Open That Door!Ingersoll, R. Sturgis (Robert Sturgis)
Philosophy
Open That Door!
Ingersoll, R. Sturgis (Robert Sturgis)
Books and reading
Dr. Johnson well said that the traveller brings from his journeys that
which he brings to them. It is indeed pitiful to be in Paris and to see
countless American tourists rushing about "seeing Paris." What a
difference there is between those who bring to the storied city on the
Seine a familiarity with her past, and those who bring nothing but time
and money to spend. For the first, there are human dramas lurking in
the shadows of Notre Dame; Quasimodo, the strange dwarf in Hugo’s great
romance, still swings on the bells of the belfry; the narrow streets and
turbulent cafes may still contain the instigators of the Reign of Terror
and their shouting mobs of "sans culottes"; Camille Desmoulins may still
be visualized in the Café Royal plucking the leaves to make his tricolor
cockade. At every turn, in every ancient building, there are rich
historic memories that may feed the traveller who has prepared himself.
And the others, to whom history is a closed book! How barren and
incompetent are their wanderings in Paris, London, Vienna, or any other
old world city! To think that one can appreciate the historic gathering
places of the human race without having knowledge of their past is as
absurd as to believe one knows the woods when one cannot appreciate the
beauty and wonder of the wild life that makes of the woods its dwelling
place. Go among the trees some day with one who has studied and
absorbed "the woodnotes varied"! Wander about the Quais of Paris, or
the Temple Inns of London, with a man who has read history with a human
interpretation, and consider upon your return the increased wealth, you
carry in your mind!
We cannot all be travellers, but it is always safe to store up material
against a possible future; although I have never read far into the
history of China, and though there is little possibility of my ever
visiting the land of ancient civilizations, I am sure I could derive
much pleasure and obtain a better understanding of our Occident if I
followed a course of reading upon the varied fortunes of the different
dynasties that have ruled the richly storied Eastern nation.
Our history books teach us valuable lessons in the art of living,—and
this is assuredly the most important of the arts! As a man who brings
something upon his travels besides his pocket-book and luggage comes
home with rich experiences and memories, so does the man who approaches
life with something more than a hungry stomach obtain from life more
than he otherwise would. The greater variety of experiences we have,
the more we know of the affairs of men, the richer our understanding of
the forces that have ruled the world, the more replete with ecstatic
living is our daily life. If the best of life is to be won by living in
the world keen and alive to everything that moves, or thinks, or
glitters, a great share of riches must go to the man who has studied and
thought in other realms than those which immediately surround his own
dwelling house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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