Ancient Grammar Defined

From The Grammar of Dionysius Thrax

Dionysius Thax's Grammar was used for centuries in the Middle Ages.  Here is how he defines "grammar" and "reading" at the beginning of his textbook:
 

I. On Grammar

Grammar is an experimental knowledge of the usages of languages as generally current among poets and prose writers.  It is divided into six parts:

1. Trained reading with due regard to Prosody [proper pronunciation]

2. Explanation according to poetical figures. [interpretation]

3. Ready statement of dialectical peculiarities and allusions [recitation of words and narratives]

4. Discovery of Etymology.

5. An accurate account of analogies. [conclusions from comparisons]

6. Criticism of poetical productions, which is the noblest part of grammatic art. [judgement]

II. On Reading

Reading is the rendering of poetic or prose productions without stumbling or hesitancy.  It must be done with due regard to expression, prosody, and pauses.  Through the expression we learn the merit of the piece; from prosody, the art of the reader; and from pauses, the meaning intended to be conveyed.  In this way we read tragedy heroically, comedy conversationally, elegiatics thrillingly, epics sustainedly, lyric poetry musically, and dirges softly and plaintively.  Any reading done without due observance of these rules degrades the merits of the poets and makes the habits of readers ridiculous.

The Mouse and His Child

We just finished reading The Mouse and His Child as a family and it passes the great children's literature test - the adults enjoyed it just as much as the children.  In the story, a windup mouse and his child, hooked together by the hands, go on an Odyssey to find home, freedom, and fellowship.  They encounter much evil, crime, war and death, destructive philosophies, and the drudgery of work as they seek to become self-winding.  I don't want to give away too much of the story which is at times poignant, scary, funny, profound, puzzling, and exciting.  This goes on my top ten list of favorite children's books and it also would make for some great high school or adult discussions of its literary structure and philosophy.
   

Literary Analysis in Avonlea

They had studied Tennyson's poem in school the preceding winter, the Superintendent of Education having prescribed it in the English course for the Prince Edward Island schools. They had analyzed and parsed it and torn it to pieces in general until it was a wonder there was any meaning at all left in it for them, but at least the fair lily maid and Lancelot and Guinevere and King Arthur had become very real people to them, and Anne was devoured by secret regret that she had not been born in Camelot. Those days, she said, were so much more romantic than the present. (from Ann of Green Gables)

Socratic Education

"the education of the intellect, by awakening the principle and method of self-development, was his proposed object; not any specific information that can be conveyed into it from without; not to assist in storing the passive mind with the various sorts of knowledge most in request, as if the human soul were a mere repository or banqueting-room; but to place it in such relations of circumstances as should gradually excite that germinal power that craves no knowledge but what it can take up into itself—what it can appropriate and reproduce in fruit of its own. To shape—to dye—to paint over and to mechanize the mind, he resigned, as their proper trade, to the sophists; against whom he urged open and unremitting war.” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Do not be overwhelmed by the mud!

"If we have food and clothing, we shall be content with that" (I Timothy 6:8).

 The apostles of God taught others that which they themselves fulfilled in their own lives. When they had food and clothing they were content. Even when it occurred that they had neither food nor clothing they were content. For their contentment did not emanate from the outside but emanated from within. Their contentment was not so cheap as the contentment of an animal, but costly, more costly and more rare. Internal contentment, the contentment of peace and love of God in the heart, that is the contentment of greater men, that was the apostolic contentment.

In great battles, generals are dressed and fed as ordinary soldiers and they do not seek contentment in food nor in clothes but in victory. Victory is the primary principle of contentment of those who battle. Brethren, Christians are constantly in battle, in battle for the victory of the spirit over the material, in battle for conquest of the higher over the lower, man over beast. Is it not, therefore, absurd to engage in battle and not to worry about victory but to concern oneself with external decorations and ornaments? Is it not foolish to give to one's enemies the marks of identification? Our invisible enemy [Satan] rejoices at our vanity and supports us in every vain thought. The invisible enemy occupies us with every possible unreasonable pettiness and idleness only to impose upon our minds the heavy forgetfulness relative to that for which we are here on earth. The invisible enemy [Satan] presents to us the worthless as important, the irrelevant as essential and that which is detrimental as beneficial only in order to achieve victory and to destroy us forever.

O Lord, Holy, Mighty and Immortal, Who created us from the mud and breathed a living soul into mud, do not allow, O Lord, that the mud overwhelms! Help our spirit that it always be stronger than the earth.

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The Crisis of the Modern Philosophy

"A philosopher's renown is increased more by inventing a new error than by repeating a truth that has already been expressed by others."

"In a traditional civilization it is almost inconceivable that a man should claim an idea as his own; and in any case, were he to do so, he would thereby deprive it of all credit and authority, reducing it to the level of a meaningless fantasy:  if an idea is true, it belongs equally to all who are capable of understanding it; if it is false, there is no credit in having invented it."

"To be a 'genius', in the profane sense of the word, amounts to very little, and is utterly incapable of making up for the lack of true knowledge."

Rene Guenon in The Crisis of the Modern World

A Curriculum for Bards

1. In addition to English, at least one ancient language probably Greek or Hebrew, and two Modern languages would be required.
2. Thousands of lines of poetry in these languages would be learned by heart.
3. The library would contain no books of literary criticism, and the only critical exercise required of students would be the writing of parodies.
4. Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking.
5. Every student would be required to look after a domestic animal and cultivate a garden plot...W.H. Auden from The Dyer's Hand & Other Essays