Archive for May, 2010
Why Study the Classics?
Among the most frequent asked questions I get is: “Why should anyone in this day and age bother to study the classics?” Depending on the questioner or my temper, I give different answers. One of the past answers, however, has been given by an essay I just ran across. “On Classical Education” was written by William Hazlitt, the 19th century essayist, and he included it in his volume The Round Table.
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Update to Aeneid I B: Compassion
Dr. Fleming has added more to the entry “Aeneid IB: Compassion.” Click on the View Post button below to go directly to the update.
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Come Some Music! Come the Recorders!
There is a theory among some conservatives with college-bound sons and daughters that a good education can yet be found at America’s institutions of higher learning, if a student knows where, and how, and, most importantly, for whom to look. If there is any evidence to support this theory, it is in the person of our Special Guest Lecturer at The Rockford Institute’s Thirteenth Annual Summer School this July, Professor Frank Brownlow.
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Aeneid I B: Compassion
My old teacher Brooks Otis, in his once famous book, described Vergil as the author of “civilized poetry.” While Homer concentrates on action and the heroic virtues, Vergil is interested in the moral qualities on which the Roman order (and our own) rests. In accepting their destiny to rule the world, the better sorts of Romans knew they had a duty to give their subjects a juster and kinder government than they had previously enjoyed.
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In Search of Anglo-Saxon England
The Rockford Institute is very fortunate to have man-of-letters Michael McMahon of Norwich, England, on the faculty for its Summer School this July. Chronicles readers will know Michael from his marvelous travel pieces.
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