Face to face

 

 

Εἶδον σαφῶς τι οἱ θεοὶ οὐχ ἡμῖν δήλως λέγουσι, μηδὲ φέρουσιν ἡμᾶς ἀποκρίνασθαι. Πρὶν ἂν ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἔπος ἐξ ἡμῖν ἕλκηται, τὶ ὀφείλωσιν ἄκουσαι τὸν λῆρον ὃν νέμομεν ὅτι λέγομεν; Πῶς ἡμᾶς συναντήσωσιν εἰς ὦπα, πρὶν ἂν ἔχωμεν ὦπας;

 

(Eîdon saphôs ti hoi theoi ouch hēmîn dḗlōs légousi, mēde phérousin hēmâs apokrínasthai. Prin an ekeîno to épos ex hēmîn hélkētai, ti opheílōsin ákousai ton lêron hon némomen hóti légomen? Pôs hēmâs synantḗsōsin eis ôpa, prin an échōmen ôpas?)

 

I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer.  Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?

 

—C. S. Lewis, Prin An Echomen Opas (Till We Have Faces)

 

A custom

 

Mos erat ab hoc principe consilioque introductus (et dissimillimus, ut mihi latum, ab usibus antiquioribus), quo Imperator, cum decretum erat a judicio ullum supplicium crudele mortis ad gratificatum aut dolori rectoris aut malevolentiæ deliciarum, semper orationem habebat ad totum consilium, in qua loquebatur de sua lenitate et mollitia magna, quæ per orbem terrarum cognoscerentur. Quæ oratio statim per regnum disseminabatur, nec ulla res tam populum perterrere solebat quam illa encomia clementiæ regalis; quia, ut videbant, magnificentiores atque pertinaciores erant laudationes, inhumanior erat pœna, innocentiorque punitus.

 

It was a custom introduced by this prince and his ministry (very different, as I have been assured, from the practice of former times,) that after the court had decreed any cruel execution, either to gratify the monarch’s resentment, or the malice of a favourite, the emperor always made a speech to his whole council, expressing his great lenity and tenderness, as qualities known and confessed by all the world. This speech was immediately published throughout the kingdom; nor did any thing terrify the people so much as those encomiums on his majesty’s mercy; because it was observed, that the more these praises were enlarged and insisted on, the more inhuman was the punishment, and the sufferer more innocent.

 

—Jonathan Swift, De Peregrinationibus Gulliveri (Gulliver’s Travels)

Courage

Σκόπησον τὸ θάρσος. Οὐδὲν ὡς συνέχει τὴν νοῦν καὶ συνέπλεξε τοὺς ὁρισμοὺς τῶν σοφῶν τῶν μονῶς εὐλόγων. Θάρσος σχεδόν ἐστι ὑπεναντίωμα. Ἐστί γαρ ἐπιθῡμία μεγάλη ζώειν ἐν τῇ μορφῇ προθῡμίης ἀποθανεῖν. “Ὁ ἀπολέσας τὴν ψυχὴν ἀυτοῦ, εὑρήσει αὐτήν,” οὔκ ἐστι αἰνιγμάτιον τοῖς ἁγίοις καὶ ἀριστεῦσι. Ἐστὶ νουθέτησις ἐπιτυχοῦσα τοῖς ναύταις καὶ ὀρεινοῖς. Γραφείη ἐν βιβλίῳ περὶ τὸ τὰς Ἄλπεις ὑπερβαίνειν ἢ τὸ γυμνάζειν τῶν στρατιωτῶν. Τοῦτο τὸ παράδοξόν ἐστι ἡ ὅλη ὑπόθεσις τοῦ θάρσεος, καὶ τοῦ ἀνθρωπειοτέρου ἢ θηριωδεστέρου. Ἀνθρώπος τῇ θαλάττῃ ἀπειλημμένος σῴσαι ἂν τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ζωὴν εἰ αὐτὴν ἐν κρημνῷ παραβάλοι. Μονῶς τὸν θάνατον ἀποφυγεῖν δύναται τῷ πολλάκις δακτύλου ἐντὸς βαδίζειν αὐτοῦ. Στρατιώτῃ ὑπὸ τῶν πολεμίων περιβεβλημένῳ, ὡς ἑαυτῷ ὅδον ἐκτεμών, συνεστέαι ἐπιθῡμία μεγάλη ζώειν καί τις ἀκήδεια πρὸς τὸ ἀποθανεῖν. Ἐκεῖνον χρὴ οὐκ αὔτως τὴν ζωὴν γλίχεσθαι, ὥς γαρ δειλὸς γενήσεται, μηδὲ ἀποφεύξεται. Ἐκεῖνον χρὴ οὐκ αὔτως τὸν θάνατον προσμένειν, ὥς γαρ ἑαυτὸν αὐθέντης γεγήσεται, μηδὲ ἀποφεύξεται. Χρὴ ἐκεῖνον μανικῶς τὴν ζωὴν ζητεῖν ὦν εἰς αὐτῆς ἀμελής· χρὴ τήν μεν ζωὴν ἐπιθῡμεῖν ὡς τὸ ὕδωρ, τόν δε θάνατον πίνειν ὡς τὸν οἶνον.

 

(Skópēson to thársos. Ouden hōs synéchei tēn noûn kai synéplexe tous horismous tôn sophôn tôn monôs eulógōn. Thársos schedón esti hypenantíōma. Estí gar epithȳmía megálē zṓein en tê morphê prothȳmíēs apothaneîn. “Ho apolésas tēn psychēn autoû, heurḗsei autḗn,” oúk esti ainigmátion toîs hagíois kai aristeûsi. Esti nouthétēsis epitychoûsa toîs naútais kai oreinoîs. Grapheíē en biblíō peri to tas álpeis hyperbaínein ē to gymnázein tôn stratiōtôn. Toûto to parádoxón esti hē hólē hypóthesis toû thárseos, kai toû anthrōpeiotérou hē thēriōdestérou. Anthrṓpos tê thaláttē apeilēmménos sṓsai an tēn heautoû zōēn ei autēn en krēmnô parabáloi. Monôs ton thánaton apophygeîn dýnatai tô pollákis daktýlou entos badízein autoû. Stratiṓtē hypo tôn polemíōn peribeblēménō, hōs heautô hódon ektemṓn, synestéai epithȳmía megálē zṓein kaí tis akḗdeia pros to apothaneîn. Ekeînon chrē ouk aútōs tēn zōēn glíchesthai, hṓs gar deilos genḗsetai, mēde apopheúxetai. Ekeînon chrē ouk aútōs ton thánaton prosménein, hṓs gar heautonauthéntēs gegḗsetai, mēde apopheúxetai. Chrē ekeînon manikôs tēn zōēn zēteîn ôn eis autês amelḗs: chrē tḗn men zōēn epithӯmeîn hōs to hýdōr, tón de thánaton pínein hōs ton oînon.)

 

Take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.

 

—G. K. Chesterton

Rome

 

 

Non amata est Roma quia magna; magna fuit quia amata.

 

Men did not love Rome because she was great; she was great because they had loved her.

 

—G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Abstract changes

 

 

Commutationes abstractæ in conceptis moralibus semper incoporantur in realibus atque definitis eventibus. Historia est scibenda, in qua principes Medici, Henricus VIII et Thomas Cromwellus, Fridericus Magnus et Napoleon, Walpolus et Wiberfors, Jeffersonus et Robespierus, intelleguntur actionibus suis exprimere, sæpe partim et variis modis, easdem commutationes notionales, quæ in disciplinis philosophiæ exponuntur a Machiavelle et Hobbe, a Diderote et Condorceto, ab Hume et Adame Fabre et Kante. Non debent esse duæ historiæ, una de civilibus atque moralibus actionibus aliaque de civilibus atque moralibus theoriis, quia non fuerunt dua præterita, una solis actionibus, alia solis theoriis, incolitur. Quæque actio est gerulus et enuntiatio sententiarum atque conceptorum magis minusve theoriis oneratorum; quæque theoria et enuntiatio sententiæ est actio politica atque moralis.

 

Abstract changes in moral concepts are always embodied in real, particular events. There is a history yet to be written in which the Medici princes, Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, Frederick the Great and Napoleon, Walpole and Wilberforce, Jefferson and Robespierre are understood as expressing in their actions, often partially and in a variety of different ways, the very same conceptual changes which at the level of philosophical theory are articulated by Machiavelli and Hobbes, by Diderot and Condorcet, by Hume and Adam Smith and Kant. There ought not to be two histories, one of political and moral action and one of political and moral theorizing, because there were not two pasts, one populated only by actions, the other only by theories.  Every action is the bearer and expression of more or less theory-laden beliefs and concepts; every piece of theorizing and every expression of belief is a political and moral action.

 

—Alasdair MacIntyre, “After Virtue”

Duty

 

 

Nullum est verbum nostra in lingua sublimius quam officium. Hoc conare facere in omnibus rebus. Not potes melius, nec umquam optandum a te peius, facere.

 

There is no word in our language more sublime than duty. Strive to do it in all things. You cannot do more, and you should never wish to do less.

 

—Robert E. Lee

We hold these truths to be self-evident

 

 

 

Ταύτᾱς τὰς ἀληθείᾱς νομίζομεν ἀξιώματα εἶναι, ὅτι οἱ πάντες οἱ ἀνθρώποι πεποίηνται ἴσοι, ὅτι αὐτοῖς ὑτὸ τοῦ Δημιουροῦ δεδομένα τινά δικαιώματα ἀναπαλλοτριώτα, ὅτι ἐν τούτοις εἰσίν ἡ ζωή, τἐλευθερία, καὶ τὸ διώκειν τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν.—Ὅτι ἵνα ταῦτα τὰ δικαιώματα φυλάσσωνται, καθίστανται ἐν ἀνθρώποις πολῑτείαι, τοὺς κράτους δικαίους λαμβάνουσαι ἐκ τῇ τοῦ δήμου ὁμολογίᾳ.—Ὅτι εἴ τις πολῑτεία γεγένηται ἀσύμφορα εἰς τούτους τοὺς τέλους, δικαιώμα ἐστὶ τοῦ δήμου αὐτὴν ἀλλάξαι ἢ καταλῦσαι, καὶ νέαν πολῑτείαν καταστῆσαι, τοὺς θεμελίους καταβαλόντες εἰς οἵᾱς ὑποθέσεις, καὶ τοὺς κράτους συνστήσαντες εἰς οἷαν τάξιν, ὡς αὐτοῖς δοκοῦσι ἐπιδοξόταται φυλάσσειν τὴν ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίαν καὶ εὐδαιμονίαν.

(Taútās tās alētheíās nomízomen axiṓmata eînai, hóti hoi pántes hoi anthrṓpoi pepoíēntai ísoi, hóti autoîs hypo toû Dēmiourgoû dedoména tiná dikaiṓmata anapallotriṓta, hóti en toútois eisín hē zōḗ, t’eleuthería, kai to diṓkein tēn eudaimonían.—Hóti hína taûta ta dikaiṓmata phylássōntai, kathístantai en anthrṓpois polīteíai, tous krátous dikaíous lambánousai ek tê toû dḗmou homologíā.—Hóti eí tis polīteía gegénētai asýmphora eis toútous tous télous, dikaiṓma esti toû dḗmou autēn alláxai ē katalŷsai, kai néan polīteían katastêsai, tous themelíous katabalóntes eis hoíās hypothéseis, kai tous krátous synstḗsantes eis hoîan táxin, hōs autoîs dokoûsi epidoxótatai phylássein tēn heautôn sōtērían kai eudaimonían.)

 

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 

—The United States Declaration of Independence

 

 

In my time

   “Cupio non debuisse evenire in meo tempore,” dixit Frodo.

   “Cupio quoque,” dixit Gandalphus; “et cupiunt quoque omnes, qui talibus in temporibus vivunt. Hoc tamen non est eorum decidere. Solum est nostri decidere quid faciamus temporibus datis.”

 

   “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

   “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

 

—J. R. R. Tolkien, De Domino Anulorum (The Lord of the Rings)

 

Silence

 

 

Κρομουελλος. Ἀλλὰ πῶς εἴη; Διότι αὕτη ἡ σιγὴ ἐσημαίνε— αὕτη ἡ σιγὴ ἦν—οὐ σιγή, ἀλλ’ εὐγλωσσοτάτη ἐξάρηνσις!

Μωρ. Οὔκ ἐστι. Οὔκ ἐστι, ὦ Γραμματεῦ. Ἡ παροιμία ἐστι “Qui tacet consentire”· ἡ παροιμία τοῦ νόμου ἡγεῖται ὅτι σīγῆσαί ἐστι συγχωρήσαι. Εἴ γαρ σὺ βούλει ἑρμηνεύειν τι ἐσήμηνε ἡ μοῦ σιγή, ὀφείλεις ἑρμηνεύειν ἐμὲ συγχωρήσαι, οὐκ ἀρνήσασθαι.

Κρομουελλος. Καὶ ἐκεῖνο ἀληθῶς οἱ πάντες ἑρμηνεύουσι; Σὺ προσποιεῖ ὅτι ἐκεῖνο σὺ βούλει  ὑπὸ τῶν πάντων ἑρμηνεύεσθαι;

Μωρ. Ὀφείλουσιν ἑρμηνεύειν οἵ μεν πάντες κατὰ νοῦν, τό δε δικαστέριον κατὰ νόμον.

 

(Kromouéllos. Alla pôs eíē? Dióti haútē hē sigē esēmaíne—haútē hē sigē ên—ou sigḗ, all’ euglōssotátē exárēnsis!

Môr. Oúk esti. Oúk esti, ô Grammateû. Hē paroimía esti “Qui tacet consentire”: hē paroimía toû nómou hēgeîtai hóti sīgêsaí esti synchōrḗsai. Eí gar su boúlei hermēneúein ti esḗmēne hē moû sigḗ, opheíleis hermēneúein eme synchōrḗsai, ouk arnḗsasthai.

Kromouéllos. Kai ekeîno alēthôs hoi pántes hermēneúousi? Su prospoieî hóti ekeîno su boúlei hypo tôn pántōn hermēneúesthai?

Môr. Opheílousin hermēneúein hoí men pántes kata noûn, tó de dikastérion kata nómon.)

 

Cromwell. Yet how can this be? Because this silence betokened—nay, this silence was—not silence at all, but most eloquent denial!

More. Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is “Qui tacet consentire”: the maxim of the law is “Silence gives consent”. If, therefore, you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

Cromwell. Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?

More. The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.

 

—"A Man for all Seasons"

Chat-up lines of the ancients, pt. 2

He cannot be great

 

Non potest magnus esse, qui desivit justus.

 

He cannot be great, who has ceased to be virtuous.

 

—Dr. Johnson

Deserves it

 

 

Dignus est! Hoc credo equidem. Multi qui vivunt sunt digni mortis, et nonnulli qui moriuntur sunt digni vitæ. Hasne eis dabis? Quare noli avidior esse mortem dandi in judicio. Etiam sapientissimi nequeunt omnes eventūs prævidere. Non magnopere spero Gollum sanari posse ante mortem, sed non est impossibile. Ille etiam cum fato Anuli colligatus est. Cor meum indicit illi esse nescioquam partem agendam, aut bonam aut malam, ante finem; et illo tempore, misericordia Bilbonis dirrigat plurimum fortunam—tuam non minime.

 

Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many—yours not the least.

 

—J. R. R. Tolkien, De Domino Anulorum (The Lord of the Rings)

What the Olympics are all about

 

 

Ὦνδρες, ὦνδρες, σῑγήσατε! Ἐπιλανθάνεσθε ὑμεῖς τὸν τῶν Ὀλυμπίων τέλον· τὰ ἆθλα διαδιδόναι τοῦ χρῡσοῦ καλοῦ, τοῦ ἀργύρου μετρίου, καὶ τοῦ χαλκοῦ ἀτίμου.

 

(ôndres, ôndres, sīgḗsate! Epilanthánesthe hӯmeîs ton tôn Olympíōn télon: ta âthla diadidónai toû chrӯsoû kaloû, toû argýrou metríou, kai toû chalkoû atímou.)

 

People, people, please! You are forgetting what the Olympics are all about: giving out medals of beautiful gold, so-so silver, and shameful bronze.

 

—“The Simpsons”