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Season 2 Episodes

Beginning with some tips on how to live right and ending with a hum of Pooh, the 56th edition of Page One sees Charles Adrian struggling to keep to the path that he has set out upon. For fans of ethics, advice and bears of little brain.

The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh by Christopher Milne’s father A. A. Milne is discussed in Page One 125.

This episode has been edited to remove music that is no longer covered by licence for this podcast.

A transcript of this episode is below.

Episode released: 29th October, 2013.

Book listing:

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (trans. Maxwell Staniforth)

Ethics In A Permissive Society by William Barclay

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne

Links:

Page One 125

Charles Adrian

Episode transcript:

Charles Adrian

A couple of generations ago the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius was very fashionable reading. That was the time when every good publisher's catalogue included an elegant series of miniature classics; and there were very few of these in which the Meditations failed to make its appearance. The vogue has passed away now, but it may explain why the book is still known by name to so many people, even though acquaintance with its contents is rarer than it once was. Indeed, when you pick up this volume, you may well ask yourself, ‘What is it going to be about? What sort of stuff shall I find inside it?’ Let me say at once, then, that you need not expect any continuous or connected theme. This is simply the private journal or ‘commonplace book’ in which Marcus Aurelius jotted down from time to time anything that struck him as worth preserving. At one moment he is recording a thought suggested by some recent event or personal encounter; at another, musing on the mysteries of human life or death; now he is recalling a practical maxim for self-improvement, now copying a quotation from the day's reading which has taken his fancy. All these, and a wide variety of other items, are set down just as they occurred to the writer. You may take up the book or lay it down at any point you choose, and read as many or as few of the entries as suits your mood. Marcus, in short, has provided us with an excellent book for the bedside.
The Meditations is customarily, and no doubt rightly, classified by librarians under the heading of ‘Philosophy’; but this may give the reader a misleading impression, unless he understands the place which philosophy held in the ancient [...]

And that's the first page of the introduction to my edition of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.

Hello, I'm Charles Adrian. Welcome to the 56th edition of Page One, the second hand book podcast. And so, this podcast: “What is it going to be about? What sort of stuff shall I find inside it?” you're saying to yourselves. Let me say once, then, that you need not expect any continuous or connected theme. No, seriously though, this week I am starting off with a little ‘how to live’ section. We'll see where we go from there.

But, in any case, I am beginning with this 1966 Penguin Classics edition of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, which is translated by the wonderfully named Maxwell Staniworth. And he explains, in his Translator's Note, that:

It must be admitted that this work begins straight away with a mistranslation. The Greek title at the head of Marcus's book does not mean ‘Meditations’ at all; the meaning of its two words is simply ‘To Himself’. I do not know who was first responsible for paraphrasing them as ‘Meditations’, but long usage has now accustomed the reading public to this name in preference to any other, and so it seemed pedantic to discard it in the interests of a more literal accuracy.

Let me read you the first page of the Meditations themselves then - or the first page of the To Himselves or whatever you want to call them.

Book One


1. Courtesy and serenity of temper I first learned to know from my grandfather Verus.

2. Manliness without ostentation I learned from what I have heard and remember of my father.

3. My mother set me an example of piety and generosity, avoidance of all uncharitableness – not in actions only, but in thought as well – and a simplicity of life quite unlike the usual habits of the rich.

4. To my great-grandfather I owed the advice to dispense with the education of the schools and have good masters at home instead – and to realize that no expense should be grudged for this purpose.

5. It was my tutor who dissuaded me from patronising the [sic] Green or Blue (note one: The colours of the rival charieteers in the Circus. Roman enthusiasm for these races was unbounded; successful drivers earned large fortunes and became popular idols.) at the races, or Light or Heavy (note two: In one form of gladiatorial combat (the ‘Thracian’) the opponents were armed with light round bucklers; in another (the ‘Samnite’) they carried heavy oblong shields.) in the ring; and encouraged me not to be afraid of work, to be sparing in my wants, attend to my own needs, mind my own business, and never listen to gossip.

6. Thanks to Diognetus (note three: The painter and philosopher to whom Marcus, as a boy of eleven, owed his first acquaintance with Stoicism. Nothing is known of Bacchius, Tandasis, or Marcian.) I learned not to be absorbed in trivial pursuits; to be sceptical of wizards and wonder-workers with [...]

Wizards and wonder workers? How could I resist? Here's my first track for today. This is Stevie Wonder with Superstition.

Music
[Superstition by Stevie Wonder]

Charles Adrian
Stevie Wonder there with Superstition.

Now, Marcus Aurelius was a follower, as you will have picked up, of Stoicism and “who,” in the words of translator Maxwell Staniforth at the end of his Introduction, “will deny the right of Stoicism to be called, in the words of a writer of our own age, ‘a root of Christianity’?”. Certainly not me. And what a convenient question because it provides the link to my next book by Professor William Barclay, Ethics In A Permissive Society. Let me read you the back of the book.

How do we as Christians deal with such problems as drug taking, the ‘pill’, alcohol, morality of all kinds, in a society whose members are often ignorant of the Church's teaching? Professor Barclay approaches a difficult and vexed question with his usual humanity and clarity, asking what Christ himself would say or do in our world today.

Professor Barclay's Baird Lectures were first delivered on television. This was a new departure, for previously the distinguished series of lectures had always been an academic occasion. Now, for the first time, they were designed to reach the wide audience of the general public.

In this collection, the author has expanded many of the lectures and included entirely new material in the form of additional chapters

Additional chapters! Hooray! This was printed by Fontana Books, which seems to be part of Collins - later HarperCollins? Maybe. I haven't taken the time to do any actual research today. And it seems to have been published in its seventh impression in 1975. So it's clearly a popular book. Professor Barclay, for those who are curious, was Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism at Glasgow University from 1963 onwards and he seems to have been very concerned with what he calls ‘the plain man’. Here are some of his other titles: The Plain Man's Book of Prayers, More Prayers for the Plain Man, The Plain Man Looks at the Beatitudes, The Plain Man Looks at the Lord's Prayer, The Plain Man Looks at the Apostles' Creed. He also writes The Mind of St Paul, which I think would be a fascinating read.

Here, in any case, is the first page of Ethics In A Permissive Society.

Chapter One
The Cradle of the Christian Ethic

If you want to put it in one sentence, ethics is the science of behaviour. Ethics is the bit of religion that tells us how we ought to behave. Now, it so happens that in regard to ethics we are facing today a situation which the Christian church never had to face before. Not so very long ago, when I was young and first entered the ministry, the great battle cry was “Don't bother about theology, stick to ethics”. People would say, “Stop talking about the Trinity and about the two natures of Jesus and all that sort of thing and stick to ethics. Never mind theology, just stick to the Sermon on the Mount and let the abstractions and the abtrusenesses and the philosophy and the metaphysics go.” People said, “Take theology away. I can't understand it anyway.” But thirty years ago, no one ever really questioned the Christian ethic. Thirty years ago, no one ever doubted that divorce was disgraceful, that illegitimate babies were a disaster, that chastity was a good thing, that an honest day's work was part of the duty of any respectable and responsible man, that honesty ought to be part of life. But today, for the first time in history, the whole Christian ethic is under attack. It is not only the theology that people want to abandon, it is the ethic as well. That is why it is so important to look at the Christian ethic today, to see what it is all about and to ask if it is still as binding as ever. If you are going to understand anyone, you need to know something about his parents and about the home he came from. The Old Testament is the parent of the New Testament.

I'm not entirely sure that the Christian ethic came under attack for the very first time in 1970, which is when I'm assuming that Professor Barclay gave his original lectures. Back in 1942 Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman were already asking Why Don't You Do Right? Think about it guys.

Music
[Why Don't You Do Right? by Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman]

Charles Adrian
Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman with Why Don't You Do Right?

And on we wobble with today's podcast. My next book shows, I think, how far things were already going wrong even towards the beginning of last century. This was first published in 1930 and contains a cast of characters who really don't seem to care how their behaviour affects other people. Christian ethic does not enter into it. This is Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies and although I think it probably isn't his best book it is an enjoyably bitchy satire on the Bright Young Things of the interwar years and the things they get up to. This is a Penguin Modern Classics from 1961. It has a lovely cover drawn by Quentin Blake, who I met once and he was wonderful. This would have set you back two and six, by the way. Okay, here's the first page

Chapter One

IT was clearly going to be a bad crossing.
With Asiatic resignation Father Rothschild S.J. put down his suitcase in the corner of the bar and went on deck. (It was a small suitcase of imitation crocodile hide. The initials stamped on it in Gothic characters were not Father Rothschild's, for he had borrowed it that morning from the valet-de-chambre of his hotel. It contains some rudimentary underclothes, six important new books in six languages, a false beard and a school atlas and gazetteer heavily annotated.) Standing on the deck Father Rothschild leant his elbows on the rail, rested his chin in his hands and surveyed the procession of passengers coming up the gangway, each face eloquent of polite misgiving.
Very few of them were unknown to the Jesuit, for it was his happy knack to remember everything that could possibly be learned about everyone who could possibly be of any importance. His tongue protruded very slightly and, had they not all been so concerned with luggage and the weather, someone might have observed in him a peculiar resemblance to those plaster reproductions of the gargoyles of Notre Dame which may be seen in the shop windows of artists' colourmen tinted the colour of ‘Old Ivory’, peering intently from among stencil outfits and plasticine and tubes of water-colour paint. High above his head swung Mrs Melrose Ape's travel-worn Packard car, bearing the dust of three continents, against the darkening sky, and up the companion-way at the head of her angels strode Mrs Melrose Ape, the woman evangelist.
‘Faith.’
‘Here, Mrs Ape.’

Okay. So far I think I've done pretty well this week at sticking to my theme. Now I'm going to veer off a little, though. And here's why: One of the best-selling ‘how to live’ gurus of our time is, of course, Winnie-the-Pooh - don't try to prove me wrong, I have no statistics to back that up - and he's certainly my go-to bear for advice on how to deal with difficult or confusing situations. Now, I don't have a Winnie-the-Pooh book here but I have a 1980 hardback edition of Christopher Milne's - Christopher Robin, of course, to you and me - Christopher Milne's autobiographical account of his childhood. I really enjoyed this book and I found it... I found it thought provoking. I think more than perhaps any child ever - more than film stars, more than Daniel Radcliffe I would argue - Christopher Milne was marked by the character he played. I would put it like that. Here's a description of the book from the inside flap of the dustjacket:

Millions of readers throughout the world have grown up with the stories and verses of A. A. Milne about his son Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and the other toy animals. What was it like to be the small boy about whom they were written—with the long hair, the smock and the Wellington boots?
At the age of 54 Christopher Milne looks back and comes to terms with Christopher Robin, the child who never grows old, who has always followed him about, and who has often made his life a misery. For as he grew older and he and his prep school contemporaries began to put away childish things, he became increasingly aware of his burden and of his desire to escape from Christopher Robin.
The book is about the life of the real Christopher Robin. It is therefore about the background of the poems and stories—the animals, the woods and river—and shows how much the real world and the fictional world corresponded.
In spite of the problems of being Christopher Robin, Christopher Milne has written a happy book about a happy childhood in the twenties and thirties in London and in Sussex. He describes the life of a moderately well-off family that has now almost vanished. Not the least interesting pages are those in which he “discovers” his parents and learns to love them for their very different qualities. The portrait of his father is memorable for the skill and sympathy with which he evokes a character at once shy and resolute, tactful and determined, and the rituals by which he lived. It is a story told with humour, modesty and good sense, whose interest will not be confined to lovers of his father's books.

I concur. I think it's a marvellous companion to the books of A. A. - and I loved it for that reason - but I think it's also a beautiful book in its own right. Here's the first page of the Introduction.

From time to time I get a letter from an unknown asking for my help. The sender is a student (or it may be a teacher) and is writing a thesis (or it may be a research paper) and the subject is A. A. Milne (or it may be “Winnie-the-Pooh”). And he (or it may be she) would be grateful if I could oblige by answering a few questions about myself.
Forty years ago such letters were addressed to my father, and I can well remember seeing them on the breakfast table every morning and watching him open them. There were letters from students requesting biographical details; there were letters from children wanting autographs; letters from hopeful imitators asking for advice on how to get their books published; letters from Secretaries of Societies requesting his presence at some function or other; even occasional letters from people down on their luck, short of cash and grateful for anything that could be spared. He would read them silently, then pass them, one at a time, to my mother.
“What do you think?”
“Probably Wol.”
“I thought so too.”
So “Wol” it often was.
You may remember the occasion. Rabbit had found the notice saying GON OUT BACKSON BISY BACKSON and taken it round to Owl for his advice. You may even remember the actual lines. Owl asks:
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“The best thing,” said Owl wisely.
Somehow, so often, nothing did seem the best thing to do. To answer them was impossible. To explain why you couldn't answer them seemed unnecessarily unkind. So they remained unanswered. “Wol.” And now that these letters are coming my way, I, too, find that “Wol” is often the best, indeed the only possible thing. But it leaves me feeling unhappy....
To some extent, then, this book is an attempt to salve my conscience; and it may perhaps be some slight consolation to all those who have written and waited in vain for a reply that this, in a sense, therefore, is their reply. Belated, I confess, but at least a fairly full one.
You can call it a sort of companion to the Pooh books. In the first chapters I have attempted a picture of Milne family life, the family life that both inspired and was subsequently inspired by the books. In the later chapters I have attempted a picture of my father. If I have imagined an audience it has been a gathering of Pooh's friends and admirers, and I have tried to answer the sort of questions that I imagined friends of Pooh wanting to ask. They would want to know about the real Pooh and the real Forest and whether there really was an Alice. They would want to know something about the real little boy who played with Pooh in the Forest. And finally they would want to know something about the man who turned all these things into stories and verses. They would not be particularly interested to learn what happened afterwards: what happened to the little boy when he grew up.
Yet the little boy did grow up and it is the grown up little boy who is writing now. And something of what he was by nature and something of what he became as a result of his experience will colour his words.
So if I seem ill at ease posing as Christopher Robin this is because posing as Christopher Robin does today make me feel ill at ease. And if I seem to write most happily about the ordinary things that boys do who live in the country it is because this is the part of my childhood that I look back upon with the greatest affection.
If I had been a different sort of person I would have felt it all differently and would have written a different book.
In other words, I am really making a double appearance, first as the boy I am describing and secondly as the adult through whose eyes I am seeing him. If it were obvious how the one became the other then no more need be said; but it is not obvious and this leads to the question: Should I perhaps not fill in the gap? My instinct was to answer “No” and to refuse for two reasons. First, it had nothing to do with the Pooh story and so it was of no concern to my imagined audience. Secondly, it is one thing to write about a distant and happy period of one's life but quite another to write about a nearer and very much less happy period.
In the end, however, persuasion overcame instinct, and I have added an Epilogue. I say this now to make it clear that the story I originally set out to tell comes to an end at the end of Chapter 22. The Epilogue is a different story addressed to a different audience. It is the story of the effect on someone's life of an unusual event that occurred when he was a child. You may imagine, if you like, an Interval between the two, an Interval during which the audience can get up and stretch their legs. And if any of them decide at this point to make for the exit, I shall quite understand.

Now, I got rather carried away there and cheated. I read the whole introduction. Too bad, I broke my own rules.

In any case, this is the end of this week's podcast. And we have rambled a bit off the path we started on but now that we're here I want to finish with something that my grandmother passed down to me. This is a 1929 edition of The Hums Of Pooh published by Methuen and Co. Ltd London and still just about intact. The Hums are, of course, by A. A. Milne and the music is by H. Fraser-Simson. This is a recording of me playing my favourite Hum - and the only one that I can actually play and sing at the same time - How Sweet To Be A Cloud. You'll see that I haven't missed my vocation as a musical entertainer. Thank you for listening to this. It's been the 56th Page One, I've been Charles Adrian and this is How Sweet To Be A Cloud from The Hums Of Pooh.

Music
[How Sweet To Be A Cloud by A. A. Milne and H. Fraser-Simson]

[Initial transcription by https://otter.ai]