Paradise

2004 saw the completion of the finest English translation of Dante in a long time - maybe ever. I have always been a fan of Mandelbaum's translation because of its readability and faithfulness to the original. Ciardi is a magnificent poet who used his talent to produce an extraordinary English Dante, but one that is somewhat less faithful to the original than Mandelbaum. Durling and Martinez have been developing a very fine translation with perhaps the best notes and charts of any English Dante. I also like Longfellow and some of the older, more formal works.

But now Anthony Esolen has completed his amazingly readable and beautifully poetic Paradiso. He seems to have had the spirit of the poet in him as he wrote. When it should be harsh, it is harsh. When it should sing, it sings. When it should weep, it weeps. He has entered the heart of Dante and brought his song to us in an English translation that draws our hearts to the vision of the poet. Buy it. In hardback. Modern Library. www.townhall.com might still carry it at a good discount.

Reflections

What follows are notes I wrote when I was researching and meditating on the book I wrote with Ed Veith: Classical Education. Most of this didn't make it into the book. Some of it I might not even think any more.

There is no tidy and perfect formula that can be called classical education. it is more of a spirit of education and an attitude to life. Calling it classical Christian education helps to define it by demanding that what is kept of the classical tradition is subject to Christian thought. But perhaps more to the point is the fact that in examining classical educational experience and reflection, nothing is left unexplored.

Liberal education is sustained by its lovers. But is it worth the cost?

Christianity raised the seven liberal arts from self-reflection to knowledge of God.

Augustine spoke of plundering the Egyptians. It must also be remembered that the Israelites used those jewels to make the golden calf.

Christianity is a joyful acceptance of reality. The Greeks also accepted the world of the senses. Both also looked to a higher order of reality--a metaphysical. The match is that both Jew and Greek freely accepted both as real and wonderful.

How do we combine the school of empirical science with the school of the rational trivium? Are they compatible?

Don't spend too much time on historical and political details except as they explain the development of ideas--what intellectual impulses did they release? What did they block? How did they lead to the formation or development or use of the seven liberal arts?

Don't spend too much time on other people's reflections either.

Love towers above all the other disciplines and subsists in a category all her own. She is the only true motivation, the only true power, the only true end of all the disciplines. Indeed, love is God.

The freedom we might have as humans depends on the possibility of knowledge and capacties that are definitive and universal in man. If not, we must get knowledge at least from outside sources and all things are subjected to conditional knowledge. Only those provided with this knowledge can be free - for freedom is contingent on knowledge. This may be the foundational philosophical question vis the possibility of freedom.

Numbered days and straight paths

My brothers used to threaten me with the old Hollywood line: "Your days are numbered." If only...

In Psalm 91, Moses indicates that we need to learn to number our days. In Hebrews 12 we are told to lift the weary limb and strengthen the feeble spirit and to "make straight the path for your feet."

These are two very comprehensive instructions for planning ahead.

Have you confronted your mortality and accepted the limited number of days you will live and therefore the limited number of desires you can pursue? Have you selected those that matter most? Are you making the path ahead straight? It's a long marathon we are running. You don't want to do it on boulders.

This is a great time to do it - though not as good as December. January to March are the third quarter of life - late in the second trimester of a pregnancy - the doldrums, "this nothing time," the dark night of the soul. But if you spend a week or two numbering your days and making a straight path for your feet, this down time gains new enthusiasm and energy. Have you set any goals for the coming year?

New location

I've signed a one year lease on an office in Concord, NC so hopefully this makes the last address change you'll have to remember to keep track of me for a while. New address:

135 Cabarrus Avenue East
Concord, NC 28025

Concord is one of those small-town southern cities that still has a personality. I'm two blocks from the downtown that runs along Union street between First Presbyterian at one end and an old Spanish style church at the other. In between lay shops, law offices, restaurants, antique stores, an ice creamery, and a charming small town street with benches and faux gas lights and parking spaces for cars.

Across from my office is a parking lot. At one end is H&R Block. At the other, a funeral home.

Ben Franklin would be amused.

Houston writing workshop

Camille Goldstone has arranged for me to conduct a classical composition workshop outside of Houston, TX on January 29. She's been able to keep the cost all the way down to $47.00 for the full day of training plus fellowship. If you are interested, click this link to the CiRCE web site and take a look: www.classicalteachertraining.org. Press to the "workshops" button when you are there.

I hope to be back at the blog more frequently in the days to come. I visited my family up in Green Bay, including my brother and his wife and children, who live in Australia, for Christmas and then moved my office again when I returned. I'm surrounded by boxes, but I haven't given up the ship.