It seems a silly thing, an object rather
For study by the great pathologists,
That anyone should live in fear of Eros;
But just think how their names have swelled to lists:
The god who chased a woman to a tree;
The Moor who crushed the breath within his love;
That queen ensconced within a strange device
To feel the bullish loins thrust from above.
They cast themselves away, the cheerful ones,
One weird and flush-faced night too far from home,
Waking to find the sheets a twisted mess,
As if they were Petronius in Rome.
Fear him, yes, you should fear him on your life,
That red-cheeked child who never shows his face,
Who idles on your path with lurid eye
And leads you, wild, into a desolate place.
—James Matthew Wilson
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Why the Death Penalty Is a Sore Point for Papal Authority
Pope Leo XIV marked World Day Against the Death Penalty, observed on October 10, with the following…
The Myth of St. Francis
At the beginning of his 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis speaks of “an episode in the…
Job and Her
It is said that Job lost everything, but she has lost more. All her possessions—the money, the…
