An astonishing tour of 400 years of laughs from the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. Not just the greats like Wodehouse, Twain, and Garrison Keillor but brilliant (but now forgotten) writers, plus cult favorites like Auberon Waugh, Stella Gibbons and P.J. O'Rourke. Highly recommended.

I'm a Mexican Geriatritian and I was waitting for this book many years, the first one was excellent, and I think this is better. Is a very useful tool for the people who works with elderly people.

This is the first translation of the complete Panarion ('Medicine Chest', also known as 'Adversus Haereses') of St. Epiphanius of Salamis. The work is a set of descriptions of 80 heresies, starting with the philosophers and the Jews and brought down to his own times. The lengthy descriptions, sometimes based on personal experience, other times on works now lost, are of inestimable value to anyone who wishes to know more detail on the heresies of antiquity.

We all owe Mr. Williams quite a debt for making this long and difficult work available. It is pleasing to see that the work has now gone into its second impression (1997), which suggests that it is selling well for such a scholarly work. The book is well-made physically and printed on acid-free paper.

This is volume 1 of 2, containing just over a third of the whole work, heresies 1-46 of 80. It deals with:

Barbarism, Scythianism, Hellenism, Judaism, Stoicism, Platonists, Pythagoreans, Epicureans, Samaritans, Essenes, Sebuaeans, Gorothenes, Dositheans, Sadduccees, Scribes, Pharisees, Hemerobaptists, Nasaraeans, Ossaeans, Herodians, Simonians, Menander, Satornilus, Basilides, Nicolaitans, Gnostics(Borborites), Carpocratians, Cerinthians, Nazoraeans, Ebionites, Valentinians, Secundians, Ptolemaeans, Marcosians, Colorbasians, Heracleonites, Ophites, Cainites, Sethians, Archontics, Cerdonians, Marcionites, Lucianists, Apelleans, Severians and finally Tatianists (no. 46).

The footnotes are helpful, and indicate sources or parallels not only with the fathers but also the coptic gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi Library. The editors of that collection are to be commended for their vision in making so essential a work available.

Niggles? For some reason the 'H'-word has proved a stumbling block. 'Heresy' (haeresis) is rendered mainly as 'sect', rather than heresy. It is unclear who benefits from this, other than persons of heretical views and thin skins! However mostly the text avoids the biases of the US religious studies establishment, and is much easier for the rest of us to read in consequence. It would have been helpful to have running headers that indicated the section in question, and not just the work. In some cases the translation has an unaccustomed force. What Greek word is rendered by the frequently encountered epithet, 'scum', I wondered. No doubt it is in a footnote somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I'd have liked some discussion of the manuscripts and transmission of the text. Finally the *price* -- OUCH!

But these are all minor points. The book is a triumph, and a required addition to the shelves of everyone obliged to paddle in the puddles of these ancient cult-makers. The book has been often quoted, and misquoted. Now we can read the whole thing for ourselves.

[Note: Physical details are the same as for book 1, which is reviewed elsewhere. Niggles and comments are mostly the same.]

This is volume 2 of a 2 volume set. It is around twice the size of vol. 1, and contains 'book 2 and book 3', i.e. heresies 47-80 plus De Fide.

Heretics dealt with are: Encratites, Montanists, Quintillianists, Quartodecimans, Alogoi, Adamians, Sampsaeans, Theodotians, Melchizedekians, Bardesanists, Noetians, Valesians, Cathari (Novatianists / Donatists), Angelics, Apostolics, Sabellians, Origenists, Origen Adamantius, Paul of Samosata, Manichaeans, Hieracites, the schism of Meletius, Arians, Audians, Photinians, Marcellians, semi-Arians, Pneumatomachi, Aerius, Anomoeans, Dimoerites (aka Apolinarians), Antidicomarians, Collyridians, Massalians. The work ends with a statement of the Christian faith (De fide) which also contains some interesting descriptions of contemporary paganism.

This is the only complete version in a modern language. The Latin text in the Patrologia Graeca is said to be of an indifferent standard. (Amidon's selection apparently consists of the description of the heresy in each case, for all the heresies, plus narrative, but omitting Epiphanius' refutation).

As the work gets closer to Epiphanius' own time, his information is increasingly valuable as based on observation or contemporary report.

If only it didn't cost so much!

Best physics book I've read yet. (College Freshmen/Sophomore level). The questions at the end of the chapters are fantastic the examples are relevant and easy to understand. THEY MUST REPRINT THIS BOOK!!!!!

The Road Home: The Journey Beyond The Spiritual Quick Fix by William Frank Diedrich is a personal close-up of the path of spiritual development. The dialogue and journal entries trace the growth and transformation of the author as he deals with love, life's mysteries, making money, and fear. In this book, the choice between love and fear comes to life. Since spiritual development experiences follow universal patterns, the author's story reads like your own. The conversation with the muse, with God and with the Self are laid bare to consider our own internal dialogue

Bill Diedrich has studied the personal journey closely. He has internalized lessons from A Course in Miracles. He has waded through the puddles of many teachers and found the river. The message of dealing with our struggles and finding lasting results and not expecting some magical way out of life's pains is presented with hope and compassion. Forgiveness is one of those lessons that seems to keep coming back. The Road Home provides some real help with the problems of forgiveness. Reading The Road Home is a tune-up on the engine for seeking God and learning to love.

"No matter how they act you can act with unconditional love" I have heard this many times, starting in Sunday School. When I read this and have no doubt that it is my truth, I know the bringer of the message is coming from the source. The Road Home provides the context, the rationale and the message.

Rob Curtner,

Communications Consultant

Kermode maintains that Yeats's images and symbols define the Romantic tradition-the preference for images over formal reasoning as a way to reconcile opposites. Yeats's poetry, for all its mythical, classical, and historical allusions,its occultism and arcana, values imagination over intellection, and the resonant image over the plain statement. Organic images, as distinct from descriptive or ornamental images, generate symbolic ripples. Kermode holds that Yeats's recurrent, almost obsessive images, such as tree, bird, tower, and dancer, reach a high point of Romantic imagery and organic form. The pre-eminent example of symbolic images (archetypes), is the dancer and the dance at the end of "Among School Children," an image that reconciles body and soul, identity and action, artist and art. Kermode's study is a standard in Yeats criticism.

I bought this book mainly because my girlfriend loves it when I quote Shakespeare and I was running a bit dry on material. It has tons of quotes, even from some of his stories (read: not plays) and some of the plays you wouldn't necessarily percieve as being romantic i.e. Othello, King Henry et all.) It also has all of his sonnets. Great buy, but not for those uninterested in love (it's an inspiration thing)

Samuel Johnson was in his era what E.F. Hutton was in his. When the Doctor spoke, people listened. His sidekick and amanuensis, James Boswell, of course immortalized his utterances in one of the grandest biographies ever written. What this volume (and similar collections) indicates is that Johnson was equally irrepressible in print.

Johnson was nothing if not opinionated. Yet, coming from him, they are never merely opinions. There is always a great degree of heft and weight supporting them (no pun intended, as he was an immense man physically as well as intellectually)). Though he received only an honorary degree from Oxford (he was too poor to remain at school), he was one of the most learned men of any era. The range and breadth of his reading is unsurpassed by any other major literary figure, with the possible exception of Milton. Yet Johnson never comes across as overblown, nor does he ever trumpet his learning. His writing is informed be a sense of humility and compassion, that no doubt were among the attributes that endeared him to so many of the leading lights of his generation. And of course, he also had a marvelous sense of humor, which also comes through in this collection. Unfortunately for him, his good moods were often followed by serious bouts of depression, which is reflected in his most famous poem, "The Vanity of Human Wishes." By today's standards, he would be diagnosed most probably as a manic-depressive. There were many days when he found it difficult to summon the resolve to get out of bed and face the day. What saved him was his naturally gregarious nature. He thoroughly enjoyed the company he found in London's taverns.

His compassion for others is legendary. He thought that the character of a country was determined by the degree to which it ministered to the poor. He was an ardent foe, as exhibited in one of his "Idler" articles, of so-called scientific experimentation on animals. He viscerally describes the cruel and inhumane use that dogs were subjected to by anatomy researchers in his era. It is one of the most compellingly moving diatribes against this still-controversial subject that one is likely to encounter. One of the marks of great authors is that they say things we sometimes think of ourselves in such an adroit and pithy manner that we think they could not be better expressed. Take this Johnson quote on "idleness," for example: "As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his own duty and real employment, naturally endeavors to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does anything but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favor."

Dr. Johnson was also one of the foremost literary critics in history. Though one may not always agree with his assessments, one has to acknowledge the force of his arguments. In his encomiums to such writers as Shakespeare, Milton and Pope, he intermittently sprinkles censure. For those of us who don't like to see our icons brought down to earth, this is sometimes painful. What Johnson is really doing, however, is showing us that our own judgments are often unbalanced, and we fail to see what are real flaws in the great edifices. Johnson is never interested in pure panegyrics. His task is to examine the entire picture and to report as accurately as possible the grandeur, as well as the shortcomings of a work, whether it is Pope's Iliad, Shakespeare's Hamlet, or Milton's Paradise Lost. If there is a last word that could be said to have been delivered on these monumental works, it may well be Johnson's.

If you haven't visited the Doctor recently, do yourself some good and remedy the situation.

This book is now published by Writers Consortium (1-800-887-5526)with the ISBN number of 0964166003 and is identical. It will soon to be cataloged with Amazon.com. Librarian reviewers specified this book as a "core" purchase. Book-of-the-Month Club said, "There are so many good things about this book, but the best is that it was written by senior citizens for senior citizens.