Another brilliant observation

[Wilson Gray]

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 7:31 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > /Studying the humanities improves your ability to read and write./ No
>> > matter what you do in life, you will have a huge advantage if you can
>> > read a paragraph and discern its meaning (a rarer talent than you
>> > might suppose). You will have enormous power if you are the person in
>> > the office who can write a clear and concise memo.
>>

Sounds very much like the rationale that the Jesuits gave, back in the
'50's, for seven class-hours of Latin for four years, in addition to
two voluntary years of five class-hours a week of Homeric Greek for
anyone hoping to graduate at or near the top of his class and then,
usually, himself becoming a Jesuit.

it still gives me a frisson of pleasure, sixty years later, to be able
to look at some inscription in Greek or in Latin and just *read* it.
OTOH, I'm  buffaloed by the NYT's _anosognosic_ "someone who knows
that something is wrong, but who doesn't know what it is." It's based
on Classical Greek, not Homeric. But, nevertheless, one expects of
oneself...
--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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