Out of the Best Books, Volume Four

Out of the Best Books, Volume 4 by Bruce Budge Clark

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've now finished Volume Four of this series of collections of great literature compiled for The Church of Jesus Christ's Relief Society Cultural Refinement lessons in the 1960's. As I've done in the reviews of volumes 1-3, I'd like to mention some of my favorite selections from this book.
The Death of Socrates, written by Plato was powerful. First, I hadn't realized that we have no writings from Socrates himself. Everything we have came from Plato, his student, writing it down. Plato was present at Socrates' death. He was put to death by poison because he wouldn't retract things he said. He gave a speech and willingly drank the poison. The speech was powerful emphasizing integrity and obedience to principle.
I was also mesmerized by Balzac's "Christ in Flanders Field." First of all, I've always wondered who Balzac was. I was in the musical "The Music Man" in high school. I played the part of one of the Pick-a-little-talk-a-little ladies. Our characters were critical of Marion, the librarian because she advocated "dirty books," including Balzac. Well, there was nothing "dirty" about this Balzac selection. It was an allegory on the people of this world and how our only hope of being saved is Christ.
These books each have a few selected paintings in them. I love one called "Lady Jean" by George Bellows. I would love a print of it for my kitchen, as the colors are perfect. I love her sweet face and the vibrant colors.
A poem called "Ars Poetica" had a powerful, ponderable ending:
" A poem should not mean
But be."
A poem's meaning maybe skips the mind, and, as a beautiful piece of music does, goes straight to the soul.
A selection by Mark Twain called "Learning the River" was fascinating to me.
Maybe the best part of this volume was a selection of great speeches and writings at the end of the book. It included selections from men (and one woman) who the authors felt achieved serenity in this life. There were speeches by Martin Luther, Gandhi, Churchill, Kennedy (probably wouldn't be included in a similar book printed today as evidence now suggests that Kennedy did not achieve serenity in his life- but quite the opposite! But he did have great speech writers!) and my favorite of all- Abraham Lincoln. It, of course included the Gettysburg address. A lesser-known selection of Lincoln's just thrilled me. It was a letter written to John Johnston. Google it. It was a response from Lincoln to Johnston when the latter wrote to Lincoln asking for a loan. Lincoln's response was genius. I have to wonder if this was the basis for our current federal grant system?? I'm sure a collection of this kind written today would include selections from Ronald Reagan.
I'm sad there is only one more volume of this series left for me to read, as I'm enjoying them so much. Maybe I'll have to start over when I get through volume Five!



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