many minds, and are ready to find entrance, sooner or later, at many points. So far as my writings shall contribute to this result, they are as likely to do it indirectly, through the medium of more persuasive presentations, as di rectly, by their own force. If no wide interest shall attach to the work already done, then these further and more individual experiences would make their way with difficulty and impropriety. iv Preface They may, in that case, as well be added to those dreamy reminiscences and speculative visions which furnish the familiar occupants of the spiri tual and secluded household of a single man. It is enough to have lived by means of them, though the record of life, like the impressions of most lives, be left under the lock and key of actual events, and miss that reflection in words we so often prize more highly than the thing itself. If, however, any principle of philosophy, any law of action, shall have gained clear impulse by my efforts, then these acquisitions of experience, these lessons in the school of life, dropping their purely personal significance, may enter on a somewhat wider service than that which they have already accomplished. Such a sketch may aid those in terested in it in a more deft and pleasurable hand ling of their own powers, and, like a working plan in architecture, yield all the more to the mind be cause they yield so little to the eye. J. B. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE L EVENTS ... . i II. HEALTH 75 III. RECREATIONS . .87 IV. PERSONS .... .98 V. FORMS OF WORK ... 136 VL WRITINGS 155 VII. THE FORMULA OF PERSONAL LIFE . 182 VIII. THE FORMULA OF SOCIAL LIFE . . 194 IX. RELIGION 202 A PARTIAL LIST OF ADDRESSES AND PUBLISHED WRITINGS BY JOHN BASCOM . . . . .212 INTRODUCTION POPULAR interest in biography arises chiefly from the fascination of stirring events. This is the pleasure of the senses, the pleasure of boys, the pleasure of men still in possession of their boy ish estate of lively sensibilities. No biographies are worth writing on this basis whose heroes have not considerably overpassed the familiar bounds of action, either in the variety or intensity or im portance of the events narrated. A more thought ful interest attaches to biography as a personal experience, a spiritual picture, a rendering of a nobler phase of life in its intellectually significant features. The reflective satisfaction which man takes in man, his delight in any enlargement of the area of human activity as a part of his own possessions, are appealed to, when he is made par taker in new and vigorous experiences. Here, however, theinteresting biography must be the record of one of unusual force and freshness of life. It must give, in some direction, a positive expansion to our intellectual outlook, vii viii Introduction There is, I think, another set of lessons worth bestowing, though without the fascination of thrilling events, or without the light of rare powers. They are those of a life ordinary in its outward form, but thoughtfully built up in its inner sub stance. The things learned by me in living are of this order...