Rain, Rain, You Can Stay, Just Don't Wet My Pants That Way

The only thing that I don't like about rain is that I can't wear pants when I have places to walk to. No umbrella is big enough for that, and I simply cannot abide wet pants.

In other news, I have a delightfully short day today ^_^ Well-- class from 10:00-11:00, lunch as usual at 11:00, and then a return to my room until 2:30, when I have Introduction to Political Theory II until 4:00. So it's a kind of split-up delightfully short day, but it is still short. I plan to work on my Annotated Bibliography, and, then, after all of that, I will be done with ALL WORK FOREVER.

. . . until, um, after Spring Break, lol . . .

. . . though there is, well, um, er, that research paper . . .

. . . but we'll forget about that for now.

Rain, Rain, You Can Stay, Just Don't Wet My Pants That Way

The only thing that I don't like about rain is that I can't wear pants when I have places to walk to. No umbrella is big enough for that, and I simply cannot abide wet pants.

In other news, I have a delightfully short day today ^_^ Well-- class from 10:00-11:00, lunch as usual at 11:00, and then a return to my room until 2:30, when I have Introduction to Political Theory II until 4:00. So it's a kind of split-up delightfully short day, but it is still short. I plan to work on my Annotated Bibliography, and, then, after all of that, I will be done with ALL WORK FOREVER.

. . . until, um, after Spring Break, lol . . .

. . . though there is, well, um, er, that research paper . . .

. . . but we'll forget about that for now.

On Love

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), philosopher, economist, and political thinker, was the dominant figure in English intellectual life in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In his childhood he was the subject of an experimental education at the hands of his father . . . the experiment equipped Mill with Greek at the age of three, but was instrumental in producing in Mill an intellectual crisis at at the age of 21. After his recovery, Mill devoted the rest of his intellectual life to the project of reconstructing a more satisfactory and liberal form of the classical utilitarian philosophy he had inherited from his father. He had a long friendship with Mrs. Harriet Taylor, whom he married on the death of her husband, and to whom he dedicated On Liberty.

1830: John Stuart Mill meets Harriet Taylor.
1849: John Taylor, Harriet Taylor's husband, dies.
1851: John Stuart Mill marries Mrs. Taylor.
1858: Harriet Mill dies.
1859: John Stuart Mill publishes On Liberty.

Introduction to On Liberty:

To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that is best my writings-- the friend and wife whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest incitement, and whose approbation was my chief reward-- I dedicate this volume. Like all that I have written for many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; but the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient degree, the inestimable advantage of her revision; some of the most important portions having been reserved for a more careful re-examination, which they are now never destined to receive. Were I but capable of interpreting to the world but one-half the great thoughts and noble feelings which are buried in her grave, I should be the medium of a greater benefit to it, than is every likely to arise from anything that I can write, unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom.

That is just adorable; that has to be one of the most beautiful dedications I've ever seen written, and On Liberty is an academic work, a work of philsophy and political theory. It's not even fiction; it's a man's life of academic work. She's not just his "muse," she's an actual partner in debate, in thought. It seems so rare (especially in those times, goodness!) to have one's love be both colleague and love. At times, it seems, almost, the two roles are incompatible.

I want to have a relationship like that. Perhaps there was an affair hidden under the works in the 20-odd years they knew each other before Mr. John Taylor died, but that's just so beautiful to have this long-standing friendship, and have it blossom into love-- even if just for such a short time, in comparison to the broad years of their sole friendship. Theirs was more than just a romantic or sexual connection, clearly; it was intellectual and probably all the more life-ending at its end.

*Glows.*

(Dammit, I still clearly believe in true love, don't I?)

On Love

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), philosopher, economist, and political thinker, was the dominant figure in English intellectual life in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In his childhood he was the subject of an experimental education at the hands of his father . . . the experiment equipped Mill with Greek at the age of three, but was instrumental in producing in Mill an intellectual crisis at at the age of 21. After his recovery, Mill devoted the rest of his intellectual life to the project of reconstructing a more satisfactory and liberal form of the classical utilitarian philosophy he had inherited from his father. He had a long friendship with Mrs. Harriet Taylor, whom he married on the death of her husband, and to whom he dedicated On Liberty.

1830: John Stuart Mill meets Harriet Taylor.
1849: John Taylor, Harriet Taylor's husband, dies.
1851: John Stuart Mill marries Mrs. Taylor.
1858: Harriet Mill dies.
1859: John Stuart Mill publishes On Liberty.

Introduction to On Liberty:

To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that is best my writings-- the friend and wife whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest incitement, and whose approbation was my chief reward-- I dedicate this volume. Like all that I have written for many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; but the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient degree, the inestimable advantage of her revision; some of the most important portions having been reserved for a more careful re-examination, which they are now never destined to receive. Were I but capable of interpreting to the world but one-half the great thoughts and noble feelings which are buried in her grave, I should be the medium of a greater benefit to it, than is every likely to arise from anything that I can write, unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom.

That is just adorable; that has to be one of the most beautiful dedications I've ever seen written, and On Liberty is an academic work, a work of philsophy and political theory. It's not even fiction; it's a man's life of academic work. She's not just his "muse," she's an actual partner in debate, in thought. It seems so rare (especially in those times, goodness!) to have one's love be both colleague and love. At times, it seems, almost, the two roles are incompatible.

I want to have a relationship like that. Perhaps there was an affair hidden under the works in the 20-odd years they knew each other before Mr. John Taylor died, but that's just so beautiful to have this long-standing friendship, and have it blossom into love-- even if just for such a short time, in comparison to the broad years of their sole friendship. Theirs was more than just a romantic or sexual connection, clearly; it was intellectual and probably all the more life-ending at its end.

*Glows.*

(Dammit, I still clearly believe in true love, don't I?)