VICAR ROBERT HERRICK - Kouroo · Vicar Robert Herrick wrote his poem “Upon his Sister-in-law,...

VICAR ROBERT HERRICK

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“Tumble me down, and I will sitUpon my ruins, smiling yet.”

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Vicar Robert Herrick

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Contribution to Kouroo Contexture

mailto:[email protected] subject=Contribution to Kouroo Contexture

http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/ActiveIndex.pdf

VICAR ROBERT HERRICK VICAR ROBERT HERRICK

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In “THE SERVICE”, Henry Thoreau made use of a couplet from Robert Herrick’s poem “To Fortune”:

TUMBLE me down, and I will sitUpon my ruins, smiling yet ;Tear me to tatters, yet I’ll bePatient in my necessity.Laugh at my scraps of clothes, and shunMe, as a fear’d infection ;Yet, scare-crow-like, I’ll walk as oneNeglecting thy derision.

“THE SERVICE”: The Romans “made Fortune sirname to Fortitude,” forfortitude is that alchemy that turns all things to good fortune.The man of fortitude, whom the Latins called fortis is no otherthan that lucky person whom fors favors, or vir summae fortis. Ifwe will, every bark may “carry Cæsar and Cæsar’s fortune.” For animpenetrable shield, stand inside yourself; he was no artist, butan artisan, who first made shields of brass. For armor of proof,mea virtute me involvo, — I wrap myself in my virtue;

“Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruins, smiling yet.”

http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/thumbnails/T/HDT.pdf

http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/explanation.pdf



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August 24, Tuesday (Old Style): Robert Herrick was baptized. He had been born in the Cheapside district of London, the 7th child and 4th son of Julia Stone with Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith.

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

1591

Vicar Robert Herrick “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project







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November: While Robert Herrick was only a year old, his prosperous goldsmith father Nicholas Herrick died by falling from a 4th-floor window (this may have been suicide).

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

1592








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In this year a dissenting congregation of Scrooby, England was escaping to Holland.

It is probable that Robert Herrick (like his cousins) had attended The Merchant Taylors’ School. At this point he became apprenticed to his uncle, Sir William Herrick, who was a goldsmith and jeweler to King Charles I.

LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.

LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

1607








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At the age of 20, George Herbert graduated with the Bachelors degree with distinction, from Trinity College of Cambridge University.

Francis Higginson received his MA degree from Jesus College (though the Reverend Mather would suppose he was of Emanuel College).

Robert Herrick’s apprenticeship in the goldsmith’s shop of his uncle Sir William Herrick ended after only six years when, age 22, he matriculated at St John’s College.

1613





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Robert Herrick graduated from St John’s College of Cambridge University.

He would become one of the groupies of the “Sons of Ben” that admired the works of Ben Jonson, and would himself create at least five poems in honor of that Poet Laureate of England.

1617

Our Hero





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Robert Herrick took holy orders.

Judges in England began to allow “benefit of clergy” to women whom they found guilty of theft of goods, as long as they could read and write to an acceptable level and as long as the value of the goods stolen was less than ten shillings. That is to say, the judge might spare the thief’s life. However, he would have the authorities brand her thumbs to ensure that she would not twice be able to claim such benefit.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1623








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The Reverend Robert Herrick became vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire.

Thomas Hobbes began another tour of Europe with another young lord.

The Reverend Charles Chauncy was hauled before the high commission court for having publicly criticized the Church of England’s policy of allowing sports, games, and recreation on the holy day of worship. Life isn’t serious enough for you, guy? —Let us help, we’ve got ways to make life nice and serious for you.

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

1629








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Sir William Drummond’s REMORAS FOR THE NATIONAL LEAGUE BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND.

Vicar Robert Herrick wrote his poem “Upon his Sister-in-law, Mistress Elizabeth Herrick” (for this was the year in which she died).

FIRST, for effusions due unto the dead,My solemn vows have here accomplished :Next, how I love thee, that my grief must tell,Wherein thou liv’st for ever. Dear, farewell.

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

1643








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In Paris, Sir Kenelm Digby brought out “A Treatiſe of the Natvre of Bodies” and “A Treatiſe declaring the operations and nature of man’s ſovle, out of which the immortality of reaſonable ſovles is evinced.” These profound thingies would soon also be printed in London.

Vicar Robert Herrick would have written his poem “To the King upon his Coming with his Army into the West” in this year.

WELCOME, most welcome to our vows and us,Most great and universal genius!The drooping west, which hitherto has stoodAs one, in long-lamented widowhood,Looks like a bride now, or a bed of flowers,Newly refresh’d, both by the sun and showers.War, which before was horrid, now appearsLovely in you, brave prince of cavaliers!A deal of courage in each bosom springsBy your access, O you the best of kings!Ride on with all white omens ; so that whereYour standard’s up, we fix a conquest there.

1644

TWO TREATISES:: ... DIGBY




http://books.google.com/books?id=_ME6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PR3&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false


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Despite his humble birth, at the age of 16 John Wray or Ray had been sent to study at Trinity College and Catharine Hall in Cambridge University.

After the disintegration in the vicinity of Cambridge of the influence of King Charles I in the ongoing English Civil War, Richard Crashaw refused to take the oath of the Covenant and was forcibly ejected by Parliamentarians from his fellowship at Peterhouse College of Cambridge University. Escaping to Paris, he converted to Catholicism and became a secretary to the exiled Queen Henrietta Maria and her court.

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MINDYOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF








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Queen

MariaHenrietta





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Vicar Robert Herrick’s NOBLE NUMBERS, made up of spiritual works. In the wake of the English Civil War he was ejected from his vicarage for refusing the Solemn League and Covenant and would need to depart from Dean Prior in Devonshire. In Westminster near London, he would depend for a period upon the charity of friends and family.

At Boughton House, where he was being hosted by Edward Lord Montagu, the Reverend Thomas Fuller prepared, for the comforting of the afflicted during the conflict, GOOD THOUGHTS IN WORSE TIMES, and CAUSE AND CURE OF A WOUNDED CONSCIENCE. Among the Parliamentarians, Sir John Danvers of Chelsea, one of the regicides of King Charles I, came to his aid, not holding it against him that he had been among the supporters of the Royalists. He was allowed to preach in the capacity of lecturer at St Clement’s Eastcheap near London Bridge and elsewhere, and although at one point this privilege was suspended it was soon

1647




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solemn_League_and_Covenant




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reinstated. He was even allowed, at Chelsea, to preach a sermon upon the demise of the monarch.

He was during this period also translating out of the Latin penmanship of his friend the Archbishop James Ussher ANNALES VETERIS TESTAMENTI, À PRIMÂ MUNDI ORIGINE DEDUCTI, as THE ANNALS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD.

NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE

GOOD THOUGHTS, WORSE TIMES







http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/41/1841_GoodThoughtsInBadTimes.pdf


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HESPERIDES; OR THE WORKS BOTH HUMAN AND DIVINE OF ROBERT HERRICK, WITH A DEDICATION TO THE PRINCE OF WALES (this included his spiritual works previously printed as NOBLE NUMBERS).

1648





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With King Charles II restored to the throne, Robert Herrick petitioned for his own restoration to his living as vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire.

While the Reverend Thomas Fuller’s AN ALARUM TO THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND AND WALES propagandized for a Parliament that would be free from force, from abjurations, and from previous engagements, his MIXT CONTEMPLATIONS IN BETTER TIMES offered a more personal ministry to the Christian soul.

There is reason to infer that the Reverend was one of those who went to the Hague immediately before the Restoration in the retinue of George Berkeley, 1st Earl Berkeley (1628-1698), one of the commissioners of the House of Lords. He authored one of the many poems welcoming the monarch back to his kingdom, A PANEGYRICK TO HIS MAJESTY ON HIS HAPPY RETURN.

1660

MIXT CONTEMPLATIONS

ENGLISH CIVIL WAR




http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/41/1841_GoodThoughtsInBadTimes.pdf


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http://www.archive.org/stream/elegantextractso00knoxuoft#page/n769/mode/2up


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Summer: King Charles II restored Robert Herrick to his living as vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire (presumably the monarch would have remembered, or would have been reminded, that this poet had authored celebrations of the birth not only of Charles II but also of his brother James).

1662





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October 15, Tuesday (Old Style): Having died at the age of 83, Robert Herrick was buried (he’d been a lifelong bachelor).

1674





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At Harvard Divinity School, the following gentlemen commenced their studies:

• Benjamin Brigham• George Bradford• Jonathan Cole• Wendell Bayard Davis• Frederick Augustus Farley• George Fiske• Frederick Henry Hedge• Samuel Kirkland Lothrop• William Parsons Lunt• Artemas Bowers Muzzey• John Langdon Sibley• Moses George Thomas (A.B. Brown University)

1825





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In these early years there were no formal class graduations as students would be in the habit of studying there for varying periods until they obtained an appropriate offer to enter a pulpit.





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Waldo Emerson was admitted to the middle class at the Divinity School.

THE POETICAL WORKS OF ROBERT HERRICK (London: William Pickering, Chancery Lane). Emerson would have this edition in his personal library, and it would be consulted by David Henry Thoreau.

ROBERT HERRICK, VOL. IROBERT HERRICK, VOL. II




http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/25/1825_RobertHerrick_I.pdf

http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/25/1825_RobertHerrick_II.pdf


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December 31, Thursday: According to the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland, the public tranquility had been completely restored at a port on the coast of Spain –the shops being open, there being music in the streets, a new governor having been installed– the result was a state of general confidence. The British troops had generally departed but, as a precaution, because it is better to be safe than to be sorry, had left behind “seventy artillerymen and two subalterns, under Captain [John] Thoreau, with a 24-pound howitzer, and two long 32-pounders.” –Just in case a whiff of the ol’ grapeshot might still upon occasion be what would be recommended. This is what warriors are for, to create peace! Congratulations, Sir! –Christmas has come and gone and the British army has brought the gift of peace to the entire Iberian peninsula but now you can’t go home. Not yet.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal:

5th day 12th M 1835 / Rose early this Morng & got into the Stage & rode to Portsmouth to attend the Moy [Monthly] Meeting - The first was a good solid Meeting - a sound lively & pertinent from Mary Hicks -In the last it seemed to me the buisness was all resulted in Wisdom - After meeting went with Francis Carr to Shadrach Chases & dined - not having been to Shadracks in some years a renewal of intimacy & good feeling was very pleasant — after dinner rode home with Francis he being alone in a ChaiseTrue it is that times & seasons are not at our command -yesterday I was very desirous to feel the arising of life in my heart it being my birth day but was unable to get at it & today I have been favourd & am thankful for itHere closes the Year & this day commences another of my Life—

1835

RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS





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Waldo Emerson lectured in Boston. This was lecture Number 8 of the series, on Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, Herbert, and Sir Henry Wotton.

On this day there was yet another episode in yet another of America’s race wars:

Black Native Warriors? Where Had That Come From?

December 1835 The destruction of sugar plantations along the St. Johns River south of St. Augustine, Florida

December 18, 1835 The battle of Black Point, west of the town of Micanopy in the Florida Territory

December 28, 1835 Massacre of Major Francis Dade’s troops heading for Fort King

December 31, 1835 The 1st battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Clinch’s Battle)

February-March 1836 The siege of Camp Izard

October 12, 1836 The 2d battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Call’s Battle)

November 21, 1836 An action in the Wahoo Swamp on the Withlacoochee River

January 27, 1837 The battle of Hatcheelustee Creek at the head of the Kissimmee River

December 25, 1837 The battle of Lake Okeechobee

January 15, 1838 An action at Jupiter Inlet, on the east coast of Florida

January 24, 1838 The battle of Lockahatchee

SEMINOLES SWAMPWHITE ON RED, RED ON WHITE




Our army presumed these black natives were slaves. But were they descendants of the Africans who had freed themselves from the Spaniards by an alliance with the Creek tribes, who had been living in freedom along this coast for 12 generations?


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December: During this month the brothers John Thoreau, Jr. and Henry Thoreau, and Miss Prudence Ward from the Thoreau boardinghouse in Concord, visited Miss Ellen Devereux Sewall in Scituate, Massachusetts. Henry sent to Miss Ellen’s father the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. as a Christmas present Jones Very’s new volume of poems, and John sent to Miss Ellen herself some opals, and to Ellen’s little brother Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. some books. Afterward, during this month, Henry also sent to Miss Ellen some of his own poems, along with the counsel that she refuse the use of tea and coffee.

December: The Romans “made Fortune surname to Fortitude,” for fortitude is that alchemy that turnsall things to good fortune. The man of fortitude, whom the Latins called fortis, is no other than that lucky personwhom fors favors, or vir summae fortis. If we will, every bark may “carry Cæsar and Cæsar’s fortune.” Thebrave man stays at home. For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself; he was an arrant coward who firstmade shields of brass. For armor of proof, mea virtute me involvo (I wrap myself in my virtue);1

“Tumble me down, and I will sitUpon my ruins, smiling yet.”2

The bravest deed, which for the most part is left quite out of history, which alone wants the staleness of a deeddone and the uncertainty of a deed doing, is the life of a great man. To perform exploits is to be temporarilybold, as becomes a courage that ebbs and flows, the soul quite vanquished by its own deed subsiding intoindifference and cowardice: but the exploit of a brave life consists in its momentary completeness.

By dint of wind and stringed instruments the coward endeavours to put the best face on the matter — whistlesto keep his courage up.

1839

1. This is a reference to Horace that Henry Thoreau would insert into his “The Service,” rejected during his lifetime but eventually to be published in 1902:

Thoreau had the following volumes of Horace’s variorum writings in his personal library:

2. Robert Herrick’s poem “To Fortune.”

“THE SERVICE” IN 1902

HORACE’S OPERAHORACE’S OPERAHORACE’S OPERAHORACE’S OPERAHORACE’S OPERA




http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/19/00DECADE/02/1902_TheService.pdf

http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/25/1825_HoraceTEXTBOOK1.pdf




http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/33/1833_HoraceTEXTBOOK.pdf


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s

Before July 17: John Thoreau, Jr. again followed Miss Ellen Devereux Sewall to Scituate, before the 17th, and this time as he strolled with her on the beach, while her chaperone Miss Prudence Ward was resting on some rocks, out of earshot, he proposed marriage.3 She accepted him, then shortly afterward declined.

It is known that her mother learned of this proposal and responded that her minister father disapproved of Transcendentalists; Miss Ellen would be sent to stay with relatives in Watertown, New York safely out of the reach of those Thoreau boys. Henry Thoreau submitted “THE SERVICE” to Margaret Fuller for THE DIAL:

In this, Thoreau made use of a couplet from Robert Herrick’s poem “To Fortune”:

TUMBLE me down, and I will sitUpon my ruins, smiling yet ;Tear me to tatters, yet I’ll bePatient in my necessity.Laugh at my scraps of clothes, and shunMe, as a fear’d infection ;Yet, scare-crow-like, I’ll walk as oneNeglecting thy derision.

1840

“THE SERVICE”: A man’s life should be a stately march to an unheardmusic, and when to his fellows it seems irregular andinharmonious, he will be stepping to a livelier measure, whichonly his nicer ear can detect. There will be no halt ever, but atmost a marching on his post, or such a pause as is richer thanany sound — when the deepened melody is no longer heard, butimplicitly consented to with the whole life and being. He willtake a false step never, even in the most arduous circumstances,for then the music will not fail to swell into correspondingvolume and distinctness and rule the movement it accompanies.

...

To the sensitive soul the Universe has her own fixed measure andrhythm, which is its measure also and constitutes the regularityand health of its pulse. When the body marches to the measure ofthe soul then is true courage and invincible strength.





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3. It is this incident to which Thoreau would refer on page 293 of A WEEK:

A WEEK: I am astonished at the singular pertinacity and enduranceof our lives. The miracle is, that what is is, when it is sodifficult, if not impossible, for anything else to be; that wewalk on in our particular paths so far, before we fall on deathand fate, merely because we must walk in some path; that everyman can get a living, and so few can do anything more. So muchonly can I accomplish ere health and strength are gone, and yetthis suffices. The bird now sits just out of gunshot. I am neverrich in money, and I am never meanly poor. If debts are incurred,why, debts are in the course of events cancelled, as it were bythe same law by which they were incurred. I heard that anengagement was entered into between a certain youth and a maiden,and then I heard that it was broken off, but I did not know thereason in either case. We are hedged about, we think, by accidentand circumstance, now we creep as in a dream, and now again werun, as if there were a fate in it, and all things thwarted orassisted. I cannot change my clothes but when I do, and yet I dochange them, and soil the new ones. It is wonderful that this getsdone, when some admirable deeds which I could mention do not getdone. Our particular lives seem of such fortune and confidentstrength and durability as piers of solid rock thrown forward intothe tide of circumstance. When every other path would fail, withsingular and unerring confidence we advance on our particularcourse. What risks we run! famine and fire and pestilence, andthe thousand forms of a cruel fate, — and yet every man lives tillhe — dies. How did he manage that? Is there no immediate danger?We wonder superfluously when we hear of a somnambulist walking aplank securely, — we have walked a plank all our lives up to thisparticular string-piece where we are. My life will wait fornobody, but is being matured still without delay, while I go aboutthe streets, and chaffer with this man and that to secure it aliving. It is as indifferent and easy meanwhile as a poor man’sdog, and making acquaintance with its kind. It will cut its ownchannel like a mountain stream, and by the longest ridge is notkept from the sea at last. I have found all things thus far,persons and inanimate matter, elements and seasons, strangelyadapted to my resources. No matter what imprudent haste in mycareer; I am permitted to be rash. Gulfs are bridged in atwinkling, as if some unseen baggage-train carried pontoons formy convenience, and while from the heights I scan the temptingbut unexplored Pacific Ocean of Futurity, the ship is beingcarried over the mountains piecemeal on the backs of mules andlamas, whose keel shall plough its waves, and bear me to theIndies.





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“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

“THE SERVICE”: The Romans “made Fortune sirname to Fortitude,” forfortitude is that alchemy that turns all things to good fortune.The man of fortitude, whom the Latins called fortis is no otherthan that lucky person whom fors favors, or vir summae fortis. Ifwe will, every bark may “carry Cæsar and Cæsar’s fortune.” For animpenetrable shield, stand inside yourself; he was no artist, butan artisan, who first made shields of brass. For armor of proof,mea virtute me involvo, — I wrap myself in my virtue;

“Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruins, smiling yet.”








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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only” computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of Austin Meredith,copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which, instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith — and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact the project at <[email protected]>.

Prepared: January 31, 2015

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”

– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST




mailto:[email protected]

Well, tomorrow is such and such a date and so it began on that date in like 8000BC? Why 8000BC, because it was the beginning of the current interglacial -- or what?

Bearing in mind that this is America, "where everything belongs," the primary intent of such a notice is to prevent some person or corporate entity from misappropriating the materials and sequestering them as property for censorship or for profit.


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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely push a button.





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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with <[email protected]>. Arrgh.




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VICAR ROBERT HERRICK - Kouroo · Vicar Robert Herrick wrote his poem “Upon his Sister-in-law,...

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