Of a Writer’s Soul

And thus do we of wisdom and of reach With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out. – William Shakespeare, Hamlet Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works, yet we require critics to explain the one …

Truth vs. Utility

Courtesy of Pints With Jack “Theology teaches us what ends are desirable and what means are lawful, while Politics teaches us what means are effective.”— CS Lewis, God in the Dock

For Every Error (One Truth)

"THERE is something to be said for every error; but, whatever may be said for it, the most important thing to be said about it is that it is erroneous." ~G.K. Chesterton: "Illustrated London News," April 25, 1931.

The Door into Everything

A report of GMD's 1885 sermon (reprinted in "Wingfold" Summer 2007) indicates the extent to which the subjects of science and religion had been entwined in his public speaking, another foundational aspect of the "Truth" chapter in "US III": "Christ is the door into everything man can know aright, This is true even in matters …

On Comus, with George

… A report of GMD's lecture on Milton, which relates his thoughts on Milton's poem "Comus": "With all honour to science, and he dare not say a word against science, for it was not of man's invention, but of God's ordering, God having given that man might find out--yet more than a knowledge of any …

Life — Smilingly Unraveled

“It may be argued again that dissatisfaction with our life's endeavour springs in some degree from dulness. We require higher tasks, because we do not recognise the height of those we have. Trying to be kind and honest seems an affair too simple and too inconsequential for gentlemen of our heroic mould; we had rather …

Ars longa, scientia brevis.

Ars longa, scientia brevis. (We read this little witticism in Chesterton’s essay, Hamlet and the Psychoanalist. Apparently it was a twist on the popular phrase, “art is long, life is short.” Which in turn was turned from its original by Hippocrates, “skilfulness takes time and life is short.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_longa,_vita_brevis) The glory of science is to …

Literary Manichaeism

It would be foolish not to recognize the growth in our criticism of something that I can only describe as literary Manichaeism—a dislike of peace and pleasure and heartsease simply as such. To be bilious is, in some circles, almost the first qualification for a place in the Temple of Fame. We distrust the pleasures …

Born Under Festal Jove

The poetry which represents peace and joy, desires fulfilled and winter overgone, the poetry born under festal Jove, is of a high and difficult order: if rarity be the test of difficulty, it is the most difficult of all. In it Chaucer has few rivals and no masters.CS Lewis, The Allegory of Love

Not Oppressive Evils

"Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star." "I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I …