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Page 1 of 11930 · PDF PAGE 10
…e profound thoughts were producing a hypochondriac obnubilation of my mental faculties, it suddenly occurred to me that after all, I had heard this story before. And I saw the connection. In the pitch-dark ages, when Christianity held unchallenged sway over those portions of this globe which it had sufficiently corrupted, the pursuit of knowledgeknowledge of any kindwas justly estimated by the people in power as the one and only dangerous pursuit. Even so, as late as 300 years ago, it was not considered very gentlemanly to be able to read and…
1930 · PDF PAGE 4
…LES DE RAIS Long ago when King Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, a gentleman whose Christian names were Thomas Henryyou may possibly have heard of himhe was no less a personage than the Grand- father of the great Aldous Huxleyonce found himself threatened by a predicament similar to that in which I stand tonight. He had been asked to lecture a distinguished group of people. What bothered him was this : what assumption was he to make about the existing knowledge of the audience ? He adopted the sensible course of asking the advice of an old han…
1930 · PDF PAGE 6
…tmosphere. But since we are talking about Waterloo, we may ask ourselves what, roughly speaking, is the extent of our knowledge ? I have heard plenty of theories about why Napoleon lost the battle. I have been told that he was already suffering from the disease which killed him. I have been told that he was outgeneralled by Wellington. I have been told that his army of conscripts was underfed and not properly drilled. I have also been told that the battle was won by the Belgians. Now, all these things are merely matters of opinion. There may be…
1930 · PDF PAGE 13
… but as a commonplace of inherited knowledgethat Jews were sorcerers and wizards. In other words, they know something about grammar. We heard that they transformed themselves into cats or bats, and sucked peoples big toes. I have never, personally, investi- gated the question as to whether this form of nutrition is palatable. But, alas ! even in those idyllic Chestertonian times there was a little shrewd common sense knocking about ; the instinctsometimes very
1930 · PDF PAGE 8
de Rais, and ask ourselves what we really know about him as opposed to what we have heard about him. We know that he was a gentleman of good family, because otherwise he could not have held the offices which he did hold. We know that he was a brave soldier, and a comrade of Joan of Arc. We know that he had a passion for science, for the basis of his reputation was that he frequented the society of learned men. We know finally that he was accused of the same crimes as Joan of Arc by the same people who accused her, and that he was condemned by t…