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by G.K. Chesterton, chapter VIII in Come to Think of It (published 1930)  Chapter VIII. "On the Classics" In a moment of fine frenzy a young man has stood up and declared that ‘the study of Latin and Greek is not of much use in the battle of life’, and gone on to demand that the young should be instructed chiefly in the science of Health — that is, in the facts and the functions of the body. The young man in question will be gratified to know that I, for one, consistently neglected to do any work at the school in which I was supposed to be learning Latin and Greek, though I am not sure that the mere fact of idleness and ignorance can be said to have armed and drilled me for the battle of life. But, when I consider such armour or armament, some faint memories come to me from the learning that I neglected. There flits across my mind the phrase aes triplex, and I remember how Stevenson used it for a title to his essay defending a cheerful contempt for medical fussing; and how he cited the example of Dr. Johnson, who dreaded death and yet disdained any vigilance against disease; and whose ‘heart, bound with triple brass, did not recoil before the prospect of twenty-seven individual cups of tea’. It is, doubtless, terrible to think that Stevenson took his Stoical image of triple brass from a Latin poet; and still more terrible to think that Johnson would have approved of Stevenson for quoting the Latin poets. But though Stevenson and Johnson were superficially about as different as any two men could be in everything except in this weakness for traditional scholarship, I do not think that either of them can be said to have come off so badly in fighting the battle of life.
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by Brian G. Daigle  "…perhaps I may trouble you annually to about the same amount, this being a very favorite wine, and habit having rendered the light and high flavored wines a necessary of life with me." – Thomas Jefferson
“Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know.” ― John Keats, in a letter to his sister Fanny, 1819 I didn’t grow up around much wine, and I have had times in life where I’ve been cautious about alcohol, most particularly during my high school and college years. Into graduate school, where I was placed amidst men and women who took life seriously but virtue even more seriously, I began to consider the history, philosophy, and practice of enjoying and creating wine. Over the past fifteen years I have sought to better understand “my wine palate.” What do I like? Why? What do I think about it all? I have tried to be thoughtful about wine, because I believe what Socrates said about life in his final days on earth is true about everything in life: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” And so it is equally true that the unexamined habit is not worth continuing, and the unexamined bottle is not worth drinking. I have enjoyed being around people who are true experts in this field, gleaning what I can and asking how it is I may have the same passion and commitment to the things I love, and also doing a bit of reading and documentary-watching about wine. I am a proud novice. As a faithful novice, who will likely remain a novice on this particular topic, there are ten important truths I’ve discovered about wine: |
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