Epitome

More aphorisms and commentary from Balthasar Gracián, the 17th century Spanish Jesuit philosopher, offering counsel on surviving and thriving in the life of the court and society in general.

Our fourth installment of 9-passage sections of the ancient Chinese sage's Classic of the Way and Its Excellence.

Thomas Henry Huxley, British biologist, educator, and famous as "Darwin's Bulldog," for championing the revolutionary naturalist's theory of evolution, offers his definition and explanation of a liberal education.

A handful of maxims whose practice can bring quietude and tranquillity to life.

William Cullen Bryant's most famous poem, which translates from the Greek as "A View of Death," written when he was 17 years old.

Greek philosopher Pythagoras, while sojourning in India, encounters an herb, an oyster, and a mob of Hindus bent on burning two men at the stakes for the perceived heresies of questioning religious traditional wisdom.

The story sung by Demodocus, singer of the court of Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians, hosts of Odysseus after his raft washes ashore on the island of Scherie. How Aphrodite, goddess of love, cheated on her husband, Hephaestus, the gods' smithy, with Ares, god of war.

Six sonnets on the theme of time by the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. Music: John Dowland "Flow My Tears," performed by guitarist Jon Sayles. http://www.jsayles.com/familypages/earlymusic.htm

A short story from the French master of the form, Guy de Maupassant. A skilled carnival knife-thrower laments his misfortune to the sympathetic narrator of the tale.

An excerpt from the chapter, "Economy," in Walden by Henry David Thoreau, where the philosopher expounds his thoughts on simple accoutrements.

The great American storyteller, author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, offers this brief, moralistic animal tale featuring the cleverness of the cat, the skepticism of the ass, and the curiosity of a host of other animals of the forest.

This gentle ancient Greek philosopher lived a life of celibacy and temperance and taught that reason was to be used to enable people to judge with certainty what is to be chosen, and what to be avoided, to preserve themselves free from pain, and to secure health of body, and tranquillity of mind.

From Whitman's entry on May 12. The narrative of a two-day battle, replete with details of the relentless fighting and gruesome carnage, the beauty of the cloudy sky revealing a silvery moon, and ending with a tribute to the thousands of unknown and unburied soldiers who perished in the United States Civil War.

A collection of quotations on mortality from various sources, famous and less known, classic and contemporary.

A second set of five sonnets on Love by William Shakespeare, in celebration of Mother's Day. Music: A madrigal, Amor mi sprona (bassoon & choir) by Alfonso Ferrabosco, Sr. Performed by Robert Rønnes.

EPITOME's 3rd 9-passage installment of this terse philosophical classic attributed to the legendary ancient Chinese sage, Laotze.

A selection from the collection titled Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories by Ambrose Bierce.

In celebration of the 48th anniversary of Earth Day, EPITOME presents the words of Walt Whitman in "Song of the Rolling Earth."

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer on the perception of time at different phases of life.

The conclusion of this core document of spiritual wisdom.

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5, 6, & 7 - King James Version - Part 1.

Paramahansa Yogananda expands upon his experience of cosmic consciousness and expresses it in his poem, "Samadhi." Taken from the 1946 edition of Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi.

Part One of Two - A realized yogi narrates his attainment of the highest state of consciousness - samadhi.

One of the Just-So Stories Rudyard Kipling actually told his daughter at bedtime. It was later included with a number of others in the book of that title. They are called by this name because Kipling's firstborn daughter, Josephine ("Effie"), insisted that they be told exactly the same way every time, "just so," or she would correct her father.

The key to lifelong youth.