There used to exist a literary genre called the consolatio, or consolatory essay. It is the type of thing that would be written by one person to another on the event of some terrible personal tragedy, such as the loss of a loved one. Sometimes (e.g., in the case of Boethius) the writer simply wrote it for himself. The ancient authors recognized it as a form of oratory, but it has been out of fashion for a long time now.
I have finally finished the complete translation of Cicero’s On Duties. It has been an exhausting, laborious, maddening, and joyous experience. There still remains a lot of work to do before it is finally ready for publication: revising, editing, adding more textual notes, indices, explanatory essays, and a few other things. But the end is finally in sight.
One reader thinks his test scores in school could use some improvement. He sees some mediocre people getting good test results, and wants to know how he can improve this skill set. I offer some suggestions that apply not just to academic tests, but to other fields of life.
Julian (A.D. 331-363) was one of the most fascinating emperors of the later Roman empire. While a full description of him and his reign is beyond our scope here, a few words may be said. He spent a great deal of time and energy trying to revive paganism, only to see his hopes dashed on the rocks of reality. He was an ascetic personality, subsisting on little food and many books; and it is said that he preferred the salons of the philosophers to the intrigues of the palace.
I much prefer to be in a country that has a strong sense of nationalism than one which does not. One tends to respect those who respect themselves. One also tends not to respect those who have no sense of tradition, heritage, or pride in their nation’s past. Societies infected with the globalist ethic have a few things in common: excessive deference to English, obsequious worship of Americanism, and mindless parroting of liberal talking points. You get the idea. Even if the nationalism happens on occasion to make mistakes, it is still better to have that than the alternative.
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A reader is distressed about something he has been accused of at his university. He seems to be tormented by guilt. I explain how important it is for us to forgive ourselves when we’ve done something wrong, and move on.
I have lately been testing the durability of the idea of human “progress.” It is a subject that has interested me now for some time. We recently examined the idea of progress advocated by Fontenelle. We will now turn to another important French thinker who played a significant role in the idea of progress, a man whose name is unfortunately almost forgotten today. His name is Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, but this is usually shortened to Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743).
It is a cliche that knowledge is power. But sometimes, not knowing something is also power. There is power in saying “I Don’t Know.” Let me explain what I mean.
Columnist Andrew Bacevich recently wrote an article for the Dallas Morning New entitled “Why America’s All Volunteer Force Fails To Win Wars.” The article makes the point that something is seriously wrong with the US military. While most of the article is couched in politically-correct innuendo and a studied avoidance of the real problems, it at least has the merit of pointing out the obvious. And this is that the military has sold out the martial virtues, and replaced them with something else.
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The first Western thinker to come up with a comprehensive theory of “progress” was Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757). His importance today rests on the fact that he was a promoter and popularizer of the ideas of Rene Descartes in the face of the sustained attacks that Cartesian ideas came under from established religious and academic circles. Descartes was one of the true visionaries of the Western tradition, and is rightly considered to be one of the fathers of modern philosophy and science.
Quintus Curtius 
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