Everlasting ExplorersAt an auction in Hobart F W Boreham observed the titles of six bundles of books and asked the auctioneer whether he could take one book from each pile. His request for these six classics was declined.
From this experience of intitially feeling saddled with thirty books that he did not want but in which he later found many to be “charmers of the soul”, he warned against settling into ruts, sticking with pet themes and spurning new interests.[1]
He urged communicators “to be always forcing your minds along unfamiliar tracks, to be constantly breaking fresh ground, to be everlastingly exploring new worlds”.[2]
Like a Dog on a Country Road
Boreham believed that one’s sense of adventure was closely related to the development of curiosity. Describing life as “the endless quiz”, it is interesting to note that his editorial that appeared in the Mercury on the Saturday immediately following his death bore this title and commenced with his words, “From the cradle to the grave man is an animated note of interrogation, the growth of his questions corresponding in impressiveness with the growth of his stature”.[3]
Boreham throughout his life called for people to take “adventures of the mind” in order to “keep the mind fresh and vigorous and healthy” and said, “Like a dog on a country road, the mind must poke into as many holes as it can”.[4]
Geoff Pound
Image: “Life… the ‘endless quiz.’”
Note: An adaptation of this article also appears on The Official F W Boreham Blogsite
[1] F W Boreham, Mushrooms on the moor (London: The Epworth Press, 1915), 17-18.
[2] F W Boreham, The blue flame (London: The Epworth Press, 1930), 248.
[3] Boreham, Mercury, 23 May 1959.
[4] Boreham, Mercury, 16 August 1941.