Aux armes · the mottoes: notes

‘Tis writ on Paradise's gate,
“Wo to the dupe that yields to Fate!”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1847). The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: VIII Persian Poetry. 1904 (after Hafiz).

… walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone …

George Fox (1661).

We are always hearing of people who are around seeking after truth. I have never seen a (permanent) specimen. I think he has never lived. But I have seen several entirely sincere people who thought they were (permanent) Seekers after the Truth. They sought diligently, persistently, carefully, cautiously, profoundly, with perfect honesty and nicely adjusted judgment — until they believed that without doubt or question they had found the Truth. That was the end of the search. The man spent the rest of his life hunting up shingles wherewith to protect his Truth from the weather. … In any case, when he found the Truth he sought no further; but from that day forth, with his soldering-iron in one hand and his bludgeon in the other he tinkered its leaks and reasoned with objectors.

Mark Twain (1906). What is Man?: IV Training.⁠^[a]

Notes

1. CLARERE AUDERE GAUDERE (Be bright: be daring: be joyful)

The motto does not incite ostentation nor recklessness: the ancient virtues and aspirations of ‘enlightenment’ and boldness remain so for many, such as, Buddhists, Stoics and Quakers — and an exemplary undaunted outlook is evidently customary for the latter:

Live adventurously.

The Society of Friends (London, 1964). Advices and Queries: Advice IV.

although all the rest here may be mere vanity for them, since much that is intrinsic to heraldry is incompatible with the Testimonies of Equality and Simplicity and, by implication, the Peace Testimony.

Likewise the classical origins of ‘joyfulness’ — the final element in the tricolon — contrast with prevalent contemporary attitudes. It ought not to be mistaken as singularly urging hedonism, since it also accords with other classical notions, such as euthymia (ευθυμία, gladness, calm spiritedness, serenity) and eudaimonia (εὐδαιμονία, happiness), the sense of which was “living well and acting well”.⁠^[b] The emotional state now almost exclusively associated with happiness was then seen as merely consequential to virtuous action, particularly when undertaken with sophrosyne (σωφροσύνη, moderation, self-awareness, discretion) under the direction of enkrateia (ἐγκράτεια, self-command). In Buddhism sukha (Sanskrit: सुख) and Judaism simcha (Hebrew: שִׂמְחָה) are effectively identical with these Greek concepts.

Hoc ante omnia fac, mi Lucili : disce gaudere. …
Mihi crede, verum gaudium res severa est.

Above all, my dear Lucilius, make this your business : learn how to feel joy. …
Real joy, believe me, is a stern matter.

Seneca. Epistles 23:3-4. Latin | English.

Even so, none of this abstruseness should detract from present interpretations of the motto. Each will rightly draw their own inspirations, if any, from these exhortations. Words once uttered leave the tender care of their author to join the unruly commonwealth of meaning and only the thoroughly cynical or sententious condemn harmless vivacity in the pursuit of happiness:

Mortals, wilfully unwise,
Who these mirthful gifts despise,
Entertain no pleasing sense
Of voluptuous elegance:
Scare of such can it be said;
That they differ from the dead.

Hafez (Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Hafez Shirazi) (c.1325–c.1389). Give.

Give never the wine-bowl from thy hand,
Nor loose thy grasp on the rose's stem;
'Tis a mad, bad world the Fates have planned —
Match wit with their every stratagem!

Ibid., Wild Deer, 6.

2. In view of the scanty early record, the exclusively Gaelic provenance remains conjectural and so this derivation is uncertain. Although with no better justification, there are other etymological candidates, distinct from the Gaelic incidence, namely:

• The name was also local to south-eastern England from the early Middle Ages, where it might have been an anglicised heterograph of Gil, a common medieval diminutive of Guillebert/Gilebert (Gilbert) — a Norman French name from Old High German Giselbert, a typical Norman compound formation from gisil (a Celtic loan-word: a pledge, promise⁠†) + beraht/bereht (bright, shining). The inchoate and variable early spelling of its phononyms (Geal(e)/Geall/Gell(e)/Gile/Gill(e)/Guille/Gyle/Jeal/Jelle …) supports this conjecture: but weakly, since English orthography was chaotic before the publication of Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 and phonic structure of the language remains incoherent. Its earliest recorded use as an English surname is from thirteenth century Sussex and London, however Gil/Gille/Guille was used as a given name in south-eastern counties (Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and Kent) from the late-eleventh century — where Geal/e still has its highest English incidence as a surname. The variants Geal/Geale predominated later, but both were often used interchangeably: that is, until the consistent spelling of British surnames became general after the Census of 1841.
  † Apparently coincidentally, the Scottish Gaelic word for a promise or pledge is geall.
• It may be a derivation from Gilles (shield bearer), an Old French name, from Latin Aegidius (‘aegis bearer’, protector), from Greek aigis (αιγίς: the shield of Zeus). The earliest recorded use of Gilles as a given name is in late twelfth century France. This was introduced and anglicised somewhat later as Giles. During the late Middle Ages Giles was a relatively common surname widely distributed in southern England and Geal may be an aberrational regional spelling. The English pronunciation of Geal remains proximate to that of Gilles in French.
• From the Old English (West Saxon) giellan, from Old English galan, ‘to sing’ (the origin of -gale in nightingale), from Old High German gellan, ‘to yell’ (Proto-Germanic *gelnanan and Old Norse gjalla ‘to resound’). Proto-Indo-European root *ghel-2 ‘to hail, sing.’

3. ΖΗΤΕΙΝ ΤΗΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ (Seek the truth)

This is a truncation of an Ancient Greek epithet which epitomises the characteristic contingency of Pyrrhonic scepticism: “ever seeking the truth” (πάντοτε ζητεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν).⁠^[c,d] In its original context it is a descriptive phrase, the omission alters it to an exhortative. Nevertheless, the motto's implicit scepticism contrasts with the confident assertiveness of the Gospel: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (κ⁠[αὶ] γνώσεσθε τὴν ἀλήθειαν · καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς) and “seek, and ye shall find” (ζητεῖτε καὶ εὑρήσετε).⁠^[e]

Although the Pyrrhonic formulation of scepticism is now commonly taken as canonical, the invention of methodological tendentious doubt by pre-socratic Greek philosophers was a far earlier and arguably unique departure in the history of thought. To the best of my knowledge all preceding forms of systematic truth-seeking involved either divine revelation or supernatural insight. Given a sufficiently charismatic figure, these were then transmogrified by their followers into a body of authoritative tenets and edicts. In stark contrast, the novel Greek method promoted open critical scrutiny, novel and tentative speculations and conjectures were encouraged and examined: whereas in the prevalent orthodoxies, the foremost responsibilities of disciples were the faithful transmission and exegesis of foundational doctrines and the suppression of heresy — the sole intellectual duty for adherents was to believe and obey, since ineluctable truth was established by absolute authority alone. Hence this Hellenic endowment is profoundly contrarian: the ascendancy of doubt and unconstrained rational enquiry are corner-stones of western civilisation. Freedom of thought and expression, with its corollaries, tolerance of controversy and openness to criticism, remain intrinsic to freedom.

Haec quippe prima sapientiae clavis definitur assidua scilicet seu frequens interrogatio … Dubitando quippe ad inquisitionem venimus; inquirendo veritatem percipimus.

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.

Peter Abelard (1079–1142). Sic et Non.

To conclude, therefore, let no man out of a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the book of God's works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficiency in both.

Francis Bacon (1665). The Advancement of Learning.

The illiterate may reflect on the disposition of the learned, who, amidst all the advantages of study and reflection, are commonly still diffident in their determinations: and if any of the learned be inclined, from their natural temper, to haughtiness and obstinacy, a small tincture of Pyrrhonism might abate their pride, by showing them, that the few advantages, which they may have attained over their fellows, are but inconsiderable, if compared with the universal perplexity and confusion, which is inherent in human nature. In general, there is a degree of doubt, and caution, and modesty, which, in all kinds of scrutiny and decision, ought for ever to accompany a just reasoner.

David Hume (1777). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.

Experience soon teaches the seeker, not so much that he can find the key to the universe, as the limits of his search and the paucity of his trove. Tolerance, scepticism and humility are the commoner end-products of a determination to see for oneself …

Learned Hand. The preservation of personality. Commencement address at Bryn Mawr College, 1927.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

Albert Einstein. Old Man's Advice to Youth: “Never Lose a Holy Curiosity”. Life Magazine, May 1955.

Other great civilisations also teach humility and openness in the face of reality:

不用求眞
唯須息見

Try not to seek after the true,
Only cease to cherish opinions.

Jiànzhì Sēngcàn (鑑智僧璨) (d. 606). Faith in mind (信心銘 Xinxin Ming).

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.

Rumi (Jalal-e-Din Mohammad Molavi Rumi) (1207–1273). Masnavi-I Ma'navi. Book IV: Story II.

Figure 1: A ‘Celtic’ knot