"All roads would lead to the king"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Four roads would lead to the square, not two -- a square has four sides --
but unless the town is very small, your point seems a good one.

DanG


On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "All roads would lead to the king"
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> I cannot make sense of "all roads" in the following statement:
>
> "At the town's center was to be a 'spacious Square, with an
> Equestrian Statue of his present Majesty in the Center of it.'  The
> streets were 'all built in straight lines, crossing one another at
> right angles.'  In this town, all roads would lead to the king."
>
> Is it not the case that in such a rectangular grid, only two roads
> would lead to the king, not "all"?  Am I misunderstanding English or
> plane (Euclidean) geometry?
>
> Joel
>
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