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.
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