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July 14, 2005
Microcosmographica Academica
I'm learning my way around Inside Higher Ed. It's a wonderful news site for affairs of higher education generally.
One of the recent pieces that has popped up there is a review of a 1908 English work of satire and wit called Microcosmographica Academica. It was authored by Francis M. Cornford, who was at the time a not-too-young professor of classics at Cambridge. An online copy of the book is available; it's apparently escaped to the public domain, always a good thing.
The text itself I'm only starting to get through, but I'm already absolutely clobbered by one of Cornford's descriptions. As you work your way through the parties involved in academic politics, after he describes Conservative Liberals, Liberal Conservatives (and those two are as different as they appear to be), Non-placets (men of principle) and Adullamites (men who want all the money there is going), we reach this beast:
The Young Man in a Hurry is a narrow-minded and ridiculously youthful prig, who is inexperienced enough to imagine that something might be done before very long, and even to suggest definite things. His most dangerous defect being want of experience, everything should be done to prevent him from taking any part in affairs. He may be known by his propensity to organise societies for the purpose of making silk purses out of sows' ears. This tendency is not so dangerous as it might seem; for it may be observed that the sows, after taking their washing with a grunt or two, trundle back unharmed to the wallow; and the purse-market is quoted as firm. The Young Man in a Hurry is afflicted with a conscience, which is apt to break out, like measles, in patches. To listen to him, you would think that he united the virtues of a Brutus to the passion for lost causes of a Cato; he has not learnt that most of his causes are lost by letting the Cato out of the bag, instead of tying him up firmly and sitting on him, as experienced people do.
Ho-lee shaving cream.
I am convicted. Nay, I am pricked to my very soul.
I'm gonna have to read more of this.
Posted by Chuck at July 14, 2005 10:40 AM
Comments
i honestly don't understand most of this (i'm assuming i'm just having an off day and not that being around a 6 month old has decreased my thinking ability...) but i'm glad it has impacted you in what i think is a positive way
Posted by: Celestia at July 14, 2005 07:09 PM
I agree with Celestia. Though I don't have the hanging around with a 6 month old excuse. Hmmmm, Ive been hanging around reporters and have temporarily taken over their persona. There's mine.
Posted by: Heather at July 14, 2005 10:19 PM
heh. congratulations. don'cha love finding yourself perfectly described in works that are in no way related to you? i know i do.
and "ho-lee shaving cream"? beautiful.
Posted by: catie at July 15, 2005 12:40 AM
Well, it is 90-year-old English, and way-too-refined for its own good.
The problem is, I am afraid that this Microcosmographica Academica might actually be related to me. As I read forward in the thing, I'm finding a consistent theme hammering me - that the hopes and dreams of those of us with ideals, the proverbial Young Men In A Hurry, who feel like this whole academic enterprise should be accomplishing some greater good, will inevitably be quashed by those who prefer the status quo - either status quo for the sake of money (the Adullamites), status quo for the sake of principle (the Non-placets), or status quo for the sake of status quo (the Conservative Liberals and the Liberal Conservatives).
It's demanding English (I still haven't figured out what Adullamites and Non-placets are supposed to be referring to), it's even more demanding given that the guy who wrote it studied ancient Roman and Greek culture (hence the references to Brutus and Cato), and I'm afraid that the target audience of the text is a version of me from 90 years ago, but it still is a killer.
But, if you don't get it, fear not, for...
If you are young, do not read this book; it is not fit for you;
If you are old, throw it away; you have nothing to learn from it;
If you are unambitious, light the fire with it; you do not need its guidance.
But, if you are neither less than twenty-five years old, nor more than thirty;
And if you are ambitious withal, and your spirit hankers after academic politics;
Read, and may your soul (if you have a soul) find mercy!
...Cornford probably didn't write it for you to begin with.
(However, that advertisement is not strict; I'm most certainly more than thirty.)
Posted by: Dr Chuck Pearson at July 15, 2005 08:29 AM