Some things really are new under the sun. There are moments in history that change things: the coming of Christ, the discovery of the New World, the invention of the Internet. But there are certain fundamentals that no revolution ever succeeded in uprooting, and on those basics of life you neither need nor can find any better guidance than you will get from the good old books.
All this week we’ve been emphasizing what Christianity added to the pagan wisdom traditions of the world. But it was an addition, not a replacement: no wisdom that’s truly wise can ever be cast aside or cancelled for good. So it’s only fair to close out the week by highlighting the nobler products of paganism’s legacy. And there’s one handbook so concise and simple that it sums up much of the best that man alone can know.