The Tax Accountant’s Gambit

 

As noted earlier, the three Ancient Greek names were meant to lead us to the wall in the Greek Cultural Garden, but why choose these three out of all the others present on the wall? Do they all have something in common?

Socrates, besides dying in the name of free speech, was one of the individuals on which we base the field of philosophy. The Socratic method of analyzing an idea via repeated questioning is named after him. 

Pindar was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. He was, by most accounts, the greatest poet of his time, a pioneer in many respects.

Apelles was an ancient Greek painter whose groundbreaking techniques were described by the elder Pliny in his Natural History. In ancient times, the term Apelles came to mean a great painter. He set a new standard in his field. 

All three of these men could be considered pillars in their respective disciplines. Pillars, columns, same, same. I take this to mean that we are to start our search for the secret of The Secret with these three names. Let’s see where that leads. 

Free speech, couplet, birch

As mentioned earlier, each item relates to the corresponding Ancient Greek person. The first words, “Free speech,” relates to Socrates who died in its name.  This tells us how to play Byron’s little game, the first challenge being pretty easy. The next two words are expected to follow the same pattern and be a bit more difficult. Couplet (a type of rhyming scheme) relates to Pindar and poetry, and birch (paint brushes are commonly made of birch) relates to Apelles and painting. Mystery solved, time to move on, right? 

My managerial accounting professor in college had worked for many years as a tax accountant. He said that when he prepared someone’s taxes, he always included a small mistake, nothing too complex or too simple, just enough difficulty to let an auditor feel challenged and good about their work, just the right amount of difficulty to produce a feeling of accomplishment, enough that they would look no further. He didn’t want them digging deeper where they might find real problems. 

With these little word associations, Byron has used this same trick on us. He’s toying with us here; he's giving us a challenge—free speech, couplet, and birch—and we feel pleased with ourselves that we figured it out, and need look no further. But I ask you, what does the solution to these little riddles tell us? Nothing. They offer no insights. They bring us no closer to the casque or the secret of The Secret. They are superfluous, pointless. These three little challenges are just the right level of difficulty to throw us off—not too hard, not too easy. They are a ruse, designed to placate us, to distract from their true purpose—describing the secret of The Secret for Cleveland.