Quote: He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support rather than for illumination (Request help)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Stephen: Thank you very much for locating and sharing the A. E Housman
citation which is an enormously valuable and fun precursor. I have
updated the QI article to include the cite and the following
acknowledgement.

[Begin excerpt]
Deep appreciation to top researcher Stephen Goranson who pinpointed
the 1903 citation and brought it to QI's attention.
[End excerpt]

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/15/stats-drunk/

Garson


On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 5:00 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts
>               - for              support rather than for illumination (Request
>               help)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 1903 A.E. Housman
> Main Author:    Manilius, Marcus.
> Other Authors:  Housman, A. E. 1859-1936.
> Language(s):    Latin ; English
> Published:      Londini, Apud Grant Richards, 1903-1930.
> 5 vols
> vol. 1 (1903) p. liii
> "And critics who treat MS evidence as rational men treat all evidence, and test it by reason and by the knowledge which they have acquired, these are blamed for rashness and capriciousness by gentlemen who use MSS as drunkards use lamp-posts,--not to light them on their way but to dissimulate their instability."
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2014 2:18 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Quote: He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts              - for              support rather than for illumination (Request help)
>
> Back on March 5, 2013 Victor Steinbok initiated a thread that
> discussed several quotations including a version of the following
> saying which now has an entry on the Quote Investigator website:
>
> He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support
> rather than for illumination
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/15/stats-drunk/
>
> Thanks to Victor and the discussion participants. Appreciation to
> George Thompson whose recent inquiry gave new impetus to this effort.
> Thanks to Barry for his very valuable work on this saying.
>
> One interesting citation still requires verification. If you wish to
> help and your library has the "University of Toronto Monthly" in 1937
> please let me know. Here is the data for the cite that must be checked
> on paper (or with scans). The data has been extracted from Google
> Books:
>
> [ref] 1937, University of Toronto Monthly, Volume 37, Issue 7, Address
> by Lord Tweedsmuir (Governor-General of Canada) to the Ontario
> Educational Association in Convocation Hall of the University of
> Toronto on March 29 1937, Start Page 185, Quote Page 185, University
> of Toronto Alumni Association, Toronto, Canada. (Google Books Snippet
> View only; this metadata has not yet been verified on paper and may be
> inaccurate)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> I remember that the famous Cambridge classical scholar and poet, the
> late A. E. Housman, once criticised an Oxford colleague for his use of
> texts, with that acerbity which unhappily appears in classical
> scholarship, especially when the disputants belong to different
> universities. "Mr So-and-so," he said, "uses texts much as a drunk man
> uses lamp-posts, not for the purpose of illumination, but to correct
> his instability."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
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>
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