The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams
- Pages
- about 639
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 12 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
THIS volume, written in 1905 as a sequel to the same author's
"Mont Saint Michel and Chartres," was privately printed, to the number
of one hundred copies, in 1906, and sent to the persons interested, for
their assent, correction, or suggestion. The idea of the two books was
thus explained at the end of Chapter XXIX: --
"Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured
by motion from a fixed point. Psychology helped here by suggesting a
unit--the point of history when man held the highest idea of himself as
a unit in a unified universe. Eight or ten years of study had led Adams
to think he might use the century 1150-1250, expressed in Amiens
Cathedral and the Works of Thomas Aquinas, as the unit from which he
might measure motion down to his own time, without assuming anything as
true or untrue, except relation. The movement might be studied at once
in philosophy and mechanics. Setting himself to the task, he began a
volume which he mentally knew as 'Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres: a
Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity.' From that point he proposed to fix
a position for himself, which he could label: 'The Education of Henry
Adams: a Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity.' With the help of
these two points of relation, he hoped to project his lines forward and
backward indefinitely, subject to correction from any one who should
know better."
The "Chartres" was finished and privately printed in 1904. The
"Education" proved to be more difficult. The point on which the author
failed to please himself, and could get no light from readers or
friends, was the usual one of literary form. Probably he saw it in
advance, for he used to say, half in jest, that his great ambition was
to complete St. Augustine's "Confessions," but that St. Augustine, like
a great artist, had worked from multiplicity to unity, while he, like a
small one, had to reverse the method and work back from unity to
multiplicity.
A short sample. Read the whole book
More to read
- A Belated Guest (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)William Dean HowellsHistory19 pages
- A Bit of Old ChinaCharles Warren StoddardHistory17 pages
- A Book of Remarkable CriminalsH. B. IrvingHistory341 pages
- A Book of ScoundrelsCharles WhibleyHistory202 pages
- A Brief History of the Internet The Bright Side: The Dark SideMichael HartHistory59 pages
Public-domain text from Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks or a similar open source. Copyright differs between countries. Rights holder? See our takedown process.