Philip Athans’s Reviews > Harvard Classics, Vol. 3: Essays, Civil and Moral / The New Atlantis / Areopagitica / Tractate on Education / Religio Medici > Status Update
Philip Athans
is on page 304 of 332
Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici is so wildly and unashamedly antisemitic it descends into what feels like self-parody but is in fact simply deplorable.
Why am I continuing to read this meandering, dogmatic spasm of superstition and xenophobia?
— Aug 31, 2026 03:15AM
Why am I continuing to read this meandering, dogmatic spasm of superstition and xenophobia?
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Philip’s Previous Updates
Philip Athans
is on page 245 of 332
I could write a four-page paragraph, as obsequious as it is verbose, on why I also abandoned the second Milton piece (On Education) but I'd hate to try to compete with the Master Himself.
— Aug 24, 2026 02:50PM
Philip Athans
is on page 245 of 332
I must admit that the first paragraph of John Milton's Areopagitica has defeated me. It is a three densely-packed pages long mealy-mouthed flattery of the parliament that I just… can't. Apparently Milton got the law banning privately owned printing presses overturned so he would shut up and go away.
— Jul 30, 2026 09:12AM
Philip Athans
is on page 193 of 332
I've finished the Francis Bacon section with "The New Atlantis," an unfinished science fiction novel that's essentially one huge info dump of epic proportions. It's a list of things this secret island nation knows, has, does, has done, and might someday do. Many, many, many diverse things.
— Jul 20, 2026 03:03PM