Reminds me of a passage in the first chapter of a novel I read when I was a lad - ' My ancient life ' by Winston Churchill...Originally Posted by ;
Churchill joins a story about the discursive game his Latin teacher played:
#8216;This is a Latin grammar. #8217; [The teacher] opened [the textbook] in a well-thumbed page. #8216;You must learn this,#8217; he stated, pointing to a range of words in a framework of lines8230;
What on earth did it all mean? Where was the feeling of it? It appeared absolute rigmarole to me personally. However, there was one thing that I could always do: I could learn it #8230;
#8216;Have you learnt it? #8217; he asked.
#8216;I think I could say it,#8217; I replied; and that I gabbled off it.
He seemed so satisfied with this I was emboldened to ask a question #8230;
#8216;However,#8217; I repeated, #8216;what exactly does it mean? #8217;
#8216;Mensa signifies a table,#8217; he replied.
#8216;Then why does mensa additionally mean O dining table,#8217; I enquired, #8216;and that which does O dining table mean? #8217; #8230;
";O dining table,#8212;you'd use that in addressing a table, in invoking a table. #8217;
#8216;However I never do,#8217; I blurted out in honest amazement.
#8216;In case you're impertinent, then you will be punished, and punished, let me tell you, very seriously,#8217; was his most conclusive rejoinder.
This was my introduction into the classics from which, I have been told, most of our cleverest guys have derived so much comfort and profit #8230;