With the Sages

Those things that are not practicable are not desirable.  There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-protected pursuit.  There is nothing that God has judged good for us that he has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.  If we cry like children, for the moon, like children we must cry on.

-       Burke[1]

A fit of anger is as fatal to dignity as a dose of arsenic to life.

-       J. G. Holland[2]

To make another person hold his tongue, be you first silent.

-       Seneca[3]

Some men possess means that are great, but fritter them away in the execution of conceptions that are little; others, who can form great conceptions, attempt to carry them into execution with little means.  These two descriptions of men might succeed if united, but kept asunder, both fail.  It is a rare thing to find a combination of great means and of great conceptions in one mind.

-       Colton[4]

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

-       George Eliot[5]

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[1] Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after relocating to Great Britain, served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his support of the American colonies in the dispute with King George III and Britain that led to the American Revolution and for his strong opposition to the French Revolution. The latter made Burke one of the leading figures within the conservative faction of the Whig party (which he dubbed the “Old Whigs”), in opposition to the pro-French-Revolution “New Whigs,” led by Charles James Fox. Burke also published a philosophical work where he attempted to define emotions and passions, and how they are triggered in a person. Burke worked on aesthetics and founded the Annual Register, a political review. He is often regarded as the philosophical founder of Anglo-American conservatism.  (Source: Wikipedia)

[2] Josiah Gilbert Holland was born in 1819. His family was of the oldest Puritan stock.  During a considerable part of his childhood the family, pursued by misfortune, led a sort of roving life, as the unprosperous father was able to find work. The promising son, Josiah, had little chance for learning, getting but a few months in the public schools in winter. At length, while the family lived at Northampton, Massachusetts, Josiah entered high school, where he pursued his studies with great eagerness and ability. Later, he taught penmanship from town to town, and used to recite his own poems to his intimate friends. He tried daguerreotypy and district school teaching.

Finding it impossible to obtain a classical education, Holland decided to study medicine. In 1844 he was graduated at the Berkshire Medical College with honor. In 1845 Doctor Holland formed a partnership with his classmate, Doctor Bailey, and commenced his medical practice at Springfield, Massachusetts. In the same year he married Miss Elizabeth Chapin, of Springfield. His married life was one of unusual happiness.

After some time in medical practice, Holland decided he did not like it. Attracted to journalism, he started the Bay State Weekly Courier at Springfield, but it survived only for six months. He relocated to Richmond, Virginia, where he taught. In 1849 he returned to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he became assistant editor of the Republican. With tireless energy and research, he gathered local and general matter for his paper. His work made a difference, and he began to succeed as a journalist.  His writing ranged from poems and proverbs to advice and history. His Life of Abraham Lincoln, written the year Lincoln was assassinated, was sold by subscription and was immensely popular. He began authoring novels as well.  The climax of his fame and popular success as an author of books was attained in 1868, when Katrina appeared. In addition to his other literary labors he was one of the most popular of American lecturers.

In 1868 Josiah went to Europe, where he remained two years. While there, he proposed to his friend Roswell Smith the founding of Scribner’s Monthly, which became one of the most important magazines of its day. All this success allowed him a comfortable lifestyle; he had his home in New York and a beautiful country place in the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, and was able to pass the closing hours of his life in thorough enjoyment of the world. He died in 1881. (Source: 2020site.org)

[3] Seneca was born between 4 and 1 BC and was resident in Rome by 5 AD.  His family was from Corduba, Hispania; he may have been born there.  He was the second son of Helvia and Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a wealthy rhetorician known as Seneca the Elder. At Rome he was trained in rhetoric and was introduced into Stoic philosophy by Attalus and Sotion. Seneca tells us about his poor health and at some stage he was nursed by his mother’s stepsister. As she was in Egypt from 16 – 31 AD it can be inferred that Seneca visited Egypt, although for how long we do not know.

Seneca and his aunt returned to Rome in 31 AD and she helped him in his campaign for his first magistracy.  Around 37 AD, he had a severe conflict with the Emperor Caligula who only spared his life because he believed the sickly Seneca would not live long anyway. In 41 AD, Messalina, wife of the Emperor Claudius, persuaded Claudius to have Seneca banished to Corsica on a charge of adultery with Julia Livilla. He spent his exile in philosophical and natural study and wrote the Consolations.

In 49 AD, Claudius’ new wife Agrippina had Seneca recalled to Rome to tutor her son, then 12 years old, who was to become the emperor Nero. On Claudius’ death in 54 AD, Agrippina secured the recognition of Nero as emperor over Claudius’ son, Britannicus.  From 54 – 62 AD, Seneca acted as Nero’s advisor, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. Seneca’s influence was said to be especially strong in the first year.  Many historians consider Nero’s early rule with Seneca and Burrus to be quite competent. Over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over Nero. In 59 AD they had to reluctantly agree to Agrippina’s murder, and afterwards Seneca wrote a dishonest exculpation of Nero to the Senate.  With the death of Burrus in 62 AD and accusations of embezzlement, Seneca retired and devoted his time to more study and writing.

In 65 AD, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that he was a co-conspirator he was ordered to kill himself by Nero (by opening his veins), as did his wife Pompeia Paulina who chose to share his fate. Tacitus gives an account of the suicide in his Annals (Book XV, Chapters 60 through 64). Nero ordered that Seneca’s wife be saved. The wounds were bound up, and she did not make a second attempt. Unfortunately for Seneca, his old age and diet caused the blood to flow slowly, thus causing pain instead of a quick death. He then took poison, but it didn’t work. He dictated his last words to a scribe, and then jumped into a hot pool. He did not try to drown, but instead, it appears, tried to make the blood flow faster. Tacitus wrote in his Annals of Imperial Rome that Seneca died from suffocation from the steam rising from the pool. (Source: Wikipedia)

[4] Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832), was an English cleric, writer and collector, well known for his eccentricities. Colton was educated at Eton and King’s College, graduating with a B.A. in 1801 and an M.A. in 1804. In 1801 he was presented by the college with the perpetual curacy of Tiverton’s Prior’s Quarter in Devon, where he lived for many years. He was appointed to the vicarage of Kew and Petersham in 1812. His performance of church-related functions at both locations was erratic: at times conscientious and brilliant while at other times cursory and indulgent. He left formal church service, and England, in 1828. Contemporaries believed that he had fled from his creditors, who took out a legal docket against him, identifying him as a wine-merchant.

For two years Colton traveled throughout the United States. He later established a modest residence in Paris. There he invested in an art gallery and had a large private collection of valuable paintings. Other pastimes included wine collecting and partridge-shooting. He also frequented the gaming salons of the “Palais Royal” and was so successful that in a year or two he acquired the equivalent of 25,000 English pounds. He continued gambling, however, and lost his French fortune. At the time of his death, Colton was living on funds received from his immediate family. An illness required surgery, but Colton dreaded the operation. He eventually killed himself rather than undergo the procedure.

His books, including collections of epigrammatic aphorisms and short essays on conduct, though now almost forgotten, had a phenomenal popularity in their day. Toward the end of 1820, Colton published Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words, addressed to those who think., in a small cheap edition. It attracted attention and praise, however, and five additional printings were issued in 1821. Lacon, Vol. II appeared the next year. Also in 1822 Colton re-published a previous work on Napoleon, with extensive additions, under the title of The Conflagration of Moscow. In Paris he printed An Ode on the Death of Lord Byron for private circulation and continued to write. At his death he left an unpublished poem of 600 lines called Modern Antiquity.  In the twentieth century and to the present day he has been read most frequently perhaps in quotation books, where many of his aphorisms have been preserved. (Source: Wikipedia)

 [5] Mary Ann (Marian) Evans (1819-1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist. She was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Her novels, largely set in provincial England, are well known for their realism and psychological perspicacity.

She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure that her works were taken seriously. Female authors published freely under their own names, but Eliot wanted to ensure that she was not seen as merely a writer of romances. An additional factor may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her open relationship with the married George Henry Lewes.  (Source: Wikipedia)