Book-Beaten

 

 

Well, this is a first.

 

And it’s kinda embarrassing.

 

A book has defeated me.

 

Sure, probably a half-dozen or so books I start each year don’t move me. So with a “Life’s too short to read a bad book,” I set it aside with all due reverence and respect. Some I realize I am not ready for, and place atop a pile to revisit at some point in the future. Others I realize I will never be ready for, and return them for pennies at the used book shops. And a tiny percentage gall me so bad I simply toss them in the trash (this has only happened twice, though).

 

But I’m kinda embarrassed to admit that, yes, Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has beaten me. Not for reasons that you might think. I still enjoy the topic immensely. I’ve learned Gibbon’s foibles and prejudices, and I’m okay with them. I just can’t physically read the book.

 

Yes, you read that right.

 

Over the past week or so I’ve been going to bed with terrible headaches. Centered at the front of my brain. My eyes, specifically. From about eight p.m. on I can’t read at all, whether it’s my daily spiritual reading, whether its my side read, and especially if it’s Gibbon.

 

The version of The History of the Decline I am currently reading is from the Great Books of the Western World series. Now, I’ve read other books from this series without ill effect. But something with the tiny-sized print, the double-columns per page, the two-hundred sentence paragraphs, well, it all just perfect-stormed it’s way into making my eyes – and my brain – strain terribly.

 

So I must with great reluctance set it aside.

 

I am coming up to the end of Volume II in 48 pages. My par is 10 pages a night, so I’ll continue with it throughout this upcoming week. The work itself has six volumes, so I’ll have made it through two complete volumes in six weeks. Not bad. I did learn a few interesting things about Gibbon, the History of the Decline, and the Roman Empire itself I will blog about in a few days. 

 

I originally had the idea (actually, Tolkien came to me in a dream and commanded me to take up the work) of reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the four months my oldest daughter will be studying abroad in Italy. Well, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. I’m getting heavy vibes that Little One would want me to switch over to modern, cutting-edge hard SF this spring, so, hey, that’s what I’m going to start. And with that will come more book reviews. Yay!

 

Happy reading to all, but don’t read so much you lose your eyesight!

Single Focused Mind

 

“We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active or speculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may be surmounted, by the force of a single mind, when it is inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single object.”

 

Neat, really neat sentence from Chapter 21 of The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (page 316 in my Great Books of the Western World volume). I have thought this thought many times throughout my life, even wrote about it here in these electronic pages: What could I do with a hundred such men under my command? (Click on the link for the answer.)

 

And as applied to myself? Good Lord, I wanted to do too much that the force of this single mind became too diluted – write a paradigm-changing novel, discover the basic building block of the basic building blocks of matter (I still think it has something to do with the photon), re-write or re-discover history, compose something that will last long past I’ve lived, and on, and on, and on.

 

Still, though, the thought itself and the ideas behind it resonate very strongly and clearly with me on an almost daily basis. Nice and neat to see it in Gibbon’s 1781 work.

 

N.B. The mind in question regarding Gibbon’s quoted remark is Athanasius of Alexandria, a fourth century Christian theologian and Church Father noted for his tireless efforts to defeat Arianism. Perhaps later this week I’ll post a “workman’s guide to Christian heresies” regarding Arianism and Donatism, as I am somewhat hazy on the terms …

 

Persecutions

 

“They died in torments, and their torments were embittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race, and honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt [sic] of the Christians deserved indeed the most exemplary punishment, but the public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public welfare as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant.”

   - Tacitus, quoted by Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter sixteen.

 

“[sic]” addition mine.

 

Just finished Volume I of Gibbon’s great work, the first fifteen chapters detailing the reigns of Aurelius to Constantine, roughly 180 to 310 AD. Volume II starts off with a grim and powerful exploration of why the Empire, famous for its tolerance of religious polytheism, persecuted the Christians in waves of vicious bloodshed. Tough read for me, and I am detecting a slightly-more-than-slight anti-Christian bias in Gibbon that I had been warned about. Still, faults and all, productive reading. Learning much about an Empire that reached the peaks of splendor with frequent descents into valleys of madness, often at the whim of the personality of the man in charge.

Churchill and Gibbon

 

Ever since I started reading about World War II, probably going back to 2011 but gaining some steam during the initial days of Covid, I started finding Churchill everywhere. It was a weird instance of synchronicity. I’d read an article in Astronomy magazine about the space race and Churchill’s name would turn up. I’d thumb through a book on the Crusades and there would be old Winston. Watched a YouTube video on the 1947 UFO flap and they’d mention the British Prime Minister’s curiosity in the phenomenon. Pick three random self-help books off the B&N shelves and scan the index, and chances are you’ll find Churchill’s name there, and a nifty quote somewhere in the meat of the book in question.

 

So I found it very pleasing to discover the fact that young Winston was a huge fan of Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

 

[As you may know, my oldest daughter Little One is now in Italy for her college spring semester sophomore year, studying philosophy, theology, literature and art in Rome. I am reading through Gibbon’s late-18th century history of the Roman Empire in sympathetic solidarity with her – though I don’t believe that’s one of the works assigned to her. And as of this posting, I am 52 pages in … about 4 percent done …]

 

To quote a mature Churchill:

 

“I set out upon Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly though it from end to end and enjoyed it all.” Wikipedia states – I know, I know – that the British statesman “modeled much of his own literary style on Gibbon’s … like Gibbon, he dedicated himself to producing a ‘vivid historical narrative, ranging widely over period and place, enriched by analysis and reflection.’ ”

 

How awesome this is to a bookworm history buff like me!

 

I spent a month about a dozen years ago commuting to work listening to an audio book of the first volume of his World War II memoirs, The Gathering Storm. If I continue to enjoy Gibbon as much as I am so far – that is, the remaining 96 percent – perhaps I’ll revisit Winston later this fall.

 

Buon Viaggio!

 

 

Well, Little One has left the continental USA and is en route to Italy for her next semester of college. Four months of study in Rome, Monday through Thursday, and weekends exploring the country and countryside. I kinda envy her, but am complacent enough to enjoy her travels vicariously.

 

She’ll take classes in Art & Architecture, Literary Traditions, The Human Person, Western Civilization I, and Western Theological Tradition. What these course titles translate exactly to we’ll learn shortly. One thing, though, that makes me happy is not one of these classes will disparage Western Civilization or literary traditions, glorify ugly modern art, corrupt the concept of the human person, or mock traditional theology. We chose wisely with this college.

 

Best of luck to you, Little One! Stay safe and have the time of your life!