OF ONCOMING BARBARISM accompanies the inevitable approach of the Armies of the Night, the exaltation of ignorance and, potentially, the last, expiring act of our familiar country. As cartoonist Larry Gonick (THE CARTOON HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE) has said, it is not unlike being in the path of an approaching hurricane without any ability to do anything about it. We take refuge in an excerpt from T.H. White's THE SWORD IN THE STONE-- the original work, not the rewritten trilogy combined by the author in the later THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. In this performance, putting aside at the last moment our unwilling contemplation of the advent of the Orange Caligula, we essay to leave our frame of temporal reference and experience cosmic Time-- first as do the Trees, to whose years-long conversation we listen, then, at the rate of millions of years per second, the voice of the Rocks-- the mineral world. In the form of an Owl, the future monarch accompanies Archimedes, the Strigiform Familiar of Merlinus Ambrosius, to the presence of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. The bird emblematic of Athena, the Greek goddess of practical reason known as Minerva to the Romans, is specifically in fact the Little owl (eponymously, Athene noctua). Why associate this particular bird with the sanctity of wisdom? It is related that Owls became symbolic of intelligence because it was thought that they, birds of omen and epiphany, symbolically presaged events when seen. On the other hand, because of their nocturnal existence and supposed ominous hooting, they have also been symbols associated with the Occult and in general the otherworldly. Their secretive habits, swift, silent flight, and haunting calls have made them the objects of superstition and even fear in many parts of the world. In the Middle Ages the Little owl was used as a symbol of the “darkness” before the coming of Christ; by further extension it was used to symbolize a nonbeliever who dwells in this darkness. Such are we as the menace of control by an unintelligent, malevolent minority silently hovers over us. Similarly the barn owl (Tyto alba) was looked upon as a bird of ill omen, and it subsequently in some places became relevant to our universal national predicament as a symbol of disgrace. Scientific study of owls is difficult owing to their clandestine nighttime activity, with the result that the ecology, behavior, and taxonomy of many species remain poorly understood. Here's hoping we find we have the ability to maintain tolerance and understanding of the foibles of our own species.