In an effort to educate myself, I am reading The Oxford Book of Essays, chosen and edited by John Gross. [copies for sale here] There’s 142 of the blighters, so it will take me all year. To make this “stick” I am going to blog each essay.
This essay is not, afaik, online. So I fixed that.
Who was the author: Owen Feltham
Owen Feltham (1602 – 23 February 1668) was an English writer, author of a book entitled Resolves, Divine, Moral, and Political (c. 1620), containing 146 short essays. It had great popularity in its day. Feltham was for a time in the household of the Earl of Thomond as chaplain or secretary, and published Brief Character of the Low Countries (1652). His most cited essay is “How the Distempers of These Times Should Affect Wise Men”, which John Gross included in The Oxford Book of Essays.
What happened the year they were born (and the C02 ppm): 1602
The Big Events they were alive for: xx
What happened in the year they died (and the C02 ppm): 1668
My awareness of/appreciation of this author (if any): xx
What’s the essay?
The essay is called “How the Distempers of these Times should affect wise men”.” It’s 2 pages long. For me, the key take-aways were that nothing really has changed, now has it?
Best line(s)
The last one (spoilers) – “And, which would mad a man more than all, to know all this, yet not know how to help it.”
Stuff I had to look up
Stuff worth thinking about.
It’s Ecclesiastes 1:9, isn’t it ?
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Stuff to look up
xxx
Connects to (watch this space – if there are later essays that resonate with this one, I’ll come back and add a link to the post for that essay).
marchudson.net 
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