Mike

Book Cover of the Month

"In all forms of active exercise there are three powers simultaneously in action, — the will, the muscles, and the intellect. Each of these predominates in different kinds of exercise. In walking, the will and muscles are so accustomed to work together and perform their task with so little expenditure of force, that the intellect is left comparatively free."

In Under the Trees and Elsewhere, (1891), Mabie wrote: “I have found that walking stimulates observation and opens one's eyes to movements and appearances in earth and sky, which ordinarily escape attention. The constant change of landscape which attends even the slow progress of a loitering gait puts one on the alert for discoveries of all kinds, and prompts one to suspect every leafy covert and to peer into every wooded recess with the expectation of surprising Nature as Actaeon surprised Diana — in the moment of uncovered loveliness.”

Things have never been better. Less disease, fewer wars, longer lifespan, more free time, innumerable things to do. The reason you think otherwise is that you spend too much time on social media. Read more, be with your friends, go for a walk, stop grumbling. “So many millions there are leading their steady quiet lives, absorbed in the common processes of existence : working, eating, sleeping, hoping, struggling, failing, loving. All their thinking seems somehow to have its roots in the soil. What they do and are and feel is rarely reported in any newspaper or set down in any book: so that the world judges its civilization not by its preponderant normality but by its “news,” its sensations and abnormalities. I never come home to my hillside without a renewed sense of the assured soundness and continuity of life.”

@RobinWigg Sounds interesting. Trump has long described himself as the "King of Debt," relying heavily on borrowed money to finance projects rather than paying cash upfront. Bonds (particularly high-yield) played a notable role in some of his biggest deals.

Even Donald Trump has been forced to recognise the awesome power of the bond market. After all, exactly one year ago today, Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs started a bond market avalanche that quickly forced him to backtrack. edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/pol…

Please prepare yourself for months of shameless self-promotion, mute me on socials, feel free to avoid me in public etc, because my next book — A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World — is now officially available for pre-orders.

Star Papers (1873): HW Beecher "Perhaps the blundering Express brings them to the door just at evening. 'What is it, my dear?' she says to you. 'Oh! nothing a few books that I can not do without.' That smile! A true housewife that loves her husband, can smile a whole arithmetic at him in one look! Of course she insists, in the kindest way, in sympathizing with you in your literary acquisition. She cuts the strings of the bundle, (and of your heart,) and out comes the whole story. You have bought a complete set of costly English books, full bound in calf, extra gilt!" The above excerpt is from the essay titled, "Book-stores, Books" and it is exceptionally funny. It's one of 59 short essays in my version of this book. These essays were first published in the anti-slavery newspaper The Independent. Beecher did not sign them with his real name. Instead, almost every piece appeared with only the signature of a star (*). Readers soon called them the “Star Papers,” and the name stuck when the pieces were gathered into book form. You get poetic reflections on European travel (ruins, the Louvre, English literary sites) alongside lyrical celebrations of New England nature: fishing, birds, flowers, trees, and seasonal joys. Enjoyed it. This snippet is quite appropriate for all of us who love the outdoors. The essay is titled, Farewell To The Country “Nature makes so many overtures to those who love her, and stamps so many remembrances of herself upon their affections, and draws forth to her bosom so much of our very self, that, at length, the fields, the hills, the trees, and the various waters, become a journal of our life.” Behold! What a marvelous writer he is. See how he captures the essence of Spring in his essay titled Spring is Coming! “A bird singing in the face of winter is a voice of God inspiring hope. Down fell the slumberous flakes of snow through the chilly air, aimless, noiseless, unguided. Up through the flakes of snow rang the voice of my bird, crying out to its far-off fellows in the Southern woods! The winter is over; the time of the singing of birds has come!” archive.org/details/starpa…

@HistoryWJacob Napoleon wrote: “Only give them history books. Men should read nothing else.”

Thursday 2 April 1663 Up by very betimes and to my office, where all the morning till towards noon, and then by coach to Westminster Hall with Sir W. Pen, and while he went up to the House I walked in the Hall with Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, that I met there, talking about my business the other day with Holmes, whom I told my mind, and did freely tell how I do depend upon my care and diligence in my employment to bear me out against the pride of Holmes or any man else in things that are honest, and much to that purpose which I know he will make good use of. But he did advise me to take as few occasions as I can of disobliging Commanders … By and by the House rises and I home again with Sir W. Pen, and all the way talking of the same business, to whom I did on purpose tell him my mind freely, and let him see that it must be a wiser man than Holmes (in these very words) that shall do me any hurt while I do my duty. I to remember him of Holmes’s words against Sir J. Minnes, that he was a knave, rogue, coward, and that he will kick him and pull him by the ears, which he remembered all of them and may have occasion to do it hereafter to his owne shame to suffer them to be spoke in his presence without any reply but what I did give him, which, has caused all this feud.* But I am glad of it, for I would now and then take occasion to let the world know that I will not be made a novice. *The feud Sam describes stems from a dispute over the appointment of a Master (sailing master) for Holmes's ship, the Reserve. Holmes wanted to dismiss a man named Cooper (whom he saw as inept) and pushed aggressively for it in a Navy Board meeting around late March 1663. Sam opposed the summary dismissal, insisting on due process ("not to condemn a man unheard"). Words flew: Holmes reportedly threatened that "it was well it was here" (implying that abroad, it might have led to a duel). Sir Frescheville Holles (on left) and Sir Robert Holmes (on right), painted by Peter Lely

Tuesday 31 March 1663 I lay long talking with my wife about my father’s coming, which I expect to-day, coming up with the horses brought up for my Lord. Up and to my office, where doing business all the morning, and at Sir W. Batten’s, whither Mr. Gauden and many others came to us about business. Then home to dinner, where W. Joyce came, and he still a talking impertinent fellow. So to the office again, and hearing by and by that Madam Clerke, Pierce, and others were come to see my wife I stepped in and staid a little with them, and so to the office again, where late, and so home to supper and to bed. My Lord: Sir Edward Mountagu (Earl of Sandwich) Alderman Sir Denis Gauden (Navy Victualler) “talking impertinent fellow” William Joyce Brother of Anthony Joyce, both tallow chandlers who married sisters, Mary and Kate Fenner, who were cousins of Sam. Tallow chandlers were the candle-makers and sellers of 17th-century England. The term breaks down simply: a chandler is someone who makes or deals in candles (from the French chandelle), while tallow is the rendered fat from cattle or sheep, which was the cheap, common material used for everyday candles before cheaper alternatives like spermaceti (whales) or the later dominance of wax for the wealthy. Gerrit Dou: Young Woman with a Lighted Candle at a Window 1658. Gerrit Dou (1613–1675) trained briefly as a printmaker before entering Rembrandt’s Leiden studio in 1628 for three years. He became an independent master and developed a meticulous, highly detailed style typical of the Leiden school. He specialised in small “niche pieces” like intimate window scenes with figures framed by ledges and curtains.

@RealEmirHan It’s not “shaming.” Get your language straight. It’s a critique of his obesity in a satirical line. Wells should have taken this to ahem, heart, as he died of a heart attack at age 70. Remember, no body has the ability to “offend” you. It’s your interpretation of what they mean.

Orson Welles getting fat-shamed by Robert Blake until he snaps back: “I’m fat. You’re ugly. But I can diet.”

Monday 30 March 1663 Up betimes and found my weather-glass sunk again just to the same position which it was last night before I had any fire made in my chamber, which had made it rise in two hours time above half a degree. So to my office where all the morning and at the Glass-house, and after dinner by coach with Sir W. Pen I carried my wife and her woman to Westminster, they to visit Mrs. Ferrers and Clerke, we to the Duke, where we did our usual business … Thence to see my Lord Sandwich, who I found very merry and every day better and better. So to my wife, who waited my coming at my Lord’s lodgings, and took her up and by coach home, where no sooner come but to bed, finding myself just in the same condition I was lately by the extreme cold weather, my pores stopt and so my body all inflamed and itching. So keeping myself warm and provoking myself to a moderate sweat, and so somewhat better in the morning. weather-glass (a thermometer, recently acquired from instrument-maker Ralph Greatorex on 23 March. barometers and thermometers were novel tools for tracking weather and indoor conditions. Glasshouse inn (Broad St) Jane Ferrer & Frances Clarke James Stuart (Duke of York, Lord High Admiral) Sam blamed extreme cold for stopping his pores, causing inflammation and itching (classic humoral imbalance) where cold was thought to trap “humors.” An alchemist would have suggested sweating to reopen pores. Modern immunology echoes this: fever-range heat (100–102°F) boosts T-cell proliferation and cytokine production while reducing regulatory T-cell suppression, ramping up immune attack. David Teniers the Younger, The Alchemist

Books and Culture (1896) by Hamilton Wright Mabie "To get at the heart of books we must live with and in them; we must make them our constant companions; we must turn them over and over in thought, slowly penetrating their innermost meaning; and when we possess their thought we must work it into our own thought." I love the above quote as I’m constantly battling the urge to multitask and mark books as “finished” so that I can move onto the next one. As you can see from my photo, I’ve developed a fondness for Mr. Mabie, who was a prolific American essayist. Here he delves into how books enrich human experience, thought, and personal growth in a collection of essays that explore the profound relationship between literature and culture. His work remains an eloquent defense of deep, purposeful reading as a path to intellectual maturity. He has convinced me to read Dante! Some fantastic snippets: “No man can better prepare himself to enter into the formative life of his time than by thoroughly familiarising himself with the greatest books of the past; for in these are revealed, not the secrets of past forms of life, but the secrets of that spirit whose historic life is one unbroken revelation of its nature and destiny.” “A great book is a possession for all time, because a writer of the first rank is the contemporary of every generation; he is never outgrown, exhausted, or even old-fashioned, although the garments he wore may have been laid aside long ago.” “Culture rests on ideas rather than on knowledge; its distinctive use of knowledge is to gain material for ideas. For this reason the “Iliad” and “ Odyssey” are of more importance than Thucydides and Curtius. For Homer was not only in a very important sense the historian of his race; he was, above all, the expositor of its ideas.” “It is this deeper knowledge which holds a lighted torch aloft in the deepest recesses of the soul, or over those abysses of possible experience which open on all sides about every man, which is to be found in the pages of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe, and of all those great artists who have seen men in those decisive and significant moments when they strike into the movement of history, or, through their deeds and sufferings, the order of life suddenly shines forth.” Love the phrase, “supreme books of life.” "The man who would get the ripest culture from books ought to read many, but there are a few books which he must read; among them, first and foremost, are the Bible, and the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe. These are the supreme books of life as distinguished from the books of knowledge and skill."

@peterboghossian @michaeljknowles @wil_da_beast630 Ah Peter, I suspect you know that our brains run “Incognito.” How you feel determines how you “reason.” This guy is more articulate: “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” Hume

Sunday 29 March 1663 (Lord’s day). Waked as I used to do betimes, but being Sunday and very cold I lay long, it raining and snowing very hard, which I did never think it would have done any more this year. Up and to church, home to dinner. After dinner in comes Mr. Moore, and sat and talked with us a good while; among other things telling me, that [neither] my Lord nor he are under apprehensions of the late discourse in the House of Commons, concerning resumption of Crowne lands, which I am very glad of. He being gone, up to my chamber, where my wife and Ashwell and I all the afternoon talking and laughing, and by and by I a while to my office, reading over some papers which I found in my man William’s chest of drawers, among others some old precedents concerning the practice of this office heretofore, which I am glad to find and shall make use of, among others an oath, which the Principal Officers were bound to swear at their entrance into their offices, which I would be glad were in use still. So home and fell hard to make up my monthly accounts, letting my family go to bed after prayers. I staid up long, and find myself, as I think, fully worth 670l.. So with good comfort to bed, finding that though it be but little, yet I do get ground every month. I pray God it may continue so with me. This entry nicely illustrates several running themes in Sam’s life at this stage: Dependence on patronage: Relief about Lord Sandwich’s position. Professional ambition: Enthusiasm for old office precedents and oaths. Domestic pleasure: Simple enjoyment of time with his wife. Financial prudence and anxiety: The ritual of monthly accounts and gratitude for incremental improvement. “raining and snowing very hard” Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap: Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Bacon's Essays (1597) “Read not to Contradict and Confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find Talk and Discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some Books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some Books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with Diligence and Attention.” This is one of those foundational landmarks of English prose: fifty-eight short reflections on human nature, power, knowledge, and society. Known as the "father of the scientific method" and a champion of empirical inquiry, he advocated inductive reasoning and systematic observation to master nature for human benefit. His Essays established a concise (2 pages for most) style that shaped modern English prose. They gave us worldly wisdom and in your face realism. “Certainly Vertue is like precious Odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed: For Prosperity doth best discover Vice, but Adversity doth best discover Vertue.” “Costly Followers are not to be liked, lest while a man maketh his Train longer, he make his Wings shorter.” “But little do men perceive what Solitude is, and how far it extendeth: for a Crowd is not Company, and Faces are but a Gallery of Pictures, and Talk but a Tinkling Cymbal where there is no Love.” “Histories make men Wise, Poets Witty, the Mathematicks Subtil, Natural Philosophy Deep, Moral Grave, Logick and Rhetorick able to Contend.” "Certainly Fame is like a River, that beareth up things Light and Swoln, and drowns things Weighty and Solid." "Deformed persons, and Eunuchs, and old Men, and Bastards are envious: for he that cannot possibly mend his own case, will do what he can to impair another's." "A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds will either feed upon their own good, or upon others evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand by depressing another's fortune."

26 March 1664 Up very betimes and to my office, and there read over some papers … so home, and there found Madam Turner, her daughter The., Joyce Norton, my father and Mr. Honywood, and by and by come my uncle Wight and aunt. This being my solemn feast for my cutting of the stone,* it being now, blessed be God! this day six years since the time; and I bless God I do in all respects find myself free from that disease or any signs of it, more than that upon the least cold I continue to have pain in making water, by gathering of wind and growing costive, till which be removed I am at no ease, but without that I am very well. One evil more I have, which is that upon the least squeeze almost my cods begin to swell and come to great pain, which is very strange and troublesome to me, though upon the speedy applying of a poultice it goes down, and in two days I am well again…. it raining very fast, we met many brave coaches coming from the Parke (Hyde) and so we turned and set them down at home, and so we home ourselves, and ended the day with great content to think how it hath pleased the Lord in six years time to raise me from a condition of constant and dangerous and most painfull sicknesse and low condition and poverty to a state of constant health almost, great honour and plenty, for which the Lord God of heaven … So to the office and did business, and then home and to bed. *Sam marked the sixth anniversary of his 1658 lithotomy at age 25. Surgeon Thomas Hollier removed a large bladder stone, the size of a tennis ball. Sam had suffered debilitating urinary issues since childhood. The operation largely succeeded, freeing him from major stone pain. Yet he endured recurring urinary discomfort from cold, wind or constipation, and painful testicular swelling (cods) from slight pressure, likely a lasting surgical complication. In practice, Hollier’s expertise likely came from apprenticeship and observation at St. Thomas’s Hospital, but there was an important text around at this time (below). Scultetus’s Armamentarium Chirurgicum (1655) was one of the most important and widely consulted illustrated surgical textbooks of the mid-to-late 17th century. It contains detailed descriptions and engravings of surgical instruments, bandaging techniques, and operative procedures like the lithotomy.