Charles L. Barzun, Where is the Law? A Dialogue
Historic judicial decisions come from “outside the law.”
No citizen of your realm is sure of not seeing his liberty sacrificed to private spite, the spirit of revenge: for no one is so great as to be safe from the hatred of a minister, so little as to be unworthy of that of a clerk. —Malesherbes to Louis XVI, quoted in Hazen, Modern Europe, p. 105
I took only one course with Barzun, and I’m quite sure that my views on poets and novelists were formed before we met. If they hadn’t been, Barzun would never have bothered with me. He didn’t want acolytes; he wanted people with whom he could discuss books. —Arthur Krystal
Two New Books by Arthur Krystal
Arthur Krystal, A Word or Two Before I Go
“These eleven essays and one evocative story range in subject matter from the depredations of aging and the anomalies of cultural appropriation to the friendship between Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling and the day Muhammad Ali punched Krystal in the face.”
Arthur Krystal, Some Unfinished Chaos: The Lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald
What is your level of confidence that the pendulum has swung so far that we will head back to some form of truth and reason? —Jim Sano
Opinions will change, but the Powers That Be will try to prevent the swinging back, and the pendulum may break.
I’m glad that Internet Archive provides the Perennial Edition of From Dawn to Decadence.
We are none of us tolerant in what concerns us deeply and entirely. —Coleridge, quoted in Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, p. 273
This means that in a free society the State must be tolerant, within the limits of public order.
There are 147 en dashes in Gospel Scenes and Reflections and one em dash.
If Henry Adams were the echo of Gibbon, we would not greatly value the pastiche. —Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, p. x
It is waste of breath to point out that every observer is in some way biased. It does not follow that bias cannot be guarded against, that all biases distort equally, or that controlled bias remains as bad as propaganda. —Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, p. x
Me: Did you have a good shower?
Visitor: Great! Look how clean I am!
Me: Haven’t you heard? Albany dirt is invisible.
Sketch of an inaugural lecture on The Christian Renaissance of the 20th Century to be given by Alan Jacobs. HT @ReaderJohn
“The Greatest of Sinners” isn’t a competition.
On earth as it is in hell.
A Man's A Man for A' That
There is a commonplace in St. Thomas Aquinas’s psychology according to which all learning occurs within an imagination and an experience stirred by a man’s own history and encounter with being. Two students can grasp the same reality, but each one will do so according to his own peculiar mode of knowing. —Frederick Wilhelmsen, “The Great Books: Enemies of Wisdom?"
We each understand “man” and “woman” and “——man” and “——woman” according to our own peculiar modes of knowing; and with free speech, each of us has the right to express our understandings.
Tales from the Collection: Mary Murphy, Morely[sic] the Toothless Mastadon[sic] This homebrew rehearsal was apparently considered fit for publication.
George I of England did not understand a word of English and, as his ministers were similarly ignorant of German, he was compelled to resort to a dubious Latin when he wished to communicate with them. —Hazen, Modern Europe, p. 51.
One large disappointment about Catholicism is its seeming inability to discern evil men. Recent examples appear to include McCarrick, Maciel, Vanier, Rupnik, and perhaps others still in power. The Church lives in reality. Why is it blind to evil men?