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Beginning
How often do I see in our profession
Learning a mere extraneous possession,
A self-sufficient mass of dates and sources
Rolled round in academe’s diurnal courses,
Where scholars prepare scholars, not for life
But gaudy footnotes and a threadbare wife—
Keen eyes for errors in a worthless text,
But none at all for this world or the next. . .
Oh, that our living literature could be
Our sustenance, not archaeology!
Robert Hillyer, classic lines from “A Letter to James B. Munn”
There once was a lady named Bright
Who could travel faster than the speed of light
She departed one day
In a relative way
And arrived the previous night
Albert Einstein (alleged)
Learning a mere extraneous possession,
A self-sufficient mass of dates and sources
Rolled round in academe’s diurnal courses,
Where scholars prepare scholars, not for life
But gaudy footnotes and a threadbare wife—
Keen eyes for errors in a worthless text,
But none at all for this world or the next. . .
Oh, that our living literature could be
Our sustenance, not archaeology!
Robert Hillyer, classic lines from “A Letter to James B. Munn”
There once was a lady named Bright
Who could travel faster than the speed of light
She departed one day
In a relative way
And arrived the previous night
Albert Einstein (alleged)