OUR beautiful annual hardback collection of essays, Idler 47: Cultivate Yourself is now available to buy direct from us.
Idler 47 is not available from Amazon. It can only be purchased through our website, in our shop or from independent booksellers.
Idler 47 features interviews with Jeremy Paxman and Tim Burgess, and essays on Bakunin and Nietzsche. You can also read Lucy Cooke’s brilliant and hilarious essay on the sloth.
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Tom Hodgkinson launches our campaign for the four day week with an essay on the old idea that life is about leisure.
Plus there is an essay on work in the 17th century by Professor Keith Thomas, and a set of beautiful illustrations.
While you are pondering whether or not you want to cultivate yourself, let me offer you this short fragment from the Analects of Confucius. In this very readable but often baffling book, the “master”, or Confucius, tries to define the qualities that mark out the enlightened person or sage, usually translated as “gentleman”.
Tzu-lu asked about the gentleman. The Master said, “He cultivates himself and thereby achieves reverence.”
“Is that all?”
“He cultivates himself and thereby brings peace and security to his fellow men.”
“Is that all?”
“He cultivates himself and thereby brings peace and security to the people. Even Yao and Shun would have found the task of bringing peace and security to the people taxing.”
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