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The Ethic Of Prison Camp Survival
One of the greatest accounts of suffering and survival that I’ve read is the book Prisoners of the Japanese by writer Gavan Daws. It’s a compendium of anecdotes, stories, and harrowing accounts of Allied prisoners taken by the Japanese Army in the Pacific. More than this, it is a painstakingly-assembed oral record of the men–almost all…
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Back To The Basics: The Educational Teachings Of John Comenius
I’ve recently learned something about the theories and works of a little-known philosopher and educationalist named John Comenius (1592-1670). He was a Czech cleric perhaps best remembered for his progressive theories on universal education. Some exposure to his ideas made me realize just how out of focus the educational system is here in the United States.…
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“Do What I Say, Not What I Do”
We live in times where our “leaders” at the top lecture us on duty and responsibility, yet aggregate to themselves a larger and larger portion of the pie. They grow fat on your labor, and on your backs; and yet you have very little to call your own. And in their spare time, they sweep away…
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Stephen Mitchell’s “The Iliad”
I like to listen to audiobooks when driving around. News doesn’t interest me as much as in years past, and I can get what I want from websites. I recently rented Stephen Mitchell’s new translation of The Iliad from my city’s library, thinking I would give the old tale another chance. I had read bits and…
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Delusion Is The Enemy Of Precision
I’m not a big Sherlock Holmes fan. Some of the stories are amusing, but I never really warmed to the character. (I do like Arthur Conan Doyle’s science fiction and suspense stories, but that’s a separate conversation). Anyway, about Sherlock Holmes. He used to have a saying that “Passion was the enemy of precision.” And…
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Beauty Seeks Beauty, And Ugly Seeks Ugly
Essayist and Japan observer Alex Kerr wrote a very perceptive collection of essays on Japanese culture and his experiences with it. The book was released in the 1990s and was called Lost Japan. I admire the book very much. The essays in the book are unified by one theme: his quest for the hidden beauty…
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Adding Much-Needed Variety To Your Fitness Routine
Everyone knows that physical fitness is crucial. It is the bedrock that supports the other activities of the body and the mind. But it’s often necessary to change things up a little. It’s too easy to slip into a rut, to fall into a trap of feeling that we’re well-rounded, when we may not be.…
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7 Reasons Why You’re Not Reaching Your Foreign Language Learning Goals
Language acquisition and learning are subjects that I’m interested in. Over the years, I’ve worked very hard to acquire knowledge a detailed knowledge several foreign languages. I’ve lived in several countries, and have never had a problem conversing in the local language. And I’m not just talking about rattling off a few survival phrases, either.…
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Ruthless: A Memoir By Jerry Heller
[My article this week at Return of Kings is about my impressions from reading Jerry Heller’s 2006 book Ruthless: A Memoir. It’s a fascinating journey into the world of N.W.A., the seminal rap group that became a sensation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.] I still remember the time I first listened to N.W.A.’s Straight…
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The Positive And Negative Power Of Humiliation
In our perpetual quest for mastery over ourselves and our environment, we are often reminded that life can deal us hardships. The Chinese peasant has been wont to say that he must get used to “eating bitterness.” But what if there were a way to turn this to our advantage? What if there were a…
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Talent Applied Consistently Is Never Wasted
The following parable is found in Aulus Gellius (XVI.19), who himself takes it from Herodotus (I.23). It reminds us that effort and talent, if applied consistently, will eventually reap rewards.
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Arousing The Fighting Spirit In Your Men
The historian Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. 40-103 A.D.) wrote an interesting book called Stratagems (Strategamaton) which provides historical examples of various military ruses. It is actually a vast digest of historical examples that was meant to serve as a commander’s handbook of military advice. One of the chapters I was reading recently I wanted to…
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Onde a história, a ciência e a biologia se cruzam (A Reader’s Translation)
A reader has translated one of my recent articles that was published here on June 7 (“Where History, Biology, And Religion Intersect“) into Portuguese for publication on his blog. I thought that was pretty cool. He sent me the link, and I wanted to share it. “Onde a história, a ciência e a biologia se…
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Quintilian’s Guidelines For Boys’ Reading
The Roman rhetorician and teacher Quintilian (c. A.D. 35-100) is a rich source of tutelage for the student of proper speaking and writing. His Institutio Oratoria explores hundreds of subjects related to rhetoric and educational techniques. He remains a master of melioration. One section of his treatise (I.8) discusses guidelines related to reading habits for boys.…
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The Roman Preparation Of Salt Pork
My most recent articles here have focused on a different type of subject matter than that which I normally write about. Change is refreshing. In recent weeks, I’ve had a lot of enjoyment going through the primary Latin works on agriculture and farming: these are Columella’s Res rustica, Cato’s De agricultura, and Varro’s De re…
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Making Mead The Roman Way
This is Columella’s recipe for the alcoholic drink called mead; it is found in his Res rustica, XII.41. Mead is a fermented drink made from honey, to which may be added spices and other aromatics. Wines of various types as well as mead were the principal alcoholic drinks in the days of ancient Rome. Beer, although…
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Ancient Methods Of Preserving Olives
We continue our perusal of Roman organic and agricultural practices. Columella (XII.49) give the following instructions for the preparation of olives. Basic Method 1. During September and October, while the olive harvest is ongoing, the bitter Pausean olive (acerba Pausea) can be harvested. 2. The olive should be crushed and soaked for a short time…
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Ahab Contemplates The Head Of A Whale
There are moments in life for quiet contemplation. These are moments when we set aside our worldly cares, our tumescent and irritating thoughts, and contemplate the awesome Unknowable of what is in this world. Of all that has ever been, or is, or will be, we in our poor powers of comprehension will only know…
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Ancient Roman Advice On Dog Grooming And Care
We will continue our excursions into Columella’s Res rustica with a summary of his advice on the buying, care, and grooming of dogs. In his day, as in ours, the dog was an essential animal to have on the farm. Besides companionship, it provided security and assisted in the management of other domesticated animals, such as…
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How The Romans Collected Beehives In The Wild
Who Was Columella? In perusing forgotten volumes, we occasionally come across something of great interest. I had one such experience yesterday, and thought that writing about it would be a refreshing departure from some recent more serious fare. Sometimes learning should be frivolous.
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Where History, Biology, And Religion Intersect
Some recent articles I’ve read have made me reflect on the interrelationship between religion, science, and history. How do they intersect, and how has one influenced the other?
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The Wreck Of The “Medusa”: Ineptitude, Bad Leadership, And Tragedy
As part of the 1815 Peace of Paris settlement that ended the Napoleonic Wars, England agreed to cede to France some West African possessions near Gambia and Senegal. To implement this turnover, the French maritime authorities sent the vessel Medusa and three smaller ships to the Senegalese coast: these were named the Echo, the La…
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The Country Of The Mind
He who inhabits the Country of the Mind takes ideas as his stock-in-trade. The inhabitant of this Country likes to read new works, to mull them over, to wrestle with their implications, and to gnaw on them in the same way that an eager puppy scrapes its growing teeth on a steakbone. And, after a…
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Behind Everything Is The Unknowable
The never-ending debate between faith and reason, and between science and religion, leaves us more perplexed than ever. Explanations generate more questions than they answer. Behind every apparent certainty lies an inscrutable unknown. If we see science and religion as opposite poles, then perhaps we can begin to see the wisdom in Herbert Spencer’s assertion…
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Turning Ill-Fortune Into Good Fortune: The Story Of Peter Mark Roget
I am almost finished with listening to the audiobook of Joshua Kendall’s The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus. Kendall’s book is a biography of Peter Mark Roget, the British scholar-magus who created the classic reference work Roget’s Thesaurus. Here again it is proved that often the most…
Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642. From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.
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