More Jeeves!



"What-ho, Jeeves!"  I said, entering the room where he waded knee deep in suitcases and shirts and winter suitings, like a sea-beast among rocks.  "Packing?" 

"Yes, sir," answered the honest fellow, for there are no secrets between us.

Life is Beautiful

I really like that song!  After seeing October Baby when it first came out in theatres, I had only one comment...



Larry totally captures it all ;-)!!!!  (It's true, though.  I came out of the theater crying like a baby...  Shhhh... Don't tell...)



"I Will Carry You..."

"Unhappy the audacious soul which hoped that by abandoning you it would find some better thing!  It tossed and turned upon back and side and belly — but the bed is hard, and you alone are rest.  And here you are, to deliver us from our wretched wanderings and set us in your way, and you comfort us and say, 'Run, I will carry you and I will lead you home, and there I will carry you.' [Isaiah 46:4]"

- Confessions, St. Augustine, [6.16.26]

Opportunities



"You are the heir of all the centuries in literature, in art, in science, in commerce, and in every avenue of achievement.  True, the world is full of temptations and opportunities for evil, as it always was, but it is full of far greater opportunities, far more multiplied chances for good.  If you choose to invest your life as you should, you have a field of sublime excellence for that investment." 

-Fr. Edward F. Garesche,  The Catholic Book of Character and Success

Till We Have Faces - C. S. Lewis



     "The Gods have been accused by you. Now's their turn."
     "I cannot hope for mercy."
     "Infinite hopes - and fears - may both be yours.  Be sure that whatever else you get, you will not get justice."
     "Are the gods not just?"
     "Oh no, child.  What would happen to us if they were?" 

Lack of Post

We're having technical difficulties on this end, so please don't mind us if we don't post very regularly for a little while!

Martyrs Are Willing



"You are the new recruit? All right, you are engaged."
"I really have no experience..."
"No one has any experience of the battle of Armageddon."
"But I'm really unfit..."
"You are willing, that is enough."
"Now, really, I know of no occupation for which mere willingness is the final test."
"I do. Martyrs. I am sending you to your death. Good day."

-Syme and the police chief in Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday

Life with Jeeves

I have, up to now, neglected a very important pair of individuals, but no longer!  In this post I shall give you a little shower of quotations from a beloved duo... Jeeves and Wooster!



"If there was a defect in his lordships mode of life, it was that he was a little unduly attached to the pleasures of the table-"

"Ate like a pig, you mean?"

"I would not have ventured to put it quite that way, sir, but the expression does meet the facts of the case...."

- Very Good, Jeeves

"And which of us is going to tell Aunt Agatha that?"

"If I might make a suggestion, sir, I would advise that we omitted to communicate with Mrs. Spenser Gregson in any way. I have your suitcase practically packed. It would be a matter of but a few minutes to bring the car around from the garage--"

"And off over the horizon to where men are men?"

"Precisely, sir."

"Jeeves," I said. "I'm not sure that even now I can altogether see eye to eye with regard to your recent activities. You think you have scattered light and sweetness on every side. I am not so sure. However, with this latest suggestion you have rung the bell. I examine it narrowly and I find no flaw in it. It is the goods. I'll get the car at once."

"Very good, sir."

"Remember what the poet Shakespeare said, Jeeves."

"What was that, sir?"

"'Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear'. You'll find it in one of his plays. I remember drawing a picture of it on the side of the page, when I was at school."

- Very Good, Jeeves

 



I don't know if you know that sort of feeling you get on those days round about the end of April and the beginning of May, when the sky's a light blue, with cotton-wool clouds, and there's a bit of a breeze blowing from the west? Kind of uplifted feeling. Romantic, if you know what I mean. I'm not much of a ladies' man, but on this particular morning it seemed to me that what I really wanted was for some charming girl to buzz up and ask me to save her from assassins or something. So it was a bit of an anti-climax when I merely ran into young Bingo Little, looking perfectly foul in a crimson satin tie decorated with horseshoes.

- The Inimitable Jeeves

"Jeeves," I said. "A rummy communication has arrived from Mr. Glossop."

"Indeed, sir?"

"I will read it to you. Handed in at Upper Bleaching. Message runs as follows:

"'When you come tomorrow, bring my football boots. Also, if humanly possible, Irish water-spaniel. Urgent. Regards. Tuppy.'

"What do you make of that, Jeeves?"

"As I interpret the document, sir, Mr. Glossop wishes you, when you come tomorrow, to bring his football boots. Also, if humanly possible, an Irish water-spaniel. He hints that the matter is urgent, and sends his regards."

"Yes, that's how I read it, too."

- Very Good, Jeeves

One Soul



"To each man one soul only is given; to each soul only is given a little power - the power at some moments to outgrow and swallow up the stars."

~Napoleon of Notting Hill, G. K. Chesterton

Swan Lake

Does music reach a higher perfection?  This is definitely one of the most beautiful musical compositions ever!

The Trial of Temptation



"Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without a strife"

~St. Leo the Great

"You want to know what I am..."

"You want to know what I am, do you? Bull, you are a man of science. Grub in the roots of those trees and find out the truth about them. Syme, you are a poet. Stare at those morning clouds. But I tell you this, that you will have found out the truth of the last tree and the top-most cloud before the truth about me. You will understand the sea, and I shall be still a riddle; you shall know what the stars are, and not know what I am."

-spoken by Sunday, from The Man Who was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton

  

Yes, once again I am quoting The Man Who Was Thursday. I really can't help myself, so please don't hold it against me! This book is completely packed with wisdom and a depth of understanding that has a tendency to give me a tiny peek at the magnificence of God and fills me with wonder and awe. (I can't articulate very well on this point, as I usually express most of these sensations with sounds, or motions of the hand, etc. ;)) I'm sure you know what I mean. I can read something that I may recognize as beautiful without it actually gripping me, then I'll come across something that for some reason awakens me. Someone may express an old truth that I took for granted, but they'll put it in such a way that it hits home for the first time.  In the words of Saint Augustine:  "Thou hast enlightened, Thou hast shone forth, and my blindness is dispelled."

"You will understand the sea, and I shall be still a riddle; you shall know what the stars are, and not know what I am."

The purpose of this post was to give my take on this statement of Sunday's; to comment on it, and elaborate on the points of its awe inspiring meaning. But now that I come to it, I cannot. I will leave it to speak for itself. I can add nothing.

Pimpernel Smith (1941)

A bit of witty dialogue from Leslie Howard's Pimpernel Smith.

General von Graum: But we have one problem. "To be or not to Be?" as our great German poet said.
Professor Horatio Smith: German? But that's Shakespeare.
General Von Graum: But you don't know?
Professor Horatio Smith: Why, I know it's Shakespeare. I thought Shakespeare was English.
General von Graum: No, no, no. Shakespeare is a German. Professor Schuessbacher has proved it once and for all. Professor Horatio Smith: Yes, how very upsetting. Still, you must admit that the English translations are most remarkable.
General von Graum: Good night.
Professor Horatio Smith: Good night. Good night. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."
General von Graum: What is that?
Professor Horatio Smith: That's one of the most famous lines in German literature.

Professor Horatio Smith: I'm so glad to find you're not busy, because I've been doing a little research for you...
General von Graum: That's just what I wanted to do.
Professor Horatio Smith: ...On the identity of Shakespeare.
General von Graum: I'd like to know how you spent this afternoon.
Professor Horatio Smith: What's the matter with you? You seem upset. I spent the afternoon at the library at the embassy. Now this, this proves conclusively that Shakespeare wasn't really Shakespeare at all.
General von Graum: No?
Professor Horatio Smith: No. He was the Earl of Oxford. Now you can't pretend that the Earl of Oxford was a German, can you?
Professor Horatio Smith: [Speaking to the German Officer] Can you?
German Officer: No!
Professor Horatio Smith: Well there you are.
German Officer: I didn't come here to discuss Shakespeare. If you want me, you know where I am.
Professor Horatio Smith: The Earl of Oxford was a very bright Elizabethan light.

"It's wonderful what one can teach when one tries."

Having been unjustly "sent down" for "indecent behavior" and having been temporarily - and conveniently - cast off by his Uncle, Paul Pennyfeather is looking for a job.  This is a rather humorous excerpt from his conversation with Mr. Levy of the employment agency, taken from Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.  (I am in the middle of this book right now, and have little doubt that I shall have more to say about it when I have finished it ;-))



     "Private and Confidential Notice of Vacancy.

     "Augustus Fagan, Esquire, Ph. D., Llanabba Castle, N. Wales, requires immediately junior assistant master to teach Classics and English to University Standard with Subsidiary Mathematics, German, and French.  Experience essential; first-class games essential.

     "Status of School: School.

     "Salary offered: £120 resident post.

     "Reply promptly but carefully to Dr. Fagan ('Esq., Ph. D., on envelope), enclosing copies of testimonials and photographs, if considered advisable, mentioning that you have heard of the vacancy through us."

     "Might have been made for you," said Mr. Levy.

     "But I don't know a word of German, I've had no experience, I've got no testimonials, and I can't play cricket."

     "It doesn't do to be too modest," said Mr. Levy.  "It's wonderful what one can teach when one tries.  Why, only last term we sent a man who had never been in a laboratory in his life as a senior Science Master to one of our leading public schools.  He came wanting to do private coaching in music.  He's doing very well, I believe.  Besides, Dr. Fagan can't expect all that for the salary he's offering.  Between ourselves, Llanabba hasn't a good name in the profession.  We class schools, you see, into four grades: Leading School, First-rate School, Good School, and School.  Frankly," said Mr. Levy, "School is pretty bad.  I think you'll find it a very suitable post.  So far as I know, there are only two other candidates, and one of them is totally deaf, poor fellow."

Thoughts from Thursday

I would like to share with you one of my favorite Chesterton quotations.  An exerpt from The Man Who Was Thursday.  Spoiler Alert!



"I see everything," he cried, "everything that there is. Why does each thing on the earth war against each other thing? Why does each small thing in the world have to fight against the world itself? Why does a fly have to fight the whole universe? Why does a dandelion have to fight the whole universe? For the same reason that I had to be alone in the dreadful Council of the Days. So that each thing that obeys law may have the glory and isolation of the anarchist. So that each man fighting for order may be as brave and good a man as the dynamiter. So that the real lie of Satan may be flung back in the face of this blasphemer, so that by tears and torture we may earn the right to say to this man, 'You lie!' No agonies can be too great to buy the right to say to this accuser, "We also have suffered."

"It is not true that we have never been broken. We have been broken upon the wheel. It is not true that we have never descended from these thrones. We have descended into hell. We were complaining of unforgettable miseries even at the very moment when this man entered insolently to accuse us of happiness. I repel the slander; we have not been happy. I can answer for every one of the great guards of Law whom he has accused. At least —"

He had turned his eyes so as to see suddenly the great face of Sunday, which wore a strange smile.

"Have you," he cried in a dreadful voice, "have you ever suffered?"

As he gazed, the great face grew to an awful size, grew larger than the colossal mask of memnon, which had made him scream as a child. It grew larger and larger, filling the whole sky; then everything went black. Only in the blackness before it entirely destroyed his brain he seemed to hear a distant voice saying a commonplace text that he had heard somewhere, "Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?"