Forty years long was I grieved with this generation

Sunday the 22d October was the 20th Sunday after Trinity. That workaday Season of the Church is hasting to its yearly end: soon enough, it shall be Advent-tide, and then Christmas, the birthday and New Year of the Church. But you’ll not be interested in that, and are perhaps doubtful of its relevance. (O thatContinue reading “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation”

The secret utility of mist and fog: observations on observing

This morning was a morning of mist and fog. Some should no doubt casually label it autumnal. I do not, quite, because I do not particularly measure by weather or by equinox: to me, Autumn has come when first I hear the geese overhead. Fog and mist are not commonly welcome in history or lawContinue reading “The secret utility of mist and fog: observations on observing”

Common senses

The evidence of one’s senses is always in both senses material: a point which writers generally, and historians particularly, ought to bear in mind. Life is not carried on, carried out, lived, in hermetically sealed, soundproof rooms. The writing of history is a literary art. The writer of fiction is the historian of his orContinue reading “Common senses”