DOI article:
Raleigh, Walter Alexander: Poet and historian: a dialogue
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27811#0367
By Walter Raleigh 365
By all means. The uselessness of useful knowledge, say.
Let there not be wrath between us, let us talk about technical
education.
HA?. And you will write your history ? It is better than
twisting the kaleidoscope of the vocabulary to get new patterns
of verbiage. Moreover, you might disarm the hostility with
which wise men have often regarded your calling. Plato, you
know, would have hunted you out of his Republic.
P?;?. If Plato were alive, I would banish him out of this
commonwealth of England, or rather it would have been done
by the mob the day after he published his Republic. The crowd
worships great poets (of whom Plato himself is one), not chiedy
because they are poets but because they are dead. When there is
no Byron-bait or Shelley-hunt on hand, they wile away the time
by professing to admire Milton. He died a believer in polygamy,
but at least he died. As for your History of Metaphor, you may
write it yourself. But beware how you handle your dangerous
material ; I never knew any one who could not be trapped by the
right metaphor. "The Stream of History," or anything else
equally cold and slow, will be quite enough to take you off your
feet. But never mind, you will reach the sea. And there all of
you that is susceptible of promotion will become vapour, and,
who knows, you may drop upon Mount Helicon. I am going
there on foot. So, for the present, good-bye.
By all means. The uselessness of useful knowledge, say.
Let there not be wrath between us, let us talk about technical
education.
HA?. And you will write your history ? It is better than
twisting the kaleidoscope of the vocabulary to get new patterns
of verbiage. Moreover, you might disarm the hostility with
which wise men have often regarded your calling. Plato, you
know, would have hunted you out of his Republic.
P?;?. If Plato were alive, I would banish him out of this
commonwealth of England, or rather it would have been done
by the mob the day after he published his Republic. The crowd
worships great poets (of whom Plato himself is one), not chiedy
because they are poets but because they are dead. When there is
no Byron-bait or Shelley-hunt on hand, they wile away the time
by professing to admire Milton. He died a believer in polygamy,
but at least he died. As for your History of Metaphor, you may
write it yourself. But beware how you handle your dangerous
material ; I never knew any one who could not be trapped by the
right metaphor. "The Stream of History," or anything else
equally cold and slow, will be quite enough to take you off your
feet. But never mind, you will reach the sea. And there all of
you that is susceptible of promotion will become vapour, and,
who knows, you may drop upon Mount Helicon. I am going
there on foot. So, for the present, good-bye.