Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
www.gunjones.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
Chorus. Who then is the pilot of necessity?
Prometheus. The triform Fates and the remembering Furies.
Ch. Is Jupiter then less powerful than these?
Pr. Most certainly he can not at any rate escape his doom.
Ch. Why, what is doomed for Jupiter but to reign for evermore?
Pr. This thou mayest not yet learn, and do not press it.
Ch. 'Tis surely some solemn mystery that thou veilest.
Pr. Make mention of some other matter; it is by no means seasonable to proclaim this; but it must be shrouded in deepest concealment; for it is by keeping this secret that I am to escape from my ignominious shackles and miseries.
~ Aeschylus, from "Prometheus Unbound," translated by Theodore Alois Buckley.
ST. SIMEON STYLITES PRAY FOR US
If it should ever ("God forbid!") happen that you reach a point where you felt utterly alone, abandoned, in dire and deepest darkness, "The Shepherd of Hermas," if one takes it the right way, can be a most blessed boon; serving as a kind of spiritual sanctuary; which, again if employed soberly and not in a necessarily or overly literal way (with respect to interpretation of its message), is a formidable castle for the soul that NO devil can enter; providing as it does heavenly advisement in angelic form. This might sound strange to say, but you have to read "Shepherd" to properly understand quite what I am talking about. Even if you only read it for fun, it is good for that too. Originally a Greek book written at Rome, it dates to the 2nd century A. D. (possibly even the 1st century), and though apocrypha, it is orthodox in spirit, and was, geographically speaking and for its day, especially popular and widely read.
There are several versions and translations now available, but my own favorite is the one contained in The Lost Books of the Bible: Being All the Gospels, Epistles and Other Pieces Now Extant Attributed in the First Four Centuries to Jesus Christ (1926) and edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr.; and reprinted in 1979 with a foreword by by Solomon J. Schepps. (You can find fairly inexpensive hardcopies on such as ebay.)
THIS "Hermas" version is available online at:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/lbob/lbob26.htm
The preface to which reads:
"[This book is thus entitled, because it was composed by Hermas, brother to Pius, bishop of Rome; and because the Angel, who bears the principal part in it, is represented in the form and habit of a shepherd. Irenæus quotes it under the very name of Scripture. Origen thought it a most useful writing and that it was divinely inspired; Eusebius says, that, though it was not esteemed canonical, it was read publicly in the churches, which is corroborated by Jerome; and Athanasius cites it, calls it a most useful work, and observes, that though it was not strictly canonical, the Fathers appointed it to be read for direction and confirmation in faith and piety. Jerome, notwithstanding this, and that he applauded it in his catalogue of writers, in his comments upon it afterwards, terms it apocryphal and foolish. Tertullian praised it when a Catholic, and abused it when a Montanist. Although Gelasius ranks it among the apocryphal books, it is found attached to some of the most ancient MS. of the New Testament; and Archbishop Wake, believing it the genuine work of an apostolic Father, preserves it to the English reader by the following translation, in which he has rendered the books not only more exact, but in greater purity than they had before appeared. The Archbishop procured Dr. Grabe to entirely collate the old Latin version with an ancient MS. in the Lambeth library; and the learned prelate himself still further improved the whole from a multitude of fragments of the original Greek never before used for that purpose.]"
Let the commencement of our work therefore be that inquiry which closely follows and is connected with the first: Whether the universe is governed by the power of one God or of many. There is no one, who possesses intelligence and uses reflection, who does not understand that it is one Being who both created all things and governs them with the same energy by which He created them. For what need is there of many to sustain the government of the universe? Unless we should happen to think that, if there were more than one, each would possess less might and strength. And they who hold that there are many gods, do indeed effect this; for those gods must of necessity be weak, since individually, without the aid of the others, they would be unable to sustain the government of so vast a mass. But God, who is the Eternal Mind, is undoubtedly of excellence, complete and perfect in every part. And if this is true, He must of necessity be one. For power or excellence, which is complete, retains its own peculiar stability. But that is to be regarded as solid from which nothing can be taken away, that as perfect to which nothing can be added...
~ Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325), Divine Institutes (Book I, ch. 3)
A MEDIEVAL GHOST STORY
from Book II of William of Malmesbury's (c.1095–c.1143), Deeds of the English Kings:
-----------------------
[A.D. 1065.] ...At the same time something similar occurred in England, not by divine miracle, but by infernal craft; which when I shall have related, the credit of the narrative will not be shaken, though the minds of the hearers should be incredulous; for I have heard it from a man of such character, who swore he had seen it, that I should blush to disbelieve.
There resided at Berkeley a woman addicted to witchcraft, as it afterwards appeared, and skilled in ancient augury: she was excessively gluttonous, perfectly lascivious, setting no bounds to her debaucheries, as she was not old, though fast declining in life. On a certain day, as she was regaling, a jack-daw, which was a very great favourite, chattered a little more loudly than usual. On hearing which the woman’s knife fell from her hand, her countenance grew pale, and deeply groaning, “This day,” said she, “my plough has completed its last furrow; to-day I shall hear of, and suffer, some dreadful calamity.” While yet speaking, the messenger of her misfortunes arrived; and being asked, why he approached with so distressed an air? “I bring news,” said he, “from that village,” naming the place, “of the death of your son, and of the whole family, by a sudden accident.” At this intelligence, the woman, sorely afflicted, immediately took to her bed, and perceiving the disorder rapidly approaching the vitals, she summoned her surviving children, a monk, and a nun, by hasty letters; and, when they arrived, with faltering voice, addressed them thus: “Formerly, my children, I constantly administered to my wretched circumstances by demoniacal arts: I have been the sink of every vice, the teacher of every allurement: yet, while practising these crimes, I was accustomed to soothe my hapless soul with the hope of your piety. Despairing of myself, I rested my expectations on you; I advanced you as my defenders against evil spirits, my safeguards against my strongest foes. Now, since I have approached the end of my life, and shall have those eager to punish, who lured me to sin, I entreat you by your mother’s breasts, if you have any regard, any affection, at least to endeavour to alleviate my torments; and, although you cannot revoke the sentence already passed upon my soul, yet you may, perhaps, rescue my body, by these means: sew up my corpse in the skin of a stag; lay it on its back in a stone coffin; fasten down the lid with lead and iron; on this lay a stone, bound round with three iron chains of enormous weight; let there be psalms sung for fifty nights, and masses said for an equal number of days, to allay the ferocious attacks of my adversaries. If I lie thus secure for three nights, on the fourth day bury your mother in the ground; although I fear, lest the earth, which has been so often burdened with my crimes, should refuse to receive and cherish me in her bosom.”
They did their utmost to comply with her injunctions: but alas! vain were pious tears, vows, or entreaties; so great was the woman’s guilt, so great the devil’s violence. For on the first two nights, while the choir of priests was singing psalms around the body, the devils, one by one, with the utmost ease bursting open the door of the church, though closed with an immense bolt, broke asunder the two outer chains; the middle one being more laboriously wrought, remained entire. On the third night, about cock-crow, the whole monastery seemed to be overthrown from its very foundation, by the clamour of the approaching enemy. One devil, more terrible in appearance than the rest, and of loftier stature, broke the gates to shivers by the violence of his attack. The priests grew motionless with fear, their hair stood on end, and they became speechless. He proceeded, as it appeared, with haughty step towards the coffin, and calling on the woman by name, commanded her to rise. She replying that she could not on account of the chains: “You shall be loosed,” said he, “and to your cost:” and directly he broke the chain, which had mocked the ferocity of the others, with as little exertion as though it had been made of flax. He also beat down the cover of the coffin with his foot, and taking her by the hand, before them all, he dragged her out of the church. At the doors appeared a black horse, proudly neighing, with iron hooks projecting over his whole back; on which the wretched creature was placed, and, immediately, with the whole party, vanished from the eyes of the beholders; her pitiable cries, however, for assistance, were heard for nearly the space of four miles.
This next little bit is more and just for fun than anything else.
In browsing, as I have in recent months, old issues of Harper's Weekly, I came across this article on the Surrency, Georgia hauntings from the 1870s, and which I previously had never heard of. For the item in question in .pdf, see: Surrency_Harpers-Weekly_Jun-3-1911.pdf While if you want more about the case, just do a Google search.
Meanwhile, the article includes a picture, here enlarged. Can you spot the little hobgoblin man?
Later Note. With respect to the Surrency story, it is curious, among other things, to note that:
* The Surrency family members at the time of their deaths tended mostly to be relatively young: Allen (father): 51; Wealthy (mother): 68;
Millard: 60; Sarah: 45; Samuel: 54; Robert: 60; Lula: 34; George: 79. This of course might not be at all so or that significant, but I thought I would make mention of it anyway.
* Despite my searching the net, the only available photograph of any of the family members is a very blurry one of them all standing together in front of their house. The picture at the Find a Grave website, purportedly of Allen Surrency, the father, cannot possibly be him as he died in 1877, and the photo is clearly of someone from the 20th century.
* Though probably of less significance, but also at least worth noting, the Surrency haunting in southeast Georgia took place at about the same time and or else shortly after the Bender murders in southeast Kansas.
