On the recommendation of a recent Radio 4 programme, I bought Handheld Press's reissue of Rose Macaulay's "What Not". The author prefaces her text with a quotation from Jesus (or Joshua - the names are essentially the same), son of Sirach. He turns out to be the subject of the book which used to be known only as Ecclesiasticus and part of the Apocrypha. The passage quoted personifies and extols Wisdom:
6:20 She is very unpleasant to the unlearned: he that is without understanding will not remain with her.6:21 She will lie upon him as a mighty stone of trial; and he will cast her from him ere it be long.
6:22 For wisdom is according to her name, and she is not manifest unto many.
6:23 Give ear, my son, receive my advice, and refuse not my counsel,
6:24 And put thy feet into her fetters, and thy neck into her chain.
6:25 Bow down thy shoulder, and bear her, and be not grieved with her bonds.
6:26 Come unto her with thy whole heart, and keep her ways with all thy power.
6:27 Search, and seek, and she shall be made known unto thee: and when thou hast got hold of her, let her not go.
6:28 For at the last thou shalt find her rest, and that shall be turned to thy joy.
6:29 Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee, and her chains a robe of glory.
Latterly, "the unlearned" have been played by unscrupulous politicians like Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot all the way down to Michael Gove. In December 2019, the anti-intellectualism of Gove and Johnson was successful in the UK. Unfettered by wisdom, knowledge and experience we suffered the worst of Covid-19, divorce from the continent of Europe and from defying a significant part of international human rights law. The extent to which we will be able to recover is a moot point.
It will be interesting to see how Macaulay developed the theme.
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