Tuesday, June 23, 2020
The Pedant
Hilaire Belloc, "On Pedants," This and That and the Other (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1912), pp. 12-21 (at 13):
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The essence of the Pedant is twofold, first that he takes his particular science for something universal, second, that he holds with the Grip of Faith certain set phrases in that science which he has been taught. I say "with the Grip of Faith"; it is the only metaphor applicable; he has for these phrases a violent affection. Not only does he not question them, but he does not know that they can be questioned. When he repeats them it is in a fixed and hierarchic voice. When they are denied he does not answer, but flies into a passion which, were he destined to an accession of power, might in the near future turn to persecution.
