Links of Note, Noted

* Nick Romeo, Plato in Sicily

* Jennifer Fitz, Allowing Jesus to Heal Your Rhetorical Disease

* Zachary Ferguson, A Song Turned Sideways Would Sound as Sweet (PDF)

* Michael O. Eze on the concept of Ubuntu

* Tim Vernimmen, Why do humans embrace rituals?

* Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Mind of a Mother and Maker, discusses Dorothy Sayers

* An interesting discussion of the most recently discovered blue pigment (and the first newly discovered blue pigment in a long while)

* The Spilhaus World Ocean Map

* Matias Slavov, No absolute time , on Hume and Newton

* Justin Hawkins, Dignity Beyond Accomplishment

* Alana Newhouse, Everything Is Broken, looks at problems with the American medical system 

* Fr. Nicanor Austriaco looks at vaccination campaign concerns from the perspective of Catholic moral theology.

* Koraljka Suton, Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’: How Orson Welles Stole a Show He Was Barely In

* Maurice Glasman remembers Roger Scruton 

* Michael Lind, The Five Crises of the American Regime 

* Vinson Cunningham, What Thomas Jefferson Never Could Understand about Jesus

Six Poem Drafts

Brocéliande

The trees, which once were thick as waves
upon a spirit-laden sea,
are gone; the sea is like to glass;
no memory of storm remains,
of march of oak and elm and yew,
of tangle dark and forest thick.
No magic wells of fairy times
remain, no ghost of Merlin bound;
Melissa has long left  the shrine
where Bradamante heard future tales.
No Questing Beast remains to hunt,
no Corrigan with wicked wiles
leads men to doom; no Fairy Time
now runs with forelock men may seize.
Wace wept beneath woods desolate,
but longer still has earth revolved
since Norman days; the ancient lays
are silent like forgotten tombs.
The myth passed into legend's song,
the legend into fairy tale,
the tale into a rumor's breeze,
and rumor became a picture
in travel brochures for tourists,
or names for new five-star hotels.
But still in some such pilgrimage
a tourist may yet learn to dream
of Merlin by a magic well
beneath thick boughs of mystery,
and plant one tree, one little drop
that years may grow to forest-sea.

Blessed Joan Roig i Diggle

The men with guns are all about,
the blood shed by militia
is crying from the ground,
but I fear nothing;
I take the Master with me.

The men with guns have come;
I take communion swiftly
that bloodied hands may not defile
the sacred Host; I fear nothing,
I take the Master with me.

They take me and they bind me,
they take me out to shoot me,
five times do they shoot me.
May God forgive you as I forgive you!
Long live Christ the King.

Wind Song

North wind, north wind, where is your going?
Beyond the ice caverns the chill streams are flowing,
the ices in layers, above a great snowing,
and you a cold vision the seer-witch are showing.
Alas and away, on the bitter sea-road
a destiny calls and a life-debt is owed.

South wind, south wind, with wise, wistful moaning
you rush through bare lands beyond human owning;
what song from the witches is your mellow voice loaning,
away in the southlands for shadows' enthroning?
Alas and away, in the deserts will wait,
like a beast in the night-hunt, a merciless fate.

East wind, east wind, what words are you praying,
what truths are your angels in ecstasy saying,
what song do you carry from hell-houndlings baying,
with what trollish monsters in robber-lands playing?
Alas and away, a reverberant call
constrains every lifeline, encompasses all.

West wind, west wind, where are you flowing?
In Soria Moria is joy beyond knowing,
dawn beyond splendor where roosters are crowing,
where good life is had at the end of hard rowing.
Alas and away, away I must go
to desolate end in ice, storm, and snow.

Cleansing the Temple

The merchants of my senses sell
to cheat the hunger to do well
and turn to profit due to hell
even things of God.
With a whip of cords, with conscience, Lord,
cleanse the temple that is me;
undo, unmake, this den of thieves,
restore to godly purity
my heart; and to Your Father's house
Spirit send in sanctity.

Old Xenophanes

Epicurus said,
The real Olympus is a Garden,
splendor in interstices

where gods in tranquil pleasures
endure, converse, recline,
unworried by the troubles of the worlds.

-- But if cattle had gods, they would moo and chew cud.

And Zeno said,

The world is a living fire,
of reason and not desire,

a microcosm of virtue

that is logical and divine.

-- But if horses had gods, they would neigh in the herd.

And Aristotle said,

God is thought of thought,

the contemplative life in its peak,

the unrevolving thoughtful point

that every action seeks.

-- But if lions had gods, they would roar and hunt.

And Plato said,

The gods reflect the Forms

in perfection beyond decay,

as human minds reflect them

in ever-turning circles.

-- But if birds had gods, they would twitter and tweet.

And old Xenophanes said,

If dogs had gods,

the gods would bark and wag their tails.

But this is not an insult.

We human souls see ourselves quasi-gods,

and only know ourselves when we see,

as in an ideal picture, the gods,

each picture as it were a mirror

to some facet of the human gem.

And is it any accident that in restless days,

when people have thought there might be no gods,

they think human nature itself a fiction,

a misinterpretation, an illusion whereby we err?

For how can seekers of truth be otherwise

than something like the gods?

And old Xenophanes said,

One God, the greatest,

beyond mortals in form and thought,

immobile and all-thinking,

bodiless and free,

shaking all things,

known by virtue.

-- But if thieves had gods, they would steal;

but if adulterers had gods, they would philander;

but if liars had gods, they would lie;

and those who are nothing have gods who are nothing.

Melancholy Evenings

In shadowed dreams of solitude

I walked beside the silent stream;

the twilight stars in glint and gleam

reflected gloom and lassitude;

and lest I be the last to love

I gave a cry that echoed long.

Not even hint of swallow-song,

the gloaming would no comfort give.

The hounds of hell may voiceless bay,

the wind may sing in distant vale,

the stream one day might tell a tale,

but sounds I heard not on the way.

No sound, as though the air was still,

as though a deafness took my ear,

all calm. And as I could not hear,

I found I also could not will.

As when on edge of falling sleep

the body's powers slip away,

I could not move, try as I may;

my will itself knew slumber deep.

So far, the world so very far,

so distant from all touch and sight,

so dim, like swiftly fading light,

when thought is bound where shadows are.

And Love Is Greater than Like

The Greek language comes out with another word for love. It is the word agape. And agape is more than eros; agape is more than philia; agape is something of the understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return. It is an overflowing love; it’s what theologians would call the love of God working in the lives of men. And when you rise to love on this level, you begin to love men, not because they are likeable, but because God loves them. You look at every man, and you love him because you know God loves him. And he might be the worst person you’ve ever seen.

And this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, "Love your enemy." And it’s significant that he does not say, "Like your enemy." Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like.

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Loving Your Enemies".

Fortnightly Book, January 17

 When Rudolfo Anaya died in 2020, I knew I would at some point pick up his Bless Me, Ultima for a re-read, and this seems as good a time as any.

Anaya was born in 1937 in Pastura, New Mexico, and grew up in Santa Rosa. Bless Me, Ultima came about as an attempt to write a rite-of-passage novel about growing up in New Mexico, and he was thoroughly successful at that. It took a while to sell it to a publisher, because nobody was convinced that an English novel with that much Spanish in it would sell, but it was published in 1972, and became a New Mexican classic. It is the account of Antonio Marez, whose family takes in the curandera, Ultima, and from her Antonio learns about the past of his people and the land of which he is part, and from this how to grow out of boyhood and learn to love life.

Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Introduction

Locus Focus

Opening Passage:

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer, himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation; and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of half a dozen years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr. Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse. Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year. But Miss Frances married, in the common phrase, to disoblige her family, and by fixing on a lieutenant of marines, without education, fortune, or connexions, did it very thoroughly. She could hardly have made a more untoward choice.

Summary: Fanny Price, from an impoverished and poorly managed home, is sent from Portsmouth to Mansfield Park in Northamptonshire to be raised by her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram. The family (contrary to what I've seen in multiple summaries) does not for the most part treat her badly, but, except for Edmund, the youngest son who is a few years older than her, they treat her as an outsider, which is very hard for someone like Fanny, who is of a very shy and introspective disposition. She is expected to adapt to them, and not them to her, and while a more robust personality might have been able to offer them something to break the ice, young Fanny is simply not that kind of person. She does have to endure the continual pettiness of Mrs. Norris, who has a high opinion of her sister Lady Bertram's marriage and children and a very low opinion of her sister Mrs. Price's marriage and children, but this is counterbalanced by Edmund's kindness and willingness to stand up for her. The primary problem is that Fanny has gone from one mismanaged household to another mismanaged household. Mansfield Park is not as obviously mismanaged as the old home in Portsmouth, but some of that is because wealth can hide a lot of mismanagement, and some of it is because Sir Thomas's form of mismanagement is despite a genuine intention to manage things well.

There is an interesting discussion in Chapter XXV in which Sir Thomas talks about the responsibilities of the clergy, when explaining why Edmund will be residing in his parish:

“We shall be the losers,” continued Sir Thomas. “His going, though only eight miles, will be an unwelcome contraction of our family circle; but I should have been deeply mortified if any son of mine could reconcile himself to doing less. It is perfectly natural that you should not have thought much on the subject, Mr. Crawford. But a parish has wants and claims which can be known only by a clergyman constantly resident, and which no proxy can be capable of satisfying to the same extent. Edmund might, in the common phrase, do the duty of Thornton, that is, he might read prayers and preach, without giving up Mansfield Park: he might ride over every Sunday, to a house nominally inhabited, and go through divine service; he might be the clergyman of Thornton Lacey every seventh day, for three or four hours, if that would content him. But it will not. He knows that human nature needs more lessons than a weekly sermon can convey; and that if he does not live among his parishioners, and prove himself, by constant attention, their well-wisher and friend, he does very little either for their good or his own.”

This is notable, because everything that is said here about the clergy is easily adapted, mutatis mutandis, to parents. (This is quite deliberate on Austen's point; in the other significant discussion of the responsibilities of the clergy, in Chapter 9, it is explicitly tied to governance of the household.) A family has wants and claims that can be known only by a father constantly resident, and which no proxy can be capable of satisfying to the same extent. A father might 'do the duty' of the family, showing up occasionally to lead and to preach (as fathers do), being the father every so often for a few hours; but it will not do. Human nature needs more lessons than a weekly parental sermon can convey; if a father does not really live with his family, and prove himself, by constant attention, their well-wisher and friend, he does very little either for their good or his own. Change the terms from clergy to father, which you can very well do, and it reads as an indictment of Sir Thomas's parenting. Sir Thomas does the duty of the family; he does it, to his credit, very conscientiously and very well. But that's all he does. He is not in constant residence. He is, in fact, halfway across the world in Antigua for much of the book. (A significant portion of the plot is carried by young Tom Bertram's gambling problem, but he comes by it honestly, as his father is something of a gambler, too: West Indies investments would not have been safe investments. Because Sir Thomas is intelligent and competent, he is able to make them work, but it is at the cost of being away from home and having as his proxies a Lady Bertram who does nothing and a Mrs. Norris, who is all about means without any real regard for ends.) It is explicitly noted that his children don't really miss him, because Sir Thomas is not outwardly affectionate, so his being around dampens everybody down; it's also precisely because of this, that he has failed to prove himself by constant attention to be their well-wisher and friend, that Sir Thomas really doesn't notice that his children lack properly trained dispositions. After all, they are on their best behavior when he's around, and sigh with relief when he's gone.

Maria, the oldest daughter, becomes engaged to Mr. Rushworth, a well-meaning and extremely wealthy but rather stupid young man, largely due to the efforts of Mrs. Norris. Meanwhile, the Crawfords, Henry and Mary, show up in the neighborhood, and being charming and sophisticated and attractive, they are immediately popular. Edmund becomes attracted to Mary and both Julia and Maria to Henry. Henry is a flirt, and will do so with Maria right under Mr. Rushworth's nose. Tom, who has been with his father in Antigua, returns and, bored, pushes for family theatricals. They finally settle for Elizabeth Inchbald's translation, Lover's Vows, of August von Kotzebue's play, Das Kind der Liebe. The play is a highly moralizing one, but (as one would guess from the German title, "The Love Child") seduction and sex outside of marriage are significant elements of the plot, and it practice it is not really innocently chosen; the young people are participating because it allows for clandestine flirting under the cover of just practicing the parts. Far from being stopped by Mrs. Norris, it is encouraged (it is not her money, after all, that is being spent on building a stage). Fanny is pressured by everyone to participate; she refuses, on the ground that she cannot act, but is just about to crack under the united pressure when Sir Thomas returns from Antigua, happy to see his family but entirely unsympathetic to his household being upended and his rooms taken over for a theater to stage a play that does not seem appropriate for a family context. Maria and Mrs Rushworth marry, and they head off for London with Julia.

With no Maria around, Henry takes it into his head to try to make Fanny fall in love with him. He proceeds like a master in the process, but he is stymied by the fact (unknown to him) that Fanny is in fact already in love with Edmund, and this attachment to Edmund keeps her head clear enough that when he proposes to her in marriage, she rejects him. This just makes her more attractive to Henry, and astonishes everyone else; Henry is, after all, a very likeable and very wealthy man. Sir Thomas thinks that Fanny rejected Henry because living at Mansfield Park has led to her not appreciating how much someone like Henry can offer her, and arranges for her to visit her family in Portsmouth in the hope that it will make her see this. Henry visits and is even more charming than ever, and is obviously making a genuine effort to improve himself for her. She still will not marry him, but it begins almost to be plausible that she could. Throughout the story, Henry has shown an interest in 'improvement' in the landscaping sense, but his education and undisciplined temperament have led his notion of improvement to be entirely social and external, and this is true to the end of his entire approach to improving anything. He has no real sense of moral improvement. Henry is willing to make all sorts of improvements to himself for Fanny's sake, and is entirely sincere in doing them; he would no doubt succeed very well at them. But they are all about external compliance with Fanny's taste and not internal compliance with moral principle. That this is so, is seen very clearly when Henry visits the Rushworths, falls back into his flirting ways, and runs off with Maria in a scandal that makes the newspapers. Much the same is true of Mary Crawford, as well; charmed by her beauty and manner, Edmund discovers in the aftermath of the affair that, while she does in some sense genuinely love him, there is really no moral agreement between him and Mary. Around the same time, Tom's heavy living takes its toll as he falls from his horse and suffers a potentially fatal illness.

Fanny returns to Mansfield Park and her presence is a great consolation amid the disasters that have overtaken the family. Mrs. Norris  -- who wanted the scandal to be treated as no scandal at all -- has left to look after Maria, Julia elopes, the rest of the family pulls together more closely, and a new Price, Fanny's younger sister Susan, comes to (a much improved) Mansfield Park. Eventually, Edmund gets over Mary and he and Fanny marry.

Favorite Passage: This particularly struck me this time, namely, that Fanny's first real action as an agent in her own right is, as we would say, taking out a library card (note also the mention of 'improvement', a theme throughout the novel, associated with landscaping; Fanny has shown herself excellent at *being improved*, but now is her first conscious attempt at *improving another*):

The intimacy thus begun between them was a material advantage to each. By sitting together upstairs, they avoided a great deal of the disturbance of the house; Fanny had peace, and Susan learned to think it no misfortune to be quietly employed. They sat without a fire; but that was a privation familiar even to Fanny, and she suffered the less because reminded by it of the East room. It was the only point of resemblance. In space, light, furniture, and prospect, there was nothing alike in the two apartments; and she often heaved a sigh at the remembrance of all her books and boxes, and various comforts there. By degrees the girls came to spend the chief of the morning upstairs, at first only in working and talking, but after a few days, the remembrance of the said books grew so potent and stimulative that Fanny found it impossible not to try for books again. There were none in her father's house; but wealth is luxurious and daring, and some of hers found its way to a circulating library. She became a subscriber; amazed at being anything in propria persona, amazed at her own doings in every way, to be a renter, a chuser of books! And to be having any one's improvement in view in her choice! But so it was. Susan had read nothing, and Fanny longed to give her a share in her own first pleasures, and inspire a taste for the biography and poetry which she delighted in herself. 

Recommendation: Highly Recommended, of course.

Dashed Off I

As always, dashed off notes; take with a grain of salt.

natality as potential for newness and as need for help

the three terms of the human heart, each pointing to something beyond: natality, mortality, conscience

By resurrection in Christ we are freed not merely from the limit of mortality but also in a way from the limit of our natality, without these having been simply undone.

To respect oneself properly, one must respect others appropriately.

rebutting, undercutting, and costliness defeaters -- we do in fact treat excessive revision cost as a defeater

Ingarden's four existential moments of dependence
(1) contingency: for continuing to be
(2) derivation: for coming to be
(3) inseparateness: required co-existence in a whole
(4) heteronomy: for being and qualitative endowment

Most of what people think is public opinion is a false impression.

The created world itself is the first step of God breaking in.

"Men really pious delight in doing good by stealth." Cowper

All human reason is aided reason.

People have a tendency to say that things are meaningless from a cosmic perspective when their argument actually implies that there is no cosmic perspective.

Every living moment is a sliding from birth.

derivation of principles from normative descriptions
e.g.: 'Medicine is a cooperative endeavor between doctor and patient for the purpose of restoring and maintaining the health of the patient." From this one can derive a version of "Do no harm" (i.e., act in a way consistent with restoring and maintaining health), patient autonomy, doctor autonomy, and even more if you add supplementary principles.

Directed social change very often occurs by apprenticeship.

The Old Testament prophets prophesy by deed and type as well as by word, and Christ is consummately prophet in this, as well.

"The Bible may be considered as a consolidation of partial revelations." Alexander Stewart (The Tree of Promise)

Stewart on taking priests and Levites to be typical of ministers, elders, and deacons: "This principle, if admitted, would soon land us in Popery."

"...we ought to cherish an entire sympathy with the Church in all ages and nations. This, at least, is a catholicity which modern schism ought not to disturb." Stewart

the principle of Korah in attempts to revolutionize the priesthood: 'You take too much on you, seeing that the whole congregation is holy.'

the eucharist as holiness of holiness (Lv 10:12)
donation for the upkeep of the Church a memorial for atonement (Ex 30:16)
-- but note that it is always equally so (Ex 30:5)
cp to Cornelius in Acts 10:4 (prayer and alms as memorials for atonement)

holy of holies: Church Triumphant
sanctuary: Church Patient
outer court: Church Militant

shew-bread, incense, and candlestick symbols of Purgatory

The Gospel is for all, but the meal offering requires priesthood.

The Father : Father :: The Name : Son :: The Kingdom : Holy Spirit (Maximus the Confessor, on the Lord's Prayer)
-- this makes the prayer have a Trinitarian part and a Providential part

the habits appropriate to rights

The problem is never with philosopher-kings but with sophist-kings.

Repentance requires a prior mercy.

circumstances as ways of being relevant

moral heroes vs. moral geniuses

We may become obligated by choice, but obligation as such is not the sort of thing that depends on choice.

reception of human nature in conception // reception of human role in birth // reception of covenant in circumcision // reception of citizenship // reception of new character in baptism // reception of new roles in confirmation and ordination

Over half the Latinisms in the New Testament are in Mark, and this is unusual with respect to Greek texts generally, as well.

civility in discussion and hospitality to reasons

"These three sacrifices -- the burnt-offering, the meat-offering, and the peace-offering -- form a system, more or less complete. The 'holocaust', as a whole burnt-offering, shadows forth the completeness and perfection of the great atoning sacrifice. It was accompanied by the 'mincha', itself an atoning offering, as we have seen, and which points to the suretyship of the great antitype. The sufficiency of the surety was then shown to rest on the completeness of the sacrifice which it accompanied. Then followed naturally the peace-offering as a feast of joy and thanksgiving, in celebration of the peace which resulted from the sufficiency of the atoning offerings which preceded it." Stewart

the Feast of Tabernacles as a type of Purgatory

Parables teach by stages, and requiring being mulled over.

Note that the angel explicitly highlights St. Joseph's descent from David (Mt 1:20); in Luke, the angel seems to imply Mary's descent as well ("His father David").

None are so poisonous as those who try to use ethics to control the minds of others.

Noah and his family were saved by the ark from destruction; Moses and the Israelites were saved at the Red Sea, which destroyed Pharaoh's army; baptism saves the people of God, and outside it is a genuine destruction.

The Virgin is closely linked to the divine visible missions, being the one to whom the Annunciation happened and one of the ones for whom Pentecost happened.

forms of cooperation
(1) antecedent (preparatory)
(2) subordinate (instrumental)
(3) coordinate
(4) consequent

It is better for a bishop to be holy than to be intelligent or learned, but it does not follow from this that it is acceptable for bishops to be stupid and ignorant.

Sloppy liberal policy degenerates into kleptocracy; we see this again and again.

category theory in mathematics as a theory of operations on operations

internal morality of law: in legislature, in execution, in enforcement, in adjudication

internal morality of medicine: in prevention, in diagnosis, in remedial treatment, in regimen, in surgical treatment, in palliation

Every political system eventually turns into a mockery of itself.

the personalist principle as taking specific form within the context of humanitarian traditions

Marginal cases and gray areas in ethics show the limits of specific articulated rules; they do not show the falseness of the judgment or sense articulated. Good sense is not harmed by difficult cases.

'ground' as that by which it is knowable why a thing exists

No one is exempt from being able to commit any evil solely on the basis of the kind of person they naturally are.

No society can be free that treats itself as if it were the only society of which its members are a part.

rational pluralism of societies & conscientious objection

No single human society can fulfill all needs of the human person.

The Anecdota of Procopius is so over-the-top and tabloid-like, nothing in it can be taken seriously.

Recognizing conscientious objection is part of
(a) respecting persons as ends in themselves
(b) justice toward others in nonmaleficence
(c) reciprocity in recognizing that you might find yourself in an analogous situation
(d) building a wall against totalitarianism
(e) giving people power in a free society.

conscientious objection and the right to protest
conscientious objection and subsidiarity

The rights of children develop within the environment of the rights of their parents, the rights of spouses overlap with each other, etc. Rights are not atomistic but things that unite us.

Scandal as a sin against justice has a certain range, scandal as a sin against charity an even greater range.

command, counsel, consent
praise, protection, participation
concealment, nonprevention, nonrejection

liturgy as folkswork, theology as Godlore

the internal morality of parenting

personhood, spousehood, parenthood, citizenship, profession

The natural and obvious meaning of Scripture is that which it has in the preaching, practice, and prayer of the Church.

typology based on a sense of the resemblance of the whole
typology based on comparison of features, point by point
typology based on function within the broader organization

"progress in science depends upon the observation of the right facts by minds *furnished with appropriate ideas*" (Peirce) -- as he notes, this is Whewellian

Concretely Possible Chicken

But most possibles are not bare, they are concretely grounded, or well-grounded, as we say. What does this mean pragmatically? It means, not only that there are no preventive conditions present, but that some of the conditions of production of the possible thing actually are here. Thus a concretely possible chicken means: (1) that the idea of chicken contains no essential self-contradiction; (2) that no boys, skunks, or other enemies are about; and (3) that at least an actual egg exists. Possible chicken means actual egg--plus actual sitting hen, or incubator, or what not. As the actual conditions approach completeness the chicken becomes a better-and-better-grounded possibility. When the conditions are entirely complete, it ceases to be a possibility, and turns into an actual fact.

William James, Pragmatism, Lecture 8: Pragmatism and Religion