High Watch Reading List

“Word Power Made Easy,” by Norman Lewis, is earnestly suggested before undertaking the other books

No. Author Title / Index Date of Publication
1 Numerous Authors The Bible 450 B.C. - 200 A.D.
2 Shakespeare, W. Hamlet About 1600
3 Aristotle Works About 350-325 B.C.
4 Homer Iliad About 800 B.C.
5 Darwin, C. Origin of Species 1859
6 Alighieri, Dante Divine Comedy About 1300
7 Plato The Republic about 400-350 B.C.
8 Goethe, J. Faust 1808
9 Confucius Confucian Classics about 500-480 B.C.
10 Milton, J. Paradise Lost 1667
11 Cervantes, M. Don Quixote 1605
12 Mohammed Koran about 610-632
13 Chaucer, G. Canterbury Tales 1386
14 Newton, I. Principia Mathematica 1687
15 Kant, I. Critique of Pure Reason 1781
16 Tolstoy, L. War and Peace 1866
17 Virgil Aeneid about 70-19 B.C.
18 Marx, K. Das Kapital 1867
19 Homer Odyssey about 600-500 B.C.
20 Bunyan, J. Pilgrim's Progress 1678
21 Gibbon, E. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1772
22 Bacon, F. Novum Organum 1612
23 Sophocles Oedipus Rex about 468-406 B.C.
24 Buddha Buddhist Sutras about 480 B.C.
25 Smith, A. The Wealth of Nations 1776
26 Aesop Aesop's Fables about 500 B.C.
27 Montaigne, M. Essays 1580
28 Hugo, V. Les Miserables 1862
29 Plato Phaedo about 400-350 B.C.
30 Mendel, J. Principles of Heredity about 1850-1864
31 Burton, R. Arabian Nights 1885
32 Shakespeare, W. King Lear 1600
33 St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 1265
34 Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 500-456 B.C.
35 Hindu sources Bhagavad-Gita about 200 A.D.
36 Calvin, J. The Institutes of the Christian Religion 1536
37 Rousseau, J. Social Contract 1762
38 Plutarch Lives about 100-120 A.D.
39 Blackstone, W. Commentaries on the Laws of England 1765
40 Ancient Service Books Book of Common Prayer about 1500
41 Boswell, J. The Life of Samuel Johnson 1791
42 Defoe, D. Robinson Crusoe 1719
43 Shakespeare, W. Macbeth about 1600
44 Marcus Aurelius Meditations 121-180 A.D.
45 Emerson, R. Essays 1841
46 Sophocles Antigone about 468-406 B.C.
47 Shakespeare, W. Romeo and Juliet about 1600
48 Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War about 420 B.C.
49 Dickens, C. David Copperfield 1850
50 Franklin, B. Autobiography 1784
51 Locke, J. Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1690
52 Renault, M. The Last of the Wine 1956
53 Bryce, J. The American Commonwealth 1888
54 Herodatus History about 490-480 B.C.
55 St. Augustine Confessions 399 A.D.
56 Whitman, W. Leaves of Grass 1855
57 Ceasar, J. Commentaries on the Gallic Wars about 50 B.C.
58 Stowe, H.B. Uncle Tom's Cabin 1852
59 Lincoln, A. Address 1858-1865
60 Malthus, T. On the Principles of Population 1798
61 Galileo Galilei Dialogue of the Two Chief Systems 1632
62 Khayyam, O. The Rubaiyat (Fitzgerald edition) 1859
63 Rabelais, F. Gargantua / Pantagruel 1533
64 Shelley, P. Poems 1820
65 Machiavelli, N. The Prince 1512
66 Descartes, R. Discourse on Method 1636
67 Fielding, H. Tom Jones 1749
68 Hume, D. An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding 1748
69 Spinoza, B. Ethics 1675
70 Thackeray, W.M. Vanity Fair 1846
71 Voltaire Candide 1759
72 Wordsworth Poems 1807
73 Rousseau, J.J. Confessions 1807
74 Twain, M. Tom Sawyer 1875
75 Dostoyevski, F. Crime and Punishment 1866
76 Epictetus Discourses about 90 A.D.
77 Harvey, W. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood 1621
78 Euripides Hippolytus about 480-406 B.C.
79 Boccacio, G. The Decameron 1348
80 Thomas à Kempis The Imitation of Christ 1471
81 Erasmus, D. The Praise of Folly about 1510
82 Swift, J. Gulliver's Travels 1720
83 Shakespeare, W. A Midsummer Night's Dream 1595
84 Faraday, M. Scientific Papers 1909-1914
85 James, W. Principles of Psychology 1890
86 Ibsen, H.J. A Doll's House about 1880
87 German sources Nibelungenlied about 1200
88 Shakespeare, W. The Merchant of Venice 1596
89 Penys, S. The Diary of Samuel Penys 1660-1669
90 Aeschylus Agamemnon Trilogy about 500-456 B.C.
91 Bacon, F. Advancement of Learning 1655
92 Burns, R. Poems 1787
93 MacCauley, T.R. The History of England 1848-1855
94 Keats, J. Shorter Poems 1817
95 Shakespeare, W. Sonnets 1609
96 Dostoyevski, F. Brothers Karamazov 1880
97 Tennyson, A. In Memoriam about 1833-1850
98 Carroll, L. Alice in Wonderland 1865
99 Cicero Orations about 80-43 B.C.
100 Spenser, H. First Principles 1862
101 Tolstoy, L. Anna Karenina 1877
102 Payne, T. The Rights of Man 1791-92
103 St. Augustine The City of God 354-430 A.D.
104 Veblen, T. The Theory of the Leisure Class 1899
105 Lucretius On the Nature of Things about 1050
106 Schopenhauer A. The World as Will and Representation 1937
107 Vedic Sources Upanishads about 500 B.C.
108 Toynbee, A. The History of the World 1934-1961
109 Germain, W.M. The Magic of your Mind 1956
110 Lindner, R. Prescription for Rebellion 1952
111 Lindner, B. Must You Conform ? 1956
112 Wylie, P. Generation of Vipers 1942
113 Wylie, P. Essay on Morals 1947
114 Bucke, R.M. Cosmic Consciousness 1901
115 Cady, H.E. Lessons in Truth 1896
116 DeWaters, L. The Finished Kingdom 1919
117 DeWaters, L. Science of Ascension 1929
118 DeWaters, L. The Voice of Revelation 1950
119 Shakespeare, W. The Tempest around 1609
120 Lanyon, W. All works around 1917-1946

Mentorship training in The Prosperos®; begins with Closed Class instruction in Translation® and Releasing the Hidden Splendour™, followed by pursuit of the High Watch degree. This reading list represents a complete undergraduate curriculum in the history of metaphysical and philosophical thought. We urge anyone seeking a H.W. degree to pursue it with vigor. Supervised reading programs can be arranged. For more information about the path of Mentorship, see the About Mentorship page.