Wednesday, March 22, 2023
The Virtues of the True Scholar
Robert Graves, "Diseases of Scholarship, Classically Considered:
A Lecture for Yale University February 13, 1957," in 5 Pens in Hand: Collected Essays, Stories and Poems (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1958), pp. 73-90 (at 74):
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He puts his duty to factual truth above all other duties.
He allows no religious, or philosophical, or political theory to colour his views.
He is indifferent to fame.
He makes no definite pronouncement on any particular point under discussion before examining and certifying all available evidence.
He never loses touch with specialists in related departments of scholarship, freely exchanging the result of his own researches with them.
He is humble about his knowledge, and willing to consider the views of non-scholars.
He has a close practical knowledge of his subject and keeps himself informed of new discoveries that affect it.
He refuses to exploit his knowledge commercially or socially.
He has a well-developed intuitive power, strengthened by experience.
He allows no superior to interfere with, or influence, his researches.
