DEO VOLENTE. Essays. - ESSAY X. The Second Renaissance.

Essay X. The Second Renaissance.

 —————Abash’d the devil stood

 And felt how awful goodness is, and saw

 Virtue in her shape how lovely. MILTON.

 

GENERALLY it is as common as it is easy to denigrate, because little knowledge is required. It is not necessary, for instance, to have listened much to a piece of music by Mozart in order to express distaste for him, nor is it a requirement to have seen a painting by Raphael in order to despise him; on the contrary, it is much easier to do so without having seen a painting of his. To admire something is difficult, firstly because it implies a superiority in the person admired, secondly because it requires an understanding of the quality admired, and thirdly because it necessitates an assertion of a kind. If one is not to seem a complete fool one must be able to describe why one admires a particular thing, whereas to despise a particular thing requires no description. Often indeed to pronounce distaste without supplying a reason can cause a man to seem tasteful with discretion, thoughtful without garrulity, or gigantic as the rock which neither moves nor is moved.

   Since 1901 in England there has been a revolt against the past and a spur towards a fine much imagined future. America has been our idol, and for a while indeed America produced much which was fresh and new, but America too grows old now and whereas we and the French, for instance, still look to America as to a rising young athlete on which to place our bets, America looks at Europe as at an ancient grandfather from whom it desires wisdom. America’s feeling is better than ours, we have more to teach than to learn, and if we truly wish to revive and warm the tired old bones of our poor ocean-lashed island we must look not to another but to ourselves and our past.

   A Second Renaissance is required which will move our generations to discover our own splendid history as the first Renaissance moved many in the Middle Ages to discover antiquity’s. This is necessary, as it has not been necessary before, because of the sheer rate of change which has occurred in the last seventy years. So much has altered that it would be a weariness of the flesh to recapitulate it, but suffice to say that European life has a character now so different that it is become a stranger to its own history. The Victorians could have related to the Normans better than we can now relate to the Victorians. This is why a revival is necessary, the extent of our alienation is so great that it is positively vital it should happen.

   Modern criticism has been very adverse to such an undertaking, but man in the end forgets the critic and commemorates the artist. There is too much to be discovered to allow any further neglect, and though indeed the period of the 1950’s to the 1990’s has not been without excellent contributions to art, especially in some modern music, I think few would deny that a creative impulse is now decidedly lacking. Such was the situation before the Renaissance of the Middle Ages and such is the situation now. A great deal may be learnt from the orchestral music of the past to reinvigorate the stagnant fare which passes for to-day’s radio material. Modern music of course is very largely different because it is electric, and though much of the music composed between 1930 and 1990 was of a high standard, it has usually lacked intelligence and depth. Often they redeemed these failings with a greater emotive power, and it is for this quality in particular that they are best enjoyed. Genesis, Gilbert O’Sullivan, and Al Stewart, have been the three modern musical acts I have most enjoyed hearing.[1] Yet there is a vastly different sphere to be entered into in classical music, even in the classical music of the Victorian period, beginning with Mendelssohn and ending in Elgar. A great deal of it would have a very invigorating effect if it were only better known.

   As for literature, architecture, and painting, the standards to-day in all three are so low that a revival of any kind would be of benefit. It so happens however that this country is blessed with as admirable a wealth in these arts as any on earth, and there is no reason why a sympathetic study of our former standards should not have an immediately positive effect upon the country at large. In literature particularly, if only more people read the famous names they know instead of reading about them, there would surely be a very quick diffusion of enhanced vocabulary in the public at large. For these reasons and others I have compiled a few short lists of certain books, musical compositions, films, and recordings, which I  have enjoyed and which I think would serve as a good basis for others.

   I have compiled these lists because I am sure I would have been very glad to have had them when I began at the age of fourteen to educate myself. There is little method to its order, chiefly instinct. Should a fresh and curious mind choose to pursue its order however, I feel there may be found an almost equal distribution of entertainment and instruction, of adventure and edification, of sentiment and eloquence. Especially in the list of books, which I thought very carefully about. The reasons for particular inclusions or omissions have been irregular. It seemed futile to write a list of such names as Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, and Keats. Those authors should be read, if they are not the world is awry, but their works are so varied in matter and quality that it would seem foolish to commend them all at once, to join Titus Adronicus with Hamlet, Lycidas with Paradise Lost, or Endymion with the Ode to Melancholy. I have consequently chosen only such works of the Titans as are sufficient to indicate taste and to encourage discovery. For instance, I am amongst those who have often read Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in a single sitting for very pleasure, and burnt much daylight thereby, but I have never yet finished the packthread rigmarole that is Don Juan. In this I markedly differ from the consensus, but the consensus can clutch its fourteen cantos as long as it pleases, I am content with the fourth of Harold.

   My hope is that whomever may be guided by my selections will also be guided by their authors. That was how I proceeded over the years, by making notes of such authors as Bishop Burnet in the Life of Johnson, and Gibbon in Churchill’s autobiography. The eighteenth century was truly the high tide of linguistic refinement in England, though the nineteenth century was rather more natural; but surely nothing is more indicative of our modern decay than the present state of English literature. The last seventy years have produced the worst books in history. Never has language known such an utter eclipse. That a nation of giants and princes should have descended into an asylum of dotards and fanatics, that the writers of Harry Potter and the Golden Compass should be millionaires in a kingdom where Johnson was starved and Defoe was pilloried, is astonishing. Would it were the inverse!

   O generations to come, crush underfoot the inanity of your parents! Strain the dross from your minds. Recall the words of William Blake, the glory of despised worth: ‘Set your foreheads against the ignorant hirelings! For we have hirelings in the Camp, the Court, and the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works, or the expensive advertising boasts that they make of such works: believe Christ and His Apostles that there is a class of men whose whole delight is in destroying. We do not want either Greek or Roman models if we are just and true to our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever, in Jesus our Lord.

 

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England’s mountains green?

And was the holy Lamb of God

On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

 

And did the Countenance Divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here

Among these dark Satanic Mills?

 

Bring me my bow of burning gold!

Bring me my arrows of desire!

Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!

Bring me my chariot of fire!

 

I will not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem

In England’s green and pleasant land.’

 

A List of Books.

(It is better far to buy old editions.)

The Little Oxford English Dictionary (of 1930);

The Honourable Mr. Tawnish, by Jeffery Farnol;

The Broad Highway, by Jeffery Farnol;

The Amateur Gentleman, by Jeffery Farnol;

The Dying Christian to His Soul, by Alexander Pope;

The Book of Common Prayer of 1662 (with Hymns Ancient and Modern);

The English Hymnal (not the New):

   Light Shining out of Darkness, by William Cowper;

   At even ere the sun was set, by Henry Twells;

   O come, O come, Emmanuel!, tr. by T.A. Lacey;

   Of the Father’s heart begotten, tr. By R.F. Davis;

   How sweet the name of Jesus sounds!, by J. Newton;

   All people that on earth do dwell, by William Kethe;

   Love Divine, all loves excelling, by Charles Wesley;

   God is working his purpose out, by A.C. Ainger;

   The Day of Resurrection, tr. by J.M. Neale;

   Creator of the stars of Night, tr. by J.M. Neale;

   All glory, laud, and honour, by St. Theodulph of Orleans, tr. by J.M. Neale;

   At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, by C.M. Noel

   For all the saints who from their labours rest, by W. Walsham How;

   The Church’s one foundation,  by Samuel Stone;

   Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven, by H.F. Lyte;

   O God, our help in ages past, by Isaac Watts;

   God save our gracious Queen;

   Praise to the Holiest in the height, by John Newman;

   Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation;

   Be Thou my vision, tr. by M.E. Byrne and E.H. Hull;

   When I survey the wondrous cross, by Isaac Watts;

   His are the thousand sparkling rills, by C.F. Alexander

   I could not do without Thee, by Francis Ridley Havergal;

   Drop, drop, slow tears, by Phineas Fletcher;

   Dear Lord and Father of mankind, by John Whittier;

   Abide with me; fast falls the eventide, by H.F. Lyte;

   The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended, by John Ellerton.

The Authorised Bible of King James, with the Apocrypha;

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge;

Kubla Khan; or, a Vision in a Dream, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge;

‘I stood tip-toe upon a little hill’, by John Keats;

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson;

The Money Moon, by Jeffery Farnol;

The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope;

Don Quixote, Translated by Motteux;

Eric, or, Little by Little, by the Reverend Fowler;

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe;

The Pains of Sleep, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge;

The Traveller, by Oliver Goldsmith;

The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle;

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens;

The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens;

Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome;

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame;

Bertie’s Escapade, by Kenneth Grahame;

The Golden Age, by Kenneth Grahame;

Dream Days, by Kenneth Grahame;

Pagan Papers, and The Huntsman, by Kenneth Grahame;

The Chronicles of the Imp, by Jeffery Farnol;

My Early Life by Sir Winston S. Churchill;[2]

Our Admirable Betty, by Jeffery Farnol;

David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens;

The Life of Samuel Johnson, D.D., by James Boswell;

Rasselas, by Samuel Johnson;

On the Receipt of My Mother’s Picture out of Norfolk, by William Cowper;

The Vanity of Human Wishes, by Samuel Johnson;

The Deserted Village, by Oliver Goldsmith;

London, by Samuel Johnson;

Roderick Random, by Tobias Smollett;

The Diverting History of John Gilpin, by William Cowper;

The History of Joseph Andrews, by Henry Fielding;

Religio Laici, by John Dryden;

The Village, by George Crabbe;

The Rambler, by Samuel Johnson;

Bleak House, by Charles Dickens;

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, by C.S. Forester;

Lieutenant Hornblower, by C.S. Forester;

Hornblower and the ‘Hotspur’, by C.S. Forester;

Black Bartlemy’s Treasure, by Jeffery Farnol;

Martin Conisby’s Revenge, by Jeffery Farnol;

The History of the English Speaking Peoples, by Sir Winston S. Churchill;

The Biographies of Lord Macaulay;

Pitt, by Lord Roseberry;

The Little Londoner by Richard Kron;

The High Adventure, by Jeffery Farnol;

The Tempest, by Shakespeare;

The Phædo, Translated by Benjamin Jowett;

The Idler, by Samuel Johnson;

Guy Mannering, by Walter Scott.

The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas (in a Victorian translation);

The Prisoner of Chillon, by Lord Byron;

Peregrine’s Progress, by Jeffery Farnol;

In Memoriam A.H.H., by Alfred Lord Tennyson;

The World Crisis, by Sir Winston S. Churchill;

CHURCHILL, the Struggle for Survival by Lord Moran;

Ulysses, by Alfred Lord Tennyson;

MARLBOROUGH, His Life and Times by Sir Winston S. Churchill;

The Plays of Oscar Wilde;

Over the Hills, by Jeffery Farnol;

Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne (Victorian translation);

The Jade of Destiny, by Jeffery Farnol;

Sonnet to Byron, by Shelley;

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, by Lord Byron;

The Island, by Lord Byron;

Julian and Maddalo, by Shelley;

Ode to a Nightingale, by John Keats;

Ode on a Grecian Urn, by John Keats;

Fancy, by John Keats;

Ode to Psyche, by John Keats;

To Autumn, by John Keats;

Ode on Melancholy, by John Keats;

Adonais, by Shelley;

Dejection: An Ode, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge;

France. An Ode, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge;

Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, by William Wordsworth.

The Correspondence of Spinoza, Translated by A. Wolf;

The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade;

Heretics, by G.K. Chesterton;

Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton;

Review of Jenyns’ Free Enquiry into the Origin of Evil, by Samuel Johnson;

The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton;

The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan;

Tom Brown’s Schooldays, by Thomas Hughes;

Beltane the Smith, by Jeffery Farnol;

Gil Blas, Translated by Smollett;

The Evidences of the Christian Religion by Joseph Addison;

A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, by William Law;

The Whole Duty of Man;

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, by Spinoza;

Tractatus Politicus, by Spinoza;

Man and the Universe, by Sir Oliver Lodge;

The Journal of a Disappointed man, by W.N.P. Barbellion;

Essays, by Sir Francis Bacon;

The Life of General Gordon, by Eva Hope;

Colonel Gordon in Central Africa, edited by George Birkbeck Hill;

Paradise Lost, by John Milton;

The Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald;

Thou Must Venture, by E.L. Allen;

Essay on the Improvement of the Understanding, by Spinoza;

Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza;

The Holy War, by John Bunyan;

Grace Abounding, by John Bunyan;

Sonnets, by Shakespeare;

Hamlet, by Shakespeare;

The Aftermath, by Sir Winston S. Churchill;

The Second World War, by Sir Winston S. Churchill;

70 True Stories of the Second World War, Published by Odhams Press;

After London, by Richard Jefferies;

The Cloud of Unknowing;

Revelations of Divine Knowledge, by Julian of Norwich;

The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, by Joseph Butler;

A Discourse on Method & Meditations, by René Descartes;

Pensées, by Pascal.

Lives, by Izaak Walton;

Of the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis.

 

 

A List of Musical Pieces.

HANDEL (1685-1759).

   Organ Concerto, Op. 4 No. 5: Presto.

HAYDN (1732-1809).

   Symphony No. 88: Fourth Movement.

MOZART (1756-1791).

   Horn Concerto No. 4: Third Movement;

   Serenade ‘Gran Partita’: Third Movement;

   Piano Concerto No. 21: Second Movement;

   Clarinet Concerto, K622: Second Movement.

BEETHOVEN (1770-1827).

   Piano Sonata No. 14 ‘Moonlight’, First Movement.

MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847).

   Violin Concerto, Op. 64: First Movement;

   On Wings of Song, Op. 34, No. 2;

   String Symphony No. 12: Second Movement;

CHOPIN (1810-1849).

   Nocturne, Op. 9 No. 2;

   Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 11: Larghetto.

WAGNER (1813-1883).

   Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Overture.

STRAUSS (1825-1899).

   On the Beautiful, Blue Danube, Op. 314;

   Annen Polka, Op. 117;

   Roses from the South, Op. 388.

BRAHMS (1833-1897)

   Waltz No. 15, Op. 39;

   Double Concerto , Op. 102.

SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1910).

   Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals;

GILBERT (1836-1911) AND SULLIVAN (1842-1900).

   Every operetta (excepting Utopia and the Grand Duke), of which the following pieces are but particular instances:

   When I first put this uniform on, from Patience;

   Spurn not the nobly born, from Iolanthe;

   A magnet hung in a hardware shop, from Patience;

   I stole the Prince, from The Gondoliers;

   The woman of the wisest wit, Princess Ida;

   There is beauty in the bellow of the blast, from The Mikado;

   I have a song to sing, O!, from The Yeomen of the Guard;

  The sun whose rays are all ablaze, from The Mikado;

   Ah, leave me not to pine, from The Pirates of Penzance;

   Take a pair of sparkling eyes, from The Gondoliers;

   She shall not quit thy side, from The Yeoman of the Guard;

   For he’s gone and married Yum-Yum, from The Mikado;

TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893).

   Piano Concerto No. 1: First Movement.[3]

MASSENET (1842-1912).

   ‘Meditation’ from Thaïs.

PARRY (1848-1918).

   A Welsh lullaby.

ELGAR (1857-1934).

  Pomp and Circumstance Marches;

   Chanson de Matin;

   Salut d’Amour;

  Nimrod.

PUCCINI (1858-1924).

   O Mio Babbino Caro;

   Donna Non Vidi Mai;

   Nessun Dorma.

DEBUSSY (1862-1918).

   Clair de lune.[4]

WILLIAMS (1872-1958).

   Fantasia on Greensleeves;

  The Lark Ascending.

HOLST (1874-1934).

   Jupiter: the Bringer of Jollity.

 

Christian Pieces.

GIBBONS (1583-1625).     

   ‘This is the record of John’;

ALLEGRI (1585-1652).

   Miserere.

PACHELBEL (1653-1706).

   Canon in D Major.

BACH (1685-1750).

   Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme;

   ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’.

HANDEL (1685-1759).

   ‘But as for his people’, from Israel in Egypt;

   ‘O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion’, from The Messiah;

   ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion’, from The Messiah;

   ‘He shall feed his flock like a shepherd’, from The Messiah;

   ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’, from The Messiah;

   Zadok the Priest.

MOZART (1756-1791).

   Solemn Vespers ‘Laudate Dominum’.

SCHUBERT (1797-1828).

   Ave Maria.

MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847).

   Hear my Prayer.

FAURÉ (1845-1924).

  Sanctus, from Requiem;

  Agnus Dei, from Requiem;

  In Paradisum, from Requiem.

PARRY (1848-1918).

  Jerusalem, by William Blake;

   Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land.

ELGAR (1857-1934).

   The Dream of Gerontius.

WILLIAMS (1872-1958).

  Five Variations on ‘Dives and Lazarus’.

WALFORD DAVIES (1869-1941).

   Solemn Melody.

A List of Recordings.

The Great Speeches of Sir Winston Churchill;

Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Read by Sir John Gielgud;

The Seven Ages of Man, Read by Sir John Gielgud;

The Story-Teller, A Session with Charles Laughton;[5]

The Just William Stories, Read by Martin Jarvis;

Sherlock Holmes, with Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson;

Interview with J.R.R. Tolkien, by Denys Gueroult;

The Bible, as Read by Sir Laurence Olivier;

The Life of Samuel Johnson, as Read by Bernard Mayes;

The Confessions of Saint Augustine, as Read by Bernard Mayes;

The Cambridge Treasury of English Prose.

 

A List of Films.

A Twentieth-Century Testament, with Malcolm Muggeridge;

The World at War, Narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier;[6]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, with Roger Livesey;

Khartoum;

Henry V, Played by Sir Laurence Olivier;

Hamlet, Played by Sir Laurence Olivier;

Sherlock Holmes, Played by Jeremy Brett;

Civilisation, with Kenneth Clark;

Soylent Green.[7]

A Third Testament, with Malcolm Muggeridge;

Three Men in a Boat, with Laurence Harvey;

The Private Life of Henry VIII;

Rembrandt, with Charles Laughton;

The 39 Steps, with Robert Donat;[8]

Goodbye Mr. Chips, with Robert Donat;

The Adventures of Tartu;

The Young Mr. Pitt;

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness;

Lease of Life, with Robert Donat;

The Gospel according to St.  Mark, performed by Alec McCowen;

The Miracle Maker, with Ralph Fiennes.[9]

 

 

Some Vague Advice.

   To notice one’s breathing, and to consciously perform it, is extremely beneficial, but to count one’s breathing is maddening.

   In a great heat, hang a wetted cloth as large as may be (large preferably) in the middle of an aired room.

   Furthermore, in a great heat, wash one’s bare feet in cold water. This is a remarkable cure to overheating well known and used in desert lands, hence the prominence of foot washing in the Bible.

   New socks should be washed before they are worn.

Pinprick eggs once with a needle to stop them cracking as they boil.

   Cook meat very hot for a short while at first.

Drinking cocoa of evenings is pleasant and often better than two inches of wine.

   Lettuce at night is held a remedy for sleeplessness.

Fruit at night is inadvisable.

   Drinking water baths the innards.

Singing hymns to oneself diverts and purifies the mind.

   Chess, draughts, backgammon, dominoes, and a Wind in the Willows version of Snakes and Ladders, are very fine games.

   Use shoe trees.

Blankets and bedspreads are most comfortable.

   Neuralgia is a proof of an enfeebled state of health.

Regularity of digestion, and therefore regularity of the bowels, is the root of all health.

   Biting heartily into fresh lemon might be a cure for nerves.

Dripping is superior to vegetable oils.

   Butter is superior to margarine.

Whole milk is superior to skimmed milk.

   Though aptitude is inborn, talent is acquired.

Dress well, and take particular pride in a coat or jacket because it often happens that, though the clothes do not make the man, the man can make himself to be of the level of the clothes he wears.

   Musical habits are as fruitful and expansive as they are diverting.

 

 

Patterns in Adding Two Letters Together Consecutively

(e.g. A + B = C / 1 + 2 = 3 then B + C = E / 2 + 3 = 5 etc. All Refreshing on Z / 26).

PATTERNS: CEH (3,5,8), HCK (8,3,11), GKR (7,11,18), ZVV (26,22,22), HFN (8,6,14), QZQ (17,26,17), ZZZ (26,26,26).

A + B = CEH MUH CKN YML YKJ ISB UWR OGV CYB ACD GKR CUX SQJ AKLWIF OWL IUD YCB EGL SEX CAB E GKR CUX SQJ AKL WIF OWL IUD YCB EGL SEX CAB E GKR...

B + C = BCE HMU HCK NYM LYK JIS BUW ROG VCY BAC D GKR...

C + D = CDG DGK RCU XSQ JAK LWI FOW LIU DYC BEG LSE XCA BEG KR...

D + E = INW KHS ATU OJY IHQ YPO ETY SRK CNQ EVZ VVR NFT ZTT NHV DZD DHL TFZ FFL RDV ZVV RNF TZT TNH VDZ DDH LTF ZFF LRD VZV V...

E + F = KQB SUN IWF CIL UGB IKT EYD CGJ QAR SKD OSH AIJ SCV YUT OIX HFN THB JLV HDL PBR TLF RXP NDR VNJ XHF N...

F + G = MTG AHI QZQ QHY GFM SFY DCG JQA RSK DOS HAI JSC VYU TOI XHF N...

G + H = OWL IUD YCB EGL SEX CAB EGK R...

H + I = QZQ QHY GFM SFY DCG...

I + J = SCV YUT OIX HFN...

J + K = UFA GBI KTE ZEE JOY NMA NOC RUM HCK...

K + L = WIF OWL IUD YCB EGL SEX CAB EGK R...

L + M = YLK WHE MRE WBY AZA ABC EHM...

M + N = ABC EHM...

N + O = CRU MHC KNY...

O + P = EUZ UUP KAL MYL KWH EMR EWB YAZ AAB CEH...

P + Q = GXE CHK SDW AXY WVS OHW EBG IPY ONC QTK EPU KFQ WNK YJI SBU WRO GVC YBA CDG KRC...

Q + R = IAJ KUF AGH OWL IUD YCB EGL SEX CAB E GKR...

R + S = KDO SHA IJS CVY UTO IXH FN...

S + T = MGT AUV QMD QUL GSZ SSL EQV MIV EAF GMT GAH IJS CVY UTO IXH FN...

T + U = OJY IHQ YPO ETY SRK CNQ EVZ VVR...

U + V = QMD QUL GSZ SSL EQV MIV EAF GMT GAH IJS CVY UTO IXH FN...

V + W = SPI YHG OVK GRY QPG WDA EFK PAQ RIA JKU FAG HOW L IUD YCB EGL SEX CAB E GKR...

W + X = USN GVC YBA CDG KR...

X + Y = WVS OHW EBG IPY ONC QTK EPU KFQ WNK YJI SBU WRO GVC YBA CDG KRC...

Y + Z = YYX WUR MER WOL AMN AOP EUZ UUP KAL MYL KWH EMR EWB YAZ AAB CEH...

Z + Z = ZZZ...

 

R O U T I N E   O F   R E G U L A R   D A Y S.

 

‘But if I must afflicted be

   To suit some wise design;

Then man my soul with firm resolves

   To bear and not repine!’ BURNS.

T H E   M O R N I N G.[10]

Six o’clock. I. Make the sign of the cross and recite a short prayer[11]. II. Dress in yesterday’s clothes. III. Take vital medicines if necessary and drink water &c.. IV. Read the page of the day from the book entitled Being and Doing by Constance M. Whishaw, or from any other such book of days, drawing one half of a letter (A for the first year, Z for the twenty-sixth, and so repeated) drawn under the date, to serve as a mark of accomplishment. V. Check a diary for the present date to see if it is commemorated. VI. Read two pages to the next chapter of the New Testament in the Authorised Bible of King James with the Apocrypha. VIII. Read a chapter of the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis.

Half-past six o’clock. I. Eat a piece of fruit, preferably an apple, with a cup of tea. II. Walk briskly for half an hour or longer.

Seven o’clock. I. Take a napkin, in a napkin ring, and a book with a clear manner such as Edward FitzGerald’s Letters or The Pickwick Papers, then eat something cereal with whole-milk and local honey, perhaps with the royal jelly.

Half-past seven o’clock. I. Wash as necessary.

Ten minutes to eight o’clock. I. Dress. Perform some stretches and lift some weights. Make the bed. II. Order your living areas. III. Prepare something more to eat with tea. IV. Clean afterwards.

Half-past eight. Go to work, or to study, or to tennis, or to a combination of these, with provision for eating a nourishing luncheon around one o’clock post meridian and afterwards reading something of Spinoza.

 

R O U T I N E   O F   R E G U L A R   D A Y S.

‘Whoso neglects a thing which he suspects he ought to do, because it seems to him too small a thing, is deceiving himself; it is not too little but too great for him, that he doeth it not.’ PUSEY.

T H E   EV E N I N G.

Five o’clock. I. Clean shoes, firstly with a brush lightly wetted in hot water, then with a rag to buff, spit, and shine. On Fridays follow this by using a second brush to apply the blacking and another rag with which to buff, spit, and shine again.[12] II. Wear evening shoes if appropriate, otherwise good slippers. III. Brush thy teeth thoroughly. IV. Take vital medicines if necessary and drink water &c.. V. Read the page of the day from the book entitled Being and Doing by Constance M. Whishaw, or from any other such book of days, completing the second half of the letter drawn under the date, to serve as a mark of accomplishment. V. Leave some few comments in a diary for the present date. VI. Read two pages to the next chapter of the New Testament in the Authorised Bible of King James with the Apocrypha. VIII. Read a chapter of the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis.

Seven o’clock. I. Make a cup of pure cocoa with whole-milk boiled. II. Read.

Eight o’clock. I. Dress into nightclothes and prepare a flask of water. VIII. Read two pages of a good book of quotations, and then however many pages as you please of a book by Spinoza. VII. Make the sign of the cross and recite a short prayer[13]. VIII. Sleep.

 

A NOTE.

If the hours draw late into the evening, night, or even next day’s morning, yet maintain the routine; for it is truly beneficial: extend to it the same generosity of time which is commonly extended to frivolities. Finally, there is one thing very particularly to recollect, it is that sleep is yielding by nature, and must be warily respected for its power.

 

   It is extremely difficult to maintain such a routine as this. The rising early, one of the most difficult of all human actions, is the most vital of all the steps, for it may very well be said that it is upon this step that all the others depend. Virtue lives on an early night. Those who are not tired cannot sleep, and those who are wakeful when they should be resting will be resting when they should be wakeful. Naturally I speak from experience. The night terrifies all people in ways they hardly can fathom; it is best spent indeed in sleep. The artist’s temperament too often thrives on it, and the madman’s temperament frolics in it, but that is only because it is peaceful. Peace may be found in the day, and should be. If it cannot be found it should be made. It is a social duty so to do, and surely wars should cease if only the maternal caresses of peace were better known and loved. The night’s good qualities are designated for the body’s slumberous powers and not for its conscious will. Let none dismiss the alms of an early night’s sleep nor the handshake of an early morn’s rise![15]

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[1] There is a song called The Gift by Tony Banks.

[2] Regard Chapter IX.

[3] There is something unutterable about this piece.

[4] This piece seems to represent the sadness of mankind as potently as Nessun Dorma represents their courage.

[5]  In particular, the letter by Carl Milles and the story of Chartres cathedral.

[6]  Regard Olivier’s precise and most excellent elocution, which has a complete avoidance of the monotonous repetition of invisible r, w, y, sounds, such as are much too common in spoken English today, as in the American accent (superb pronounced SooW-peRb), the Australian accent (kangaroo pronounced kiYangarooYa), and the modern British affected accent found around the suburbia of London (Oh, do you know the first-mate? pronounced Ohyy, dooyy youwy knoyy thuh fuhrst mhayyyt?)

[7]  Undoubtedly a prophetic film.

[8]  Notice Donat’s great quality of collectedness.

[9]  A moving depiction.

[10] These times might be altered according to the winter months and other vital circumstances.

[11] Such as that in the Directions for the Morning in The Whole Duty of Man: ‘Lord, as Thou hast awaked my body from sleep, so by Thy grace awaken my soul from sin; and make me so to walk before Thee this day, and all the rest of my life, that when the last trumpet shall awake me out of my grave, I may rise to the life immortal through Jesus Christ. Amen.’.

[12] This is a most excellent discipline which preserves a single article of clothing for many years, as all decent possessions should be so preserved.

[13] Such as that in the Prayers for Night in The Whole Duty of Man: ‘O Blessed Saviour, who by Thy precious death and burial didst take away the sting of death and the power of the grave, grant me the joyful fruits of that Thy victory, and be Thou to me in life and death advantage.

   ‘I will lie down in peace, and take my rest: for it is Thou, Lord, only, that makest me to dwell in safety.

   ‘Into Thy hands I commend my spirit; for Thou has redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of Truth. Amen.’.

[14] The tallies, if used with Roman numeral groups of five, will last for approximately twenty-five years.

[15] The author acknowledges he has never yet succeeded in performing his routine of regular days for more than five days at a time.