Marcelles

Canto I

At the ides of the Roman Republic
The Consuls made sacrifice to the gods.
They buried two Romans and two white Gauls
Killing them as a human sacrifice 
To bring the Romans fortune in their war.

Thus, out went those two consuls to conquer
And make war on the Gauls, to purchase tor.
There arose over Rome three distinct moons
As the rivers ran with the stink of blood.
The peoples thought this an omen from their
gods, so they sent word to Flaminius 
And that slovenly blackguard Furius
To come back, and not to engage their foes.
Yet, word was not heeded, and they fought Gaul.
They returned, so brought themselves dishonor
For a God they did not know sent evil
Wonders over the land, to make Rome's folk
Repent of their doings. They thus heeded 
The sign. They shamed the two consuls who put
Those four women to death, to pluck their souls
Into She'ol for the sake of reaping 
A sign from aught their idolatrous gods.
Yet, from LORD JHWH came the awesome
Sign, and with it the stench of rotten blood.
The peoples feared, and so put Marcellus
As the Roman Consul, and sent him to
Battle the Gauls in the dark-green forests.

Canto II

There came to the war, where Marcellus found
Himself with few men in numbers. Come hordes
Of Gauls numbering ten-thousand horsemen
Over the ravine! Marcellus was so
Outnumbered, having a decimate halved of 
The force of the Gauls; thus, on the day of
Battle, he rode his prized warhorse, without
Pride, but rather had a fear of the force
In front of him. The thunderous hooves of
The Gallic horsemen pounded through the woods
Shaking the branches off the trees, which scared
Marcellus' horse. The horse turned to face
The East, toward God's temple which was being
Built by a peoples hencefar unknown to
Roman might, who would one day be ruled by
Them and their empire. The horse was stayed
And thus Marcellus prayed to the unknown
God, "God of the Sun, the true God over
"All heaven and earth, if you save me this
"Day, I shall offer you the oblation
"Of Feretrius, and give it to you 
"My greatest spoils of war, Oh Heaven's
"King!" Thus, when he turned his steed he bolstered
And told the men he offered oblation
Thus to consecrate the battle, but to
Hide from them that his steed had winced in war.

It came to, that from the woods emerged the
Gallic forces, who numbered twenty times
The number of Marcellus' soldiers.
The horses readied to collide with his
Yet from the horde emerged the Gallic Prince
Who wore an armor of Gold and Silver
Purified seven times, which was inlaid 
With webs like that of a spider, and etched
Into it were fine gems of sapphire
Ruby, Emerald, Diamond, Topaz, Bronze
Links and Onyx; Amethyst and Coral.
Marcellus saw this as the oblation
And so smote down the warrior with his lance.
What followed was his train of troops rushing
To aid him, and they smote down more warriors
Than any victory in Roman times
Past, present or future. Thermopylae
Was a battle rivalled only to it
Which was fought by Pagans in their many
Wars. Thus, Marcellus had defeated Gaul
In battle, with petitions to the LORD.

Dear My Future Self

Dear,
My Future Self

You opened up a really interesting topic, with your video describing the Lord of the Rings. Whether J. R. R. Tolkien had constructed the narrative with this in mind.

I'd say yes... Tolkien was trying to basically create a mythology for England---as you said---one like Ovid or Homer's Masterpieces, or the Irish, Welsh or Scotish folklore. Tolkien wrote a lot about myth, believing there should be mythology to supplement the real world. That myths could contain in them important knowledge.

So, what you're getting at, Tolkien would probably say the retellings of Frodo and Bilbo are more important than the actual historical events themselves, because they fit the formal ideation, and therefore, theme and moral can be extracted from them.

Tolkien was writing a mythology---it was fiction---and he wasn't deluded to believe his Myth was actually English. He created the books because he was frustrated that all of England's mythology was basically borrowed from other cultures. Beowulf is Danish, and Arthur is basically a retelling of Charlemanian mythology. But the primary point of Tolkien's was to highlight the importance of fiction, and very real benefit of having it as a supplement to reality.

Tolkien was not talking about the Bible. I don't think his beliefs were that the Bible was fiction, as he was a devote Catholic. And the correct way to view Middle Earth is to understand that the story is, in its formal elements, constructed in a way to communicate what was true from the myths. That Aragorn needed to be a paragon for a king, so other kings could model themselves off of him.

It gets to the point, where probably what Tolkien wanted the reader to come to, was that the pedantic scholarship was basically unimportant when compared to the overreaching structure and story of the Lord of the Rings. It was his life's work to validate myth, and the fact remains that it is his retelling. In effect, Tolkien was Illuvitar, thus, what he wrote was the canon and actual accounts of the events. It's interesting to think that Tolkien made himself into the god of Middle Earth, so the real analogy to take is that it's moot what the scholars he invents create. They are, in actuality, his inventions too. What's important is that Illuvitar left the Lord of the Rings for people to study. And the formal elements were the most important aspects of the story. The symmetry and the knowledge.

Which gets into a person like me's field, where I study literature. The point of which, that what the canon of the literature is---as some novels like War and Peace have an actual canon, and some passages are omitted from the work---that the author wrote it, and intended the work to be read like that. Meaning, it was necessary for the story to be constructed in that way---as intended by the author---and therefore presented in that form.
It's important to understand this when approaching literary studies. That the moral of Tolkien's was not to get bogged down in the meta scholarship, but to rest in the fact that Tolkien wrote the work, therefore, since Tolkien wrote it, it is the literal events. Because Tolkien was Illuvitar, and the canon he presented, while working through Bilbo, Frodo and Gandalf, was the canon set forth and given to the folk of Middle Earth.

Which, was an apologetical argument in defense of the Bible, that it was really moot what the scholarship entailed, but rather that God Himself had written the work, and intended it to be read in the form it is. Using agents like the Prophets, whom he divinely controlled.

And if you think about it, we are a lot like the thoughts of God, so it's not that far fetched, and I think that was what Tolkien was aiming to display. That he wrote it, it's his characters, so it's written exactly as its intended and miraculously at that. It's what his Middle Earth people need, and was given by Illuivitar. And the scholarship, at that point, is moot. Because Tolkien knew he wasn't God, but he wanted his Lord of the Rings to be a supplemental mythology for the English people. The Lord of the Rings isn't Metamorphoses, as Tolkien is not writing within the framework that the mythology is true. Only that it's a supplemental way of understanding the world, which is what all fiction is. Tolkien loved all mythology and all literature. To him, a story was more important because it had a Formal Element which could teach you higher laws and greater truths. Which, would be probably what he'd say about his Lord of the Rings, too, is that the Red Book is like the Bible, and Iluvatar preserved it for Middle Earth in its the most beneficial form it could be rendered.

Dear, Sam Harris

Dear,
Mr. Harris

For a man who murdered, there is no hope in this life. Such a man, having no hope, ought better well to murder even more and suck life's pleasure from its very marrow. He ought to rape. He ought to pillage. Because there is no moral expungement for the crime. Not under human agency. Such a man, if put in prison, ought to escape prison. He ought to slaughter and pillage, and seek every ounce of pleasure from life that he can. And, such a man, only killing him could suffice to end him. The very crime he committed then be levied on the executors of his judgment.

It's only the logical outcome of such a man, having no way to be forgiven. And such a man has existed many times throughout history, and has pleasured himself with young girls, men's wives and even men and boys. Never suffering in their life, always being rewarded by his cohorts. They live in Africa, they live in Russia, they live all over the place, such men. And without Hell, such a behavior is logical. Without justice, of course you're not stupid enough to believe that it'd create less suffering in the world to allow such behaviors to exist. Therefore, justice is easy to believe in. Yet, it's so hard to achieve, as half the world's conscripts and nuclear weapons belong to such men as these.

In what way would change such a man? It's only Christ. Who offers forgiveness, once and for all, and saves one, giving one a motive to live and therefore be beneficial for man and neighbor. As, the logical outcome for anyone who has murdered---knowing they will suffer for twenty to forty years, and without a plan for redemption---is only to reap as much destruction on the world, and therefore gain as much pleasure as they can. It can be only hedonism.

Now, you understand the man I'm describing is wrong. Inherently, such a man ought not exist---and such a man is rare who'd be even capable of this. And this is evidence of the conscience of man, yet in that conscience lies the proof of God's existence. That most men are restrained by it. Yet, a slow backslide has occurred in other cultures to completely erase the conscience in large swaths of humanity. The conscience is by no means universal, and it can be inured or even removed. If Christ's forgiveness does not exist, and His law not preeminent, and His truth not supreme in the hearts of man, then what follows is the kind of man I just described for soon it would be necessary for all men to be murderers just to survive. It'd be the Cave Man wandering the desert, impregnating his wife, eating her fetuses, raping her---and there's no evidence that such a man ever existed, but rather the contrary is more often proven, that man from his inception---because we also observe it in the beasts---had compassion.

You might say, "Aha! You've only proven my case." No... I have not. For a world of predators has existed in Rome and Tenochtitlan, where there was utter lawlessness and the complete indulgence in humanity's vices. So, there has been such men as the cave man just described. But, we know such a man is wrong because he creates suffering. Yet, to some men suffering is pleasurable, and such a man is often a murderer.

So Christ is necessary for human kindness. To solidify the gaps in our justice, and to give men a hope beyond the Earth. Or, something to fear. For without it, man goes astray. Not because it's a fantasy to help men be better men, but because it's true that there must be eternal justice for a man, whether he be good or evil. And one principle of the Scripture is that all men are evil, for we cannot see the suffering we cause, but it inevitably is true that we do cause suffering. For it is compulsory. Thus, eternal salvation must rest upon Christ and Christ alone, for we have all caused enormous amounts of pain, and we are all guilty, so we must all likewise be saved by one Who was not. For the only way to redeem man, is to accept he is fallible, and therefore, give ourselves over to the knowledge that this world is cursed, and is not where we are meant to be.

I go round this cycle to help you understand humanity more completely, and why you must be wrong. For, yes there are tidal waves, and yes there are starving children. But, those children starve---the gross majority of human catastrophe---due to insufficiencies in human kindness, and and a defiance of the Sabbatical laws which tell man to rest, and his land to rest. For, there is a command to rest in the Bible, and it's an important command. To rest in Christ.

Because such a man needs Christ, and so does justice, and so do all of humanity's pleasures rely on there being a God, for what we've found in human agency is precisely the vices I just described. And those peoples who are rejuvenated by Christ, it shows that the very pleasures of love rely upon it. Yet, there is also pleasure in sin and because of that, there ought to be a hell.

Modern Wisdom is a Piano Tuner

Modern wisdom is a Piano Tuner,
Who, knowing that slight variations in
The piano's pitches---making them slightly 
Unsymmetrical---Makes a more pleasant 
Sounding piano scale. They then augment
This knowledge as a general rule of
Life---without first understanding that a 
Basic knowledge of the symmetry gets
One closer to the object, than having
None at all.---This, our wisdom and folly.

My Search for Absolute Truth

At the beginning of my journey
I wrote stories about Utopia.
I had planned it
To create a working society.
I had also destroyed that society.

I also was steeped in number theory
Throughout my tenure at High School.
I understood numbers are subjective
And are simply arbitrary placements---
Yet, when arranged they create symmetry
And patterns which can be predicted with absolute certainty.
I took Music Theory courses
And found that symmetry was on a piano;
I found that symmetry was in nature;
I fond that symmetry---later in life---
Was also in aesthetics.

Then, while sitting in my little guard shack,
Drinking excesses of Green Tea,
Air Conditioning blasting at its highest level,
I took a piece of string and a quarter
And I wrapped the string around the quarter.
Then I measured it.
It came out to about 3.14 inches.
I then realized Pi is the diameter of a circle
Whose circumference is one.

Later in life, I bought Euclid's Elements
And I studied them.
I found certainty within the principles
Of forming triangles,
And later I would study the Quadratic Equation
Picking it apart to see the formula and how it works.
I would then study the principles of Calculus
Then the principles of Phi, E and Pi.
Discovering within them axioms of truth.

I then discovered that same precision 
When reading William Wordsworth.
That he conveyed a precise meaning;
Yes it was layered in nuance,
It was layered in obscure names of places and people,
But it---with their associations of history---
It conveyed a certain message which was 
Undeniable. There could be no misinterpreting it
When the language was studied
And the words were taken for their meanings.

I then studied Confucius, Mozi, Lao Tsu,
Aristotle, Socrates, Plato,---
I read the mythologies of Greece
The mythologies of Britain,
The modern novels and literatures 
Of the last five hundred years.
I discovered within them were principles
That validated themselves through self evident
Evaluation. And the closer they came to self evident truth
The closer it resembled the LORD's.
For within the logic of these writers
Were the proofs of their arguments.
That within their essays, novels and poems
The self evident truths were proven.

Then I found that even when an artist was obscure
A meaning could be found.
I found when someone spoke
It could be understood
No matter how complex it was.
For truths are shared, and those same truths
Being shared prove a universality of truth.
That if one understands the truths
And if given the right amount of education and time.
The truths are there expressed
Regardless of whether someone understands them or not.
That truth is permanent, unwavering,
Existing outside of us, and only to be discovered.
That even within the meaning of words
The mere fact that they are comprehended
Validates an objective, metaphysical world
Bound to a material world.

I then discovered that in moral philosophy
The Golden Rule was paramount
And was itself a universal truth.
That it was persuasive above all other truth
And that from it, could be established a moral system.
Yet I also found disagreement---
Yet, in the disagreement there was a certain degree
Of Truth, that even if not expressed or persuaded
Presided over our conversation.
In effect, I found humans discover truths
Both moral and physical,
Yet there are truths they will not discover on their own.

It became clear to me, that if I were to be a Christian,
I must see if the truths discovered by these other philosophers
Lined up with the truths I found in the Bible.
And they always did. I found invisible strings
Of connective tissue linking all events in the world
To a moral philosophy which the great sages had observed.
Yet each of them were wrong in very specific ways
But only one man, Jesus Christ
Had discovered the whole of truth...
Even when He said, "I come not to bring peace, but the sword."
That there is a time when even good men must fight.

For overreaching all truths
Was that sin creates suffering in the world.
And that is why it is sin.
For the more people sin, the more people suffer,
Until cataclysmic shifts in societies, by wars and purges and pestilences
Created by belligerence or negligence 
Whether it be by the people's sociopathic aggression
Or their mistreatment of the soil to bring on famine or locuts,
Or their laziness which causes the environs to be foul and dirty
And thus creates disease.

For Thomas Jefferson said,
"We hold these truths to be self evident,"
And lo, truth is self evident.
For truth, if we tap into it,
Is a means to prevent the human race from suffering.
And if we tap into that truth,
We eerily find, more and more, it validates
The supreme command of scripture.
For the atheists say, "God cannot be Omniscient, 
"Omnibenevolent, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent."
They would be right, except if God Himself
Dwelt in Three Persons, which each could 
Attain to these attributes all at once
And exist separate, yet equal and also altogether one.

And I had found, in the end,
That my search ended with the Man Jesus Christ.
For what He lived, and died, and suffered,
And conquered, and raised from,
It is a story which resonates with the ages
And all of the knowledge of civilizations.
It all resonates, in a collective whole,
And when one takes all of man's theories
And cognitions, and ideas and bring them together---
As men collectively can pinpoint every truth all the time---
All of the mythologies, all of the knowledge,
All of the stories, the histories, the rapid shifts in mankind and their movements,
All knowledge, source and wisdom,
It all becomes hinged on the one fulcrum 
Of that Man Jesus Christ.

Dear YouTuber

Dear,
YouTuber

You opened up a really interesting topic, with your video describing the Lord of the Rings. Whether J. R. R. Tolkien had constructed the narrative with this in mind.

Sherwood

He speaks his sermon upon the lector
Stool, which raised his foot in the height of air;
He was then taken to Vanity-Fair.
He preached the word of God; with spectators
Furious; with the local prefectures,
Who petitioned the bobby to arrest
Him by their wicked tongues of flatteries---
And so against England's laws they rebelled.
To the prison he was taken, and showed
Himself locked in the dungeons, so confined
He, within that station---steep bruise---was smote.
While wicked Parliament through rebel plight
Pleads for racial violence to make blood flow---
That England by her fraud turns law to show.

Trojan War

Helen of Tyre
Write the story
Of the Trojan War;
Tell of that great
Nebuchadnezzar's
Besiegement of
And the breaking in
Of the inner wall
With that horse of
Mythic Legend.

The Rainbow

When the Lugbutqs chose the Rainbow
They tempted God, saying, 
"You shall never destroy the Earth again."
Thus, they marched with pride.
Yet, the scripture says our world will be destroyed by fire.

Last night I saw a great war
Where those on the left and right
Fought their bloody war.
And soon, a Super Heroine
Launched the weapons of fire.

For, judgment is lost,
And none know right from wrong.
And this unloving culture
Cultivated by the Lugbutqs
Will erupt in the fire.
And we, being man,
Shall enact God's judgment on our own.

The Trinity

In order for God to exist
He must exist in the form of the Trinity.
The Spirit and Word are omnipresent
Holding together all creation.
The Son validates God's Omnipotence
That He can Indeed Limit Himself
Yet also simultaneously increase His own power.
And His Omniscience is found in the Father
Who exists as the Ancient of Days
Who bestows wisdom---the First of God's Creation---
And His Son, the Word Made Flesh,
Who gives man thought.

Thus, if there were a God
He Must exist in Three Persons
In order to not contradict His attributes.

And He cares about who you sleep with
Because He cares about love.
There can be no love in casual sex.
For monogamy between a married man and woman
Is the most beautiful thing on the planet.

And that God is Omnibenevolent,
First God comes to reconcile the World
And second God comes to Judge it.
For justice must have both mercy and punishment.