Wisely Reading The Adages of Erasmus in Foolish Times

     Reading wisdom literature in any age is wise. Reading wise sayings in a foolish age will mark one quickly as a contrarian, but being wise where folly is as pervasive as oxygen is essential for survival. Of all the gifts that Desiderius Erasmus passed on to western civilization, his collection of adages, useful sayings, ranks among his least known, but most esteemed in his day. While not all adages are wise sayings, there is much wisdom in his labor. Even in Erasmus's day, Niccolo Sagundino, wrote about them, "I can hardly say what a sweet nectar as honey I sip from your delightful Adages, rich source of nectar as they are. What lovely flowers of every mind I gather thence like a honey-bee.... to their perusal I have devoted two hours a day."
     The Adages can be enjoyed along with Erasmus's Praise of Folly and Colloquies. The work demonstrates the unique genius of this prince of the humanists. It demonstrates his scholarship and imaginative wit as he reflects on a range of Greek and Roman sources. An additional value of the adages is that Erasmus often provides philosophical insight with social and political commentary. It is stunning how relevant many of the adages are to our own time. Maybe it should not surprise us that this is true because human nature, being what it is, will produce scenarios where leaders and citizens are acting out the same comedy of errors as our human ancestors. Here are just a handful of the more than 4,000. 

• To drive out one nail with another (on how solving problems may occur when placed next to similar problems)
• So many men, so many opinions (think "know it all pundits" and this one has modern application)
• You write in water (before there was a Tweet, which gave new meaning to wasting time, this adage conveyed that very notion) 
• You are building on the sand (the call to seriously consider where we place our hope and confidence)
• The blind leading the blind (take virtually any political issue and this proverb comes alive)
• One swallow does not a summer make (a rousing call for character formation)
• To exact tribute from the dead (before the "death tax," an indictment against usury and taxation)
• Time reveals all things (offering hope that even the follies of our moment will one day be revealed)

     Erasmus says that there are a number of things knowledge of proverbs provides but he highlights four things that knowledge of the adages may contribute to those who read and meditate on these maxims: "philosophy, persuasion, grace and charm in speaking, and understanding the best authors." To make the case that anyone seeking wisdom would indeed benefit from reading this work, here are just a few things that Erasmus says about two of the wisest words ever uttered, "Know Thyself" and "Nothing in Excess." In the various contexts of the phrase "know thyself," Erasmus infers this saying as a recommendation for "moderation and the middle state, and bids us not to pursue objects either too great for us or beneath us...to recognize our own blessings."

*All quotes taken from, The Adages of Erasmus Selected by William Barker. University of Toronto Press, 2001.

Wrecked Upon The Reef of Justice: The Most Relevant Oresteia by Aeschylus

   I was talking with a friend a few days ago, and he asked me what I thought about a particular news story. He was surprised when I responded that I knew a good bit less than him, and he seemed even more surprised as I was describing with what he considered a high level of apathy. Despite my best efforts to persuade him that the most recent "news" event or political scandal about unlawful government actions toward its citizens, current wave of political  or social propaganda, government sideshow, national media silliness, or Presidential diversion was far less engaging and meaningless than the extremely engaging and meaningful Oresteia by Aeschylus. So, I urge you as I urged my friend, make a conscious decision to be a liberated citizen and step away from the noise and the confining distortions of this particular moment, and be free to think about important issues in an equally important manner. I guaranteed him that reading the Great Books will give him a way to look at the distortions, perversions, and social atrocities with eyes that truly see and ears that clearly hear. So, let me encourage you to read the Oresteia and make your way through these questions provided by Mortimer Adler.

I. Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides

• Was justice done to Orestes?
• Did Orestes act justly?
• Was Orestes just in killing his mother, avenging his father, obeying the command of Apollo, and/or killing Aegisthus?
• Did Clytaemnestra act justly?
• Was Clytaemnestra just in killing her husband, revenging the death of her daughter Iphigenia, and/or being unfaithful to her husband?
• Did Apollo act justly in urging Orestes to kill Clytaemnestra?
• Did Athena act justly in casting her vote for Orestes?
• Did the Furies act justly?
• Were the Furies just in pursuing Orestes, in not pursuing Electra or Clytaemnestra after she killed her husband, and/or in resting satisfied with the judgment of the Athenian court, as the result of Athena’s persuasion and flattery?
• What if you substitute the word “justly” for “lawfully”?
• Is lex talionis, the law of retribution and revenge, really a law?
• Is human law placed above divine law?
• In terms of what law are you judging the justice of the verdict?
• What do you think of the court procedure?
• Does the court follow the rules and customs that are used in British or American courts?
• First of all, is the court duly constituted?
• How can one decide what “duly constituted” would mean?
• Is there any assurance that this was a fair jury?
• Is the existence of law a good or an evil?
• Are Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra, and Orestes better off because they live in a lawless condition, or anarchy?
• Is there a sense in which men are freer in a civil society, with laws, than they are in a lawless condition?
• Is that society best which has the most laws?
• Is the best society halfway between the extremes of anarchy and regulating everything by laws?