Notes & Asides

Dear Bill:

Several years ago, as you may or may not remember, you retained me as a consultant to NR. I offered then to instruct you in Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and guide you away from any susceptibility to Trotskyism, but you declined. But then Alexander the Great never paid much attention to Aristotle; and that was shrewd of him too. … I never much liked St. Augustine until I read the reply St. Jerome wrote him. You remember, of course: “Your missive, that honeyed sword . . . Certain friends of ours, vessels of Christ, had already told me what you have been saying about me …” etc. There had been some dispute over Scriptural translations, about which Jerome commented that he hadn’t read very far along in Augustine’s version because he had too much affection for his Brother Augustine and too keen a sense of duty to his Bishop Augustine ever to quarrel with either and, in addition, he had found this stuff tainted with heresy. No mortal could ever be Jerome, but ever since I’ve tried for the honeyed sword, once or twice. . . .

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Dear Bill:

Several years ago, as you may or may not remember, you retained me as a consultant to NR. I offered then to instruct you in Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and guide you away from any susceptibility to Trotskyism, but you declined. But then Alexander the Great never paid much attention to Aristotle; and that was shrewd of him too. … I never much liked St. Augustine until I read the reply St. Jerome wrote him. You remember, of course: “Your missive, that honeyed sword . . . Certain friends of ours, vessels of Christ, had already told me what you have been saying about me …” etc. There had been some dispute over Scriptural translations, about which Jerome commented that he hadn’t read very far along in Augustine’s version because he had too much affection for his Brother Augustine and too keen a sense of duty to his Bishop Augustine ever to quarrel with either and, in addition, he had found this stuff tainted with heresy. No mortal could ever be Jerome, but ever since I’ve tried for the honeyed sword, once or twice. . . .