about Johnson

I've been enjoying Samuel Johnson. For the past hour or so, I've been reading snippets from Boswell's famous "Life of Johnson" which includes plenty of Johnson's letters and dialogue between him and Boswell and others that Boswell remembered and recorded.

Johnson was particularly well known for never missing a chance to make a dig at the Scottish.
From his dictionary:
oats: a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people

Boswell, a Scot, records a conversation when his friend Mr. Ogilvie (a Scot) was introduced to Johnson. This gave me a chuckle:

Mr. Ogilvie was unlucky enough to choose for the topic of his conversation the praises of his native country. He began with saying that there was very rich land round Edinburgh. Goldsmith, who had studied physic there, contradicted this, very untruly, with a sneering laugh. Disconcerted a little by this, Mr. Ogilvie then took new ground, where, I suppose, he thought himself perfectly safe; for he observed that Scotland had a great many noble wild prospects.
Johnson: I believe, Sir, you have a great many. Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the highroad that leads him to England!"

Two things

I think winter is almost here. I haven't broken down and worn my winter coat yet, though perhaps I'm being unreasonable. I can tell it's winter though because of the cold weather routines developing again. The scarf goes on and I pull my hair up from under my scarf. . . . and then from under my coat. . . . and then from under my backpack. And then I put my hat on, prepared to face the cold. When I come back inside the hat comes off, and I try to bring my hair back down again. I'm so tired of static already.

Today, unfortunately, I dropped an almost entirely full bottle of dishwashing detergent on its plastic top on the concrete floor outside my apartment. Then I stared stupidly, laundry basket in hand, as I watched the blue puddle grow larger and larger. Oh dear. Fortunately, I had a couple old towels that had been hanging out in Robin's car at the bottom of my laundry. They sopped up the stuff, leaving a nice slippery surface, over which I poured a whole pitcher of water and worked at it with another towel. There was a small waterfall down to the first level of apartments. I think my front stoop has never been so clean.

Now I have a partially full bottle of laundry detergent with a broken top sitting in my bathtub. I hate to imagine what would happen if I knock it over again. I might try to transfer the stuff to an empty bottle I found in the garbage. Sounds like a job for tomorrow.

On the upside, my bathroom smells like clean, fresh laundry.

"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"

I took the English Departmental Exam (and passed) earlier this week and was reminded of this wonderful sonnet by John Keats.

"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"

Much have I traveled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the pacific--and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Doesn't it make you just want to run out and read Chapman's translation of Homer's Odyssey? If I were George Chapman, I'd be feeling pretty good.

Old books and a famous astronomer

Today was a bit of an unusual school day.

For the second half of 18th century class, we all trooped down to the Billy Graham Center to Wheaton's Archives Special Collections where there are lots of beautiful old, rare books which we have studied, including Addison and Steele's The Spectator, Swift's Gullivers Travels, and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. These were all set out on the table for us to pick up and page through, not stuck behind glass as they might be anywhere else. Coolest of all (and also most valuable), was a first edition of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary published in the mid 18th century. I looked up my name - "a song of joy and exultation."

One of my classmates noticed that the cover of one of the books was wearing thin in one spot, revealing a bit of text. The archivist said that printers took all sorts of scrap papers to make the covers and bindings of books. Occasionally, since the covers have worn thin, people have discovered old texts that they had record of but thought had been lost completely. By tracing down other books printed by the same person, they've been able to piece together some old books.

On to the next unusual bit. . .

Several weeks ago my old roommate Donna Grace told me that Dr. Owen Jay Gingerich, the most well-known living American astronomer was speaking at Wheaton College, and that I absolutely had to go. So I did.

The title of his lecture was Truth in Science: Proof, Persuasion, and the Galileo Affair. Some of it went past me, but it was interesting. It's not entirely cohesive in my memory, so bullet points will probably work best. . . .

• I didn't know it, but Tycho Brahe developed a model in which the earth was fixed in place, the luminaries revolved around it, and the planets (except for earth) revolved around the sun. He kept the church happier this way, but it wasn't very persuasive.
• Kepler and Galileo were both supporters of the Copernican model. Kepler was willing to accept the model in part because he saw trinitarian theology in it. He said the sun is like the Father; the outer room of stars, the Son; and the space in the middle, the Holy Spirit. This is pretty bizarre to me. Galileo was a timid supporter of the Copernican model until one January. . .
• When he saw three, then four stars around Jupiter. And then as a few nights passed, and he continued watching them, he realized that they were moons rotating around Jupiter - a mini-model of the Copernicus' theory. He had been taking notes in Italian, and when he realizes this his notes turn to Latin because Latin was the international language, and he wanted to share his findings with everyone.
• Galileo helped change science because he argued for having a coherent point of view (even though they couldn't provide proof yet without Newtonian physics, I think). Dr. Gingerich says we come to fundamental understanding by persuasion rather than proofs, and this is an example of this. And I think he said accepting macro-evolution should be another example of this.

I didn't stay for the Q&A, but walked briskly down to the BGC, thinking I could slip invisibly into class and sit in on the last hour and a half of the New Testament Theology class that I'm auditing. I felt pretty silly when Dr. Perrin said, "Hey Carol. We're finishing in twenty minutes; it's a long story. But glad you joined us." But I did get to hear about how Galatians 2:14 and James 2:24 are not contradictory. And now Dr. Perrin is on a two-hour long radio talk show, that he was just invited to today to talk about a book he hasn't read. I'm glad all I have to do tonight is go to bed.

Also a fortnight ago

This nabbed from Julianna and Jim's blog:

Jul and Jim and baby Gemma were up for a visit a couple weekends ago so on Friday evening I was able to meet my new cousin-once-removed. The next evening Jim and Julianna warmed up in my apartment during the half-time of the girl's soccer game.

Two weekends

Long ago, in the fall of freshman year, I was taking Digby for a walk and met Sydney, a Wheaton grad who lives and works in the area and also loves dogs. We talked about puppy raising and her border collies and went our separate ways. A few months later, we met again and she remembered me by name (I hadn't a clue who she was). Over the past few years, we've seen each other off and on (I babysat for her two girls once), and she's tried to get me dog-sitting jobs, which finally worked out for the first time a couple weeks ago.

I've never been very good at taking pictures of myself.

Baggins and Annie.

Last Saturday, my friend Ruth and I made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and cheered on the men's soccer team. It was one of the most exciting games I've been to in my four seasons of soccer watching, but the Thunder unfortunately lost in overtime.

It's a little peculiar to realize that now that I'm a senior I'm beginning a series of "lasts." Last men's soccer game, last class with Dr. Jacobs, last Fall Break Retreat, etc. My last chance to go to my first football game slipped by too. Ah, well.