ARTICLES ARCHIVE

 

You can find a complete listing of all the articles on this site here. They are listed in reverse chronological order, and are all clickable links. Twenty-five articles are displayed per page, with the publication date included. To find older articles, click on the page numbers at the bottom.

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  • Pantheon Is Now Available

    (Click on the cover image above for purchase information). My second book, Pantheon, is now available.  You can find out all the specific details on the book and its contents by clicking on the “books” tab in this website’s home page, and then selecting “Pantheon.” It is offered in both paperback and in Kindle reader.    What is…

  • Countdown To Pantheon

    My second book, Pantheon, is on schedule to be released this week.  It is the culmination of a great deal of effort on my part. I have forged the sword.  It is now for you to grasp the pommel. Pantheon is a longer (35% longer, to be precise), more complex, and more textured work than…

  • On Why Too Much Attention To Pets Is Unwholesome Vanity

    Plutarch relates a story at the beginning of his Life of Pericles.  He tells us that the emperor Augustus, on one of his frequent forays into Rome to mingle with the people, once caught sight of some foreigners making merry with some small monkeys and puppies.  They were carrying the animals here and there on…

  • Anthony Swofford’s Memoir “Hotels, Hospitals, And Jails”

    I like to listen to audiobooks in my car.  A few years ago I made the decision that listening to the news was just too much like drinking hemlock, day in and day out.  I couldn’t handle the constant negativity, the snippets of bullshit that are designed to confirm the prejudices of the listener, and…

  • The Consolation Of The Natural World

    Seneca’s Natural Questions (Quaestiones Naturales) is an oddity of philosophical literature.  It does not fit into any neatly defined category, and stands nearly alone in its blend of science and speculative philosophy.  Perhaps “science” is not quite the correct word.  Our philosopher makes no experiments, and attempts no generalized scientific conclusions.  He is more concerned with…

  • The Three Types Of Travel Writing, And Their Uses

    Travel writing is a popular genre.  We live in an age of travel, where it is easy to plan a sojourn to the most remote of locations.  Most people today hardly give a thought to the fact that their routine international destinations of travel were, until very recently, accessible only by ship or overland travel.…

  • Dealing With Grief, And Providing Comfort

    Cicero believed that there were four “disorders” of the soul:  delight, lust, distress, and fear (Tusc. Disp. IV.12-15).  He believed that all of these disorders were the products of either some judgment, or some belief.  In other words, we ourselves create the conditions for these disorders, by our own flawed judgments or erroneous beliefs.  And…

  • The Need For Adventure

    Adventure activates the imagination, and kindles the fires of creativity.  Experiences intensely lived–even vicariously–have a way of forcing the mind into new patterns; they slash through the tangled undergrowth of our overgrown routines.  The masculine soul has a deep need for adventure, conquest, and the plunge into the unknown.

  • Good Facts Are Not Enough: The Material Requirements Of Victory

    By trade, I am a practicing attorney and a partner in a law firm.  In my fifteen year legal career, I have tried a large number of criminal cases in federal and state courts.  I have also litigated an equally large number of complex business and consumer bankruptcy matters in federal bankruptcy courts.  This background,…

  • Cicero’s Four Cardinal Virtues

    According to Cicero, the sources of moral righteousness are four in number (De Officiis I.15): 1.  The perception and intelligent development of truth (In perspicientia veri sollertiaque versatur); 2.  The preservation of civil society, with the faithful rendering to everyone what he is properly owed (In hominum societate tuenda tribuendoque suum cuique et rerum contractarum…

  • Why Avoiding Time-Wasters Is Important

    Whether you are in business for yourself, or you are an employee, you will be beset by time-wasters.  Of the many people in the world, a good proportion fall into this category.  Time-wasters drain your energy, contribute no value to your life, and upset your serenity.  They are everywhere.  To get the most out of…

  • The Dark Themes Of Film Noir, And Why They Matter Today

    In the 1940s and 1950s, a new genre of film began to filter out of Hollywood.  It was a hard-bitten, cynical genre, dealing with themes that movies had not dealt with before.  It’s often said that jazz is the only truly unique American art form.  This is not exactly true.  Film noir is a cinematic…

  • Titans Of Arabian Exploration

    (To find the book, click on the image above) This week I will consider one of the titans of Arabian exploration, Wilfred Thesiger. You can click here to read the article.  Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) may be considered the last of the great English adventurer-explorers of the Orient in the tradition of many such characters from…

  • Shattering The Old Paradigms

    There are times when existing methods of explaining phenomena prove themselves to be inadequate.  What is then required is for some brave soul to step forward, smash the old idols, and propose new ones.  The act is a singular one, requiring courage and an independent will.  These virtues, of course, are not found in abundance…

  • Horace’s Prophecy

    (To find the book, click on the image above)   I came across a startling prophecy in Horace (Odes 16): Altera iam teritur bellis civilibus aetas, suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit …. Impia perdemus devoti sanguinis aetas, ferisque rursus occupabitur solum. Barbarus heu cineres insistet victor et Urbem eques sonante verberabit ungula… I render…

  • On Conflict

    What is the nature and purpose of conflict, and how may it be dealt with?  These are questions that have been considered by many through the centuries.  And rightly so, as conflict–in which I include war as well as any other clash of wills–is at the core of existence.  Whether we speak of Nature or…

  • On Detractors

    The poet Naevius noted that “mortal man is forced to endure many evils.”  (Pati necesse est multa mortalem mala, as quoted in St. Jerome’s Epistulae, LX.14).  Few would dispute this sentence.  One of these evils is the attack of the detractor.  Anyone who has become noted in a field of endeavor will at some point embolden…

  • Author’s Note For “Pantheon”

    [The excerpt below is the foreword to the book Pantheon: Adventures in History, Biography, and the Mind] An author’s foreword often takes the form of an apologia.  So it is with this one.  We find ourselves compelled to renew our study of the nature of man, and the many dimensions of masculine virtue, which first began…

  • Pantheon: Adventures In History, Biography, And The Mind

    My next book, Pantheon, is nearing completion.  It is expected to be released in late March or early April 2015.  Like Thirty-Seven, it will also be a collection of essays.  The themes of the book are:  redemption through suffering, the importance of masculine character, victory through perseverance, the finding of a moral purpose, and the…

  • The Launch

    And now we begin the great journey. I had resisted getting a website at first. But I soon came to realize that for me, as a writer, having my own platform was the best way to amplify my voice. This site is the result.  The launch of this ship is a beginning, but will have…

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Original copy of Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties) published in Holland in 1642.  From the collection of Fortress of the Mind.