Bonus:
Summary: William Penn wanders around in his woods (that's what the name of the state means) and thinks stuff. Some of which he hopes you will find helpful.
Commentary: Penn wraps up the trio of colonial Pennsylvania adjacent authors in volume one. While older than either, I wonder if he might form a kind of link between Franklin and Woolman, being Quaker like the latter and a statesman like the former.
He appears to have grouped his thoughts in groups by topic, which are:
Ignorance, Education, Pride, Luxury, Inconsideration, Disappointment and Resignation, Murmuring, Censoriousness, Bounds of Charity, Frugality or Bounty, Discipline, Industry, Temperance,
Nevermind, I'm not sitting here listing all these or all be here all night. I'll update a list later.
My plan is to take a chunk each day (probably two or three topics) and rewrite them here. Putting something into your own words is a good way to make sure you understand it, and these should be pretty short and manageable.
Off the top of my head, it's interesting that he seems to have primarily chose negative things to write on, as opposed to Franklin's Virtues, Adler's Great Ideas, etc.
Ignorance:
1. It's amazing how many people are totally ignorant of themselves and the world.
2. People take in the beauty of great buildings and works of art, but don't try to learn about themselves. They would benefit from doing so.
3. The world is beautiful, but we know so little about it. That should be the main thing we education children in until their 20s.
I think this is really what this whole project is about. Trying to learn more about myself, humanity, and the world. As I've said before, I don't feel like I got the education I would've hoped for. Some of that is my fault, but I'm trying to correct all of it now. Speaking of, education is the first topic for tomorrow.
Penn's Topics so far: Ignorance
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