Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed [...]
The mysteries of the human heart, and of the soul within you, are every bit as wondrous as the mysteries of the political and the natural worlds. And so you have asked questions of the world, in part because it is your nature to wish to know, in part because you wish to [...]
It is mainly little places which permit the modesty of pace needed for long thoughts, and the conditions of closeness under which human beings begin to stand out and become distinct in their first and second nature. These places are the veritable harbors of refuge and recovery for civilization… Today, the same day on [...]
Since liberal education is non-academic, in my sense, it has real gravity, moral gravity. And so it is, finally, also concerned with questions of “good and evil.” The college years are the time for students to frame those moral allegiances that will help them decide more sure-footedly how to act when leisure is over [...]
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Stratford Caldecott as he considers the divine nature of giving as explained by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher My topic is a theological appreciation of the notion of “gift”, and how this throws light on what something is, which [...]
An odyssey is an adventurous and searching journey, or an intellectual or spiritual quest. It is the proper name for the life of learning. One can shape one’s own odyssey into a journey that lacks neither enchantment nor definition… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Eva [...]
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity—on the occasion of Thomas Jefferson’s 275th birthday—to join Clyde Wilson as he reflects upon Dumas Malone’s magisterial work, Jefferson and His Time. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher A Review of The Sage of Monticello, by Dumas Malone, Volume Six of Jefferson and His [...]
Great books introduce us to ideas and to ways of looking at the world that are new to us. They provide a refreshing distance from the trends, fashions, tastes, opinions, and political correctness of our current culture. Great books invite us to put aside for a while our way of looking at the world [...]
John Adams never had an optimistic view of human nature, and his experience in the Congress and abroad only deepened his suspicion that his fellow Americans might not have the character to sustain a republican government… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Gordon Wood as he explores [...]
Abraham Lincoln did all that he could to preserve constitutional rule by trying to teach his fellow citizens what it means to be an American… The paradox of Abraham Lincoln’s appearance in the United States’ sectional conflict becomes manifest if one considers a passage written by James Madison in Federalist No. 10. In that [...]
One of the chief aims of mathematics has always been to reveal and describe an order in the natural world. Mathematics, as a language, reveals this order and harmony, yet it should also be lifted from this concrete foundation and brought into the world of the abstract… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series [...]
The American Founders knew from history that a curriculum successful at teaching its graduates to think, communicate, and lead could produce anarchy or tyranny instead of ordered liberty, unless those skills were practiced by leaders committed to virtue and the love of liberty… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity [...]
It is impossible to love both the victors and the vanquished, as the Iliad does, except from the place, outside the world, where God’s Wisdom dwells… Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Cicero Bruce as he considers the Iliad in light of eternity. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher [...]
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Anthony Esolen as he explores the difference among freedom of choice, of being chosen, and of choosing to be chosen. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher But all things come to them that wait. Into sight silently draws a ship, draped in black [...]