Francis Bacon was no atheist; he sought to tread the via media of the reformed English church between the two extremes of Popish superstition on the one hand and profane superstition on the other. In his Meditationes Sacrae, in the section titled “Of Heresies,” Bacon writes: Ye err, not knowing [Read more…]
So far my preparations for November’s lecture on E. M. Forster have consisted of reading the novels again, even the ones I read earlier this year. I finished A Room With A View last week, and polished off A Passage to India this week. I was introduced to E. M. [Read more…]
I have been travelling through Italy in the company of Goethe this summer, by which I mean, of course, that I have been reading his “Italian Journey” and tracing his progress across Austria, through the Brenner, down to Lake Garda and then eastwards to Verona and Venice before turning south. [Read more…]
In a previous post I mentioned how Montaigne Used Pyrrhonian Scepticism To Undermine Ficino’s Doctrine Of Melancholic Inspiration – I should also have mentioned that he found scepticism a useful weapon to turn against the Protestants. This had nothing to do with his being an “atheist” but, as M. A. [Read more…]
I discovered today that the contact form that I’m using on http://succeed-in-english as a way for students to answer comprehension questions also has a built in autoresponder. That means there is no need to set up autoresponders on my hosting account. I can do everything within the WordPress control panel. [Read more…]
Another parcel of books arrived today from the Folio Society. This one contained the three volume set, Pagans and Christians by Robin Lane Fox and four complimentary volumes, including The Nude by Kenneth Clark. This afternoon, I added a second lesson to http://Succeed-in-English.com and gained a new skill in the [Read more…]
A typhoon is making its way past Honshu via the Japan sea. For the first time in about two months we were able to sleep without having the air-conditioner switched on. I left the windows open and a cool breeze swept through the billowing curtains throughout the night. This morning, [Read more…]
A special delivery this morning. The Folio Society’s limited edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses translated by Sir Arthur Golding. The volume is a hefty 13″ x 9¾”, about the size and weight of a family Bible. It is bound in Nigerian goatskin leather, blocked in gold with a design on the [Read more…]
Title: Aspects of E. M. Forster Location: Aster Plaza, Hiroshima Date: 18th November 2010 Time: 13:30- 15:00 Hosted by: “Sekai O Miru Kai” Description: I will be giving a talk on E. M. Forster and his novels to the Hiroshima based international culture study group, “Sekai O Miru Kai”. I [Read more…]
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