Poems: Walter De La Mare
In honor of the upcoming celebration of the Eve of All Saints, I offer these eery poems by Walter De La Mare.
Author: Thomas Fleming
Utopias Unlimited, Part II
In turning the conventional on its head, Gilbert was able to see into the paradoxes that lay just beneath the surface of Victorian morality.
A Letter from Alabama: The Legacy of Colin Powell by the Alabaman
Former U.S. Secretary of State, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell has died, according to reports in the media, from “Covid complications.” Since General Powell had received all the government coerced shots, skeptics may be wondering how this could have happened! The mainstream media legacy of Colin Powell does not entirely match up with the historical record.
Utopias Unlimited, Part I
This essay on the ethics of W.S. Gilbert has been revised and considerably expanded.
Gilbert and Sullivan, Part I: A Brief and Informal Guide
There are many studies, commentaries, and guidebooks to the world of Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. I have read or consulted several them over the years, and I will provide a little bibliography as this series—undertaken in response to requests—but I disclaim any specialized knowledge that is not in the hands or in the heads of perhaps tens of thousands of people who have read, watched, and listened to their work for many years.
Resisting Evil, V: The Fundamental Things of Life
Instead of plunging headlong into the tedious history of self-defense legislation, let us rather begin (as Plato or John Locke might) by imagining a state of society in which there is no legitimate authority or, at least, no legal power to protect the innocent or punish the guilty. We do not have to dig into the ethnographic accounts of such violent peoples as the Ifugao of the Philippines or the Yanamano of South America. The Celtic, Slavic, and Germanic peoples of Europe provide a rich record of violent periods in which self-help and vengeance were a normal means of protection...
The Autodidact Remembers
Once upon a time I decided to learn Japanese. I had none of the usual practical reasons: no business interests that would take me to Japan nor even an academic project comparing Noh plays with Attic tragedy.
Poetry: George Meredith
Meredith is best known as the author of such novels as The Ordeal of Richard Feverel and The Egoist, but he was also, at his best, a fine poet. Unfortunately, much of his poetry is more like fiction in verse.
The New Index, Revised: Deleting the Bad Great Books
Reading Rousseau can be entertaining and at times ennobling, but it is a bit like practicing white magic or playing with Tarot cards. We are inviting the demon into the house of our mind. Fugite hinc. Latet anguis in herba.
Resisting Evil, IV: The Duty to Defend
Christ’s equation of physical violence with internal anger raises questions that juries often have to face: What are the circumstances that might justify the use of lethal violence in self-defense? Specifically, when an argument leads to a violent altercation, does the one party bear any responsibility for the consequences if, though the other party struck the first blow, his own anger was a contributing factor?
