At that... place (Hades), it was relatively quiet this evening. As a result, the oompa loompa was not yelling and throwing things (as usual), Bligh was on shore leave, again searching for his elusive bread-fruit, even the Lilliputian was comparatively pleasant (though her usual explitives [which are really quite unnecessary] virtually every other word were, as always in attendance). Naturally, as I went about my most servile and base duties (being the basest slave that ever subsisted in this once mighty nation) I listened to Handel's Messiah. This merely became a source of ridicule, but one has developed a rhinocerine skin, being among the very lowest dregs of society: brutes without reason, barbarians, savages with absolutely no taste (save garish baubles and trinkets, and not a book read between them). Yet, enough of Hades. Let us think on more elevated and notable matters.
I like the law, very much, just as I like fine Belgian craft ale, but I love classical studies, just as I love the very finest full-bodied Italian red vintage. Yes, there is the slimmest chance that Almighty God may yet permit me to become one of the elect (what I term the 'Diceyean orthodoxy', not one of the 'silks' [King's Counsels], but at the very least, a competent would-be barrister in the back-woods provinces: at the discretion of the judiciary, of course). It is not impossible, though, like some rich man that had no sense of humanity or kindness being able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, there is perhaps more chance of a camel making it through the eye of a needle. Two things happened today, one for, one against, my maintaining morale at a high, a persevering towards such a goal as this.
There is a man there, not particularly well read (none of them are), simple, but kind hearted. He is a rough diamond, but is venerable and kind, and almost always in good humour. He talked to me about the common noun focus. I immediately replied that the noun stems from the Latin, but did not tell him what it means. Upon his return (for he had duties to attend) we explored it further. I imparted my knowledge, which is that focus is a Latin word, meaning the hearth of the family home: the place where one's ancestral gods were placed (idols), the central fireplace which the family sat around, the focus (cf. Horace, Letters 1.5.7: "The fireplace burns for a long while now, and the furniture is clean for you" iamdudum splendet focus et tibi munda supellex [my translation]). This chap's idea of focus was grammatically and etymologically incorrect, yet sometimes a source of wisdom comes not in the form of a well educated, polite, kind, pious and moral philosopher, but sometimes in the form of an uneducated bumpkin from the provinces. His take on focus was as an acronym: Follow One Course Until Successful. I thought about his meaning, not merely in terms of focusing (to use the word as a present participle, in the King's English) on the job in hand, but also what I am to do about the law. I ought to abandon it. It's twelve years now I've been studying Latin (and ancient Greek), so it would be foolish to abandon such studies now, just because this is a nation of slaves, beggars and savage wild-men, with absolutely no respect for people with a classical education. It's a big wide world out there, and this is just one... little... island.
On the other hand, on my way home, a fellow that lives in the same village as me, encouraged me to become a barrister, in spite of its 'nobby' culture. According to the Secret Barrister ‘snobbery is ingrained’ ([Anonymous Author], 2022, pp.41-42 [Nothing But the Truth]). It's possible, maybe. I have the day off tomorrow, so for now, I am reading Montesquieu (De l'esprit des lois), that, and trying not to indulge in watching Breaking Bad.
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