O Great Humility

by Anthony Esolen

As I write this, my dog Jasper, he of the seventy tricks, is lying atop the sofa, and looking out the window to check for the neighborhood children coming home from school. He waits patiently for me also when I come home from school, as patiently as did the dog Argos, "Flash" as I call him, when Odysseus his master came home after twenty years of war and wandering. No disguise could fool the sagacious dog. But so feeble was old Flash, flea-stung and neglected, warming his bony form on the dung heap, that all he could do to greet his master was flatten his ears a little and whimper and try to wag his tail. Odysseus wiped a tear from his eye, asked the good swineherd about the dog, and passed on, as death and darkness closed the eyes of Flash, first of all creatures to recognize the return of the king.

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Anthony Esolen is a professor at Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in Warner, New Hampshire, and the author of many books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House). He and his wife Debra publish a web magazine, Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com), on poetry, hymnody, language, classic films, and music. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.

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