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Words being arbitrary, they owe their power to association, and have the influence which custom has given them – for language is the dress of thought. Therefore on hearing the words “Democracy in America,” some will think of Alexis de Tocqueville’s book by the same title. Others, not having read the book (an enterprise of Read More

An Eastern monarch, of whom we know the existence but not the name, kept an officer in his house whose employment it was to remind him of his mortality, by calling out every morning at a stated hour, “Remember prince that thou shalt die. Indeed, the contemplation of the frailness of our present state appeared Read More

Trump’s supporters, having found the vanity of conjecture and inefficacy of expectations, resolved to prove their own existence, if not by violence, at least by physical presence. They came forth into the crowded capital with an almost juvenile ambition that their numbers would be counted, their voice heard and their presence noticed.

The MacDonaldization of words forces many to lay that reason asleep which disturbs their gayety. Among recent new entries is ‘Brexit’, a word suitable to a speaking-club made of millions, where most half-hear what, if they heard the whole, they would but half-understand. Furthermore, some words in time are debased by repetition, and can no Read More

Those who follow the reigning fashion, or from fashion borrow their taste, will have observed that, after a de-facto 20 years of relative unpopularity, red wine has undergone a commercial and cultural renaissance. Not that it was ever dead, but lore and clichés suggested that thoughtful solitude was the natural setting for a glass of Read More

This article was written for the Rocketship Education Home School. John Locke, famous British empiricist, philosopher and father of Liberalism, asserted that, “The chief art of learning is to attempt but a little at a time.” The aphorism seems obvious. But we may or should remember that the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much Read More