SELF-HELP;
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHARACTER, CONDUCT,
AND PERSEVERANCE.
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“If I had read this look when I was a young man, my life would have been very different.”—Such was the remark made to me by a friend on returning Smiles’s ‘Self-Help,’ which I had given him to read. I was very much struck by the observation; and while thinking of the immense effect which this incomparable book has produced in England, and of the universally favourable reception which the Italian translation has received in this country, I received a letter from signor G. Barbèra, in which he invited me to write a book similar to the English one, but illustrated by Italian examples. I was much astonished at his thinking me equal to the work: but his valuable suggestion greatly delighted me, and I accepted his proposal with much cordiality.“—Michele Lessona, in Volere è Potere.
“‘Volere è Potere’ (‘Will is power’). Such is the title of a very interesting popular work just issued by the eminent Florentine publisher, G. Barbèra. The history of this production is rather curious. It may not be known that the most remarkable literary success achieved of late years in Italy (where literary successes are the rarest of all events) has fallen to the lot of Mr. Samuel Smiles’s admirable ‘Self-Help,’ an Italian version of which, published some time ago at Milan, has since gone through several editions, and still appears to be in continual demand. The idea of the book was a novelty for Italians, and the moral which it inculcates one so eminently deserving of being enforced upon all classes of the public of Italy, that the question soon arose whether it would not be advisable to extend the sphere of its utility by promoting the publication of a similar book, specially designed for Italian readers, and in which the examples of patient industry and of untiring perseverance in the pursuit of a fixed design should be drawn from home materials. An association founded in Florence with the express object of stimulating the educational movement among the people, offered a prize of 3000f. for the best production of the kind, and all the literary men of Italy were invited to compete. M. Lessona, an agreeable writer upon popular subjects, has already entered the lists, and printed his work (‘Volere è Potere’) without waiting for the award of the committee appointed to decide between the rival competitors.”—Standard.
“Une grande sagesse qu’on pourrait appeler la splendeur du bon sens, comme Platon définissait le beau la splendeur du vrai,—tel est le caractère qui distingue surtout ‘Self-Help.’ Ce livre, si populaire chez nos voisins, répond admirablement aux idées de la famille anglo-saxonne. Recevra-t-il chez nous le même accueil? Je l’espère, mais il aura aussi, je le crains, plus d’un vieux préjugé à combattre. En France, n’a-t-on point trop compté sur les institutions politiques malgré la durée éphémère des gouvernements? L’État peut faire du premier venu un ministre; il ne saurait en faire un grand homme, il même un fonctionnaire intègre et capable. Il est donc bon de chercher à d’autres sources ces énergies morales qui développent et régénèrent les sociétés.”—Revue des Deux Mondes.
“Mr. Smiles’s book is wise beyond the wisdom of any but a very few books that we have read. The chapter on the use and abuse of money we must commend to the reader’s own perusal. It is pregnant with practical wisdom, and contains, besides, some excellent remarks upon the improvidence of the working classes, and upon the evils entailed by the pursuit of vulgar ‘respectability’ among their so-called superiors. ‘Self-Help’ is one of the soundest, wisest, most instructive, and most wholesome works we have opened for a long time.”—Leader.
By the same Author, post 8vo, 6s.,
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