At the age of sixteen, Milton first appeared before the public eye as a promising young poet. These early verses, written while he was a boy in school, indicate his brilliant future. Milton's Poems Vol. 4, pp. 7-18 I have a natural aversion to religious themes, which may be a partial explanation of my reluctance to read some of these classics. I have to keep reminding myself to read them within the framework of literature, not church. And I have to admit... Might as well do it now... I am not a great lover of poetry. I admire the talent and envy the creative gift. I would just rather be reading prose. But, I shall soldier on, as I know that this will not be the only reading assignment of poetry in this year-long project. This selection contains two poems written by Milton as a young student at Cambridge. The first is titled On the Morning of Christ's Nativity , written in 1629. And it is about exactly what the title promises, the crossing of the Atlantic by Columbus. J
"Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve"—was one of the rules for success framed by America's first "self-made" man. Franklin's Autobiography Vol. I, pp. 79-85 It's nice to know that even amazing men like Ben Franklin want to work on self-improvement. This excerpt from his autobiography begins with a list of thirteen virtues that Franklin wanted to work on during the year. It also outlined how he would record his progress. I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. That's right. Ol' Ben Franklin was bullet journaling way before the hipsters were. Franklin discusses the challenge he finds within the virtue of Order. In fact, he calls himself incorrigible when it comes to Order. I feel the same way about another of his virtues: