by Dan Edmund
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For the next three weeks, Harry then settled into his own routine of paradise life as best as he could. Each night he still conducted his astronomical observations, plotting the position and movements of the planet and stars, along with the phases of the moon. Then, most mornings, he measured the position and movement of the sun. However, I sensed his interest was waning. He often complained about the inadequacies of his primitive equipment, as well as his lack of astronomical and mathematical knowledge to be sure of his results. However, although never admitting it, I think deep down, he realized that the Earth had indeed changed. Some days he would still complain that this was all just a dream, but here again his complaints became less frequent, and his assertions less certain. He had also stopped his ground probes, abandoning all hope to ever find any signs of the old world he had known. However, often long into the nights, he continued with his writing, his daily journal entries, his astronomical calculations, as well as his notes for his planned history book, which he often complained would be impossible to write with what he claimed to be a lack of credible sources available to him. Yet, little by little, he seemed to have resigned himself to his new life. He simply had no choice. However, I think secretly, he relished in his newfound youth. He had not been a young man when he had died, and he had mentioned on more than one occasion that he had a number of aches and pains in his former life, which now, of course, were no longer there.
I also helped all I could with his adjustment. Every morning, after his solar recordings, we went hiking through the forests and mountains. In the afternoons, I would teach and play the guitar for him. From memory, I had copied several simple exercises from the method books I had once used in teaching beginners. He quickly learnt how to read the music, and each day his playing improved. He also went to our Love Feasts, participated in some of our community games, and even attended our Worship Hall for actual worship, and not merely as a critic. Or so it seemed to me at least. He also became increasingly more civil towards others, and seldom said anything that would shock or offend. It was only when we were alone that he resorted to the role of the great lecturer, debater and doubting Thomas, only now far less aggressively than before. They were now discussions rather than arguments, sprinkled often with a touch of humor that always diffused any volatility that may have threatened to erupt.
However, for the first two days, they were on subjects I did not really care to listen to, and I'm sure would have shocked many in the community, and Christians as a whole. Yet, for the sake of Harry, I listened. I had, after all, agreed that I would take an interest in his history and other scholarly matters if he would take an interest in Paradise and its people. Therefore, each morning during our hike, he chose a different subject to lecture me on. Initially, the topics had centered around religion, his favorite targets seemingly Christianity and the Bible. He called it higher criticism, which he emphasized was not to be confused with textual criticism, bombarding me with numerous details of the two. Nor did he neglect the 'secular approach' to the development of the biblical canon, as well as the books that were considered as apocryphal: the Books of Enoch, the Books of the Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Shepherd of Hermas and the Gospel of Thomas. The lectures also turned to other religions, mainly afterlife beliefs, as for instance, ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead, or Tibetan Buddhism based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Nor did he fail to quote from the Koran, the Avestas, Buddha: the Word, the Upanishads, the Book of Mormon, the ancient Mayan sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the Epic of Gilgamesh of Mesopotamia, the ancient Chinese prophetic text of the I Ching, the Sibylline Oracles, and even more surprisingly the
Centuries of Nostradamus, as well as various books of the Kabala such as the Zohar and the Bahir.
Finally, sensing my disinterest in these topics, he focused his lectures and discussions on secular history, an area where we had few disagreements. He then spoke at great length about Tudor England, the historical period he had specialized in for his doctorate. He spoke about the life and intrigues that occurred at the court of Henry VIII: the king's icy relationship with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon; his efforts to get his marriage annulled through a vain dispensation from Rome; his breaking away from the old church; his savage persecutions of those that had opposed him; and his affairs with Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, later wives but also victims of the chopping block. He also spoke about Henry's lord chancellor, the corrupt Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and his successor, the pious Thomas More, who had also lost the favor of the king, and subsequently his head. During those days, I also learnt a great deal about Thomas More himself, as well as the literature he had produced, including his Utopia.
Then, almost a week later, he chose other subjects to lecture me on: the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, ancient chronology and astronomy, archaeology, epistemology, medieval Europe, the Crusades, the Knights Templar, the Protestant Reformation, Queen Elizabeth I and her astrologer and advisor John Dee, the Illuminati, the French Revolution, the Freemasons, the American Revolution, the Rothschilds, Rasputin, the Russian Revolution, the attempted Australian revolution at the Eureka Stockade, the Manhattan Project, Project MKULTRA, terrorism, modern and ancient holocausts, Shakespearean literature, utopian literature, dystopian literature, early European voyages to Tahiti, early European explorations across Africa, America and Australia, even of Mark Twain's journey to Australia, as well as to Palestine. He also spoke of the largely forgotten Philippine-American War. On another occasion he discussed famous and infamous scientists and inventors: Pythagoras, Archimedes, Hero, Ptolemy, da Vinci, Paracelsus, Galileo, Copernicus, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Swedenborg, Darwin, Wallace, Edison, Tesla, Bohr, von Neumann and, of course, Einstein. He also spoke of the great plagues and pandemics of history, as well as the great wars and famines of the past.
Although I often thought that history was just a study of former human toil and misery, nevertheless, I often still enjoyed these sessions, and was truly impressed by his obvious intelligence and phenomenal memory. During the end of that week, I asked him just how he could possibly have remembered so much.
"Perhaps I was privileged to have been born with a good memory," he replied. "Even as a child, I could remember long passages of poetry, or the plays of Shakespeare, or lists of kings, dates of battles, or even cricket scores." He paused then looked at me. "You also have a very good memory for music, however, as you are well aware, natural talent is not enough. It also takes cultivation and training, and in my case, I have been greatly influenced by John Comenius. He was a seventeenth century Czech educational reformer. He was also an ordained priest of the Unity of Brethren, a small local Protestant movement that had existed back then. He believed that the Millennium could be attained with the aid of science, and that by acquiring knowledge, mankind is ultimately directed towards God." He chuckled, then cleared his throat. "Anyway, he wrote that education should be practical and pleasurable, with knowledge learnt in incremental steps. So, you should start with the very basics and understand them very well before proceeding to the next level. Of course, you being a tutor, would be familiar with these concepts."
I nodded. "But isn't a lot of it just applying basic common sense?"
"Perhaps. However, you have asked me how my memory was developed. The Greeks and the Romans, even medieval Scholasticism, valued the importance of memory and its development. Apart from writing things down, of course, a common method that was used, which I personally have also used, was forming mental images of things, and then storing them mentally into places, as for instance different parts of an imaginative building. Cicero stated that the Greek poet, Simonides, used the method of...." And so on his lecture would go.
However, there were other times when Harry was silent and introspective, quite often when we were on the mountains overlooking some spectacular scenery. Of course, he still carried his notebook with him, and at times, he would act the part of a botanist as he an
alyzed a strange species of plant that he did not recognize. He could not draw well, and being a fair artist myself, I usually did the sketches for him. During these times, he would tell me of the strange species of plants the naturalist, Joseph Banks, had discovered in Australia whilst on the voyage with Captain James Cook. Or he would relate how the eighteenth century Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus, had trouble classifying certain plants in his taxonomy he was pioneering.
However, the most enjoyable times with him were when we went up Mount Anastasis and the Resurrection Sanctuary. Here, with its sublime beauty and tranquility, we often sat for long stretches of time, letting its mystical powers wash over us as if the very presence of God was there. After a while, he would often talk about the vast store of knowledge that must exist throughout the vast universe, knowledge that still awaited discovery. During other times, he talked about his wife and how he missed her, even though there seemed little love between the two. Yet, other times, he spoke of his mother, and less frequently, his father. When I assured him that he would meet them all again, no word of objection would now ever come forth from Harry's lips. A slight nod and a serene smile were to be his only reply here on God's holy mount.