A Whole Street of Houses, Stirred With A Spoon

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“ And by this time they were come up to the great iron gates in front of the house; and Tom stared through them at the rhododendrons and azaleas, which were all in flower; and then at the house itself, and wondered how many chimneys there were in it, and how long ago it was built, and what was the man’s name that built it, and whether he got much money for his job? These last were very difficult questions to answer. For Harthover had been built at ninety different times, and in nineteen different styles, and looked as if somebody had built a whole street of houses of every imaginable shape, and then stirred them together with a spoon.” —The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley. Ch.1 (1863)

Seneca, Moral Letter 32, “On Siren Songs”

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“. . . you need a denser stopple than that which they say Ulysses used for his comrades. . . the song, however, which you have to fear, echoes. . . from every quarter of the world.


What then is good? The knowledge of things. What is evil? The lack of knowledge of things. . . . 


And besides this, in order that virtue may be perfect, there should be an even temperament and a scheme of life that is consistent with itself throughout; and this result cannot be attained without knowledge of things, and without the art which enables us to understand things human and things divine. That is the greatest good. . . . . 


Your money, however, will not place you on a level with God; for God has no property. Your bordered robe will not do this; for God is not clad in raiment; nor will your reputation, nor a display of self, nor a knowledge of your name wide-spread throughout the world; for no one has knowledge of God . . . for this God of whom I speak, though the highest and most powerful of beings, carries all things on his own shoulders.” (Seneca, Moral Letter 31, “On Siren Songs”)

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