Collection: Thomas à Kempis

Thomas à Kempis, roughly 1380 to 1471, was a monk in the Low Countries who copied manuscripts by hand and kept largely out of the world. The Imitation of Christ is attributed to him and was circulating by the early 1400s. It has outlasted nearly everything printed since, and it has done so without a single clever line.

The subject is the inner life and how to keep it steady. Humility, patience, the handling of praise and of insult, the quiet refusal to be impressed by yourself. The chapters are short, the tone is level, and there is no attempt anywhere to be interesting.

That is the point. For anyone worn out by being shouted at all day, by a feed built to agitate, this is the opposite instrument. You get something that holds still while you do.