Laudator Temporis Acti

You all see in the matter of coinage, in which it is felt that we have some interest, how we have even invented an art, and how many means the tester employs to test the coinage—sight, touch, smell, finally hearing; he throws the denarius down and then listens to the sound, and is not satisfied with the sound it makes on a single test, but, as a result of his constant attention to the matter, he catches the tune, like a musician.

ὁρᾶτε ἐπὶ τοῦ νομίσματος, ὅπου δοκεῖ τι εἶναι πρὸς ἡμᾶς, πῶς καὶ τέχνην ἐξευρήκαμεν καὶ ὅσοις ὁ ἀργυρογνώμων προσχρῆται πρὸς δοκιμασίαν τοῦ νομίσματος, τῇ ὄψει, τῇ ἁφῇ, τῇ ὀσφρασίᾳ, τὰ τελευταῖα τῇ ἀκοῇ· ῥίψας τὸ δηνάριον τῷ ψόφῳ προσέχει καὶ οὐχ ἅπαξ ἀρκεῖται ψοφήσαντος, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ τῆς πολλῆς προσοχῆς μουσικὸς γίνεται.

He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because he, the devil, is the ape of God.

When John Cassian wrote his first novel, KILLING MATT COOPER, he didn't realize at the time that the story would grow in the telling. He has since published two sequels, KILLING SAM KNIGHT and KILLING MISS UNDERWOOD. Cassian counts Bret Easton Ellis, Thomas Harris, Jeff Lindsay and Jim Thompson among his strongest influences. He is a big rock 'n' roll fan, and is particularly fond of The Pixies, Radiohead and The Beatles. He lives in California alone, and likes to play guitar and draw pictures in his free time.

The abolition of Latin as the universal language of scholars and the balkanization of the national literatures introduced in its stead has been a genuine misfortune for the sciences in Europe. First, because it was only by means of the Latin language that there was a common European scholarly public, to whose entirety every newly published book directly appealed. Now, however, the number of truly thinking minds in all of Europe who are capable of judgement is so small anyway that when their forum is fragmented and torn apart even more by language barriers, their beneficial effect is weakened infinitely. And the translations fabricated by literary journeymen according to the arbitrary selection of publishers are a poor substitute for a universal scholarly language.

Die Abschaffung des Lateinischen als allgemeiner Gelehrtensprache und die dagegen eingeführte Kleinbürgerei der Nationallitteraturen ist für die Wissenschaften in Europa ein wahres Unglück gewesen. Zunächst, weil es nur mittelst der lateinischen Sprache ein allgemeines Europäisches Gelehrtenpublikum gab, an dessen Gesammtheit jedes erscheinende Buch sich direkt wandte. Nun ist aber die Zahl der eigentlich denkenden und urtheilsfähigen Köpfe in ganz Europa ohnehin schon so klein, daß, wenn man ihr Forum noch durch Sprachgränzen zerstückelt und auseinander reißt, man ihre wohlthätige Wirksamkeit unendlich schwächt. Und die, nach beliebiger Auswahl der Verleger, von litterarischen Handwerksburschen fabrizirten Verdollmetschungen sind ein schlechtes Surrogat für eine allgemeine Gelehrtensprache.

I must also denounce the especially churlish practice that is now creeping forth daily with greater audacity, namely that in scientific books and in actual scholarly periodicals, even those published by academies, passages from Greek, and indeed (proh pudor) from Latin authors are footnoted in German translation. What in the name of hell! Are you writing for shoemakers and tailors? — I think so: in order to 'sell a lot of copies'. Then allow me to humbly observe that you are churlish louts in every sense of the word. — Have a bit more honour in your person and a bit less money in your pocket, and let those without learning feel their inferiority, instead of bowing before their money belt! — For Greek and Latin authors German translations are the same kind of substitute as chicory for coffee; and moreover we absolutely cannot trust in their accuracy.

Als spezielle Gemeinheit, die jetzt alle Tage dreister hervorkriecht, muß ich noch rügen, daß in wissenschaftlichen Büchern und in ganz eigentlich gelehrten, sogar von Akademien herausgegebenen Zeitschriften Stellen aus griechischen, ja (proh pudor) aus lateinischen Autoren in deutscher Uebersetzung angeführt werden. Pfui Teufel! Schreibt ihr für Schuster und Schneider? Ich glaub's: um nur recht viel abzusetzen. Dann erlaubt mir, gehorsamst zu bemerken, daß ihr in jedem Sinn gemeine Kerle seid. Habt mehr Ehr' im Leib und weniger Geld in der Tasche und laßt den Ungelehrten seine Inferiorität fühlen, statt Bücklinge vor seiner Geldkatze zu machen. — Für griechische und lateinische Autoren sind deutsche Uebersetzungen gerade so ein Surrogat, wie Cichorien für Kaffee, und zudem darf man auf ihre Richtigkeit sich durchaus nicht verlassen.

Almost everywhere nowadays—most of all in a commercial city like this—it is impossible even to discuss the question of culture and education without being told authoritatively by that personage 'Now, mind, I respect your theories; I've a great respect for Latin and Greek, and for all your 'ologies, and I want my son to get all the good he can out of College while he is there. But he has to make his way in the world; he must take, if he can, some money out of it; you must not unfit him for becoming a business man; and he must be done with the University before he is twenty. Teach him what you like, only teach him something that will pay.'

The simple culture of the mind for its own sake—the mere perfecting of the man—is, alas! but seldom considered among the 'things that pay'; so in the rush forward to grasp the means of living—often, no doubt, a matter of sheer necessity—the acquisition of that which makes life worth living is too often pushed aside altogether.

Why, if we had sense, ought we to be doing anything else, publicly and privately, than hymning and praising the Deity, and rehearsing His benefits? Ought we not, as we dig and plough and eat, to sing the hymn of praise to God? “Great is God, that He hath furnished us these instruments wherewith we shall till the earth. Great is God, that He hath given us hands, and power to swallow, and a belly, and power to grow unconsciously, and to breathe while asleep.” This is what we ought to sing on every occasion, and above all to sing the greatest and divinest hymn, that God has given us the faculty to comprehend these things and to follow the path of reason.

εἰ γὰρ νοῦν εἴχομεν, ἄλλο τι ἔδει ἡμᾶς ποιεῖν καὶ κοινῇ καὶ ἰδίᾳ ἡ ὑμνεῖν τὸ θεῖον καὶ εὐφημεῖν καὶ ἐπεξέρχεσθαι τὰς χάριτας; οὐκ ἔδει καὶ σκάπτοντας καὶ ἀροῦντας καὶ ἐσθίοντας ἄδειν τὸν ὕμνον τὸν εἰς τὸν θεόν; "μέγας ὁ θεός, ότι ὅτι ἡμῖν παρέσχεν ὄργανα ταῦτα δὲ ὧν τὴν γῆν ἐργασόμεθα· μέγας ὁ θεός, ὅτι χεῖρας δέδωκεν, ὅτι κατάποσιν, ὅτι κοιλίαν, ὅτι αὔξεσθαι λεληθότως, ὅτι καθεύδοντας ἀναπνεῖν·" ταῦτα ἐφ ̓ ἑκάστου ἐφυμνεῖν ἔδει καὶ τὸν μέγιστον καὶ θειότατον ὕμνον ἐφυμνεῖν, ὅτι τὴν δύναμιν ἔδωκεν τὴν παρακολουθητικὴν τούτοις καὶ ὁδῷ χρηστικήν.

When we add to this the neglect of ancient languages as happens ever more frequently today, whereby general education in the humanities is declining and is not helped by learning the languages halfway, then we will see scholars who outside their special discipline are veritable oxen. — In general such an exclusive academic specialist is analogous to a factory worker who, his whole life, makes nothing but a specific screw, hook or handle for a specific tool or machine, in which he of course achieves incredible virtuosity. One can also compare the academic specialist to a man who lives in his own house but never comes out. He knows everything in the house, each little stair, each corner and beam, somewhat as Victor Hugo's Quasimodo knows the cathedral of Notre Dame: but outside it everything is foreign and unknown to him. — A true education for humanity, on the other hand, absolutely requires versatility and an overview, hence for a scholar in a higher sense, certainly some polyhistorical capacity. But anyone who wants to become an actual philosopher must bring together in his mind the most remote ends of human knowledge, for where else could they ever come together? — Clearly intellects of the first order will never be academic specialists

Kommt nun noch, wie heut zu Tage immer häufiger wird, die Vernachlässigung der alten Sprachen, welche halb zu lernen nichts hilft, hinzu, wodurch die allgemeine Humanitätsbildung wegfällt; so werden wir Gelehrte sehn, die außerhalb ihres speciellen Faches wahre Ochsen sind. Ueberhaupt ist so ein exklusiver Fachgelehrter dem Fabrikarbeiter analog, der, sein Leben lang, nichts Anderes macht, als eine bestimmte Schraube, oder Haken, oder Handhabe, zu einem bestimmten Werkzeuge, oder Maschine, worin er dann freilich eine unglaubliche Virtuosität erlangt. Auch kann man den Fachgelehrten mit einem Manne vergleichen, der in seinem eigenen Hause wohnt, jedoch nie herauskommt. In dem Hause kennt er Alles genau, jedes Treppchen, jeden Winkel und jeden Balken; etwan wie Viktor Hugo's Quasimodo die Notredame-Kirche kennt: aber außerhalb desselben ist ihm alles fremd und unbekannt. Wahre Bildung zur Humanität hingegen erfordert durchaus Vielseitigkeit und Ueberblick, also, für einen Gelehrten im höhern Sinne, allerdings etwas Polyhistoria. Wer aber vollends ein Philosoph seyn will, muß in seinem Kopfe die entferntesten Enden des menschlichen Wissens zusammenbringen: denn wo anders könnten sie jemals zusammenkommen? —  Geister ersten Ranges nun gar werden niemals Fachgelehrte seyn.

As a Dutch host, if you come to an inn in Germany and dislike your fare, diet, lodging, etc., replies in a surly tone, Aliud tibi quaeras diversorium, if you like not this, get you to another inn: I resolve, if you like not my writing, go read something else.

As for those works of piety and charity of which you speak, these are necessary in this present life for as long as inequality prevails. Their workings here would not be required were it not for the superabundant numbers of the poor, the needy, and the sick. These are there because of the iniquity of men who have held for their own private use what the common Creator has made available to all.

haec etiam quae dicitis opera pietatis ac misericordiae necessaria sunt in hoc tempore, dum adhuc inaequalis diuersitas dominatur: quorum ne hic quidem expectaretur operatio, nisi inopum, indigentum infirmorumque pars maxima redundaret, quae iniquitate hominum facta est, eorum scilicet, qui ea quae omnibus a communi creatore concessa sunt in suos tantum occupata usus nec tamen utenda tenuerunt.

How bad things would be for human knowledge if it weren't for writing and printing! Therefore the libraries alone are the certain and enduring memory of the human race, whose individual members all have only a very limited and imperfect memory.

Wie schlecht würde es also um das menschliche Wissen stehn, wenn Schrift und Druck nicht wären. Daher sind die Bibliotheken allein das sichere und bleibende Gedächtniß des menschlichen Geschlechts, dessen einzelne Mitglieder alle nur ein sehr beschränktes und unvollkommenes haben.

I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, etc., daily musters and preparations, and such-like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies, and sea-fights; peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances, are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion, etc. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays: then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villanies in all kinds, funerals, burials, deaths of princes, new discoveries, expeditions, now comical, then tragical matters. To-day we hear of new lords and officers created, to-morrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth, another breaketh: he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt: now plenty, then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs, weeps, etc.