"All roads would lead to the king"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/21/2012 11:29 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>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.

True, or at least likely -- I missed the significance of "spacious
Square" in the twists and turns of the rectangular grid.

Joel

>On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > 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"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org