BISHOP JOSEPH EVERY THING IS WHAT IT IS AND NOT ANOTHER THING BUTLER Henry Thoreau had in his personal library a volume published in 1830 by the Boston firm Hilliard and Brown, Bishop Joseph Butler s THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF NATURE (evidently this had been required reading during his course of instruction at Harvard College). NARRATIVE HISTORY AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Bishop Joseph Butler
1692 May 18, Sunday (Old Style): Joseph Butler was born at Wantage, in the English countryside that is now called Oxfordshire, a son of a Presbyterian linen-draper. For his education he would be sent to Samuel Jones s dissenting academy, which was first located at Gloucester and then at Tewkesbury. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Bishop Joseph Butler Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
1714 Joseph Butler, casting his vote for the established Church of England after obtaining the most reluctant consent of his dissenting father, matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford (eventually this would prove to have been a wise choice when he would be made rector at Stanhope, a rich living). ORIEL COLLEGE CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Bishop Joseph Butler Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
Oxford
1716 Joseph Butler s SEVERAL LETTERS TO THE REVEREND DR. CLARKE. In an exchange of letters with the Reverend Samuel Clarke, Butler had pointed out that there were flaws in his reasoning in his recently published proofs a priori, of the divine omnipresence and unity of a necessarily existent being. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Bishop Joseph Butler Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
1718 Joseph Butler became a priest of the Church of England. He would preach at Rolls Chapel. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? NO, THAT S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN S STORIES. LIFE ISN T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Bishop Joseph Butler
1726 The Reverend Joseph Butler s FIFTEEN SERMONS PREACHED AT THE ROLLS CHAPEL. Having insulted a powerful young nobleman, Voltaire had the options of imprisonment or exile. Until 1729 he would reside in England. While in England Voltaire would be attracted to the philosophy of John Locke and ideas of the great natural philosopher (that is to say, scientist) Sir Isaac Newton. Here s a Voltaire remark cited both by Emerson and by Nietzsche: Croyez-moi, mon ami, l erreur aussi a son mérite. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Bishop Joseph Butler
1736 The Reverend Joseph Butler s ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED demonstrated that since there was but one author both of the course of nature and of the Bible as revealed sacred literature God himself there could not conceivably ever be any actual disagreement between these two. It was as safe to study nature as to study the Bible! One might well illuminate the true meaning of the other! They are in fact complementary! One s natural desires usually tend to reinforce one s moral impulses and can function as an aid to conscience (he got this out of Arrian s DISCOURSES OF EPICTETUS). On the advice of Lancelot Blackburne, the Reverend Butler was made head chaplain (clerk of the closet) to King George II s wife, Queen Caroline. WHAT I M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Bishop Joseph Butler Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
1738 The Reverend Joseph Butler was appointed bishop of Bristol.
1739 Bishop Joseph Butler s SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.
1740 Bishop Joseph Butler s A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD-MAYOR.
1741 Bishop Joseph Butler s A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
1745 Bishop Joseph Butler s A SERMON PREACHED IN THE PARISH-CHURCH OF CHRIST-CHURCH, LONDON.
1747 Thomas Herring became Archbishop of Canterbury (there is a story that Bishop Joseph Butler had declined to be nominated).
1748 Bishop Joseph Butler s A SERMON, PREACHED BEFORE HIS GRACE CHARLES DUKE OF RICHMOND, LENOX, AND AUBIGNY, PRESIDENT.
1749 Bishop Joseph Butler s SIX SERMONS PREACHED UPON PUBLICK OCCASIONS.
1750 Bishop Joseph Butler was appointed bishop of Durham.
1751 Bishop Joseph Butler s A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY AT THE PRIMARY VISITATION OF THE DIOCESE OF DURHAM.
1752 June 16: Joseph Butler died in Bath, Somerset, England (in the calendars of the Anglican communion, therefore, his feast day is June 16th). The remains would be interred in Bristol Cathedral, of which he had once been the prelate.
1766 William Paley was elected a fellow and tutor of Christ College, Cambridge, where he would become an intimate friend of John Law and would lecture on metaphysics, morals, the Greek Testament, John Locke, the Reverend Dr. Samuel Clarke s A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD, THE OBLIGATIONS OF NATURAL RELIGION, AND THE TRUTH AND CERTAINLY OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION, IN OPPOSITION TO THOMAS HOBBES, SPINOZA, THE AUTHOR OF THE ORACLES OF REASON, AND OTHER DENIERS OF NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION, and Bishop Joseph Butler s ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED. In his lectures on divinity he would take the position he would maintain later in his MORAL PHILOSOPHY, that the 39 Articles of English history was nothing more than a politicolegal document inasmuch as by parsing these 39 thingies one might obtain some 240 distinct propositions some of which were mutually inconsistent.
1830 By this point the influence of the Common Sense school of Scottish philosophy, supremely universal and scientific and therefore beyond reproach as a tool for the generation of the requisite nonsectarian citizenry, was overwhelming in the PCness of American universities. By common-sensical was meant universally selfevident, which left the previous Humean skepticism out in the cold. 1 THOMAS REID 1. The revealed texts at the time were such as Bishop Joseph Butler s THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED (1736) and the Reverend William Paley s NATURAL THEOLOGY: OR, EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY, COLLECTED FROM THE APPEARANCES OF NATURE (1802). For a late and clear statement of this position, see the work of Thomas Reid (1710-1796). For a last gasp, refer to Mark Hopkins s EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY (1846).
Francis Joseph Grund s FIRST LESSONS IN PLANE GEOMETRY. TOGETHER WITH AN APPLICATION OF THEM TO THE SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS. SIMPLIFIED FOR BOYS NOT VERSED IN ALGEBRA. BY FRANCIS J. GRUND, TEACHER OF MATHEMATICS, AT CHAUNCY HALL-SCHOOL (Boston: Published by Carter and Hendee). FIRST PLANE GEOMETRY Henry Thoreau would be found to have in his personal library a volume published in this year by the Boston firm of Hilliard and Brown, THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF NATURE (evidently this had been required reading at Harvard College). What I can offer you, courtesy of Google Books, is an edition of Bishop Joseph Butler s works as one volume, that would be published in England in 1850. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Bishop Joseph Butler
1943 March: Edgeley Woodman Todd s Philosophical Ideas at Harvard College, 1817-1837 (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 63-90). EDGELY WOODMAN TODD ABERCROMBIE JOHN LOCKE DUG. STEWART THOS. BROWN
1945 March: Joseph J. Kwiat s Thoreau s Philosophical Apprenticeship (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 51-69). JOSEPH J. KWIAT ABERCROMBIE JOHN LOCKE DUG. STEWART THOS. BROWN Professor Ernest Erwin Leisy s Thoreau and Ossian (The New England Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1 (March 1945), pp. 96-98), points out that rather than using James Macpherson s version of the Ossianic poems, Thoreau relied instead on Patrick MacGregor s 1841 blank verse retranslation of the material, THE GENUINE REMAINS OF OSSIAN. Professor Leisy comments gratuitously, however, that Thoreau in his quotations from Ossian exercised his well-known perversity for selections which suited his particular needs. 2 Henry Thoreau did not ever make use of Macpherson s fraudulent materials. The quote in WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS, that expresses the kinship of the wild to his nature, is traceable to MacGregor s version of Croma, 193. The quote that appears in Thoreau s Night and Moonlight is traceable to Ossian s address to the sun from page 519 of MacGregor s version of Trathal, beginning Where has darkness its dwelling, to illustrate how the light of day reflects an inward dawn. The quotes in Friday of A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS also are traceable to the Macgregor version: Ca-Lodin, I, 125: Thou glidest away Ca-Lodin, II, 132: With murmurs loud Ca-Lodin, II, 134: His soul departed Ca-Lodin, II, 137: Whence have sprung Ca-Lodin, III, 138: The wrathful kings Carric, 167: Strangers build a tower Garon, 176: A thousand orators inclined Garon, 176: How beauteous... Oinamoru, I, 182: I straightway seize Croma, 195: My eyes have failed Fingal, III, 252: dragging his spear Fingal, V, 280: The weak will find Fingal, VI, 292: Thy mother shall find Timora, III, 343: He strode away Timora, VI, 391: Mounds will appear 2. Uh, selecting quotations that suit your particular needs is perverse? Well, yes, cherry-picking the quotations that support your point while disregarding quotations that would refute your point, that would be properly describable as tendentious but I don t consider that Thoreau in quoting from Ossian had any particular agenda to prove any particular point. His use of these materials was merely evocative. However, this 3-page article was published in 1945, back in the day when it was considered seemly for academics to mention Thoreau with a subtle sneer so we may be able to put down this remark about Thoreau s well-known perversity as merely Professor Leisy s obeisance to the popular trend.
MAGISTERIAL HISTORY IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this read-only computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace resulting in navigation problems allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. It s all now you see. Yesterday won t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. Remark by character Garin Stevens in William Faulkner s INTRUDER IN THE DUST Prepared: April 28, 2014 Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Bishop Joseph Butler
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT GENERATION HOTLINE This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot Laura (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary writerly process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world. First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.