Here Twilight Is and Coolness

 Inscription for a Fount
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 This Sycamore, oft musical with bees,--
Such tents the Patriarchs loved! O long unharmed
May all its agéd boughs o'er-canopy
The small round basin, which this jutting stone
Keeps pure from falling leaves! Long may the Spring,
Quietly as a sleeping infant's breath,
Send up cold waters to the traveller
With soft and even pulse! Nor ever cease
Yon tiny cone of sand its soundless dance,
Which at the bottom, like a Fairy's Page,
As merry and no taller, dances still,
Nor wrinkles the smooth surface of the Fount.
Here Twilight is and Coolness: here is moss,
A soft seat, and a deep and ample shade.
Thou may'st toil far and find no second tree.
Drink, Pilgrim, here; Here rest! and if thy heart
Be innocent, here too shalt thou refresh
Thy spirit, listening to some gentle sound,
Or passing gale or hum of murmuring bees!

Links of Note

 * Sarah Catherine Byers, Trinitarian Metaphysics in Confessions 13: Marius Victorinus and the Neoplatonic Triad 'Being, Understanding, Life' (PDF)

* Gregory B. Sadler, The Stoic Metaphor of Inner Citadels

* Jacob Allee, The Consolation of Philosophy, at "Study the Great Books"

* Flame & Light, Four General Approaches to Fictional Entities

* Neil Tennant, Aristotle's Syllogistic and Core Logic (PDF)

* TJH, Love & Justice in Anselm's Soteriology, at "Caput Mundi"

* Ben Holloway, A Defense of 'Extreme' Intentionalism (PDF)

* Peter Graziano, On Studiousness and Curiosity, at "Mercurial Thomist"

* Russell Sprout, Gilmore Girls as a Greek Tragedy, at "Sproutstack"

* Medieval Cookery

* John Dickson reviews T. C. Schmidt's Josephus and Jesus, at "The Gospel Coalition"

* Edward Feser, No, AI does not have human-level intelligence

* Brian Kemple's Aquinas Lecture: "Broken Minds: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Technology, and the Enslavement of Humankind":

Fortnightly Book, February 8

 'Gilgamesh' is the Akkadian version of the name for a king of Uruk; in Sumerian sources he is sometimes called 'Bilgames'. Our stories of him probably go back to various Sumerian poems, perhaps originally from the Third Dynasty of Ur, in the 21st century BC, of which a few late recensions here and there survive, but the earliest extant text of the tale of Gilgamesh is known as the Old Babylonian version, which survives in a few tablets, and is from the 18th century BC. A Hittite version, rather different in parts from the main stream, was worked up a few centuries afterward. A newer version, the Standard Babylonian version, was put together in perhaps the 11th or 12th century BC, and survives in fragments that have come to us through the rediscovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh in the 1850s. There are many other fragments, however, across this expanse of time. The destruction of the Assyrian Empire seems, however, to have mostly swallowed the Gilgamesh tale, as it did much more of the cuneiform literature; its resurrection is one of the great achievements of modern archeology.

I will be reading The Epic of Gilgamesh in the Penguin Classics edition translated and edited by N. K. Sandars. Like all other versions, it is a reconstruction, following the Assyrian collation in great measure, but drawing on other sources, such as the Old Babylonian; when Sandars first worked up a version in the 1950s she drew more heavily on the scattered Sumerian fragments than was common at the time. 

Homer, The Odyssey

 Introduction

Opening Passage:

Tell me the tale of a man, Muse, who had so many roundabout ways
To wander, driven off course, after sacking Troy's hallowed keep;
Many the people whose cities he saw and whose ways of thinking he learned,
Many the toils he suffered at sea, anguish in his heart
As he struggled to safeguard his life and the homecoming of his companions.
But he did not save his companions even so, though he longed to,
For their heedlessness destroyed them, theirs and nobody else's--
Fools that they were, like children, who devoured the sun-god Hyperion's
Cattle, and so he took from them the day of their homecoming.
Goddess, start where you will; daughter of Zeus, share the tale with us too. (p. 73)

Summary: The obvious story of The Odyssey is that of Odysseus, but this is merely the dominant of three interwoven stories.

The first, and most encompassing, is a tale of Athena. We begin the poem with Athena authorized by Zeus to begin the process of allowing Odysseus to return home. We end the poem with Athena, again authorized by Zeus, bringing to an end the bloodshed that threatens to flood over everything after Odysseus's return. Odysseus is her favorite, but he is opposed by Poseidon, and thus we have the story of Athena threading the needle as she works to bring Odysseus successfully home while not directly opposing her uncle Poseidon. (It is somewhat tempting to see her as being especially careful because some of her actions in The Iliad got her into trouble with the major gods, including Zeus himself.) She plays an active role, constantly showing up in disguises to advise heroes at opportune times, putting thoughts into mortal hearts, pouring divine splendor on people when they need to impress, bringing Odysseus ever closer to home. She also, as he returns, intensifies his difficulties, hardening the hearts of the Suitors trying to take his wife and his home and repeatedly provoking them to more extreme action. This is certainly in order to make his homecoming more splendid and definitive, but may also be a sort of sop to her uncle, making sure that Odysseus endures trouble not merely as he comes home but precisely so that he can come home despite being under Poseidon's wrath. She is a goddess, so she has no character arc; rather, she forms the story successfully to her satisfaction.

The second tale is that of Telemakhos. Twenty-ish years ago his father had gone off to war, so long ago that he does not really remember his father. When his father did not return ten(-ish) years ago with the other heroes of the Trojan War, his nightmare began, as men from all over descended on his homestead, nominally to woo the lovely Penelope, his mother, and they have stayed as guests, devouring the substance of his father's household. Telemakhos, of course, was too young to do anything about it, and now that he has recently become of age where he might do something, he finds that his options have diminished almost to nothing. The Suitors outnumber any forces he can command, and he is inexperienced, having no inkling of how he might extricate himself and his mother from their intrusion. We learn that he is quite clever, being a true son of his shrewd father and prudent mother, but he lacks his father's self-confidence and boldness, because he has never had an opportunity to develop them. The first five books of the poem follow Telemakhos as Athena guides him through this maze. He mounts an expedition, with her help (although unbeknownst to him, because she is disguised as Mestor), to discover news of his father. They visit Pylos and Sparta, where the mission is successful, in that Telemakhos does learn something about what happened to his father, and then return home in Book Fifteen, avoiding, with Athena's guidance, a fleet sent by the Suitors to kill Telemakhos on the way. This part of the story teases what has happened with Odysseus, and gives Telemakhos the preparation he needs for when his father actually arrives. However, there is arguably a third function that it fulfills, namely, that it buys Penelope and Telemakhos more time. Part of the host of Suitors is away from Ithaca in the attempt to assassinate Telemakhos; those at home therefore have incentive to await the results of that mission; Telemakhos gets away from the Suitors for a while, which lets him get a clearer view of the situation; and what is gained is exactly what is needed to allow Odysseus the time to arrive. In Book Sixteen, his story begins intersecting with his father's, and we find Telemakhos well prepared to assist his father in restoring the rightful order of things.

And, of course, there is the tale of Odysseus. Mendelsohn notes that the poem starts out without telling us his name (we only get it in passing after twenty lines), and that this is not an accident, because Odysseus is repeatedly associated with namelessness and disguises. The most famous case is his interaction with Cyclops, to whom he says his name is Outis, No-one. But throughout the tale we find a constant blurring between Odysseus and Outis. Whenever he meets someone, Odysseus presents himself as someone else; plays on words involving ou tis and similar phrases keep recurring; his identity is often in question, his whereabouts often uncertain, his very existence repeatedly called into question. This is because Odysseus is wandering in the Anti-Home. All of the troubles he faces are in one aspect or another the opposite of what it is to be home: the inertness of the Lotos-eaters, the savagery of the Cyclopeans, the strange seductions of tempting goddesses, all of the forms of uncivilized madness. Lost in such things, can a man have a name? Can he have that for which the name is a metonymy, a self? What is worse, this Anti-Home has laid siege to his own household, and he cannot stop being Outis, the Stranger, until he is in a position to restore Home. Then, and only then, can Odysseus fully be Odysseus. As he says when he finally stands forth to take his home back:

'Here at home I am, truly myself!' (p. 399)

Favorite Passage:

And so, when she saw the corpses and the endless rivers of blood,
She launched into the victory cry, so great was the deed she beheld,
But Odysseus kept her back and restrained her, though she was eager,
And addressed her then with words that flew toward her like arrows:
  "Rejoice in your heart, old woman, but hold back--don't sound the cry.
It is an unholy thing to gloat over men who have been slain.
What vanquished these men was a god-sent fate and their own wicked deeds,
For they never showed respect to anyone on earth
Who happened to cross their path, whether wicked or good at heart.
And so, through their heedlessness, they have come to a shameful end...." (p. 419)

Recommendation: It's The Odyssey, and the translation is quite good, so obviously, Highly Recommended.

*****

Homer, The Odyssey , Daniel Mendelsohn, tr., The University of Chicago Press (Chicago: 2025).

Child of Night and Silence

 Sonnet 13
by Anna Seward 

 Thou child of Night and Silence, balmy Sleep,
Shed thy soft poppies on my aching brow!
And charm to rest the thoughts of whence, or how
Vanish'd that priz'd Affection, wont to keep
Each grief of mine from rankling into woe.
Then stern Misfortune from her bended bow
Loos'd the dire strings;-and Care, and anxious Dread
From my cheer'd heart, on sullen pinion fled.
But now, the spell dissolv'd, th' enchantress gone,
Ceaseless those cruel fiends infest my day,
And sunny hours but light them to their prey.
Then welcome midnight shades, when thy wish'd boon
May in oblivious dews my eye-lids steep,
Thou child of Night and Silence, balmy Sleep!

Dashed Off IV

 drawing the solution from the problem like the sculpture from the block
the problem as the lock that structurally requires a certain sort of key
structural impediments to solution-finding (wrong kind of key) vs combinatorial impediments (size of the field of possible shapes of the right kind of key)

In matters of skill, exercise the skill in such a way as is consistent with a just society.

Every inquiry is a cooperation between practical reason and theoretical reason.

the literary sketch and the metonymies of human life -- seeing the person through his traces

metonymic depth and metaphoric depth in a story

All four gospels refer to Isaiah 40:3 LXX: Mk 1:2-3, Mt 3:3, Lk 3:4-6, Jn 1:23

We are usually most influenced by things we see identifiably but dimly.

guised being
(1) projection/imposition
(2) indirection
(3) translation
(4) perspectivalization
-- (4) is perhaps a version of (2)

guising with text, guising with model

Reasoning is always from understanding to understanding.

syllogistic functions
(1) non-illation (e.g., expository)
(2) subjectively illative (e.g., explicative)
(3) objectively illative (e.g., scientific)

principles of the way-of-tea
(1) wa (harmony)
(2) kei (respect)
(3) sei (purity)
(4) jaku (tranquillity)

truth as thing, truth as object, truth as value

The more personal something is, the more it seems to involve something of simplicity, immutability, eternity, and infinity; the personal suggests transcendence of measure and limitation, just as part of what it is.

'Be' may be a sign of identity, of predication, and of existence, and this is not mere historical account; and any account that does not make sense of how it can be all three is defective metaphysics.

'fact' as always about objects (perhaps a fact is a relationship of objects, itself taken as an object and recognized as corresponding to the relations of the things objectified -- or perhaps more simpy, true relation of objects, itself made or taken as objects)

justice as the virtue of social order

"In distributive justice, something is given to a person insofar as what belongs to the whole is due to the part...." Aquinas
"To govern is to bring the thing governed in a suitable way to its proper end."

It is pointless to talk about distributive justice until one has established something to be distributed.

Our concept of 'event' presupposes our concept of 'cause'.

Christ's humanity as perpetual memorial

the choralization (integration into heavenly choir and liturgy) of humanity

Satisfaction differs from retributive punishment in that the proper amends is not imposed externally.

Often one of the most important things you can do toward reform is to stop pretending that it is easy.

the giver, the gift, the spirit of the gift

Unlike secular citienship, which is developmental & often piecemal, heaveny citizenship comes altogether and at once.

Grace opposes guilt as a formal rather than an efficient cause (by internal exclusion/resistance rather than removal).

Even Christ had to prepare for His burdens.

A recurring problem of the modern age is the fictionalization of love, the repeated attempt to replace love with fantasies of it.

Where God does not require reparation, no human can have the right to demand it.

To love others well requires loving one's love of them.

the intelligible splendor of Christ

Kant regularly attributes to the intelligible features that belong to the superintelligible; but this helps him to explore the traces of the intelligible in the empirical itself.

ST 3.22.2ad3 is not in the manuscripts; it was added in the late sixteenth century by editors and perhaps presupposes a Suarezian view of Christ's holiness. (See Legge, Christology 140, referring to Rohof.)

Christ's human holiness is the same holiness that he shares with us. (Note that Peter in Acts 10:38 describes Christ's anointing in terms used elsewhere of His followers.)

Wisdom is the state of the intellect appropriate to the fullness of genuine love.

Habitual grace is instrumentality for divine purposes.

"The Holy Spirit, as we are taught by Scripture, is the cause of every perfection of the human mind." Aquinas, SCG 4.18

The minister works as minister, the soldier as a soldier, the servant as a servant, by a habitus.

"The Son, as the Word, gives us his teaching, but the Holy Spirit makes us capable of receiving that teaching." Aquinas In Ioan. 14.6

disposition to an act vs disposition within an act

Part of prudential action is to apply natura law, and part to situate ourselves within a broader natural lawfulness.

We knwo things in themselves, just not things in themselves apart from what we can know about them.

Truth is not the sole property of the speculative intellect; the practical intellect involves truth for action.

speculative intellect : truth of being :: practical intellect : truth of goodness

Learning is said in many ways.

"The wrath of God against sin is as changeless as His Love, of which indeed it is but one side or aspect." Hastings Rashdall
"To believe in the Son makes it so much easier to believe in the Father."
"Humanity is capable of, and (if any teleological assumption is justified) seems made for a good so much higher than any that is actually attainable in this life."

Imitations of realistic fiction drift farther and farther from reality the longer the chain of imitation extends.

Leclerq's division of charisms
(1) pertaining to instruction of the faithful: apostle, prophets, doctor, evangelist, exhortation, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discernment of spirits, glossolalia, interpretation of tongues
(2) pertaining to corporal aid: alms, hospitality, assistance, faith, charisms of healing, operations of miracles
(3) pertaining to government: pastor, presiding, deacon, charism of government

the artifact as a medium of cognition
-- note that to understand something, we might try our hand at making it, or, if that is not possible, a model of it, or, if that is not possible, a discourse about it
-- the artifact as such as medium vs the artifact as sign as medium

"Beauty has an infinite amplitude, like being." Maritain

For as far back as we can trace any evidence of poetry, poetry has suggested the supernatural or divine.

The imitations of fine art affect the spectators because they are assimilations to the things; we are drawn to things *through* the works of art.

In the fine arts, we are the supreme imitators, even the angels cannot best us, for it is our own field, oru connatural domain.

All genuine appreciation of art is a form of learning; who is not taught by the work of art cannot appreciate the work itself.

Sacraments are often doubly composed: word and thing, which makes the material sign, which is composed with the signification.

Artifacts have a double genus, one in the order of nature and one in the order of will or art.

The Characteristic of Truth

 The characteristic of truth is to be intimately related with a supreme unity out of which it evolves into plurality. Each unit of this plurality also gives rise to a further plurality of more limited truths, which in turn produce an abundant crop of truths that germinate further rich crops. So the seed of immortal truths, which continues to extend ever more widely, is classifed into species and genera and develops into various branches of knowledge, art forms and intellectual disciplines. The characteristic of truth, as I have already mentioned, is to flow into other truths, in which it is renewed and continually increases in number, without losing its primal unity and simplicity. It is so incorporeal and divine that, as I said, it finds no satisfactory likeness or representation anywhere amongst material, sensible beings. 

[Antonio Rosmini, Introduction to Philosophy, Volume I: About the Author's Studies, Rosmini House (Durham 2004) p. 20.]