http://www.bartleby.com/24/1/1.html
I have to say I feel sunstantially dumber for reading this waffle.
He is trying to analyse our sense of artistic taste. He says we are all made the same. Our senses register the same information. Sweet is sweet and bitter is bitter to the tongues of all men.
Therefore [?] everyone who looks at a swan will see that it is more beautiful than a goose, because it just is [And with this Burke misses the whole issue of what taste actually is by the widest margin imaginable], and it you don't agree you must be a coarse fellow with imperfect taste.
The only other variables involved in taste are imagination and judgement.
Everyone has the same imagination [and imagination is incapable of producing anything new, apparently] and everyone is issued with the same sense of judgement.
So if people have differing tastes, it imust be because they have faulty judgement and fall short of an ideal common to all men but accessible to a cultivated few who are of gentle birth but not Turkish..
Is this sort of verbose and pseudo-logical essay aping the [much] earlier Greek writers?
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Monday 12 January 2009
Struggling here
OK, Drake was interesting, partidcularly the flavour of reality and confusion.
Euripides I was really not in the mood for, and the Federalist piece did nothing for me. I guess I'll have to revisit these as and when.
9 A Treasure Hunt in Nombre de Dios
With only fifty-two men, Sir Francis Drake conceives the idea of attacking his archenemy, Spain, at her most vulnerable point the treasure at Nombre de Dios.
(Drake died at Nombre de Dios, Jan. 9, 1596.)
Read from Nichol's SIR FRANCIS DRAKE REVIVED Vol. 33, pp. 135-145
10 Where Love Lies Waiting
King Pantheus of Thebes contended against Dionysus, the God, for the adoration of the Theban women. The god was winning by bewitching the women when the king interceded. Euripides tells the story in a masterpiece of Greek drama.
Read from Euripides' THE BACCHÆ Vol. 8, pp. 368-372
11 Hamilton - Father of Wall Street
Hamilton organized the Treasury Department. He penned most of the Federalist papers, which were greatly influential in bringing New York into the Union - the first step toward its eminent position in national and world finance.
(Alexander Hamilton born Jan. 11, 1757.)
Read: THE FEDERALIST Vol. 43, pp. 199-207
Euripides I was really not in the mood for, and the Federalist piece did nothing for me. I guess I'll have to revisit these as and when.
9 A Treasure Hunt in Nombre de Dios
With only fifty-two men, Sir Francis Drake conceives the idea of attacking his archenemy, Spain, at her most vulnerable point the treasure at Nombre de Dios.
(Drake died at Nombre de Dios, Jan. 9, 1596.)
Read from Nichol's SIR FRANCIS DRAKE REVIVED Vol. 33, pp. 135-145
10 Where Love Lies Waiting
King Pantheus of Thebes contended against Dionysus, the God, for the adoration of the Theban women. The god was winning by bewitching the women when the king interceded. Euripides tells the story in a masterpiece of Greek drama.
Read from Euripides' THE BACCHÆ Vol. 8, pp. 368-372
11 Hamilton - Father of Wall Street
Hamilton organized the Treasury Department. He penned most of the Federalist papers, which were greatly influential in bringing New York into the Union - the first step toward its eminent position in national and world finance.
(Alexander Hamilton born Jan. 11, 1757.)
Read: THE FEDERALIST Vol. 43, pp. 199-207
Thursday 8 January 2009
8 Trying the Patience of Job
God was pleased with the piety of Job, but Satan accredited the piety to Job's prosperity and happiness. So a trial was made. See how each succeeding affliction visited on Job shook the depths of his nature, and how he survived.
Read from THE BOOK OF JOB Vol. 44, pp. 71-87
Well, theres God, Satan, Job and Job's familiy and estates. I think the away team could have dealt with the invaders and arranged some weather control from space, but that would not have helped the story along.
Interesting that God specifically removes his protection - which had been granted because of Job's virtuousness and obviously covered his estates - from all except Job himself, and gives Satan a free hand.
Also interesting because of my work; I talked to a woman today who met the Devil recently, and the 'devil on one shoulder, angel on the other' is such a daily theme I give out a handout on it.
I suppose it all leaves us with the feeling that if God could allow Satan to cause such harm to win an argiement, what hope is there? I mean WHF does he care what the Devil thinks anyway?
I'd like to hear the bit just after where he says well done to Job and explains why his family had to die.
"You see, Satan came along and we got talking and, well, we had this sort of bet, d'you see, and.."
Read from THE BOOK OF JOB Vol. 44, pp. 71-87
Well, theres God, Satan, Job and Job's familiy and estates. I think the away team could have dealt with the invaders and arranged some weather control from space, but that would not have helped the story along.
Interesting that God specifically removes his protection - which had been granted because of Job's virtuousness and obviously covered his estates - from all except Job himself, and gives Satan a free hand.
Also interesting because of my work; I talked to a woman today who met the Devil recently, and the 'devil on one shoulder, angel on the other' is such a daily theme I give out a handout on it.
I suppose it all leaves us with the feeling that if God could allow Satan to cause such harm to win an argiement, what hope is there? I mean WHF does he care what the Devil thinks anyway?
I'd like to hear the bit just after where he says well done to Job and explains why his family had to die.
"You see, Satan came along and we got talking and, well, we had this sort of bet, d'you see, and.."
Wednesday 7 January 2009
To work then.
OK, here's a conceit. Looking at the worlds outlined in these written works of fiction [and non fiction], a Star Trek away team arrive to sort out the problem described, and are ordered to make any necessary interventions.
Starting wiith Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.
Franklin attempts the habot of virtue, and idenifies 13 - identifying the latter with some assistance.
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
From the point of view of an potsider entering his world, it would be hard to know how to put him straight, as he seems to be quite a few steps ahead of the rest of us.
It is Franklin himself that wants to put other people straight, or at least to offer his program to others; via an almanack, with much success it seems, and he wished to form a leaugue or society of young gentlemen dedicated to the cultivation of virtue using this approach.
So he is the one making the intervention, and an away team visiting him at his letters might bbe expected to take his ideas back to the Enterprise and spread them through the galaxy.
This reversal means the author's inner world affects the outer [albeit fictional] one; a factor at least in all the stories here, perhaps.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Milton's juvenalia.
I would hope the away team would find out why he was encouraged to continue with these awful pieces, and take either Milton or those that lauded this stuff on a trip to the heavens to view true wonders.
As for the individual poems.. they'd make passable hymns. I can't be bothered to look at the story each tells as I'd have to actually read them again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cicero on Friendship.
What is there for an away team to do. Should them beam down to one of the original conversations on which the essay was based, or the conversation described in which Cicero arranges the speakers and their words as if he were a playwright? Or perhaps to visit the City of the time to deal with whatever threats the Rebublic are being obliquely referred to?
I think if the team beamed down to Cicero's stage, then Kirk might passionately agree with the sentiments espoused, Spock would point out certain illogicalities - "Perfect agreement? *raises eyebrow*. In my experience there is never perfect agreement between humans because their understanding is so flawed."
Bones would be passionately against whatever Jim agreed with, and outraged at Spocks cold reasoning, of course.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Flounder Fish Story
Who is there to rescue?
The Fisherman releases the Flounder back to the sea. The Fisherman is uncomfortable with his wife's request, but should they try to resue him from that or his wife from the sin of hubris?
Do people suffer by the granting of the wishes - King, Emperor, Pope or common people?
Here it is the Flounder, not any outside interventionists, that sorts things out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Soaring Eagle and Contented Stork
Mazzini on Byron and Goethe
Now here Mazzini describes two individuals in the context of the world at the time they were writing, and contrasts them. In a way, though, he is describing the evolution of consciousness in the Western world, with htese figures as personifying different aspects of idividuality - the ego and the observer.
We could send the away team to try to make Byron and Goethe more 'adjusted' to the world they found themselves, or to help the world live up to Byron's expectations and down to Goethe's..
Or take VByron back to an heroic past, and Goethe forwards to a beurocratic future world where every event great and small is seen by The Computer.
The team could try to alter the course of Western thought, or to champion individuality, or remove the Byron and Goerthe to hasten the next phase of individuality with cooperation.
Or perhaps they could engineer a public discussion between the the figures to help them find common cause that would hasten a general epiphany in the Collective.
Or give Mazzini some therapy to heal the split in him projected onto the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the dead of night Hector's ghost appeared to warn Æneas of the impending doom to come upon the walled city of Troy.
OK, he're a clear job for the crew. Phasers on stun, knock out the soldiers in the wooden horse and beam the Greek traitor Sinon up to the ship to tell him off [where he escapes and joins forces with the Klingons or Romulans, and appears in later episodes].
Thus Priam's palace is spared, his sons live, the maidens of Troy survive to wed and raise their families in peace.
And of course Aenas has no call to leave the city to go and found Rome, as Virgil describes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights.
Now there's a lot of stories to sort out!
Scheherazade herself might be rescued, but she does OK herself. The away team might reasonably take the king who kills each virgin he has slept with and maroon him somewhere.
We see stories within stories, like a Russian doll, or sub-personalities within a personality.
And looking at all the stories so far, we begin to see the broadest sweep of a map.
More later.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting wiith Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.
Franklin attempts the habot of virtue, and idenifies 13 - identifying the latter with some assistance.
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
From the point of view of an potsider entering his world, it would be hard to know how to put him straight, as he seems to be quite a few steps ahead of the rest of us.
It is Franklin himself that wants to put other people straight, or at least to offer his program to others; via an almanack, with much success it seems, and he wished to form a leaugue or society of young gentlemen dedicated to the cultivation of virtue using this approach.
So he is the one making the intervention, and an away team visiting him at his letters might bbe expected to take his ideas back to the Enterprise and spread them through the galaxy.
This reversal means the author's inner world affects the outer [albeit fictional] one; a factor at least in all the stories here, perhaps.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Milton's juvenalia.
I would hope the away team would find out why he was encouraged to continue with these awful pieces, and take either Milton or those that lauded this stuff on a trip to the heavens to view true wonders.
As for the individual poems.. they'd make passable hymns. I can't be bothered to look at the story each tells as I'd have to actually read them again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cicero on Friendship.
What is there for an away team to do. Should them beam down to one of the original conversations on which the essay was based, or the conversation described in which Cicero arranges the speakers and their words as if he were a playwright? Or perhaps to visit the City of the time to deal with whatever threats the Rebublic are being obliquely referred to?
I think if the team beamed down to Cicero's stage, then Kirk might passionately agree with the sentiments espoused, Spock would point out certain illogicalities - "Perfect agreement? *raises eyebrow*. In my experience there is never perfect agreement between humans because their understanding is so flawed."
Bones would be passionately against whatever Jim agreed with, and outraged at Spocks cold reasoning, of course.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Flounder Fish Story
Who is there to rescue?
The Fisherman releases the Flounder back to the sea. The Fisherman is uncomfortable with his wife's request, but should they try to resue him from that or his wife from the sin of hubris?
Do people suffer by the granting of the wishes - King, Emperor, Pope or common people?
Here it is the Flounder, not any outside interventionists, that sorts things out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Soaring Eagle and Contented Stork
Mazzini on Byron and Goethe
Now here Mazzini describes two individuals in the context of the world at the time they were writing, and contrasts them. In a way, though, he is describing the evolution of consciousness in the Western world, with htese figures as personifying different aspects of idividuality - the ego and the observer.
We could send the away team to try to make Byron and Goethe more 'adjusted' to the world they found themselves, or to help the world live up to Byron's expectations and down to Goethe's..
Or take VByron back to an heroic past, and Goethe forwards to a beurocratic future world where every event great and small is seen by The Computer.
The team could try to alter the course of Western thought, or to champion individuality, or remove the Byron and Goerthe to hasten the next phase of individuality with cooperation.
Or perhaps they could engineer a public discussion between the the figures to help them find common cause that would hasten a general epiphany in the Collective.
Or give Mazzini some therapy to heal the split in him projected onto the world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the dead of night Hector's ghost appeared to warn Æneas of the impending doom to come upon the walled city of Troy.
OK, he're a clear job for the crew. Phasers on stun, knock out the soldiers in the wooden horse and beam the Greek traitor Sinon up to the ship to tell him off [where he escapes and joins forces with the Klingons or Romulans, and appears in later episodes].
Thus Priam's palace is spared, his sons live, the maidens of Troy survive to wed and raise their families in peace.
And of course Aenas has no call to leave the city to go and found Rome, as Virgil describes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights.
Now there's a lot of stories to sort out!
Scheherazade herself might be rescued, but she does OK herself. The away team might reasonably take the king who kills each virgin he has slept with and maroon him somewhere.
We see stories within stories, like a Russian doll, or sub-personalities within a personality.
And looking at all the stories so far, we begin to see the broadest sweep of a map.
More later.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read from THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Vol. 16, pp. 5-13
7 If He Yawned, She Lost Her Head!
The Sultan had a habit of beheading each dawn his beautiful bride of the night before, until he encountered Scheherazade. Cleverly she saved her life a thousand and one mornings.
The perfidity of most women, and the cleverness of one.
The Sultan had a habit of beheading each dawn his beautiful bride of the night before, until he encountered Scheherazade. Cleverly she saved her life a thousand and one mornings.
The perfidity of most women, and the cleverness of one.
Tuesday 6 January 2009
Virgil's ÆNEID
6 Warned by Hector's Ghost
In the dead of night Hector's ghost appeared to warn Æneas of the impending doom to come upon the walled city of Troy. Æneas lifted his aged father on his back and, taking his son by the hand, sought safety in flight. Off to Latium!
(H. Schliemann, discoverer of ancient Troy, born Jan. 6, 1822.)
Read from Virgil's ÆNEID Vol. 13, pp. 109-127
Very cool. Printed it out at work.
Two sides, the Greeks and Trojans. The Greeks beseige and overcome Troy by a ruse, with a treacherous Greek left behind to convince them. The Gods look on.
In the dead of night Hector's ghost appeared to warn Æneas of the impending doom to come upon the walled city of Troy. Æneas lifted his aged father on his back and, taking his son by the hand, sought safety in flight. Off to Latium!
(H. Schliemann, discoverer of ancient Troy, born Jan. 6, 1822.)
Read from Virgil's ÆNEID Vol. 13, pp. 109-127
Very cool. Printed it out at work.
Two sides, the Greeks and Trojans. The Greeks beseige and overcome Troy by a ruse, with a treacherous Greek left behind to convince them. The Gods look on.
Monday 5 January 2009
The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe
Young Werther was quite highly strung
And lacking social skills
He felt each slight as twere a wound
And lived on liver pills.
He went to Wahlheim for a rest
And there met fair Charlotte
He could not speak his love so he
Sat upstairs smoking pot.
Now Charlotte was engaged to wed
An older man called Bert
So Werther, being a prize twat
Saw both and felt quite hurt
Eventually he went away
And got into more strife
Then he returned to find his friends
Were married - man and wife!
She said he'd best not call again
And they'd no more converse
He sobbbed and read a poem so
It went from bad to verse.
He knew one of the three must die;
Werther, Lot or Al;
He thought he'd rather top himself
Than gun down either pal.
He shot himself but 'quel suprise'
He took twelve hours to die;
They stuck him 'neath a linden tree
No more to mope and cry.
The moral of this story is
'Young men upon vacation;
If she you like is spoken for
Refrain from masturbation
Get on your bike, get some fresh air
Get out more, play the flute;
Instead of planning suicide
Just f*ck a prostitute
Time heals all things, this too shall pass
And [here comes your reward]
Just call back in a year or three
When Lotte's getting bored.
And lacking social skills
He felt each slight as twere a wound
And lived on liver pills.
He went to Wahlheim for a rest
And there met fair Charlotte
He could not speak his love so he
Sat upstairs smoking pot.
Now Charlotte was engaged to wed
An older man called Bert
So Werther, being a prize twat
Saw both and felt quite hurt
Eventually he went away
And got into more strife
Then he returned to find his friends
Were married - man and wife!
She said he'd best not call again
And they'd no more converse
He sobbbed and read a poem so
It went from bad to verse.
He knew one of the three must die;
Werther, Lot or Al;
He thought he'd rather top himself
Than gun down either pal.
He shot himself but 'quel suprise'
He took twelve hours to die;
They stuck him 'neath a linden tree
No more to mope and cry.
The moral of this story is
'Young men upon vacation;
If she you like is spoken for
Refrain from masturbation
Get on your bike, get some fresh air
Get out more, play the flute;
Instead of planning suicide
Just f*ck a prostitute
Time heals all things, this too shall pass
And [here comes your reward]
Just call back in a year or three
When Lotte's getting bored.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - Canto the first.
There was a bloke
He was a lad
He quickly went
From good to bad
His house was nice
His friends were cool
He shagged a lot
And bunked off school
But very soon
He got quite bored
So he pissed off
And went abroad
He sang a song
Upon the flight
It went "Eng-er-land
Goodnight".
He was alone
He felt forsook
With no-one but
The ones he took
They got to Spain
He saw the sea
The place had lots
Of history
He climbed a mountain
It was neat
He liked it there
But burnt his feet
He thought the Spanish
Birds were fit
And saw a bull-fight;
- Nasty twit.
There! so now
I've done this piece
The next bit takes
Him off to Greece.
There was a bloke
He was a lad
He quickly went
From good to bad
His house was nice
His friends were cool
He shagged a lot
And bunked off school
But very soon
He got quite bored
So he pissed off
And went abroad
He sang a song
Upon the flight
It went "Eng-er-land
Goodnight".
He was alone
He felt forsook
With no-one but
The ones he took
They got to Spain
He saw the sea
The place had lots
Of history
He climbed a mountain
It was neat
He liked it there
But burnt his feet
He thought the Spanish
Birds were fit
And saw a bull-fight;
- Nasty twit.
There! so now
I've done this piece
The next bit takes
Him off to Greece.
Now Mazzini on Byron and Goethe
Day Five.
He says
Quote:
earthly life being but one stage of the eternal evolution of life, manifested in thought and action; strengthened by all the achievements of the past, and advancing from age to ages towards a less imperfect expression of that idea."
and sees both poets as 'summing up' the end of a long era of individuality which began with the Greeks, was carried by the Christianity [seen I think as a cult of the Divine made individual], and which found it's death throes during the Napoleonic age, where -
Quote:
The political schools of the epoch had proclaimed the sole basis of civil organization to be the right to liberty and equality (liberty for all), but they had encountered social anarchy by the way. The philosophy of the epoch had asserted the sovereignty of the human Ego, and had ended in the mere adoration of fact, in Hegelian immobility. The Economy of the epoch imagined it had organized free competition, while it had but organized the oppression of the weak by the strong; of labor by capital; of poverty by wealth. The Poetry of the epoch had represented individuality in its every phase; had translated in sentiment what science had theoretically demonstrated; and it had encountered the void. But as society at last discovered that the destinies of the race were not contained in a mere problem of liberty, but rather in the harmonization of liberty with association—so did poetry discover that the life it had hitherto drawn from individuality alone was doomed to perish for want of aliment; and that its future existence depended on enlarging and transforming its sphere."
When he speaks of Byron, I am reminded of Peter Ackroyd on the Romantic poets
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/intro.shtml
With Byron began the cult of the individual poet, the first pop star, where the events of his life were of at least equal interest to his works. Yet Mazzini highlights Byron and his heros as individuals standing alone, wanting to find inspiration and purpose within and around, but haunting a landscape in which the time of the individual is already passed, just as the time of aristocracy has passed too..
Byron then is seen as the late flower of a fading age.
I would see a echo of this in the closing words of Shelly's Frankenstein. Prometheus is unbound, the superman is come, but must exile himself as a monster.
If Byron is subjective mind, and Ego, Goethe is objective mind who "has felt everything but he has never felt the whole."
Mazzini says of him -
Quote:
He witnessed the French Revolution in all its terrible grandeur, and saw the old world crumble beneath its strokes; and while all the best and purest spirits of Germany, who had mistaken the death-agony of the old world for the birth-throes of a new, were wringing their hands at the spectacle of dissolution, he saw in it only the subject of a farce. He beheld the glory and the fall of Napoleon; he witnessed the reaction of down-trodden nationalities—sublime prologue of the grand epopee of the peoples destined sooner or later to be unfolded—and remained a cold spectator. He had neither learned to esteem men, to better them, nor even to suffer with them."
Perhaps Goethe as represented here prefigures the camera, the documentary; taking in all and rendering faithfully, yet without being moved by what he sees.
We read -
Quote:
When travelling in that second fatherland of all poetic souls—Italy—the poets still pursued divergent routes; the one experienced sensations; the other emotions; the one occupied himself especially with nature; the other with the greatness dead, the living wrongs, the human memories.
Goethe, the poet of individuality in its objective life—at the egotism of indifference; Byron—the poet of individuality in its subjective life—at the egotism (I say it with regret, but it, too, it egotism) of despair:"
So Goethe here is the observing ego, the analytic mind wishing to quantify and represent in terms of form, Byron the feelings and emotions, the passionate individual ego, feeling the inner life, sensing the whole, searching for meaning and purpose.
We might call the duality that Maxxini sees expressed in these two poets as concrete and abstract mind, thought and feelings, left and right brain, ego and soul, fact and fancy, matchstick man and space cadet, rationality and passion.
Quote:
While Goethe held himself all of from us, and from the height of his Olympian calm seemed to smile with disdain at our desires, our struggles, and our sufferings—Byron wandered through the world, sad, gloomy, and unquiet; wounded, and bearing the arrow in the wound."
Or sometimes, flew like a hawk above.
Mazzini seems to be unsure if the European revolutions signalled a beginning as well as an end, but suggestes a new age of individuality alongside cooperation could replace the simple tyranny of wealth and faceless government.
Has that happened? Do we have both?
Is there any reality to Mazzini's view, or does he use the two poets to typify aspects of himself, using his own vision of history as a backdrop?
A very good point made by David Welch - "I like how he echoed them in relation to history and Italy. In the world one reads history from outside looking in, except in Italy where it is seen from the inside looking out. He seemed to me to be saying Goethe's Poetry was on life from the outside looking in, and Byron's poetry was life from the inside looking out. I thought that was much stronger than his analogy to the birds."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking at Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, from the Wiki -
Quote:
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem written by the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron when at Kinsham. It was published between 1812 and 1818. The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands; in a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.
The poem contains elements thought to be autobiographical, as Byron generated some of the storyline from experience gained during his travels through the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811. Despite Byron's personal distates for the poem, which he felt revealed too much of himself, it was well-received by critic John Murray and brought him a large amount of public attention. Byron stated that he woke up one day and "found myself famous.".
The work provided the first example of the Byronic hero[citation needed], which has appeared innovels, films and plays ever since.
The poem has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas, which consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine (a twelve syllable iambic line), and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC.
Childe Harold became a vehicle for Byron's own beliefs and ideas; indeed in the preface to book three Byron acknowledges the fact that his hero is just an extension of himself. According to Jerome McGann, by masking himself behind a literary artifice, Byron was able to express his view that "man's greatest tragedy is that he can conceive of a perfection which he cannot attain".
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7086/chpindex.htm
I much prefer this to Milton. The Spenserian stanza is a good cross country form for the long haul, I think.
He says
Quote:
earthly life being but one stage of the eternal evolution of life, manifested in thought and action; strengthened by all the achievements of the past, and advancing from age to ages towards a less imperfect expression of that idea."
and sees both poets as 'summing up' the end of a long era of individuality which began with the Greeks, was carried by the Christianity [seen I think as a cult of the Divine made individual], and which found it's death throes during the Napoleonic age, where -
Quote:
The political schools of the epoch had proclaimed the sole basis of civil organization to be the right to liberty and equality (liberty for all), but they had encountered social anarchy by the way. The philosophy of the epoch had asserted the sovereignty of the human Ego, and had ended in the mere adoration of fact, in Hegelian immobility. The Economy of the epoch imagined it had organized free competition, while it had but organized the oppression of the weak by the strong; of labor by capital; of poverty by wealth. The Poetry of the epoch had represented individuality in its every phase; had translated in sentiment what science had theoretically demonstrated; and it had encountered the void. But as society at last discovered that the destinies of the race were not contained in a mere problem of liberty, but rather in the harmonization of liberty with association—so did poetry discover that the life it had hitherto drawn from individuality alone was doomed to perish for want of aliment; and that its future existence depended on enlarging and transforming its sphere."
When he speaks of Byron, I am reminded of Peter Ackroyd on the Romantic poets
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/romantics/intro.shtml
With Byron began the cult of the individual poet, the first pop star, where the events of his life were of at least equal interest to his works. Yet Mazzini highlights Byron and his heros as individuals standing alone, wanting to find inspiration and purpose within and around, but haunting a landscape in which the time of the individual is already passed, just as the time of aristocracy has passed too..
Byron then is seen as the late flower of a fading age.
I would see a echo of this in the closing words of Shelly's Frankenstein. Prometheus is unbound, the superman is come, but must exile himself as a monster.
If Byron is subjective mind, and Ego, Goethe is objective mind who "has felt everything but he has never felt the whole."
Mazzini says of him -
Quote:
He witnessed the French Revolution in all its terrible grandeur, and saw the old world crumble beneath its strokes; and while all the best and purest spirits of Germany, who had mistaken the death-agony of the old world for the birth-throes of a new, were wringing their hands at the spectacle of dissolution, he saw in it only the subject of a farce. He beheld the glory and the fall of Napoleon; he witnessed the reaction of down-trodden nationalities—sublime prologue of the grand epopee of the peoples destined sooner or later to be unfolded—and remained a cold spectator. He had neither learned to esteem men, to better them, nor even to suffer with them."
Perhaps Goethe as represented here prefigures the camera, the documentary; taking in all and rendering faithfully, yet without being moved by what he sees.
We read -
Quote:
When travelling in that second fatherland of all poetic souls—Italy—the poets still pursued divergent routes; the one experienced sensations; the other emotions; the one occupied himself especially with nature; the other with the greatness dead, the living wrongs, the human memories.
Goethe, the poet of individuality in its objective life—at the egotism of indifference; Byron—the poet of individuality in its subjective life—at the egotism (I say it with regret, but it, too, it egotism) of despair:"
So Goethe here is the observing ego, the analytic mind wishing to quantify and represent in terms of form, Byron the feelings and emotions, the passionate individual ego, feeling the inner life, sensing the whole, searching for meaning and purpose.
We might call the duality that Maxxini sees expressed in these two poets as concrete and abstract mind, thought and feelings, left and right brain, ego and soul, fact and fancy, matchstick man and space cadet, rationality and passion.
Quote:
While Goethe held himself all of from us, and from the height of his Olympian calm seemed to smile with disdain at our desires, our struggles, and our sufferings—Byron wandered through the world, sad, gloomy, and unquiet; wounded, and bearing the arrow in the wound."
Or sometimes, flew like a hawk above.
Mazzini seems to be unsure if the European revolutions signalled a beginning as well as an end, but suggestes a new age of individuality alongside cooperation could replace the simple tyranny of wealth and faceless government.
Has that happened? Do we have both?
Is there any reality to Mazzini's view, or does he use the two poets to typify aspects of himself, using his own vision of history as a backdrop?
A very good point made by David Welch - "I like how he echoed them in relation to history and Italy. In the world one reads history from outside looking in, except in Italy where it is seen from the inside looking out. He seemed to me to be saying Goethe's Poetry was on life from the outside looking in, and Byron's poetry was life from the inside looking out. I thought that was much stronger than his analogy to the birds."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking at Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, from the Wiki -
Quote:
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem written by the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron when at Kinsham. It was published between 1812 and 1818. The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands; in a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.
The poem contains elements thought to be autobiographical, as Byron generated some of the storyline from experience gained during his travels through the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811. Despite Byron's personal distates for the poem, which he felt revealed too much of himself, it was well-received by critic John Murray and brought him a large amount of public attention. Byron stated that he woke up one day and "found myself famous.".
The work provided the first example of the Byronic hero[citation needed], which has appeared innovels, films and plays ever since.
The poem has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas, which consists of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine (a twelve syllable iambic line), and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC.
Childe Harold became a vehicle for Byron's own beliefs and ideas; indeed in the preface to book three Byron acknowledges the fact that his hero is just an extension of himself. According to Jerome McGann, by masking himself behind a literary artifice, Byron was able to express his view that "man's greatest tragedy is that he can conceive of a perfection which he cannot attain".
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7086/chpindex.htm
I much prefer this to Milton. The Spenserian stanza is a good cross country form for the long haul, I think.
Sunday 4 January 2009
day 4 - the Grimm Brothers
So did the flounder grant the fisherman's wish or not?
Contents - land, sea, flounder, fisherman and wife, a cottage, castle, king's castle, Emperor's castle, Pope's residence, sun and moon.
Flounder at the very bottom of the sea/unconscious - the deepest part.
Putting aside some intersting echoes of the tarot, it seems to show the wife wishing herself higher and higher up the rungs of the heirarchy of power and authority.
The question is, did the flounder punish the wife's audacity by taking away all she had and not granting the wish, or did he grant her wish and make her like God?
Which would mean we are to to see a similarity between God's essential nature and the wife of a humble fisherman living in a hovel. Either in having nothing or in having all taken away. Kind of like the Pope is supposed to be the servant of servants? Like the guy right at the top of the pile actually serves everyone else?
Or maybe that all beings contain a spark of the Divine, or are manifestations of Buddha-nature.?
In which case the brothers Grimm would be have been going through a Zen Buddhist or Sufi phase, and the story/koan would end, "..and thus the fisherman's wife became enlightened."
Personally, I think the story should have ended with -
Quote:
“Well, what does she want, then?” said the Flounder. “Alas,” said he, “she wants to be like unto God.” “Go to her, and you will find her God already."
And the fisherman returned home and found her nailed to a tree.
BTW, I wonder if this was the flounder?
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/07-02-2007/87167-alien_monster-0
Contents - land, sea, flounder, fisherman and wife, a cottage, castle, king's castle, Emperor's castle, Pope's residence, sun and moon.
Flounder at the very bottom of the sea/unconscious - the deepest part.
Putting aside some intersting echoes of the tarot, it seems to show the wife wishing herself higher and higher up the rungs of the heirarchy of power and authority.
The question is, did the flounder punish the wife's audacity by taking away all she had and not granting the wish, or did he grant her wish and make her like God?
Which would mean we are to to see a similarity between God's essential nature and the wife of a humble fisherman living in a hovel. Either in having nothing or in having all taken away. Kind of like the Pope is supposed to be the servant of servants? Like the guy right at the top of the pile actually serves everyone else?
Or maybe that all beings contain a spark of the Divine, or are manifestations of Buddha-nature.?
In which case the brothers Grimm would be have been going through a Zen Buddhist or Sufi phase, and the story/koan would end, "..and thus the fisherman's wife became enlightened."
Personally, I think the story should have ended with -
Quote:
“Well, what does she want, then?” said the Flounder. “Alas,” said he, “she wants to be like unto God.” “Go to her, and you will find her God already."
And the fisherman returned home and found her nailed to a tree.
BTW, I wonder if this was the flounder?
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/07-02-2007/87167-alien_monster-0
Cicero - on friendship
The introduction of this book says:
Quote:
As a philosopher, Cicero’s most important function was to make his countrymen familiar with the main schools of Greek thought. Much of this writing is thus of secondary interest to us in comparison with his originals, but in the fields of religious theory and of the application of philosophy to life he made important first-hand contributions. From these works have been selected the two treatises, On Old Age and On Friendship, which have proved of most permanent and widespread interest to posterity, and which give a clear impression of the way in which a high-minded Roman thought about some of the main problems of human life."
Cicero has some interesting and rather odd things to say of friendship.
Quote:
6. Now friendship may be thus defined: a complete accord on all subjects human and divine, joined with mutual good will and affection."
Now I'm sure friendship hasn't changed much, so does this descriibe the sort of friendships we are familiar with? This description of a friend as a second self who agrees on all things?
It sounds more like political agreement between citizens or oligarchs, or loyalty to a political patron.
Quote:
They say that a certain philosopher of Agrigentum, in a Greek poem, pronounced with the authority of an oracle the doctrine that whatever in nature and the universe was unchangeable was so in virtue of the binding force of friendship; whatever was changeable was so by the solvent power of discord."
Does this mean anything, except to ascribe natural forces of attraction or sythesis to friendship or, perhaps, love in an attempt to show its sacred or ordained nature?
and then
Quote:
We have fought for empire in Italy with two great generals, Pyrrhus and Hannibal. For the former, owing to his probity, we entertain no great feelings of enmity: the latter, owing to his cruelty, our country has detested and always will detest."
Now we have moved from the idea that there is no friendship without vitue to virtue as an attractive quality which excites general public admiration.
Then we have a discussion on whether friends should support each other right or wrong, concluding ;
Quote:
We may then lay down this rule of friendship—neither ask nor consent to do what is wrong."
followed by
Quote:
We must therefore impress upon good men that, should they become inevitably involved in friendships with men of this kind, they ought not to consider themselves under any obligation to stand by friends who are disloyal to the republic."
Is this a general conclusion, or one spefic to the situation and factions of the times? It is followed by a piece about breaking off friendships...and then
Quote:
Well, then, if it is true that to give and receive advice - the former with freedom and yet without bitterness, the latter with patience and without irritation - is peculiarly appropriate to genuine friendship, it is no less true that there can be nothing more utterly subversive of friendship than flattery, adulation, and base compliance."
In short, the type of friendship discussed is that between equals of the better class of men, and those equals must be in perfect accord on all matters.
Frienship is the Divine glue that holds the whole of the world together.
Frienship is only possible between virtuous men.
Virtuous men of public standing attract public recognition and respect.
If you have a special friendship with someone who works against what we perceive as the good of the republic, you shouild not support him.
In fact you should end the friendship, and point out the error of his ways to him, and not remain a flattering toadie.
Hence I'd like a better understanding of the context of the piece, the standing and duties of the men mentioned, and tha purpose of it being written. But that's a good point, David, about being given a better understanding of methods of oratory and philosophy.l'm just curious about the specific purpose of that oratory and philosophy by this person in the political context of the time.
But taking what's there, and applying it to an individual psyche, we see a discourse on a species of connection between certain psychological aspects by, I imagine, the ego, who arranges characters on a stage to make [I believe] a point relevent to the set-up of the time and so of a particular balance of power between forces in a personality. It is the specific agenda that I can't quite appreciate, but I think it is an exhortation addressed to individual elements - the KOTOR - within a 'republic' to stay loyal to that republic.
Quote:
As a philosopher, Cicero’s most important function was to make his countrymen familiar with the main schools of Greek thought. Much of this writing is thus of secondary interest to us in comparison with his originals, but in the fields of religious theory and of the application of philosophy to life he made important first-hand contributions. From these works have been selected the two treatises, On Old Age and On Friendship, which have proved of most permanent and widespread interest to posterity, and which give a clear impression of the way in which a high-minded Roman thought about some of the main problems of human life."
Cicero has some interesting and rather odd things to say of friendship.
Quote:
6. Now friendship may be thus defined: a complete accord on all subjects human and divine, joined with mutual good will and affection."
Now I'm sure friendship hasn't changed much, so does this descriibe the sort of friendships we are familiar with? This description of a friend as a second self who agrees on all things?
It sounds more like political agreement between citizens or oligarchs, or loyalty to a political patron.
Quote:
They say that a certain philosopher of Agrigentum, in a Greek poem, pronounced with the authority of an oracle the doctrine that whatever in nature and the universe was unchangeable was so in virtue of the binding force of friendship; whatever was changeable was so by the solvent power of discord."
Does this mean anything, except to ascribe natural forces of attraction or sythesis to friendship or, perhaps, love in an attempt to show its sacred or ordained nature?
and then
Quote:
We have fought for empire in Italy with two great generals, Pyrrhus and Hannibal. For the former, owing to his probity, we entertain no great feelings of enmity: the latter, owing to his cruelty, our country has detested and always will detest."
Now we have moved from the idea that there is no friendship without vitue to virtue as an attractive quality which excites general public admiration.
Then we have a discussion on whether friends should support each other right or wrong, concluding ;
Quote:
We may then lay down this rule of friendship—neither ask nor consent to do what is wrong."
followed by
Quote:
We must therefore impress upon good men that, should they become inevitably involved in friendships with men of this kind, they ought not to consider themselves under any obligation to stand by friends who are disloyal to the republic."
Is this a general conclusion, or one spefic to the situation and factions of the times? It is followed by a piece about breaking off friendships...and then
Quote:
Well, then, if it is true that to give and receive advice - the former with freedom and yet without bitterness, the latter with patience and without irritation - is peculiarly appropriate to genuine friendship, it is no less true that there can be nothing more utterly subversive of friendship than flattery, adulation, and base compliance."
In short, the type of friendship discussed is that between equals of the better class of men, and those equals must be in perfect accord on all matters.
Frienship is the Divine glue that holds the whole of the world together.
Frienship is only possible between virtuous men.
Virtuous men of public standing attract public recognition and respect.
If you have a special friendship with someone who works against what we perceive as the good of the republic, you shouild not support him.
In fact you should end the friendship, and point out the error of his ways to him, and not remain a flattering toadie.
Hence I'd like a better understanding of the context of the piece, the standing and duties of the men mentioned, and tha purpose of it being written. But that's a good point, David, about being given a better understanding of methods of oratory and philosophy.l'm just curious about the specific purpose of that oratory and philosophy by this person in the political context of the time.
But taking what's there, and applying it to an individual psyche, we see a discourse on a species of connection between certain psychological aspects by, I imagine, the ego, who arranges characters on a stage to make [I believe] a point relevent to the set-up of the time and so of a particular balance of power between forces in a personality. It is the specific agenda that I can't quite appreciate, but I think it is an exhortation addressed to individual elements - the KOTOR - within a 'republic' to stay loyal to that republic.
Friday 2 January 2009
Harvard Classic - day 2
Miltons schoolboy poems. ;[
Oh Milton Minor, whence comes all this dross
That Earthward seeps from shadow'd Erebus?
Whence comes this turgid pap, this foul bile;
And whence thy referential writing style?
If bright Apollo sent one of the Nine
From Helicon or Pieris, carrying wine
Of hea'nly inspirtion to thy side
That Muse would gag and threaten suicide
At thy vile maunderings. Oh! Milton must
We bear - like Tantalus, or Sysiphus
Or Proud Prothetheus torn onpo his rock
The torture of this endless load of f*ck?
What stupid English master gave a pass
To this old wank, unless he sought your arse?
Get out more, child, have fun, go fly a kite;
Give it a rest. Your poems are all shite.
Oh Milton Minor, whence comes all this dross
That Earthward seeps from shadow'd Erebus?
Whence comes this turgid pap, this foul bile;
And whence thy referential writing style?
If bright Apollo sent one of the Nine
From Helicon or Pieris, carrying wine
Of hea'nly inspirtion to thy side
That Muse would gag and threaten suicide
At thy vile maunderings. Oh! Milton must
We bear - like Tantalus, or Sysiphus
Or Proud Prothetheus torn onpo his rock
The torture of this endless load of f*ck?
What stupid English master gave a pass
To this old wank, unless he sought your arse?
Get out more, child, have fun, go fly a kite;
Give it a rest. Your poems are all shite.
Benjamin Franklin 1784
"It was about this time I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ’d in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method. 167
In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I propos’d to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex’d to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent I gave to its meaning. 168
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 169
My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arrang’d them with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquir’d and establish’d, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improv’d in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtain’d rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place. This and the next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues; Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily examination would be necessary, I contrived the following method for conducting that examination. 170
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross’d these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.
Form of the pages.
[figure] 171
I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d, and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro’ a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplish’d the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should he happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks’ daily examination. 172
This my little book had for its motto these lines from Addison’s Cato: “Here will I hold. If there’s a power above us
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud
Thro’ all her works), He must delight in virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy.”
173
Another from Cicero, “O vitæ Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex præceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus.”
174
Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of wisdom or virtue: “Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” iii. 16, 17.
175
And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it; to this end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefix’d to my tables of examination, for daily use. “O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors to me.”
176
I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from Thomson’s Poems, viz.: “Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme!
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself!
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit; and fill my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure;
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!”
177
The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time, one page in my little book contain’d the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day:
THE MORNING. (5–7)
Question. What good shall I do this day?
Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.
(8–11)
Work.
NOON. (12–1) Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.
(2–5)
Work.
EVENING. (6–9)
Question. What good have I done to-day?
Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.
NIGHT. (10–4)
Sleep. 178
I enter’d upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continu’d it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which, by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults to make room for new ones in a new course, became full of holes, I transferr’d my tables and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines were drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on those lines I mark’d my faults with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After a while I went thro’ one course only in a year, and afterward only one in several years, till at length I omitted them entirely, being employ’d in voyages and business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered; but I always carried my little book with me. 179
My scheme of ORDER gave me the most trouble; and I found that, tho’ it might be practicable where a man’s business was such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who must mix with the world, and often receive people of business at their own hours. Order, too, with regard to places for things, papers, etc., I found extreamly difficult to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, and, having an exceeding good memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. This article, therefore, cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbour, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turn’d, while the smith press’d the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take his ax as it was, without farther grinding. “No,” said the smith, “turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet, it is only speckled.” “Yes,” said the man, “but I think I like a speckled ax best.” And I believe this may have been the case with many, who, having, for want of some such means as I employ’d, found the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that “a speckled ax was best”; for something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such extream nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous; that a perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. 180
In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, tho’ they never reach the wish’d-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible. 181
It may be well my posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, their ancestor ow’d the constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written. What reverses may attend the remainder is in the hand of Providence; but, if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoy’d ought to help his bearing them with more resignation. To Temperance he ascribes his long-continued health, and what is still left to him of a good constitution; to Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his circumstances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained for him some degree of reputation among the learned; to Sincerity and Justice, the confidence of his country, and the honorable employs it conferred upon him; and to the joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all that evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, which makes his company still sought for, and agreeable even to his younger acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit. 182
It will be remark’d that, tho’ my scheme was not wholly without religion, there was in it no mark of any of the distinguishing tenets of any particular sect. I had purposely avoided them; for, being fully persuaded of the utility and excellency of my method, and that it might be serviceable to people in all religions, and intending some time or other to publish it, I would not have any thing in it that should prejudice any one, of any sect, against it. I purposed writing a little comment on each virtue, in which I would have shown the advantages of possessing it, and the mischiefs attending its opposite vice; and I should have called my book THE ART OF VIRTUE, 1 because it would have shown the means and manner of obtaining virtue, which would have distinguished it from the mere exhortation to be good, that does not instruct and indicate the means, but is like the apostle’s man of verbal charity, who only without showing to the naked and hungry how or where they might get clothes or victuals, exhorted them to be fed and clothed.—James ii. 15, 16. 183
But it so happened that my intention of writing and publishing this comment was never fulfilled. I did, indeed, from time to time, put down short hints of the sentiments, reasonings, etc., to be made use of in it, some of which I have still by me; but the necessary close attention to private business in the earlier part of thy life, and public business since, have occasioned my postponing it; for, it being connected in my mind with a great and extensive project, that required the whole man to execute, and which an unforeseen succession of employs prevented my attending to, it has hitherto remain’d unfinish’d. 184
In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who wish’d to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and integrity. 185
My list of virtues contain’d at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show’d itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc’d me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word. 186
I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear’d or seem’d to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions procur’d them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right. 187
And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me. And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence in public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my points. 188
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
[Thus far written at Passy, 1784.]
I am reminded of Step 7.
Surely Franklin is consciously identifying with the self, and aligning himself to higher principles. He makes clear that he sees virtue as enlightened self-interest. The flaws he seeks to escape are the faulty strategies of early sub-personaities that are built on a first attempt at self-interest, albeit a self-based one, and now to be outgrown through rigorous application of self-less self-interest, where the good of the whole and that of the individual are one. This is the reality if you are identified with the self, and attuned to the Higher Self.
He goes on the say how he wishes to start a movent based on this, and did produce an almanak publishing htese virtues. He also writes a creed on which all men of every religion can focus on virtue as doing good to man not good to the rules of individual churches, under an umbrella of faith in one God, the immortality of the soul and the reward of virtue.
In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I propos’d to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex’d to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent I gave to its meaning. 168
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 169
My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arrang’d them with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquir’d and establish’d, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improv’d in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtain’d rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place. This and the next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues; Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily examination would be necessary, I contrived the following method for conducting that examination. 170
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I cross’d these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.
Form of the pages.
[figure] 171
I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much strengthen’d, and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro’ a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplish’d the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should he happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks’ daily examination. 172
This my little book had for its motto these lines from Addison’s Cato: “Here will I hold. If there’s a power above us
(And that there is, all nature cries aloud
Thro’ all her works), He must delight in virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy.”
173
Another from Cicero, “O vitæ Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex præceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus.”
174
Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of wisdom or virtue: “Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” iii. 16, 17.
175
And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it; to this end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefix’d to my tables of examination, for daily use. “O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors to me.”
176
I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from Thomson’s Poems, viz.: “Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme!
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself!
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit; and fill my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure;
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!”
177
The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time, one page in my little book contain’d the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day:
THE MORNING. (5–7)
Question. What good shall I do this day?
Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.
(8–11)
Work.
NOON. (12–1) Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.
(2–5)
Work.
EVENING. (6–9)
Question. What good have I done to-day?
Put things in their places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of the day.
NIGHT. (10–4)
Sleep. 178
I enter’d upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continu’d it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which, by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults to make room for new ones in a new course, became full of holes, I transferr’d my tables and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines were drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on those lines I mark’d my faults with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After a while I went thro’ one course only in a year, and afterward only one in several years, till at length I omitted them entirely, being employ’d in voyages and business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered; but I always carried my little book with me. 179
My scheme of ORDER gave me the most trouble; and I found that, tho’ it might be practicable where a man’s business was such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who must mix with the world, and often receive people of business at their own hours. Order, too, with regard to places for things, papers, etc., I found extreamly difficult to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, and, having an exceeding good memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. This article, therefore, cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbour, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turn’d, while the smith press’d the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take his ax as it was, without farther grinding. “No,” said the smith, “turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet, it is only speckled.” “Yes,” said the man, “but I think I like a speckled ax best.” And I believe this may have been the case with many, who, having, for want of some such means as I employ’d, found the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that “a speckled ax was best”; for something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such extream nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous; that a perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. 180
In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, tho’ they never reach the wish’d-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible. 181
It may be well my posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, their ancestor ow’d the constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written. What reverses may attend the remainder is in the hand of Providence; but, if they arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoy’d ought to help his bearing them with more resignation. To Temperance he ascribes his long-continued health, and what is still left to him of a good constitution; to Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his circumstances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained for him some degree of reputation among the learned; to Sincerity and Justice, the confidence of his country, and the honorable employs it conferred upon him; and to the joint influence of the whole mass of the virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all that evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, which makes his company still sought for, and agreeable even to his younger acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit. 182
It will be remark’d that, tho’ my scheme was not wholly without religion, there was in it no mark of any of the distinguishing tenets of any particular sect. I had purposely avoided them; for, being fully persuaded of the utility and excellency of my method, and that it might be serviceable to people in all religions, and intending some time or other to publish it, I would not have any thing in it that should prejudice any one, of any sect, against it. I purposed writing a little comment on each virtue, in which I would have shown the advantages of possessing it, and the mischiefs attending its opposite vice; and I should have called my book THE ART OF VIRTUE, 1 because it would have shown the means and manner of obtaining virtue, which would have distinguished it from the mere exhortation to be good, that does not instruct and indicate the means, but is like the apostle’s man of verbal charity, who only without showing to the naked and hungry how or where they might get clothes or victuals, exhorted them to be fed and clothed.—James ii. 15, 16. 183
But it so happened that my intention of writing and publishing this comment was never fulfilled. I did, indeed, from time to time, put down short hints of the sentiments, reasonings, etc., to be made use of in it, some of which I have still by me; but the necessary close attention to private business in the earlier part of thy life, and public business since, have occasioned my postponing it; for, it being connected in my mind with a great and extensive project, that required the whole man to execute, and which an unforeseen succession of employs prevented my attending to, it has hitherto remain’d unfinish’d. 184
In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who wish’d to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and integrity. 185
My list of virtues contain’d at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show’d itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc’d me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word. 186
I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix’d opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny’d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear’d or seem’d to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions procur’d them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right. 187
And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me. And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence in public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally carried my points. 188
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
[Thus far written at Passy, 1784.]
I am reminded of Step 7.
Surely Franklin is consciously identifying with the self, and aligning himself to higher principles. He makes clear that he sees virtue as enlightened self-interest. The flaws he seeks to escape are the faulty strategies of early sub-personaities that are built on a first attempt at self-interest, albeit a self-based one, and now to be outgrown through rigorous application of self-less self-interest, where the good of the whole and that of the individual are one. This is the reality if you are identified with the self, and attuned to the Higher Self.
He goes on the say how he wishes to start a movent based on this, and did produce an almanak publishing htese virtues. He also writes a creed on which all men of every religion can focus on virtue as doing good to man not good to the rules of individual churches, under an umbrella of faith in one God, the immortality of the soul and the reward of virtue.
The Harvard Classics..
The famous five foot shelf of books, 51 titles, meant [in around 1908] to be equivalent to a liberal arts education at 15 minutes reading a day.
And a useful basis, perhaps, for persuing the idea of stories as aspects of one person in relationship and development...
And a useful basis, perhaps, for persuing the idea of stories as aspects of one person in relationship and development...
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