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The Book of Virtues (Paperback)
by William J. Bennett
| Category:
Character education, Self improvement, Personal growth, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 228.00
MSL price:
¥ 198.00
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A preverbial book that stands as a bright and shining moral beacon. Must read for both children, teens and adults. |
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Author: William J. Bennett
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition
Pub. in: September, 1996
ISBN: 0684835770
Pages: 832
Measurements: 8.7 x 5.8 x 2.1 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01388
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0684835778
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- Awards & Credential -
The #1 New York Times Bestseller. |
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- MSL Picks -
A book on virtue is quite important in an age that has little time for it. Indeed, both public and private, is becoming a rarity today. Indeed, vice, not virtue, seems to be in the ascendancy. Old fashioned virtues like faithfulness, loyalty and purity are scoffed at today, while vices like selfishness and greed seem to be promoted at every turn.
One commentator noted recently that we have taken Aquinas' seven deadly sins and turned them into virtues. You know the old list: sloth, gluttony, envy, etc. For example, modern advertising has institutionalised the sin of covetousness.
As T.S. Elliot once said, "In the twentieth century we are obsessed with turning roses into weeds."
Thus it is extremely refreshing to find a book that actually, unashamedly, promotes virtue. Bill Bennett has brought together a host of stories, poems, and adages that promote virtue. Many of the stories that over-40s would have grown up on, but which many young people today would never have heard of, are brought together in this unique collection.
Ten virtues are covered: self-discipline; compassion; responsibility; friendship; work; courage; perseverance; honesty; loyalty; and faith. For each virtue there are a number of stories, poems and essays included, bringing home the moral of that particular virtue. For example, in the section on courage, one finds such classics as Jack and the Beanstock, David and Goliath, Chicken Little, Hansel and Gretel, Ulysses and the Cyclops, William Tell, and Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death" speech.
This book serves not only as a guide to the great works of moral education, but to the great works of literature as well. The range of great authors and sources is most impressive: Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Plato, the Brothers Grimm, The Bible, Hilaire Belloc, Robert Frost, C.S. Lewis, Longfellow, Abraham Lincoln, etc.
In reading these great stories, we both improve our cultural literacy and refine our moral senses. Indeed, being exposed to great literature, to great writers, and to great moral truths is a powerful combination. Young people and old will be inspired and motivated to live a more virtuous life after reading (or re-reading) these great moral stories. In an age which promotes vice and mocks virtue, this anthology serves as a much needed corrective.
(From quoting William Muehlenberg, Australia)
Target readers:
Children, teens, adults, especially parents and educators. A great gift to students and new graduates.
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William J. Bennett served as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bush and served as Secretary of Education and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Reagan. He has a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Williams College, a doctorate in political philosophy from the University of Texas, and a law degree from Harvard. Dr. Bennett is currently a co-director of Empower America, a Distinguished Fellow in Cultural Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, and a senior editor of National Review magazine. He, his wife, and two sons live in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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From Publisher
Responsibility. Courage. Compassion. Honesty. Friendship. Persistence. Faith. Everyone recognizes these traits as essentials of good character. In order for our children to develop such traits, we have to offer them examples of good and bad, right and wrong. And the best places to find them are in great works of literature and exemplary stories from history.
William J. Bennett has collected hundreds of stories in The Book of Virtues, an instructive and inspiring anthology that will help children understand and develop character - and help adults teach them. From the Bible to American history, from Greek mythology to English poetry, from fairy tales to modern fiction, these stories are a rich mine of moral literacy, a reliable moral reference point that will help anchor our children and ourselves in our culture, our history, and our traditions - the sources of the ideals by which we wish to live our lives. Complete with instructive introductions and notes, The Book of Virtues is a book the whole family can read and enjoy - and learn from - together.
Well-known works including fables, folklore, fiction, drama, and more, by such authors as Aesop, Dickens, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and Baldwin, are presented to teach virtues, including compassion, courage, honesty, friendship, and faith.
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Chapter 1
Self-Discipline
In self-discipline one makes a "disciple" of oneself. One is one's own teacher, trainer, coach, and "disciplinarian." It is an odd sort of relationship, paradoxical in its own way, and many of us don't handle it very well. There is much unhappiness and personal distress in the world because of failures to control tempers, appetites, passions, and impulses. "Oh, if only I had stopped myself" is an all too familiar refrain.
The father of modern philosophy, René Descartes, once remarked of "good sense" that "everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even the most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess." With self-discipline it is just the opposite. Rare indeed is the person who doesn't desire more self-discipline and, with it, the control that it gives one over the course of one's life and development. That desire is itself, as Descartes might say, a further mark of good sense. We do want to take charge of ourselves. But what does that mean?
The question has been at or near the center of Western philosophy since its very beginnings. Plato divided the soul into three parts or operations -- reason, passion, and appetite -- and said that right behavior results from harmony or control of these elements. Saint Augustine sought to understand the soul by ranking its various forms of love in his famous ordo amoris: love of God, neighbor, self, and material goods. Sigmund Freud divided the psyche into the id, ego, and superego. And we find William Shakespeare examining the conflicts of the soul, the struggle between good and evil called the psychomachia, in immortal works such as King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, and Hamlet. Again and again, the problem is one of the soul's proper balance and order. "This was the noblest Roman of them all," Antony says of Brutus in Julius Caesar. "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, 'This was a man!'"
But the question of correct order of the soul is not simply the domain of sublime philosophy and drama. It lies at the heart of the task of successful everyday behavior, whether it is controlling our tempers, or our appetites, or our inclinations to sit all day in front of the television. As Aristotle pointed out, here our habits make all the difference. We learn to order our souls the same way we learn to do math problems or play baseball well -- through practice.
Practice, of course, is the medicine so many people find hard to swallow. If it were easy, we wouldn't have such modern-day phenomena as multimillon-dollar diet and exercise industries. We can enlist the aid of trainers, therapists, support groups, step programs, and other strategies, but in the end, it's practice that brings self-control.
The case of Aristotle's contemporary Demosthenes illustrates the point. Demosthenes had great ambition to become an orator, but suffered natural limitations as a speaker. Strong desire is essential, but by itself is insufficient. According to Plutarch, "His inarticulate and stammering pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct by speaking with pebbles in his mouth." Give yourself an even greater challenge than the one you are trying to master and you will develop the powers necessary to overcome the original difficulty. He used a similar strategy in training his voice, which "he disciplined by declaiming and reciting speeches or verses when he was out of breath, while running or going up steep places." And to keep himself studying without interruption "two or three months together," Demosthenes shaved "one half of his head, that so for shame he might not go abroad, though he desired it ever so much." Thus did Demosthenes make a kind of negative support group out of a general public that never saw him!
Good and Bad Children
Robert Louis Stevenson
Children, you are very little,
And your bones are very brittle;
If you would grow great and stately,
You must try to walk sedately.
You must still be bright and quiet,
And content with simple diet;
And remain, through all bewild'ring,
Innocent and honest children.
Happy hearts and happy faces,
Happy play in grassy places --
That was how, in ancient ages,
Children grew to kings and sages.
But the unkind and the unruly,
And the sort who eat unduly,
They must never hope for glory --
Theirs is quite a different story!
Cruel children, crying babies,
All grow up as geese and gabies,
Hated, as their age increases,
By their nephews and their nieces.
Please
Alicia Aspinwall
Webster's defines our manners as our "morals shown in conduct." Good people stick to good manners, as this story from a turn-of-the-century reader reminds us.
There was once a little word named "Please," that lived in a small boy's mouth. Pleases live in everybody's mouth, though people often forget they are there.
Now, all Pleases, to be kept strong and happy, should be taken out of the mouth very often, so they can get air. They are like little fish in a bowl, you know, that come popping up to the top of the water to breathe.
The Please I am going to tell you about lived in the mouth of a boy named Dick; but only once in a long while did it have a chance to get out. For Dick, I am sorry to say, was a rude little boy; he hardly ever remembered to say "Please."
"Give me some bread! I want some water! Give me that book!" -- that is the way he would ask for things.
His father and mother felt very bad about this. And, as for the poor Please itself, it would sit up on the roof of the boy's mouth day after day, hoping for a chance to get out. It was growing weaker and weaker every day.
This boy Dick had a brother, John. Now, John was older than Dick -- he was almost ten; and he was just as polite as Dick was rude. So his Please had plenty of fresh air, and was strong and happy.
One day at breakfast, Dick's Please felt that he must have some fresh air, even if he had to run away. So out he ran -- out of Dick's mouth -- and took a long breath. Then he crept across the table and jumped into John's mouth!
The Please-who-lived-there was very angry.
"Get out!" he cried. "You don't belong here! This is my mouth!"
"I know it," replied Dick's Please. "I live over there in that brother mouth. But alas! I am not happy there. I am never used. I never get a breath of fresh air! I thought you might be willing to let me stay here for a day or so -- until I felt stronger."
"Why, certainly," said the other Please, kindly. "I understand. Stay, of course; and when my master uses me, we will both go out together. He is kind, and I am sure he would not mind saying 'Please' twice. Stay, as long as you like."
That noon, at dinner, John wanted some butter; and this is what he said:
"Father, will you pass me the butter, please -- please?"
"Certainly," said the father. "But why be so very polite?"
John did not answer. He was turning to his mother, and said,
"Mother, will you give me a muffin, please -- please?"
His mother laughed.
"You shall have the muffin, dear; but why do you say 'please' twice?"
"I don't know," answered John. "The words seem just to jump out, somehow. Katie, please - please, some water!
"This time, John was almost frightened.
"Well, well," said his father, "there is no harm done. One can't be too 'pleasing' in this world."
All this time little Dick had been calling, "Give me an egg! I want some milk. Give me a spoon!" in the rude way he had. But now he stopped and listened to his brother. He thought it would be fun to try to talk like John; so he began,
"Mother, will you give me a muffin, m-m-m-?"
He was trying to say "please"; but how could he? He never guessed that his own little Please was sitting in John's mouth. So he tried again, and asked for the butter.
"Mother, will you pass me the butter, m-m-m-?"
That was all he could say.
So it went on all day, and everyone wondered what was the matter with those two boys. When night came, they were both so tired, and Dick was so cross, that their mother sent them to bed very early.
But the next morning, no sooner had they sat down to breakfast than Dick's Please ran home again. He had had so much fresh air the day before that now he was feeling quite strong and happy. And the very next moment, he had another airing; for Dick said,
"Father, will you cut my orange, please?" Why! the word slipped out as easily as could be! It sounded just as well as when John said it -- John was saying only one "please" this morning. And from that time on, little Dick was just as polite as his brother.
Rebecca,
Who Slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably.
Hilaire Belloc
Aristotle would have loved this poem and the one that follows it. The first illustrates excess, the second deficiency. The trick to finding correct behavior is to strike the right balance. (See the passage from Aristotle's Ethics, later in this chapter.)
A trick that everyone abhors
In Little Gifts is slamming Doors.
A Wealthy Banker's Little Daughter
Who lived in Palace Green, Bayswater
(By name Rebecca Offendort),
Was given to this Furious Sport.
She would deliberately go
And Slam the door like Billy-Ho!
To make her Uncle Jacob start.
She was not really bad at heart,
But only rather rude and wild:
She was an aggravating child....
It happened that a Marble Bust
of Abraham was standing just
Above the Door this little Lamb
Had carefully prepared to Slam,
And Down it came! It knocked her flat!
It laid her out! She looked like that.
Her Funeral Sermon (which was long
And followed by a Sacred Song)
Mentioned her Virtues, it is true,
But dwelt upon her Vices too,
And showed the Dreadful End of One
Who goes and slams the Door for Fun.
The children who were brought to hear
The awful Tale from far and near
Were much impressed, and inly swore
They never more would slam the Door.
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Library Journal (MSL quote), USA
<2008-05-19 00:00>
Believing with Plato that "tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thought," former Secretary of Education Bennett ( The De-Valuing of America , LJ 4/1/92) has produced a McGuffey's Reader for the Nineties. The author draws upon a variety of literature ranging from biblical stories to political legends and speeches to illustrate the catalog of virtues--self-discipline, compassion, work, responsibility, friendship, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty, faith--that he believes are foundational to strong moral character. Most selections are introduced by a short thematic note, e.g., "an honest heart will always find friends." Bennett's elevation of these virtues to moral absolutes renders the book's view of morality rather simplistic. In addition, the collection's lack of attention to women's and non-Western voices encourages the view that the experience of virtue belongs primarily to Western males. Still, this anthology will prove popular with some readers. Recommended for public libraries.
- Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. |
Booklist (MSL quote), USA
<2008-05-19 00:00>
The principled former secretary of education has culled a selection of poems and stories to be read aloud in hopes of passing on specific virtues to the younger generation. The selected works appear under chapter titles such as "Compassion"; "Responsibility"; "Friendship"; "Courage"; "Perseverance"; and "Faith." As artificial or perhaps self-righteous as this project may seem, it is effective. The old stories from the Bible, from great authors, and from folklore do exert a charm and send a message that will stir families to discuss or contemplate the issues set forth. It truly is a treasury, with some tales so brief they can be read at the dinner table. Perfect bedtime, anytime family reading. |
Robert Coles (MSL quote), USA
<2008-05-19 00:00>
A carefully selected collection that fills an aching void in this secular society.
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Kendal B. Hunter (MSL quote), USA
<2008-05-19 00:00>
This book's title has become proverbial, and I am glad for that recognition. You just need to look at the world around you to see the necessity of books like this. We have become moral imbeciles. Some people can't tell the difference between their right had and left hand, speaking poetically.
Many people criticize this book as being too simplistic. That is an odd criticism. Not that this book is wrong, or factually in error. Even the accusation of impracticality would be a substantive point. But being too simplistic? Shakespeare wisely observed that simple truth is oftentimes miscalled simplicity (Sonnet 66). The accusation of being simplistic doesn't even rise to the dignity of a non-issue.
This book is a collection of moral stories and precepts that serve to supplement and buttress peoples moral sense, which is our conscience, or the spark within that tells us to do good. In the Apology, Socrates said that he had this spirit, which guided him. We all have something like this, and truthful books like this help refine this sense of right and wrong. Just look at the fallen towers to see the need for books like this.
Another accusation is that we can't turn back the clock. Well, if the clock is broken, then you are morally obligated to turn back the clock. By the way, are you giving you consent to the current state of things? It seems that we have made complaining a virtue. But it is complaining without corresponding action, which results mere noise pollution.
We have to do something to change things, and Bill Bennett has done his part in compiling this book, which is an easy read. This is a thick book, but each one of the chapters is small. It seems to have been geared towards first and second graders, but anyone can benefit from reading the truth. Truth shines in the eyes of the readers.
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