Friday, October 28, 2022
Monday, October 17, 2022
ARISTOTLE
Night Thoughts
http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00016/AN00016359_001_l.jpg
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotle
****************
Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 20, (E 42)
"till the body was left a helpless trunk. this
after grinning & kissing it with seeming fondness they devourd
too; and here & there I saw one savourily picking the flesh off
of his own tail; as the stench terribly annoyd us both we went
into the mill, & I in my hand brought the skeleton of a body,
which in the mill was Aristotles Analytics.
So the Angel said: thy phantasy has imposed upon me & thou
oughtest to be ashamed.
I answerd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.
Opposition is true Friendship." ON HOMERS POETRY (E 269) "As Unity is the cloke of folly so Goodness is the cloke of
knavery Those who will have Unity exclusively in Homer come out
with a Moral like a sting in the tail: Aristotle says Characters
are either Good or Bad: now Goodness or Badness has nothing to do
with Character. an Apple tree a Pear tree a Horse a Lion, are
Characters but a Good Apple tree or a Bad, is an Apple tree
still: a Horse is not more a Lion for being a Bad Horse. that is
its Character; its Goodness or Badness is another consideration."Annotations to Watson, (E 615) That mankind are in a less distinguishd situation with
regard to mind than they were in the time of Homer Socrates
Phidias. Glycon. Aristotle & let all their works witness
[the Deists]<Paine> say<s> that Christianity put a stop
to improvement & the Bishop has not shewn the contraryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyconhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidias
Saturday, October 1, 2022
DIGITAL AGE
UC Santa Barbara
Walter Isaacson
The Innovators
Page 248
"Defense Department money was not flowing freely to costly programs designed to allow collaboration among academic researchers."
Page 249
"For the academics and researchers who were actually building the network, it had only peaceful purposes. For some of those overseeing and funding the project, especially the Pentagon and Congress, it also had a military rationale."
...
"He [Steven Cocker] never considered nuclear survival to be part of his mission. Yet when Lukasik sent around his 2011 paper, Cocker read smiled, and revised his thinking. "I was on top and you were on the bottom,so you really had no idea of what was going on and why we were doing it," Lukasik told him. To which Cocker replied with a dab of humor masking a dollop of wisdom, "I was on the bottom and you were on the top, so you had no idea of what was going on or what we were doing."
Page 251
"Janet Abbate noted ... the group that designed and built ARPA's networks was dominated by academic scientists, who incorporated their own values of collegiality, decentralization of authority, and open exchange of information into the system." These academic researchers of the late 1960's, many of whom associated with the antiwar counterculture, created a system that resisted centralized command. It would route around any damage from a nuclear attack but also around any attempt to impose control."
Page 260
"The Internet was built partly by the government and partly by private firms, but mostly it was the creation of a loosely knit cohort of academics and hackers who worked as peers and freely shared their creative ideas. The result of such peer sharing was a network that facilitated peer sharing. This was not mere happenstance. The Internet was built with the belief that that power should be distributed rather than centralized and that any authoritarian diktats should be circumvented."
______________________
"I must Create a System, or be enslav'd by another Mans
I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to CreateWilliam Blake" Thursday, September 15, 2022
WEEPING BABE
First posted Dec 20, 2010
Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar wrote a book, Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat,
to explain the concepts of the new physics in the context of classical
science. This quote crosses the dividing line between physics and
cosmology:
"In
Quantum Field Theory, things existing in the universe are conceived of
as patterns of dynamic energy. The ground state of energy in the
universe, the lowest possible state, is known as the quantum vacuum. It
is called a vacuum because it cannot be measured directly; it is empty
of "things." When we try to perceive the vacuum directly we are
confronted with a "void", a background without features that therefore
seems to be empty. In fact the vacuum is filled with every potentiality
of everything in the universe.
"...Unseen and not directly
measurable, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence,
like water pushing on things immersed in it . ... It is as though all
surface things are in constant interaction with a tenuous background of
evanescent reality. ...The universe is not "filled" with the vacuum.
Rather it is "written on" it or emerges out of it."
__________________________Illustration for Milton's Paradise Lost
The
following passages scattered through Blake's writing give the
impression that the 'weeping babe' or 'weeping infant' is man in his
potential form holding all possibilities. Like the Quantum Vacuum
mentioned above the babe does not contain but 'allows the patterns of
dynamic energy' to take form. The babe cannot be measured or defined but
awaits 'fill[ing] with every potentiality of everything in the
universe.' Into this babe we become immersed and become expressed
through his potential.
The Pickering Manuscript, The Crystal Cabinet, (E 488)
"I strove to sieze the inmost Form
With ardor fierce & hands of flame
But burst the Crystal Cabinet
And like a Weeping Babe became
A weeping Babe upon the wild
And Weeping Woman pale reclind
And in the outward air again
I filld with woes the passing Wind"
Jerusalem, Plate 62, (E 214)
"And Jehovah stood in the Gates of the Victim, & he appeared
A weeping Infant in the Gates of Birth in the midst of Heaven"
Jerusalem, Plate 63, (E 214)
"The Cities & Villages of Albion became Rock & Sand Unhumanized
The Druid Sons of Albion & the Heavens a Void around unfathomable
No Human Form but Sexual & a little weeping Infant pale reflected
Multitudinous in the Looking Glass of Enitharmon, on all sides
Around in the clouds of the Female, on Albions Cliffs of the Dead"
Jerusalem, Plate 81, (E 239)
"Humanity is become
A weeping Infant in ruind lovely Jerusalems folding Cloud:
In Heaven Love begets Love! but Fear is the Parent of Earthly
Love!"
------------
Plate 82, (E 239)
"the mighty Hyle is become a weeping infant;
Soon shall the Spectres of the Dead follow my weaving threads."
------------
Plate 82, (E 240)
"She drew aside her Veil from Mam-Tor to Dovedale
Discovering her own perfect beauty to the Daughters of Albion
And Hyle a winding Worm beneath [her Loom upon the scales.
Hyle was become a winding Worm:] & not a weeping Infant.
Trembling & pitying she screamd & fled upon the wind:
Hyle was a winding Worm and herself perfect in beauty:
The desarts tremble at his wrath: they shrink themselves in fear."
Four Zoas, PAGE 27, (E 317)
"And I commanded the Great deep to hide her in his hand
Till she became a little weeping Infant a span long
I carried her in my bosom as a man carries a lamb
I loved her I gave her all my soul & my delight
I hid her in soft gardens & in secret bowers of Summer
Weaving mazes of delight along the sunny Paradise
Inextricable labyrinths, She bore me sons & daughters
And they have taken her away & hid her from my sight"
Thel, PLATE 4, (E 6)
"Then Thel astonish'd view'd the Worm upon its dewy bed.
Art thou a Worm? image of weakness. art thou but a Worm?
I see thee like an infant wrapped in the Lillys leaf:
Ah weep not little voice, thou can'st not speak. but thou can'st
weep;
Is this a Worm? I see thee lay helpless & naked: weeping,
And none to answer, none to cherish thee with mothers smiles.
The Clod of Clay heard the Worms voice, & raisd her pitying head;
She bowd over the weeping infant, and her life exhal'd
In milky fondness, then on Thel she fix'd her humble eyes.
O beauty of the vales of Har. we live not for ourselves,
Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed;
My bosom of itself is cold. and of itself is dark,"
Four Zoas, PAGE 35, (E 324)
"The deep lifts up his rugged head
And lost in infinite hum[m]ing wings vanishes with a cry
The living voice is ever living in its inmost joy
Arise you little glancing wings & sing your infant joy
Arise & drink your bliss
For every thing that lives is holy for the source of life
Descends to be a weeping babe
For the Earthworm renews the moisture of the sandy plain"
Friday, September 2, 2022
McELHENNY FAMILY
Two Minister-Brothers
In Howe's Hist. of Presby Church in SC, Vol 1. there is a footnote on pp 611-12, which contains portions of a letter from Rev John McElhenny to J.H.Saye; it is a short description of the life of his elder brother, Rev. James McElhenny:
Rev. James McElhenny(1768-1812) was said to have been born in Waxhaws (although Lunenburg Co. VA has also been claimed as his birthplace). His father was John, and his grandfather S McElhenny. His mother was said to be a Cail. The family lived in the Waxhaws (Lancaster Co. SC), and there were 4 sons and 2 daughters. The older son was James. Their father, John, died after the Revolution. The family moved to Chester Co. James McElhenny married Jane Moore at Bethesda Church in York Co. It seems likely that David Leech and Prudence McElhenny were also married there. Was Prudence one of James' two sisters??
James studied with Rev. Jospeh Alexander, pastor of Bullocks Creek Church in York Co. He also studied sciences with Dr. Hall of NC. Licensed and invited to preach at St. Johns Island near Charleston. Due to health he moved to Pendleton District, near the Old Stone Church.
(in 1990 the writer bought a house just off Old Stone Church Road, about a half mile from the church. At that time he had no idea there were kinfolk nearby, but it seems likely that Rev. James McElhenny was his gx uncle.)
"Rev James McElhaney married Jane Moore of Bethesda. According to Hart: Jane Moore was the 5th child of the original James Moore who died (1774-87). She married Rev. James McElhenny. (In 1779 John McElheney, Jr. had witnessed a conveyance of David Leech to the Moore family, of which more is detailed below).
1794 James McElhenny of Chester Co. SC, was one of four presidents of the Philomathic Society, instituted this year, a debating society. Another member was Jackson McElhenney. (Chester Bulletin for June, 1992 p 58/9.) (Perhaps the man who had just married Jane Moore and went to Old Stone Church in Pendleton.)
In 1801 Rev. James McElhenny was installed pastor of Old Stone Church, Pendleton Co, SC, which had just been built. He built a four room house about a mile from the Old Stone Church. He died in 1812 at age 44 and is buried in the Old Stone Church cemetery. This is in Clemson, which is now in Pickens Co.
His son in law was Rev. James Archibald Murphy, husband of Jane McElhenny. He died the same year. It was said that they were trying to grow rice in the swamps, which led to their death.
Rev. James McElhenny's 2nd wife was Mrs. Smith Wilkinson;
his
step-daughter, Susan Wilkinson married Governor Andrew
Pickens. Her
son was Francis W. Pickens who served as South Carolina's
governor
during the Civil War.
(Members of the Pickens extended family are buried at
Rock Springs
Presbyterian Church in Mt. Hope in Lawrence Co. AL, a few
miles from
where Prudence McElhany Leech's son, John lived.)
Rev. James' grandson, James Archibald Murphy, Jr. md Dorcas Moore, probably a cousin. Their son, James Archibald Murphy III died unmarried.
Jane McElhenny Murphy, a widow, married again to her first cousin, Alfred Moore.
Rev. James McElhaney's four room house was purchased about 1820 by John C. Calhoun. In due course it came into the possession of Calhoun's son in law, a man named Clemson. It was enlarged and modified into a ten bedroom house with a large Greek facade on two sides. At his death Clemson gave the house and surrounding property to the state of South Carolina for agricultural research--out of which of course developed Clemson University. The house remains in the center of the campus.
Before Fort Hill, the antebellum plantation of John C. Calhoun, South Carolina’s pre-eminent 19th century statesman, there was four-room Clergy Hall. Originally built in 1803, Clergy Hall served as the manse or parsonage for nearby Hopewell-Keowee Church, now known as Old Stone Presbyterian Church. Next, Floride Bonneau Colhoun, John C. Calhoun’s mother-in-law, purchased the 600 acre property; U.S. Vice President Calhoun’s family called the expanded structure Fort Hill, starting in 1830, after Revolutionary War Fort Rutledge.
At school time he chose Yale, but it was closed due to yellow-fever; so he went with his schoolmate, Sam Wilson to Washington Academy in Lexington, VA. He was ordained in Rockbridge Co., but served in York Co.SC most of his life. He died in 1871.
(Another James McIlheny was said to be born in York Co. SC in 1759 (although there was no York Co. SC at that time) and living in District 96 when he enlisted with Capt. John McIlheny. This may be the Spartanburg family. He was later Company Captain in the regiments of Col John Thomas and Col. Hammond.)
Alexander McElhenny was in the militia under Col Roebuck;
after the
fall of Charleston he lost a horse. (Same unit as Capt.
David
Leech)
There were land grants to a man of this name over on the
Saluda
River.
The two Rev. McElhaneys were members of Bethesda Church, probably organized by Rev. Wm Richardson about the time he acquired half of the land grant of Thomas and Jean McKelheney in Lancaster Co. It was located a few miles southeast of Yorkville in York Co. Here worshiped David Leech of the writer's family and many other families associated with LEECH, both in York Co. and later in Lawrence Co. AL. This is certain in the cases of ASH and DICKEY and probably quite a few others. For example Hezekiah Balch, a missionary from the New York Synod, often preached at Bethesda; a person of that name is found in the 1820 Lawrence Co. census.
Bethesda Church is a few miles south and a little east from Yorkville 20 miles from the Broad and 17 miles from the Catawba. The congregation is listed in History of the Presbyterian Church of SC, by Haire, p. 338.
In 1759 Thomas and Jean Mcelhony got property on the Catawba, and in 1767 James and Wm McElkene acquired 500a on Fishing Creek, witnessed by Tho and Jane McElkeny.
In 1763 James Moore had received a grant on the south fork of Fishing Creek. 126 acres of it were conveyed to David Leech in 1769. In 1779 David Leech, tanner, conveyed it back to John Moore, Jr. perhaps a son of James Moore, the original grantee. One of the witnesses was John McElheney, Jr. (Recall that Rev. James McElhaney was to marry Jane Moore, said to be the 5th child of the original James Moore.
1767 McElkene Jas and Wm SC York/Chester
500a from James
Johnston for 200 lbs. on Fishing Creek, which Johnston
bought from Wm
Jones in 1754 (SC Deed Abstracts III p 364)
wit Tho and Jane McElkeny, Catherine McAdoo
(Since a granddaughter of Prudence McElhaney, Jane Leech
married Able
Johnston in Lawrence AL in 1824, one can't help wondering
if this
James Johnston may be an ancestor of Able Johnston of
Lawrence Co.
AL.)
1775 Samuel Dunlap and wife Elizabeth of Bekley Co. to John McElhany of Craven Co. for 45 lb 300a on Cane Creek, adj. Thomas McMeen, John Dunlap, Eliz Dunlap, Witnesses Richard Cousart, Alex Thompson, John Dunlap.
In 1799 John McElhany, late of Chester Co for $300 sold
to Eliezar
Alexander 300 acres on e side of Cane Cr. on both sides
of the Road called
the Lands Ford Road adj Eliezar Alexander, Eliz and Wm
McMeen, John
Simpson, Ben. Cudworth and David Adams.
wit Alexdr Moore, Thos McElhenny
Agnes McElheney X relinquished dower rights before John
Simpson, J.L.C.
(Was John McElhany going to KY?)
1814 McElhenny Stephen SC Chester
adj to land on
Fishing Creek which John Blair sold to Sam Rainey
Book R Page 352 Chester County Deeds:
Sept 13 1814, John Blair of York District SC, for 325
dollars, to
Samuel Rainey of Chester, 122 ac in Chester District on
south fork of
Fishing Creek, bounded by Allen Knight on north, Stephen
McElhenny on
east, Thomas Wallace on south, Samuel Rainey on west,
conveyed from
James Wallace to William Miller, and from John Kennedy,
Sheriff of
Chester County, as the property of said Miller to Samuel
McNeels, to
John Blair. (Guardian of David B. Martin) Witnesses:
Thomas Wallace,
?JP, James Martin.
(I have not ascertained the nature of the
relationship between the McElhaney and Blair families,
but it
certainly seems significant. Consider for example that
another
granddaughter of Prudence McElhaney Leech, Clarissa
Fineta Leech,
married John Dickey Blair in Lawrence Co. AL. Consider
also that this
John Blair was the guardian of David Martin, perhaps the
same David
Martin who was a neighbor of Prudence's son, John Leech
in Lawrence
Co.
1819 McElhenny Robert SC Chester 195a from exors of John Wright Decd (James Gill of Chester and Robert Love of York) tract orig granted to James Bigham 6 Oct 1763 (100a), then resurveyed by John McReary, Surv for Estate of John Wright it was 195a adj Wm Brown, Pagan, John Gills corner wit James Wallace Sam Bannon proved before Tho Wallace by Tho McElhennny who said James Wallace swore to him.
Chester Wills Vol II, Book G, p 71:
1821 McElheny James SC Chester
will
(He seems to be a batchelor!)
sister: Nancy McElhany 150a where I live.
at her death divided between 3 sons of Steven
McElheny:
James, Robt, and John.
James to get 50a adj Jonathan Wallace.
Brother Sam and James (Sam's son?) the property which
they now have.
exor Sam McNeil
wits John Clark, Eliz McNeil, Esther McElheny
proved 1822
( from this I get:
siblings: James, Nancy, Steven and Sam.
Steven's sons: James, Robt and John
Sam's son: James
This certainly appears to be the McElheny family on
page 276 in
Chester in 1810, while David Leech was on page 274.
ND McElheney Alexander SC 134a n side of Saluda p 75
ND McElheney Alexander SC 200a n side of Saluda River p. 12
ND McElheney James SC 400a South Saluda R. p 8
ND McElheney John Sr. SC 200a both sides middle fork of Tyger p. 69
ND McElheney Wm SC 624a both side Chechoroa River of Saluda p 28
1767 McKlekeny, John SC Spartanburg 100a s sides of n. fork of Tygar River, adj Thomas Collins, John Leech & his own land. File no. 86; grant no. 104 Bk 20 p. 43(a SC instrument)
Mecklenburg Co NC Warrants (may be repetitious):
1769 Mackilhany John NC Meck
100a s side of N
fork of Tyger adj Tho Collins and Francis Dodd's lines
(an NC
instrument)
1769 Mackilhany John NC Meck 200a N fork of Tyger on Browns Ck betwen John Prince and John Miller
1788 McElheny John and wife Anne Armstrong SC Spartan
500a in
Greenville Co.(N. side of Saluda for 5 shillings to John
and Wm Armstrong
wit: Martin Armstrong, Wm Stiggs, James Jordan
(This was a 1785 grant to Ann Armstrong, which suggests
that John
McElheny may have married Ann Armstrong between
1785-88.
In 1767 John McKlekeny/McIlhenny and John Leech had adjoining property on the Tygar. John Leech died in 1799, and most of his family moved to Kentucky. Among his sons was James, b. 1779. He married Martha Drennon. Among their eleven children were James McElhaney Leech, b 1819 Caldwell County KY (died 1874) (married Elizabeth Ann Dunbar).
The origin of the name James McElhaney Leech is unclear. There are two possibilities: one that it stems from his grandfather, John Leech's association with his neighbor on the Tygar. The other that it stems from his mother's family. It appears that the Drennons may have been members of the Old Stone Church in Pendleton (now Pickens) Co. SC during the years of the pastorate of Rev. James McElhaney.
1830 McElhany James Ala Clar census 234
The writer welcomes comments, criticism, corrections, suggestions, any other sort of correspondence relating to the McElhaney family. Send such to eachone@earthlink.net
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