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Page 1 of 11930 · PDF PAGE 8
de Rais, and ask ourselves what we really know about him as opposed to what we have heard about him. We know that he was a gentleman of good family, because otherwise he could not have held the offices which he did hold. We know that he was a brave soldier, and a comrade of Joan of Arc. We know that he had a passion for science, for the basis of his reputation was that he frequented the society of learned men. We know finally that he was accused of the same crimes as Joan of Arc by the same people who accused her, and that he was condemned by t…
1930 · PDF PAGE 4
…ad been asked to lecture a distinguished group of people. What bothered him was this : what assumption was he to make about the existing knowledge of the audience ? He adopted the sensible course of asking the advice of an old hand at the game ; and was told You must do one of two things. You may assume that they know everything, or that they know nothing. Thomas Henry thought it over, and decided that he would assume that they know nothing. I think that merely shows how badly brought up he must have been ; and explains how it was that he be…
1930 · PDF PAGE 6
universe of discourseby the word knowledge. May I ask a question ? Does anyone here know the date of the battle of Waterloo ? Pause. (SomeoneI bettells me 1815.) Thank you very much. To be frank with you, I knew it myself. I did not require information on that particular point. What I asked was, whether anyone know the date. I felt that, if so, it would have created a sympathetic atmosphere. But since we are talking about Waterloo, we may ask ourselves what, roughly speaking, is the extent of our knowledge ? I have heard plenty of theo…
1930 · PDF PAGE 11
…t under strong suspicion of heresy. I need not quote the obvious names. But there were certain bodies of people who did carry on the old knowledge, mostly by oral tradition, and who were perforce tolerated to a certain extent, because even the little knowledge that they did possess was so exceedingly useful. The best way to make armour, or to build Cathedrals, or to heal sickness would enable the Christian to get ahead of his friends. Therefore, although conscience evidently demanded the maximum amount of persecution compatible with the existen…
1930 · PDF PAGE 7
…not have been able to nourish the contending forces. But though it is profitable for the soul to contemplate the extent of what we dont know, it is in some ways more satisfying to our baser natures to consider what we do know in a reasonable sense of the word. It is not disputable that the battle of Waterloo was fought and won. It is not disputable that it was the climax, or rather the denouement, of cam- paigns lasting over a number of years. And there is no reason for doubting that Napoleon was born in Corsica, that he entered the French arm…
1930 · PDF PAGE 16
one thing of which I feel certain is that 800 children is a lot. I dont know over how many years these practices were supposed to have spread. As I think you must all feel sure by now, I know nothing what- ever of my subject. But scientific experiment in those days was always a very prolonged operation. They thought nothing of exposing some unknown substance to the rays of the sun and moon for periods of three months at a time, in the hope that in some mysterious way the first stage of some dimly-visaged operation might be satisfactorily accom…
1930 · PDF PAGE 9
qeard, of whom, even were he real, we know nothing much beyond that he reacted in the most manly way to the problem of domestic infelicity. A moments digression ; in fact, the main point. What is the most precise and most atrocious charge that is made against him ? That he sacrificed, in the course of Alchemical and magical experiments, a matter of 800 children ? I submit that, a priori, this sounds a little improbable. Gilles de Rais was the lord of a district whose population could not have been very extensive, and even in that age of slaver…
1930 · PDF PAGE 10
…ark ages, when Christianity held unchallenged sway over those portions of this globe which it had sufficiently corrupted, the pursuit of knowledgeknowledge of any kindwas justly estimated by the people in power as the one and only dangerous pursuit. Even so, as late as 300 years ago, it was not considered very gentlemanly to be able to read and write. I am not sure that it is. In any case, it is a great error in education to teach these things. Grammar, we must never forget, appears in the word Gramarye, beloved of Sir Walter Scott, and …
1930 · PDF PAGE 13
…owds in the Square of St. Mark and waited, howling, for the end of the world. It was accordingly easy enough to associate the pursuit of knowledge with the most abominable crimes, real or imaginary or both. For this reason, we hearnot as a demonstrated thesis, but as a commonplace of inherited knowledgethat Jews were sorcerers and wizards. In other words, they know something about grammar. We heard that they transformed themselves into cats or bats, and sucked peoples big toes. I have never, personally, investi- gated the question as to whet…
1930 · PDF PAGE 15
…n accusation against Gilles de Rais is therefore just this general accusation against anyone in Christendom who exhibited any desire for know- ledge. Only, in his case, it was concentrated and exaggerated to fantastic lengths by some factor or other on which I feel it useless to speculate. The
1930 · PDF PAGE 5
…, especially if conducted with blackthorns or shotguns, where as lecturing is merely an attempt, foredoomed to failure, to com- municate knowledge which usually the lecturer does not possess. I am sure that we all recognize that an attempt of this kind is impossible in nature. No ! I am not proposing to inflict upon you my celebrated discourse on Scepticism of the Instrument of Mind. I am not even going to refer to the first and last lecture which I suffered at a dud university some- where near Newmarket, in which the specimen of old red sandst…
1930 · PDF PAGE 14
…, it is quite impossible for me to dis- prove it. So now, if you want to attack anybody without the slightest fear of contradiction, you know how to set to work.