Writing for posterity

I've been thinking about David (of course).  Would he have been famous as a king if he had not written the Psalms?  Many people are famous because of what they have written and set down for posterity. 

Science and Health speaks about reading the thought of someone who has gone before.

Here it is in the chapter Christian Science versus Spiritualism: “It is no more difficult to read the absent mind than it is to read the present.  Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought in his verse.  What is classic study, but discernment of the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal existence we may be in doubt?” (p. 82:3).

That book Science and Health made Mary Baker Eddy a household name in her own lifetime.  Hear what she says about the book:  “Is it too much to say that this book is leavening the whole lump of human thought?  You can trace its teachings in each step of mental and spiritual progress, from pulpit and press, in religion and ethics, and find these progressive steps either written or indicated in the book” (Miscellany p. 114:28-1),

In Mrs. Eddy’s Address to the Concord Church, February, 1899, she quotes Pliny, who gave the following description of the character of true greatness: “Doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read; and rendering the world happier and better for having lived in it.” - ref. Miscellany p. 150:5-8.  (I found that the complete quote includes the introduction, “True glory consists...”)

Pliny?  Had to look him up.  There were two Plinys of note in Roman times – Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, the Elder’s nephew and, by will, his adopted son.

So I had to look up the quote to find which one it was who wrote it.  It was Pliny the Elder (AD23-A79), Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the Roman Empire.  Born in Como, Italy.  His encyclopaedic Naturalis Historia became the model for all other encyclopedia.  

We are told that both Pliny’s witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.  Pliny the Elder died on a nearby beach from the effect of the toxic fumes.  This is an interesting read on the Internet.

This Christian Science Society Redcliffe "Reading Room Book Club" is an amazing enterprise to work with.  I now have to look up Homer and Virgil.  I know they are important names in literature, but haven’t been able to get myself to read any of their works.

Homer.  Greek author of Iliad and Odyssey.  His is the first known literature of Europe – perhaps 1102 BCE.  His works are 50% speeches and are models of persuasive speeches and writing.  Fragments of Homer make up about half of all Greek literary papyrus finds in Egypt.

Virgil.  Ancient Roman poet – 70BC-19BC.  He modelled his Aeneid on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

It is interesting that Mrs. Eddy uses the phrase “of whose personal existence we may be in doubt.”  The information about Homer suggests that indeed this could be true at least of Homer.

What about Chaucer?  one could ask.  I know Geoffrey Chaucer from a little English study at University.  He is famous for his Canterbury Tales.  His years 1343-1400.  Considered the father of English literature, he was a crucial figure in developing the legitimacy of vernacular Middle English when French and Latin were the dominant literary languages.

Chaucer Quote: People can die of mere imagination.  Did Mary Baker Eddy come across that quote in her reading of Chaucer?

Yes.  I will get back to David.