Samstag, 22. Januar 2005
The battle of the books
Ahh, Swift!
(...) Besides, it
so happened that about this time there was a strange confusion of
place among all the books in the library, for which several reasons
were assigned. Some imputed it to a great heap of learned dust,
which a perverse wind blew off from a shelf of Moderns into the
keeper's eyes. Others affirmed he had a humour to pick the worms
out of the schoolmen, and swallow them fresh and fasting, whereof
some fell upon his spleen, and some climbed up into his head, to
the great perturbation of both. And lastly, others maintained
that, by walking much in the dark about the library, he had quite
lost the situation of it out of his head; and therefore, in
replacing his books, he was apt to mistake and clap Descartes next
to Aristotle, poor Plato had got between Hobbes and the Seven Wise
Masters, and Virgil was hemmed in with Dryden on one side and
Wither on the other. (...)
Jonathan Swift, The Battle of the Books and other Short Pieces.
Erstveröffentlichung: 1704.
um 22:40 in /biblio [#]
Den Brunnen zudecken (Schöne Redensarten, II)
Schön zweideutig: Den Bunnen (erst) zudecken, wenn das Kind
hineingefallen ist!
um 22:38 in /schrift [#]
