Ahab Contemplates The Head Of A Whale

Quintus Curtius Literature , ,

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 the minutest fraction of a fraction.  We become aware of our limited vision, of our puny pretensions, when we see creatures who have access to realms that are beyond our powers.

Is there any living thing more awesome to contemplate in person than a giant redwood tree, extending its many fingers to the sky?

I had one such reminder of this truth today, and wanted to share it with readers while the feeling was still fresh.

This soliloquy comes from Chapter 70 in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.  The title of the Chapter is The Sphynx.  On deck lies the carcass of a captured whale, in the process of being stripped of its blubber.  The severed head of the whale has been hoisted against the ship’s side.

Another writer might see nothing of significance here.  After all, this is just the stinking remains of a whale.  But Melville sees something more.  He uses the ordinary, the repulsive, and the insignificant to make grand philosophical statements.  This is one of the reasons why Moby-Dick is such supreme literary achievement.

Read this passage aloud to yourself in a quiet moment.  It is Ahab’s soliloquy on the whale’s head.  The Shakespearean grandeur of the prose is unmatched.  It remains for me one of my favorites passages from the book:

Taking a few turns on the quarter-deck, he [Ahab] paused to gaze over the side, then slowly getting into the main-chains he took Stubb’s long spade–still remaining there after the whale’s decapitation–and striking it into the lower part of the half-suspended mass, placed its other end crutch-wise under one arm, and so stood leaning over with eyes attentively fixed on this head.

It was a black and hooded head; and hanging there in the midst of so intense a calm, it seemed the Sphynx’s in the desert.  “Speak, thou vast and venerable head,” muttered Ahab, “which, though ungarnished with a beard, yet here and there look hoary with mosses; speak, mighty head, and tell us the secret thing that is in there.  Of all divers, thou has dived the deepest.  That head upon which the upper sun now gleams, has moved amid this world’s foundations.

Where unrecorded names and navies rust, and untold hopes and anchors rot; where in her murderous hold this frigate earth is ballasted with bones of millions of the drowned; there, in that awful water-land, there was thy most familiar home.  Thou has been where bell or diver never went; has slept by many a sailor’s side, where sleepless mothers would give their lives to lay them down.

Thou saw’st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them.  Thou saw’st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed–while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms.  O head! Thou has seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham, and not one syllable is thine.”

 

Read More:  On Duties:  A Guide To Conduct, Obligations, And Decision–Making

Ancient Roman Advice On Dog Grooming And Care

Quintus Curtius Uncategorized , ,

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 sheep and goats.

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How The Romans Collected Beehives In The Wild

Quintus Curtius History , , ,

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

Quintus Curtius Thought ,

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

Quintus Curtius History , , ,

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 Loire, and the Argus.  The Medusa itself was captained by one Viscount Hugues Duroy de Chaumereys, a man who had had very little navigational experience.  The Medusa sailed from the island of Aix on June 17, 1816.

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The Country Of The Mind

Quintus Curtius Uncategorized

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 period of digestion, he is ready to test the efficacy of his knowledge in the sandy arena of mental combat. He bravely submits his findings to pubic review.

The active and inquisitive intellect does not overly concern itself with whether something is true or false, because it values ideas for their own sake, and draws creative inspiration from the stimulus that new ideas provide. It also knows that “truth” and “falsity” are relative concepts, and can shift position with startling speed. What was once true, may not be true tomorrow; and what was once false, can appear self-evident in another setting.

More important is it for us to swing our mental machetes through the tangle of vines and brambles of unchallenged knowledge.  We cut our way through, and enjoy the excursion.

Scientific paradigms are like flowers, and young girls: they last while they last. And when they expire, they are replaced by other paradigms that are better suited to the times. Certainty in science is a dangerous thing, as it is in religion.

It has been said that hell hath no fury like an angry theologian; but the same could be said for a piqued scientist whose sacred cow has been gored.

So let us enjoy the process of argumentation and discussion, and not retreat into our dogmatic igloos. I have enjoyed watching a creative mind wrestle with new ideas, and wander new savannahs of the Country of the Mind.

And this is what really matters here. We wish to be privy to the thought of an active intellect. Who among us can find fault with this?

Behind Everything Is The Unknowable

Quintus Curtius Thought ,

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 in his Autobiography that “Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic principles.”  That is, Aristotle’s conception of the “golden mean” seems to be the best determiner of truth.  So, for example, courage can be seen as the median between the extremes of rashness and cowardice.

Neither science nor religion can answer all questions.  The atheist rashly believes that science contains all the answers that matter.  But we find just as many absurdities in science as we do in religion.  Do we really even know what matter is?  As we divide and subdivide the atom, we get a nearly infinite plethora of particles, strings, waves, and vibrations, all existing (we think!) in an uneasy cacaphony.  Space, time, and motion all seem to be (so we are told) relative to everything else, a fact that leaves us feeling more helpless and bewildered than ever.  Grand theories that purport to explain everything are replaced every few decades by ever more grand theories.  We are left to scratch our heads.

The theologian hardly fares better.  He constructs intricate cobwebs of metaphysics to convince himself and others of the eternal truths that, with the passage of a few centuries, appear to be neither eternal nor true.  Perhaps the problem lies in the limitations of thinking itself, in the very process of cognition.  If we choose to think one way, we are steered towards “rational” explanations; if we choose to think another way, we are steered towards “spiritual” explanations.  Viewed in this way, it is not difficult to reconcile religion and science.  Both of them are different ways of approaching the Unknowable.  Our very act of thinking helps determine the outcome of the thought.

What is evolution?  Spencer defined it as “an integration of matter and a concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity…”  That is, systems move from a state of chaos to something that looks more ordered and “coherent.”  But things do not “evolve” upwardly forever.  At some point, what was once evolution begins to disintegrate back into disorder and simplicity.  Empires collapse; societies disintegrate; and genius reduces itself to absurdity.  Disorder evolves from order, and then the process begins again.  Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence is a reality.  All things will repeat themselves, as prophesied in Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue when he says (IV.31):

A second Typhys will then arise, and a second Argo to carry
Chosen heroes; a second war will be fought, and great Achilles be sent again to Troy.

With regard to biology, Nature cares more about groups of organisms than about individual organisms.  It is the perpetuation of the species that matters for Nature; she cares little for the virtue of the individual, only the fecundity of the race.  In fact, intelligence and fertility seem to be inversely related:  as intelligence grows, so is lessened the desire to breed.  On average, scientists and philosophers are not known for their procreative abilities.  The more highly developed a group or an individual is, the less fertile the group or individual seems to be.  It is as if all of the energy normally devoted to procreation is channeled into the refinements of civilization.

Organisms adapt themselves to their environments by the processes of natural selection; those traits that help ensure the survival of the species are passed on, and those that contribute little or nothing are marginalized.  The individual organism has little or no say in this grand process.  The process is random, uncontrolled, and imperceptible.

Is there a role for the individual in this seemingly impersonal process?  Apparently not.  At least this has been the rule historically; but it appears that humans are approaching some sort of tipping point where they will finally be able to “influence” the process of evolution.  Nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and robotics are poised to change the very definition of what it means to be human.  We are creating our replacements.  They are right before our eyes.

And this is precisely the point.  Once we begin to control the natural process of evolution–by using these new technologies–we have taken an evolutionary detour from which there will be no return.  We will have taken, perhaps, the first steps towards the development of a new species:  homo mechanicus.

We are evolving ourselves right into oblivion.

Read More:  Samuel Griffith:  Warrior And Scholar

 

Turning Ill-Fortune Into Good Fortune: The Story Of Peter Mark Roget

Quintus Curtius Biography , , ,

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 inspiring stories can lie hidden in the most unlikely places.  I knew absolutely nothing about Roget before hearing this book, but was taught a lesson in how misfortune can be turned to our advantage, if the right approaches are taken.  It is a theme I’ve written about often, and one that continues to hold my fascination.

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How Two Readers Started Their Own Manufacturing Business

Quintus Curtius Current News

I enjoy receiving email from readers that describes how they overcame their challenges and personal difficulties.  Sometimes readers also share their inspirational stories.  I recently received some correspondence from a reader who described how he and a friend turned a lifelong passion into an actual business, and thought it would be something of general interest to others.

People like to hear stories about how small companies progress from the “idea” stage to the implementation stage.  We hear so much these days about the outsourcing of business, and the general decline in product quality.  But innovative and exciting things continue to happen in the business world all around us, if only we know where to look.

The company that’s the subject of this post is called Delta2Alpha, and their business is pocket-knife manufacture.  When they contacted me and told me how they formed their business, I was curious to know the exact steps they took.  The two owners, who go by the names of Ace and Dante, described their background to me in this way:

We had similar upbringings; we were raised in rural areas by parents that carried values the a previous generation.  We grew up hearing phrases from our fathers like, “pull your weight,” “earn your salt”, and “this world owes you nothing.”  We even heard statements as cheery as, “the world isn’t fair, and it doesn’t care.”  We were taught the value of hard work and self-sufficiency, and the value of honor.

We were taught that a man should be good on his word and his handshake, but not everyone will be.  Most importantly we were taught that a man’s name (reputation) was built over years, on his own back, his accomplishments, and how fair he was with others.  A reputation was also built with his integrity, who he was when he thought nobody was looking. We were also taught that although it took years to build a reputation, but only a few minutes to ruin it.

We grew up fighting, hunting, shooting, buildings traps, making crude bow and arrows and going on adventures.  We would build forts down at the nearby creek a few miles away from home in summer…As all little boys growing up this way, we were given knives by our fathers.  We carried pocket knives from the time we were 6 years old to now.

Eventually, these shared interests came to be expressed in an entrepreneurial form.  Ace and Dante started a production company for knives called “Delta2Alpha.”  Their guiding principles were these, as they explain:

We combined our experience in machining, manufacturing, engineering, trades work, martial arts, military service, emergency services, and started Delta2Alpha Design Inc.

Our company design philosophy is simple:  we look at the problem, and how those problems have been solved historically.  After all, few problems are new, or unique.  We then talk to end users, or “the boots on the ground” and find out what they like or don’t like about the existing solutions.  We will then look at what improvements can be made using modern materials.

There is a principle we call, “the curse of the rounder wheel,” that we constantly keep in mind.  What we mean by it is, at a certain point a design is the best it will be, and any changes you make to it will only serve to make it worse.  Something can only be so round, and after that point you begin chasing your own tail.

We stay away from making things “gadgety.”  We intentionally avoid the use of small springs, switches, and buttons.  Sure, these things seem like a really good idea in the sterile pages of a magazine, or on the controlled environment of the show room floor.  However, it has been our experience that having these things on a knife will fail on you in the field, when you most need your equipment to work.

Spaced aged materials may seem like a great idea, but some of the materials just don’t feel “right” in your hand.  If you put grooves on the handle for your fingers, it will work great for those few people who hold the end product the exact same way that we do, and have the same size of hand.  If one of those people were to switch the product from their right to their left hand, or change their grip slightly, it will feel “off.”

We are also the end users of our designs, so we are committed to making products of the highest quality.  We don’t have an interest in releasing a new knife every 6 months “just because.”  We send our designs to production only after we have carried them, and extensively tested them.  Only when we find that we cannot improve the design any further, do we take our products to the production stage.  We may offer a future version of the design in a different color, different pocket clip, or perhaps a version with titanium liners (lightning).  Our designs will be few and far between, but worth the wait (and weight).

When I asked them how they started, they made it clear this way:  “We knew we wanted to build a legacy that would last a lifetime.  We had to keep the passion burning to put in the long hours of labour required to keep a multi-year project going.  We want to create products that stand the test of time.  In other words, to build “the great white shark.”

They knew that they had to invest in their idea and in their business.  Unlike a lot of people who start businesses, they realized that you have to produce something that has value.  They continued this way:

We knew that this wouldn’t be easy, timely, or cheap.  We had to convince many friends, retailers and strangers that it was a good idea to support us.  We hired a high quality graphic designer to keep a consistent style across our website and product creation…We asked for the help of another old friend and entrepreneur who has successfully created dozens of companies over his life time.  We interviewed numerous custom knife makers, trying to find a knife maker who could share our vision and build our prototype.

We traveled a great distance to visit him and his family in person, thanking him in person for his hard work and consistency.  We ultimately turned to the Italians, and [had another company] mass produce the end product.  Even though there were two of us at the head of this project, there were many, many people behind the scenes making the magic happen.  Most of the early money was pulled out of our own pockets and savings accounts.  Once we proved that we could sell the initial prototypes, we began to fund the project with “pre-order” sales.  Some of the people backing this project put in significant amounts of  money.  However, some of those early financiers had to wait a long time to see the end result.

In other words, they had a passion and they pursued it.  And they were prepared to accept the risks that come with any worthwhile enterprise.  But they were prepared to continue working and being patient.  And the patience paid off.  This is what it takes to be successful in business.  The old platitude about inspiration and perspiration turns out to be completely true.

The company’s design philosophy was deliberately to aim high.  They made no effort, and no intention, of competing with the cheap junk that you might find imported from overseas.  The emphasis here is on quality, longevity, and durability.  This is an important principle to keep in mind in business:  do not aim for the lowest common denominator.  Aim high.  Quality begets quality.  The fast-buck artists fade away fast.  Those who last are those with tenacity and those who have something real to offer.  

So Ace and Dante made a smart business decision:  they wanted customers who knew a good knife from a mediocre or bad one, and targeted that market.

And if you’re selling something of quality, people will eventually take notice.  One of their knife designs, the H2 Sierra, is explained this way:  “[T]his is the perfect folding knife. We didn’t want to trust the quality of its manufacture to just anyone. With that said, we are quite pleased to say we are working with a company from Italy, a country with not only a rich blade culture but also one with a tradition of old world craftsmanship.”  Italy is home to some of the most respected weapons designers, and it was intriguing to hear that they actually have connections there.

It seems that the way to success for a small business is this:  focus on what you know, do it in the best way you can, and don’t compromise on quality.  Hearing Ace and Dante’s story was motivating for me, and I hope others find it as exciting as I have.  If you believe in something, follow your passion, and be prepared to put in the work and the investment.  All the old adages about following your passion, and about putting in the brutal work, turn out to be true.  There is no magic wand, and there are no shortcuts.

I urge readers to check out their website (delta2alpha.com) to see more for themselves.

Read More:  Philology Is A Weapon

Celsus’s General Directives For Good Health

Quintus Curtius Health & Fitness, Literature ,

health2

The most famous book of Roman medicine was the work entitled De medicina; the author’s full name was most likely Aulus Cornelius Celsus, and tradition has shortened this mouthful simply to Celsus.  We know almost nothing of his life.  The rhetorician Quintilian describes him as a learned man writing on a variety of subjects, including agriculture, war, philosophy, and law; but of this output the only surviving part is his treatise on medicine.  His year of birth appears to have been around 25 B.C.

It is an unsettled question whether Celsus himself was a practicing physician, or just a compiler of medical information; in those days, it was not uncommon for a wealthy Roman gentleman to equip himself with a wide knowledge of practical medicine which would prove useful in handling his domestics and slaves.  The landed estates in the countryside, the latifundia, would need ready access to such information.  His book contains many details on surgical procedures, some of them quite advanced; but this is not conclusive.  He certainly understood Greek, and with his wide reading, he was able to condense much of the essentials of Hellenic medicine.

It is an interesting work, written in a lucid and simple Latin prose.  The introduction, or prooemium, of the book gives a fair and adequate summary of this history of medicine, summarizing the development of the several schools of medical knowledge (dogmatic, methodic, and empiric).  Anatomy is one of the cornerstones of medicine, and must be thoroughly understood; for this reason, dissection is essential.  He considers hygiene, prognosis, diagnosis, and prevention to be of critical importance; more diseases are avoided, he reminds us, than are cured.  Yet he is no faith-healer:  drugs and surgery are enthusiastically described and recommended when needed.

Of course, most of the information here has been superseded by the progress in medical science since his day.  But it is still interesting to see what riches can be found here, if only to satisfy our historical curiosity.  The least perishable part of Celsus’s advice lies in his general principles of good health, which I have tried to extract below.  Please note that this information is presented for historical purposes, and is not intended as medical advice or treatment.

1.  A man in good health should prefer variety to a tedious routine:  now in town, now in the country, with a variety of activities such as hunting, sailing, walking, running, and hiking.  Variety is critical.

2.  It is a good idea to frequent baths, but cold waters are also essential.  Alternating hot and cold baths can cure many maladies (II.17).  Frequent visits to the calidarium and the frigidarium should be accompanied by rubdowns.

3.  Sex (concubitus) is “neither to be obsessively sought after, nor to be feared; if it is indulged in infrequently, it excites the body.  If indulged in frequently, it restores it.” [Concubitus vero neque nimis concupiscendus, neque nimis pertimescendus est.  Rarus corpus excitat, frequens solvit.] I.4.  These are perhaps the wisest words ever spoken on sexual activity.

4.  Be careful about the environment in which you live.  You should try to live “in a house that is light, airy in summer, and sunny in winter.”   Try to avoid the sun at noon, and the sun in the morning.  Avoid also the evening chills.

5.  Beware of the vapors rising out of lakes, rivers, and marshes.  Frequently the air in such places can be fetid and latent with disease or pestilence.

6.  Observe your urine with frequency for any signs of discoloration or strange effect.

7.  In winter, it is a good idea to lie in bed during the entire night.  Siestas should be before the midday meal; when the days are short, the siesta should come after it.

8.  Exercise is always critical, and should preferably come before food.  Handball, running, walking, and all varieties of sport are examples of good exercise.  The exercise should “come at the end with sweating, or at least rest, which should be not utter exhaustion.”  [I.7].

9.  With regard to eating, too much is always a bad thing.  By the same token, excessive fasting or abstinence is no good either.  When eating, it is better to begin a meal with “savories”, salads, and small appetizers; after this, meat should be eaten, whether roasted or boiled [I.8].  Desserts are a matter of choice; they do no real harm to a healthy person in moderation, but to one with a weak stomach, they are a problem.

10.  Digestion after a meal is best aided with a drink of cold water, and then not sleeping for a time.

11.  If you desire to make any changes in your health routines or eating habits, it is best to accomplish such changes gradually.  Sudden changes can cause serious problems.

12.  Vomiting should not be seen as a bad thing; purgative action of the stomach sometimes does much good.  A vomit can be more advantageous “in winter than in summer, for then more phlegm and more severe congestion in the head occur.” [I.17].

health1

13.  You must become acquainted with the nature of your body in all different climates and environments.  Only in this way will you learn how to respond adequately to problems.

14.  Purging of the bowels can also be of advantage, and should be accomplished regularly by the eating of fibrous substances.  If these are unavailable, aloes can be used.  But this type of thing must be done with great care, as it may leave the body in a weakened state if done too often.

15.  Regarding hunger, we should be mindful of the following:  middle-aged people sustain hunger better than do young people and very old persons.  Wine should be diluted for children, but for old people, it should be more concentrated.  Constipation can be a problem if not addressed.  “It is better to be rather relaxed when young, and rather costive when old.” [Melior est autem in iuvene fusior, in sene adstrictior.] I.3.

16.  It is better to eat more in winter, and to drink less alcohol.  But the alcohol you do drink should be stronger than in the summer.

17.  Cold is very bad for aged people, but rather good for the very young.  Cold water baths or immersions are very good for the health generally.  It helps the stomach and joints, and tightens the sinews.

These, then, are some of Celsus’s general rules for the maintenance of good health.  It is interesting to note how frequently he mentions baths, rubdowns, anointments, and purgatives; these things were common in the Roman world, but fell out of widespread use in later centuries.  We moderns probably could still use more of them.

Reading him, we become suddenly conscious of just how toxic most of our daily habits can be to our general well-being.  It is also interesting to note how he links eating and drinking with times of the day, and the seasons of the year; perhaps we should pay as much attention to how we eat and drink, as to what we actually consume.  Balance, moderation, and variety emerge as underlying principles of health.  We would do well to remember this.

The information in this article is presented for historical purposes and is not intended as any specific medical treatment or healthcare regimen.  Readers looking for medical advice for their situation should consult with their physician.  

 

Read More:  Ibn Khaldun’s Theory Of Social Development