tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63460202024-03-16T20:49:28.846-04:00Head-dibs<b>HEAD</b>(hed), (n.) 1. the top part of the human body or the front part of an animal where the eyes, nose, east and mouth are. <i>"Your brain is in your head."</i>
<br> <b>DIBS</b>(dibz), (n.) 2. a thick, sweet syrup made in countries of the East, especially the Middle East, from grape juice or dates. [Arabic "debs"]--World Book Dictionary, 1976.
<br>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comBlogger3648125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-49814653165587847132024-03-16T20:48:00.003-04:002024-03-16T20:48:54.048-04:00Tolstoy, after Rousseau, on Knowledge and Wisdom<p>“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.”</p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-14691362564352690572024-03-07T13:18:00.005-05:002024-03-07T13:18:55.284-05:00Taking Another Look At “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">March 6, 1831 was the day Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from West Point. The story is that before he left, he managed to secure a financial sum from fellow cadets to underwrite a new publication of poetry that, once published, was not well received. The light, humorous fellow known among his friends was not found in the pages, so they collectively threw the book into the river. “The Raven” was published in 1845 and, despite its popularity, did not help him financially. The short work is better read aloud.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">After this last reading of “The Raven,” I remembered a Prog album released in 2013 by Steven Wilson titled, “The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories).” Or TRTRTS, for short. The concept album seems to capture or suggest tones of Poe’s stories and poems while telling some its own ghost stories: of invisible people (everyday people that go unnoticed); of watching a loved one die and learning to move on; of the destruction of an outwardly “perfect person” with a private, secret vice; of a relationship that fell apart; of a wasted life; of a man who has not yet lived and is ready to die. While the song “The Raven That Refused To Sing” itself does not retell Poe’s poem exactly, the parallels are unmistakable and the imagery of the accompanying video suggests intriguing interpretation toward Poe.</span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Steven Wilson’s story is about a man looking for healing, even if it comes at the end. And I think this is Poe’s story, too. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n8sLcvWG1M4" width="320" youtube-src-id="n8sLcvWG1M4"></iframe></div><br /><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><p></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-32853173643413499792024-03-06T16:51:00.003-05:002024-03-06T16:51:23.410-05:00Finished Reading: Ecclesiastes <p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">A group of artists were challenged to depict greatest personal fear on the canvases of their own faces. One made his face like that of a spider, another into a collage of monsters, another as a an old lady, depicting her fear of aging.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Why do you think people fear growing old? “In the way”; loss of resourcefulness or respect; letting go; the wish to live life over; guilt; becoming bitter, resentful over family matters; feeling unsupported, that life was a raw deal; self-pity; fear of finances, illness, loneliness, senility. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">How many of these fears might be similar to the vanities Solomon has written about? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Is growing old without difficulty? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Does this mean that we cannot with grace and without knowing our worth in God’s eyes? How might this change our lives in the coming years? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">I just finished reading Ecclesiastes. Chapter 12:1-8 presents a realistic picture of the aging process and couples it with some down-to-earth advice.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ1CYvTsMmklXP-LSs-H1WxDqpl-DqLQvWUYj3XLXk31CeERvX3XQndupJVTUFs3HpgnIAQxmByefl1ERMZglozlvjQbUI7NVRVy0Doxnq-kMX15hLaRaSyQgTeneX-ObLDKKU0d8VxXOTLxjooPC1Zlc_e9pe4sYAaMSqgYvEGKgfWRkGborfog/s1920/IMG_3429.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ1CYvTsMmklXP-LSs-H1WxDqpl-DqLQvWUYj3XLXk31CeERvX3XQndupJVTUFs3HpgnIAQxmByefl1ERMZglozlvjQbUI7NVRVy0Doxnq-kMX15hLaRaSyQgTeneX-ObLDKKU0d8VxXOTLxjooPC1Zlc_e9pe4sYAaMSqgYvEGKgfWRkGborfog/w225-h400/IMG_3429.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span><p></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-1951980520800269522024-03-05T20:12:00.005-05:002024-03-05T20:12:53.939-05:00Finished Reading: Cellini<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Finished reading the adventurous prison escape that was Ch 7-11 of The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) Italian goldsmith and sculptor. This guy is worth further research!</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaBaByZ5uWIIwO1IP-LF4G77J-a5giVYQOLasAyUw5WZW_8NwpvvW8_gXuhilLPk6q6GJ6UrLE1CRIbyV9LNU4ofMLE01WJ3xL7lEuKAfJD_FnaJt-LM4F5n3IAYaIBhlEsttEPpmAtPweipYMutY4ZGd0938UsSifsMTPI17y907sFZ-1fVVSg/s800/IMG_3427.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="639" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaBaByZ5uWIIwO1IP-LF4G77J-a5giVYQOLasAyUw5WZW_8NwpvvW8_gXuhilLPk6q6GJ6UrLE1CRIbyV9LNU4ofMLE01WJ3xL7lEuKAfJD_FnaJt-LM4F5n3IAYaIBhlEsttEPpmAtPweipYMutY4ZGd0938UsSifsMTPI17y907sFZ-1fVVSg/s320/IMG_3427.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-71355804907889311622024-03-04T21:15:00.001-05:002024-03-04T21:15:36.713-05:00Finished Reading: Chapters 15-16, “Progress of the Christian Religion” of Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<p>Edward <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Gibbon published his multi volume work, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” in 1776. This particular reading focused on Volume 1, Chapters 15-16, “Progress of the Christian Religion”, From 258-313 AD.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRZJJxvQB0Qw7Nfhds7gfg9rvARTgRB31bjENqH7D3pfJXLG6_5SOudYo_BWf3t9YxUnshfNXDWKyxIMdxTzaivS0Ff33xK5xWZcBRe-JOwxBkSIeHjvqKyUeSzuN7Qu4CZLhqdS7h9R8p8tNHsB3zKQPdlZXZbMcDS5gOXjoSDIkyDOXcC18jaQ/s654/IMG_3424.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="525" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRZJJxvQB0Qw7Nfhds7gfg9rvARTgRB31bjENqH7D3pfJXLG6_5SOudYo_BWf3t9YxUnshfNXDWKyxIMdxTzaivS0Ff33xK5xWZcBRe-JOwxBkSIeHjvqKyUeSzuN7Qu4CZLhqdS7h9R8p8tNHsB3zKQPdlZXZbMcDS5gOXjoSDIkyDOXcC18jaQ/s320/IMG_3424.jpeg" width="257" /></a></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p>While Gibbon cannot argue with the Divine source of the Christian faith in the context of historical Judaism, he is more interested in exploring “the secondary causes of the rapid growth of the Christian church” that impacted Rome and the world at large. The secondary causes are divided into five: 1) inherited zeal; 2) the future life; 3) miracles; 4) morals; 5) unity that gradually formed into an independent state in the heart of the Roman Empire.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Gibbon reports on the miraculous powers of the early church, but concludes by virtue of his status as historian that he has no opinion on the subject opinion. This non-opinion is underscored by his curious claim that miracles ceased when man embraced reason, that it “is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Gibbon provides insight as to why Christians and their message was ill-received by what seemed to be a tolerant and permissive pagan culture. Religions like Judaism were part of national identity and Christianity was a sect, radicals who separated themselves from society. The pagans “were astonished that the Christians should abandon the temples of those ancient heroes . . . in order to choose for the exclusive object of their religious worship and obscure teacher who . . . had fallen a sacrifice either to the malice of his own countrymen, or to the jealousy of the Roman government.” Anyone with questionable, even criminal backgrounds, were accepted and this made no sense to the pagans who viewed their amassing as threatening, sinister. Gossip concerning bloody human sacrifice did not make them any more endearing. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Some notable actions regarding Roman persecution of Christians. Emperor Trajan invoked two rules: while magistrates were directed to punish the legally convicted, they were prohibited from asking if they were Christians; and, magistrates were forbidden to take action based on anonymous information and gossip. Anyone imputed to be Christian must be accompanied by evidence. False accusers received capital punishment. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">One could escape persecution by voluntarily moving to another district; give a public defense denying accusations of being a Christian; purchase a certificate of good standing issued by provincial governors; renounce the faith. The range of persecution included involuntary relocation or loss of property by fire, to extreme punishment and execution. </span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-64241415610911449182024-03-03T16:52:00.000-05:002024-03-03T16:52:06.093-05:00A Sonnet“My God, where is that ancient heat towards thee,<div>Wherewith whole shoals of martyrs once did burn,<br />Besides their other flames? Doth poetry<br />Wear Venus' livery? only serve her turn?<br />Why are not sonnets made of thee? and lays<br />Upon thine altar burnt? Cannot thy love<br />Heighten a spirit to sound out thy praise<br />As well as any she? Cannot thy Dove<br />Outstrip their Cupid easily in flight?<br />Or, since thy ways are deep, and still the fame,<br />Will not a verse run smooth that bears thy name!<br />Why doth that fire, which by thy power and might<br />Each breast does feel, no braver fuel choose<br />Than that, which one day, worms may chance refuse.<br /><br />Sure Lord, there is enough in thee to dry<br />Oceans of ink; for, as the Deluge did<br />Cover the earth, so doth thy Majesty:<br />Each cloud distills thy praise, and doth forbid<br />Poets to turn it to another use.<br />Roses and lilies speak thee; and to make<br />A pair of cheeks of them, is thy abuse<br />Why should I women's eyes for crystal take?<br />Such poor invention burns in their low mind<br />Whose fire is wild, and doth not upward go<br />To praise, and on thee, Lord, some ink bestow.<br />Open the bones, and you shall nothing find<br />In the best face but filth; when Lord, in thee<br />The beauty lies in the discovery.”<p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleEmphasizedBody; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">George Herbert (1593-1633), written at the age of 17, dedicated to his mother</span></p></div>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-36541234711240924632024-03-02T17:09:00.006-05:002024-03-02T17:09:23.370-05:00Welcome, March<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06Rnz7s5q_p5FSMd8yBaNT4Ar4G1ZLcjxNp2NrNTGSrYfJE8GSuxOmggcy7K3COsrXcrkD-rwl1WeYQT2kaDMODhYhbh5gST0y31EPAuhRriMb065R5x0U984l4bxcff4w31KSXgUm_OSN9xQZV0hBK3IsisS3PGkmVfDQnRmJRLT5jjzj0uHXA/s4032/IMG_3417.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06Rnz7s5q_p5FSMd8yBaNT4Ar4G1ZLcjxNp2NrNTGSrYfJE8GSuxOmggcy7K3COsrXcrkD-rwl1WeYQT2kaDMODhYhbh5gST0y31EPAuhRriMb065R5x0U984l4bxcff4w31KSXgUm_OSN9xQZV0hBK3IsisS3PGkmVfDQnRmJRLT5jjzj0uHXA/w400-h300/IMG_3417.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>March started without me! Got caught up with work and did not have time to prepare my journal as usual. Ok, now I’m ready. . . Not too entirely satisfied with it, but I’m ready.<p></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-70430787541294225812024-02-27T10:09:00.004-05:002024-02-27T10:09:38.127-05:00“The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagATSeLYF4xjibtr6Q2mKYhYt0_KWMZmxoyED2lUG_FPWMa6qomIrxLjhAioX0HpkmySMH4rueXOqZP0-IMGAdcu0I5KuEBy6B4jnFTkuyKTVdZJV2sGULlrHNYK7BWZWe34yptlayyu5JfI3MVXoU4pCUD4HCMMFfSTaYsvEujTh4ZSsB6h5NA/s1920/IMG_3410.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagATSeLYF4xjibtr6Q2mKYhYt0_KWMZmxoyED2lUG_FPWMa6qomIrxLjhAioX0HpkmySMH4rueXOqZP0-IMGAdcu0I5KuEBy6B4jnFTkuyKTVdZJV2sGULlrHNYK7BWZWe34yptlayyu5JfI3MVXoU4pCUD4HCMMFfSTaYsvEujTh4ZSsB6h5NA/s320/IMG_3410.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">UNDER a spreading chestnut-tree </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The village smithy stands; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The smith, a mighty man is he, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">With large and sinewy hands; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And the muscles of his brawny arm </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Are strong as iron bands. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">His hair is crisp, and black, and long, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">His face is like the tan; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">His brow is wet with honest sweat, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">He earns whate’er he can, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And looks the whole world in the face, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">For he owes not any man. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Week in, week out, from morn till night, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">You can hear his bellows blow; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">With measured beat and slow, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Like a sexton ringing the village bell, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">When the evening sun is low. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And children coming home from school </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Look in at the open door; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">They love to see the flaming forge, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And hear the bellows roar, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And catch the burning sparks that fly, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Like chaff from a threshing-floor. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">He goes on Sunday to the church, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And sits among his boys; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">He hears the parson pray and preach, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">He hears his daughter’s voice, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Singing in the village choir, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And it makes his heart rejoice. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">It sounds to him like her mother’s voice,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Singing in Paradise! </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">He needs must think of her once more </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">How in the grave she lies; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And with his hard, rough hand he wipes </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">A tear out of his eyes. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Onward through life he goes; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Each morning sees some task begin, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Each evening sees it close; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Something attempted, something done. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Has earned a night’s repose. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">For the lesson thou hast taught! </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Thus at the flaming forge of life </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Our fortunes must be wrought; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Thus on its sounding anvil shaped </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Each burning deed and thought.</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-10846400370664922502024-02-26T12:48:00.001-05:002024-02-26T12:48:11.130-05:00A Fresh Perception <p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“In primitive times, when man awakes in a world that is newly created, poetry awakes with him. In the face of the marvellous things that dazzle and intoxicate him, his first speech is a hymn simply. He is still so close to God that all his meditations are ecstatic, all his dreams are visions. His bosom swells, he sings as he breathes. His lyre has but three strings—God, the soul, creation; but this threefold mystery envelopes everything, this threefold idea embraces everything. The earth is still almost deserted. . . . He leads that nomadic pastoral life with which all civilizations begin, and which is so well adapted to solitary contemplation, to fanciful reverie. He follows every suggestion, he goes hither and thither, at random. His thought, like his life, resembles a cloud that changes its shape and its direction according to the wind that drives it. Such is the first man, such is the first poet. He is young, he is cynical. Prayer is his sole religion, the ode is his only form of poetry. This ode, this poem of primitive times, is Genesis.”</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6zw3BH8QzyI/ZdzOp5_YIKI/AAAAAAABAfs/wORBTUKdj_4Yss686QpCzial6mIC_sjyQCNcBGAsYHQ/s1227/C9834576-783E-41BB-851E-7EC307BA278C.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1227" data-original-width="817" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6zw3BH8QzyI/ZdzOp5_YIKI/AAAAAAABAfs/wORBTUKdj_4Yss686QpCzial6mIC_sjyQCNcBGAsYHQ/w266-h400/C9834576-783E-41BB-851E-7EC307BA278C.png" width="266" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Christianity leads poetry to the truth. Like it, the modern muse will see things in a higher and broader light. It will realize that everything in creation is not humanly beautiful, that the ugly exists beside the beautiful, the unshapely beside the graceful, the grotesque on the reverse of the sublime, evil with good, darkness with light. It will ask itself if the narrow and relative sense of the artist should prevail over the infinite, absolute sense of the Creator; if it is for man to correct God; if a mutilated nature will be the more beautiful for the mutilation; if art has the right to duplicate, so to speak, man, life, creation. . . “</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-62266885809896181392024-02-24T14:26:00.007-05:002024-02-24T14:26:57.689-05:00Got outside today<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqII8Mn1RT3KhZziMbX2lirUyl5pqjJj0S0S3rqDvjMO1NMTgff6Je7s-ZOgM9qYKFU0MMcv0CPrzwzaJbbOQ3KLHml5J_kwD7rpdOHNwQgV9_us7MgMaKzHixocdad2zODqk1o-OsUUXKBZbbV0Ss-NkTpfFipkinQtcDw6QVboAEUs1gXkAmMw/s5321/IMG_3398.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2205" data-original-width="5321" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqII8Mn1RT3KhZziMbX2lirUyl5pqjJj0S0S3rqDvjMO1NMTgff6Je7s-ZOgM9qYKFU0MMcv0CPrzwzaJbbOQ3KLHml5J_kwD7rpdOHNwQgV9_us7MgMaKzHixocdad2zODqk1o-OsUUXKBZbbV0Ss-NkTpfFipkinQtcDw6QVboAEUs1gXkAmMw/w400-h166/IMG_3398.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">It was nuts</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQ0wFaqNtI-hnS-Wknq_3IksTNz0dzyCIydxzmeBn4OkY7vzSUvC602XjjUVL20yim5NVPuVs8M-bRUHl-q3QJAX8LT0nxgI3pLWZvOIkiUMAEbshbm7rBpHm1mj79OAmsjagF7-JrFvp54lCyIL69ut7lrE7_4_UhH84EffeILpnyhOIvsS2-g/s4032/IMG_3384.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQ0wFaqNtI-hnS-Wknq_3IksTNz0dzyCIydxzmeBn4OkY7vzSUvC602XjjUVL20yim5NVPuVs8M-bRUHl-q3QJAX8LT0nxgI3pLWZvOIkiUMAEbshbm7rBpHm1mj79OAmsjagF7-JrFvp54lCyIL69ut7lrE7_4_UhH84EffeILpnyhOIvsS2-g/w300-h400/IMG_3384.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTIXCTFae6IfG88nB9P6MIe4tLJVsqUP032KjVh9Ytxspwus9abSvl7VMAXt7_Dkj1ToXrEBCf7ihg6IHps6SL8ENat2Gnvrn2_hXl66tvTP3zS1gVcMScQhY-t3qnWUlWRoeoQuFKSf45zMpZzCqtv3RouJBcouSnmAma9pSMW4wVJb7GsStvA/s4032/IMG_3386.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2645" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMTIXCTFae6IfG88nB9P6MIe4tLJVsqUP032KjVh9Ytxspwus9abSvl7VMAXt7_Dkj1ToXrEBCf7ihg6IHps6SL8ENat2Gnvrn2_hXl66tvTP3zS1gVcMScQhY-t3qnWUlWRoeoQuFKSf45zMpZzCqtv3RouJBcouSnmAma9pSMW4wVJb7GsStvA/w263-h400/IMG_3386.jpeg" width="263" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-81700096486460759682024-02-22T11:29:00.005-05:002024-02-22T11:29:54.715-05:00The Prime Functions of a University <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0vMfSg2bRziVVxuMml8uLo4fBo7HsnuOKQjD1Wxgi7xHzx6Uk93Z4E_X1_O6QafQSN1L0brFw5Qx90TBEV_rDNWHWRq4pYtlwfAcPOVsdRJ4Mx9mR8iFEKy1sgSwdKkIpGVXh7j4u2mopiiqQt3xmMKzyO34DV44bEOZGiivXXRijwEwRmK3Wug/s1231/3821628B-EDED-4B2A-ABA8-FC5063A4EEBD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1231" data-original-width="831" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0vMfSg2bRziVVxuMml8uLo4fBo7HsnuOKQjD1Wxgi7xHzx6Uk93Z4E_X1_O6QafQSN1L0brFw5Qx90TBEV_rDNWHWRq4pYtlwfAcPOVsdRJ4Mx9mR8iFEKy1sgSwdKkIpGVXh7j4u2mopiiqQt3xmMKzyO34DV44bEOZGiivXXRijwEwRmK3Wug/w270-h400/3821628B-EDED-4B2A-ABA8-FC5063A4EEBD.jpeg" width="270" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">A football team does not a college make. Nor a group of buildings, a library, the faculty, staff <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>nor students. What defines a University? John Henry Newman (1801-1890) defined the University as a “‘School of Universal Learning.’ This description implies the assemblage of strangers from all parts in one spot”; it’s professors and students representing knowledge of every kind. The University is “a place for the communication and circulation of thought, by means of personal intercourse, through a wide extent of country.” Books are a record of truth, an instrument of teaching. Conversation is the key. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“[Y]ou cannot fence without an antagonist, nor challenge all comers in disputation before you have supported a thesis; and in like manner, it stands to reason, you cannot learn to converse till you have the world to converse with; you cannot unlearn your natural bashfulness, or awkwardness, or stiffness, or other besetting deformity, till you serve your time in some school of manners.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“The novelty of place and circumstance, the excitement of strange, or the refreshment of well-known faces, the majesty of rank or of genius, the amiable charities of men pleased both with themselves and with each other; the elevated spirits, the circulation of thought, the curiosity; the morning sections, the outdoor exercise, the well-furnished, well-earned board, the not ungraceful hilarity, the evening circle; the brilliant lecture, the discussions or collisions or guesses of great men one with another, the narratives of scientific processes, of hopes, disappointments, conflicts, and successes, the splendid eulogistic orations; these and the like constituents of the annual celebration, are considered to do something real and substantial for the advance of knowledge which can be done in no other way.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Photograph by Herbert Rose Barraud, c. 1885</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-77314454554642964432024-02-20T09:54:00.001-05:002024-02-20T12:19:12.660-05:00Voltaire, On The Quakers<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTFS3Uw7pj2rlKBhN8Byf5l0BJTYhbUfV4GmdmZSoxENsMIsF9z5V1wGzKh-HJg4S9EtG3j1HnUvcQdUzG5TRYsEldHYndsirpak055nLy_1LpMuUMX1XCYhzroqqa8kCz7owiRMcfSlnJuWRG_whqjW2tV4wc1oETTHiNm1NJtdIfqUWUrpTlKQ/s1600/IMG_3361.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1208" data-original-width="1600" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTFS3Uw7pj2rlKBhN8Byf5l0BJTYhbUfV4GmdmZSoxENsMIsF9z5V1wGzKh-HJg4S9EtG3j1HnUvcQdUzG5TRYsEldHYndsirpak055nLy_1LpMuUMX1XCYhzroqqa8kCz7owiRMcfSlnJuWRG_whqjW2tV4wc1oETTHiNm1NJtdIfqUWUrpTlKQ/s320/IMG_3361.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“There are several of these [Quaker’s meetings] in London . . . . The brethren were already assembled at my entering . . . . There might be about four hundred men and three hundred women in the meeting. The women hid their faces behind their fans, and the men were covered with their broad-brimmed hats. All were seated, and the silence was universal. I passed through them, but did not perceive so much as one lift up his eyes to look at me. This silence lasted a quarter of an hour, when at last one of them rose up, took off his hat, and, after making a variety of wry faces and groaning in a most lamentable manner, he, partly from his nose and partly from his mouth, threw out a strange, confused jumble of words (borrowed, as he imagined, from the Gospel) which neither himself nor any of his hearers understood. When this distorter had ended his beautiful soliloquy, and that the stupid, but greatly edified, congregation were separated, I asked my friend how it was possible for the judicious part of their assembly to suffer such a babbling? “We are obliged,” said he, “to suffer it, because no one knows when a man rises up to hold forth whether he will be moved by the Spirit or by folly. In this doubt and uncertainty we listen patiently to everyone; we even allow our women to hold forth. Two or three of these are often inspired at one and the same time, and it is then that a most charming noise is heard in the Lord’s house. . . . </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Fox thought himself inspired, and consequently was of opinion that he must speak in a manner different from the rest of mankind. He thereupon began to writhe his body, to screw up his face, to hold in his breath, and to exhale it in a forcible manner, insomuch that the priestess of the Pythian god at Delphos could not have acted her part to better advantage. Inspiration soon became so habitual to him that he could scarce deliver himself in any other manner. This was the first gift he communicated to his disciples. These aped very sincerely their master’s several grimaces, and shook in every limb the instant the fit of inspiration came upon them, whence they were called Quakers. The vulgar attempted to mimic them; they trembled, they spake through the nose, they quaked and fancied themselves inspired by the Holy Ghost. The only thing now wanting was a few miracles, and accordingly they wrought some.“</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">(François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778). Letters on the English. “On The Quakers.” Quaker meeting, painting c. 1839.)</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-51660737499572693222024-02-19T18:23:00.005-05:002024-02-19T18:23:55.904-05:00Short-lived men<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGRFiDc_DAca9LvTxKvh7LlpWW-WYnuO0_Ga5wg0gYOERMpl5rdaJNTMCoV9Fto6048cnMbs_qmoBd6JDj5EKWlSg9CbZv23SzvwQKpHbI6z6AtM9iBrCVPewhQMbfYQ-fyjs0GsM4v261uDo2oDsg6WS-u6blqylu6_UsQH3azz8sJhNmqDzyA/s1920/IMG_3357.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGRFiDc_DAca9LvTxKvh7LlpWW-WYnuO0_Ga5wg0gYOERMpl5rdaJNTMCoV9Fto6048cnMbs_qmoBd6JDj5EKWlSg9CbZv23SzvwQKpHbI6z6AtM9iBrCVPewhQMbfYQ-fyjs0GsM4v261uDo2oDsg6WS-u6blqylu6_UsQH3azz8sJhNmqDzyA/w225-h400/IMG_3357.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleItalicBody; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">The thousandth celestial wife of the Garland God slipped and fell to earth, where she took mortal form and served as an attendant in a temple. Death finally released her and she went back to heaven to tell her lord of the ways of men. (Harvard Classics)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“How long is the life of men?” </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Only a hundred years.” </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Is that all?” </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Yes, my lord.” </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“If that is the length of life to which men are born, pray, now, do they pass the time asleep and reckless, or do they give gifts and do other meritorious deeds?” </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Nothing of the kind, my lord. Men are always reckless, as if they were born to a life of an incalculable number of years, and were never to grow old and die.” . . . </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Recklessness for short-lived men is extremely unsuitable.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">(“The Devoted Wife,” Translated from the Dhammapada, and from Buddhaghosa’s comment.)</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-13557933704588570142024-02-15T12:21:00.000-05:002024-02-15T12:21:38.746-05:00Marked red with many an eager kiss<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikG8TemIcBBOQDbP2FjALfY0KPFZ41kuFJxsv9X9Gj5JTEp9JYqBsh5c5pBpKzJm91Od5VQ7QqhIzVYNu1TARtHK6huCR6UYDaBmKrRa7gS-2FJpmFDAXQF8x4KwrK7f241Po5FJ-8p-ndpzovu3KZRuuZ_lKUThXnmZF6q5UAmEhk_BcbVnQOmg/s1920/IMG_3339.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikG8TemIcBBOQDbP2FjALfY0KPFZ41kuFJxsv9X9Gj5JTEp9JYqBsh5c5pBpKzJm91Od5VQ7QqhIzVYNu1TARtHK6huCR6UYDaBmKrRa7gS-2FJpmFDAXQF8x4KwrK7f241Po5FJ-8p-ndpzovu3KZRuuZ_lKUThXnmZF6q5UAmEhk_BcbVnQOmg/w225-h400/IMG_3339.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">ANTONY: I thought how those white arms would fold me in, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And strain me close, and melt me into love; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">So pleased with that sweet image, I sprung forwards, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And added all my strength to every blow. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">CLEOPATRA: Come to me, come, my soldier, to my arms! </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">You’ve been too long away from my embraces; </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">But, when I have you fast, and all my own,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">With broken murmurs, and with amorous sighs, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">I’ll say, you were unkind, and punish you, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">And mark you red with many an eager kiss.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">John Dryden (1631–1700). “All for Love.” Act 3</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-69559346678949251542024-02-14T11:34:00.001-05:002024-02-14T12:54:19.943-05:00Happy Valentines Day!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mZ3VHuIeLY3ZQMMFg3PHnsKffZbF_J9F_HvjgZ8UuDfLPnpTT6yuvWTDDqeotCkMOsdryFj53esOjn6FkyH5nceBf23zBaom5qilLGDRkQxl2N7x7wo0tbJRHM5T052QL6_AmfgO0SYx1oL8hMLhTwudjV2F7TKcpN0WgKAhWE3ZFgJj7mNt7Q/s1536/IMG_3330.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2mZ3VHuIeLY3ZQMMFg3PHnsKffZbF_J9F_HvjgZ8UuDfLPnpTT6yuvWTDDqeotCkMOsdryFj53esOjn6FkyH5nceBf23zBaom5qilLGDRkQxl2N7x7wo0tbJRHM5T052QL6_AmfgO0SYx1oL8hMLhTwudjV2F7TKcpN0WgKAhWE3ZFgJj7mNt7Q/s320/IMG_3330.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div>“We are born with a disposition to love in our hearts, which is developed in proportion as the mind is perfected, and impels us to love what appears to us beautiful without ever having been told what this is. Who can doubt after this whether we are in the world for anything else than to love? In fact, we conceal in vain, we always love. In the very things from which love seems to have been separated, it is found secretly and under seal, and man could not live a moment without this.” (Blaise Pascal)</div>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-14742734742492697842024-02-11T13:11:00.004-05:002024-02-11T13:11:40.006-05:00Gasp! 😮 <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrzCOyLReESA6bQiXsTtozMs8qxXlmpe3PehsGtboA2qsKid0GwCujVk_wY9DTpfXt8mcXyU2p8pJynGBvCxh0dL6LDrn_kqVLW8OZFuamnLhyphenhyphencs-DLZyVp_V5yHft5y4kWq6GZ40aMbFLZ46r5TN2gbcWFIxhMEyFfTgtbeL3gkHzzq-Tly_qdQ/s1200/8FF42FA4-F4A4-4B74-BAEF-CA2433C45A4A.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="946" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrzCOyLReESA6bQiXsTtozMs8qxXlmpe3PehsGtboA2qsKid0GwCujVk_wY9DTpfXt8mcXyU2p8pJynGBvCxh0dL6LDrn_kqVLW8OZFuamnLhyphenhyphencs-DLZyVp_V5yHft5y4kWq6GZ40aMbFLZ46r5TN2gbcWFIxhMEyFfTgtbeL3gkHzzq-Tly_qdQ/w315-h400/8FF42FA4-F4A4-4B74-BAEF-CA2433C45A4A.jpeg" width="315" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778). Letter XVIII—“On Tragedy.” Photo: The Trustees of the British Museum</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-5504147690999248492024-02-10T06:15:00.003-05:002024-02-10T06:15:59.810-05:00Finished Reading: “De origine et situ Germanorum [On the Origin and Situation of the Germans]”<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1hgPlxEtHROpTHeussM68vOIMlGAK2l9Kwt99FEZ3D1gdxhxEAB_hRQ95Thxxu-rEQNw7urw12SZ8SilbuO9EP5nocLYHiOeetrqPpggInm3LVXNqS_vdv-fdXhuxmqm7ZWIPkXxWBsohz2JBuBkMreqPAfZQlKOin1RL1ga6XY9iI_k3_Zt-Q/s2109/IMG_3323.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2109" data-original-width="1506" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1hgPlxEtHROpTHeussM68vOIMlGAK2l9Kwt99FEZ3D1gdxhxEAB_hRQ95Thxxu-rEQNw7urw12SZ8SilbuO9EP5nocLYHiOeetrqPpggInm3LVXNqS_vdv-fdXhuxmqm7ZWIPkXxWBsohz2JBuBkMreqPAfZQlKOin1RL1ga6XY9iI_k3_Zt-Q/w286-h400/IMG_3323.jpeg" width="286" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“In the day of battle, it is scandalous to the Prince to be surpassed in feats of bravery, scandalous to his followers to fail in matching the bravery of the Prince. But it is infamy during life, and indelible reproach, to return alive from a battle where their Prince was slain. To preserve their Prince, to defend him, and to ascribe to his glory all their own valorous deeds, is the sum and most sacred part of their oath. The Princes fight for victory; for the Prince his followers fight. . . . </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">In the place of pay, they are supplied with a daily table and repasts; though grossly prepared, yet very profuse. For maintaining such liberality and munificence, a fund is furnished by continual wars and plunder. Nor could you so easily persuade them to cultivate the ground, or to await the return of the seasons and produce of the year, as to provoke the foe and to risk wounds and death: since stupid and spiritless they account it, to acquire by their sweat what they can gain by their blood.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">(Publius Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56-120), “De origine et situ Germanorum [On the Origin and Situation of the Germans]” Art: </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleItalicBody; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">The Varus battle</span><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> by Otto Albert Koch, 1909)</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-58313890091637393572024-02-09T08:18:00.002-05:002024-02-09T08:18:41.080-05:00Finished Reading: Gulliver’s Travels<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsgvjmJnvMFwu6hws1DUT6p1ACTyZZWyo7al8ZDcghxZgygBJq4iLx4zSKtPkHE7aC49jO-5i4Gs86sCboi_7q7CkWlj1Pgb-7nMzTfb8GNQxF5XqjliifTmnB70i3aI3mR1dfr4u-ppI8Psd2tT59IbXWTNHmTs-w8pETbSuhHzSd1cSSLiStlQ/s1920/IMG_3316.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsgvjmJnvMFwu6hws1DUT6p1ACTyZZWyo7al8ZDcghxZgygBJq4iLx4zSKtPkHE7aC49jO-5i4Gs86sCboi_7q7CkWlj1Pgb-7nMzTfb8GNQxF5XqjliifTmnB70i3aI3mR1dfr4u-ppI8Psd2tT59IbXWTNHmTs-w8pETbSuhHzSd1cSSLiStlQ/s320/IMG_3316.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">How do you view people you do not know? Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” is a lesson on perspective, addressing the way we view ourselves and others. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Gulliver’s Travels,” or “Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships” was published in 1726 as satire prose. Part 1 “A Voyage to</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Lilliput” is most well known, the most detailed and perhaps the most humorous, but as the story progresses, satire slowly sours. Gulliver finds some measure of fault with everyone he encounters. By the end of all his adventures, the reader wonders if Gulliver/Swift likes anyone at all, including his wife and children. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Liliputian political parties call themselves the Tramecksan and Slamecksan; that is, the High Heels and the Low Heels (as indicated by the rise of their shoes). No one knew where the Emperor stood because he wore one of each. The war between Lilliput and Blefuscu erupted over a disagreement on how to break an egg. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Gulliver was strongly encouraged to swear peace with Lilliput and in return he “would be used with all kindness.” Despite his heroism toward his hosts, including capturing the Blefuscu fleet, Gulliver was sentenced to death by poison, fire, firing squad and starvation for extinguishing the palace fire by urinating to save the life of the Empress (bodily excrement is a recurring theme throughout) and for failing to destroy their enemies. His sentence was reduced to blinding on account of the inconvenience of disposing of his body. Gulliver escapes, and finding a boat, eventually returns home. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">The second adventure lands Gulliver in Brobdingnag, a land of giants just off the northwestern coast of North America. Gulliver reports his giant hosts’ lifestyle that render the story unfavorable for children. Gulliver attempts to win the King’s favor by offering his services and protection by manufacturing gunpowder and guns but the offer was dismissed as inhuman. How could such a small man entertain ideas of this kind of bloodshed? After two years, Gulliver leaves the land by means of a strange accident, is rescued at sea and returned home. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Part 3 describes his voyage to the flying island of LAPUTA (where people are so intelligent they live sideways, and are no good to anyone), BALNIBARBI (the poverty-stricken continent below LAPUTA, where they try to convert human excrement back into original food) LUGGNAGG (an island of immortals who suffer the maladies of old age), GLUBBDUBDRIB (an island of magicians and conjurors) AND JAPAN (mentioned mostly in passing). </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Part 4 concludes Gulliver’s adventures in the land of the rational horses, the Houyhnhnms, and their human-beats, the Yahoos. </span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-3488386233816989562024-02-08T11:22:00.007-05:002024-02-08T11:22:53.731-05:00Finished Reading: Samuel Johnson<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOrmdquOLK11O2X5uv648CKhJuRlIPSRZPhFx4t-hHJ0JFWgEMq6nhk4ddbm6FfQCHyJE01J81-GF8F0Q12VkXS4DdRA2e1BsVbdOySL4NPNb4RkjxT9U636z-pm-l-ZCAiB2zLlJ2pV3pQtwmcB9WBENMVWqxjBUG05hrE5H1v_6wbfSJYAhwg/s322/8FDC7707-A66F-41FF-B7DB-E122CEEC92FD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="322" data-original-width="239" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOrmdquOLK11O2X5uv648CKhJuRlIPSRZPhFx4t-hHJ0JFWgEMq6nhk4ddbm6FfQCHyJE01J81-GF8F0Q12VkXS4DdRA2e1BsVbdOySL4NPNb4RkjxT9U636z-pm-l-ZCAiB2zLlJ2pV3pQtwmcB9WBENMVWqxjBUG05hrE5H1v_6wbfSJYAhwg/s320/8FDC7707-A66F-41FF-B7DB-E122CEEC92FD.jpeg" width="238" /></a></div><p></p><p><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Finished reading Samuel Johnson’s </span><span class="s2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: line-through;">insulting</span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"> carefully crafted letter to Lord Chesterfield in 1755. Commonly called “literature's ‘declaration of independence’” Johnson quietly rails his patron for his help that came seven years too late. Johnson published his Dictionary without Chesterfield, paving the way for writers to publish without patronage. Chesterfield prized the letter. The most caustic line of the letter is: “The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.” Why was it so insulting? It should have remained in Latin. </span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-14233753892679136952024-02-07T09:34:00.004-05:002024-02-07T09:34:26.030-05:00Finished Reading: Edward The Second <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMXxyeyMdGLhyYBBAWPgry6JyVqwETBeviWvfSnj26tEkU5JApsOa5q12iYB5Sd5Z862bfsLW2CUD3XLeqRnoIAAKNEOXS00D14eHis6cxjskS0UdSWaH5H_P_3rEa_NxkwNhtQGQV2GzsavS5KKsOehtpWmdB_cJGPGJX7sW8ggZq7gTq1XzKA/s1920/IMG_3306.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMXxyeyMdGLhyYBBAWPgry6JyVqwETBeviWvfSnj26tEkU5JApsOa5q12iYB5Sd5Z862bfsLW2CUD3XLeqRnoIAAKNEOXS00D14eHis6cxjskS0UdSWaH5H_P_3rEa_NxkwNhtQGQV2GzsavS5KKsOehtpWmdB_cJGPGJX7sW8ggZq7gTq1XzKA/s320/IMG_3306.jpeg" width="180" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Edwardum occidere nolite timere, bonum est </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Fear not to kill the king, ’tis good he die.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">But read it thus, and that’s another sense: “Edwardum occidere nolite, timere bonum est </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Kill not the king, ’tis good to fear the worst.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">Act 5, Scene 4 of “Edward The Second” by Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-64428809770934919752024-02-06T11:52:00.001-05:002024-02-06T11:52:28.875-05:00Finished Reading: Nights 543-546 of “The Thousand and One Nights”<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjHpFlo6e0GzC4yRD_ABOT_BaHyd096gR2yBMh1Ssdn-ieOGH0ohvUH1pOCYOzq_ovRz4Q7MoNEfIwyHCJ0Iuu2OYwO2FtQBvKkxu0XZK1Ht6ZOx_lgI1WiJe0XODvwQX19ffrHvFkD9ig1ColUf3Hkhh7jnsdzec0bF_Hmst8ZnKZVbLvwg8WQ/s1536/IMG_3298.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjHpFlo6e0GzC4yRD_ABOT_BaHyd096gR2yBMh1Ssdn-ieOGH0ohvUH1pOCYOzq_ovRz4Q7MoNEfIwyHCJ0Iuu2OYwO2FtQBvKkxu0XZK1Ht6ZOx_lgI1WiJe0XODvwQX19ffrHvFkD9ig1ColUf3Hkhh7jnsdzec0bF_Hmst8ZnKZVbLvwg8WQ/s320/IMG_3298.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Then I went to the bank of the river, and found a handsome, new vessel, with sails of comely canvas, and it had a numerous crew, and was superfluously equipped. So I embarked my bales in it, as did also a party of merchants besides, and we set sail that day. The voyage was pleasant to us, and we ceased not to pass from sea to sea, and from island to island; and at every place where we cast anchor, we met the merchants and the grandees, and the sellers and buyers, and we sold and bought, and exchanged goods. Thus we continued to do until destiny conveyed us to a beautiful island, abounding with trees bearing ripe fruits, where flowers diffused their fragrance, with birds warbling, and pure rivers: but there was not in it an inhabitant, nor a blower of a fire. The master anchored our vessel at that island and the merchants with the other passengers landed there, to amuse themselves with the sight of its trees, and to extol the perfection of God, the One, the Omnipotent, and to wonder at the power of the Almighty King.” </span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">(from The Second Voyage of Es-Sindibad of the Sea in nights 543-546 of “The Thousand and One Nights”)</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-48304825748209779482024-02-05T14:18:00.007-05:002024-02-05T14:18:49.892-05:00Finished Reading <p>Finished reading this part autobiography, part commentary by Roosevelt Montas. A personal account of how the Great Books impact one person’s life.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5zZ2IU85RF8y6rpuXbWJF2tYpURB0uXGTebwHO8TUlCi6TirP5wEPfHPQSppsAecP8ubuTx8H4fOCiDbOUNeTygWAKGoDE5CitM5XtxPIISFAnO2IMio_41vb8RxAfD0-6FYd47FCq7z4YJcEYuQQhh6qiOxAm1yMEmqBfsFkBxQksWkIO2-QQ/s1807/IMG_3299.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1807" data-original-width="1170" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5zZ2IU85RF8y6rpuXbWJF2tYpURB0uXGTebwHO8TUlCi6TirP5wEPfHPQSppsAecP8ubuTx8H4fOCiDbOUNeTygWAKGoDE5CitM5XtxPIISFAnO2IMio_41vb8RxAfD0-6FYd47FCq7z4YJcEYuQQhh6qiOxAm1yMEmqBfsFkBxQksWkIO2-QQ/w259-h400/IMG_3299.jpeg" width="259" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-16094106968919483992024-02-04T14:17:00.000-05:002024-02-04T14:17:10.850-05:00The Good Man<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNiShb79AhN_iBgZ-_YlWavoEGmbKhIcymd6XdOJWFFYYsq8bbY_4HRDd9jd2LcOqEMci1avwgz93vhaJM80q1QGtplmEneFDBArykDW0-PZi8FDabaNXp9fYyO12_jPpRiMivb1pNjmi9_Y68HFYB5GR_06kOyLaur9zdnqBhao1C5b-_Q8SLg/s1172/70398CEC-9822-43FE-8DD3-214865120895.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1172" data-original-width="856" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNiShb79AhN_iBgZ-_YlWavoEGmbKhIcymd6XdOJWFFYYsq8bbY_4HRDd9jd2LcOqEMci1avwgz93vhaJM80q1QGtplmEneFDBArykDW0-PZi8FDabaNXp9fYyO12_jPpRiMivb1pNjmi9_Y68HFYB5GR_06kOyLaur9zdnqBhao1C5b-_Q8SLg/w293-h400/70398CEC-9822-43FE-8DD3-214865120895.jpeg" width="293" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“The good man is he who works continually in welldoing; to whom welldoing is as his natural existence, awakening no astonishment, requiring no commentary; but there, like a thing of course, and as if it could not but be so. Self-contemplation, on the other hand, is infallibly the symptom of disease, be it or be it not the sign of cure . . . there is a self-seeking; an unprofitable looking behind us to measure the way we have made: whereas the sole concern is to walk continually forward, and make more way. . . . Let the free, reasonable Will, which dwells in us, as in our Holy of Holies, be indeed free, and obeyed like a Divinity, as is its right and its effort: the perfect obedience will be the silent one. . . This, true enough, is an ideal, impossible state of being; yet ever the goal towards which our actual state of being strives. . .” (Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>“Characteristics”)</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-44083062325222526552024-02-03T16:35:00.000-05:002024-02-03T16:35:06.713-05:00Finished Reading: “The Alchemist”<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7EojPYOGV-k2dnu7o5OQ-DJzeTw-j9G9IJBgIQHNg7bzmOQT3hgKmQO5m9XVEoMwcY0TTfd5Ird-0HKtDWbCxGqj17VUDf18Sn14Ay8pq0o1jbYNZCLNC9LDi_rhg6lQX3JwOGGX-U-hjsMCTeTHJWLSUF6PUHdaduAumj7prpR5TnqeOYu3OA/s1340/IMG_3282.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1340" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7EojPYOGV-k2dnu7o5OQ-DJzeTw-j9G9IJBgIQHNg7bzmOQT3hgKmQO5m9XVEoMwcY0TTfd5Ird-0HKtDWbCxGqj17VUDf18Sn14Ay8pq0o1jbYNZCLNC9LDi_rhg6lQX3JwOGGX-U-hjsMCTeTHJWLSUF6PUHdaduAumj7prpR5TnqeOYu3OA/s320/IMG_3282.jpeg" width="306" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">“Take three drops of vinegar in at your nose, two at your mouth, and one at either ear; then bathe your fingers’ ends and wash your eyes, to sharpen your five senses.” </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;">(Ben Jonson (1572–1637). “The Alchemist.” A satire on the foolishness of humanity and people who take advantage of others. Painting by Johann Zoffany (c. 1770))</span></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6346020.post-14133161959958148372024-02-02T18:34:00.002-05:002024-02-02T18:34:17.754-05:00Finished Reading: Crusader Hymns<p>Hebrews and Chapters 7-13 of Sir Thomas Malory, “The Holy Grail” (Sangreal) in Le Morte D’Arthur (c 1400-1470)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjInF2SGJXrf6zjhptgFdJkJ6qfcI7ohaFotLwKtoj_jM_s82ngSAfWRxSczGhFQM4KkIkORwx33KmJdKG7lXhP0lAJ1XbLFCo1Di0fDHOIj03Q5_auWL8Bv7bvPY5S2mD4S-9fnhhDPwQultxvIt8FeHfy3MuANpUk2BQ9Yh2BS7A3nmr_Rtc20Q/s1920/IMG_3262.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjInF2SGJXrf6zjhptgFdJkJ6qfcI7ohaFotLwKtoj_jM_s82ngSAfWRxSczGhFQM4KkIkORwx33KmJdKG7lXhP0lAJ1XbLFCo1Di0fDHOIj03Q5_auWL8Bv7bvPY5S2mD4S-9fnhhDPwQultxvIt8FeHfy3MuANpUk2BQ9Yh2BS7A3nmr_Rtc20Q/w225-h400/IMG_3262.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><p></p>autodidacticushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01092053882201692321noreply@blogger.com