The Coverdale Translation of Psalm 107:23 sonorously extols them “that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters.” These lines have rolled over many bodies being committed to an ocean grave. A grieved prince of Wales read those words at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten. Nothing in literature is … Read more
As a youth, Churchill told Violet Bonham-Carter: “We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glow-worm.” He was the man for the world’s worst cataclysm, as Lincoln was the man for our nation’s defining moment. Both were, as the ancients were wont to say, Tam Marti quam Minerva or, paraphrased, as courageous … Read more
Would anyone like a sure-fire formula for a Broadway hit? I think this fits the bill: a one-act play in which Edmund Burke and Marie Antoinette are ship wrecked on a desert island. Burke himself set the tone for such a drama in one of his passages so memorable that it is quoted the world … Read more
“A lying mouth destroys the soul” (Wis. 1:11). Lying has become a governing etiquette in an age that has abandoned most refinements of manners. This may be a result of the general philosophical confusion about truth, but a mental breakdown of culture is rooted in a deeper and more universal heartbreak, for the 20th century … Read more
Adolf Frederick V, grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was born during the presidency of James Knox Polk, who was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. We might focus on the mighty Polk’s birth, as that partum from his mother’s womb coincided with the third partition of Poland. A more dour eye would rather focus on his … Read more
A reflection of Mark Twain abides: “How often we recall with regret that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity that his intentions were good.” Sympathetic words these, spurring the hope that my list of curiosities about Napoleon Bonaparte, the “Boney” of so … Read more
Sages have observed that while the public scene is afflicted with countless personalities who are false tinsel, only in Hollywood are people genuine tinsel. Falseness is not a universal trait of actors, although Samuel Goldwyn did say that in Hollywood an oral contract is not worth the paper it is written on. For various reasons, … Read more
Among the benefactions of gruel wars has been the promotion of medical science. The Hyksos invasion of Egypt advertised the curative properties of senna, at the Inca wars promoted cinchone and quinine. We could ask rhetorically, Would we know today about nux vominca had it not been for Chandragupta’s army? Robert Koch discovered the cholera … Read more
To investigate the quack theory of animal magnetism, a hypothesis of Franz Mesmer, for whom mesmerism is named, King Louis XVI appointed a committee that included Benjamin Franklin, for whom the Franklin stove is named, and Joseph Guillotin, for whom the guillotine is named. The king’s own decapitation on that machine was, as an American … Read more
Your scrivener writes these words with caution, for he is well aware of the power of coincidences to drive men mad. When someone mistakenly attributes a coincidence to enigmatic causes, the mind can reel right off the edge. I think of that woman who went bonkers ever so briefly when she blamed the New York … Read more
Although Persian and English share no etymological roots, the word “bad” means the same in both. This should alert us to another coincidence involving speakers of those two tongues. During World War II, Prince Hamid Qajar, who died in 1988, fought in the British Royal Navy under the pseudonym David Drummond, serving on H.M.S. Duke … Read more
As music is by a universal consent of philosophy the highest of arts, it can be counted on to have the most inspiring power over the intellect and will. So phenomenal a power able to stir the stern brow and soothe the savage breast must have other influences too. The art of the gods at … Read more
Some essays write themselves and this is one of them. In 1996 the philanthropist George W. Mallinckrodt gave a substantial gift to the Bodleian Library of Oxford University to preserve its vast collection of incunabula. When the gift was announced, Mallinckrodt said it was “a happy coincidence that one of my ancestors, the Canon of … Read more
The Aztecs could tell time on a mega-scale, being keen on sundials and calendars. If there was not some contact with the East, we are confronted with a mega-coincidence: Four of the twelve animal symbols in the Mongolian zodiac calendar are identical to those used by the Aztecs, and three others differ only as the … Read more
Anglo-Sino-Jewish connections form a triangle that dismays only those who sniff conspiracies in the Trilateral Commission and the fluoridation of water. I offer a few meager examples of the ties between these gifted races, like the English broadcaster who gives such useful information about the Hong Kong stock market on the Bloomberg News Radio. The … Read more
Many have read the explanatory note of 29 June 1998 about Pope John Paul II’s motu proprio Ad Tuendam Fidem issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the centenary of suffrage in Norway and the election of the former king Milan as commander-in-chief of the Serbian army. One hundred years later … Read more
As part of its game plan or the Third Millennium, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has sanctioned cremation. Previous Church practice had been against this, except in emergency situations, such as the much-exaggerated Spanish Inquisition. The bishops predict an increase in the number of dead people. With greater specificity, the Scottish poet Thomas … Read more
Few literary conventions are more useful than quotation of Aristotle when in a pinch. He gives a sheen to what might otherwise pass for inanity, especially when you do not know with perfect assurance what you are talking about. So we invoke his resolution: “It is the mark of an educated man to rest satisfied … Read more
In the shaky science of probability, it is considered bad form to ask, “How can you be sure?” The statistician cannot lose. If he says the odds against winning the state lottery are forty million to one (a suspiciously round figure), and someone wins, he can claim he was right. So too with the weatherman … Read more
Of all the blithe habits that befog our culture as it careens toward wreckage, one of the most annoying is the almost universal tendency to call Cunobelinus Cymbeline and Boudicca Boadicea. Cymbeline was just the poeticized name given by Shakespeare to the Briton king and father of Caractacus, or Caradawg, according to the listless labials … Read more
