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- I cannot give to the barbarous comfort and encumbered ostentation of European life the name of civilisation. Men who are not free in their souls and nobly rhythmical in their appointments, are not civilised.
'Thoughts and Aphorisms' by Sri Aurobindo
What is meant by 'appointments' here, and how can these be 'nobly rhythmical'?
Best Answer
The meaning is clear once we analyze the context. This aphorism uses the rhetorical device of antithesis. It has two contrasting parts:
- The uncivilized life, a life of
barbarous comfort and encumbered ostentation
is presented as antithetical to
- The civilized life, those who live
free in their souls and nobly rhythmical in their appointments
One is “barbarous”, the other is “noble”. One is “encumbered”, the other is “free”.
This context is the key to unpacking “nobly rhythmical in their appointments”. The answer lies in its antithesis, a culture of excessive luxury: “barbarous comfort and ... ostentation”. So this must be “appointments” in its sense of accoutrements or possessions: clothing, ornaments, furnishings, and the like, which in the case of the uncivilized person, are characterized by excesses of comfort and pretention. And this must be “rhythmic” in its sense of measured, or you could say proportionate. It means that the civilized person is moderate and unpretentious, not excessively concerned for their comfort or superiority over others.
In short, this aphorism could be rewritten as:
I cannot give to the barbarous comfort and burdensome extravagance of European life the name of civilisation. Men who are not free in their souls and nobly moderate in their possessions, are not civilised.
Examples from the New English Dictionary of appointments meaning accoutrements or possessions
[Property] 1575 Laneham Lett. (1871) 48 Hiz honorz exquisit appointment of a beautifull garden.
[Clothing] 1759-67 Sterne Tr. Shandy (1802) III. xxii. 335, I have not one appointment belonging to me which I set so much store by, as I do by these jack-boots.
[Clothing] 1864 Boutell Heraldry xxiv. 402 Royal blazonry upon the appointments as well of his horse as of his own person.
Examples from the New English Dictionary of rhythmic or rhythmical meaning measured or proportionate
[Music] 1875 Ouseley Mus. Form i. 2 The power and importance of symmetry and Rhythmic balance.
[Literature] 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. 145 Its most rhythmic genius, its acutest intellect.
[Sculpture] 1880 C. Waldstein Pythagoras of Rhegion 22 The general modelling and the rhythmical treatment of the whole figure.