Reading Oliver Wendell Holmes's "The Deacon’s Masterpiece,"

which is a poem about faith and its enabling logic.

Step 1:

New York Times, August 5, 2010:

To the Editor:

Re "California's Ban on Gay Marriage Is Struck Down" (front page, Aug. 5):

I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that a federal district court judge, Vaughn R. Walker, has overturned California's Proposition 8.

It's sad that certain judges, including Judge Walker, apparently disregard divine and natural law when making a decision on important moral matters that affect the common good. Same-sex "marriage" is contrary to divine and natural law and thus should be prohibited by human law as well.

Matt C. Abbott
Chicago, Aug. 5, 2010

The writer is a Catholic columnist at RenewAmerica.com.

Step 2: any recent news item involving altar boys and settlements out of court.

Step 3:
 

Step 4:

You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,
How it went to pieces all at once,--
All at once, and nothing first,--
Just as bubbles do when they burst.

Civil unions: Rome and Salt Lake City against Hawaii

William Blake, The Blasphemer

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/gothicnightmares/rooms/room2.htm

Click to enlarge.

Expiration date, Bloomsday

On July 16, 2010, closing arguments were heard in the federal case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a challenge to a California law reversing a previous statute which had permitted gay marriage. The transcript is downloadable from the Equal Rights Foundation at http://www.equalrightsfoundation.org/legal-filings/hearing-transcripts/perry-trial-closing-arguments-transcript/

 Click to enlarge.

For the defense, attorney Charles J. Cooper argued that marriage has what he called a procreative purpose. "Purpose" is a tricky word to define, of course, but Cooper attempted what amounted to a common sense deduction from historical consensus. Marriage, said Cooper, has always been understood to be exclusively heterosexual.
 

Or, at any rate, always until recently. 

That is, not always. 

Having made that fatal error in logic, Cooper immediately tried to escape into rhetoric -- specifically, into personal appeal, metaphor, and the varied rhythmic repetition that classical rhetoric calls epimone. "Your Honor," he cried, "at the heart, at the very heart --" 

But rhetoric was downed with no progress. Let's replay the collision.

Obviously, the answer to the judge's question is that homosexual conduct now is in the marriage conversation. But Cooper had another defense, one based on the linguistics of the social compact itself. Because of the movement for same-sex marriage, said Cooper, words about marriage have lost their power to signify. 

For society itself, the result may be tragic. Mr. Cooper's own repeating words toll the dirge: "In the minds of many, yes, your Honor. In the minds of many." Mr. Cooper, at least, experiences distress.

But July 16 was Bloomsday -- the cheeriest day of the year for language. So for Bloomsday, 2010, diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt: