Dark Eyes or Blue

Sweet Poets of the Gentle Antique Line
by J. H. Reynolds

Sweet poets of the gentle antique line,
That made the hue of beauty all eterne;
And gave earth's melody a silver turn,--
Where did you steal your art so right divine?--
Sweetly you memoired every golden twine
Of your ladies' tresses:--teach me how to spurn
Death's lone decaying and oblivion stern
From the sweet forehead of a lady mine.

The golden clusters of enamouring hair
Glow'd in poetic pictures sweetly well;--
Why should not tresses dusk, that are so fair
On the live brow, have an eternal spell
In poesy?--dark eyes are dearer far
Than orbs that mock the hyacinthine-bell.

Blue! 'Tis the Life of Heaven
by John Keats

  Written in answer to a Sonnet ending thus:--
  Dark eyes are dearer far
  Than those that mock the hyacinthine-bell--
  by J. H. Reynolds.

Blue! ‘Tis the life of heaven,–the domain
Of Cynthia,–the wide palace of the sun,–
The tent of Hesperus and all his train,–
The bosomer of clouds, gold, grey and dun.
Blue! ‘Tis the life of waters–ocean
And all its vassal streams: pools numberless
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside if not to dark-blue nativeness.

Blue! gentle cousin of the forest green,
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers,
Forget-me-not,–the blue-bell,–and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great,
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!

Keats and Reynolds had been introduced to each other by Leigh Hunt, and they became very close friends. Some great poetic talents (Edna St. Vincent Millay comes to mind as an especially clear example) ruin the lesser poetic talents around them by being so overwhelming; but with Keats it was the opposite, and he often brought out the best in other poets, and let them draw out the best in him, and Keats's correspondence and interaction with Reynolds is the best example of this feature of his poetic career. Keats was infinitely the better poet, but Reynolds was much wittier (he became best known for his satirical work) and, equally important, very generous to friends, so it is not surprising that they became and remained friends. Reynolds lived longer; and he insisted that his tombstone read, "The Friend of Keats".

Neither Evening Nor Morning Star

And the law bids us do both the acts of a brave man (e.g. not to desert our post nor take to flight nor throw away our arms), and those of a temperate man (e.g. not to commit adultery nor to gratify one's lust), and those of a good-tempered man (e.g. not to strike another nor to speak evil), and similarly with regard to the other virtues and forms of wickedness, commanding some acts and forbidding others; and the rightly-framed law does this rightly, and the hastily conceived one less well. This form of justice, then, is complete virtue, but not absolutely, but in relation to our neighbour. And therefore justice is often thought to be the greatest of virtues, and 'neither evening nor morning star' is so wonderful; and proverbially 'in justice is every virtue comprehended'. And it is complete virtue in its fullest sense, because it is the actual exercise of complete virtue. It is complete because he who possesses it can exercise his virtue not only in himself but towards his neighbour also; for many men can exercise virtue in their own affairs, but not in their relations to their neighbour.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics V.1

What Is Needful

When Aquinas and Augustine discuss "the needs of this life," whether in the context of food or money, they emphasize not just what is necessary for bare subsistence, but also what is necessary for living a life "becoming" or appropriate to human beings. The point is not to live on crusts of bread with bare walls and threadbare clothes. The point is that a fully human life is lived in a way free from being enslaved to our stuff. Our possessions are meant to serve our needs and our humanness, rather than our lives being centered around service to our possessions and our desires for them. What is "needful," even in this more expansive sense, is meant to be a limiting rule, so that our acquisitiveness does not expand without any bounds.

[Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices, Brazos (Grand Rapids, MI: 2009) p. 106.]

Music on My Mind

Peter Hollens, "The Parting Glass". One of the true greats among all folk songs. We know that some version of it existed by the very early seventeenth century, because we have quotations from it in letters and the like; it was first printed in full in the eighteenth century, and very few things have had its staying power. It captures almost perfectly part of human experience itself, a small part, but a genuine part. My favorite version is still George Donaldson's, but this one works fairly well.

Dashed Off III

The saints in purgatory satisfy their penal debt by doing what they did not fully do in life: letting Christ's love do its work and sharing in His passion.

Error must be exposed to light, not chased into warrens.

Democracy is government by enthusiasm.

Free society must be built

2 Pt 2:4 threw down to Tartarus (tartarized)

portal, immersion, and intrusion approaches to philosophical interaction
-> in effect you can get the analogy because these are modes for the sense of wonder

elegance : logic :: gracefulness : beauty

extrapolation as fractional reserve inference

'Clarity' is an aesthetic evaluation of arguments.

Gender terms operate at various degrees of abstraction, which should not be conflated; woman, female, feminine, she are not all on a level (and do not, for that matter, use the same reference points in practice).

possibilities and the principle of plenitude

Death of Judas as portrayed in Matthew // Death of Ahithophel as portrayed in 2 Samuel
- Note that Ps 41:9, which is applied to Judas, plausibly is applied to Ahithophel
- Note that there are even verbal similarities with LXX
- See J P Holding, who argues precisely for a typology here

subjective-reflective empiricism, social empiricism (general points of view), theory-driven empiricism
(one can adapt Sidgwick's discussion of hedonism very easily)

To say that Scripture has canonical authority is to say that is an internal regulator of the liturgy of the Church.

Greatness of mind is never measured by what one disbelieves.

divorce // suicide

"men are apt to think desirable what they strongly desire, whether or not they have found it conducive to happiness on the whole." Sidgwick

introspective, endoxastic, and deductive methods of aesthetic evaluation

Disquotation is in fact a switch from mention to use, from entertaining to asserting.

In philosophy, as elsewhere, crooked furrows may yet yield full sacks.

A rational self-love, precisely because rational, drives one to higher motivations and standards than itself.

To love oneself as a rational person requires loving oneself as being capable of higher things than merely loving oneself.

vainglory & thinking one can get away with it

The Father's explicit approvals in the Baptism and the Transfiguration establish the royal authority of Christ.

Christ exercises His roles as Redeemer, Prophet, and King constantly and without cease.

The problem with treating offensiveness as a crime is that it would be a crime for which anyone can manufacture evidence against anyone.

The right of reasonable conscientious objection is nothing other than the right of human beings to uphold their rights of conscience is an appropriate way.

"God is silence, and the devil is noisy." Robert Sarah

Confirmation is the sacrament of greatness.

Where we cannot define, we analogize.

The principle of rational accommodation seems to require that metaphors have meanings.

If possible reasonable responses to A and to B differ, this seems a good test of difference in meaning. What is more, the reasons for the difference are the best clue to how the meanings differ.

Business need not be done to maximize anything.

None can mount to heaven except by sharing the cross of Christ.

Inquiring into X does not entail suspending judgment about X. (For instance, one can believe but want to try to know.)

inquiries that are shared activities (e.g., police investigations)

curious whether X vs curious about X

"It is the business of the wealthy man / To give employment to the artisan." Belloc

(1) Catholic life consists in love of God and of neighbor.
(2) Love is practical.
(3) A practical solution to one problem can be part of the practical solution to another.

Who does not constantly try to do better is not growing as a person.

"The Holy Spirit bestows all things" and the Holy Spirit as Gift

The Son is explicitly acknowledged as such at the Annunciation as well as the Baptism & the Transfiguration.

Character is our grip on the future.

p therefore p or q // A exists, therefore No nonA is nonB

(1) The Father will give you another Paraclete. Jn 14:16
(2) The Father will send the Paraclete in the Son's name. Jn 14:26
(3) The Son will send the Paraclete from the Father. Jn 15:26
(4) The Son will send the Paraclete. Jn 16:7
(5) The Paraclete will come. Jn 16:13

acts of Magisterium: teach, remind, testify, guide, show, glorify, help, intercede

1 Corinthians 13 is not a denigration of prophecy, knowledge or faith; understanding the point requires having a very high estimate of these things.

hope as orientation to truth

transcendental postulates of love

The notion that sexual desire is not a sign of anything is one of the serious modern errors.

(1) Being-in-the-Church as the state of the Christian soul
----(a) What 'in' means here
----(b) Theological virtue as the concrete way in which the Christian soul is in the Church
(2) The Churchhood of the Church
----(a) The nature of the ecclesia
----(b) How the Church environs the Christian soul
----(c) The sacramental nature of life in the Church
----(d) The Church as the Body of Christ
----(e) The Church as the Bride of Christ
(3) Being-in-the-Church as Being-with-others
----(a) Being with Christ
----(b) Being with the saints (Church Triumphant)
----(c) Being with other Christian souls (Church Penitent)
----(d) Being with other Christian souls (Church Militant)
----(e) Separation from the world

Martyrs, virgins, and doctors give us anticipations of heaven in mundane life.

"in a universe without God there is not room enough for a man" GK Chesterton

The hubris of Bulgakov's sophiology becomes blatant whenever he criticizes the Church Fathers for not being Bulgakovian.

The questions of the existence, origin, and accuracy of perceptions and intuitions are interlinked although not conflatable. The common link seems to be the notion of foundation or ultimate reason.

Common sense morality will always tend to be satisficing rather than maximizing.
It is never devoted to making moral saints, only people decent enough to live with.

Human beings share in happiness through signs.

Box - ought to be judged true
Diamond - can be judged true
It makes sense to think of this in S5 or (at the very least) S5-like terms
An interesting idea is to conditionalize this (Given X, it ought to be judged true that Y)

God, as that in which all coheres, is the true and fundamental actuality of the principle of noncontradiction.

The 'temporal' logic appropriate to arguments seems to be discrete (unless we Achilles & Tortoise it), interval based, backward- and forward-branching; it would make sense to have universal modality and clock variables, and/or a difference operator

the Incarnation as the ultimate opposition to the practice of barbarism

the social necessity of philosophizing: discovery of goods, evaluation of means in light of ends, setting of priorities

It can matter whether someone is a victim. It never matters who is most a victim.

Hyopothesis-based methods as metaphysically satisficing rather than maximizing.

Christian charity is not a mere resolution to benefit others; that is just incipient benevolence.

Epistemic probabilities may explain how close we are to knowing; they do not tell us what we ought to believe.

modus ponens (-p+q, +p; therefore +q) // subalternation (-p+q, +p+p; therefore +p+p+q)
hypothetical syllogism // Barbara syllogism
modus tollens (-p+q, -q; therefore -p) // ?

Val(p:r) ∀ Box
DVal(p:r) ∃ Diamond
valid : indefeasibly good :: x : defeasibly good
- to get analogy to ∃, Diamond would need to be at-least-defeasible (i.e., D axiom)
-it would be nice to have interpretation for negation of argument (p:r), especially if we can get K-like inferences; most probably is 'any case in which p&q but not r' (but really DVal seems to mean, the premises don't yield the opposite conclusion0
-M doesnt;t make sense (existence of argument necessarily assumed regardless); chains of operators not on table, so this keeps it fairly simple. Is the appropriate logic just a basic deontic logic (That would make some sense)?
- a square of opposition with Val(p:r), DVal(p:r), ~DVal(p:r), ~Val(p:r)

The basic principle of ritual is that things must proceed from their sources in ways appropriate to them.

Beauty is that whereby we dwell beyond ourselves.

remote know-how (knowing how it can be done) vs proximate know-how (being able to do it knowingly)
this seems analogous to abstractive vs intuitive cognition

In considering the neighborhood of an argument, one would want to take into account truth or falsity (or at least conditional co-verity and co-falsify).

eustochia as the virtue of discovery

A true morality must be consistent, expressive of real rather than merely apparent good, and accessible to reason.

hypothesis & confirmation as a method for finding middle terms

the virtue of munificence in the liturgical commonwealth

works of mercy as the manual labor of the Church

the figurative corporal works of mercy within the sacramental economy

Ex 17:8-13 & the role of the bishop

The purifying action of grace in the Eucharist is the same as that in Purgatory, although the conditions of the recipients differ.

Scholarship consists of using breadth as a means for depth. The danger, obviously, is treating the means as if it were the end. Scholarship without breadth on the other hand, is using inadequate means. In eschewing the pedantic and the parochial both one reaches good scholarship. But the parochial is more truly scholarship than the pedantic.

For freedom of press to be protected properly, each citizen must be recognized as having at least some elementary press rights.
Part of freedom of press is freedom of people to read the press.

Note Suetonius's implied criticism of Seneca as Nero's teacher: "from the konwledge of the ancient orators, his master Seneca withdrew him, because he would hold him the longer in admiration of himself".

The priestly authority of Christ is expressed in the Church in the sacraments, the prophetic authority by its evangelization, the royal authority by its universality and independence. Thus bishops have a responsibility to uphold all three.

Each of the Gifts of the Spirit has a priestly, a prophetic, and a royal aspect.

Loving relationships require systems of equitable expectation.

It is essential to the health of one's conscience that it be formed with the consciences of others, especially the prudent and thoughtful. There are many ways this can be done, however.

Recognition of the principle of noncontradiction is a reflection of the divine in the human intellect.

"Devotion is nothing else than a certain readiness and aptness for doing good." Thomas Aquinas

the conditions of existence for rational life

Give More and Give Yet More

A Candlemas Dialogue
by Christina Rosetti

“Love brought Me down: and cannot love make thee
Carol for joy to Me?
Hear cheerful robin carol from his tree,
Who owes not half to Me
I won for thee.”

“Yea, Lord, I hear his carol's wordless voice;
And well may he rejoice
Who hath not heard of death's discordant noise.
So might I too rejoice
With such a voice.”

“True, thou hast compassed death: but hast not thou
The tree of life's own bough?
Am I not Life and Resurrection now?
My Cross balm-bearing bough
For such as thou.”

“Ah me, Thy Cross!—but that seems far away;
Thy Cradle-song today
I too would raise and worship Thee and pray:
Not empty, Lord, today
Send me away.”

“If thou wilt not go empty, spend thy store;
And I will give thee more,
Yea, make thee ten times richer than before.
Give more and give yet more
Out of thy store.”

“Because Thou givest me Thyself, I will
Thy blessed word fulfil,
Give with both hands, and hoard by giving still:
Thy pleasure to fulfil,
And work Thy Will.”

Voyages Extraordinaires #22: L'École des Robinsons

"An island to sell, for cash, to the highest bidder!" said Dean Felporg, the auctioneer, standing behind his rostrum in the room where the conditions of the singular sale were being noisily discussed.

"Island for sale! island for sale!" repeated in shrill tones again and again Gingrass, the crier, who was threading his way in and out of the excited crowd closely packed inside the largest saloon in the auction mart at No. 10, Sacramento Street.

The crowd consisted not only of a goodly number of Americans from the States of Utah, Oregon, and California, but also of a few Frenchmen, who form quite a sixth of the population.

Mexicans were there enveloped in their sarapes; Chinamen in their large-sleeved tunics, pointed shoes, and conical hats; one or two Kanucks from the coast; and even a sprinkling of Black Feet, Grosventres, or Flatheads, from the banks of the Trinity river.

The scene is in San Francisco, the capital of California, but not at the period when the placer-mining fever was raging—from 1849 to 1852. San Francisco was no longer what it had been then, a caravanserai, a terminus, an inn, where for a night there slept the busy men who were hastening to the gold-fields west of the Sierra Nevada. At the end of some twenty years the old unknown Yerba-Buena had given place to a town unique of its kind, peopled by 100,000 inhabitants, built under the shelter of a couple of hills, away from the shore, but stretching off to the farthest heights in the background—a city in short which has dethroned Lima, Santiago, Valparaiso, and every other rival, and which the Americans have made the queen of the Pacific, the "glory of the western coast!"

L'École des Robinsons, translated into English under titles like The School for Crusoes or, more commonly, Godfrey Morgan: A Californian Mystery, is, as one would expect from the title, a robinsonade; but while Verne loved a good robinsonade, he was often also amused at the absurdities and implausible coincidences that are common in such tales. In this work, Verne is obviously having fun with the genre by playing up precisely this angle and giving it all a different twist -- one that is somewhat predictable from all the clues, but with layers enough that the reader won't be able to guess the whole secret before the end.

Godfrey Morgan, who loves adventure tales and robinsonades, is the nephew of the immensely rich William W. Kolderup, and is set to marry Kolderup's goddaughter Phina. He wants to marry -- but he's put out at the fact that he hasn't seen the world yet (and perhaps is also getting cold feet), and so decides to take a trip around the world before he actually goes through with it. Little does he know that he will himself be stranded on a desert island (with his comic sidekick Tartlet, his dancing instructor)!