The wonder of the ignorant

We find in sullen writs,

And cross grain'd works of modern wits,

The wonder of the ignorant.

 

-- Hudibras

Mistaken vision

Some have mistaken blocks and posts

For spectres, apparitions, ghosts,

With saucer eyes and horns.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!

 Doubtless the pleasure is as great

Of being cheated, as to cheat;

As lookers on feel most delight,

That least perceive the juggler's sleight.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

Oh where, oh where did my reputation go?

Honour is like that glassy bubble,

That finds philosophers such trouble;

Whose least part crack'd, the whole does fly,

And wits are crack'd to find out why. 

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

Loyalty, like grace, shows the nobility of the giver of it more than the nobility of the receiver

Though loyalty, well held, to fools does make

Our faith mere folly; yet he that can endure

To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord,

Does conquer him that did his master conquer.

-- William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, Scene XIII

For loyalty is still the same,

Whether it win or lose the game;

True as the dial to the sun,

Although it be not shone upon.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

-- Acts 20:33ff.

The unlearned zealot

This zealot

Is of a mongrel, divers kind,

Clerick before, and lay behind.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

Sura 7:158 –  Say: "O men! I am sent unto you all, as the Apostle of God, to Whom belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth: there is no god but He: it is He That giveth both life and death. So believe in God and His Apostle, the Unlettered Prophet, who believeth in God and His words: follow him that (so) ye may be guided."

They say you can die of a broken heart, and I believe it

Yesterday I noticed an unusual development on the nail of my right thumb.

A little research indicated "Beau's lines" had formed, about which Wikipedia says "typically in healthy populations fingernails grow at about 0.1mm/day" and "with this in mind the date of the stress causing Beau's lines and other identifiable marks on nails can be estimated. As the nail grows out, the ridge visibly moves upwards toward the nail edge."

So I had my son with his keener eyes measure the distance from my cuticle to the leading edge of the first Beau's line. He came up with 12 millimeters, which works out to 120 days ago, or approximately September 1, 2017, the day my wife lost a job.

As fate would have it, I was diagnosed with a 90% blockage in my left anterior descending coronary artery in November, which has since been mitigated thanks to the wonders of modern medicine. Obviously problems like coronary artery disease are many years in the making and I didn't suddenly come down with it in the month of September because my wife lost her job. It is noteworthy, however, that among the several causes of Beau's lines is . . . "coronary occlusion", aka "partial or complete obstruction of blood flow in a coronary artery".

In "broken heart syndrome" one experiences compromise of left ventricular function triggered by emotional stress but without such an occlusion.

"Evaluation of individuals with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy [broken heart syndrome] typically includes a coronary angiogram to rule out occlusion of the left anterior descending artery, which will not reveal any significant blockages that would cause the left ventricular dysfunction. Provided that the individual survives their initial presentation, the left ventricular function improves within two months."

Perhaps in my case the chicken stressor produced an egg occlusion.

Or was it the other way around?

"We agree in nothing but to wrangle,

About the slightest fingerfangle."

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

On the unity of antonymy

The first pendulum clock, 1656

Upon the bench I will so handle 'em,

That the vibration of this pendulum

Shall make all taylors yards of one

Unanimous opinion.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras (c. 1662)

Between two foes

Johann Heinrich Füssli's Odysseus between the two foes Scylla and Charybdis, circa 1795

But as a barque, that, in foul weather,

Toss'd by two adverse winds together,

Is bruis'd and beaten to and fro,

And knows not which to turn him to;

So far'd the knight between two foes,

And knew not which of them t' oppose.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras

A religious man's zeal is an enlightened man's fanaticism

For zeal's a dreadful termagant,

That teaches saints to tear and rant.

-- Samuel Butler (1613-1680), Hudibras

The Alchemy of 'A'

 

For fools are stubborn in their way,

As coins are harden'd by th' allay.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras