Nil humanum alienum mihi, as the ancient church already said: Nothing human is alien to me.Well, no. The ancient church didn't say it. That ancient pagan Terence (or his source) did, at Heauton Timorumenos 77:
Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Terence Overlooked
Discussing the Pope's funeral, Michael Novak writes: