In a series of letters titled A Guide for the Perplexed, the physician and philosopher Maimonides (1138-1204) argued that all anthropomorphic descriptions of divinity should be interpreted metaphorically, not literally. His argument proved to be controversial with many medieval religious authorities.
Hickory dickory
Doctor Maimonides
authored epistles to
guide the perplexed,
yet his opinions on
anthropomorphism
left fundamentalists
mentally vexed.
Harrying Harriet
In 1826, Louis Hector Berlioz became romantically obsessed with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, though she refused to even meet him. Biographer Hugh Macdonald calls his obsession “emotional derangement”. After Berlioz pursued Smithson relentlessly without success for seven years, she finally accepted his proposal, but their marriage foundered.
Haggledy naggledy
L. Hector Berlioz
bullied and stalked till she
finally gave in;
wrongly, she thought that her
pre-matrimonial
“yes” meant she’d never be
Hectored again.
