This is a quote from a memoir by Dorothy Wordsworth, reflecting on a trip she took with two famous poets, her brother, William Wordsworth, and their similarly gifted companion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We sat upon a bench, placed for the sake of one of these views, whence we looked down upon the waterfall, and over the open country ... A lady and gentleman, more expeditious tourists than ourselves, came to the spot; they left us at the seat, and we found them again at another station above the Falls. Coleridge, who is always good-natured enough to enter into conversation with anybody whom he meets in his way, began to talk with the gentleman, who observed that it was a majestic waterfall. Coleridge was delighted with the accuracy of the epithet, particularly as he had been settling in his own mind the precise meaning of the words grand, majestic, sublime, etc., and had discussed the subject with William at some length the day before. “Yes, sir,” says Coleridge, “it is a maj...
Good! I am closer to Woody than Frasier. Never knew the origins of Rhodes Scholarships. Guess I was just not interested enough in an opportunity that was beyond my reach or potential. Over the years, though, I have grown a little, intellectually. Mostly happy in this old skin.
ReplyDelete"Road Scholar is an American not-for-profit organization that provides educational travel programs primarily geared to older adults." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_Scholar
ReplyDeleteSo maybe one of them will figure out the asphalt thing....
DeletePoint noted. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOn the origin: Cecil Rhodes was a successful wheeler-dealer in diamonds and in the mines that produced them -- behind what we know as the De Beers empire. He became so prominent in southern Africa at the peak of British colonialism that "Rhodesia" bore his name. Upon his death in 1902 he left a bequest for an international scholarship that would allow deserving young men an education at Oxford University. It is the oldest philanthropic scholarship program in the world.
DeleteVery good, Christopher! Very good, indeed.
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