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The Wunderkammer of the Mild Colonial Boy, Esq., a Reactionary Tory Gentleman, who armed only with a Steampowered Babbage Engine and Pure Intentions, wanders the Time Streams and Aetheric Plane gathering an Eccentric Hodgepodge of Curiousities, Frivolities, Whimsicalities and Nonsense.

Q. Why is your Tumblelog called "My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning"?

A. Because "My Grandmother's Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck by Lightning" wouldn't fit in the available space.

adamthenorman: From Saint Maximos the Confessor’s Four Hundred Texts on Love: 29. When you are insulted by someone or humiliated, guard against angry thoughts, lest they arouse a feeling of irritation, and so cut you off from love and place you in the realm of hatred. 31. Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of spiritual knowledge in the soul. 40. We actively manifest love in forbearance and patience to­wards our neighbour, in genuinely desiring his good, and in the right use of material things. 42. He who loves God lives the angelic life on earth, fasting and keeping vigils, praying and singing psalms and always thinking good of every man. 49. Do not befoul your intellect by clinging to thoughts filled with anger and sensual desire. Otherwise you will lose your capacity for pure prayer and fall victim to the demon of listlessness. 60. Silence the man who utters slander in your hearing. Other­wise you sin twice over: first, you accustom yourself to this deadly passion and, second you fail to prevent him from gossiping against his neighbour. 80. ‘Learn from Me’, He said, ‘for I am gentle and humble in heart’ (Matt. 11:29). Gentleness keeps the soul’s incensive power in a calm state; humility frees the intellect from conceit and self-esteem. 89. Once the soul starts to feel its own good health, the images in its dreams are also calm and free from passion. Apolytikion of St. Maximos the Confessor in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a luminary of the world, the God inspired pride of monastics. O wise Maximos, you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our souls.

adamthenorman:

From Saint Maximos the Confessor’s Four Hundred Texts on Love:

29. When you are insulted by someone or humiliated, guard against angry thoughts, lest they arouse a feeling of irritation, and so cut you off from love and place you in the realm of hatred.

31. Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of spiritual knowledge in the soul.

40. We actively manifest love in forbearance and patience to­wards our neighbour, in genuinely desiring his good, and in the right use of material things.

42. He who loves God lives the angelic life on earth, fasting and keeping vigils, praying and singing psalms and always thinking good of every man.

49. Do not befoul your intellect by clinging to thoughts filled with anger and sensual desire. Otherwise you will lose your capacity for pure prayer and fall victim to the demon of listlessness.

60. Silence the man who utters slander in your hearing. Other­wise you sin twice over: first, you accustom yourself to this deadly passion and, second you fail to prevent him from gossiping against his neighbour.

80. ‘Learn from Me’, He said, ‘for I am gentle and humble in heart’ (Matt. 11:29). Gentleness keeps the soul’s incensive power in a calm state; humility frees the intellect from conceit and self-esteem.

89. Once the soul starts to feel its own good health, the images in its dreams are also calm and free from passion.

Apolytikion of St. Maximos the Confessor in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a luminary of the world, the God inspired pride of monastics. O wise Maximos, you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our souls.

"At the back of every discussion of the good society lies this question, What is the object of human life? The enlightened conservative does not believe that the end or aim of life is competition; or success; or enjoyment; or longevity; or power; or possessions. He believes, instead, that the object of life is Love. He knows that the just and ordered society is that in which Love governs us, so far as Love ever can reign in this world of sorrows; and he knows that the anarchical or the tyrannical society is that in which Love lies corrupt. He has learnt that Love is the source of all being, and that Hell itself is ordained by Love. He understands that Death, when we have finished the part that was assigned to us, is the reward of Love. And he apprehends the truth that the greatest happiness ever granted to a man is the privilege of being happy in the hour of his death."

— Russell Kirk (via beautynorder)

(Source: theimaginativeconservative.org, via beautynorder)

"For He can well be loved, but he cannot be thought. By love he can be grasped and held, but by thought, neither grasped nor held. And therefore, though it may be good at times to think specifically of the kindness and excellence of God, and though this may be a light and a part of contemplation, all the same, in the work of contemplation itself, it must be cast down and covered with a cloud of forgetting. And you must step above it stoutly but deftly, with a devout and delightful stirring of love, and struggle to pierce that darkness above you; and beat on that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love, and do not give up, whatever happens"

— from The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: The Cloude of Unknowyng) (HT Wikipedia)

"And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest."

— Anon., 14th century, The Cloud of Unknowing (via augustuscarmichael)

"No one can fully comprehend the uncreated God with his knowledge; but each one, in a different way, can grasp him fully through love. Truly this is the miracle of love: that one loving person, through his love, can embrace God, whose being fills and transcends the entire creation."

— The Cloud of Unknowing (via saferthanastrangeland)

(Source: twisttheoaks)

"The things that we love tell us what we are."

— Saint Thomas Aquinas (via fathershane)
maudelynn: A Smoke and a Dream…

maudelynn:

A Smoke and a Dream…

(via sydneyflapper)

paleofuture: Mechanical Matchmaking: The Science of Love in the 1920s Science!

paleofuture:

Mechanical Matchmaking: The Science of Love in the 1920s

Science!

(via gdfalksen)

questionableadvice: ~ The Spinster Book, by Myrtle Reed, 1901 If the phrenologists do not know - then nobody knows.

questionableadvice:

~ The Spinster Book, by Myrtle Reed, 1901

If the phrenologists do not know - then nobody knows.

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love..” —Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. “We can dance if we want to We can leave your friends behind Cause your friends don’t dance And if they don’t dance Well they’re no friends of mine” —Men without Hats. Safety Dance.

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love..” —Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

“We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don’t dance
And if they don’t dance
Well they’re no friends of mine”
—Men without Hats. Safety Dance.

(Source: poshrebelgirl, via duchessoftime)