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                    <text>ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
CHARTER AND POLITY
OF
THE COLLEGE

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

May, 1976
Founded as King William's School, 1696, Chartered as St. John's College, 1784

�History

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St. john's College was founded in 1696 as King William's School in
accordance with a Petitionary Act for free-schools of the General Assembly of
the Colony of Maryland. Following the Revolutionary War, the General
Assembly of the new State of Maryland granted a Charter to St. John's
College pursuant to and as a part of Chapter 37 of the Laws of Maryland of
1784. This Charter was subsequently amended by the General Assembly
through Resolution No. 41 of 1832.
The Visitors and Governors of St. John's College in 1950 revised the
Charter to eliminate extraneous and obsolete matter and to make certain
other amendments consistent with present requirements and conditions. It
was the opinion of the Attorney General of Maryland that the original
Charter of the College was subject to the general Corporation Laws of
Maryland and might accordingly be amended by the Visitors and Governors,
pursuant to these laws, without legislative action by the General Assembly.
Subsequent amendments were made in 1961, in 1963, in 1965, in 1970, and
in 1975.
When the decision was reached to establish a second St. john's College in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, amendments were made to the Charter to authorize
branches or extensions of the College. The Charter was then filed with the
Corporations Commission of the State of New Mexico as a foreign
corporation. The College was thus empowered to grant degrees in New
Mexico under the provisions of its Maryland Charter.
A Polity for the College was first suggested at a faculty meeting in 1943 by
the Dean. A faculty committee was elected and drafted a Polity which was
then promulgated by the President. In April 1949 the Faculty elected a
committee to revise the Polity. The resulting document was approved by the
Faculty on April 9, 1950, and was adopted by the Board of Visitors and
Governors on July 8, 1950. Subsequent quinquennial reviews were made by
elected faculty committees, and desired amendments were recommended by
the Faculty to the Board of Visitors and Governors. The Polity was thus
amended at regular annual meetings of the Board held in Annapolis on May
14, 1955, May 21, 1960, May 15, 1965, June 6, 1970, and April 19, 1975.
Other amendments were adopted by the Board at regular meetings in
Annapolis on February 22 and December 9, 1961, February 23, 1963,
October 3, 1970, and October 25, 1975; also at regular meetings in Santa Fe
on September 28, 1963, February 18, 1972, and January 24, 1976.

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�IV. That the governing body or board of said College shall consist of not
more than forty-nine nor less than thirteen Visitors and Governors, to be
chosen and to hold office in such manner as the said Visitors and Governors
may determine and prescribe by their fundamental ordinances; provided,
however, that the Governors of the States of Maryland and New Mexico shall
act ex officio as two of the total number of Visitors and Governors of said
college during their respective terms in said offices; and that the said Visitors
and Governors and their successors duly chosen shall be and are hereby
declared to be one community, corporation and body politic to have
contmuance forever by the name of

Charter of St. John's College
WHEREAS, institutions for the liberal education of youth in the principles of virtue , knowledge and useful literature are of the highest benefit to
society, in order to train up and perpetuate a succession of able and honest
men for discharging the various offices and duties of life, both civil and
religious, with usefulness and reputation , and such institutions of learning
have accordingly been promoted and encouraged by the wisest and best
regulated States; And whereas, it appears to this General Assembly that many
public spirited individuals, from an earnest desire to promote the founding a
college or seminary of learning on the Western Shore of this State have
subscribed and procured subscriptions to a considerable amount, and there is
reason to believe that very large additions will be obtained to the same
throughout the different counties of the said Shore , if they were made capable
in law to receive and apply the same towards founding and carrying on a
college or general seminary of learning with such salutary plan and with such
legislative assistance and direction as the General Assembly might think fit,
and this General Assembly, highly approving those generous exertions of
individuals, are desirous to embrace the present favorable occasion of peace
and prosperity for making lasting provision for the encouragement and
advancement of all useful knowledge and literature through every part of this
State;

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
and by the same name they shall have perpetual succession.
VII. That if the City of Annapolis should be fixed upon as a proper place
for establishing the said mtended college, this General Assembly give and
grant, and upon that condition do hereby give and grant to the Visitors and
Governors of the said College by the name of ''The Visitors and Governors of
Saint John's College in the State of Maryland," and their successors all that
four acres within the City of Annapolis purchased for· the use by the public
and conveyed on the 2nd day of October, 1744, by Stephen Bordley, Esq . to
Thos. Bladen, Esq., then Governor, to have and to hold the said four acres
of land with the appurtenances to the said Visitors and governors and their
successors for the only use, benefit and behoof of the said college and
seminary of universal learning forever.

BE IT ENACTED :
II. That a college or general seminary of learning by the name of "St.
John's College" be established on the said Western Shore upon the following
fundamental and inviolable principles ; namely, first, the said college shall be
founded and maintained forever upon a most liberal plan for the benefit of
youth of every religious denomination , who shall be freely admitted to equal
privileges and advantages of education and to all the literary honors of the
college, according to their merit without requiring or enforcing any religious
or civil test, or urging their attendance upon any particular religious worship
or service other than what they have been educated in or have the consent and
approbation of their parents or guardians to attend; nor shall any preference
be given in the choice of a Principal, Vice-Principal or other Professor, Master
or Tutor in said college on account of his particular religious profession,
having regard solely to his moral character and literary abilities and other
necessary qualifications to fill the place for which he shall be chosen.

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VIII. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors by the same
name shall be able and capable in law to purchase, have and enjoy to them
and their successors in fee, or for any other less estate or estates, any lands,
tenements , rents, annuities, pensions or other hereditaments by the gift,
grant, bargam, sale, alienation, enfoeffment, release, confirmation, or devise
of any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate capable to make the
same, and such lands, tenements , rents, annuities, pensions or other
hereditaments or any less estates, rights or interests of or in the same at their
pleasure to grant, alien, sell_ and transfer in such manner and form as they
shall think meet and convement for the furtherance of the said college; And
also that they ma_y take and receive any sum or sums of money, and any kind,
manner or pomon of goods and chattels that shall be given, sold or
bequeathed to them by any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate
capable to make a gift, sale or bequest thereof and employ the same toward
erecting, setting up and maintaining the said col.lege in such manner as they
shall Judge most necessary and convenient for the instruction, improvement
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and education of youth in the vernacular and learned languages, and
generally in any kind of literature, ans and sciences, which they shall think
proper to be taught for training up good , useful and accomplished men for
the service of their country , in church and state .

professors such powers and authorities as they may think best for the standing
government of the said seminary and of the execuuon of the ordmances and
rules of the same; provided always that they be not repugnant to the form of
government of any law of this State.

IX. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors by the name
aforesaid shall be able in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleadable in
any court or courts, before any judge, judges, or justices within this State and
elsewhere in all and all manner of suits, complaints, pleas, causes, matters
and demands of whatsoever kind, nature or form they be and all and every
other matter and thing therein to do in as full and effectual a manner as any
other person or persons, bodies politic or corporate within this State or any of
the United States of America in like cases may or can do.

XV. And for animating and encouraging the students of said college to a
laudable diligence, industry and progress in useful literature and science, be it
enacted that the said Visitors and Governors and their successors shall by
a written mandate under their privy seal and the hand of someone of the
Visitors and Governors to be chosen annually as their President, according to
the ordinance to be made for that purpose, have full power and authoriry to
direct the principal, vice-principal and professors to hold public commencements either on stated annual days, or occas10nally as the future ordmances of
the said seminary may direct and at such commencements to admit any of the
students in the said college or any other persons meriting the same (whose
names shall be severally inserted in the same mandate) to any degree or
degrees in any of the faculties, arts and sciences and liberal professions .to
which persons are usually admitted in other colleges or universities in Amenc_a
or Europe; And it is hereby enacted that the pnncipal, or in the case of his
death or absence, the vice-principal, and in case of the death or absence of
both, the senior professor who may be present, shall make out and sign with
his name diplomas or certificates of the admission to such degree or degrees,
which shall be sealed with the public or greater seal of the said corporatton or
college and delivered to the graduates as honorable and perpetual
testimonials of such admission; which diplomas, if thought necessary for
doing greater honor to such graduates, shall also be signed with the names of
the different professors or as many of them as can conveniently sign the same;
provided always that no student or students within the said college shall ever
be admitted to any such degree or degrees, or have their name mserted in any
mandate for a degree, until such student or students have been first duly
examined, and thought worthy of the same.

X. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors shall have full
power and authoriry to have, make and use one common and public seal and
likewise one privy seal with such devices and inscriptions as they shall_ think
proper, and to ascertain, fix and regulate the uses of both seals, by their own
laws and the same seals or either of them to change, break, alter and renew at
their pleasure.
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XI . That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors from time to
time and at all times hereafter, forever, shall have full power and authority to
constitute and appoint in such manner as they shall think best and most
convenient, a principal, a vice-principal of th_esaid college and professors with
proper tutors and assistants for instructing the students and scholars of the
said seminary in all the liberal arts and sciences, and in the ancient and
modern tongues and languages; and the said principal, vice-principal and
professors so constituted and appointed from time to time shall be known and
distinguished forever as one learned body or faculry by the name of ''The
Principal, Vice-Principal and Professors of St. John's College"; and by that
name shall be capable of exercising such powers and authorities as the Visitors
and Governors of the said college and their successors shall by their ordinances
think necessary to delegate to them for the instruction, discipline and
government of the said seminary and of all the students, scholars, ministers
and servants belonging to the same.
XIV. That a majority of the said Visitors and Governors for the time being
and duly assembled at any meeting upon due notice given to the whole body
of Visitors and Governors shall have full power and authority to make
fundamental ordinances for the government of the said college and the
instruction of youth as aforesaid, and by these ordinances to appoint such a
number of their own body not less than seven, as they may think proper for
transacting all general and necessary business of the said seminary and making
temporary rules for the government of the same; and also by the said
fundamental ordinances to delegate to the principal, vice-principal and
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XVI. That the ordinances which shall be from time to time made by the
Visitors and Governors of the said college and their successors with an account
of their other proceedings and of the manag_ement of theestate and moneys
committed to their trust, shall when required be laid before the General
Assembly for their inspection and examination,but in case at 3:°Y time
hereafter through oversight, or otherwise through misapprehension
and
mistaken constructions of the powers, liberties and franchises m this Charter
or Act of Incorporation granted, or intended to be granted, any ordinance
should be made by the said corporation of Visitors and Governors or any
matters done and transacted by the corporation contrary to the tenor hereof,
it is enacted that although such ordinances, acts and doings shall in
themselves be null and void, yet they shall not, however, in any courts of law,
or by the General Assembly, be deemed, taken, interpreted or adjudged into

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�an avoidance or forfeiture of this Charter and Act of Incorporation, but the
same shall be and remain unhun , inviolate and entire unto the said
corporation of Visitors and Governors in perpetual succession; and all their
acts conformable to the powers , true intent and meaning hereof shall be and
remain in full force and validity, the nullity and avoidance of such illegal acts
to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
XVII. That this Charter and Act of Incorporation and every pan thereof
shall be good and available in all things in the law according to the true
intent and meaning thereof, and shall be construed, reputed and adjudged in
all cases most favorably on the behalf and for the best benefit and behoof of
the said Visitors and Governors and their successors , so as most effectually to
answer the valuable end of this Act of Incorporation towards the general
advancement and promotion of useful knowledge, science and virtue.

Polity of St. John's College
PREAMBLE

XVIII. That the College may establish and operate one or more branches
in one or more states of the United States.

Education is the making of men out of children by
bringing them into the world of inherited customs,
intellectual traditions, and spiritual ties. Institutions of
learning are set up for this purpose. Beyond this they
should also seek to develop the moral and intellectual
powers of men to enable them to fulfill best their
freely chosen tasks and thus to take their own
responsible part in shaping the future. St. John's
College is a community of learning committed to
holding these ends constantly in sight and to seeking
the best means of attaining them.

C

St.John's College strives to illuminate the common
heritage of mankind in a persisting study of the great
documents in which that heritage can be found. It is
concerned with the unity of knowledge, an understanding of the great issues faced by men, and the
moral foundations on which the conduct of men's lives
can be based. To provide proper conditions for the
pursuit of these ends, we, the Board of Visitors and
Governors, after consultation with the Faculty, do
ordain and establish the polity for St. John's College.

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�'r

Anicle I
THE COLLEGE

II

(1) St.John's College is by its Chaner a legal entity, carrying on its functions in Annapolis, Maryland, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Under the Charter of the College, all power, authority, and responsibility penaining to the
College are vested in the Visitors and Governors.
(2) The College shall be understood to consist of the following: (a) the
Board of Visitors and Governors; (b) the Faculty; (c) the Scholars-in-Residence;
(d) the Anists-in-Residence; (e) the Students; (f) the Faculty of the Graduate
Institute; (g) the Alumni; and (h) the Staff.
(3) Under the Chaner, "the said Visitors and Governors, and their
successors, from time to time, and at all times hereinafter, forever, shall have
full power and authority to constitute and appoint, in such manner as they
shall think best and most convenient, a principal and vice-principal of the
said College, and professors, with proper tutors and assistants, for instructing
the students and scholars of the said seminary in all the liberal arts and
sciences, and in the ancient and modern tongues and languages; and the said
principal, vice-principal, and professors, so constituted and appointed from
time to time shall be known and distinguished forever as one learned body or
faculty, by the name of 'The Principal, Vice-Principal, and Professors of St.
John's College'; and by that name shall be capable of exercising such powers
and authorities as the Visitors and Governors of the said college and their
successors shall by their ordinances think necessary to delegate to them for the
instruction, discipline, and government of the said seminary and of all the
students, scholars, ministers and servants belonging to the same."
(a) The "principal" shall bear the title President.
(b) The "vice-principal" shall be the Dean who 1s servmg as the
Chairman of the Instruction Committee.
(c) There shall be a Dean of St. John's College in Annapolis and a
Dean of St. John 's College in Santa Fe.
(d) The ''professors, tutors and assistants'' shall bear the title Tutor or
Tutor Emeritus. Tutors who have completed their tenure appointments and
are no longer teaching shall be Tutors Emeriti.
(e) There shall be a Vice-President of St. John's College in Annapolis
and a Vice-President of St. John's College in Santa Fe.
(f) There shall be Associates of St. John's College, who shall be on
either campus, as the offices may be deemed necessary, the Treasurer, the
Registrar, the Librarian, the Assistant Librarian, the Director of Athletics, the
Director of Student Activities, the Director of Admissions, the Director of
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Alumni Activities, the College Archivist and Alumni Secretary, the Director
of Financial Aid, and the Director of Placement.
(g) The '' one learned body or faculty,'' composed of the President, the
Deans, the other Tutors, the Tutors Emeriti, the Vice-Presidents, and the
Associates, shall bear the title The Faculty of St. John's College.
(h) There may be on either campus Scholars-in-Residenc~ and Anistsin-Residence.
(i) All who have formally matriculated, are at the present enrolled, and
are in good standing shall be called Students of St. John's College.
(j) Tutors of the Graduate Institute, the Director, the Assistant
Director, and the Registrar of the Graduate Institute shall be called the
Faculty of the Graduate Institute .
(k) All who have formally matriculated on either campus, who are not
at present enrolled, and whose class has graduated, whether graduates or
non-graduates, whether in undergraduate or post-graduate programs, shall be
called Alumni of St. John's College.
(1) The Staff shall consist of all persons who are appointed by the
Vice-Presidents to the performance of duties necessary to the proper
functioning of the College. The Staff may, as appropriate to either campus,
consist of two parts, the Administrative Staff and the Buildings and Grounds
Staff.
(m) In all appointments and in student admissions there shall be no
discrimination with respect to sex, race, color, creed, and national or ethnic
ongm.
(n) Normal retirement of any person employed by the College shall
take place on June 30th following the date on which such person shall have
attained the age of 65 years. For persons other than Tutors, any extension of
employment beyond normal retirement age shall be authorized annually at the
discretion of the President and reponed by him to the Board of Visitors and
Governors; except that in the case of the President and of those Associates
who are appointed by the Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of
the President, any extension shall be at the discretion, expressed by resolution
annually, of the Board of Visitors and Governors.

Anicle II
VISITORS AND GOVERNORS
(1) Qualifications for Membership. Persons shall be eligible for membership on the Board of Visitors and Governors who are concerned for the
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�maintenance, progress, and vitality of St. John's College's educational
program and who are willing and able to discharge the responsibilities of
trusteeship with devotion and energy.
(2) Members. The Board of Visitors and Governors shall consist of not
more than fony-nine members, comprising the President, the Deans, the
Vice-Presidents, the Governors of Maryland and New Mexico, ex officio, and
fony-two members, of whom thiny-six shall be elected by the entire Board
and six shall be elected by the Alumni of the College, in the manner and for
the terms hereinafter provided. In recognition of meritorious service to the
College, honorary members may be elected at the discretion of the Board.
(3) Elections by the Board. At each annual meeting, the Board shall elect
a class of nine members for a term of three years, to succeed those members
whose term expires at the conclusion of said meeting. The procedure for
nomination and election shall be as follows:
There shall be a standing Nominating Committee of three members of
the Board appointed by the Chairman. The Chairman and the President shall
sit with the committee, ex officio, when nominations to Board membership
are being considered. The Nominating Committee shall recommend to each
member of the Board in writing, not later than thirty days prior to the annual
meeting at which the election is to be held, at least one candidate for each of
the places to be filled by such election. Additional nominations may be made
in writing, addressed to the Chairman, signed by at least five members of the
Board, prior to the date above provided for the report of the Nominating
Committee, and any such additional nominations shall be reported to the
Board by the Committee at the time of its report.
Voting on such nominations at such annual meetings shall be by ballot,
each member present to vote for nine of the said nominees. In case there are
more than nine nominees, and the balloting results in a tie for one or more
places, the Board shall determine the procedure to resolve the tie. No
nominee shall be deemed elected who has not received the affirmative votes
of at least a majoriry of the members present at the meeting.
In the event that for any reason there should be less than nine members in
any class prior to the end of the term for such class, the vacancy may be filled
pursuant to the procedure provided above for regular elections, except that
the election may take place at any regular meeting. A member elected to fill
any such vacancy shall hold office for the remainder of the term of the class in
which such vacancy occurred.
(4) Elections by the Alumni. Each year in the spring, two alumni shall be
elected to membership for a term of three years, in such manner that there
shall be six members of the Board elected by the Alumni, consisting of three
classes of two members each. Out-going alumni members shall continue to
serve until their successors are elected.
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. The Director of Alumni Activities shall request the Board of the Alumni
Association to nominate_ at least one candidate for each vacancy. Additional
candidates may be nominated by petition of any thirty alumni. All Alumni
(which shall include all Alumni and honorary members of the Alumni
Association) shall be eligible to vote for the Alumni members of the Board.
Balloting will be conducted by mail by the Director of Alumni Activities.
In the event that for any reason there should be less than two Alumni
members in any class prior to the end of the term of such class, the vacancy
shall be filled by interim election, conducted in the same manner.
(5) Faculty Representation at Board Meetings. Three Tutors shall be elected
by the Faculty on each campus for a term of three years, one to be elected at
the last meeting in each academic year, to attend all regular meetings on the
campus to which they belong, with voice in deliberation, but without vote.
(6) Student Representation at Board Meetings. Two students shall attend
all regular meetings on the Board on the campus to which they belong, with
voice in deliberation, but without vote.
(7) Alumni Association Representation at Board Meetings. The President
of the Alumni Association shall attend Board meetings, with voice in
deliberation, but without vote.
(8) _Reelection. A member of the Board elected by the Board or by the
Alumm may be elected for not more than two consecutive terms, but may,
after a second consecutive term, be reelected to membership beginning with
the annual meeting in the year following the expiration of his second term.
(9) Meetings of the Board.
(a) Regular meetings of the Board shall be held quanerly in either
Annapolis or Santa Fe in the month of September, December, February, and
May of each year, or in such other months as the Board may determine· the
meeting in May shall be called the annual meeting. The time and place of
regular meetings shall be determined by the Chairman, in consultation with
the President, and notice of regular meetings shall be given not less than
fifteen days prior to such meetings.
(b) Special meetings of the Board may be called by the President, the
chairman, the Executive Committee, or any five members of the Board, not
less than seven days after the dispatch of written or telegraphic notice of the
time, place, and purposes of the meeting. Such notice may be dispensed with
if waived in writing by all members of the Board either before or after the
meeting.
(c) Any business may be conducted at a regular meeting without
specific notice of such business (except that which is required by law or as
provided herein as to elections and amendments), but no business shall be
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�conducted at any special meeting unless notice of such business has been
given, or has been waived as above provided.
(d) Twelve members of the Board present at a meeting shall constitute
a quorum for the transaction of business.
(10) Officers of the Board. At each annual meeting the Board shall elect a
Chairman, two Vice-Chairmen, and a Secretary, to hold office until the next
annual meeting or until their successors are elected . Vacancies in any such
offices may be filled at any regular meeting, or any special meeting called for
that purpose. Such officers shall perform the customary duties of such offices,
and such other duties as the Board may from time to time direct.
(11) Committees of the Board.
(a) Executive Committee. The Chairman, the Vice-Chairman, the
Secretary, the President, the Deans, and four other members chosen annually
by the Board at the annual meeting shall comprise the Executive Committee
of the Board. In intervals between meetings of the Board, the Executive
Committee may act for the Board, except in those matters expressly delegated
to some other committee, person, or persons. Five members of the Executive
Committee present at a meeting shall constitute a quorum for the transaction
of business.
(b) Visiting Committee. There shall be a Visiting Committee of not
more than ten persons appointed by the Chairman. There shall be an eastern
and a western Co-Chairman of the Visiting Committee, and the Committee's
membership shall include an equal number of members from the two sections
of the country. Each half of the Visiting Committee shall make at least one
visit to the campus in its area each year to repon to the Board on how well the
aims of the College are being realized. Each half of the visiting Committee
shall meet at least once annually with the Instruction Committee on the
campus in its area to discuss the statement of educational policy and program
of the Chairman of the Instruction Committee and to acquaint themselves
with other educational matters.
(c) Finance Committee. There shall be a Finance Committee consisting
of the Chairman, the President, the Vice-Presidents, and the Treasurers of the
College ex officio, and four members appointed by the Chairman to serve at
the pleasure of the Board or until their successors have been duly appointed.
The members of the Committee shall select one of their members to be the
Chairman of the Committee. In carrying out its functions the Committee may
be divided into three working subcommittees, one on investments, one on
budget and finance for the Annapolis campus, and one on budget and
finance for the Santa Fe campus. The Finance Committee shall have the
following powers and duties:

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(i) The Finance Committee shall have full power to direct the
investment and reinvestment of all funds of the College, including
endowment and restricted funds, and the proper officers of the Board and the
College are authorized to carry out all written directions, signed by the
Chairman of the Committee, with respect to such investments and
reinvestments . The Committee shall repon at each regular meeting any action
taken hereunder since the previous meeting.
(ii) The Finance Committee shall review the proposed annual budgets
of the College prior to their presentation for approval by the Board and shall
make recommendations to the Board with respect to the budgets at the
meeting at which they are presented.
(iii) The Finance Committee shall study, and periodically advise the
Board with respect to, the financial business policies and practices of the
College, and shall make such special studies and reports as the Board may
from time to time request.
(d) Polity Review Committee. There shall be a Poliry Review Committee of not more than five members appointed by the Chairman every fifth
year to serve for one year. The Committee shall receive the repon of . the
Faculry Committee and after appropriate study shall make recommendations
to the Board for consideration at the annual meeting when the final review of
the Polity is consummated. The respective chairmen of the Board and Faculty
Review Committees shall make such arrangements as they deem appropnatc
for joint consultation prior to and after the adoption of the repon by the
Faculty.
(e) Other Committees. The Chairman may appoint such other standing
or special committees of the Board as he may deem desirable or which the
Board may request.
(f) Former members of the Board may be appointed by the Chairman
to serve on Committees at his discretion.
(12) Execution of Contracts, Transfer of Securities, etc. All major
contracts of $5,000 or more, notes, deeds, leases, mongages, releases, bonds
for security or indemnity, negotiable instruments, stock cenificates, transfers,
and powers, and like papers and documents on behalf of the College or the
Endowment Funds shall be executed by two persons, of whom one shall be
the President, the Chairman, or the Vice-Chairman, and of whom the other
shall be the Secretary of the Board, the Vice-President, or the Treasurer of the
campus concerned.
(13) Signing of Checks, Drafts, Etc. All checks, drafts, acceptances, and
similar orders for the payment of money on behalf of the College may be
signed by the same persons authorized to execute contracts, etc., pursuant to
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�Section {12) hereof, but may also be signed by such persons, and in such
manner, as the Board may from time to time direct by appropriate resolution.

(7) The President shall appoint, or delegate the power to appoint, such
committees as may be necessary for the carrying out of his duties and for
which no provision is made under Article VIII.

THE FACULTY

Article IV
THE FACULTY: THE CHAIRMAN OF THE
INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE AND THE DEANS

The Visitors and Governors by these ordinances hereby delegate
to the Faculty of St. John 's College - the President, the Deans, the
other Tutors, the Tutors Emeriti, the Vice-Presidents, and the
Associates - "powers and authorities" for the "instruction, discipline, and government" of the College.

{1) The Chairman of the Instruction Committee.

{a) There is vested in the Chairman of the Instruction Committee
responsibility and authority for the organization of the program of instruction
in the liberal arts that is followed by the Tutors and the Students.
(b) The Deans shall serve alternately, for a term of one year, as
Chairman of the Instruction Committee.
(c) The Chairman of the Instruction Committee shall, after consultation with the Instruction Committee on his campus, and after discussion with
the Instruction Committee of the College, submit a Statement of Educational
Policy and Program to the Faculty as a whole for discussion. The Statement
shall be presented by the President as a report to the Board of Visitors and
Governors.

Article III
THE FACULTY: THE PRESIDENT
(1) There is vested in the President by the Visitors and Governors
executive responsibility and authority for the instruction, discipline, and
government of the College, and the President, in turn, may delegate his
authority.

(2) The President shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors and
Governors on the recommendation of a Committee composed of five
members of the Board of Visitors and Governors, the Deans, and one Tutor
from each campus selected from among themselves by the Tutors on that
campus having tenure . This Committee shall consult with all appropriate
persons on both campuses prior to making its final recommendation and shall
arrange for the candidates to meet with the Instruction Committee on each
campus .

(2) The Deans.

(3) The President shall concurrently be a Tutor, but the provisions of
Article V need not apply.
(4) The President and persons to whom he delegates his authority shall
consult with the Deans, other appropriate persons, and appropriate faculty
committees in matters of policy, initiation of programs, and setting of
priorities affecting the general welfare of the College.
(5) The President may appoint members of the Faculty to serve as
administrative assistants, and he shall have power to relieve them of their
administrative duties at any time.
(6) The President shall appoint a member of the Faculty on each campus
to serve as Marshal at convocation and commencement ceremonies.
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(a) There is vested in the Deans on their respective campuses
responsibility and authority for the supervision of the program of instruction
and for the general welfare of the students and for whatever government of
the students be necessary for the greatest possible attainment of aims of the
program. Each Dean shall be the Chairman of the Instruction Committee on
the campus where he serves. In carrying out their duties, the Deans shall
consult regularly with the Instruction Committee and other appropriate
Faculty committees.
(b) The Deans shall be appointed for terms of five years from among
the Tutors by the Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the
President after consultation with a special committee of six, three from each
campus, selected from among themselves by the Tutors having tenure.
(c) The Deans shall be Tutors with tenure, the provisions of Article
V(3) notwithstanding.
(d) To assist them in carrying out their duties, the Deans shall
recommend one or more Tutors to be appointed by the President with the
title of Assistant Dean.
(e) Either Dean, with the approval of the Instruction Committee on
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the campus concerned, may recommend to the President that in the interest of
instruction a Tutor be relieved of his duties in whole or in part at any time.
When such action is taken, the Tutor's salary shall be continued for the
remainder of the current academic year.
(f) During the absence of the President from either campus, the Dean
on that campus shall if necessary exercise the President's prerogative of final
decision .
(g) During the absence of either Dean from the campus a Tutor with
tenure named by him shall act for the Dean.
(h) The Dean on each campus shall appoint such committees as may be
necessary for the carrying out of his duties and for which no other provision is
made.

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AnicleV
THE FACULTY: THE TUTORS
(1) The primary responsibilities of the Tutors are to teach and to make
themselves as competent as possible in all parts of the St. John's Program.
(2) The Tutors in Annapolis and the Tutors in Santa Fe shall have
authority to recommend to the Visitors and Governors candidates for degrees
which the College is empowered to grant.

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(3) Appointment and Reappointment of Tutors. Tutors shall be
appointed by the Visitors and Governors upon recommendation of the
President in accordance with the recommendation of the Dean and the
Instruction Committee on that campus where the Tutors so appointed shall
teach.
(a) Regular appointment of Tutors shall be upon the following terms:
(i) New Tutors shall be appointed for one year. First and second
reappointments shall also be for one year. Third and fourth reappointments,
that are not tenure appointments, shall be for two years. Tenure
appointments shall continue until June 30th after the Tutor's sixty-fifth
birthday, subject to the provisions of Section 5 below.
(ii) Before making recommendations to the President on tenure
appointments the Dean on each campus shall consult with the Instruction
Committee on that campus, after seeking the advice of the Tutors on that
campus having tenure.
(iii) A Tutor under the age of thiny at first appointment may upon
the completion of three one-year and one two-year appointments be given a
tenure appointment. If he is not given a tenure appointment, he may be
reappointed for another two years, after which he must either be given a
tenure appointment or not be reappointed as Tutor. \
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(iv) A Tutor of 30 to 45 years of age at first appointment shall upon
the completion of three one-year and one two-year appointments either be
given a tenure appointment or not be reappointed as Tutor.
(v) A Tutor over 45 years of age at first appointment may upon the
completion of three one-year appointments be given a tenure appointment. If
he is not given a tenure appointment, he may be reappointed for two years,
after which he must either be given a tenure appointment or not be
reappointed as a Tutor.
(b) For the purpose of temporary transfer between campuses, special
full-time appointments of one or two years may be granted to a Tutor m
additional to his regular appointments. The Tutor may ask that such an
appointment be counted as a regular appointment for the purpose of (a)
above.
(c) In exceptional circumstances, notwithstanding the provisions of
Section (3) (a) of this Anicle, a Tutor who has not been given a tenure
appointment may be reappointed as Tutor annually provided that he serve
concurrently as Assistant Dean.
(d) Special one-year initial appointments and re-appointments may be
given to Tutors who intend to teach on a pan-time basis only. Such a Tutor
may apply for and receive a regular appointment. Special pan-time
appointments may be counted on · a fractional basis toward eligibility for
tenure. Notwithstanding, a Tutor shall not be considered for a tenure
appointment without having served three regular one-year appointments. In
establishing eligibility for sabbatical leave, special pan-time appointments
shall be computed proponionately.
(e) When Tutors are reappointed to non-tenure appointments, the
President shall notify them of their appointment no later than March 1st of
each year. In the event that a Tutor is not recommended for reappointment,
he shall be so notified by December 15th. When Tutors are appointed to
tenure appointments, the President shall notify them of their appointment
before the beginning of the last year of their non-tenure appointment. In the
event that a Tutor is not recommended for a tenure appointment, he shall be
so notified prior to June 30 of the year preceding the beginning of the last
year of his non-tenure appointment.
(4) A tutor may apply to the Instruction Committee of the College not
later than January 15 for a transfer of campus for the next academic year.
Transfers shall require approval of both Deans after consultation with their
Instruction Committee.
(5) A Tutor may have his appointment terminated at any time by the
Board of Visitors and Governors upon recommendation of the President for
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�(i) Those who have served for the greater number of years since their
first appointment as Tutor or since their last sabbatical leave whichever is
more recent;
(ii) Those whose service has been continuous throughout those years.
(iii) Those who have seniority of appointment.
When there is a conflict of precedence, the Dean and the Instruction
Committee on the campus concerned shall be consulted .
(c) A Tutor eligible for sabbatical leave shall make application to the
President before November 1st for leave to begin the following July 1st, and
shall be informed of the action upon his application not later than January
1st.
(8) The President, with the concurrence of the Dean after consultation
with the Instruction Committee on the campus concerned, may grant leaves
of absence to Tutors for a period of one year or less. At that time it shall be
determined whether the leave shall be counted as service to the College with
respect to eligibility for sabbatical leave and, if so, how. The decision with
respect to a request for leave of absence shall be made in the light of the
requirements both of the applicant Tutor and of the whole College.
(a) Leaves of absence may be renewed upon request but not more than
twice in succession except in extraordinary circumstances.
(b) A request for a leave of absence shall be submitted to the President
as early as possible in the year before the year in which the leave is to be
taken, but not later than January 15th of that year. Requests for leaves of
absence may be withdrawn at any time prior to April 1st of the year in which
the request is submitted. Requests for leaves of absence for the second
semester must be submitted no later than October 15th.
(c) A Tutor applying for leave of absence to further his studies may also
apply for a grant from the College.
(d) Tutors on sabbatical leave or leave of absence remain members of
the Faculty with the right of full panicipation in Faculty meetings and all
other College exercises.
Article VI

one of the following reasons only: (1) failure or inability to perform his
teaching duties in a satisfactory manner, or (ii) moral turpitude. The
President shall make such recommendation only with the concurrence of the
Dean and the Instruction Committee of the campus concerned. Prior to the
termination of such appointment, the Tutor concerned shall have the right to
be heard by the Instruction Committee and by the Visitors and Governors.
~6)(a) The College makes provision for members of the Faculty who have
atta10ed age 65 through the program of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity
of America and the Federal Old Age Benefits program.
Association
Participation in the former is required after the first three one-year
appo10tments.
(b) Tutors who have completed their tenure appointments may be
recommended by the Dean, after consultation with the Instruction
Committee, for as many as five successive one-year appointments with a
full-time or reduced teaching responsibility as individually determined.
(7) The sabbatical leave program is designed to provide Tutors with an

I

opporturuty for study, rest, and renewal of spirit. Sabbatical leaves shall
normally be granted to four _or five Tutors at each campus each academic year,
dependmg upon the financial capability of the College. It is understood that
Tutors on such leave will not undenake full-time remunerative employment
elsewhere and will return to the College.
. (a) Eligibility for sabbatical leave shall be upon the following
cond1t1ons:
(i) A Tutor who holds a tenure appointment may apply for a full
year_ of sabbatical leave at full sal3:tr, provided he has completed the
equivalent of nine full _years of service to the College since his original
appointment, or the equivalent of six full years of service since any previous
sabbatical leave, and the sabbatical leave does not coincide with the last year
of his tenure appointment.
(ii) Such a Tutor may apply for an earlier sabbatical leave of a full
year at panial salary, or a partial year at full salary. The fractional salary or
fractional year shall be determmed by the number of years of teaching
completed 10 relation to the prescnbed total for either an initial or a
subsequent sabbatical leave, as the case may be. In no case shall a Tutor be
paid more than_ his regular salary. Sabbatical leave for a fraction of a year may
be granted dunng any but the last year of a Tutor's tenure appointment.
(b) If in a year there are more applicants for sabbatical leave at any one
campus than there are leaves to be granted at that campus, then those
members shall have precedence who meet the following conditions in the
order set forth:

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THE VICE-PRESIDENTS
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(1) There is delegated to the Vice-Presidents on their respective campuses
responsibility and authority for the supervision of administrative affairs as
hereinafter provided; for the supervision of financial affairs; for the
appointment of members of the Staff; and for relations with the local
community outside the College.

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�(2) The Vice-Presidents shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors and
Governors on the recommendation of the President after consultation with
the Dean and a committee constituted on each campus by resolution of the
Faculty on that campus.
(3) The Vice-Presidents may be appointed Tutors under the provisions of
Article V (3) (d).
(4) The Vice-Presidents, and persons to whom they delegate their
authority, shall consult with the Dean, other appropriate persons, and appropriate faculty committees in the exercise of their responsibilities.
(5) The Vice-Presidents shall make themselves as familiar as possible with
the aims and methods of the program of instruction and to that end may sit
with the Instruction Committee on their respective campuses.
Article VII
THE FACUL1Y: THE ASSOCIATES
(1) Associates on each campus shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors
and Governors on the recommendation of the President in consultation with
the Dean and Vice-President of that campus .
(2) Associates may be appointed Tutors under the provisions of Article
V
(3) (d).
(3) There shall be the following Associates, as deemed necessary on each
campus, with the powers and responsibilities provided.
(a) The Treasurers. The Treasurers shall have charge on their respective
campuses, under the supervision of the Vice Presidents, of all funds and
property , and shall have authority to carry out fiscal and property
transactions, and to receive and disburse funds, subject to the provisions of
this Polity and other directions and arrangements made pursuant thereto.
(b) The Registrars. The Registrars shall be responsible to the Deans on
their respective campuses and shall prepare and supervise the registration of
students, maintain current student records, assist in the preparation of
instruction schedules, compile statistics about the students, record grades,
issue and interpret transcripts, and perform archival functions.
(c) The Librarians. The Librarians shall be responsible to the Deans on
their respective campuses for the operation of the Library. Appointments of
professional members of the Library Staff shall be made upon the
recommendation of the Librarian to the Dean on each campus.
(d) The Director of Student Activities and the Director of Athletics.
The Director of Student Activities and the Director of Athletics shall be
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responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for devising and
directing programs of recreational activities.
(e) The Directors of Admissions. The Directors of Admissions shall be
responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for the annual
enrollment of qualified Freshmen.
(f) The Directors of Alumni Activities. The Directors of Alumni
Activities shall be responsible to the Vice-Presidents on their respective
campuses. Their primary duty is to enable the College and the Alumni
Association to be of service to alumni.
(g) The College Archivist and Alumni Secretary. The College Archivist
and Alumni Secretary shall be responsible to the Vice-Presidents on their
respective campuses for maintaining the archives of the College at that
campus.
(h) The Directors of Financial Aid. The Directors of Financial Aid shall
be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for the
administration of financial aid programs.
(i) The Directors of Placement. The Directors of Placement shall be
responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for counselling students
with respect to graduate and professional schools and careers.

Article VIII
THE FACUL1Y: FACUL1Y COMMITTEES
(1) The Instruction Committee
(a) The Instruction Committee shares with its Chairmen responsibility
for the program of instruction of the College. It shall consist of twelve Tutors
in addition to the Deans. The President shall sit with the Commmee ex
officio. Six of the Tutors shall be elected from each campus of the College.
The Instruction Committee shall meet annually . On each campus the
members of the Instruction Committee and the Dean as Chairman constitute
the Instruction Committee of the College on that campus. The President sits
ex officio with the Instruction Committee on each campus.
(b) Each of the members of the Instruction Committee shall serve for a
term of three years and the terms shall be arranged in suth a way that each
year the terms of twomembers at each camp:i,is shall expire. Terms begin and
end the day following commencement exercises. Annually, and separately_ at
each campus, the President with the Dean on his _campus, after consultmg
with the Instruction Committee and seeking the advice of the other Tutors on
that campus, shall at the last regular Faculty meeting on that campus
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nominate four Tutors of whom two shall be elected by the Tutors to
membership on the Instruction Committee. The Faculty shall be informed of
the names of the nominees prior to the meeting at which the election occurs.
No member of the Instruction Committee shall serve more than two terms in
succession.
(c) If for any reason a member of the Instruction Committee is unable
to serve for a pan of his term, another Tutor shall be chosen to take his place
for that pan of the term. For this purpose the President and the Dean, in
consultation with the Instruction Committee on the campus where the vacancy
occurs, shall nominate two Tutors of whom the Tutors shall elect one in a
regular Faculty meeting.
(d) If the Instruction Committee resigns with the Deans on a matter of
confidence and the resignations are accepted, the President, in consultation
with the new Deans and after seeking the advice of the other Tutors, shall
nominate nine Tutors for the six vacancies on each campus in such manner
that two out of each three nominees shall be elected by the Tutors for each of
the three classes to fill the unexpired terms.

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(2) The Salary Committee.
(a) There shall be a Faculty Salary Committee of six members, three to
be elected by the Faculty on each campus, whose chairmanship shall annually
alternate between campuses. The Committee shall advise with the President
concerning Faculty salaries and related matters; it shall make annual reviews
of the College's statement of salaries and other compensation of Tutors and
repon to the Faculty and the President recommendations consequent upon
the review.
(b) Members of the Committee shall be elected annually on each
campus for terms of three years in such manner that the term of one member
on each campus terminates each year. The Salary Committee on each campus
shall provide the Faculty on that campus with two nominations for each
vacancy on the Committee on that campus. Additional nominations may be
made at the Faculty meeting when election shall be made.

(3) The Library Committees. The President, in consultation with the
Librarian and the Dean, shall appoint three Tutors on each campus to serve as
a Library Committee. The President, the Dean, and the Librarian shall
themselves be ex officio members of the Committee, and the Librarian shall
serve as Chairman. It shall be the duty of the Library Committees to assist the
Librarians in making the Libraries serve the ends of the College and its
program; it shall be their duty to advise the Librarians in regard to Library
policy and acquisitions. The Managers of the Bookstores may be invited to sit
with the Committees.

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(4) The Campus Development Committees. The Faculty on each campus
shall elect five of its members as a Campus Development Committee. Two
members shall be elected to the Committee annually at the first regular
meeting of the academic session except in every third year, when one member
shall be chosen. The President shall sit ex officio with both Committees. The
Dean, the Vice President, one of the Assistant Deans, and the Treasurer on
each campus shall sit ex officio with the Committee on that campus. It shall
be the duty of the respective committees to advise the President on the
construction of new buildings, the renovation of old buildings, landscaping of
grounds, and all matters relating to the maintenance and development of the
campus.
(5) The Prize Committees. Every three years the President shall appoint
five Tutors on each campus to supervise the awarding of prizes on the
respective campuses. The Committees shall have full authority to decide what
prizes shall be awarded and to name the recipients of the prizes.
(6) The Committee for the Graduate Institute. There shall be a
Committee for the Graduate Institute as specified in Article XII.
(7) Other Committees. The Faculty on each campus shall have authority
to elect, or to request the President to appoint, additional committees that
may from time to time become necessary.
Article IX
THE FACULTY: FACULTY PROCEDURE
(1) Procedure for Instructional Proposals.

(a) (i) Any major proposal concerning matters of instruction affecting
the College as a whole shall originate with the Dean and the Instruction
Committee on either campus, and the decision as to what proposals are major
shall be within the discretion of the said Dean and Instruction Committee
who shall then consult with the Dean and the Instruction Committee on the
other campus. In normal circumstances major proposals concerning instruction shall be formulated at the annual meeting of the Instruction Committee
of the College. Such a proposal shall then be presented to the whole Faculty
by the Chairman of the Instruction Committee, either in his own person or
through the other Dean as his representative. If, after full discussion of any
proposal so presented, there be no objection on the part of any Tutor, the
measure stands approved and becomes effective as of the date specified
therefor. If, after full discussion, a Tutor objects to the proposal and holds to
his objection, the proposal shall be submitted to vote of the Tutors at special

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�Faculty meetings called by the President within a fonnight. In submitting the
proposal to vote the Chairman of the Instruction Committee and the Dean on
the other campus shall state whether it be a matter of confidence. The vote
may then be taken and tallied by the President in such fashion that the Tutors
shall have recorded their decision acting as a whole. If the proposal be one
that the Chairman of the Instruction Committee and the other Dean have
declared a matter of confidence and if it be defeated by majority vote, the
Deans and the Instruction Committee shall immediately resign. If it be
passed by majority vote, it shall become effective as of the date specified
therefor. For the confidence procedure a quorum shall consist of three-founhs
of all resident Tutors on each campus.
(ii) Proposals concerning instruction that are not considered major
shall originate with the Dean and the Instruction Committee on the campus
where they are intended to be put into effect, and shall be presented by the
Dean to the Faculty on that campus. The procedure set fonh above for the
approval or rejection of proposals shall be followed, except that it shall apply
only on the campus concerned.
(iii) The President may refuse to accept the resignation of the Deans
or the Instruction Committee, any or all of them, whenever in his judgment
such resignation would be detrimental to the proper functioning of the
College; provided, however, that if any six or more Tutors shall petition the
Visitors and Governors, the latter shall review the President's decision within
four weeks, during which time the Deans and the Instruction Committee
shall continue in office.
(iv) In the event that the proposal be defeated and the resignations
be accepted, the President shall proceed to the choice of new Deans in
accordance with the provisions of Article IV (2) (b).
(b) Upon petition of not less than one-tenth of the Tutors on either
campus, the Dean and Instruction Committee on that campus shall consider
any recommendation concerning instruction that may be made by the
petitioning members, and the Dean and the Instruction Committee shall
report to the Faculty within one year their proposal concerning it. They shall
decide whether their proposal is a major proposal, and the procedure of
Article IX (1) shall apply.
(2) Faculty Meetings.
(a) Regular monthly meetings of the Faculty shall be called upon due
notice by the President who shall preside. In the absence of the President, the
Dean shall preside. In the absence of the President and the Dean, the Faculty
shall elect one of its members to preside.
(b) Special meetings of the Faculty may be called upon due notice by
the President, either at his own discretion or at the request of five Faculty
members.

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(c) Due notice shall be construed to mean no less than three days'
notice, except in cases of emergency.
(d) A quorum shall consist of a majority of the Faculty in residence
except as otherwise provided.
(3) !he Secretary of the Faculty. At the last regular meeting of an
academic year the Faculty on each campus shall elect one of its members then
in at least his third year at the College, as Secretary. The Secretary shall, assist
in the preparation and circulation of the agenda for Faculty meetings, shall
keep the minutes of such meetings, and shall collect and circulate reports of
Faculty committees.
AnicleX
THE SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE AND THE ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
The Scholars-in-Residence and the Anists-in-Residence shall be appointed
by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the
President after consultation with the Dean and the Instruction Committee on
the campus where the Scholars and Artists shall reside.
Article XI
THE STUDENTS
(1) The primary responsibilities of the students are to study and to make
themselves as competent as possible in all parts of the St. John's Program.
Their advice and service shall be sought by the Faculty in such matters and in
such ways as may best serve the general welfare of the College.
(2) The students of St. John's College in Annapolis shall constitute the
Student _Polity of St. John's College in Annapolis; the students of St. John's
College in Santa Fe shall constitute the Student Polity in Santa Fe.
(3) The Student Polity in Annapolis or in Santa Fe may establish for itself
a government which is representative of all Polity members. The Dean on
each campus may delegate to the Student Government a share of the
responsibility for the general welfare of the students and whatever
government of the students may be necessary for the greatest possible
attamment of the aims of the program. The duties of . the Student
Government may include:
(a) the management of funds available to the Student Polity;
(b) the sanctioning of all student clubs, organizations, and activities,
and their regulation, if necessary;
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�(c) the representation of the students of St. John's College to the
community outside the College;
(d) the establishment and maintenance of formal channels of communication between the students and the spokesmen of the Faculty; and
(e) any other duties agreed upon by the students and the Dean.
Article XII
1HE GRADUATE INSTITUTE
(1) The Director

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(a) The President, after consultation with the Deans and a committee of
four, two from each campus, selected from among themselves by the Tutors
having tenure, shall recommend to the Board of Visitors and Governors for
appointment from the Tutors one of their number as Director of the
Graduate Institute to serve for three years with powers and duties as
hereinafter provided.
(b) There is vested in the Director, acting under the authority of the
Chairman of the Instruction Committee, responsibility and authority for the
organization and supervision of the graduate program of instruction in the
liberal arts, and for matters concerning the general welfare of the students
and for whatever government may be necessary for the greatest possible
attainment of the aims of the program.
(c) To assist in carrying out his duties the Director may recommend a
Tutor to be appointed by the President with the title of Assistant Director.

(4) Procedure for Instructional Proposals. Any proposals concerning major
matters of instruction and policy shall originate with the Director and the
Committee for the Graduate Institute and shall be submitted to the
Instruction Committee of the College. If approved by the Instruction
Committee, such proposals shall then be presented to the Faculty in
accordance with the provision for major proposals.
Article XIII

THE ALUMNI
(1) Alumni shall be life-long members of the College, since St..John's
College is a community not limited by geographical location or fixed periods
of time.

(2) The Faculty of the Graduate Institute.
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(a) The Director, after consultation with the Committee for the
Graduate Institute, and in accordance with the recommendation of the
Instruction Committee of the College, shall recommend to the President
Tutors of the Graduate Institute for appointment to teach in the Graduate
Institute for one session.
(b) The Faculty of the Graduate Institute, acting for the Tutors of the
College, shall have the authority to recommend to the Visitors and Governors
candidates for the appropriate degree.

(2) The Alumni Association shall be the formal means by which alumni
participate in the life of the College. Through the election of Alumni
members of the Board of Visitors and Governors, alumni share in the
direction of that life. In these and other ways, alumni shall be given the
opponunity to serve the College.
(3) The College shall cooperate with the Alumni Association to enable
alumni to assist in providing services such as recruiting and interviewing
prospective students, placing graduates in appropriate employment, and
advising students concerning admission to graduate and professional schools.

(3) Committee for the Graduate Institute.
(a) The Committee for the Graduate Institute shares with the Director
responsibility for the program of instruction of the Graduate Institute and for
the general welfare of the students.

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(b) The Committee shall consist of three Tutors residing on the same
campus as the Director who have taught in at least one full session of the
Institute, in addition to the Director, who shall serve as Chairman. Members
of the Committee shall serve for three-year terms, in such manner that the
term of one member terminates each year.
(c) Members of the Committee shall be appointed by the Director with
the concurrence of the Dean on the same campus, after consultation with the
Committee for the Graduate Institute.
(d) In the absence of regularly appointed members, the Director, in
consultation with the Committee, may appoint Tutors who are members of
the Faculty of the Graduate Institute to serve as members of the Committee
for one session of the Institute.

(4) The College, in cooperation with the Alumni Association, shall
provide seminars and other appropriate educational activities in Annapolis, in
Santa Fe, and in other places.

-

-

I

27

-

�Article XIV

THE STAFF
Members of the Administration Staff and members of the Buildings and
Grounds Staff assist with the administrative and maintenance duties of the
College. They are subject to appropriate Staff Rules and Regulations.
Article XV
AMENDMENTS AND REVIEW
(1) This Polity may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members
present at any regular or special meeting of the Board provided written notice
of the proposed amendment shall have been given to members of the Board
and to the Faculty not less than fifteen days prior to such meeting. The
Faculty shall have the right to inform the Board in writing of its
recommendation with respect to the proposed amendment by the date of the
Board meeting at which the amendment is to be considered.

(2) Amendments may be proposed at any regular meeting of either the
Faculty in Annapolis or the Faculty in Santa Fe upon petition of not less than
ten percent of the members on either campus. No such proposal shall be
acted upon earlier than the next regular meeting of the Faculty, whether in
Annapolis or in Santa Fe. Two-thirds vote of the entire Faculty in residence
shall be required for approval and the amendment shall not become effective
unless approved by the Board in the manner set forth in Section (1) above.
(3) Every five years this Polity shall be reviewed by a committee of the
Faculty elected by a majority vote of the Faculty. The report of the
Committee shall be submitted to one regular Faculty meeting and voted upon
at the next regular Faculty meeting. A two-thirds vote of the Faculty in
residence shall be required for approval.
Whatever action is thus recommended by the Faculty shall be submitted
to the Board for final decision in the manner set forth in Section (1) above.

-

28

-

��</text>
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                  <text>St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe</text>
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                  <text>St. John's College Meem Library</text>
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                <text>Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Howard Fisher on February 23, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture &amp; Concert Series.  The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event:  “Faraday made use of numerous electrical measuring instruments; but what, exactly, did they measure?  What properties of electricity are “measurable” at all?  Faraday’s efforts to identify these properties raised a question which Meno would have recognized: how can we know the properties of electricity unless we first know what electricity actually is?”</text>
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                <text>Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online.</text>
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                <text>&lt;a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7885" title="What is the Measure of Electricity? Transcript"&gt;https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7885&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                  <text>&lt;p&gt;The Greenfield Library Image Collection houses over 5,000 photographs, postcards, drawings, and other graphic materials.  The images in the collection document the history, academic, and community life of St. John’s College. &lt;/p&gt;
To learn more about the Greenfield Library's archives use policy or to obtain high-resolution images, please see the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a title="Image Collection Use Policy" href="http://www.sjc.edu/academic-programs/libraries/greenfield-library/policies/#photographicarchivepolicy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"&gt;Library’s Image Collection Use Policy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Click on &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a title="Photographic Archives" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=7"&gt;Items in the Image Collection—Annapolis Collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to view and sort all items in the collection.</text>
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                <text>&lt;span&gt;Dwight D. Eisenhower Speaking at a Podium at the Opening of the Francis Scott Key Auditorium and Mellon Hall, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland&lt;/span&gt;</text>
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                <text>St. John's College owns the rights to this photograph.</text>
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                <text>1959-05-22</text>
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                <text>St. John's College owns the rights to this photograph.</text>
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                <text>Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969.</text>
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                    <text>....

Trustees

..

..

NT ER.

�AN

ACCOUNT
OF THE

CEREMON Y OF LAYING
THE

CORNER STONE OF THE NEW BUILDING,
AT

ST. JOHN'S COLLEG E,
PERFORMED BY THE

Hon. JOHN STEPHEN, Judge of the Court of Appeals
WITH AN

ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION,
BY

.JOHN .JOHNSON, Esq., one of the Visitors and Governors

JUNE

18TH,

1635.

WITH A

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE INSTITUTION, A CATALOGUE
OF THE OFFICERS AND STUDENTS,
AND .A.

COPY OJ' THE SUBSCRIPTIONS MADE

TO THE

FUNDS

ANNAPOLIS

Published by request of the Board of Trustees

JEREMIAH HUGHES, PRINTER

�E.
ORI GIN OF ST. JOH N'S COL LEG

ide
THE first act of Assembly in Mar ylan d, to provding

for foun
for Collegiate Education, passed in 178 2,
requ ired ,
was
a Seminary on the Eastern Sho re. It
be raised
ld
shou
by the char ter, that a sum of money
£50 0 for
to
l
eqna
by contribution, for its endowment,
s were
year
five
each county on the Eastern Sho re; and.
In an
.
itic,n
cond
allowed for the performance of this
at
ted
prin
,
king
erta
account of the progress of the und
,
a1ly
hatic
emp
d,
urge
Phil adel phia in 1784, it was
D
GOO
hy
e,
mad
be
t
that ''las ting pro1Jisions mus
n of PA•
EDU CA TIO N,fo r trai ning up a successio
for LIB NEs;
D1v1
and
ES
TRJO Ts, LAW GIV ERS , SAG
re her fair
ER TY will not dei~n to dwell, but whe
by her side;
companion KNOWLEDGE flourishes
ered, but
nor can GOVERNMENT be duly administ
, VrnT uE,
w~ere the principles of REL IGIO N, JusT ICE ENC E
SCI
CON
for
CE,
DIEN
SonRrnTY and OBE
people of
SAK E, are uph eld. " Thi s appeal to the
. In less
the Eastern Sho re, was not made in vainsubscribed
e
than.five months, upwards of £10 ,000 wer
that Sho re;
on
ties
coun
ous
vari
the
in
for the College,
to put the
and measures wer e immediately adopted
list of the
Sem inar y inh&gt; operation. An accu rate
count, ~c."
subscribers, is pres erve d in the above "./l.c
sense of its
w'.1ich exhibits, in a strik ing manner, the
shington
Tfla
importance then felt by the people.
, and
own
Colle!fe was accordingly opened at Chestert
erconf
the
held its first Annual Commencement, for
at
rch
Chu
ring of Degrees, May 16th , 1783, in the
aPhil
of
D.
that place. The Rev. W. Smi th, D.
son having
delphia, pres ided on the occa~ion, and his

�4
the
been !ho ugh t ,vo rth, y of
Th e Dfirst honour, spoke the
valedictory oration
egree of Bac hel or of
trt s, was con ferr ed on fiv
men, Alumni oft he
ollege. Copies of the e gen~Je
~tory and salu tato ry
or~ti_ons: are p1·eserved in v;~ed1
_e a ove ",llccount &amp;c "
~n rnd1cate tha t the
were of unco'mm.
i,nterest and effect I exercises 4, the College on
178
ay,
•.. nfM Gen W
was
l,onoured with a v,s1
t rom
, who
ToN
be
I.NG
ASH
•
13
th
of
er
..:ame a memb
e oa rd of Tru stee s ai d •IS
enrolled among th
cent of its ; t l
Th e College Ed'fie most munifi
ns.
was l60 feet in len gth ,a trhoree
stories in hei gh/a bee
ove the b
~
!se me nl, and con tain ed
rooms ior more than 100 St uae
• was
nts. Per h aps 1t
to
an
. err or, ere ct one b ·1d·
of tl~ese dimensions,
t~t ea, f of following the i:u atg l ? of sep ara te Halls
pa
o1 a smaller num ber each o
different par ts of th;
College grounds. In cod n
e of this arra nge ;en t,hw hen the bui ldin g :;~ t~~I e some yea rs sin ce
,
e w ole was red uce d to ru·ms.
A
? err or of more conse
e wa_s committed by
forming the Universitlj of if.uen~
and rn two Bra nch es
one on the Eastern a~d one ar,11
tl~e We ste rn Sho re'
!n_the preamble to the cha rt on
•
'' ashington C II
of
er
it is ~tated tha t ''th •
~i
a17 J_ la~dable und er~ ah:
hat h been reta rde d
ry mcz den ts of a p bl'
nat ure , but chiFjiy b th gre
_u g zc
fi.rin
di.fficulty ot'.
a
~'h oree if at
'J
situ atio n on eit"tter u.
th •
iSem
a
for
te,
Sta
_zsh
'
~biar,1/ of uni ver sal learningo' 'Vmc mig ht b if
•
enefit and c
_~f
::• youth of bothe;ho'J,~tha
~;11wa~ dete;:i.:~"::~•e~
t
circumstances
ze inh abi tan ts of each Sh ese sho
t'
fet't
be
uld
. nce ore
;1 • o con• fi
sui t· the. ir own co nvenze
fre ely
and
g
din
~un
n
:;: ;w i'lg a College or Sem h::t1/I
ng
rni
lea
al
&lt;;r
gen
if
for themselves, und er
p
,;
law
of:'
n
: sanctio
'd
•
er haps the re wer e co 11 s1 cra twn
'J
•
t hat p · d
s m operation at
ex /r1 0 , ren der ing suc h a course necessary or
are
we
r pe ient, of which res :ot now sensible. Inteligen~ men on both Sho
er, ver y generalJy,
question the pol icy of tha~ a:: ::vgem ent , and app ear

tyg;::~

e been far bet ter to
to be convinced tha t it would hav
Sta te at some one
con cen trat e the pat ron age of the establishment of a
the
for
point favourably situ ate d,
n, nuw so fre que ntly
Sta te University. Th is opinio
the people of Ma ryex pressed in eve ry qua rter , b)
effect in the Annual
land, is P.mbodied wit h gre at
the Hon. JoH N B •
Rep ort to the Leg isla ture , by
ted to visit St. Joh n's
MoRRls, of the com mit tee app ni;i
3.
College, De cem ber session, 183
College is dee me d
n's
"T he pro spe rity of St. Joh
t the you th from
tha
a sub jec t of gre at imp ort anc e, so
ns of the Sta te,
isio
div
at
eve ry portion of the two gre
assurance of
ed
und
gro
l
may convene wit h the wel
education, and at the
being able to a1.:.quire a libe ral
riot ic anticipations of
same time, consummate the pat
ion bet wee n the two
the cha rter ; ''th at the connex
by uniformity in
shores, will be gre atly increased
the adv anc em ent of
mannf:!rs and join t efforts for
no way can this paLit era tur e." It is believed in
d as by sustaining
rental aspiration be so well rea lize rnin g at the sea t
Lea
on a liberal scale a Sem ina ry of
chi ld are con ven ed,
and
ent
par
e
her
n-w
of Leg isla tio
me re511latio ns for
the one to aid in devisrng wholeso
oth er to acq uire the
the welfare of So cie ty- the
in the reg uhr coursP.
prin cip les of knowledge, wh ich
n und er the favoraof events is to be put in requisitio
nne rs" and ear ly
ma
ble auspices of "un ifo rmi ty of
associations."
not be chosen to
Language more felicitous could
neous sentiments of
utt er wh at must be the sponta
who knows the story
eve ry true friend of the Sta te,
St. John's, like
.
of this unf ortu nat e institution
sub jec t to calamity
Washi11g/0'1, College , has been
ten ce, almost simuland adv ers ity -ca lled into exis
l action by a wis e
tan eou sly , and set into successfu
, it seems to hav e
gov ern me nt and a liberal peo ple strike the m bot h,
uld
been fate d tha t the paralysis sho
manent vigour and
per
the
in
atta
before eith er could
ma ture d institutions.
efficiency tha t belong to well

�6
e name is
"l'he same wor thy agen t, whose venerabl
ton College,
enrolled in the earl y Hecords of Washing
nt and estabtook the most active part in the endowme
versity. A
lishment of this second bran ch of the Uni
, for the
him
list of the subscriptions obta ined by
the books
on
benefit of St. John 's CoJJege, is pres erve d
equal to
was
of the Board of Trus tees . The amount
ch on
bran
r
othe
that which had been obtained for the
two
sum
ch
whi
of
,
the Eastern Sho re; i. e. £10 ,000
and
tor
Rec
''the
by
thousand pounds wer e subs crib ed
subsc:rip Visit01·s of the .11.nnapolis Scho ol." This
Ann athe
of
tors
Visi
tion secu red to the Rec tor and
tors
Visi
two
g
intin
appo
polis School, the priv ileg e of
also
e
ileg
priv
a
ege;
Coll
and Governors of St. John 's
in the same
exte nde d to tbe othe r class of subscribers,
£10 00
each
for
r
erno
Gov
and
tor
ratio, viz: -on e Visi
Thi s corsubs crib ed and secu red for the College.
Wil liam 's
poration was originally called ''Ki ng
s, the balScho ol," and possessed considerable fund
convey to St.
ance of which, 1t was proposed, also, to
pleted. The
John 's College, after it should be com
to coup le the
Rec tor and Visitors, how ever , proposed
tion, that in
following condition with thei r subscrip
Visitors and
case of a vacancy in thei r number of
enin g, out
happ
Governors, ''to fill up the vacancy so
th £10 00
wor
be
l
of such citizens of Annapolis as shal
not apwas
n
tatio
curr ent money each ," Thi s limi
ernors,
Gov
and
prov ed or acee pted , "the Visi tors
prin the
izn
wit!
rty,
not thinki:ng themselves at libe
ded,
foun
is
ege
Coll
the
ciples of equ ality upo n 'Which
conbe
l
shal
ncy
vaca
that the choice to fill up such
this
from
And
lis."
apo
.fine d to the citiz ens of .llnn
ool,
Sch
the
of
tors
Visi
proposition the Rec tor and
s11hscription
unanimously agre ed to rece de. The ir
Visitors ancl
two
and
e,
mad
of £20 00, was ther efor e
Boa rd.
the
to
rned
retu
and
Gover11ors were elected

7
chosen by subscribers,
The original. members,
were the foll owr ng:WJL LIA ~ WCELsrGgE¥;r ' D. D.
THO MA S J.
NIC HOL AS CARROLL, Esq.
JOH N H . STO NE, Esq.
WIL LIA M BEA NES , Esq.
RIC HAR D RID GEL Y, Esq.
SAM UEL CHA SE, Ellq.
JOHN THO MA S, Esq.
THO MA S STO NE, Bsq: N ' Es q.
ALE XAN DER C. HANSO
THOMAS JEN NIN GS, Esq.
b the Visitors and
en d \ver e the following-:
me1:11bers {bn
The othe rcons
titut e t e oar ,
Governors to
JA~ IES BRI CE,
JOH N ALL EN THOMAS,
GUS TAV US R BROWN,
EDW ARD GAN TT,
CLE MEN T HIL L,
RIC HAR D SPR IGG ,
CHA RLE S CAR ROL L, of C.
JER EM IAH T. CHA SE,
CHA RLE S WA LLA CE,
os h
JOH N CAR ROL L, D. D.
1,; t
.
Feb
held
h Boa rd was
•
fled before A. C.
The first mee tmg oft e
Cou rt, by
178 6. The members wer e fq~~e1 General
thei r beof
ion
arat
Hanson, one of the J ~d.ges o decl
two oaths
the
ng
taki
d
a
repe atin g and_ s?bscr1b~n.~
Laws of
and
n
utio
ti
Can
h10n
lief in the Chr1s.t1an Rehg
ons
e
t
by
of fidelity reqm red
h B ard proc eede d to
this State. .
~·ng the ColJege.
On the 1st of Mar ch 178 6 t
i .llnnanolis and
t1sd
er for es!a
fix upon a place prop
.
r
e , ts wer
1 wer e .nomrna
e give n
. ballo
Two places on Y
latte r plac e.
Upper Mar l borough; wheia1;:~efor the
term s of
the
to
, rdin
for the former, and two.
of four
lot
a
of
•of
acco
is,
Thi s election of Annapol possess1
f
the
ed
use o
the
for
d
base
.
secu r
the Cha rter, with
pure
,
in the city
acre s of land

r

~r

�8
the public, and conveyed, in 1744, by Stephen Bord- .
Iy, Esq. to Thomas Blad~n, Esq. t~en Governor of
Maryland. 1 his lot has smce remarneJ the property
of the College, and is the scite on which the present
buildings stand.
.
.
On the 10th of March 1786, it was resolved to
finish the building, then standing on the ground, for
the purposes of the College, and to add wings on the·
North and South ends, according to a plan furn ished
by Mr. Joseph Clarke. This plan was never executed, and is probably lost. The following gentleme n
composed the Building Committee.
ALEXANDER CONTEE H ANSO K ,
NIC HOLAS CA RRO LL ,
RICH ARD RI DGEL Y, Esquires.

DR.

JoHN

McDoWELL was the first officer chosen

to preside over the College as Professor of Mathe~atics; and he was afterwards promoted to the station
of Principal, which office he discharged with great
ability for many years. The 11th day of Nov. 1789
was selected for the occasion of opening the Institution, and the Rev. Dr. Smith was requested to attend·
as Principal of the College, pro tempore, and to deliver
a sermon. The dedication was performed with much
solemnity, all the public bodies being in attendance,
and forming a long procession from the State House
to the College Hall. In addition to the sermon by
Dr. Smith} an oration, by Mr. Higginbottom, Professor of Ancient Languages, was delivered on the advantages of classical education. And from the account
published by the authority of the Trustees, it is evident
that the high reputation of this College, for its classical course, has been owing, in a great measure, to the
thorough discipline which was then provided, and
which has been preserved to the present time.
The Trustees proceeded to the appointment of
other Professors, as the increase of their funds gave
them the necessary means; and in 1792 the sum of
EJ7·5 was expended for the purchase, in Loadon, of

9
ihe requisite Philosophical apparatus. Most of the
articles are still found in the College, thou_gh $ome
important ones, among which was a th~odolite, have
been lost, At this period there were six l'rofessors
and Teachers, constantly employed in the College;
~nd, for ~nany years, its reputntion was such that. a.
long succession of distinguished scholars took then•
.,
deg rees at its annual Con1me nc'ements,
On Friday, N ov. 2 2d 1805 (a day or singular
fatality and ill -omen to education in Maryland,~ lea~e
was granted in the Ho.use of Delegates to br_mg 1 .
''an act to withdrn:µJ the funds f rom f,flashington
and St. John's Cqtleges." The strongest possiblf!:
influence whi-ch the enemies· of ,the College could
command was concentrated; and brought to bear upon it; but so firm were .;:he convictions of the impolicy
and injustice of the a0t, then felt, that a majority pf
but eight members, unde}• all the exciteme nt of the
ticcasion , could be zll'evaile'd on to take the fatal step.
"{his decision was not had in the House of Delegates
till thy 1st of Ja111rary, 1806. And a strong indication of the dispassionate judgment of the Honse~ on
this important matter, is founi;l in the vote subsequently taken at the s~me s~ssion: upon a r esolution
introduced to restor~ S 1600 per annum from the funds
which had been withdrawn, for the p urpose of enabling _the Trustees to continue the institution. The
question was t~ken upan this resolution on the '27th·
Jan. 1806, and was lost by only a· sing1e vote.
In consequence of this a,ction on part of the Gov~
ernmer;it, tht:: Visitors arid Governors were under the
r!ecessity of passing the following resolufion on tho.
12tQ of May 1806. . "Wherea~, by virtue of an act
of the Legislature of ldaryland, at their last session,
the donationfrom the State to St . .John's College of
£1750 per, 9nnum,. wilt,cease am/ determine on thtJ
1§.t day of J,une next, therefore,-Resolved, that the ,
Principal, Vice Principal, Professors and M aste.rs of
said College, be discontinued on tile 10th day of Au,'.:
~

•

I

�•

11

10
gust, ne:i:t." Such provisions we1·e made, howev:1,
at the same time, as the funds would allow for the mamtenance of a respectable school; but its character as a
College was lost. Yet the Visitors and Gover~ors hav_e
never abandoned the hope under the rnostpressrng period of their necessity, of ultimately fulfilling the designs
of its founders. They have, accordingly, appealed
to the Legislature, at several periods, for a restoration to the enjoyment of their rights, and the justice
of their claim has been repeatedly acknowledged; and
acts of partial indemnity have been passed in theit•
favour. In 1811 an act was passed, appropriating
81000 per annum on the same terms, with similar
sums granted to other county Seminaries. In 1821
a lottery was also granted, v,hich added ~20,000 to
the permanent funds. Finally, in 1833, an act of
compromise was passed, by whic-h 82000 per annum,
in addition to former grants, were secured to the
College forever, which the Visitors and Governors
accepted in full of their legal and equitable claims;
and the deed of release, required by the act, was executed and entered upon the records of the court of
appeals. By the same act, ten of the highest ofti•
cers of the State Government were introduced into
the Board of Trustees. These measures have gone
far to restore to the College the confidence of the
people of Maryland, and the consequent increase of
patronage, has required the addition of another building for the accommodation of students. It was accordingly resolved, Feb. 15, 1835, to solicit funds,
by subscription, for this purpose and for the general
improvement of the library and apparatus. Upwards
of deven thousand dollars have been already subscribed, and a commodious edifice, 80 feet by 40, 3 stories
in height above the basement, has been commenced,
and will be completed by the ensuing spring~
The foundation walls are built of stone, in the
most substantial manner, furnishing one large and
convenient public room, in the basement story, in

addition to a kitchen, ct:llars, &amp;c. of sufficient size
for a public establishment. The walls above the
basement, are of brick, with partitions of the same
material, and will contain twenty-five sepa1·ate rooms,
for the accommodation of fifty Students, besides rooms
for the family of a· Professor of the College. The
Corner Stone was cut from a single block of granite,
in the form of an Octagon, four feet across, corresponding with the form and dimensions of the angular
buttresses.
The ceremony of laying the Corner Stone, was
preceded by Prayer, by the Rev. Dr. Humphreys,
the President of the Coilege. The following inscrip•
tion, enclosed in a sealed gla1s vase, was deposited in
a mcta\\ic box, undt•r the stone:
"This corner stone wits laid on Thursday, the 18th
day of June, A. D., 1835, by the Hon. John iStephen,
Presiding Judge in the Court of Appeals, the Rev.
Hector Humphreys~ D. D. President of St. John's
College, and John Johnson, Esq. one of the Visitors
and Governors, being present and assisting; His
Excellency .11.ndrew Jaclrson, being President of the
United States; His Excellency James Thomas, being
Governor of Maryland, and the Hon. John S. Martin,
Thomas Veazey, Geol'ge C. Washington, .Nathaniel
F. Pftilliams, and Gwinn Harris, being the :Executive Council; and Dr. Dennis Claude, being Mayor
of Annapolis.
Ramsa.1/ Waters,
John Johnson,
Building Committee.
Nicholas Brewer, Jr.
R. C. Long, Architect,
Elijah Welts, Builder."

!

After the ceremony was performed, the following
remarks were m&amp;.de by the presiding Judge, standing
on the Corner Stone.
"The object of erecting the Edifice, of which the
corner stone has just been laid, is one of vital importance to the future happmess, prosperity and welfare

�12

~r .that community of which we are members.

fier~

likewise, is to be laid the corner stone of that mteliectual cultivation, which is to develope the powers
of the youthful mind, and enable it to gather w~alth
from those treasures of antiquity, which have outh~ed
the wreck of Empires, and s?rvived the a!l-moulderrng
hand of time. J;Iere the rising generat10n are te ac~
guire the rudiments of s~ience,_ aud to ~e taught thostl
elemental principles of learmng, which elsewh~re,
:µnder pigher auspices, are to be foster~d and cherished and receive additional culturP, until they expand
in(o full growth and maturity. To the mind ~f the
Patriot, the spectacle which the _ceremony of this day
has exhibited, must bring a tram of thought, o~ t~e
roost gratifying and consoling character. Withm
these walls, the first lessons of that wisdom are to be
taught, which is to guide and control the f~ture ~estinies of this rising Republic, to sway the dehberat1?ns
of its Rulers, and elevate its character to that high
~egree of splendour,· d!gnity and ~enown, to whi~h,
under the benignant smiles of Provi9ence, and a virtuous and enlightened administration of its affair&amp;, it
~eems to be tt:nding with a step as certain as fate, aud
:.ureas the advance of time itself. To the friend and
Jover of his country, 'no human interest can present
stronger claims to patronage and support, than the
cause of science arid literature; by their lights ar.d
influence, the mind is invigorated, the taste refine~,
and the heart warmed with noble and elevated sentiments. But above all, in a Government founded, as
ou1·'s is, upon the virtue and intellig~nce of ~he pe_ople, a gen6ral diffusion of knowledge is essential to its
prosperity and permanent existence. May we not
then, indulge the pleasing, the delightfol hope, that
from within these w . dls, the lights ot science will go
forth and pervade every corner of our land, illumine
the mind() of the rising generation, and impart to
posterity those blessings which learning and virtue
never fail to bestow.

ADDRESS
BY

JOHN JOHNSON, Esq.
l)ELIVERED IN THE HALL OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE~
June 18th, 1835.

The occasion which calls us together is one which
~u]dresst&gt;s itself mo,,t powerfully to the best aftections
of the human heart. We are engaged in providing
means tor the education of the rising generation. In
supplying that aliment for the minds of those who are
to fill the places now occupied_ by us, without ;Vhich
the glorious institutions transmitted by our fore1athers
to ourselves, would be but a barren and unprofitable
inheritance.
In vain did the Heroes of the Revolution toil and
bleed to free us from the galling yoke of Colonial
servitude. In vain did the warm currents of their
lives best blood, 8tream over the fields, whose ab~ndance we now enjoy, if we, their sons do not furnish
the future owners of all these blessings, with a full
knowledge of their inappreciable value: . ~t may be
truly said, that the eyes of the whole c1 v1hzed world
are anxiously directed to the career of youthful America. The friends of freedom regard her progress
with exulting anticipations it is true, but with hopes
sometimes overcast with gloomy forebodings of the
future. The advocates of despotic authority, dreading the influence which her bright example may extrt
over those who have so long been the victims of that
authority, watch every indication of degeneraCY,
eagerly longing for _the moment, when. the spectacle
of bleedin~ and dismembered America may be a
warning to ~woid, rather than an example to follow.
,!\nd shall we not employ all the means placed by a

�14
gracious .i.Jrov1oence within our reach, to fulfill the
hopes of our friends, and disappoint the expect ations
of our enemies? Shall we preter mit any effort~ which
may sustain, in all their purity , the be&lt;1utiful fabric of
Repub lican Institutions, purcha sed with the blood of
our glorious ancestors, from a nation whose valor until then, had never been successfully resisted? and
how is this priceless treasu re to be preser ved-th ese
inestimable institutions upheld and defend ed, but by
teachin g their full value to those to whose keepin g
they must ere long be confided? There is no way in
which this can be done, unless education is diffused
widely among the people . To apprec iate a blessing,
its worth must be known, and it can only be known ,
by assiduously cultiva ting the mi.nds of those upon
whom the impression is to be made. A glorious destiny awaits Repub lican Ameri ca if she is faithful to
the principles which led to her indepe ndence . She
has already taken the lead of the older nations of Europe in the science of Government. The votaries of
freedom there, pant in vain for the high prize which
descen ded to us from our venera ted forefa thers- oppressed and borne down as they are with the barbar rous institutions, of barbarous and benigh ted ages;
institutions interw oven with the very web of their
social systems, and which cannot be overth rown, or
even essentially modified, withou t dange r to the
fabricks themselves; ages must roll away before the
same perfec tion in Gover nment is attaine d there, as
exists with us-no ne disput e our superiority in every
thing which relates to political organization. It
is admitted and unquestionable, and if we can likewise outstri p other nations in the cultiva tion of
the sciences and the lessons of practic al wisdom, we
shall prove ourselves deserv ing of the blessings we
enjoy. It is not to be expec ted, or perhap s desire d,
that the same high finish and elegant polish in literature, shall be acquir ed in this countr y, as is to be fount!
in the higher grades of Europ ean society; There the
great accumulation and concentration of wealth, in

15
the hands of a few, enable them to dedica te thcil
whole lives to the cultiva tion of those arts which serve
rather to adorn than benefit niank ind-w ith us, this
can never be the case. 1 he genius of OUl'institutions
is alike opposed to the monopoly of \~e.alth or_kno:V·
ledge. They were framed 111 a sp1_r1t of d1ffus1 vc
philan thropy , and \vhilst the law provides that we.llth
shall not accumulate for ages, the avenues to knowledge are thrown open alike to all. The great object
is to enlighten the mass. The int_elligence_of a nation
consists in the aggreg ate of the wisdom of its people ,
and not in possessing a few dazzling ~uminaries, whos_e
brilliJncy but deepen s the surrounclrng gloom. It ~s
not meant that the minds of all can be equally cultivated. Societ y is a chain of dependencies, and some
are invited to the discha rge of duties, which rtquir e
higher attainments than are necessary. to the parts
which others are called on to play. Whilst therefo re,
the streng th and durabi lity of the Government, and
the happiness and indepe ndence of ~he ~eople, arc
essentially promo ted by the spread of rntelhgence and
education 2 it is of the highes t importance that means
should be liberal ly provid ed, for the more elaborate
instruc tion of those who may be regard ed as the
especial conser vators of the institutions of the countr y,
and upon whose success in the great strugg le for
mental superi ority, th@ fame of the nation must necessarily rest. For this reason, it is the duty of all
who cheris h the honor and welfare of the State, not
only to furnish abund antly the means of improvement
to the mass of the community, to enable them to ap•
precia te truly, the happiness of their condit!on, and
to choose discre etly, those to whom the machi nery of
Government shall be confided, but it is also their imperativ e obligation to supply semina~•ies, _where the
most perfec t cultur e, of which the mmd is capabl e,
may be afforded.
In propor tion as these are multiplied, and society
is filled with a class of men, eminently qualified for

�16
the discharge of its most important duties, the danger
of selecting unfaithful or incompetent trustees of the
public we]fa!'e, is diminished. The conduct and
qualifications of every candidate for the popular suffrage, will be vigilantly and searchingly examined,
and it wiH rarely happen, that ignorance will escape
detection, or presumprion fail of its rebuke. And
should the various States of this happy country, ri val
each oth e1· in the cat1se of education, with the same
zeal which they now display in improving thei r physical condition, in opening avenues to wealth, and
adding new impulses to commer&lt;?e, a degree of pros•
perity may be attained, which the imagination of the
wildest visionary has not yet conceived. Every motive to exertion, which can actuate the human heart,
:must exist in a nation like this. Witlt us, there are no
privileged orders1 Lorn t-o fill the high places in the
State. No sense of conventional inferiority, presses
upon the mind here, deadening its energies, and
smothering its virtuous aspirations, The highest
posts in the State; posts, the possession of which;
might thrill with a palpitating gladness, the bosom of
the loftiest monarch of the world, are accessible to the
humblest iudividual. The staridard of merit in this
nation of 1:epublicans, is virtue, intelligence, integrity
and devot10n to the public welfare. These are qualifications which depend aot, on blood, on wealth, or
adventitious influences of any kind. The son of the
humblest peasant within the wide borders of our almo~t li1~itless territory, 01: !he offspring of the poorest
artisan 1n our numerous C1t1es, may by his merit alone
rise to a height of true glory, whose elevation would
r;nder giddy the head of the proudest potentate of
Europe. He may be placed at the head of a nation
of freemen, whvse selection of him for such a trust
stamps him with ~ perpetual and glorious immortalit/
With these motives to stimulate to exertion, who can
set bou~ds to Am:erican genius, if proper appliances·
are furnished for its careful cultivation.

17
In most of the States of the confederacy, ~his momentous subject is engaging much of _the pubhc attP.?·
tion, and large sums have been contr1bu~ed by pubhc
and private munificence, for the promotion of ed~ca•
tion. In Maryland, a fatal lethargy for ~ long time,
seems to have brooded over the public mrnd. In all
the other elements of greatness, sufficient activity has
been manifested, especially within the compass of the
last few ye11rs. Efforts have been made, and are now
making, to attract within our borders, by stupen~ous
works of internal improvement, the rnexhaustible
riches of the western world.
The lofty Alleghanies are to be pierced o~ scaled,
and a tide of commerce and wealth poured rnto our
lap from fields and vallies, which it was supposed
we;e separated by impassable barriers. T!iese are
achievements to which Maryland enterpr1ze, and
Maryland treasure are freely devoted, and if successful as can scarceli be doubted, will reflect imperishabl~ honor upon those who devised, and ~hose. who
executed them. But whilst we are pressmg vigorously on the heels, if not ontstrippin~ ou_r sister States
in the race of physical and commercial 1mpr?vement,
it is not to be disguised, that we are far bc_hrnd _m~st
of them ' in furnishino-b the means of educat10,1 w1th1,1
Ve have not yet among us, any
our own borders.
great State lnstitu~i~n, affor&lt;l~ng adequate facilit~es to
our y,mth, of acqmrrng the higher branches of intellectual improvement. In consequ_en?e of the.absence
of a liberally endowed and flour1shmg seminary of
learning, our youth are compelled to resort ~o o_ther
States, where feelings and prjnciples may be 1mbibe_d
in opposition to the best interests of the land of their
birth.
It is natural to the human heart, to feel a strong
yearning of affection for the spot_ where the light ?f
wisdom first beamed upon_ the mm?·. The pla~~s m
which we abode "when hfe was m its sprmg, and
which are associated with our freshest recollections-:
3

�IS
where the capacities of the mind were first unfolded
a1!d the Jessons of virtue and wisdom originally in:
~tilled, ~re alw~ys remembered, even to the dying
hour, with fe elings of gratitude and love.
Would it not be wise then to tie the sons of Maryland by these golden cords of affection to the land of
t~e~r birth, a~d not exp?se them to the perils of a
.divided alleg1a?ce? I_t 1s far from the purpose of lhis
_ad~ress to excite sentiments of hostili ty, or even of
md1fference, to the welfare of our sister States. ~Te
all constitute one great family, banded toge1her in
the holy brotherhood of affection and mutual interests
-Jiving un~er one common government; pursuing
the same objects, and Jinked together by a thousand
recollecti?ns of mutual dangers ·and mutual support,
~ha~ed with, a?d afforded to each other. The prosperity .o~ each Is the prosperity of the whole, and may
the brilliancy of the constellation never be dimmed
by the obscuratio n of a solitary star-on the contrarv'
PU; earnest w~sh is~ that they may grow brighter, a~d
bri~hter, until then· rays shall illuminate the farthest
ends o_f the earth: A ll that is urged is, that it is the
true d1c~ate of wisdom to bind the sons of Maryland
to her s01l, by every sympathy which can penetrate to
the recesses of t he human heart. They should be
,t aught_to regard the_land of their birth, as the land
by which every blessmg they enjoy has been bestowed
and to_whose glory and advancement, they are bound
~o dedicate the best e~ergies of their nature. They
..hould not be permitted to reflect, that whilst they
~re Mary~anders, by the _accideut of birth, they owe
to other S~atcs all f~r w?1ch life is worth preserving;
1he educati?n of t heir mrnds, that moral culture which
~nsures. their resp~ct amo~g men, and those religious
1mpressions, on whwh their hopes for eternity are reposed.

In additj?n to these inducements, which are surely
of so?1e _weight~ the effort now making to establish a
!)qur1shrng s~m;nary of learning in Maryland is re-

19
commended by considerations of the truest economy.
. The amount annually expended by our young men,
who are sent abroad for their education, must necessaril y far exceed the interest of the sum, which would
be required to build up a college at home, adequate
for every purpose. Independently of \Vhich, what is
carried abroad is lost, or only returned rn attachmen ts
severed from home; whilst what is expended at home
is promotive of the pnblic good, by being more widely
diffused . It cannot be doubted, that 8100,000 spent
abroad impoverishes the State more than five times
t hat su :U spent among ourselves-whilst the first is so
much taken from the general mass, never to be restored ; the latter after performing a round of circulation, giving employment to the \lOor, and food to th_e
ind ustrious. is returnect to the sources from whence 1t
was contrib'uted, by a thousand channels. Why education has been so long neglected in Maryland it is
difficult to conceive. A-. early as the year 1784 the
attention of the State authorities was called to this
subjec t, in order as the preamble t? the charter of
Wushington College declares "to raise up, and perpetuate a succession of able and honest men, for dis charging the v.irious offices and duties of the commu11ity, both civil and religious, with usefulness and
r eputatio n," and in 1784 an annual donation of £1250
was granted to this College, to be applied to the payment of the salaries of the principal, professors and
tutors. In the same year 1784, an act was passed
for founding a College on the western shore, and constituting the same, together with Washington College
on the.eastern shore, one university, by the name of
'.'the Universi ty of Maryland." This institution was
in orporated by the name of the Visitors and Govern•
ors of St. John's College, and for the purpose of providing a "permanent fund for the further encourage•
ment and establishment of the said College," the sum
of £ 1750 was ''annually and for ever thereafter given
and granted, as a donation by the public, to the US"

�20
'lf_thc_ saicl College on the western shore," to be applied rn the same manner as the donatiou to Washington C~lle 9e, "for. the liberal education of youth in
the prmc1ples of virtue, knowledge, and useful literature."
Thus it will be seen, that our ancestors, those who
fought t_he b_attles_ of the Hevolution, and bequeathed
us the rich_ inheritance _of freedom, were fully sensible of the mcalculable importance of education and
coun_ted not price, in the means of furnishing it. They
had Just emerged from the dangers of a bloody and
f~arful contes}; and "frighted peace had hardly found
time to ]?ant, after the ferocity of the struggle.
The music of the martial trumpet, and "the earth9uake shout of victory," had scarcely ceased to ring
m the1~ cars, when ~he paramount importance of
education arrested their attention and in the circumstanc.e~ in which they were plac~d, the most liberal
prov1si_on ~as ma~~ for it. For not only did the
St~te, rn its political capacity, grant the donation
which has been mentioned, but contributions to the
~m~u~t of upwards of £10,000, were furnished by
md1v1duals, for the same elevated and benevolent
purpose. . Among these contributors, beside a list of
name:-:! "'.h1ch any age or nation might be proud to
exh1b1t, 1s to be found that of Washington himself, the
man, who had not only "filled the measure of his
C()Untry's glory,'' but who had raised the standard of
h~~amty, throughout the limits of the civilized world.
' ' 1th _the means thus supplied, St. John's College was
estabhshed, and pursued for many years a career of
usefulness and honor, dispensing the bles;ings of educat10~ upon hundreds of her sons, and bidding fair
to raise the reputation of the State, which founded
and foste_red her, to an equal height at least with any
'
of her sisters.
In 1805, less enlightened and liberal counsels appear to have prevailed, and the funds which had been
perpetu~lly dedicated to the support of this institution,
were withdrawn. It is not our purpose to speak

21
harshly of the proceedings of that day. It is enough
to say, that they fell heavily upon the hearts of those,
to whom the interests of education were dear, and that
the brightening beams of St. John's were shorn of
their lustre. The University, within whose walls
had been educated many of the most illustrious men
of the age, who had sent forth from her venerable
shades, a number of the States, most distinguished
ornaments, was doomed for a season, to sicken and
languish, from the indifference of the parent, who
had engaged by every sanction, to nurture her to the
last. But may we not indulge the hope, that these
days of neglect are past? That the minds of our fellow
citizens are fully awakened to the vjtal importance of
building up, and sustaining here at home, a high
seminary of learning, commensurate with the progress
of society, and the dignity and honor of the State.
The Legislature of 1832, influenced by enlightened counsels, and stimulated by a sense of justice, restored a portion of the funds withdrawn in 1805, and
incorporated in the Board of Trustees, several of the
chief ufficers of the State, thus clearly impressing
upon it, the characteristics of a State institution.
From that auspicious moment, the progress of the
College has been rapidly onward. The Board of
Trustees had previously @ngag'ed the services of a
gentleman in the capacity of Principal, eminently
qualified for the duties of such a station. To the advantages of much experience, deep and various learning, a character of the most elevated cast, he adds a ·
zeal and devotion which knows no flagging, and a
perseverance and assiduity which has never faltered.
Under his guidance, with the growing interest
manifested by the community for our welfare, the
full realization of our hopes can hardly be doubted. ·
Occupying a position in the confederacy, eminently
favorable to the development of her resources, Maryland cannot fail to become one of its most conspicuous ·
members, if she is faithful to her own best interests.
No apathy on the subject of these interests has been'

�22
displayed, save only with respect to education. In
opening channtls of communication with the distant
and fr uitful west, gigantic efforts have been, and arc
being made, and mil lions of t1·easure unhesitatingly
expended. T o ascertain what hidden treasures lie
buried in the bowels of the land, and contribute our
portion to the cause of science, liberal provision has
been made, and we have the proud consciousness of
knowing, th at with reference to the latter objects, we
have taken the decided lead. The benefictal results
of these wise measures, are already most sensibly
felt. The spirit of commerce, which had begun to
droop beneath the incubus of inactivity, 1s now buoya~t with reno vated life, and whitening every ocean
with h er wings. The farn1er pursues his meritorious
occupation, wit h the well founded assurn11ce of being
amply r em unerate&lt;l for his toil, and the industrious
artiza ns of our towns and villages, partake largely of
the general prosperity. In the midst of this reioicing, this ac t ual fruition of abundant causes of pr~sent
gratulation, and prospects for the future most cheering to the hea r t of the philanthropist; it is our happiness to kn ow, that the hopes of the friends of St. Joh n's
are once more reviviug. In addition to the recent
bounty of the State, already adverted to, and the
steps which ha ve been taken towards placing her in
the footing of a State institution, a considerable accession of fu nds has been derived, from the voluntary
contribution of i ndividuals. With the means thus
acquired, the Ed ifice, the corner stone of which has
just been laid, is to be erected. The object of the
building is, to acco mm odate with board, students from
a· distance, whose paren ts or guardians may wish to
exclude them fro m the city. The want of such an
appenda&amp;'e to the College, has been Jong felt; and
~hen fimshed, we confidently hope, will infuse new
vigour i_nto !ts r~vi ving energies. The appeal however which 1s berng made to the public liberality has
been hut partially r esponded to.
'

23
T o place the institution upon the lofty ground,
which i t deserves to occupy, to ena~le it to f~lfil the
h opes of its friends, and to a~compl~sh the high J?Ur •
poses of the patriotic generat10n which founded it, a
far more generous supply of means is ~ndispeosab)y
necessar y. That they will not be furlllshe~, we_w~ll
not believe- Maryland can, and will maintain w1thm
her bosom one high seminary of learn_ing, where her
sons may drink freely, of those '.ountnrns _of trot~, of
wisdom and of virtue, so essential tf) their happrness
and pro'motive of her aggrandisement. _Why should
not th e pu re and elevating lessons of ph~l?sophy, the
profoun d recesses of science, the beaut~fu\ and cap tivating graces of Grecian and H.omart literature, be
as effectually incukated, explored, and un_folde? here,
as el sew here? The libel, that the ''gemu~ sickens,
and the fancy dies" in A 111erica, has long srnce been
ex ploded. The p1·oductions of our st~tesmeu, and our
orators, our poets, and_ our men of ~cience, arc b0rne
across the broad Atlantic, to be admired_, wond_ercd at,
and imitated, by those who taunted us rn our _infancy.
The profound argument, the deep discuss10n, th e
clear perc eption of the duties of gover~m_ent,. the
flashing wit, the withe:in_g sa:cnsm, the brilliant _ima•
gination, which have d1st111gu1shed our c~ngress10nal
debates, not only demonstr;lte that gemus does not
languish in America, b~t that she has f?und new
worshippers here, to krndle her _flames rnto a ret
brigh ter effulgence. Wl~at _Ame_rican does not i~el
h is bosom swell with patnot1c pn&lt;le, when he hears
the p raises of her sons wafted back from tlie shores of
E urope? What has become now of th_c ~neer, '~w~o
:-ea&lt;l s an American hook?" Where, w1tl~m the hnnts
of the wide world, are such accurate news of (?o·
vern ment ente rtained? Where so pure a morality
inculcated, and such rapid advances in ~II that ca~
adorn and elevate humanity, made, as m youth~ul
America. The nations of Europe, though c~nturies
pefore us in the order of time, :tre nearly distanced

�26

24
in the race of prosperity. In reforming their political constitutions, in tearing down the cumbrous ma~hi~er~ of remote ages, and substituting in their place,
I?stitutions better adapted to the progress of civilization. In ab0lishing complications which oppress, and
supplying simplicity which relieves; in destroying
de_spotism and establishing freedom, the example of
this west_ern Republic is exerting a mighty ard most
salutary influence. In all these important requisites
of human. happiness, the space between us and them,
can har~ly be measured by comparison. We are
young, vigorous and free, full of present e;njoyment
and radiant with hopes of the future. They old
f~eble, and enslaved, Jiving under institutions cr:1mb~
hog be~eath the hand ~f time, and heaving to their
foundat10ns under the billows of popular discontent.
Th_e same shores which received the pilgrim fathers,
flymg from shackles forged for their consciences, are
now t~e. refuge ~o~ the oppressed of every clime.
The victim of political m,urpation, he who is made to
contribute from his scanty means to support a church
whose creed carries no consolation to his bosom; th;
!over ~f freedom, and _the slave of tyranny; the starv1ng Irish, and the exiled Pole, all seek and find an
asyl?m on the shores of happy America. With these
motives to warm our hearts with gratitude towards
our creator, should we not strain every nerve tor the
fulfilment of his holy precepts? And why should not
on_e great Temple to learning be erected here on
~his spo~, associated as it is, with some of the :Uost
rnterestrng events in our history? 'Twas here the
father o[ his ~ountry resigned that sword, which had
waved m trrnmph over the fields, on which the batt~es of inde_pendence ha~ been fought. 'Twas here
he bade adieu to au~hor1ty, suppressing, if he ever
felt them, the promptrngs of ambition, and presenting
to the world a spectacle of sublimity, which never
has been eqq.alled, and never can b~ excelled.

If education is to be fostered in Maryland as its
importance demands, no location more favo.rable for
its cultivation could be selected than this. The
building now existing,_ and th~t in the course of con•
struction are seated m a plam of great extent and
unrivalled beauty. The climate of the place is un•
surpassed for salubrity, and whilst the moral co~taminntion incident to the vicinity of a large Town, 1s not
to be dreaded, the presence of the seat of Government
is full of advantages.
Every thing conspires to render St. John's a favo•
rite of the State. It was built up by the purchasers
of our freedom, whilst the storms of the revoluti~n,
were yet rocking the battlements of the Repuhhc.
It has enrolled among its alumni some of the brightest
ornaments of the nation, and continued its usefulness
to the last, though frowned.upon a~d discouraged ~y
the parent which cre~ted 1t. . It i~ endeared by its
origin; venerable for Its age; 11lustr1ous for the great
minds nurtured within it:i walls, and entitled to our
gratitude for yet striving to do good. Let us then
hope, as we do hope, that the days of its discouragement are past, and that from the walls now about to
rise, a race of virtuous and enlightened men may he
sent, who shall add new lustre to their country's glory,
until the bright star of the Republic shall scatter the
rays of liberty to the uttermost ends of the _Earth.
No maxim is more universally admitted than
that wealth and knowledge are mighty elements
of power. That nation which is possessed of these,
in the largest abundance, not onlyholds her own
liberties impregnable to the _assaults of o~hers, but
the fate of others is generally i!l her kee~rng._ Extensive territory, and a teeming popula~1~n if ~es•
titute of these resources, so far from givmg vigor
to a Government, invite aggression and encourage
rapacity. Points accessible to attack are generally
plUltiplied in proportion to territorial extent; and the
dangers of internal dissentiou are increased by the ex:4

�26
istence of a dei,se, if unenlightened, populatio
n. Iq
every nation spre ad over a large exte nt of
surface,
thr.re must, by the unalterable laws of natu
re, exis t
geographical distinctions, whic h wisdom and
patr iotism can alone appease. If these are wanting,
not only 'Yill actual diversities of inter est impel to
disunion,
~nd ensure weakqess, but inte rests only
seemingly
~onflicting, will be ia:flamed by the designin
g into irreconcilable differences. Wha t was it, but
the sound
good sense of thf' Ame rica n people, the love
of coun try and jts laws, which result from understan
ding thei r
~'Xce11ence, which saved these Unit ed Stat
es ftom
dismemberment, duri ng the rece nt violent
poli
~gitations. It was said, and no doubt believed, tical
by the
pe~ple_ of ~n imp~ rtan t division of the coun
try,
that
thei r r~ghts a~d mter ests were sacrificed
to enri ch
pthe r sections, less favored by natu re than them
selves.
The y were told that the bounties whic h Prov
iden ce
had showereq upon them with a prodigal libe
ralit y,
~ere wr~sted from thei r enjoyment by a
tyra nnic al
~ourse of legislation. Eve ry avenue by whic
h the
~urnan hear t can be appr oach ed, was assa
iled with
maddening an~ soul stirr ing appeals. The
ir
thei r interei:;ts, thei r feelings of Stat e prid e, honor,
the natural in~ignation of a gallant people at oppr
essio n,
~ere all m turn addr esse d by the eloquent
victims of
~ . fearful delus~~n. It is impossible to cont
emp late
with out shud deri ng, the consequences whic
h mig ht
have rei;µltetl fr~m th~se ~auses, if the peop
le of these
Unit ed Stat es haq not felt, and known, the
value of
pheir gove mme nt. The Halls of Congress
would in
vain hay~ rung wjth the eloquent voices of
our unfiV!U~d oratorll. Tpe ir warnings, thei r invo
cations,
the~r deep s~ga~ity, thei r solemn adjuratio
ns,
and
th!11' beseeching appeals, would have been
all, all in
yam, and the same fields on which Green
and How ~r.d had fought for thei r coun try's inde pend
pught have been crimsoned with American bloo ence ,
d shed
~y A~~ ri~a n han~s.
'

27
nd how is 1t that the English nation, for so
many
centuries, has maintained liel' ascendancy amo
ng !he
nations of Europe? Her terri tory and popu
lation
compared with many of them, ~ould, b~t
for othe r
causes plac e her far below them 1a the scale
of grea tness. 'The se causes are, her superior weal
th and
knowledge. By thei r means: s~e has not on!y
and maintained herself on a footing of equa pla~ed
lity, w1t.h
the most powerful of th_em all,_ but has been
~nal&gt;le_d
to interpose her prot ectrn g reg1~, to sa~~ them
rn thei r
extr eme st danger. The warlike spm t of
~ran_ce,
blown into an intx ting uish able flame, by the whir
lwm d
of the Revolution, and guid ed and cont:entrated
by the
matchless genius of N~poleon, threatened the
world
with universal conquest. One _after a?~t
her,
nations of Euro pe yielded to his domuuon . ~he
. I he
Alps and the 1-yrene~s, presen~ed no _obstacle
to the
victorious march of his conquerrng leg10ns,
and deat h
and desolation follo\'Ved resistance to his will.
Italy ,
the seat of th~ once prou d mistress of t_he_
wo:l d,
Spain, unmindful of the glory which ?nee d1st1
~gmshed her atnong the nations, Aust:ia, Prus
~ia, a?d
Russia with theil· countlesg armies and
imperial
scep tr;s, had all quailed before the eagles of
invincible Fran ce. In this full care er of conquest,
however,
ther e was one spot to which thei r victorivus
pinions
could neve r reach, and that was the land of
our forefathers· that island anchored in the deep, who
se wealth
and whose knowledge bid defiance to thei
r flight.
Not only did she preserve_ her own sh?res,
unprofaned by a hostile foot, thougo ever y nat10n of
Euro pe,
at one time, was leagued for her overthro
w,. but
I?ersevered in the struggle, until the star ot
the victo r
pale d before her bann er, and "the arbitP.r
of othe rs'
fates, became a supp liant for his ?Wn." _And
thes e
mig hty efforts were made, and this sple~d1d
consummation accomplished, by the potent engrnes
of wealth
and knowledge, for ''no towers or bulwarks
along the
stee p," ever were deemed necessary to tht
safety of
England.

�28
Whilst however, the power which reswlts from
i!ea]th, ex_erts a treme~dous _influence upon the destmy of _nations, tha~ which arises from superior knowledge, .1~ far more hkely to ensure thei1· happiness and
tranquility. The acquisition of the former not un•
freq~ent1y brings with it, luxuries which vitiate the
pubhc morals, and vices that contaminate the ver)
sour~es of pub]i~ vir!ue; whilst the latter expels cor•
ruphon, where 1t existed before, and purifies, as with
:fire, the foulness which preceded it. In seeking
therefore,. to better our condition, to promote ou:
own happ~ness, and a~vance the power of the nation,
let us not !n the pursuf~ of riches:, overlook the paramount ~la1ms of ed~cation; but rather, let us be doubly desirous to acquire th~ latter, that the vast energies
of the former may be directed to better and holiel'

purposes.

SUBSCR iPTIONS MADS 1'0 THJ_,; FU N.U •

The subscription mentioned in the prefatory re•
marks, was made in three, equal, annual, instalments.
It wa·s carried through the several counties on the
Western Shore. and the amount obtained, was· ten
thousand pounds.
In 1821 , at a meeting of the Alumni, in the Senate Chamber, at Annapolis, a plan of subscription
was drawn up, a condition being inserted that the
whole should be void, unless the sum of ten thousand
dollars should be obtained. Severa\ names were
subscribed upon the spot, but no agent was appointed;
the requisite sum was not obtained, and the subscrip•
tion paper has been lost. The only record of it t~at
remains, is the payment of the following sum, which
was discharged by the donor, though not required to
do so by the terms~
8200.
Isaac McKim,
for the
plan
a
exhibit
s
The following resolution
in the
now
and
1834,
in
same object, undertake n
courie of prosecution.
Resolved, by the Visitors and Governors of St.
John's College, that the Principal be authorised and
requested to collect subscriptions, payable to the
Visitors and Governors, to be applied by them, in the
erection of suitable buildings, for the accommodation
of students, and for improving and extending the
Library and Philosophical Apparatus of the College,
and that the Treasure r be authorised to pay to the
Prinitipal, the expenses he may incur, in carrying
,to effect this resolution.
Resolved, by the Visitors and Governors of St;
John's College, that the Governor of this State, His
Excellency JAMES THoMAs, and the Hon. BENJAMIN
S. FoRREST, and the Hon. THOMAS WRIGHT, 3d.

�31
members of this Board, be a committee to co-operate·
with the Principal, in making all suitable preparations
to carry into effect the resolution of the Board, to
coUect subscriptions for the benefit of this institution:
St. John's College, Feb. 15th, 1834.
COPY OF THE SUBSCRIPTIO N.

We, the subscribers, hereby agree to pay to the
Visitors and Governors of St. John's College, at Annapolis, Maryland, or order, th'e sums of money opposite our names, respectively, in two equal instalments,
to be applied in carrying into effect the foregoing
resolutions: provided, however, that this subscription
shall be void, unless at least ten thousand dollars shall
be subscribed, as aforesaid; and on the completion o{
said subscription, the first instalment above mentioned, shall become due, and the other instalment,
twelve months thereafter.
Sept. 9, 1834.
James Thomas;
William Hughlett;
Robe1·t W. Bowie,
Wm. H. Marriott,
~lexancler C. Magruder,
Henry Maynadier,
H. H. Harwood,
George Mackubin,
Dennis Claude,
Ramsay Waters,
John Johnson,
Nicholas Brewer, Jr.
Alexander Randall,
Thomas S. Alexander,
George "\\'ells,
Brice J. Worthington,
Richard Harwood, of Thos.
Richard I. Jones,
Thomas Oliver,
J. I. Cohen, Jr.
Walter Farnandis,

$500 '
300
.250
250 •·

200
200'

200
200
20()

.200
200

200
200

200
200
200
200

200
200
200
lbO

Hector Humphreys,
Robert W. Kent,
Dauiel Clarke,
Gabriel Duvall,
Fielder Cross,
William D. Bowie,
John H. Sothoron,
William Reeder,
Robert Ghiselin,
Samuel Mayn11rd,
Thomas Franklin,
R. M. Chase,
Thomas S. Culbreth,
Hyde Ray,
James Iglehart,
Swann ~ Iglehart,
George F. Worthington,
George G. B~ewer,
John B. Moms,
Andrew McLaughlin,
IJ.'homas B. Dorsey,
William G. Tilghman,
Charles Goldsborough,
John C. Henry,
Joseph E. Muse,
Henry Page,
G. C. Washington,
Benjamin S. Forrest,
J. Nevitt Steele,
Allen Thomas,
Charles W. Dorsey,
R. G. Stockett,
R. W. Dorsey,
Larkin Dorsey,
John C. Weems,
Chas. S. W. Dorsey,
Daniel !v.l urray,
John H. Alexander,
Gwinn Harris,

N. F. Williams,
'!'homas Sappington,
Thomas Snowden,
George Brown,
F. S. Key,

$100
100
100

100
100
100
100

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
JOO

100
100
100
100

100
100
100
100

100
llJO

100
JOO
JOO

100
100
100
100
100

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

100
100

�82
v·rga Maxcy,
Joseph Todhunte r
Thos. H. Carroll, ,
.Jonathan Ellicott &amp; Sons,
Francis Thomas,
John S. Sellman,
Robert H. Goldsborough
E. 8. Winder,
'
Andrew Skinner
J:is. B. Steele '
Brice J. Gold;borough
Thomas Hayward
'
William W. Eccle~ton
Chas. J. Kilgour,
'
J. H. W ilkiuson
'l'humas E. Sudl~r
J. Hughes,
'
R. I. Cowman,
John Randall,
George McNeir
Basil Shephard ,,
R..J. Crabb,
Thomas Duckett,
Jo~n. H. Waring,
W Ilham Ghiselin
J. G. Chapman, '
Leonard Iglehart,
Wm. D. Merrick,
Charles H. Steele
Wm. T. Goldsbo:ough
H. W. Evans,
'
Nathan R. Smith
Daniel Randall 2
James Wilson '
David Baruum'
James Carroll J'
Wm. Denny,
R. Potts,
John Tyler,
Benry K, Randall
Thomas J. Dorse'tt
John Iglehart,
,
A~n Iglehart,
ft1chard Marriott,

33
$100
100
100

100
100
100

50
bO
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
pO
50
60
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50
50

The names of future subscribers will be embraced
in the next Annual Report of the College, to the
Legislature, It is proposed to collect at least thirty
thousand dollars, for the above objects. The present
buildings, when completed, will be insufficient for
the purposes of the College. The old building contains all the necessary public rooms for such an establishment, being 80 feet in length, by 60 feet in
width, and three stories high, above the basement.
But a separate building is required, for the exclusive
accommodation of the GRAMMA R ScnooL. And,
should the number of students increase, according to
present prospects, a third CoLLEGE EDIFICE will
J)ecome necessary, at no distant period.

tiO

50

s

�BOA RD OF VISI TOR S AND GOV ERN
O,!IS
OF

ST. JOH N'S CO LLE GE .
His Excellency JAME S THOM AS, ex-officio Presid
ent.

Hon.
,, JOHN BUCHANAN.
JOHN STEP HEN .
" STEV ENSO N ARCH ER.
" THOMAS B. DORSEY.
" EZEK IEL F. CHAM BERS .
" C. ASA SPEN CE.
" THEODORIC IlLAND.
" JOHN G. CHAPMAN.
" WILLIAM J . .BLAKISTONE.
" JOSE PH KEN T.
" RO.BERT W. BOW IE.
ALEX AND ER C. MAG RUD ER, Esq.
SAM UEL RIDOUT, Esq.
JAME S .BOYLE, Esq.
NICHOLAS BREW ER, Esq.
HEN RY MAY NAD IER, Esq.
WILL IAM H. MAR RIOT T, Esq.
THO. MASH . CARROLL, Esq.
THOMAS S. ALEX AND ER, Esq.
JOHN N. WAT KINS , Esq.
THO.MAS FRAN KLIN , Esq.
RAM SAY WAT ERS, Esq.
DR. DENN IS CLAU DE, Esq.
NICHOLAS BREW ER, JR. Eiq.
JERE MIAH HUG HES, Esq.
GIDEON WHI TE, Esq.
ALEX AND ER RAN DALL , Esq.
JOSE PH H. NICHOLSON, Esq.
JOHN JOHNSON, Esq.
TRE ASU RER ,

GEOR GE ~1ACKUBIN, Esq.
SECR ETAR Y.

GEOR GE WELLS, E;11.

FA CU LT Y.

Rev. HEC TOR HUMPHREYS, D. D.,
PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF MORAL SCIEN
CE.

JULIUS T. DUCATEL, M. D.,
PROFE SSOR OF CHEM ISTRY , JIIINER
ALOGY , AND GEOLO GY.

EDW ARD SP ARKS, 1\1. D.,
PROFE SSOR OF .ANCIE NT LANGU AGES,

THOMAS E. SUDLER, A. .M.,
:ilRO.F.ESiOR OF IIIATH EMAT ICS AND
CIVIL ESGIN EERfl' \'O.

WILLIAM B. LEAR Y, A. M.,
PROFE SSOR OF GRAlll MAR.

CHA RLES T. FLUSSER, Esq.,
PROFE SSOR OF .l\ICIDE RN LANG UAGE
S.

�37
JUNIO R CLASS
RESIDEN CE,

NAMES,

CATAL OGUE OF THE STUDE N1'S
OF

ST. JOHN 'S COLL EGE.
1835.

•

George B. Dunkel,
John Buchanan Hall,
John W. Martin,
Joseph Trapnell,
Trueman Tyler,

•

CLASS GRADUATED, FEBRUARY 21st, 1835.
NAlllES.

RESIDEN CE,

THOMAS HOLME HAGNER, A. B.
ABRAM CLAUDE, A. B.
EDWIN BOYLE, A. B.
RICH.A.RD SMtTH CULBRETH, A. B.
RICHARD CREAGH MACKUBIN, A. B.
RICHARD WEEMS, English Diploma,

Washington City.
.llnnapolis.
.llnnapolis,
Caroline County.
.llnnapolis.
.llnne Jlrundel Co,

•
SENIO R CLASS .
NAlllES.

Thomas Granger,
George Grundy ,
William R. Hayward,
Joshua D. Johnson
George F. Johnson',
George Edward Musa,
William I. Reder
John H. Reeder '
' .
Henry W. Thomas
Franklin Weems
' gton,
Nicholas B. Worthin

St. J\fary's County,
Charles County.
Baltimore City.
Washington County.
Cambridge,
Frederick.
Prince George's County .

John M. Bt·ome,
Frederic k S. Brown,

SOPHO MORE CLASS .
RESIDEN CE.

NAMES,

William Tell Claude,
Marius Duvall,

Jlnnapolis.
Do

lJavid Edgar,
Thomas Iglehart,
Charles N. Mackuhin,

Jlnne Jlrimdel Comity.

Baltimore City.
.flnnapolis.

Do
Baltimore County.

William C. Thompson,
Edward Worthington,

•

RESIDEN CE.

FRESH MAN CLASS.
Queen .llnne's County.
Baltimo re City.
Cambri.dge
Frederick.
.fl,mapolis,
Cambridge.
Baltimore City.
no
St. Mctry's County.
Ellcridge.
.llnne .flrundel County,

NAMJ,:S,

RESIDEN CE.

.llrmapolis.
John M. Brewer,
Do
Philip Culbreth,
.
Elkridge
Cale Iii Dorsey,
Do
"William H. G. Dorsey,
Do
John Thomas B. Dor11ey,
.llnnapolis.
John W. Duval!,
Calt•ert County.
Thomas C. Gantt,
Somerset County.
Benjamin Gray,

�38

39

Reverdy Ghisclin,
Jeremiah L. Hughes,
Richard II ughl ett,
Thomas R. Kent,
Absa'om Ridgely,
William C, Tuck,

Prince George's County.
.!lrmapolis.
Talbot County.
.!Jnne .!lrnndel County,
.linnapolis,

Brice J. Worthington,

.!lnne .llrundel County.

Do

B. Thos. B. W orthin 0o-ton.

D&lt;J

•
PARTIAL STUDENTS.
NAMES,

R E SIDE N CE.

WiJli11m R. Goodman
Edwin E. Pratt,

.llnnapolis.
Queen Jlnne's County.
.llnne .llrundet County,

'

Samuel Ridout,

•
STUDENTS

IN THE

NAJIIES.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
RESIDENCE,

George Barrott,
John Basil,
Robert Bowie,
Lewellin Boyle,
Jeremiah T. Chase

J0hn Clayton,
1-lenry Duvall,

'

Richard R. Gaither ,
Alexander H. Gambrill
Benjamin H. Hall,
Dennis D. Hart
Benjamin Harwood,
George S. Ilumphrevs,
John T. E. Hyde,

'

Washingto,1 City.
Jlnnapolis.
Prince George's County,
.linnapc,l is.
Do

Do
Do
Do
Do
Jlnne .lirundel County.
.!lnnapolis.
Jlnne .lirundtl Count y,
.IJ,mcipolis .

Do

Edward G, Maynard,
Walter McNeir,
George McNeir,

Amiapolis.
Do

Nicholas Holland,
James McNeir,

Washington City.
Annapolis,

George Miller,
Edward C. Mills,

Thomas McParlin,
Henry M. Murray,
Horatio S. Ridout,
Samuel Ricrout,
Richard Ridgely,
Allred G. Ridgely,
William Ridgely,
Richard H. Schwarar,
Francis H. Stockett,

John T. Taylor,
;)ennis C. Thompson,
James C Welch,

Do
Do
Jlnne .flrundel County.
Jlnnapol is.
Do
Jlnne Jlrundel County,
Jlnnapolis.

Do
Do
Do
Do
Anne .llrundel County.
.finnapolis.

Do

Levin Winder,
James M. Winder,
Charles F. Worthington,

Do
Easton.
Do
.finne .11.rundel County;

Nathan Moore,
John G, Gamble,

Baltimore City.
Weelaunee, Florida.

~dam Smith,
Allan Quynn,

Baltimore City.
.finnapolis.

�41
SOPHOMORE CLA.SS.
FIRST TERM,

f0.URSE ~F STUDIES, EXPENSBS, &amp;c!

Juvenal, ( Leverett's.)
Homer'&amp; Iii ad, (Robinson's.}
Plane Geometry, (Legendre's.)
SECOND TERM,

Pl:tEPARATORY STU;DIES, VIZ:

;English G:rammar; Geography; Arithmetick; Latin Gram'Q
~ar; C?rderms~ lEsop's Fables; Eras ,, us; C~sar's Com~
men~anes, '!r _Sallu~t; Eclogues, and first six books of th~
1En_e1d, of V1rg1l; Cicero's Orations; Mair's Introduction, or
L aun Tutor; Greek Grammar; Greek Delectus; and Jacob's
Greek Reader, and Prosody.
•
Pupils not intending to enter College will als b
• t
h E 1· h '
,
o e rece1v•
e d m o t e , ng 1~ Departm~nt, and will pursue such
·t
~ranches of Education, embraced in the course as
Jheir particular views.
' ' iµay sui

Cicero de Oratore, or Quintilian.
Grreca Majora, (Odyssey and Hesiod.)
Solid Geometry, (Legendre's.)
THIRD TERM.

Rhetorick and Belles Lettres.-(Whateley.)
Grreca Majora.-(Tragedians.)
Logarithms; Plane and Spherical Trigonometry:
Exercises in original Compositidn and Elocution, during
the year.

•
JUNIOR CLASS.

P O ~ L E G I ~ 'I' E

COU R s E .

FRESHMAN CLAS$. ·
FIRST .T ERM.

,olsom's Livy.
Prreca Majora-(Xenophon Herodotus Thucyd' d J
preek and Roman 'Antiquiti;s, History, ~nd Myth~l!;y.
SECOND TERM.

1Jorace, (~des.) 'firgil's Georgicks.
1rreca MaJ?ra, (Lysias, Demosthenes Isocrates )
_ gebra, with Arithmetic revised.
'
• •

FIRST TERM,

Grreca Majora. (Minor Poets.)
Applications of Trigonometry to the Mensuration of Heights
. and Distances, Navigation, Surveying, Levelling, 4-'c.
Moral Philosophy.
Abercrombie's Intellectual Powers.
SECOND TERM ,

Tacitus.-(History.)
Conick Sections.
Chemistry, with Lectures. (Turner's.)

G
,
A

TH!RD TEJ.UI.

Hora~,,, (Satires and Epistles.)
GAlrreca ~ajora, (Xenophon's Memorabilia Plato )
gebra completed.
'
•
raus!at!ons, Them~s, and Declamations du~ing the y~ar,.

'f

THIRD TERM.

Tacitus-(Manners of the Germans, and Life of Agricola.)
Natural Philosophy, with Lectures. (Olmsted's:)
Elements of Criticism, with Lectures on the Frne Arts.. (Karnes')
Debates, Compositions, and Declamations, during the year•
6

�42

43

SENIOR CLASS.

EXPENSE S.

FIRST TERM.

Natural l?hilosophy, finished, with Lectures. (Olmsted's.)
Horace, De Arte Poetica; with Lecturns on Taste, and a
Revision of Latin.
J,qgic, and Philosophy of the Mind. (Whateley's.)
SECOND TERM.

Astronomy-wi th Lectures. (Cambridge.)
Political Economy-with Lectures. (Say's.)
~vidences of Christianity and Natural Theology. (Paley's.)
THIRD TERM.

Laws of Natwns-Consti tution, and Civil and PDlitical

History ot the United States. (Kent.)
Butter's Analogy.
Civil Engineering-(c onstruction of Machines, Bridges,
Roads, Canals, &amp;c.)
Mineralogy and Geology. (Shepard's.)
))ec:amat1ons of Original Pieces, Extemporaneou s Debates,
• and Exercises in Criticism, during the year.
The study of the Modern Languages, shall be so arranged
~snot materially to interfere with the College course.
The officers of instruction, will endeavor to make the
horough as possible; and in no case will
course of study as t_
a Scholar be allowed to pass, to an advanced standin"', till
he _shall _have sustained all the previous examinations, to the
~atisfasllon of the Faculty.
Full Courses of Lectures are delivered to th€' classes on
(;hemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, and on Natural Philosophy and Astronomy.
. The State Cabinet of Minerals, collected by the Geolo~
gist of Mary Ian~, is deposited in the College, anJ may be
us~d, together with the College Cabinet, which ot !!self is
quite respectable, in illustrating the Lectures on Miner.1logy
~nd ~eology.

The College Bills are payable quarterly, in advance, as
ol lows, viz:
$24 per annum.
English Department,
do.
40 do.
Preparatory Classes,
do.
Freshman and Sophomore Classes, 40 do,
do.
50 do.
Senior and Junior Classes,
The above Bills include all extras.
No Commons are established; but board may be had in
.
private families, for $120 per annum.
Parents and Guardians are requested to place all momes
intended for the use of the students, in the hand~ of ~ne ?f
th p ofessors who will exercise a parental discret10n, 10
th:ir ~isburse~1ent; and lhe following ~aw o~ the ~late,
passed December session, 1834, is published for the rntor•
mation of all persons concerned.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General .lissembly of .Jl,faryland, That no person or persobn~ shall ~'!Ve cre?htt tot atnhy
e
Student of St. John's College, emg a mrn~r, wit ou
consent, in writing, of his Parent or Guarclian, or ?f such
Officer or Officers of the College, as may be authorised by
the government thereof, to act in such cases, except for
.
,,
washing or medical aid,
Sec. 2. .find be it enacted, I hat if any_ person or person$
shall give credit to any minor as afotesa1d, c~ntrary to the
provisions of this act, he or they shall fo~fe1t and pay to
the Treasurer of the H' estern Shore of this State, a sum
not Jess than tv,enty, nor more than three hundre~ doll~rs,
according to the nature of the offence, and at tl!e d1scret1on
of the Court of Anoe Arundel Countr, which may be
recovered in any proper nction, before said Court.
Sec. 3. .!lnd be it enacted, That it s~all be the duty of
the Attorney General of this State, or _his Deputy, on the
complaint of any of the Officers aforesaid, to prosecute for
all violations of this act.

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                    <text>Being a Book
I
A book is a small, hard, rectangular object, whose pages are bound
along one edge into fixed covers and numbered consecutively.
This description of a book is not mine. I borrow it from a lecture by tutor Eva
Brann, who borrowed it from an essay by the novelist Paul Scott, who borrowed
it from a talk on the BBC.1
It is better borrowed, I think, than improved upon, at least in clarity. Once
Scott is done with it, this hard rectangular object has become “a canvass that
doesn’t exist.” In other words, “a formless, almost indefinable area of consciousness.” In still other words, “the area of contact for the meeting of minds, the
clash, the confrontation of wills and visions, and of physical and intellectual impressions of reality—the writer’s and the reader’s.”2 Miss Brann is briefer but no
less extravagant about the book’s metamorphosis. In her words it becomes “a
special kind of body made to be inhabited by a curious kind of frozen but fusible
soul, a body fit to mediate its own peculiar life.”3
I will not attempt my own metaphysics of a book tonight. But I do want
to ask why a book admits of metaphysics, and perhaps even requires it. What
makes the being of a book elusive when the book itself is so easy to grasp? We
can pull one off a shelf, as if it belonged to the furniture of the world; yet when
we open it up and begin to read we are carried somewhere else, as if the book
were otherworldly. In one sense it may have remained a small, hard, rectangular
object, with pages bound into covers and numbered consecutively. But all this
has vanished in another sense. And what has taken its place, as the book being
held is now being read, is difficult to describe.
Nor is this the only difficulty. Consider what becomes of the book being read
if read, say, for seminar. Just before the seminar begins there seem to be many
books on the table. Yet once the opening question is asked it is as if there is only
1

Scott’s borrowing of the description appears in “The Architecture of the Arts: The Novel
(1967)” in My Appointment with the Muse: Essays, 1961–75, ed. Shelly C. Reese (Heinemann: London, 1986), 78. Scott credits the description to Bernard Bergonzi. Brann’s borrowing appears in
“What is a Book?” St. John’s Review XLI, no. 1 (1991–2): 78. (Note: the Review sources this to a
lecture given in September 1991, but a reprint of the lecture itself dates it August 30 of that year.)
A version of it is also currently available on the website of the Imaginative Conservative.
2
Scott, 80
3
Brann, 88.

1

�one book on the table. And in the conversation that follows, with a movement
of its own that yet involves the text, perhaps the very idea of a book on the table
is best given up. But given up for what? What happens to a book at this college
every Monday and Thursday night?
Behind this question I have both a hunch and a hypothesis. The hunch is that
St. John’s is less committed to books, even the greatest books, than to the being
of a book—any book. Put a different way: there is no Canon of Great Books at the
College that we read each in turn; there is only the book in front of us, whatever
it may be and wherever it may lead. I will come back to this hunch later in the
lecture. But I begin with the hypothesis: The being of a book becomes elusive
once the book contains words and in some sense is composed of them.
I say “in some sense” because how words compose a book will become the
question of the lecture. But that there are words in a book at all seems already a
source of elusiveness. If we could erase its words, making the book blank, then it
might be but a kind of rectangle. We could count the number of books in seminar
the way we might count the number of chairs and leave it at that. The trouble
starts when the words go unerased: the book’s pages left full of print, giving a
reader something to do. Even the words on its cover, announcing the title and
author, are enough to complicate what a book is. No longer just a book, it is now
the copy of a book, in something like the way the chairs in seminar are copies of
a model. We are all sitting in a Johnnie chair, with Homer’s Iliad in front of us,
even before the opening question is asked.
Yet it would seem strange to say we were all sitting in the same Johnnie chair,
as if there were only one chair in the room. So why is it not so strange to say we
all have Homer’s Iliad in front of us, as if there were only one book in the room?
Especially once the opening question is asked and more words from inside the
book are read out loud? The answer, again, seems to be the words, making one
book out of every copy in the room. And at least this much happens to a book
every seminar night: a rectangle made of pages becomes a more elusive thing
made of words.
II
How elusive is exemplified by the Iliad. Once upon a time the work existed
only in song, and was first written down not in pages but on a scroll. In ironic
recollection of this perhaps some of us prepared for seminar using an e-book or
audiobook on the sly, getting through the work without turning a single actual
page.
2

�Then there is the question of translation. All of us, even tutors, likely read the
Iliad for seminar in translation. The copies in the seminar room are mostly translations, each made of its own words throughout. In one the Iliad begins: “Sing,
goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation. . . .” In another:
“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed. . . .” In
still another: “Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles. . . .”4
These three beginnings, three of many, proceed word-by-word to their respective
ends; yet they are all taken up in our conversation about the Iliad as if they were
the Iliad. But what in that case is the Iliad? Or any book in translation? It
would seem to be certain words in a certain order, without having to be only
these words in this order. The same book might be made of different words in a
different order. But how? How can a book be made of words in more than one
way?
Perhaps we should insist, against this question, that translations of a book
are merely translations. They are translations, that is, of some original text, composed of those words in that order. The first word of Homer’s Iliad, then, is not
“sing” or “rage” or “Goddess,” nor indeed any word in English, no matter how
well-chosen. The first word is μῆνιν, as we learn soon enough in the language
tutorial. We also likely learn how some translations of a text are more literal than
others—translations that sound like translations—and even learn to prefer them
when the language of the original is out of reach. A good translation puts the
original in reach, which is a different thing from replacing it. And translations,
then, can be made of words in many ways, but the original only in one.
Even so, is this original what we mean, what we ought to mean, by the book?
Or can a book still exist, and even thrive, in translation? The question put this
way can sound almost rhetorical, as if books flourished in translation as a matter
of course—across our Program’s reading list. Where would we be if the translation of a book could never become the book? And in calling it a “translation”
we distinguish it not simply from some original text, but from any paraphrase
of that text. We distinguish it, that is, from any series of words merely about
the text. The series we deem a translation, even if it differs from the text, has
somehow become the text. Or at least become as close to the text, as joined to
the text, as “at one” with the text, as words that differ from the text allow.
In translations, then, we confront just how elusive the being of a book can be.
We also encounter one way—to recall my hunch—that St. John’s is committed to
4

The first is from the Lattimore translation, the second from the Fagles, and the third from
the recent Emily Wilson translation.

3

�this being, in its commitment to translations as books. Our copy of the Iliad can
have the name of a translator on its cover; yet the author, we believe, remains
Homer. The word “μῆνιν” can be replaced by “sing”; yet the book, we believe, is
still Homer’s Iliad rather than becoming Lattimore’s. A book, so our Program
claims, can be made of words in many ways, even if first made in one.
The word “first” in this formulation could also be questioned if we take a
different view of good translations. On this view, translations should not sound
like translations, lest they put the original forever out of reach. For the original
presumably sounds original. Not that we could know what words in what order
would compose the Iliad, say, in English, if this were Homer’s native tongue. But
we could guess, I think, that this Iliad would not sound like a literal translation
from the Greek. And this suggests that good translations sound original. If so,
then it seems a book can be made of words in many ways, where every such way
is like the first.
III
Yet even this much elusiveness in a book can seem a special matter of translation.
Consider the seminar night in several weeks, just after spring vacation, when
juniors will walk in the room and put their copies of Jane Austen on the table.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
These words in this order will begin the book in every copy, followed by the same
words in the same order until the end. What could be elusive about that? The
pagination might differ from copy to copy, but there seems nothing to trouble us
in the words. And the words are enough to make every copy identical. In this
case, where none of the copies are translations, it seems that a book is made of
words in only one way.
But I think we can question even this. We can ask how a book is made of
words even in one way, given something that just happened in my lecture. I
quoted the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice. The quotation, too, is made of
those words in that order. So what is the one way the sentence in the book
is made of them? Or if this sentence depends on the rest of the book, let the
quotation be as long as the book, made of all those words in just that order. What
is the one way the book is made of them, to distinguish it from its quotation?
Why is a quotation of the book not the book?
4

�There are two reasons, I think, to consider this question more significant
than it might seem at first. One harks back to my hunch about St. John’s, and
its commitment to the being of a book. The commitment, in this context, is to
the way that any book escapes its own quotation. For where would we be if the
quotation of a book could ever become the book? For us, the difference between
unquoted words and quoted ones is the difference between the texts we read and
the texts we don’t. In the latter texts—call them secondary texts—the books we
might read are merely quoted. So read them we do, to see for ourselves what
they say. For us, therefore, the quotation of a book is definitively not the book.
Yet why this is so is also hard to say—a second reason to think the question
significant. The question even becomes paradoxical if we frame it in light of our
commitment to books in translation. For what is it about a book that allows it
to become its translation but never its quotation? What prevents the book from
being made of the same words in the same order, if it can be made of different
words in a different order?
To make this question easier on myself, I revert to the form it took at first:
why is a quotation of the book not the book? Even in this form I find the question
hard to answer; I make three attempts in the rest of this lecture before giving up.

Attempt number one. A quotation of the book is not the book because the words
in the quotation are borrowed from the book, while the words of the book belong
to it. So much do they belong that if words are taken from the book without
quotation we consider it an act of theft. This is another way we credit the book
with being original: a source for the quotation like the source for any translation.
Yet unlike translations, and the way they can seem original, quotations seem
derivative. Quotation marks announce as much, as do the other ways we have—
like indentation—to frame the quotation as derivative. Erase the frame and let
the words go unquoted; it is now as if we have a copy of the text itself. And
perhaps in this we find the one way a book is made of its words. The words can
go unquoted in the book because they are original to the book. They have their
origin in the book. They come from the book.
But something in this answer has gone awry. For how can words come from a
book if it is made of them, and therefore comes from them? The words in a book
must come from somewhere else if the book is to be made at all. And in one
respect this somewhere else is prosaic. A book is made of words that separately
come from the dictionary and together from the rules of grammar. In another
5

�respect—at least for books that transcend the prosaic—the somewhere else is a
mystery. If we believe the first line of the Iliad, the words in such books come
from a goddess—and only after pleading. Even the greatest book has to beg for
its words when none are good enough to borrow or steal. To seem original is to
be inspired.
And while it might take a muse to write such a book, to print the book only
takes a typesetter. The somewhere else in this direction is less a mystery and
more a certainty. A series of words becomes a sequence of symbols: the letters
of the alphabet and a handful of punctuation marks. What is possible in a book
is thus reduced from something uncountable in words to thirty symbols or so.
And this reduction effectively determines what the book can be in advance. If
we count the symbols, assigning to each a different number, we have a way of
counting their sequence in the book; and can translate the book into a number.
There is no printable book that is not, in this sense, already a number. And one
of them is a copy of Pride and Prejudice. So while in another direction its words
come from who knows where, in this direction its words come from a counting
number. There is nothing original left for the book to be, despite how it seems.
But what then explains how it seems? The quotation of a book still looks
made of borrowed words and the book made of words that belong. And this
sense of belonging, again, is especially strong at St. John’s. Let the words in all
our books come from somewhere else; they still go into the books unquoted, as if
there the words had found their home, and could only pay visits to other books
in quotation. In this sense, we might say that the quotation of a book always
belongs to a different book. But why? Or again: what makes the quotation of a
book not the book?
Here is my second attempt to answer the question. If we read a book to see
for ourselves what it says, perhaps what it says can never be quoted. There is
another use of quotation to suggest as much. To begin with a simple example,
compare the following sentences:
1. Annapolis is the capital of Maryland.
2. Annapolis is nine letters long.
In the second sentence, a copy-editor would want me to put quotation marks
around “Annapolis,”
2. “Annapolis” is nine letters long,
6

�to distinguish the name of the city, which is nine letters long, from the city, which
is not nine letters long. But quoting a word, in that case, is not a way of saying
the word; it is rather a way to speak of the word.
This use of quotation is not limited to single words. We can, for example, put
all the words from the first sentence between quotation marks,
“Annapolis is the capital of Maryland”
and now speak of the sentence rather than say it. Since the sentence is six words
long, we can say that of it:
3. “Annapolis is the capital of Maryland” is six words long.
Or in a less contrived example, I might speak of the sentence as something that
amused me when I heard one of my daughters say it:
4. “Annapolis is the capital of Maryland,” my five-year old explained, as if she
were a tour-guide during our walk downtown.
Or to move from the invented to the actual in a last example, consider the first
use of quotation in Pride and Prejudice:
5. “My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that
Netherfield Park is let at last?”
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
Austen quotes the question but not the reply, artfully turning the reply into a
kind of comment on the question, leaving the impression of a knowing husband
and unknowing wife.
None of these examples involves the quotation of one text in another text, but
the abstraction from speech in textual quotation is arguably the same. The quoted
words are never said, only spoken of. Perhaps the clearest example of the effect
at St. John’s is in a seminar paper too full of quotations. The quoted passages
start to look like filler, saying nothing, even when the unquoted passages are
central to the book, saying everything. Another example of the effect is in the
typical Friday Night lecture that includes quotations. It is tempting to put the
quotations on a handout, or even on a screen—as if a quotation were meant to
be seen rather than said.
In light of this account, we can revisit Pride and Prejudice and distinguish the
book from its quotation definitively. Consider the first sentence again.
7

�It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
In the book, those words in that order are not just a sentence but an utterance.
In quotation, however, the sentence is separated from the utterance, allowing
us to carry the sentence out of the book. There is no difference, then, between
quoting the first sentence and calling it the first sentence: in neither case is the
sentence said; it is only spoken of. Similarly, there is no difference between
quoting every sentence in the book and calling the book by its title: the title is
another way, if briefer way, to speak of every sentence in turn. Only in the book
is every sentence in turn not spoken of but said, in an act of narration rather than
quotation.
We can generalize this difference to encompass any book. The quotation of
a book is not the book in the same way the title of a book is not the book. In
both, the book has yet to speak. This is why we have to read the book to see
what it says. This is also why a book can become its translation but never its
quotation. The one way a book is made of its words is in being made of words
that can speak. These might become different words that can speak—the goal of
any good translation—but quotation renders the words speechless.
Yet something in this answer too has gone awry. For one thing, it is hard not
to read quoted words as spoken words, especially in a narrative like the novel.
Consider again the first use of quotation from Pride and Prejudice, but lengthened
to include the quoted words of Mr. Bennet—as if he were finally forced to speak
in reply to his importunate wife:
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard
that Netherfield Park is let at last?”
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
“But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she
told me all about it.”
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
“Do not you want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife, impatiently.
“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”
This was invitation enough.
Not only do the quoted words seem to speak, they seem to speak in the voices of
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. It is as if quotation made speech possible in a written text.
8

�This is underlined by the final line of narration—“this was invitation enough.”
For this is an invitation to speak but in the form of quotation: wife replying to
husband as husband has replied to wife. To speak in reply, moreover, is to speak
of what was said. At least in conversation, then, to speak of what was said is not
an abstraction from speech; it is a condition of speech.
The abstraction from speech in this example rather lies in the unquoted words
of narration. For in what sense is the narrator invited to speak? Who is the
narrator, and where, to speak of what either spouse has said? At what place or
time, for that matter, and by whom, are the unquoted words in a book ever said?
It seems they need no speaker to say them; they need only be written down and
read. But in that case perhaps the unquoted words in a book are never said. A
book would then be made of words that can never speak, in being liberated, once
inside the book, from every circumstance of speech.
Consider, too, how if the words in a book could speak—literally speak—there
would be no point in learning to read. Every book would be an audiobook as soon
as we opened it. It is because the opened book is silent that reading becomes a
need. And learning it, for most of us, is not like learning to speak. The task is
difficult enough to need schooling and important enough to seem liberating. In
these respects, learning to read is arguably the first form a liberal education takes.
It may even be the only form, if a liberal education is made of books. But books,
in turn, are made of words that have to be read to be heard. In this sense, at least,
a book does seem made of unspoken words.
We might identify these words with the silence on the St. John’s campus
as a seminar book is being read, before it can be discussed. In discussion, by
contrast, the book is not read but quoted. This again suggests something gone
awry, even backwards, in my second attempt to distinguish quotation from book.
For quotation now looks like a kind of speech, leaving the book in a kind of
silence. But what kind of silence? And distinguished from what kind of speech?
Or again: what makes the quotation of a book not the book?
We come to my third attempt to answer the question. This time I return to where
I began the lecture:
A book is a small, hard, rectangular object, whose pages are bound
along one edge into fixed covers and numbered consecutively.
Words go unmentioned in this description of a book, as if it were blank. Yet the
book is not blank: its pages are numbered consecutively. It is as if a book were
9

�made of numbers rather than words. But is it not made of words—my hypothesis
all along?
Perhaps not. Consider what a book can become in the act of quotation:
“Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions, and can
never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
Mr. Harrell, where are you quoting from?
Oh. This is Hume. His Treatise. Page 266.
Mr. Harrell, I don’t have your edition.
Oh. Let’s see. I’m quoting from Book 2, Part 3, Section 3; the secondto-last sentence of paragraph . . . 4.
Something like this happens every time we quote from a book in seminar. We
take words out of the book to form the quotation, and what is left in the book
is their location. In this sense, a book does seem made of numbers. The quotation, in turn, is not made of numbers. It is made of only words—the words that
quotation has dislocated from the book. Could this be why the quotation of a
book is not the book? The quotation is made of words, while the book is made
of numbers.
This answer to the question is more plausible, I think, than it might sound
at first. For one thing, it makes sense of a book’s silence, in the unspoken but
countable order of its words. For another thing, reading is arguably an act of
counting. What else explains the puzzling thing that happens in every seminar?
Sooner or later someone will read words from the book out loud. And while the
rest of us could just look up and listen, many of us do not. We try to find the
words in the book and read them for ourselves, even as they are being read to
us by someone else. And the numbers in a book get us only so far. Page 266;
or for those with a different edition: Book 2, Part 3, Section 3, Paragraph 4—the
numbers allow us to reach the page of the words, even the paragraph. But to get
any closer, we have to stop counting by number and start counting by letter. Yet
what is counting by letter but reading the words the letters form? And once we
reach the words being quoted, counting by letter means reading those words for
ourselves. A book would then be made of numbers even when made of words.
Could this be the one way a book is made of its words? It is made of words we
count—those words in that order, from a first word to a last.
As much as I like this answer, it too arguably goes awry by having lost the
plot. True, the letters printed in a book may come in countable order to form
the words, just as the words come in countable order to form the sentences; as
10

�do the sentences to form the paragraphs, the sections, the chapters—and finally,
the book. Nonetheless, when we read all those words in just that order, it is not
to count them but to understand them. Or at least try to understand them; for it
is possible not to understand them, or to misunderstand them, prompting us to
read them again. But we read them again to understand them better.
We even have a word—interpretation—for the act of understanding that reading involves. The two are so close that “reading” has become almost a synonym
for “interpretation.” In this sense, reading a book elicits a reading of the book.
And reading a book at St. John’s means having a reading of the book to talk about.
Or even readings, plural—the one way, perhaps, there remain many books on the
seminar table. Here is how we put it in our Statement of the Program:
The books speak to us in more than one way. In raising the persisting questions, they lend themselves to different interpretations that
reveal a variety of independent yet complementary meanings.5
Notice too, on this account, how the books are able to speak. A speaking
book, even if we take it metaphorically, suggests something else gone awry in
my answer, where it was the quotation that speaks, leaving the book in a kind
of silence. But is there any difference between silence and speech when it comes
to understanding the book? Those words in that order remain the same, written
or spoken. And our understanding of them might well be improved if someone
else is doing the reading, allowing us to close the book and truly listen to what
it says. What else explains why we call the audiobook a book, and even use it
to get our seminar readings done? Or how we fell in love with certain books as
children, even before we learned to read?
But where does this leave us, then, with the book’s quotation? Perhaps it is
not really different from the book, after all. At least if by “quotation,” we mean
anything in the book that can be read out loud, and more or less understood. Let
our act of quotation remove all of this from the book. What is left for the book
to be? Perhaps nothing.
IV
Even if there were something, I am not, given the time, about to make a fourth
attempt to distinguish the quotation of a book from the book. It is also true that
5

Statement of the St. John’s College Program, 2. The current statement is available on the
St. John’s College website.

11

�the quotation of a book, like its translation, can seem like a special case. What
could be elusive about a book if we leave it unquoted, as well as untranslated?
Think again of those copies of Jane Austen that juniors will put on their seminar
table in several weeks, every copy having the same words in the same order. In
this identity, it seems we can tell the one way a book is made of its words, from
a first word to a last, before this way gets obscured by the book’s translation or
quotation.
Even so, there is also the book’s interpretation, which is not a special case. It
happens as soon as we read the book, and make any sense of what it says. And
we can ask what reading does to the book. In one sense, clearly nothing; the
words remain unchanged. This is why we can predict that every copy of Austen
will be identical, and why we can call it a copy of Austen, as if the words of Pride
and Prejudice belonged to the writer of the book.
But in another sense, reading the book does something to it—something so
radical that Pride and Prejudice will soon belong to its readers among the juniors. And copies on the seminar table—at least the copies not borrowed from
the library—will likely bear the marks of this ownership, even before the conversation starts. Certain sentences underlined; a whole paragraph bracketed; a
page-number circled; the page itself bookmarked. Then the marks in the margins:
a question mark, a check mark, an exclamation point; even a word or phrase written out, a whole sentence crowded in, possibly several at the page’s top or bottom.
On a blank page in the front or back, we might even find an outline.
To this legible extent, we could say that reading the book thickens the book,
at least by every reader with a pen in hand. But this is only prelude to how
reading the book lengthens the book, once the opening question is asked. For
at that point, we each put our reading of the book into words of our own. And
unlike the words of the writer, which come in order from first to last, there is
no such order from first to last in the words of the reader. Not that the outcome
is chaos; the outcome is conversation. And after that, perhaps an essay on the
book, followed by more conversation in the oral.
But this, then, is another way that the reader’s words differ from the writer’s:
for the writer has the last word in a way that the reader never will. The book
is lengthened by the reader to some indefinite point. We could even call it an
infinite point—at least for any book about which there is always more to write,
more to say, more to think. And with a book like Pride and Prejudice, we can
make the difference in length precise. The words of the writer make this book
about twelve hours long, using the average running time of an audiobook. But
the book has been lengthened, since its publication date, by the words of every
12

�reader, to make it two hundred and ten years long—and counting.
If we accept this difference in length as real—and I only have time enough
left in the lecture to run with it—then it looks as if a book is always made of its
words in two ways rather than one. One way is by the writer, whose words make
the book a finite thing. But the other way is by the reader, whose words make
the book an infinite thing.
This difference seems to hold even if the reader remains silent. For what
happens, exactly, when we pull the book off a shelf, open it up, and begin to read?
Are we carried somewhere else—my earlier way of putting it? Or are we glued
to a chair with our nose in the book—which is how it would look to anyone else?
And what of the book itself? Does it remain a small, hard, rectangular object,
with pages bound into covers? Or does it become like a canvass that doesn’t
exist? The dichotomy in these questions is essentially between the finite and
the infinite. Or if you prefer: between the bound and the unbound. And the
difference is made by the words. Do they bind the book to its pages, and the
reader in turn? Or do they free the book from its pages, and the reader in turn?
Suppose the answer is “yes” to both. Could this be how the words of a book
make its being elusive—to recall my hypothesis? The elusive, in this case, would
involve a contradiction in the words, and the way they limit the book at the same
time they liberate the book. My hypothesis, put this way, also allows me to recast
my hunch. Perhaps St. John’s is committed to the contradiction in a book—the
contradiction, more exactly, that is a book. If so, there ought to be signs of how
we live in the contradiction.
Here are two, I think. One is the conversation of a seminar, which at our
college replaces the lecture given by a professor nearly everywhere else. What
makes this kind of conversation possible? What is it about a book that can
prompt a discussion of what it means, in place of any account? One thing—to
recall a claim I quoted from our Statement—is that the books speak to us in more
than one way. We seem to rely on this in seminar. For what if a book could only
say the same thing to every reader in the room? The conversation would be at
best a quoting of the book back and forth.
But consider a second claim we make in our Statement—a claim that seems
to contradict the first—to explain the point of seminar:
The books can only repeat what they have to say, without furnishing
the clarifications that we desire. To overcome this limitation is the
goal of the St. John’s seminar.6
6

Statement, 2.

13

�We also seem to rely on this in seminar. For what if a book could only say a
different thing to every reader in the room? The conversation would be at best
a trading of translations by sight. It can only be a conversation, then, if the
book says the same thing to every reader in the room at the same time it says
a different thing to every reader in the room. And we live in this contradiction
every Monday and Thursday night.
But not only those nights. For a second sign of our life in contradiction comes
from the book itself. This replaces the lecture of a professor even before the
conversation begins. We read the book to see for ourselves what it says, with no
need to hear it from anyone else. So peculiar is our commitment to the book in
this respect that there exists in nearly every book we read an introduction we
skip. But what makes this kind of reading possible? What is it about a book that
can prompt a discovery of what it means, in place of any account? If we are not
to read such an account, then it seems the book has to answer the question of
what it means—completely. Yet if we are not to write such an account, then it
seems the book has to raise the question of what it means—perpetually. Perhaps
this explains the difference between the writer’s words and the reader’s. In the
answer of what is meant, there is a last word in the writing of the book. But in
the question of what is meant, there is no last word in the reading of the book.
And when we are not living in this contradiction through conversation about the
book, we are living in it through the book itself.
V
Or so the idea I have been running with would suggest of our commitment, if a
book is always made of its words in two ways at once. There is no time left for me
to question this final part of my lecture. But I do have time, I think, to question
the whole of it—by way of conclusion. For have I really said anything about the
being of a book? A book, that is, rather than a text? What is the difference, for
example, between the books we read for seminar and the manuals we use for
tutorial or laboratory? One answer is that the books are great—great in a way
that our manuals, being manuals, will never attain. But if my hunch is right,
calling our books “great” is no real answer. What then is the answer?
There is perhaps only one place in my lecture where I address books in their
being as books: at the beginning, in fourth-hand words.
A book is a small, hard, rectangular object, whose pages are bound
along one edge into fixed covers and numbered consecutively.
14

�Much of this description could apply a manual—or for that matter a senior essay.
They are somewhat small and rectangular; and they can be at least as hard as
a book in paperback. The pages are numbered consecutively; and we can bind
them along one edge with rings, or a spiral, or staples.
But the pages, thus bound, are not fixed in covers. In this respect, one page
remains separated from the next. In particular, the last page is separated from
the first, by all the pages in between. Not so with a book. The last page forms a
cover with the first, to contain all the words in between. In this respect, the first
and last page are one rather than two. In practice, from the use of signatures, this
only holds for the front and back cover of a book. But we can use these covers to
imagine the perfectly-bound book, where the first page forms a cover with the
last, the second with the second-to-last, the third with the third-to-last, and so
on.
Perhaps you can see where I am going. The book is like any text insofar as
the first page leads to the last; and this makes it finite. But in a book, and only a
book, the last page leads to the first; and this makes it infinite. It starts to look
as if the binding of a book allows the being of a book to be embodied. This being
may remain elusive, even contradictory, if the book is finite and infinite at once.
But the way a book is bound seems to allow the infinite to emerge from the finite.
When we read the book once, as if it were finite, we are invited by the book to
read it again, making the finite infinite. It is as if books were built to be read
again, bound to be unbound.
In one sense, “books to be read again” can sound like a platitude, especially if
we think the books in question are great. Those books are obviously built to be
read again. But even here I think the platitude is really a paradox. Let the books
be great—at a school where books are not simply what we read, but how we learn
and come to know. It may still make sense that we can read a book once, then
read it again. But what could it mean to learn something once, and then—as if we
unlearned it—learn it again? Or know something once, and then—as if we forgot
it—know it again? Even the greatest book we read on this question, Plato’s Meno,
leaves the answer—recollection—at the level of myth. Could being a book make
it the truth?
Daniel Harrell
St. John’s College, Annapolis
Friday Night Lecture
February 23, 2024.
15

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Mr. Harrell describes his lecture: "When the so-called New Program was established at St. John’s College in 1937, conversation was to play no essential role—at least if you believe the first statement of the program, written by Scott Buchanan. Where you would expect the word 'conversation' you find 'instruction' instead, as in this brief description of the seminar:&#13;
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Meetings of seminar groups will occur twice a week with any additional meetings that special circumstances or difficulties may indicate. There will be two instructors in charge, and the instruction will make use of a wide range of devices from explication de texte to analysis of intellectual content and the dialectical treatment of critical opinion.&#13;
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                    <text>1

What is the Measure of Electricity? 1
Howard J. Fisher

What is the measure of electricity? The question itself raises questions. For not all
things are susceptible to measure; and even when they appear to be, it is not always
clear whether “measure” applies to them as wholes, or only in certain respects. For
purposes of this talk, let me propose that a measure of something must, at minimum,
enable us to speak of that thing in terms of more and less. Faraday inherited an
electrical vocabulary that appraised electricity as more and less in two respects: first,
in quantity; and second, in intensity. At the outset of Faraday’s researches, neither he
nor anyone else had been able to state just what these two characteristics were, nor to
explain how they related to one another. On the other hand, everybody had some rough
and practical idea of them, as we may gather from Faraday’s unassuming
characterization in the Third Series:
The term quantity in electricity is perhaps sufficiently definite as to
sense; the term intensity is more difficult to define strictly. I am using
both terms in their ordinary and accepted meaning. [360, note]

If Faraday regarded the term “quantity” as relatively straightforward, it is probably
because at the time he began his researches, the conventional idiom of electrical
thinking was that of electric fluid, a special kind of substance, thought to be endowed
with the power to attract or repel other portions of electric fluid. Electric fluid was either
vitreous, like that which could be evolved upon glass surfaces, or resinous, like that
which could be produced on rubber, gum, amber, and similar materials. Portions of
unlike fluids attracted one another; portions of like fluids repelled each other; and the
more fluid there was, the stronger that attraction or repulsion would be. It is easy to
know what we mean by “quantity” if electricity is a fluid. But is it a fluid? And how can
we know?
In contrast, as Faraday implies, the fluid language fails to offer a similarly clear
image of intensity. What can it mean for a fluid to be more or less “intense”? Faraday
will seek, and perhaps he will find, a clearer understanding of both these terms.


As the Third Series opens, we find Faraday in almost the same position as Socrates
of the Meno; for how can we hope to know the properties of electricity unless we first
know what electricity actually is? We well remember Meno’s reply when Socrates
asked after the “what” of virtue:

1

Meno. “There will be no difficulty, Socrates, in answering that. Take
first the virtue of a man: it is to know how to administer the state, in
which effort he will benefit his friends and injure his enemies, and will
take care not to suffer injury himself. A woman’s virtue may also be
easily described: it is to order her house, and keep what is indoors,

Lecture delivered 23 February, 2024 at St. John’s College, Santa Fe

�2
and obey her husband. Every age, every condition of life, young or old,
male, or female, bond or free, has a different virtue....” [71]

Meno is positively exultant as he contemplates the rich variety of virtues! How
disheartening is it, then, to consider that the electrical science of Faraday’s time,
though professing to seek a unitary account of electricity, can offer little more than a
Meno-like catalog of “electricities.” These include:
 Voltaic electricity, which is evolved by devices like Alessandro Volta’s “cups.”

Faraday will study voltaic action extensively in the Seventh Series and will show there
its relation to chemical combining power.

 Magneto-electricity, obtained through the
relative motion of magnets and conductors, and
which Faraday had already studied in the First
Series.

 Thermo-electricity, produced when the junction
between two different metals is exposed to heat.

A.

B

 Animal electricity, which is produced by several fascinating families of both

freshwater and saltwater fishes. Faraday will study the wonderful electric eel in the
Fifteenth Series, one of the most engaging of all his researches. And, finally...

 Common or ordinary electricity. This is what we
now call “static” electricity: the electricity produced
primarily by friction—for example, by rubbing a
resinous rod with wool, or a glass rod with silk. But how
often do we undertake such highly specialized activities
as these, except in a classroom or similarly contrived
setting? In our day there would seem to be nothing at
all “ordinary” about the electricity that arises from
friction; but I assure you that when I was a child, rugs,
sofas, and especially automobile seats, could easily give
you a very unpleasant jolt if you carelessly walked across a carpeted room, or slid out
of an upholstered piece of furniture, and then touched a doorknob or a water faucet.
Today, many fabrics contain antistatic materials which greatly reduce the frequency of

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such experiences; so for us, the terms “common electricity” and “ordinary electricity”
are no longer apt, and they are consequently no longer in common use.
Unfortunately, today’s more familiar term, “static electricity,” is misleading in its
own way; for many of the signs that alert us to the presence of static electricity occur
precisely when that electricity is not static! Those unpleasant shocks which lurked in
my family’s home and automobile, patiently awaiting their opportunity to strike,
represented the discharge of electricity which had previously been built up by friction:
they were instances of electricity in motion, not electricity at rest.
Faraday’s efforts to demonstrate the identicality of this “swarm” of electricities
occupies the first and longer part of the Third Series. Only then does he set out upon
the second part, where the topic is measure—and particularly the measure of quantity.
Readers may notice a distinctive suppleness in the language Faraday adopts for this
discussion: while he does not reject the imagery of electric fluids outright, he never
crafts his descriptions in a way that depends on that imagery.


Now, one way we can estimate quantity—whether of electricity or anything that is
evolved or produced—is to identify a repetitive element in the process that produces it;
then, presumably, each repetition of that action will produce an equal amount afresh.
Faraday obtained common electricity from a frictional “plate machine,” in which a large
plate of glass was rotated against a fixed
“rubber”—which was usually made of silkwrapped leather, rather than what we now
call rubber. The appliance shown here is a
smaller version of Faraday’s enormous
machine, which featured a glass plate of
fifty inches diameter—nearly four times as
large as this one. 2
At several points in the Third Series
Faraday treats each turn of his machine as
developing the same quantity of electricity.
You can see why such a supposition is
reasonable; for it is easy to make sure that all revolutions of the crank are
accomplished with uniform effort and speed. And to the extent that individual turns
are identical to each other, there is no obvious reason why successive turns would not
produce identical results.

2

Photo courtesy London Science Museum. The glass disk is 35 cm in diameter.

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This “same-again” principle of reasoning is familiar to us in other contexts, such as
grinding pepper in a mill. Indeed, in the case of grinding we are rewarded with a clear
image of “quantity” in the form of a heap of the ground
substance, as shown here. But when Faraday cranks
his plate machine, no “heap” of electricity is produced.
Is electricity even the sort of thing that possesses
“quantity” in the sense of a heap, a pile, or a mound?
Once again we are reminded of Socrates’ lament to
Meno: “If I do not know the ‘what’ of something, how
can I know the ‘such’ of it?” 3 In our present case, if we
do not know the “what” of electricity, is it really
meaningful to ask the “how much” of it?
When Faraday remarked that the term quantity
was “perhaps sufficiently definite as to sense,” he
meant to acknowledge that we habitually think of “quantity” through images of
accumulation or gathering up. But do not overlook the note of reservation suggested
by his word “perhaps.” Faraday is far from confident that electricity is really amenable
to such imagery. We regularly use such language for electricity without a second
thought; but can we point to any body of experience that gives real content to that
language?


If electricity does not manifest its quantity directly in experience, might it do so
indirectly? Sometimes, for example, we think it natural to express the magnitude of
something in terms of the power it exercises. Galileo offers a memorable instance in
the Two New Sciences; Sagredo is speaking:
“Thus a vast number of ants might carry ashore a ship laden with
grain. And since experience shows us daily that one ant can easily
carry one grain, and it is clear that the number of grains in the ship is
not infinite, but falls below a certain limit, then if you take another
number four or six times as great, and if you set to work a
corresponding number of ants they will carry the grain ashore and the
boat also. It is true that this will call for a prodigious number of ants...”
[67]

That delightful phrase, “a prodigious number of ants,” seems to employ the imagery
of number; but its rhetorical burden is rather the sheer magnitude implied by the
ability to move “the grain and the boat also.” The phrase expresses huge
undifferentiated totality, whose greatness is known primarily by what it can
accomplish. It is an indirect representation of quantity.

3

71A

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Frictional electricity, too, seems to express quantity only indirectly. When a rubber
rod is stroked with woolen cloth, it acquires the power to attract a small ball of cork or
I

\
pith. We say that the rod has been electrified, or charged with electricity; and in the
left-hand sketch, the electrified rod has succeeded in drawing the ball aside through a
moderate angle of perhaps 9 or 10 degrees. But after receiving additional strokes with
the wool, the rod is able to urge the ball to a greater angle—perhaps as much as 18 or
20 degrees, as shown on the right. Is it not reasonable to believe that the rod on the
right exerts more attractive force precisely because it has acquired more electricity?
But this is conjecture, not direct experience. Any notion of quantity we can gain
from this experiment is limited to what we can surmise from the angle of the
suspended pith ball. But angle is no image of “muchness,” and it shares none of the
straightforwardness of such eminently legible figures as heap, mound, or—in the fluid
case—puddle.
If not the pith ball, then, might some other electrical instrument offer a more
immediate experience of electrical “quantity”? The distinctive power of electrified
bodies to attract or repel other electrified bodies is the principle of several electric
indicators that are considerably more refined than the pith ball.
Two early
instruments operate on the principle of mutual repulsion. The leaves of the gold-leaf
electroscope, pictured here on the left, diverge from one another more or less,

.
depending, partly, on how many times the rubber rod has been stroked. On the right,
Henley’s electrometer calls even sharper attention to angle by incorporating an obvious
pointer and protractor in its design; when the instrument is mounted on the electrified
conductor of a plate machine like Faraday’s, the pointer is repelled from the body, just
like the leaves of the electroscope. With its angular scale, the Henley instrument
emphatically announces its rhetoric of numerical measurement—and hence its name
“electrometer” rather than “electroscope.” But what, exactly, does it measure? The

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angle of the pointer, even when expressed numerically, still seems far removed from a
direct image of quantity.
In fact, one of Faraday’s experiments in the Third Series suggests that the
electrometer is better understood as indicating some other electrical attribute—an
attribute rather different from quantity, though it may be related to quantity. Faraday
describes that experiment in paragraph 363 of the Third Series. It involves an array,
or “battery,” of fifteen identical Leyden jars, like this one. You see that the central

conductors, which are connected to the jars’ inner coatings, are all joined together.
Within the wooden container, the outer coatings rest upon a conductive plate that is
connected to the flexible chain B, which in turn is connected to the earth.
Faraday will charge these jars using the plate electric machine. Notice the Henley

electrometer mounted on the prime conductor; this was one of the chief applications
of the Henley device.
At first Faraday connects only eight of the jars, charging them by thirty turns of the
plate machine. This causes the electrometer to rise to some position A. Does that
position represent the quantity of electricity supplied to the jars? Certainly that
quantity must be considerable, since Faraday noted that merely one revolution of the
plate will, in his words, “give ten or twelve sparks from the conductors, each an inch in
length.” 4
At a later stage of his experiment, Faraday charges all fifteen jars, again by thirty
turns of the machine. This time, he reports,
The Henley’s electrometer stood not quite half so high as before...

4

Paragraph 290.

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Obviously the electrometer is not measuring quantity! For the quantity of
electricity was the same in both cases—the result of thirty turns of the machine. Yet
with a greater number of jars, the electrometer reading was lower by more than half.
What electrical characteristic was it, then, that the electrometer measured when it
registered that striking reduction?
In hopes of answering this question, let us conduct an experiment of our own. Recall
that Faraday noted the generous number of sparks produced with each turn of the plate
machine. This should give us pause: why does the machine produce a series of sparks
rather than one continuous spark?
To study the conditions under which spark develops, I will use an electrometer of
still greater refinement—one which, although invented long after the Henley device,
does not differ greatly from that instrument in the essentials of its operation. The
electrostatic voltmeter operates on the principle of attraction rather than repulsion. On
C

the left is a photograph of our meter. It dates from the 1950s, and is therefore
calibrated in units whose defining assumptions would have had little meaning to
Faraday. But we can regard the scale divisions as arbitrary units of attractive force; let
me explain this.
On the right is a much-simplified diagram of the meter’s internal mechanism. A
movable plate B is mounted on a pointer which pivots at C and is held in an equilibrium
position by a very light spring. Plate A is fixed in place. When the plates are oppositely
electrified, they attract one another; and plate B will move upward until its force of
attraction is balanced by the spring. The pointer’s angle of displacement then reflects
the amount by which the spring has been stretched, and therefore, also, the force of
attraction between the plates. The scale divisions are so marked as to represent,
broadly, equal increments of that force. 5
We will connect the electrometer’s plates to a Wimshurst machine. I have separated
the machine’s terminals by about a millimeter or so (VIDEO BEGINS).

This is not really accurate, since true volt-meters must take into account both the plate separation and
effective plate area, both of which vary as the reading increases. But in the meter we are using, the
correction can be ignored for our purposes.

5

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Next, I will slowly crank the machine—and notice that the meter rises until a spark
develops, at which point the needle suddenly falls. As I continue to crank, the meter

repeatedly exhibits this pattern of rise to a maximum, followed by abrupt descent when
the spark passes. The maximum is not always the same; but there always is a
maximum, and the subsequent descent always coincides with the spark.
The regular association between the meter’s descent and the spark suggests a more
pointed question: “What is the condition between the terminals just before the spark
passes?” Whatever that condition is, it evidently results in spark each time it occurs.
And since the electrometer consistently develops a maximum reading just prior to each
spark, it seems very likely that the electrometer is indicating precisely that condition
which, when it reaches a certain degree, results in spark. What, then, is the nature of
that condition?

Faraday thought of the spark—and, for that matter, all instances of electric
discharge—as the breakdown of an antecedent state of stress in the region where the
discharge takes place. Faraday calls that region, or the material which may occupy it,
the “dielectric.” Here is his description in the Twelfth Series:
All the effects prior to the discharge are inductive; and the degree of
tension which it is necessary to attain before the spark passes is
therefore ... a very important point. It is the limit of the influence
which the dielectric exerts in resisting discharge; it is a measure,
consequently, ... of the intensity of the electric forces in activity.

This golden passage finally lends imaginative content to the term “intensity,” which
seemed so questionable to Faraday at the outset of the Third Series. The chief
manifestation of electrical action is a condition of tension in the region between two
surfaces, and that action is said to possess intensity commensurate with the degree of
that tension. “Intensity,” then, characterizes the action; “tension” the region or
material that experiences that action.
The distinction between intensity and tension is a subtle, but a natural one. We find
a comparable distinction in two descriptions of Odysseus’ great bow in Book 21 of the
Odyssey. The suitor Antinous knows the bow in terms of its own strength, which makes
stringing it so difficult. He warns the crowd: 6
6

Homeric passages translated by Gilbert Murray.

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“For not easily, I think, is this polished bow to be strung.”
(line 90)

(The image in this slide is that of a fifth-century Theban coin.) But once the bow is
strung and in action, it is known by the thrum of its string, the sign of surpassing
tension: 7
And Odysseus held it in his right hand, and tried the string, which sang
sweetly beneath his touch...
(line 408)

Just as Odysseus’ stout bow reveals its strength through the superlative degree of
tension it creates in the string, so electric action reveals its strength, or intensity, in the
form of tension in the material between oppositely-charged electrodes. Intensity and
tension are two different rhetorical aspects of electrical action: “intensity”
characterizes the action itself (corresponding to the bow); “tension” characterizes the
material or region which experiences that action (analogous to the bowstring). Do not
underestimate the scientific importance of such metaphorical images as those of string
and bow. Without them, or something like them, our understanding of natural powers
would degenerate into a merely formal correlation of numbers with numbers. But any
reader of Faraday quickly discovers that Faraday has little interest in symbols,
numerical or otherwise. Faraday is constantly alert for legible images that convey the
essential character of nature’s beings and powers. What is so remarkable about
Faraday’s experimental practice is how much of it consists in allowing the phenomena
to reveal their own images. 8


7
8

Illustration: detail from an etching by Theodoor van Thulden, part of a series produced in 1632–33.
Fisher, Howard, “The Great Electrical Philosopher,” The College, XXXI,1 (July 1979).

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Faraday’s interpretation of electrical discharge as being essentially a release of
antecedent tension departed sharply from the then-accepted account, represented here
on the left. Conventional thinking posited a buildup of opposite electric fluids on the
0 5 ed buildup of
.
Sup_
1• e (+) electric fluid
pos11v

sed buildup of .
Supo. (-) electric fluid
negative

j Tension

surfaces between which spark took place. As those fluids accumulated—or so the
account maintained—the inherent repulsion of like portions of fluid, combined with
the mutual attraction of unlike portions, would eventually propel the electrical
substances across the gap to combine with and nullify one another. Notice that the
conventional view recognizes no role for the space or material between the charged
surfaces; all action is ascribed to the electrical fluids.
Faraday’s view—represented on the right—reverses the order of priority by
focusing on the gap rather than the bodies which it separates, ascribing tension to the
gap, but assigning no causative role to the adjoining bodies, nor to any supposed
buildup of electricity upon them. If the dielectric material occupying the gap is capable
of sustaining high degrees of tension, it constitutes what we call an “insulator”; but all
known insulators, including air, have a limit to the tension they can sustain, and when
this limit is exceeded, they break down, electrically speaking. The release of tension
associated with that breakdown is disruptive discharge, or spark. In contrast to
insulators, the materials classed as “conductors” are incapable of withstanding any
tension at all; they break down under the slightest degree of electrical tension, and the
condition of continuous breakdown under tension is how Faraday understands
“current” in a conductor.
Thus the electrometer’s pattern of rise and sudden fall in our spark experiment
gives us reason to believe that the electrometer measures that very tension—or its
rhetorical counterpart, intensity. 9 How does it do so? If you recall our earlier diagram
of the electrometer’s inner workings, you will remember that the needle’s

Throughout the Eleventh and Twelfth Series we find Faraday using the terms “tension” and “intensity”
almost synonymously.

9

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displacement indicated the degree of extension of the internal spring, and hence the
force on the moving plate—or, rather, the tension in the region between the plates. But
of course the condition of the electrometer’s own plates is not what we are interested
in! If the electrometer is to function as a measuring instrument, the pointer’s
displacement must tell us about some other object—the object whose condition we
wish to measure. How is that possible?
Consider, from the standpoint of tension, what must be the case when the
electrometer plates are connected to the terminals of the Wimshurst machine. When
C

the machine is operated, electrical tension is established in the air between its
terminals D and E. I say that equal tension must therefore develop in the region
between the electrometer plates A and B; for if the tensions were not equal, the
conductors DA and EB would together have to bear the difference between those
tensions. But recall that, for Faraday, a conductor is incapable of sustaining electrical
tension. Thus the tension between A and B must be equal to the tension between D
and E; and the needle’s displacement will therefore reflect not only the tension
between the electrometer plates but the tension between the Wimshurst terminals as
well.


Have we gained any fuller understanding of those troubling electrical terms,
quantity and intensity? Faraday’s study of the forms of electric discharge, especially
spark, led to the idea of electric tension; and that image of tension, in turn, does indeed
seem to offer a firmer notion of intensity, namely, the action producing a certain level
of tension in a dielectric.
But what about quantity? Initially, we looked to the electroscope as an indicator of
quantity; but successive refinements of that instrument brought us, not closer to, but
farther and farther away from the expected imagery. All our attempts to find, in
experience, the imagery that a material substance would ordinarily demand—a
localized heap, mound, or puddle—have led us instead back to tension. Why do the
phenomena of static electricity seem to lead us so persistently away from “heap”
imagery and toward the vocabulary of tension? Might that be a sign that tension is
actually more fundamental than quantity?
In fact, Faraday already has ample grounds for this view; for if electrifying a body
really represents the accumulation of electric substance upon it, we ought to be able to

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electrify a body “absolutely," that is, without relation to any other body—just as we can
fill a glass with water regardless of whether or not we fill any other container with
water. But Faraday’s famous Cage Experiment, along with other investigations,
showed definitively that no body can be in a “charged” condition at all except through
a mediating relation with some other, oppositely charged, body. This means that there
is no such thing as a quantity of electricity in itself. Every instance of electric charge is
but one element of a mutual relation to which Faraday gives the name “induction”; and
in a striking passage in the Eleventh Series he explicitly elevates the relation over the
things related:
All charge is sustained by induction. All phenomena of intensity
include the principle of induction ... All currents involve previous
intensity and therefore previous induction. INDUCTION appears to be
the essential function both in the first development and the
consequent phenomena of electricity. [1178]

Furthermore, since all of what Faraday calls the “phenomena of intensity” involve
tension in a dielectric, then it is the dielectric, not the so-called “charged” body, which
is to be counted as the principal entity in static electricity. In Faraday’s words,
In the theory of induction founded upon ... action of the dielectric, we
have to look to the state of that body principally for the cause and
determination of the ... effects. [1368] 10

If the dielectric is indeed the principal entity in static electric induction, it is easy to
see why Faraday devoted so much of the Eleventh Series to studying the dielectric
specifically. To that end, he designed the special “inductive apparatus” illustrated here.

The appliance on the left is an historical reproduction; 11 Faraday’s own diagram
appears on the right. Today we would call this contrivance a spherical capacitor; but it
In an omitted term Faraday characterizes the action in question as “molecular.” By this he merely means
action at the level of small portions of the dielectric. He does not refer to chemical molecules of the sort
propounded by atomic theory—as readers of his 1844 paper, “A Speculation touching Electric Conduction
and the Nature of Matter,” will appreciate. See Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol. II (1844), p. 284.

10

Photograph generously supplied by Dietmar Höttecke; see Höttecke, Dietmar, “How and What Can We
Learn From Replicating Historical Experiments? A Case Study.” Science &amp; Education 9, 343–362 (2000).

11

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is essentially a Leyden jar consisting of an outer and an inner conductor, with electrical
connection to the inner conductor established by a conductive wire terminating at the
little sphere on top. Faraday’s experiments established for all time the pre-eminent
role of the dielectric in induction.
We can emulate Faraday’s induction experiments. 12 In place of his spherical
capacitors, we shall use a pair of our adjustable plate capacitors, set to equal plate
separations and thus electrically identical.

Faraday placed his two identical inductive devices on a grounded metal work
surface, so that their outer conductors were permanently connected to the earth while
their inner conductors remained free. We will use a heavy copper wire for the same
purpose by connecting it to the earth. The righthand plates of our capacitors are joined
to it, and are thus in permanent electrical contact. The lefthand plates will be isolated
from one another, except when I briefly connect them later.
To measure the electrical tension that developed when his devices were charged,
Faraday employed a sensitive torsion balance, pictured here on the left. That fine

instrument balanced the tension between two electrified spheres against the elastic
twist of a slender thread—just as our modern electrometer, as in the diagram we saw
earlier, balances the tension between two electrified plates against the elastic stretch
of a spring. Both instruments, therefore, serve to measure electric tension.

12

Faraday describes this series of experiments in paragraphs 1208–1214.

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Faraday possessed only a single balance with which to measure both his inductive
devices; but we have the luxury of using two electrometers, one for each capacitor,
A

B

To earth

designated A and B, respectively. Let me first outline the procedure we shall be
following; then I’ll show some videos of the actual experiment.
Faraday began by charging only one of his devices. Similarly, I will connect the
Wimshurst machine to capacitor A alone, and crank it until the electrometer

B
To earth

approaches its full scale reading. Capacitor A will thus sustain a definite tension,
indicated by the electrometer. Capacitor B, of course, will remain uncharged and will
sustain no electric tension.
Next I will momentarily join the ungrounded capacitor plates. Now, think about

To oatlh

what must happen when I do that. The joining wire is a good conductor, so it cannot

�15
sustain tension; therefore when contact is made, the electrical condition of both
capacitors should instantly change to make their respective tensions equal, and we
should expect both electrometers to read the same. That will constitute the first part
of our experiment; so now, let us carry out the steps I just described (VIDEO BEGINS).

Here is the setup. The copper wire that is appearing on the left will connect
capacitor A to the Wimshurst machine... Now I am cranking the machine, and you can
see the electrometer rise almost to its full scale.
And here is a closeup view of the electrometer; it shows that Capacitor A is
sustaining a tension of 2.80 units. I could not fit the second electrometer into this view,

but it reads zero—as of course it must, since Capacitor B was not charged.
Now I join the capacitors momentarily ... and the tension in Capacitor A falls; we’ll
take a closeup look at the electrometer to see the new value...

The tension in Capacitor A has fallen to 1.37 units, while the tension in Capacitor B has
risen to the same amount, as it must—though, again, I could not include both meters in
the same view.
Now, this change in tension took place when I allowed Capacitor A to share its
electricity with Capacitor B. But since the capacitors are identical, they ought to divide
that electricity equally—so that each capacitor should now embrace half the quantity
of electricity that resided originally in Capacitor A alone.
And the tension in both capacitors is 1.37 units, that is, almost exactly half the initial
tension of 2.80 units. Thus as the quantity of electricity in Capacitor A diminished to
half, so too its tension diminished to half. Evidently tension is here proportional to

�16
quantity! But doesn’t this contradict what we saw in the Third Series? For there, when
Faraday charged first eight Leyden jars, and then fifteen, with the same quantity of
electricity, his Henley electrometer gave two different readings; and obviously if one
magnitude can take on two different values while the other remains unchanged, those
magnitudes cannot be proportional.
This reasoning, though, overlooks a critical difference between the two
experiments. In the Third Series, Faraday was comparing the tension of a fixed quantity
of electricity distributed first over eight jars and then over fifteen jars, as illustrated
here. The electrometer readings are indeed very different, just as Faraday reported.

But our experiment, like Faraday’s in the Eleventh Series, compares the tensions of
different quantities of electricity in one and the same capacitor. The two experiments
are not comparable, because in the earlier exercise the physical environment
underwent significant change—from a smaller number to a greater number of jars—
while in the later experiment the environment did not change: the electrometer
measured the variation of tension in one and the same capacitor.
Clearly, the physical environment affects how much tension a given quantity of
electricity will develop. This should not surprise us, since that environment includes
the dielectric; and we have already seen how central is the role of the dielectric,
according to Faraday’s thinking.
The next step in Faraday’s experiment, and in ours, will confirm that central role by
showing that different dielectric materials develop specifically different tensions.
Faraday filled the air space in one of his devices with various substances; and we shall
do the same to our capacitor B by inserting a sheet of glass between its plates. Then
we will run through the same experimental sequence as before; but remember that this
time, our capacitors will no longer be identical.
(VIDEO BEGINS.) You see I have mounted a glass sheet between the plates of
Capacitor B.

�17
And again we connect Capacitor A to the Wimshurst machine, and charge it to an
initial tension.... Its electrometer reads 2.83 units, nearly the same as before, while of
course the other electrometer continues to read zero.

Again I briefly join the two capacitors together; and the electrometers once more
display equal deflections—as they must, since the tensions have to be equal. But notice
that this time the tension is not equal to half the original tension... Instead the tension
is only 1.02 units, roughly one-third of the initial tension. How shall we understand
this?

When Faraday obtained a similar result with his spherical capacitors, he concluded
that the apparatus containing a solid dielectric had, in his words, “a greater aptness or
capacity for induction” than the apparatus whose dielectric was air. To see what he
means by this phrase, let us analyze our results in the same way that Faraday
interpreted his. When I joined the two devices, the charged capacitor gave some of its
electricity to the uncharged capacitor. Specifically,:
 The capacitor with air dielectric lost a certain quantity of electricity, and
its tension decreased by 1.81 units.
 The capacitor with glass dielectric gained that same quantity of
electricity, but its tension increased by only 1.02 units—a much smaller
amount.
Air dielectric-greater change

Glass dielectric-smaller change

I~ \

I~ \

by 1.81 units

by 1.02 units

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 Thus one and the same quantity of electricity is associated with lower
tension when the dielectric is glass, and higher tension when the
dielectric is air.
Evidently, then, “greater capacity for induction” means the ability to sustain the
same quantity of electricity at a lower tension. Or, equivalently, it denotes the ability
to sustain a greater quantity of electricity at the same tension.
We could go on, as Faraday does, to show that a dielectric’s “capacity for induction”
depends on its dimensions as well as its specific material. But the main point is clear:
where static electricity is concerned, our only access to electrical “quantity” is
indirect—through the measurement of tension, 13 taking account of the medium’s
capacity for induction. And thus we must regard electrical quantity as only an
alternative rhetorical expression for tension—a special figure of speech. Recall
Faraday’s earlier remark, that we have to look principally to the state of the dielectric
for the determination of the electric effects. In contrast, he described the supposedly
“charged” conductors in this almost dismissive way:
The conductors ... may be considered as the termini of the inductive
action.... [1361]

Charged bodies, then, are merely the boundaries of electrical action, not its cause!
To say that a body is “charged” no longer labels it as the source of electric effects, but
merely the place where a medium that does sustain tension switches to a medium that
does not. With this characterization, Faraday has effectively turned the conventional
order of causal priority on its head. Charge is no longer prior to tension; rather, tension
is prior to charge. Whatever else this may mean, it fatally undercuts the notion that
“charge” is the name of an electrical substance, for—to use an Aristotelian formulation
that would have been quite foreign to Faraday: “How can a non-substance be prior to
a substance?” 14


I hope I have conveyed how thoroughly Faraday’s account of electricity inverted the
conventional understanding. At the same time, I hope it is clear that Faraday did not
arrive at his unorthodox view through polemic or disputation. He did not marshal
evidence so as to refute the established conceptual scheme. In fact, at least in the
Experimental Researches, Faraday hardly ever engages in “collecting evidence,” any
more than he engages in symbolic mathematics. Instead, he looks directly to nature
showing itself.
Classic doctrines of scientific “method” emphasize putting hypotheses and
conjectures to the test, establishing a preponderance of evidence for or against them.

For electricity undergoing discharge, as Faraday shows, the ballistic galvanometer offers an alternative
measure of quantity. But while it might seem obvious that when electricity discharges, its quantity in
discharge must be the same as its quantity prior to discharge—when it was still static—the problem of
correlating the measures of static and dynamic electricity would prove to be a knotty one. It would
eventually become the problem of relating the electrostatic unit to the electromagnetic unit, the problem
that would lead Maxwell to his electromagnetic theory of light.

13

14 Aristotle, Physics, Book I (189a34) tr. Cornford. In the present case, how can tension (not a substance) be
prior to electric fluid (a substance)?—implying that electric “fluid” is not actually a substance after all.

�19
Such an approach is suited to an alien world, a world indifferent to human
understanding, a world in which, as has been said, “nature loves to hide.” 15 Faraday’s
world, on the contrary, shows itself in forms that may challenge our understanding;
but they are not incommensurable with it. Faraday’s science flourishes in a world that
is fit for us, a world that is preeminently knowable.
How did Faraday manage to nourish a scientific outlook so little influenced by
conventional scientific doctrine? A customary answer to this question singles out
Faraday’s lack of a conventional education. To be sure, Faraday had little formal
education and was largely self-taught; but the materials of his self-education were
steeped in established knowledge. As a bookbinder’s apprentice, he read volumes of
the Encyclopædia Britannica while engaged in binding them. By his own account he
benefited greatly from Jane Marcet’s Conversations in Chemistry, a lovely book which,
however, reliably held to established and accepted teachings. 16 Through the
generosity of a friend of his employer, Faraday was able to attend lectures by
Humphrey Davy, an establishment figure in science if there ever was one. I do not think
it was ignorance of established science that explains Faraday’s relative indifference to
it. Much of his practice in “reading the book of nature” 17 points instead to his religious
tradition.


Faraday belonged to a very small Christian denomination, the Sandemanians, a
dissenting offshoot of the Church of Scotland. Sandemanians eschewed theology and
had no established clergy; instead, the Bible was the central source of guidance in every
aspect of their lives. Reading the Bible demanded no special credentials, for it was
written in human language for the sake of human understanding. 18 Similarly, they saw
the natural world as having been created as a gift and a fitting home for mankind. Like
the biblical text itself, the created world was seen as a channel of God’s communication
with the human race.
You can see how such views concerning nature could inform Faraday’s methods of
natural investigation. If natural phenomena show themselves in terms we can grasp,
they will not need to be expressed mathematically—or, for that matter, through any
other external symbology. We see from Faraday’s own example that the study of
nature requires patient and prolonged labor—but much of that labor stems not from
nature’s recalcitrance but from our own sluggishness to put familiar thought patterns
aside—what Faraday once called “mental inertia” 19—and allow the phenomena to
speak to us directly. For Faraday, at least, the means for cultivating an ear for nature’s
15

Heraclitus, B123

Jane Marcet never sought to break new scientific ground; but by composing instructional texts that were
explicitly directed to young women, she conspicuously broke new social and educational ground.
17 Geoffrey N. Cantor, “Reading the Book of Nature: The relation between Faraday’s Religion and his
Science” in Faraday Rediscovered: Essays on the Life and Work of Michael Faraday, 1791–1867. The
Macmillan Press, Ltd. (1985).
16

See David Gooding, Michael Faraday, 1791–1867: Artisan of Ideas. http://www.bath.ac.uk/~hssdcg/
Michael_Faraday.html, 15 June 2002; accessed 4 September 2023 through the Wayback Machine.

18

See Faraday’s “Observations on Mental Education” (1854) in Experimental Researches in Chemistry and
Physics (1859), p. 463

19

�20
dialect and an eye for its forms are practical rather than analytical. Before he asks
questions in speech, he asks them in practice; such are Faraday’s experiments.
Nevertheless, while Faraday’s mode of experimenting clearly reflects central
elements of the Sandemanian outlook, it would be a mistake see him only as dutifully
putting the Sandemanian creed into action. Faraday just doesn’t write as though he
were feeling the weight of doctrinal obligation. His prose, both in his laboratory Diary
and in the published Researches, is simply too fresh, too lively, too responsive to what
just happened. There is a palpable difference between being open to nature and
observing a code of being open to nature. I invite you to think about that difference—
the difference between responsiveness and responsibility 20—and how it plays out both
in consciousness and in speech. But for now let us return to the terms “quantity” and
“intensity,” the two candidates for electrical measure; for as regards their lucidity, I
think we will have to acknowledge that the terms have effectively exchanged places.
The term intensity, which Faraday initially found “more difficult to define,” has
gained considerable clarity, since Faraday has been able to assimilate to it the figures
of speech associated with tension; and we may now understand electrical intensity as
commensurate with the degree of tension developed in a specified region. But the term
quantity, which Faraday previously thought “sufficiently definite as to sense” has
instead become highly questionable. For the “definite sense” of that term rested on the
image of heaping up or accumulation of electrical substance; and we have seen how
that image has repeatedly failed to find any grounding in experience. Moreover, now
that Faraday has identified the primary electrical entity as being the dielectric under
tension, not the so-called charged body, any idea of “quantity of electric substance” can
only be regarded as a merely verbal one—a figure of speech. Under such
circumstances, would it not behoove any responsible thinker to avoid the term
“quantity of electricity” altogether? And yet Faraday continues to speak of “quantity of
electricity” throughout the remainder of the Eleventh Series, and in the Twelfth,
Thirteenth, and Fifteenth Series. Why would he do this?
Faraday nowhere speaks directly to that question as regards electrical terminology;
but he does address a similar one in connection with the language of atoms. Some of
you have read, and some of you will read, his 1844 paper, “A Speculation touching
Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter.” 21 In that essay, after having reviewed
his many reservations about the theory of atoms, and hence also the atomic language
that takes their existence for granted, he nevertheless admits,
I feel myself constrained, for the present hypothetically, to admit them
[that is, atoms], and cannot do without them.

Here, then, is another instance where Faraday feels obliged to make at least
provisional use of a terminology that has not been grounded in phenomena. A
doctrinaire purist would have avoided such a compromise; but Faraday’s openness
Contrast, for example the Knight of Faith in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling with the rule-inferring
“insomniac” who, reflecting on Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, confidently deduces, “Oh, I see how
it works: you raise the knife, and then suddenly there’s a ram!”

20
21

Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol. II (1844), p. 284, esp. page 289.

�21
extends to language as well as to experience, for each of these must evolve along with
the other.
Natural phenomena show themselves in forms and images that human beings can
apprehend; and those images continually try to shape a language that is anchored in
the phenomena. But such a language requires discovery, interpretation, and
adeptness; and these in turn require time, patience, and love. As we do not expect to
take in a dialogue, or a drama, on first reading, we must not expect to “perform”
experiments once only and then set them aside. We must live with them, enter into
them, and try them again and again. The idea is less to get the right answer, than to
capture the right idiom. The book of nature deserves multiple readings; and no two of
those readings are likely to be quite the same.

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                    <text>Colloquy
On Creation
1

�2

�Table of Contents
4. Letter from the Editor
6. Poetry
22. Short Stories &amp; Musings
32. Essays
66. Translations
79. An Interview with Associate Dean Brendan Boyle

3

�Letter from the Editor

4

�On Creation and the Value of Themes
I think a short explanation of the role of theme within a publication is warranted, given its inclusion in a handful of recent issues of Colloquy. Not only is it useful for you,
the reader, but for the contributors, and the editorial team. Without theme, we have
nothing to judge against. I’m not speaking of judgements of quality, as we would have
a difficult and spirited discussion about how to ascertain a work’s quality. Instead I
mean “judge” as in weigh the value of any particular work within the context of its
setting. I think the simplest way to explain the importance of a theme is to highlight
how prevalent the habit of keeping something “thematic” is. You cannot say something coherently unless a theme renders what you say coherent.
I’d first point to books, like the many we read here at St. John’s. If Kant deviated at all
from theme then the Critique of Pure Reason would suddenly find itself impure and unreasonable. And what a detriment to the ends of that work such a change would be. A
core aspect of our ingrained habit of storytelling is theme. It ties one plot point to the
next and allows metaphor to shine in the liminal space between word and interpretation. The role of theme is the same as the role of words, to communicate, but theme
on its own can communicate an entire catalogue of interpretations and emotions that
words cannot in their isolation.
So, let us focus on the theme for this issue of Colloquy: On Creation. Creation is among
the most transcendent capabilities of any single thing. It can refer to the creation of
new life or new purpose. We talk of artists as creators, and we say the same of gods.
The role of creation is that something comes to fruition, and moves from a space purely other, that of the non-existent, to that of the tangible and knowable, materializing
reality from concept.
In a way, “On Creation” is not a theme that enforces rigid boundaries. Creation as act
is available to the entirety of life’s beings, and seems to belong to nature’s fundamental forces. The Universe forges stars as we create an idea. As a theme, “On Creation”
does invite the polity of the Graduate Institute to participate in the single most unifying capability of all the Universe. And so I would like to end this musing with what I
hope the following submissions create within you, dear reader.
I hope they create inspiration, so that some aspect of the style, content, or beauty of
what you read here aids you in creating something wholly your own. I hope they
create a reaction, as emotional states are a sudden and startling reminder that we are
alive. And I hope they create a sense of appreciation for the brilliant, curious, and creative minds that make up the polity of the Graduate Institute, in this time and place.
Thank you, and give witness to creation.
Stephen Borsum - Editor

5

�Poetry &amp; Musings
On Creation
Old Dog
Forbidden Fruit
Children of that World
Mimi
My Mind’s a Dark Forest
Before the Blank Stare

6

�Contributors
Austin Suggs
Chris MacBride
Stacey Rains
Louis Petrich
Sydney Rowe
Sylvie Bernhardt
John Harwood

7

�On Creation
Austin Suggs
What was in that dark
Over which the Spirit’s spark
hovered?
There was water there it seems
Though not the water of our streams.
This was of a different order
Not teeming with life
But humming with the power
Of a world not yet made
But somehow already there.
Did you tame primordial chaos
Or disturb a primal peace?
And what happened on that second day
That caused the pen to betray
Something was off.
For it was not good
Nor was it great.
It simply was.
Did the mass of land amidst the seas
Begrudge the Spirit its roaming free
A new strife where once there was peace?
And tell me, how great was man, really,
If you came to regret his progeny?
And if he’s an image of you,
Well, what are we to do
With that?
8

�Somewhere with Warm Waters - Louis Petrich
9

�Old Dog
Chris Macbride
The click-clicking of four arthritic ankles
announce him into the kitchen
At 17, he’s still turning up whenever the recipe begins
warm olive oil over medium heat, add 2 cloves garlic…
We met him at a rescue and were told his first owner was a chef
it explains a lot
His back is now a long, deep sway between hip and shoulder
curved like the mountain valley in Virginia where he was born
He shakes his head and the World’s softest ears
slap against sunken cheekbones
These days, he speaks in low groans as if to say
getting older stinks (like dog poop)
And yet
when the air outside turns chilly
darn if he isn’t a pup again
Trotting up the driveway eager to sniff out
the latest news left by four-legged friends
Nose to ground, tail wagging
he is happy
10

�Forbidden Fruit
Stacey Rains

In 9th grade Biology, we dissected lilies;
we carefully opened the white petals to access the pale green center,
separated the stamen from the pistil, and  
learned that even flowers have ovaries
to grow life inside of life,
inside the deep, protected center, comes the slow swelling and upwelling,
‘til the petals drop away, and all is given
to the potential.
I have wrestled with
the discovery that trees can be dioecious–
that plants also are gendered–and, more, that there exists
a botanical misogyny. “When used for street plantings,
only male trees should be selected,
to avoid the nuisance from the seed.”
Fertility is so inconvenient.
Nevermind the spewing,
fertile pollen that now dominates the landscape,
causing red eyes and running noses.
Nevermind regret.

11

�Children of that World
Louis Petrich
(Luke 20:34-36)
“—they neither marry, nor are given in marriage—”

That’s all, perhaps, you need to say to inculcate
thy kingdom come and save us bouts of parables:
your sower, famed as seeding ground that’s cursed,
then straining after roots to clutch at light,
next family farms and winter strawberries—
all angelically void when wings caress
god’s breath and ‘tis enough to harvest songs.
Your late-hired field hands, prodigally paid for?-consider angels--any time--for free.
The good Samaritan gets even better,
stays the night with beaten travelers
instead of backing home to wife and stacking
nursing on an innkeeper, whose own shrewd wife,
though scraping profit from the dirty sheets,
with years grows tired of busybody neighbor feats.

12

�There’d be no rigmarole with folks declining
t’attend the wedding--no resorting last
to uncast idlers outing for a lark—
when kingdom come has come, the nights are done
that consummate, no made-up faces fine
or bodies nipped and tucked to light a spark—
O what a load from off the mind!--you lookers, mark.
My savior dear, your promised kingdom
parabolic could have been a kingdom
literal, in words that summon what they mean
forthright as prince’s peal: I say there shan’t be
children given away from honied skies.
For yes, I do remember Paradise-creation, mine to color.
Then the pall,
for none do slice off married once for all
until they deal their evil able parts
and die while knowing them inseparable.
She, hearing how to swallow serpentine
the world, tends him naked taste of inside
out desire; henceforth, he’s good no more alone
to name things as he will and hear the Lord approve.
13

�If only kingdom come, pie rained from sky,
were plated now for simple thanks to still
the pulpy verbiage, round it goes: “Now eat
at once the astronomical wee apple
that lets fall the dominoes.” Along come back pains,
raking leaves from tree left-o’er uneaten,
cracking truth on fossil fruit pertaining
not to peaceful night of sleep ‘til death-with tugging of the limbs and closing in
and never deeper getting than this flushing skin.

To walk with God in cool breeze
of the evening--unafraid
of after-hidden, poor performing fool—
that’s ever, and forever, bliss.
For that, be overcome, O world amiss.

14

�Mimi
Sydney Rowe

Vertebrate coast.
Silent boat.
Cusp of tropics, touch pearl.
Medicine inside embers.
Sails high; flatter.
Arcing Inwards to you.
The tiny cabin with a bowl of salt.
Cut open, pouring.

15

�My Mind’s a Dark Forest
Sylvie Bernhardt

Escape—run for the trees—evade;
Before they mark me freak,

No hope flickers warmth I might save.
No others will I need learn.
Down, down a dark stone cave
Goes I, who dares and burns.

I’ll claim honors as renegade,

Down, down these mountain graves

As friend to claw and beak.

That shutter, crack, and groan.

No good friend have they been to me—
Community of Fear—

Scratching fang nails on rusty rails,
These wretched creatures roam.

Conquer my last youthful decree:

I’m no Devil nor deity;

“I know this dark mirror.”

Grisly death wings me home.

Under night’s blanket I make haste
Away from light, away.
To fall in sight would lead to waste;
Safety in darkness lay.

Know I seek not a Paradise
Where those wretched do roam.
Those that claw against their stone
tombs
Wail, weak cretin cries.

As I descend, no lights a friend

Forever suckling purple blooms,

To delve through depths returned.

They who lives no more dies.

Wicked shadows cling to bright kin,
To I, who dares and burns.

Brutish heads prevail in disorder,
In guise of man though beast.
Debased are they, the exploiter,
And violence of brutes won’t cease.

16

�I move quietly in shadow

But if my flesh be not my end,

With sharp claw I unsheathe.

Then question not my aim.

No hatred I harbor in tow,

Makers of form are divine kin,

But blood be what we breathe.

So worship not to tame.

Should I consent to suffer more

Tread on, but move most steadily,

Or live in sunk despair?

Else these shales might splinter,

I know in cruelty they’ll restore

And break. Striking me readily,

A lust for death so fair.

As done in past winter.

Earth, oh Earth, cries do bury

Depths I dove, and air gusts led

An evil rot in mind.

Through caverns and deluge.

Spoken in tongues—restless fury

A moonlit grove, past tamed, then freed—

Stirs frenzied force blind.

Now my living refuge.

If only I had strength in hand to rake

A melody of crinkling leaves

The tremors from my flesh.

Invokes safety’s soft glee.

From my throat’s rage to the world’s
break,

Lantern flower blooms now breathes

All cries ever languish.

A loving warmth through me.

Death I keep always in soft heart,

Hold I no more despotic dark,

That will know endless cold.

While rose, mint and oak grows;

Love binds us before we depart;

Reflecting sanctuary’s mark

Of All, this I now hold.

Away I from old woes.

17

�Ruins are ripened with dull time.

On this bed of oak leaves I sleep;

I find the warm glow safe.

No company I seek.

Lonely lantern’s golden flame climbs

My tale always to tell as creep,

An ancient etched-stone waif.

As friend to claw and beak.

Secret garden beneath the falls
Spiraling to center.
Fire sprouts flame on vine-meshed
walls
Blooming in November.
To stir thoughts of metaphysics
I deny mind’s fetters.
Alight there glows hieroglyphics—
Spells in gold letters.
Timber crackles in a dirt pit.
Smoke fails to reach the floor.
Poems I babble and I spit,
So to deepen the lore.
Tonight, what dreams will I endure?
Be they kind or bleak?
While rosy-cheeked dawn will ignore
Me so tender and meek.
18

�Puck: Consider it a Dream - Nadine Bucca

19

�Before the Blank Stare
John Harwood
Here I sit and kneel
Before the blank stare
Of some little earth,
An image, of one
I have never seen nor touched.
The more thoughts rattle
In between my ringing ears,
The less I can manage
To imagine even the carving
Of the one I’ve never seen.
A faceless and mangled
Homunculus of marble
Stands before my penitent’s gaze.
In fear, I can not fathom to begin;
To set a chisel into the creature,
To even gesture to the creator.
How can I release anger and dread,
Praise and duty, pent up
In the veins and muscles
Of marble, so finely shaped
By the hands of the Almighty?

20

�Would even a painting,
A lead etching,
A mindless praying,
Or even tranced dancing
Begin to evoke the Unspeakable,
The Ever-Perplexing?
So, I sit and scratch lines into letters
And letters into the pages of my heart
That resembles the stone
That patiently awaits
Before my artist’s first minding.
After a purging time of pondering
Before the blank stare
Of the One Unfathomed,
Who fathoms me gently,
I dare begin to finally set a mark.

21

�Short Stories &amp; Musings
Dialogue: Meeting with Descartes
TRANSLATIONS

The First Postulate

22

�Contributors
Yonas Ketsela
Cynthia Crane

23

�Dialogue: Meeting with Descartes
Yonas Ketsela

I set out on a journey today to meet with Descartes. He invited me to come and chat
with him at his house. I have been anxiously waiting to see him all day. I have his
book, Meditations on First Philosophy under my arms. After a long walk, I arrived at the
appointed time, and I am now only waiting for his call. This is roughly how our conversations go:
Descartes: “Let us for example take the wax; it has only just been removed from the
honeycomb; it has not yet lost all the flavour of its honey; it retains some of the scent of
the flowers among which it has gathered; its colour, shape, and size are clearly visible;
it is hard, cold, easy to touch, and if you tap it with your knuckle, it makes sound. In
short, it has all the properties that seem to be required for a given body to be known as
distinctly as possible.”
Yonas: What you said makes sense to me. This is in fact what I myself experimented on
a candle before coming here. If I put it in my own words, what you describe is exactly
what I characterise as my conscious sense-experience or sensations: the colour, shape,
size of the candle belongs to my vision; it has some cedar flavour which belongs to my
sense of smell and taste; its hardiness and coldness to my sense of touch; and its sound
to my ear. Thus, all these sensations are distinct to me. Even though I am not sure if I can
say that it is clear, nor do I know exactly what this experience means to me.
Descartes: “But wait–while I am speaking, it is brought close to the fire. The remains of
its flavour evaporate; the smell fades; the colour is changed, the shape is taken away, it
grows in size, becomes liquid, becomes warm, it can hardly be touched, and now, if you
strike it, it will give off no sound. Does the same wax still remain?”
Yonas: It is unclear to me now how I can precisely answer the question whether the
same wax remains or not. But one fact is clear to me that it has undergone some changes
of appearance. Its previous qualities are not there anymore. My sensations are obviously diminished in reaction to this change. I can barely smell it, its colour is unclear, its
shape somewhat deformed or irregular as a result of being in a change of state—from
that of solid to liquid; I also cannot grasp it; its sound is not as distinct as before. So, I
guess, so far as my sensation is diminished, I can say it is not exactly the same wax as
before. In fact, if someone now breaks into the house and senses this wax, he would
hardly be able to exactly predict or imagine its previous state. But as for me, I know
what happened and I can remember its previous state–however vague it might be. So I
don’t see the same wax as before.

24

�Descartes: [I see what you are saying but] “we must admit it does remain: no one would
say or think it does not. So what was there in it that was so distinctly grasped? Certainly, none of those qualities I apprehended by the senses: for whatever came under taste,
or smell or sight, or touch, or hearing, has now changed: but the wax remains.”
Yonas: Ahh, you are right. I hadn’t reflected in this way before. But If I follow your suggestion, it does seem to me that what I distinctly grasped was first its number, namely,
there was one wax here which has undergone a change from one state to another. But
as you said, for its taste, smell, sight, touch and hearing, they become very obscure and
even my imagination can only be a little to no help (given that my imagination is not
good enough). My senses may still retain a certain trace of sensations in them, but I am
sure they will disappear pretty soon (given that my memory does not always record
these sensations accurately). In another extreme case, someone who does not have one
of these sense organs may not participate in the same experience at all as I am now. I am
now wondering if these qualities are not necessarily what belongs to the essence of this
wax, then what is the essence of the wax apart from these qualities?
Descartes: [Good], “perhaps the truth of the matter was what I now think it is: namely
that the wax itself was not in fact sweetness of the honey, or the fragrance of the flowers
or the whiteness, shape, or sonority, but the body which not long ago appeared to me
as perceptible in these modes, but now appears in others. But what exactly is this that I
am imaging in this way?”
Yonas: That is exactly what I am wondering about too.
Descartes: [Okay] “let us consider the matter and, thinking away those things that do
not belong to the wax, let us see what remains.”
Yonas: Ok. Good.
Descartes: “Something extended, flexible, mutable: certainly, that is all.”
Yonas: I think I can understand that.
Descartes: “But in what do this flexibility and mutability consist? Is it in the fact that
I can imagine this wax being changed in shape, from a circle to a square, and from a
square into a triangle?”
Yonas: Well, speaking in clear concepts, I think, that may be what we can understand by
terms such as flexibility and mutability. But I am not sure if that is exactly what happens
in reality.
Descartes: [Okay] “That cannot be right: for I understand that it is capable of innumerable changes of this sort, yet I cannot keep track of all these by using my imagination.”

25

�Yonas: Now, I see what you mean, namely that the limitation of my faculty of imagination would not at all allow me to keep track of all these changes ad infinitum.
Descartes: “What about ‘extended’? Surely, I know something about the nature of its
extension. For it is greater when the wax is melting, greater still when it is boiling, and
greater still when the heat is further increased.”
Yonas: Yes, in some vague estimation, I can surely think of changes in its state, that is to
say, from a solid state to liquid or further to gas, consequently its extension increases.
Yes, I am not sure whether at a certain point, we may want to say that it is dispersed,
and not any longer an extension but discrete parts in space.
Descartes: [Okay, hold that thought] “And I would not be correctly judging what the
wax is if I failed to see that it is capable of receiving more varieties, as regards extension,
than I have ever grasped in my imagination.”
Yonas: Your meaning is that if I cannot determine what this wax is like as it changes
from one state into another in some notion or idea, then it seems that I could not do that
by my imagination alone.
Descartes: “Now [see] I am left with no alternative, but not to accept that I am not at all
imagining what this wax is, I am perceiving it with my mind alone: I say ‘this wax’ in
particular, for the point is even clearer about wax in general. So then, what is this wax,
which is only perceived by the mind?”
Yonas: If I remember correctly, we previously said that if we remove all the qualities
from the wax, we will arrive at only flexibility, mutability, and extension. Is that what
you mean? I mean that the mind can grasp the wax in these ideas and yet it would be
the same wax.
Descartes: “Certainly, it is the same wax I see, touch, and imagine, and in short it is
the same wax I judged it to be from the beginning. But yet—and this is important—the
perception of it is not sight, touch or imagination and never was, although it seemed to
be so at first: it is an inspection by the mind alone, which can be either imperfect and
confused, as it was before in this case, or clear and distinct, as it now is, depending on
the greater or lesser degree of attention I pay to what it consists of.”
Yonas: Indeed, that seems to be an interesting and important point. There seems to be
much more happening in perception than my simple sensations. But I don’t quite see
the problem yet. I do trust my senses that they can give me accurate sensations, but
I hadn’t quite reflected in this way before—how my mind can be problematic to this
experience or how it would inspect the wax apart from the senses and yet could be in
error?
Descartes: “...I am amazed by the proneness of my mind to error. For although I am considering this in myself silently and without speech, I am ensnared by words themselves,
and all but deceived by the very ways in which we usually put things. For we say that
26

�we ‘see’ the wax itself, if it is present, not that we judge it to be there
on the basis of its colour or shape. From this I would have immediately concluded that
I therefore knew the wax by the sight of my eyes, not by the inspection of the mind
alone.”
Yonas: That difference makes sense to me.
Descartes: [For example, as I am seeing this wax]..”If I had not happened to glance out
of the window at people walking along the street, I have immediately concluded that I
knew the wax by the sight of my eyes, not by the inspection of the mind alone but using
the customary expression, I say that I ‘see’ them [the people in the street] just say I ‘see’
the wax. But what do I actually see other than hats and coats, which could be covering
automata? But I judge that they are people. And therefore, what I thought I saw with
my eyes, I in fact grasp only by the faculty of judging that is in my mind.”
Yonas: This explanation does make much more sense to me now, especially when I
connect it to what you said before about the degree of attention one needs to put in his
observation of facts of experience. Thus, my mind’s imperfection and confusion then
only consist in that it judges quickly and that is when it errs.
Descartes: [Good] “Let us then go on where we left off by considering whether I perceived more perfectly and more evidently what the wax was, when I first encountered
it, and believed that I knew it by these external senses, or at least by what they call common sense, that is imaginative power; or whether I perceive it better now, after I have
more carefully investigated both what it is and how it is known. Certainly, it would be
foolish to doubt that I have a much better grasp of it now. For what, if anything, was
distinct in my original perception?”
Yonas: I don’t believe we arrived at that yet.
Descartes: [That is right] When I distinguish the wax from its external forms, and as if
I had stripped off its garments, consider it in all its nakedness, then, indeed, although
there may still be error in my judgement. I cannot perceive it in this way except by [my]
mind…I have learned now that bodies themselves are perceived not, strictly speaking,
by the senses or by the imaginative faculty, but by the intellect alone and that that they
are not perceived because they are touched or seen, but only because they are understood, I clearly realise that nothing can be perceived by me more easily and more clearly
that by own mind.
Yonas: I am amazed by this conclusion. I think I would rather stop our discussion here.
I want to go now and come back another day for more discussions. For now, I have
enough thoughts to contemplate for the coming days. It is really nice meeting you and
talking to you in such a respectful way.

27

�Walking to My House
My dialogue with Descartes was very interesting and, on my way back home, I was
contemplating deeply the significance of his conclusion. Descartes’s assertion is that in
one’s act of thinking, he said, it is possible to strip all external impressions and concentrate a certain degree of attention to the object and receive a correct perception in the
mind. This is conceivable. After a long walk, I finally arrived at my house. I was completely lost in contemplation; only when I looked at the flowers at the front door of my
house that I was awakened to the facts of this amazing world. I said to myself, ‘that is
my house.” I judged it correctly but the question that is still with me is how I did that—
is it my mind or my senses that showed me the way here?
Note: The Full Treatise of Descartes’s Discussion of the Wax is found in Book II of his
Meditations on First Philosophy.

28

�The First Postulate
Cynthia Crane
A false and scurrilous tale
Let it be postulated to draw a straight line from any point to any point.
East of the dusty market, under a low dry tree, a girl put an open wooden box at the feet
of her little brother. The boy did not notice, but stared at the curling clouds brushing the
near-white sky, broken to bits by the branches and leaves of the olive. “Euclid, look,”
she said, and tapped the box. Their mother, working the edge of the market, stopped her
hawking, saw the children safe in conversation, and turned back to her selling. Nothing
would come of it, she knew, and wished the girl would let her brother be. Euclid’s eyes
moved slowly off the clouds and his mind moved slowly off the job of assembling them
back to wholes from the fragments between the leaves. The box of sand assembled itself
at his feet, and then his sister’s face: lips, teeth, sunned freckles, black eyes obscured by
curls. “Euclid,” she said, “come back.” So he did.
The boy knelt and smoothed the sand
And smoothed the sand
And smoothed the sand,
Grains of glass under his palms
Grains of glass under his palms
Grains of glass under his palms and fingertips.
Mother’s cries, “here, here, sailor,”
Cut his ears like
Grains of glass under his palms and fingertips.
“Don’t listen,” the girl said, and shifted the box around so Euclid would not watch their
mother. His tears were leaving tracks in the dust on his face, but she did not wipe them
away, would not touch him and set him off.
He spit the dirt out of his mouth, and watched it bead then sink into the ground.
29

�No.
He smoothed the sand and smoothed the sand and smoothed the sand, grains of glass
under his palms and fingertips.
“Yes. Look.”
His sister’s dirty finger poked a dot in the sand,
And by it, another,
And by it, another,
And by it, another,
Snaking a line across the box of sand,
Awaking a serpent in his mind,
Between his eyes,
Behind his nose,
Above the taste of salty olives and grape leaves boiled in wine
Lingering
Annoying
On his tongue.
He spit again.
No.
The serpent reared its hooded head, smelling tongue and clouded eyes. It curled around
his thoughts and flicked them into disarray.
Euclid jabbed his finger into the sand, dragged it straight across the box, connecting one
of his sister’s dots to another and abandoning the rest. He pulled his finger out again,
and smoothed the sand on either side of the line he’d made. He leaned forward, his face
close to the surface of the sand, and then he leaned back. Strange. Sensation. He felt his
face with his fingertips and palms. It moved soft as shifting sand or dust and as though
and as though and as though .
“You’re smiling,” his sister said.

30

“Yes.”

�Galaxy in a Flower - Nadine Bucca
31

�Essays
Corruption at the Symposium
How to Read Well
The Galileo Affair
The Nature of the Pilgrimage
The Creation of the Self

32

�Contributors
Sam Hage
Siobhán Petersen
Shirley Quo
Noah Vancina
Kyle Reynolds

33

�Corruption at the Symposium
Sam Hage
At the conclusion of the Symposium’s six speeches about Eros, the drunken Alcibiades
interrupts the party with a crowd of attendants in tow. At the conclusion of Alcibiades’
speech, another, drunker crowd of revelers interrupts the party, sending things into
confusion and signaling the end of Aristodemus’ narrative. Unlike Alcibiades’ initial
entrance, which enables his long and rhapsodic depiction of Socrates—providing key
biographical information found in only a handful of places in Plato—this second entrance seems to serve no discernible dramatic purpose.
A small detail, however, included almost as an afterthought, may tell us a great deal.
The second time around, the intruders find the door to Agathon’s house already open,
because “someone had gone out.” We mustn’t suppose this detail is accidental; according to ancient anecdotes, Plato revised individual lines of his dialogues hundreds of
times. What’s more, the preposterous custodial chain of the Symposium’s narrative is a
clear indication of Plato’s own authorial hand at work.
So who has left the party? And why does Plato wish for us to know? Once noticed, the
first question is not difficult to answer: Alcibiades is still speaking or has just finished;
Phaedrus and Erixymachus are mentioned as leaving right after this; Socrates, Agathon, and Aristophanes stay awake talking all night; Aristodemus is there to witness and
narrate it all. Of the seven speakers, plus Aristodemus, Pausanias is the only one not
explicitly mentioned. Unless this is a meaningless addition meant to refer to one of the
unnamed speakers whom Aristodemus or Apollodorus forgot about, the only possibility is Pausanias.
Why Plato should present us with this detail is a much greater question. Pausanias,
we are told in the opening pages, is still hungover from last night’s festivities—but no
reader will be satisfied to think he has left simply because he isn’t feeling well. More
relevant is the fact that he has been witnessing his beloved, Agathon, flirt with the beautiful newcomer Alcibiades—and with Socrates from the very start of the party. Given
that it is during Alcibiades’ speech that Pausanias finally storms out, it seems likely that
34

Alcibiades will provide us with the key to Plato’s lesson.

�Without undertaking a tedious examination of Pausanias’ and Alcibiades’ speeches, we
can at least observe some cursory points. Pausanias’ defense of Eros is highly unerotic;
even the “highest” relationships are for him ultimately transactional. In truth, Eros is
not defended at all, but instead undergoes a kind of technical scrutiny and classification. Pausanias’ bizarre focus on the jurisprudence of pederasty is especially startling
in juxtaposition with Phaedrus’ emphasis on the tragic nobility of a lover’s self-sacrifice
and Eryximachus’ rapturous elevation of Eros as the governing principle of the entire
cosmos. His focus on the shameful is revealing: he seems rather ashamed of erotic relationships altogether.
No character could be further opposed than that of the shameless and bombastic Casanova who delivers the evening’s unexpected epilogue. Whereas Socrates reveals the
true nature of Eros properly understood, Alcibiades vividly illustrates the corruption
that this philosophic attitude can sometimes leave in its wake. As a youth, Alcibiades has been partially won over by an appeal to wisdom; nonetheless, the conversion
has not entirely succeeded. Plato’s dramatic art demonstrates the extreme care Socrates
took in choosing to whom, and how, he disclosed his teachings. Socratic education does
not admit of half measures, and a little learning is a dangerous thing. No doubt Socrates
is not entirely to blame for the schizophrenic political career of a man with such unreformable erotic impulses. Nevertheless, many Athenians would have seen Alcibiades
as a prime example of Socratic corruption.
However strange his views of pederasty might seem to us, Pausanias, by contrast, is a
spokesman for the conventional. His archetypal pederastic relationship exchanges the
beauty of the body for the knowledge of a wise teacher. The lover possesses the good
that is truth, and desires the beauty he lacks. Socrates recognizes the beauty of his own
soul as superior to that of any mere body; he would never participate in this transaction. Socrates’ students instead come to recognize the beauty of his soul, and become
his lovers instead.
Plato offers us many indications that corruption is a theme of the Symposium. When
Apollodorus is first approached by his unnamed companion in the dialogue’s opening
lines, he reports that just the other day, Glaucon had asked to “question him closely”
about the party where “Socrates, Alcibiades, and the others” made erotic speeches.
35

�The singular focus on Alcibiades is understandable, not only because of his prominent
role in Athenian politics throughout the Peloponnesian War, but especially on account
of suspicions that Socrates was somehow responsible for Alcibiades’ spectacular downfall. The party depicted in Plato’s dialogue occurred not long before the Sicilian expedition, Alcibiades’ recall, and his subsequent desertion to Sparta; the framing device at
the start of the dialogue takes place just over a decade later—only a handful of years
before Socrates’ trial.
This offhand inclusion of Glaucon as Apollodorus’ interrogator is extremely notable:
the evidence of this dialogue, in addition to that of other Platonic works, suggests that
of all Socrates’ close associates, Glaucon in particular may have felt himself corrupted
by Socrates’ tutelage.
At the start of this dialogue we learn that “everything” is more important to Glaucon
than philosophy. This might indicate that he now holds a conventional and suspicious
view of Socrates’ way of life; moreover, it tells us that his concern with the details of the
speeches at the party can’t possibly have been philosophical. How odd, indeed, that if
he is so interested in the events of the drinking party, he did not simply consult Socrates
himself. Glaucon’s importance is also signaled by similarities between the opening lines
of the Symposium and the Republic, in which Glaucon is Socrates’ central interlocutor:
both begin with the narrator “going up” to town, before being arrested by a combative
acquaintance. In this case, the verb used by Apollodorus in the dialogue’s first line,
πυνθάνεσθε (“I am not unprepared for what you ask about”), is in the second person
plural—is he now being scrutinized by a group of inquisitors?
Xenophon also wrote a dialogue called the Symposium, also with an unmistakable suggestion of the theme of corruption: Socrates is there depicted in the company of the
beautiful youth Autolycus and his father, Lycon—one of Socrates’ accusers in his trial
for corrupting the young.
In general, Xenophon seems more willing than Plato to concede the reality of the corruption charge. He grants in the Memorabilia, first, that Socrates did indeed impart political skill to his associates and, second, that Alcibiades and Critias were among those
associates.
36

�(It is often taken for granted that the ruination of these two supreme criminals was the
real substance of Socrates’ indictment, but that because of the amnesty of 403, such
a charge could not be made explicit.) Commentators have even pointed out that the
Greek verb απομνημονεύω, from which the title Memorabilia is derived, can mean, in
addition to simply “call to mind,” to “hold something against another”; not just “bear
in mind,” but also “bear a grudge.”
Just like Plato’s inclusion of the detail of the open door, Xenophon cannot possibly
have placed Lycon among the banquet’s attendees by accident. He must wish for us to
learn something about what would become Lycon’s motivations for accusing Socrates
23 years later. It is true that in Xenophon’s version of events, just as in Plato’s, Socrates
subverts commonly accepted pederastic norms, urging both Callias and Critobulus to
avoid sexual entanglements and to care only for the virtue of their young beloveds. But
while disagreements like this might explain a frustrated lover’s early departure from
a party, they can hardly provide motive for the prosecution of a capital crime. Besides,
this chaste exhortation is exactly the kind of thing Lycon, the father of a handsome
youth, would most wish to hear.
Doubtless far more important, then, is the revelation that Autolycus was killed by the
Thirty Tyrants after the Peloponnesian War. Did Lycon hold a particular grudge against
Socrates for his role in Critias’ education, or associate him with Thirty’s rise? Did he
blame Socrates for Autolycus’ being an “outspoken” member of the insurgent democratic faction, as Diodorus Siculus describes him?
Beyond his putative influence on Critias, there is admittedly a strong case against Socrates as an opponent of democracy. Republicanism and the rule of law are presented a
number of times in Plato’s dialogues as a “second sailing” to the rule of a wise statesman, and in the Republic, Kallipolis bears certain unmistakable similarities to Sparta
and other monarchic or oligarchic regimes. Socrates’ theories about “intellectual despotism”—the belief that the wise alone hold a rightful claim to rule—could easily have
been taken by men like Lycon to constitute support for actual despots.
It is understandable that an embittered father could attribute some blame to Socrates,
the famous political philosopher, for the power and brutality of the oligarchic Thirty
37

�Tyrants. It may not at first make sense that Lycon could also blame him for his son
Autolycus’ membership in the coalition that resisted them. But Xenophon once again
suggests the connection. Despite the fact that no reader of the dialogues could mistake
Callias III of Alopece for a genuine follower of Socrates, the debaucherous grandee
presents himself at the beginning of Xenophon’s Symposium as a devoted student of
philosophy and a member of the Socratic circle.
In Xenophon’s depiction of the party, Socrates exhorts Callias to a career in politics, and
tells him the surest way to woo Autolycus is to make him more virtuous. Indeed, the
theme of the evening’s conversation is introduced by the question of who can “make
Autolycus better.” Socrates quickly warns the others that this is a dangerous topic, and
should be put off to another time. It seems he was right: Callias’ unfortunate political
career during the Peloponnesian War demonstrates a respect in which Autolycus chose
the wrong mentor.
Perhaps Lycon sees it thus: a follower of Socrates ensured Autolycus became an outspoken member of the losing side; a follower of Socrates caused the winning side to form a
powerful, repressive oligarchy that put Autolycus to death.
Socrates’ supposed intellectual despotism, it turns out, is not unconnected to his erotic
innovations. In both Symposia, erotic attachment to the beautiful is supplanted by attraction to the good. This reorientation is of a piece with the typical Socratic line about deliberate action and human motivations: everyone is always pursuing what seems good
to him, and wrongdoing is thus the result only of mistaken apprehension of the good.
Human action, in other words, is to be understood in terms of a kind of self-interest;
elevated self-interest perhaps, but self-interest nonetheless.
To truly comprehend this outlook is to radically undermine traditional notions of noble
virtue. If what it means to act deliberately is to act in accordance with a belief in one’s
own good, how could beautiful sacrifice be possible? On this extreme Socratic view of
human nature, the brave or noble person really thinks what he’s doing is best.
Orpheus, Alcestis, and Phaedrus’ invincible regiment of male lovers would no longer
deserve our admiration—not to mention pediatricians, special ed teachers, firemen, and
38

�Nobel Peace laureates.

In teaching this doctrine, Socrates did something far more subversive than impugn the
city’s religion. Most Athenians, in any case, seem to scorn literal belief in the gods: Euthyphro is openly ridiculed for his unusual fundamentalism. It was corruption of the
young that carried the real weight in Socrates’ indictment, for which impiety was mere
window dressing. Socrates has done something much worse than simply contravene
the city’s religion; he has taken away its idols, and undermined the very basis for noble
and heroic deeds. No wonder the city tries to kill him. We would, too.

39

�Nightmare - Nadine Bucca
40

�How to Read Well
Siobhán Petersen
How is it that I’m able to say that I’m not sure I ever read a book before I started the
Program? Close reading – attending deeply to what is said, the way it was said, what
it could mean – has never been a weakness of mine. Yet, something was still missing;
some crucial engagement beyond merely what the author has put on offer that gets to
the vitality of what our labors are all for. How do we facilitate a meaningful conversation with an inanimate object, how do we engage with ideas so renowned they’re
practically cliché? If we decide the inexhaustibility we’re seeking in the Great Books
actually comes from ourselves, can this teach us how to drink deeper from them? I
offer some thoughts on how I’ve met that challenge.

I
On a pragmatic concern: I am a strong advocate of writing in our books. The best
advice I ever got on annotation – after it was too late to help with my first semester,
incidentally – was to not to try to make insights or observations in the margins, but
rather to be indexing them for things I found interesting about it as I read. My margins
are full of notes that just describe the action, like “Patroclus’ ghost;” running motifs
specific to the text, like “synthetic judgment” or “The Moment;” and big ideas it might
speak to, like “fate” or “death” or “divine justice.”
i This makes it easy to find quotes in discussion, and come paper season, it’s so
helpful to know what I was thinking about and where. I’ve turned my copy into a
bespoke reference for textual evidence on every line of inquiry that matters to me. But
more to the point, it helps me read deeper because it helps me return to the text as I
think about it later on; it is perhaps only half of the experience to actually read and
discuss, the other half is how you turn it over in your mind after.
ii Beyond the practical value, I’d also advocate for an aesthetic value to the practice.
Books are strange, fourth dimensional objects – they carry our thoughts forward in
time. A thought is ephemeral; a body of them preserved against the passage of time is
a text, and that can be as true for the reader as it is for the writer. Further, I am creating a shelf of artifacts of my life at St. John’s. What starts as a two-way conversation
between the reader and the author becomes a trialogue, with the version of myself
as a Master’s student participating too. Just as I feel privileged to see inside the head
of people I care about when I read their annotated books, someone is likely to value
these thoughts from this particular stretch of time of my life at some point in the future, even if that someone is only me.

41

�II
I think what separates a lay reading and a close reading is a decision: to take nothing
within a text as incidental. Every word was deliberately chosen for a particular effect;
every tangent, every metaphor was considered in light of the whole. I take as axiom that
no one writes anything because they want to say something – they do it because they
need to say something. Whatever the author set out to express lies
in the background of every small detail, so it pays to attend them with care.
How do we attend to details that will enhance the discussion? I think that anything that
sticks out to you is interesting. A particular use of language, a mention of something
else you read, the way some pet interest of yours appears in a reading: I’ve seen some
of the most profitable inquiries come out of someone’s peculiar observation. Someone
offering their idiosyncratic take opens up vistas of thought that, definitionally, I could
never have hoped to imagine myself. Ultimately (or with an eye to the Good Life, let’s
say penultimately), we read to come ready to share; to me, this is what we call the
“learning community.” No one else can give your perspective, and it’s our function as
classmates in-community to offer it.
i In trying to sort out the big picture, I think it’s valuable to remind myself – as anyone who’s written anything can probably relate to – I’ve never gotten to the end of any
writing project and felt like I’d fully said everything I set out to. I try to leave space in
the text for what the author perhaps couldn’t write. I think this is different from simply
granting a charitable reading; I’m perhaps suggesting we can sometimes glimpse past
the text if we look hard enough at the totality as well as the particularity: can see the
forest and the trees. Whether we’re impressed with the picture we see is up to us, but
given the choice between two readings, I try to default to the one that is most nuanced,
human, interesting.
ii Counterintuitively, what I’m not suggesting is a devotion to the author, nor their
intended message. What I’ve found reading so many Great Texts birthed from Great
Minds is that somewhere along the way I stopped reading to find out what Plato, or
Descartes, or Dostoevsky thought; I only read to find out what I think. We talk about
ourselves as “in conversation” with the books. Part of being a good conversationalist is
to hold up your end of the discussion. Have your own thoughts! There’s a bit of a
pressure-relief in realizing I can be nearly certain I can’t have a wholly original idea
about texts so widely read, but that doesn’t mean we have to rely on cliché, or pre-made
understandings. What does a text mean to you, right now?
III
In that spirit of the “now,” I’ll even go so far as to say it is okay to disinterpret a text to
the end of creating the most interesting possible reading. “Disinterpretation” implies
willfulness; we are free to develop accounts of the reading that run contrary to good
sense, so long as we can support it with textual evidence. Put a quote in another context!
Take one out of context!
42

�Are you unsatisfied with the answer the author provides, can you develop a more elegant account with what else they’ve said?
i Even if you end up spiraling out or spinning the wheels; experimenting by analyzing, combining and recombining ideas from all over the canon, from your classmates,
from your favorite novel will be a worthwhile skill to build in its own right. I try not
to worry myself with the products of any of these experiments, nor do I try to disguise
my experiments in-seminar as completed positions; the idea is to
push every idea to its limits. I only ever want to be a better scientist.
ii Partly, my decision to close-read is built on this disinterpretation; I can’t know for
sure what was in the mind of the author when they selected any element, but I choose
to read it otherwise, even if I’m wrong. I joyfully forfeit any spurious claim on the
Necessary for a ground in the realm of the Aesthetic. If something seems to come out
of nowhere based on everything you’ve previously understood about the work, it’s
easy enough to disregard it as incidental, but far more worthwhile to examine it as
vital, integral. Why might this be here? There’s no ambition to exactitude in “might,”
only pliable openness. It is my firm opinion we are not here to be right about anything; we’re here to be wrong in interesting ways.

43

�Galileo and the Interaction between Religion and Science
Shirley Quo
Introduction
Galileo’s Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems: Ptolemaic and Copernican (Dialogue) is one of the most important texts of the Copernican and Scientific revolution.
It started the transition from the geocentric to a geokinetic worldview by means of interdisciplinary considerations based on Galileo’s new physics, observational evidence
stemming from his telescopic discoveries and methodological principles including critical reasoning.
The Dialogue is also noteworthy because it led to Galileo’s trial by the Roman Catholic
Inquisition in 1633. His book was banned and he was found guilty of ‘vehement suspicion of heresy’. This was because the Catholic Church believed that the Holy Scriptures
supported the geocentric worldview i.e. that the sun revolved around the earth. To
support a geokinetic worldview was therefore an act of heresy. These developments are
known as the Galileo Affair.
The purpose of this article is to examine the conflict between science and religion in the
context of the Dialogue, the Galileo Affair and its aftermath. What, if any, is the role of
religious authority and the Bible in scientific inquiry?

The Geostatic Worldview
The geostatic worldview assumed that the earth is spherical, motionless and that it is
located at the center of the universe i.e. geocentric theory. Aristotle and Ptolemy were
the two main contributors to this view of the universe. The old view considered that
there was a fundamental division in the universe between the earthly and the heavenly
regions and each region consisted of bodies with different properties and behavior.
This is called the heaven-earth dichotomy.
Terrestrial bodies occupied the central region of the universe below the moon, whereas
heavenly bodies occupied the outer region from the lunar to the stellar sphere (the highest heaven or the firmament). Earthly bodies moved naturally straight toward (downward for earth and water) or away from the center of the universe (upward for air and
fire), whereas celestial bodies (aether) moved circularly around the same center.
44

�Geometrically there were only two lines with the property that all parts are congruent
with any other part – the circle and the straight line. Motion could be simple or mixed.
Simple motion was motion along a straight line. Thus there were only two types of simple motion – straight and circular. Mixed motion was motion which is neither straight
nor circular.
There was a theoretical reason why upward and downward natural motions could
belong to the same fundamental region of the universe but were essentially different
from natural circular motion. This is the theory of change as contrariety according to
which all change derives from contrariety and no change can exist where there is no
contrariety. Contrarierty means opposites such as hot and cold, dry and humid. So up
and down is a fundamental contrariety. This applies to terrestrial bodies which is full
of qualitative changes e.g. birth, growth, generation, destruction etc. Circular natural
motion of heavenly bodies by contrast have no contrary therefore it lacked an essential condition for the existence of change. Because no physical or organic or chemical
changes were detected or observed in the heavens, it was claimed that the heavenly
realm, unlike the terrestrial realm, was unchangeable, ingenerable, incorruptible etc.
This provided the basis for the heaven-earth dichotomy.

The Copernican System
Copernicus published ‘On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres’ (Revolutions) in
1543. Unlike the old view, the stellar sphere was motionless and did not revolve around
the earth with westward diurnal rotation. Instead, the diurnal rotation belonged to the
earth, though its direction was eastward in order to result in the observational appearance of the whole universe rotating westward. This is called a geokinetic worldview.

The earth was given a second motion, an orbital revolution around the sun with a period of one year, and also in an eastward direction. The annual motion was shifted from
the sun to the earth thus making the earth a planet rather than the sun. This terrestrial
orbital revolution meant that the earth was located off-center, the center being instead
the sun. This is called a heliocentric worldview.

45

�Copernicus’s view was based on an idea proposed by the Pythagoreans in ancient
Greece which had been rejected in favour of the Ptolemaic worldview. In Copernicus’s
worldview, the earth moves by rotating on its own axis daily and by revolving around
the sun once a year. It was a simpler and more coherent theory if the sun rather than the
earth is assumed to be at the center and the earth is taken to be the third planet circling
the sun yearly and spinning daily on its own axis. It had fewer moving parts than the
geokinetic system because the apparent daily motion of all heavenly bodies around the
earth is explained by the earth’s axial rotation and thus there is only one thing moving
daily (the earth) rather than thousands of stars.
There were also theological and religious objections. The biblical objection claimed that
the idea of the earth moving is heretical because it contradicts many biblical passages
stating or implying that the earth stands still.1 For example, Psalm 104:5 provides that
the Lord “laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever”.
In Ecclesiastes 1:5, it provides that “the sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down, and
hasteth to the place where he ariseth” which seems to attribute motion to the sun and
support the geostatic system.
Another theological objection was based on the idea that God is all powerful – this
may be called the divine omnipotence argument.2 This was endorsed by Pope Urban
VIII during whose reign Galileo was tried and condemned. One version of this argument was that since God is all powerful, He could have created any one of a number
of worlds e.g. one in which the earth is motionless. It was religiously heretical because
it conflicted with Holy Scripture and the biblical interpretations of the Church Fathers
and therefore undermined belief in an omnipotent God.

The Galileo Affair
In 1615, the Holy Office, or Roman Inquisition, asked its Inquisitors for an opinion on
two propositions based on some formal complaints filed against Galileo in relation to
the Copernican system:3
(1) the Sun is the centre of the world and completely immovable by local motion; and
(2) the Earth is not the centre of the world nor immovable, but moves as a whole and
also with a diurnal motion.
46

�The Inquisitors returned a unanimous opinion:
(1) The first proposition was declared unanimously to be foolish and absurd in philosophy and formally heretical inasmuch as it expressly contradicts the doctrine of Holy
Scripture in many passages, both in their literal meaning and according to the interpretation of the Fathers and learned theologians.
(2) All were agreed that this proposition merits the same censure in philosophy and
that, from a theological point of view, it is at least erroneous in the faith.
In 1616, the Congregation of the Index issued a Decree declaring that the doctrine of the
earth’s motion was physically false and contrary to Scripture; condemning and permanently banning Foscarini’s book, Letter on the Pythagorean Opinion, which had argued
that the earth’s motion was probable and not contrary to Scripture; and temporarily
prohibiting Copernicus’s Revolutions until and unless it was revised.5
Although Galileo was not mentioned at all in the Decree, he was given a warning in
private. This warning exists in two versions. One is written on a certificate given to
Galileo and signed by Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, who was an authoritative member
of both the Congregation of the Index and of the Inquisition; it stated that Bellarmine
had informed Galileo that the earth’s motion could not be held or defended. The second
version is in an unsigned note written by a clerk and found in the file of Inquisition trial
proceedings; it stated that the Commissary-General of the Inquisition gave Galileo the
special injunction that he must not hold, defend, or discuss in any way the earth’s motion. Galileo claimed that he had never received the second version.6
Despite the warning given to him by the Catholic Church, Galileo published the Dialogue in 1632. The book was a discussion of the earth’s motion but took the form of
a critical examination of all the arguments for and against the idea; the arguments on
both sides were presented, analysed, and evaluated. The arguments for the earth’s motion turned out to be much stronger than those against it. This was an implicit defence
of Copernicanism. However, Galileo believed that he had acted within the spirit of
Bellarmine’s warning because it was only a hypothesis.

47

�In 1633, Galileo was brought to trial by the Inquisition on the charge that in his Dialogue, published in the previous year, he had disobeyed the injunction of 1616 and
had defended the Copernican system, knowing it to be heretical. In the course of their
judgment the Inquisitors twice reaffirmed that the system was heretical, in two slightly
different forms. In the first place they recalled and quoted the judgment of 1616, citing
it as evidence that it had already been duly examined and condemned. The Inquisitors
then delivered their own verdict:7
“We say, pronounce, sentence and declare that you, the said Galileo... have rendered
yourself, in the judgment of this Holy Office, vehemently suspected of heresy, namely
of having believed and held the doctrine, which is false and contrary to the Sacred and
Divine Scripture, that the Sun is the centre of the Earth and does not move from east to
west, and that the Earth moves and is not the centre of the world, and that an opinion
may be defended and held as probable after it has been declared and defined contrary
to Holy Scripture.”
According to one commentator, there is an interesting difference between the two statements.8 The Inquisitors in 1616 condemned as heretical the proposition that the Sun is
the centre of the world (centro del mondo) and immovable; in 1633 they condemned as
heretical the proposition that the Sun is the centre of the Earth (centro della terra) and
does not move from east to west (i.e. does not move in a diurnal orbit around the Earth).
What does this mean? Surely it cannot be taken to mean literally that the Sun is the centre of the Earth? Perhaps it means that it is the centre of the Earth’s orbit or, as in Copernicus’s own theory, the centre of the celestial sphere in which the Earth is embedded
(which might be called ‘the Earth’ in an extended sense).9
As time went on, however, the situation changed. In the new theory, the fixed stars did
not rotate and hence, it was no longer necessary for them to be held together in a rigid
sphere. The whole system of rigid spheres could be abandoned. The universe need not
be spherical, it could be any shape or even infinite. Even if it was a sphere there was no
need for the Sun to be at its centre or immovable (for the whole planetary system might
be in motion).

48

�Galileo was aware of this theory. In the Dialogue, Salviati, the advocate of the Copernican centre of the universe; if any centre may be assigned to the universe, we shall rather
find the sun to be placed there, as you will understand in due course’.10 Galileo added
this marginal note “The sun more probably at the centre of the universe than the earth.”
In 1633, the Inquisition found Galileo “vehemently suspect of heresy” for holding and
defending the thesis that the earth revolves around the sun and for thinking “that one
may hold and defend as probable an opinion after it has been declared and defined
contrary to the Holy Scripture”.
The content of Galileo’s suspected heresy was two-fold. The first was an astronomical
or cosmological claim about physical reality, which Galileo had supported and defended in the Dialogue. The second was a methodological principle or rule about how to
proceed in the search for physical truth or the acquisition of natural knowledge i.e. the
principle that Scripture is not an authority and may be disregarded as irrelevant in astronomy and natural philosophy. Galileo’s new telescopic evidence removed most of
the observational-astronomical objections against the earth’s motion and added new
evidence in its favor. Galileo believed not only that the geokinetic theory had greater
explanatory coherence than the geostatic theory (as Copernicus had shown) and that it
was physically and mechanically more adequate (as Galileo’s new physics suggested)
but also that it was empirically and observationally more accurate in astronomy (as the
telescope now revealed). His assessment was that the arguments for the earth’s motion
were stronger than those for the earth being at rest; that Copernicanism was more likely
to be true than the geostatic worldview.
According to one argument, the view was developed during the Enlightenment that
Galileo’s trial embodied the inherent incompatibility between science and religion, and
later this view became widely accepted. The case of Galileo may be one of those where
science and religion happened to be in conflict. Galileo’s trial does exhibit such a conflict if science is interpreted in that context as Copernicanism and religion as Scripture;
for although Galileo believed and argued that Copernicanism is compatible with Scripture, the Catholic Church (through Bellarmine, Pope Urban VIII, the Index, and the
Inquisition) claimed that Copernicanism is contrary to Holy Scripture.

49

�The conflict between science and religion is a striking feature of both the original and
the subsequent Galileo affair: in the original episode in 1616, it takes the form of Copernicanism versus Holy Scripture; in the subsequent controversy in 1633, it takes the
form that Galileo’s trial was widely perceived to epitomise the conflict between science
and religion.

Aftermath of the Galileo Affair
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith
and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed
the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever
contradict truth.
Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried
out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict
with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the
same God. The humble and preserving investigator of the secrets of nature is being
led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of
all things, who made them what they are. By 1939, Pope Pius XII was praising Galileo
for being among the “most audacious heroes of research … not afraid of the stumbling
blocks and the risks on the way, nor fearful of the funereal monuments.”
Galileo was again mentioned with approval by Pope Pius XII in an address to the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in 1952, where he concluded his
remarks saying:
As so, friends, above and beyond the deep respect which we entertain for all the sciences and for yours in particular, this is yet another reason why we are moved to pray: may
the science of astronomy, founded on the highest and most universal horizons, the ideal
of so many great men in the past such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton,
continue to bear the fruit of marvellous progress and, through to the heartfelt collaborations promoted by such groups as the International Astronomical Union, bring the
astronomical vision of the Universe to an ever deeper perfection.

50

In 1979, at a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences commemorating the centen

�nial of Einstein’s birth, Pope John Paul II gave a speech in which he talked about the
Galileo affair. The Pope admitted errors on the part of ecclesiastic individuals and institutions and acknowledged some wrongdoing on their part. He spoke of Galileo having
been caused “suffering,” of his treatment as an instance of unwarranted interference
into the autonomy of scientific research, and of the fact that the Second Vatican Council
had “deplored” such interferences.
From the point of view of the principles Galileo held regarding the relationship between
science, religion and the Bible, Pope John Paul II spoke with unprecedented clarity and
remarkable accuracy. In the 1979 Einstein centennial speech, the Pope said:17
He who is rightly called the founder of modern physics declared explicitly that the two
truths, of faith and of science, can never contradict each other . . . The Second Vatican
Council does not express itself otherwise.
Pope John Paul II also issued a call for further studies of the Galileo affair that would
be guided by three goals: bipartisan collaboration between the Galilean scientific side
and the ecclesiastic religious side; open-mindedness to the wrongs of one side and the
merits of the other side; and validation of the harmony between science and religion.
Although the third goal was in some tension with the other two, it was the one closest
to the Pope’s heart. For he argued that Galileo believed that science and religion are
harmonious and that Galileo conducted his scientific research in the spirit of religious
service and worship.
Galileo also elaborated important epistemological principles about Scriptural interpretation, which correspond to the correct ones later clarified and formulated by the Catholic Church. The Pope wanted to reverse the traditional interpretation of Galileo’s trial
as epitomising the conflict between science and religion.
For Pope John Paul II, a key lesson from the Galileo affair is the need and importance of
methodological pluralism i.e. the rule that different branches of knowledge call for different methods. This is what Galileo himself had advocated. In contrast, his theological
opponents were committed to a misplaced cultural unitarianism that led them to fail to
distinguish scriptural interpretation from scientific investigation and so to illegitimately transpose one domain into the other.
51

�Some commentators argue that the Inquisition was wrong to condemn Galileo since
he preached and practiced the principle that scriptural passages should not be used in
astronomical investigation, but only when dealing with questions of faith and morals.
The Inquisition found this principle intolerable and abominably erroneous, and wanted to uphold the opposite principle that Scripture is a scientific authority, as well as a
moral and religious one. On this question of theological and epistemological principle,
Galileo was ultimately exculpated.
In regard to the biblical issue, the main point of Galileo’s letters to Castelli and to Christina is that the literal interpretation of the Bible is binding only for questions of faith
and morals and not for physical questions.18 Although in a sense this proposition can
be accepted as true, it was regarded and was in fact singularly dangerous at that time.
The most detailed description of how the Church views the interaction between religion
and science can be found in a 1987 letter written by Pope John Paul II to Fr. George
Coyne SJ, director of the Vatican Observatory. In this letter, he insisted on the equal
value of science and religion:19
… both religion and science must preserve their autonomy and their distinctiveness.
Religion is not founded on science nor is science an extension of religion. Each should
possess its own principles, its pattern of procedures, its diversities of interpretation and
its own conclusions.
Science can purify religion from superstition; religion can purify science from false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.
The Pope also argued that this dialogue was essential to progress within science itself,
a theme which Pope Francis would later develop in Laudato Si’:20
… science develops best when its concepts and conclusions are integrated into the
broader human culture and its concerns for ultimate meaning and value. Scientists …
can also come to appreciate for themselves that these discoveries cannot be a genuine
substitute for knowledge of the truly ultimate.
And in 1992, at the conclusion of his inquiry, the Pope had not changed his mind in this
regard but reaffirmed the point with these words:
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�“Paradoxically, Galileo, a sincere believer, showed himself to be more perceptive in this
regard than the theologians who opposed him . . . The majority of theologians did not
recognize the formal distinction between Sacred Scripture and its interpretation, and
this led them unduly to transpose into the realm of the doctrine of the faith a question
that in fact pertained to scientific investigation.
Moreover, from the Galileo affair . . . another lesson we can draw is that the different
branches of knowledge call for different methods . . . The error of the theologians of the
time when they maintained the centrality of the earth was to think that our understanding of the physical world’s structure was in some way imposed by the literal sense of
Sacred Scripture.”
The Galileo myth claims that Galileo was not condemned for his astronomical conclusion that the earth moves, but for his theologically unsound practice of supporting an
astronomical view with biblical passages.22
This explanation is untrue because Galileo preached and practiced the opposite principle that Holy Scripture should not be used to support physical propositions. This myth
seems to have acted as a catalyst for the subsequent Galileo affair to become the cause
celebre it is today.

Commentary
As Galileo put it, quoting Cardinal Baronius, “The intention of the Holy Ghost is to
teach us how one goes to heaven, not how the heavens go.”
Galileo added the following note in the preliminary leaves of his own copy of the Dialogue:
“Take note, theologians, that in your desire to make matters of faith out of propositions
relating to the fixity of sun and earth you run the risk of eventually having to condemn
as heretics those who would declare the earth to stand still and the sun to change position – eventually, I say, at such time as it might be physically or logically proved that
the earth moves and the sun stands still.”
Galileo rejected the conception of the center of the universe which deprived the justi
53

�fication for the idea of the immovable earth. Following Copernicus, Galileo set forth
the advantages of assuming the sun to be at rest. It is simpler to assume a rotation of
the earth around its axis than a common revolution of all fixed starts around the earth.
The assumption of a revolution of the earth around the sun makes the motions of the
inner and outer planets appear similar and does away with the troublesome retrograde
motions of the outer planets, or rather explains them by the motion of the earth around
the sun.These arguments are convincing but are only of a qualitative nature i.e. since
humans are tied to the earth, our observations will never directly reveal to us the “true”
planetary motions but only the intersections of the lines of sight (earth-planet) with
the fixed star sphere. Galileo demonstrated that the hypothesis of the rotation and
revolution of the earth is not refuted by the fact that we do not observe any mechanical
effects of these motions. However, this misled him into formulating a wrong theory of
the tides.
Galileo’s work represents the passionate fight against any kind of dogma based on authority. Only experience and careful reflection are accepted by him as criteria of truth.
In Galileo’s time, this was a revolutionary concept. Merely to doubt the truth of opinions which had no basis but authority was considered a capital crime and punished accordingly. This is one of the reasons that Galileo is considered to be the father of modern science. The Dialogue is the book which historically did the most toward breaking
down the religious and academic barriers against free scientific thought.
As Einstein said, ‘the leitmotif which I recognise in Galileo’s work is the passionate fight
against any kind of dogma based on authority’. Galileo’s works were not removed from
the Catholic Church’s prohibited list until 1741 by Pope Benedict XIV.
The Inquisitions of Galileo Galilei between 1615 and 1633 highlighted the Catholic
Church’s interpretation of the role of tradition. In that time, the Church was facing the
fact that Copernican heliocentrism was better able to predict planetary motion than biblical tradition. Galileo has also been celebrated as a figure of valor to the scientific community because the Dialogue pulled no punches in mocking the then Pope Urban VIII.
Galileo allegedly used direct quotes in the Dialogue and attributed them to a character
called Simplicio. What is less appreciated however, is that Galileo agreed that the natural world could not be in contradiction with the faith that he maintained his whole life.

54

�Conclusion
The moon is 40 million years older than we thought, according to a new analysis of lunar samples collected by Apollo astronauts a half-century ago.
This research looked at moon dust brought back by the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the
last time humans set foot on the surface.
The results, published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters, suggest it must
be at least 4.46 billion years old and that it could have formed as long as 4.51 billion
years ago.
“It’s important to know when the moon formed”, Professor Philipp Heck of the Field
Museum in Chicago, senior author of the study, said, “(because) the moon is an important partner in our planetary system – it stabilises the Earth’s rotational axis, it’s the
reason there are 24 hours in a day, it’s the reason we have tides. Without the moon, life
on Earth would look different.
In the Dialogue, Galileo argued that the tides are caused by the compounding motion
of the earth as a conclusive proof of heliocentrism. Despite this error, the Dialogue remains one of the most important texts of the Scientific revolution.
The Galileo affair illustrates that changing scientific paradigms caused increasing
problems for religious doctrines that had been reconstructed according to the scientific knowledge of earlier times. It has been claimed that science and religion constitute
“non-overlapping magisteria” whereby science pertains to the empirical realm of facts
and religion to ultimate meaning and moral value.28
From the late nineteenth century, free inquiry came to encompass the study of religion
itself. Emile Durkheim, a prominent social scientist, defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and
forbidden.” This assumes conflict whenever scientists attempt to study sacred things
“set apart and forbidden” and in so doing, challenge religious prohibitions. Today,
stem cell research invokes some of the same deep-seated religious prohibitions as heliocentrism once did.
55

�Mind in a Fog - Nadine Bucca
56

�The Nature of the Pilgrimage:
The Meaning of Springtime in The Canterbury Tales
Noah Vancina
“Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages” (12)—why now, and whence the longing?
Before he even arrives at the human subjects of his tale of pilgrimage, all described in
the General Prologue, Chaucer, as an “introduction” to the General Prologue, gives the
sweetest description of springtime, which evokes already in the hearer the longing for
the peaceful time he describes. Let us go on our own pilgrimage to seek how Chaucer
awakes this longing, and how we might then be ready to join the pilgrims as “to Caunterbury they wende.”
Chaucer begins by providing a context for pilgrimages: “whan” (1). “When” is a temporal description that is precise or imprecise, depending on what follows. What follows
must be some event, identifiable such that the time, the “when” of the sought-after
occurrence, appears. Yet, Chaucer draws out his “whan” for eleven lines, one great dependent clause, in which he lists multiple conditions before the long-desired “thanne”
arrives. Even these conditions, though, remain imprecise: “Whan that Aprille with
his shoures soote/The droughte of March hath perced to the roote/And bathed every
veyne in swich licour/Of which vertu engendred is the flour” (1-4); at what moment
have all these things come to pass? Rain falls gradually, only in drops, and slowly it
soaks into the earth, uprooting the drought that preceded. So likewise the blowing of
the zephyr until it reaches and warms end of every damp wood. Thus, the awaited
fulfillment is an atmosphere, not a moment, in which pilgrimages begin. With these
descriptions, Chaucer evokes a dawning awareness, a longing that does not come all
at once and overwhelm but that grows like the fitful entrance of springtime and the
growth of young shoots, like the passing away of sickness and the coming of full health.
Chaucer presents meteorological events not exactly as personified, but yet as intentional and moving towards a goal. April, with “his” sweet showers, as if the showers
belonged to April (as opposed to “April’s” showers, which feels more distant), who
brought them with the intention of ending the drought and bringing the moisture needed for the flowers. The zephyr and the sun, too, play a part with “sweete breethe” and a
“cours” to run. This almost personification suggests that natural phenomena act in the
world as more than dumb happenings.
57

�Each verb, too, is loaded with intentions. April’s showers pierce the drought of March
(2). Not a simple statement of cause and effect in nature, “pierce” suggests attack, an
intentional breaking through as if much depends on not being repelled. The next line
reveals the goal: to “bathe[] every veyne in . . . licour” (3), that life be not hindered. The
zephyr then inspires the “tendre croppes” (5-7) as if it had breath to share, or the shoots
could receive spirit. When Chaucer arrives at the birds, no change of language is necessary. One might even say that the verbs applied to the birds, “maken” and “slepen,”
are the least suggestive of life, although birds are the most obviously conscious of the
characters so far.
Curious also is the peacefulness suggested by Chaucer’s diction. The showers are
“soote” (1), the zephyr’s breath is “sweete” (3), the shoots are “tendre” (7), and the birds
are “smale” (9). Everything in this springtime bespeaks gentleness and peace. Only
against the intruder is any harsh word said, for the “droughte of March” is “perced” to
the root (2): the drought being an unwelcome condition that would forestall the coming
of spring and, perhaps, also of pilgrimage.
It is in this verdant time, teeming with life, that men long to go on pilgrimages. Now
why at a time when everything seems so right with the world would men desire change
rather than rest? We find a suggestion in a line that sits right between the dependent
clause description of springtime and the independent clause discussion of pilgrimage:
“So priketh hem nature in hir corages” (11). Of whose hearts is Chaucer speaking? It
may seem natural, as the immediate antecedent, to think that the birds are meant, who
make melody and sleep with open eyes due to nature’s influence. But could it not be
looking ahead as well, to the folk who long to go on pilgrimages? Even the rhyme
scheme would couple “hir corages” with “pilgrimages.” Line 11, situated close to the
midpoint of this introduction to the General Prologue and at the meeting of the dependent and independent clauses, joins weather, plants, animals, and humans in the influence of nature on their thoughts and actions.
What kind of nature incites men to longing? Two meanings of “nature” seem possible:
the inherent constitution of a creature or the creation itself. But perhaps neither meaning is really distinctive. If nature is understood the first way, Chaucer is saying that
something within man stirs him up in the springtime, in reaction to what it perceives
around it. If the second way, creation in springtime moves man to longing.
58

�Chaucer points to the importance of the natural world in either case, leading us to wonder why springtime would cause such feelings in human beings.
There is, first, a correspondence between the creation emerging from winter and a man
recovering from sickness. Chaucer lavished attention on explicating the blooming flowers, the tender shoots, and the centrality of the sun, but these conditions or incitements
for longing are only linked to humans with a “thanne,” the termination of the dependent clause. Nevertheless, the pilgrims on the road to Canterbury are seeking a saint
who helped them recover from sickness. The parallel is evident, though human convalescence is not described so lyrically. It has already been described through springtime.
But more darkly seen is a lack in men out of which rises this longing. Before nature, with
its wholeness and life, man is disturbed. The showers do not enliven him; the wind does
not warm him. Or not primarily. Man stands across from a natural world that seems as
conscious as he. He longs, and so he leaves his familiar home, sometimes to go to foreign lands. Still, what is the lack, the source of longing? As has been said, those pilgrims
that go to Canterbury have been healed from sickness. Wholeness there; so we would
have to say those pilgrims are responding to wholeness, not to want. Thus, man at his
best state would still not possess something of which he is made aware by springtime.
The conceit behind Chaucer’s tales suggests that this want is filled by fellowship. Plurality is present throughout the introduction: “every” vein is bathed by the rain, “every”
wood and field is inspired by the zephyr, and multiple “foweles” sing. As emphasized
to by the loading of all these plurals into a dependent clause, these plurals are bound
together, as if joining one another in a festival of spring. Thus, people who recover out
of the loneliness of sickness (or whatever separates them from others) find in springtime the inspiration to join fellowship on pilgrimages. The newness of spring incites
men to seek new acquaintances, new sights, and new experiences. We see how Chaucer
(or whoever the narrator may be) embarks on his pilgrimages alone but quickly seeks
out, and is accepted into, the company of other pilgrims (19-34). Men desire to mirror
the character of the season around them. They participate in this way not solely with
creation, but with each other, each individual being drawn out of himself and into a
community.

59

�Of course, we should not force Chaucer to say that he has described all people in springtime or even all who go on pilgrimages, just as not every springtime is as consistently
idyllic as the one represented in the General Prologue. What Chaucer does offer is insight into human nature, seasons, and pilgrimage. The wholeness found in a beautiful
springtime does incite longing in the human heart, but not a longing of despair or unrequited passion. Instead, it draws people together into communities of thanks—for to
this end Chaucer’s pilgrims wend to Canterbury. While it may be less common now to
make a pilgrimage of the kind Chaucer describes, springtime can still create longing in
our hearts and, now that we better understand what it means, we are better prepared to
meet our own longing “to goon on pilgrimages.”

60

�The Creation of the Self: Shakespeare and Aristotle
Kyle Reynolds
It might seem self-evident that Prince Hal undergoes a significant change in character
throughout Shakespeare’s Henry IV. His character is first introduced as a drunken degenerate ne’er-do-well. Yet, by the end of Part One, Hal has redeemed himself in the
eyes of his father and is hailed as a hero. This does not necessarily signify a change in
character though, only a change in his conduct. One does not need to be virtuous to
act virtuously. As Plato’s Ring of Gyges allegory demonstrates, the utilitarian benefits
of acting justly are often enough to compel just behavior. Still, perhaps a change in
conduct is enough to result in a genuine change in character, even if this result is unintended. This begs the question, does Hal’s character truly change and does he become
a more virtuous man?
Hal’s first soliloquy, spoken to the audience after the prince agrees to join his comrade
Poins in a plot to embarrass their friend, Falstaff, provides some critical insight on this
question. Shakespeare uses this soliloquy to help elucidate Hal’s intentions and provide an explanation for his behavior. The prince tells us he is seeking to “imitate the
sun / Who doth permit the base contagious clouds / To smother up his beauty from
the world, / That, when he please again to be himself, / Being wanted, he may be more
wond’red at” (Shakespeare 15). If the prince is to be believed then, his juvenile and
dishonorable behavior is all in service to a grand façade. By shirking his duties and
ensuring he is perceived as worthless and reprehensible throughout the kingdom, Hal
is tempering the expectations of his subjects, his father, and his peers. So, when he does
finally cast off this façade, his redemption and reformation “shall show more goodly
and attract more eyes”.
However, it’s not clear that Hal’s behavior is merely a façade. He seems to thoroughly enjoy taking part in the debauchery perpetrated by his dishonorable cohort. Take
the dialogue directly preceding Hal’s soliloquy for example. Hal is at first weary of
Poins’s scheme to prank the unsuspecting Falstaff. To convince the prince, Poins offers
the prophetic argument, “[t]he virtue of this jest will be the incomprehensible lies that
this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet for supper: how thirty, at least, he fought
with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this
lives the jest”.
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�Hal, now convinced, responds, “[w]ell, I’ll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary
and meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap. There I’ll sup. Farewell” (Shakespeare 14).
It is the prospect of humiliating Falstaff and catching him in his lies and exaggerations
that finally compels Hal to join Poins’s plan. There does not appear to be any utilitarian
benefit for Hal in joining Poins. His willingness to go along with the prank seems best
explained by a genuine and wholly ignoble desire to humiliate Falstaff.
Hal’s reactions to Falstaff’s all too predictable lies concerning the prank only a few
scenes later serve to further illustrate this point. Falstaff begins to eagerly, and inaccurately, recount his ordeal to Hal and Poins, telling them of the men who robbed him of
his stolen gold, entirely unaware of the fact that those men were in fact Hal and Poins.
Almost immediately, Falstaff begins to, in a rather obvious manner, increase the number of his attackers, for which Hal derides him, saying, “O monstrous! Eleven buckram men grown out of two!” (Shakespeare 47). Falstaff, surprisingly unphased by the
prince’s derisions, continues with his fictional account of the “battle” and Hal continues
with his mockeries. Finally, after Falstaff becomes wholly indignant due to Hal picking
apart every aspect of his tale, the prince tells Falstaff the truth, stating:
“We two set on you four and, with a word, outfaced you from your prize, and
have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house. And, Falstaff, you carried your
guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity and roared for mercy, and still run
and roared, as ever I heard a bullcalf. What a slave art though to hack thy sword
as though hast done, and then say it was in a fight! What trick, what starting hole
canst thou now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame?”
Every action Hal has taken and every word he has spoken in this scene seems to have
been aimed at maximizing Falstaff’s embarrassment. If this is simply a part Hal is playing, such intricate scheming would be unnecessary. However, if Hal truly is morally
degenerate and elicits genuine joy from poking fun at and participating in the schemes
of his corrupt and contemptible crew, then his behavior makes a great deal more sense.
Hal’s so called “reformation” begins in earnest when he confronts his father and pledges to fulfill his duties as a prince of the realm.

62

�He tells the king, “So please your Majesty, I would I could / Quit all offenses with as
clear excuse / As well as doubtless I can purge / Myself of many I am charged withal”
. The king rejoices at this news, but is, at first, skeptical. Hal reassures him, promising
to “[b]e more”.
Hal appears to honor his commitment, marching off to battle against a rebel force, to the
astonishment of his enemies. Percy Hotspur, the leader of the rebels, inquires as to the
statues of Hal and his forces, asking, “Where is … [t]he nimble-footed madcap Prince of
Wales”. His cousin, Vernon, replies:
“All furnished, all in arms; / All plumed like estridges that with the wind / Bated like
eagles having lately bathed; / Glittering in golden coats like images; / As full of spirit
as the month of May / And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; / Wanton as youthful
goats, wild as young bulls. / I saw young Harry with his beaver on, / His crushes
on his thighs, gallantly armed, / Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury, And
vaulted with such ease into his seat / As if an angel dropped down from the clouds /
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus / And witch the world with noble horsemanship”.
Hal has, at least in the eyes of his enemy, become an entirely different person. He is no
longer seen as the “madcap Prince of Wales,” but is instead viewed as a gallant warrior.
Hal has done little except show up to the battle, yet, Vernon offers him some of the most
striking and sincere praise seen throughout the play. At this point, the reformation Hal
prophesized seems to be coming to pass. Hal is executing his plan and those around
him are taking note.
However, Hal’s plan is to simply feign virtue so as to be better looked upon by those in
his kingdom. He is only interested in the utilitarian benefits of being perceived as virtuous. Yet, after the conclusion of the battle with Hotspur’s forces, Hal takes an action
which appears entirely inconsistent with this philosophy. Falstaff falsely tells Hal and
his brother, John, that he had killed Hotspur. Hal responds, truthfully, “[w]hy, Percy
I killed myself”. This, of course, does not stop the invariably deceitful Falstaff from
arguing that his account of Hotspur’s death is accurate, going so far as to threaten to
make anyone who doubts him “eat a piece of [his] sword” (Shakespeare 114). Hal, despite knowing the falsehood of Falstaff’s claims, agrees to allow him to take credit for
the killing of Hotspur, saying, “if a lie may do thee grace, / I’ll gild it with the happiest
terms I have”.
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�While it’s not entirely clear why Hal chooses to let Falstaff persist in his lie, it seems
to come from a genuine desire to see Falstaff improve himself and his circumstances,
which Falstaff commits to do only a few lines later. There doesn’t appear to be any
benefit to Hal in allowing Falstaff to claim the glory and honor associated with killing
Hotspur. Hal’s motivations are instead altruistic in nature and demonstrative of true
virtue.
Despite deciding to reform himself in the eyes of those around him, Hal is unable to
entirely forgo his old ways. Much to the dismay of his father, Hal continues to associate
with Poins, Falstaff, and his other sinful companions. When the king learns that Hal is
back in London with his band of scoundrels, he laments;
“Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds, / And he, the noble image of my youth, /
Is overspread with them. Therefore my grief / Stretches itself beyond the hour of
death. / The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape / In forms imaginary th’
unguided days / And rotten times that you shall look upon / When I am sleeping
with my ancestors. / For when headstrong rage and hot blood are his counselors,
/ When means and lavish manners meet together, / O, with what wings shall affections fly / Towards fronting peril and opposed decay!”
The king is deeply afraid that Hal cannot truly reform and will ultimately succumb to
his rage and other vices which will destroy him.
Finally, at the conclusion of Part Two, Hal ultimately casts of his old habits and comrades. In a cutting and markedly harsh speech directed at Falstaff, the prince announces:
“I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers. / How ill white hairs becomes a
fool and jester! / I have long dreamt of such a kind of man, / So surfeit-swelled,
so old, and so profane, / But, being awaked, I do despise my dream. / Make less
thy body hence, and more thy grace. / Leave gormandizing. Know the grave doth
gape / For thee thrice wider than other men. / Reply not to me with a fool-born
jest. / Presume not that I am the thing I was, / For God doth know, so shall the
world perceive, / That I have turned away my former self. / So will I those that
kept me company”.
The way Hal speaks of his transformation makes it sound not as if he is simply put
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�ting on a different mask but as if he has truly undergone a metamorphosis of spirit. He
likens his reformation to wakening from a bad dream, a dream he now despises.
So, although Hal may not have meant to undergo a genuine change in character, he did.
His actions make clear that he was a morally corrupt degenerate that enjoyed taking
part in the activities of his London gang. Then, he undergoes a reformation, which may
have at first simply been an act, but ultimately results in a changed character capable of
committing acts of altruism. Hal does seem to waver in his new convictions, returning
to the London tavern to fraternize with Poins and Falstaff, but finally lets his old wayward acquaintances go. But why does Hal undergo this change in character? Perhaps
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics can provide some insight. Aristotle tells us:
“oral virtue comes about as a result of habit, whence also its name (ethike) is one
that is formed by a slight variation from the word ethos (habit). From this it is also
plain that none of the moral virtues arises in us by nature; for nothing that exists
by nature can form a habit contrary to its nature. … Neither by, then, nor contrary
to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive
them, and are made perfect by habit”.
Hal lived a life of vice and did not create a habit of virtue. He thus became sinful and
devoid of moral integrity. Hal then began to act virtuously. Eventually, acting ethically
became habitual. However, habits are engrained on the soul and Hal struggled to overcome his past transgressions. Though, finally, a new, virtuous Hal was created through
the prince’s actions. For, the self is formed by our habits, and Hal is no different.

65

�Translation
On the Creation of Man

66

�Contributor
Stephen Cunha

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�On the Creation of Man
By Wolfgang Musculus
Translation by Stephen Cunha
Now, accordingly, in proper order, we proceed to consider the work of God in the creation of
man: which consideration must be understood, not only to be next after those things which we
have noted concerning God the maker of all things, but also to especially concern man. For what
is more properly suitable for man than, after his creator, to understand himself? We are drawn
to this knowledge not only by that which Lactantius somewhere puts into words, “Great is the
power of man, great his reason, great his mystery, so that not undeservedly Plato gave thanks
to nature, because he was born a human being”—yes indeed, because next to God nothing is
more sublime than man, nothing more excellent has been made;3 but also because no small
portion of our salvation requires this, that we know ourselves, wherein even those who have
everywhere inculcated the saying γνωθε σεαυτόν, that is, “know thyself,” as if it had dropped
down from heaven, have admonished that the greatest part of wisdom is found. But who does
not know that it is especially required for the knowledge of man, that we should not be ignorant
of the origin and making of mankind? And the Holy Spirit has described the creation of man
with singular care and greater diligence than all other created things in the Sacred Scriptures,
undoubtedly for this purpose, that even from the origin of our race, we might be reminded that
when God made man, he wanted to create a certain remarkable work, which would be much
more outstanding, and would much more closely approach the glory of his divinity, than the
rest of creation; and in the next place, that the knowledge of our beginning might be very much
conducive to the consideration of divine wisdom, goodness, and power, and contain, as it were,
some principles of heavenly philosophy.
And I also think that some parameters of knowledge are required, so that we do not extend our
consideration beyond those things that are able to advance Christian godliness. What should be
thought by the godly person concerning the creation of man cannot be better determined than
from the instruction of the Holy Spirit, which Sacred Scripture sets forth to us. For the mind of
man has been so darkened, that he is able to judge rightly neither of his maker nor of himself.
For this reason, man must take care to search for the things that ought to be known, and held
with certainty, not only concerning man himself but also concerning God his creator, from the
Sacred Scriptures rather than from human opinion.
And those things which have been handed down in the Sacred Scriptures, having rejected all
curiousness, are so composed, that they are adapted to both our capacity and our benefit. They
are moderate, but solid, certain, profitable, necessary, and harmonious. Therefore, concerning
the creation of man, this is related to us in few words in Genesis chapters one and two. First,
that man is a work, just as all other created things. He was made in time; he did not exist before
time. Indeed, if we consider the time of our beginning, which Sacred Scripture also reveals, every creature is more ancient than man. Now everything which has been made does not exist on
account of itself, but by reason of another source. And just as

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it does not exist from itself, so whatever it has, it does not have from itself, but from the one by

�69

�whom it was made. Nor when it was made, was it able to cause itself to be made different, either
better or worse, than what it was made according to the will of its maker. On the contrary, it has
not even contributed in the smallest degree to become what it has been made. Accordingly, it
should be observed concerning man, that since he also, just like the rest of creation, was made,
all that he is and all that he has (in terms of natural abilities), depended on the will, wisdom,
and power of his maker.
Second, since the very consideration that we have been made immediately leads us forward to
become acquainted with our maker, we next inquire about the maker and creator of man. Sacred
Scripture attributes the creation of man to the same One by whom all other things were made.
It says, “God created man.”The books of the Gentiles say concerning a certain Prometheus, the
father of Deucalion, that he first formed man. And he did not form man, but the image of man
from clay: for which reason he is also the author of the art of molding. We acknowledge that
the maker of our race is the only and true God, who made heaven and earth, and all the things
which are in them, visible and invisible, and so we confess that whatever we are and whatever
we have is from him. Moreover, it is properly required that in all things we depend on him
alone, as the creature on his creator. Israel is reproached in the Mosaic and prophetic books
because it abandoned its maker. And God himself cries out, saying: “I made you.” Wherein it is
sufficiently demonstrated how perverse the heart of man is, to such an extent that he forsakes
his own maker, God.
Furthermore, we are admonished by this knowledge, since we all have the same creator and
maker, lest any man find fault with his work, either in himself or in others, saying: “Why
did he make me like this?” In Isaiah chapter forty-five we read as follows: “Woe to him
who speaks against his maker, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay
say to its potter, ‘What are you making?’” And in Proverbs chapter fourteen we read: “He
who finds fault with a poor man, reproaches his maker.”Therefore, that faith by which we
believe that we have been created by God, will work these three things in our hearts. First,
that in all things we depend with our whole heart on God our creator. Second, that each man
is content with how he has been created, and even embraces it with thanksgiving, for which
he has been made by God the creator. Third, that no one looks down on how his neighbor
has been made, however base and lowly, lest he dishonors in him their common creator.
In the third place, the Sacred Scriptures are not silent about this, of what man was made. In Genesis chapter two we read the following, “Therefore, the Lord God formed man from the dust of
the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature.” In
Hebrew it is, ‫המדאה ןמ רפע‬. Notice the material from which man was made. And what is baser,
what is poorer and more unstable, than the dust of the ground, from which not even bricks can
properly be made? He could at least have been made from solid earth. This origin of our race
warns us all, that in consideration of it we maintain modesty, lest it be said to us: “Why are you
prideful, O earth and ashes?” For what other assessment is to be made of that, which is made
from dust? The Holy Spirit could have said, “The Lord God formed man from the ground,” or
“from the dust”: but in order to inculcate the lowliness of man, he called man, made from dust,
“the dust of the earth.” And what did
God say to Adam? “Dust you are, and to dust you will return.” He did not simply say, “you are

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�from dust,” but “you are dust.” Lest the flesh should say, “So what that I am from dust? Whatever I came from, I am now a human being, and am not dust”; the sentence of God our maker
comes to us, saying: “And from dust you are, and dust you still are, and to dust you will return,” just as if you were to say to a magnificent glacier: “And water you were, and water you
are, and to water you will return.”
In the fourth place, the way in which the first man was made is read in the Sacred Scriptures.
We read the following in Genesis chapter two: “Therefore, the Lord God formed man, from
the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
creature.”11 By the verb “formed,” the Holy Spirit expresses the singular diligence put into the
creation of man. Second, in order to describe what material God formed, when he built man,
he adds: “dust of the earth.” Third, he adds, “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,”
by which words he teaches us how the figure of the human body, first formed from the dust,
and still inanimate, was made animate and living. His maker poured into him spirit and breath
(for in the Hebrew it is ‫ )םייח תמשנ‬from which he would live, and so he was made into a living
soul: that is, he began to live, a man now animated, who before was dust and inanimate. Thus,
the things concerning the first man Adam.
And how Eve was subsequently made, is in the same chapter read in this way: “The
Lord God sent a deep sleep on Adam. And while he slept, he took out one of his ribs, and replaced the flesh over it. And the Lord God built the rib, which he had taken from Adam, into a
woman, and brought her to Adam. And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh
of my flesh. She is called woman, since she was taken out of man.’”
In both cases, the singular purpose and care that God used in the creation of man is
sufficiently intimated. And yet, in like manner, we are permitted to see how the Holy Spirit describes in three words the wonderful way man was formed—wherein the body together with its
members, both internal and external, such as bones, veins, cartilage, vertebrae, muscles, joints,
and limbs were most harmoniously fashioned, put together, and adorned, and then vivified by
the infusion of the soul—when he says, “he formed,” “he built,” and “he breathed [inspired].”
And in this way, he restrains our curiosity, which is itching to know each of these things, how,
by what industry, by what strength, and in what space of time it was accomplished, admonishing us to reverently hold fast to those things imparted in few words, and to acknowledge and
honor God our maker.
In the fifth place, it is also taught in the Sacred Scriptures, what kind of man was made.
With respect to the figure of the body of both, male and female, its stature, and the fitting together of the body and soul, it is in itself plain, of what constitution we have been made. But
as for clearly perceiving the nature and dignity of man, since both have been corrupted, and
deprived of their original quality, of what kind both were in the first man, we are not able to
know, unless the Holy Spirit speaks of and teaches it to us.
And I do not understand in this place by quality of nature the bodily necessities and
affections, in which we are still subjected, but that original quality of rectitude, which it is read
that God imparted to the first man in Ecclesiastes chapter seven. For Ecclesiastes says the following, “I have found this only, that God made man ‫[ רשי‬that is, upright].” This is not to be un

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�derstood of the uprightness of the body, but of the soul, which men call original righteousness,
and which comprises the knowledge of God the creator, obedience, faith, love toward both God
and one’s neighbor, and the freedom of an upright will, together with other adornments of that
nature.
Therefore, when the first man by nature was made such—namely, upright, not only in
body, but also in soul—he possessed free will in such a way, that he was able to obey God, if he
wanted: and, on the other hand, he was able to sin, if he wanted. For however upright and free
to do good he was made, nevertheless, at the same time, he differed from the angels in this, that
he was able to be tempted by inordinate affections, and consent to them, and be led away from
the rectitude of original righteousness. This does not have a place in those angels who, since the
fall of the reprobate spirits, have remained in the truth of God.
The Sacred Scriptures also testify concerning the dignity of the first man, when they
teach that he was made in the likeness and image of God. God says in Genesis chapter one, “Let
us make man in our own image and likeness, and let him rule over the fish of the sea, and over
the birds of the air, and over every living creature on the earth, and over every creeping thing
that moves on the earth. And God created man in his image and in his likeness, in the image of
God he created him,” and the things which follow in that place.
Most ancient and contemporary authors expound the dignity of man as uprightness of
nature, of which we have made mention, so that the image of God was what separated man
from the beasts, by reason and by the internal integrity of man which more nearly resembled
the divine nature, wisdom, and righteousness. But although that exposition is not to be altogether discarded, it is nevertheless clear from the very words of Sacred Scripture that man was
so made in the image of God, that he should be like God on the earth, and have all things placed
under his feet. For what else is being said where it reads, “And God created man in his image
and likeness,” than what follows, “in the image of God he created him”? In Hebrew it is ‫םלצב‬
‫םיהלא‬. And to be created in the image of God, is to be constituted like a certain God. Whence,
magistrates and rulers are in the Scriptures called ‫םיהלא‬: that is, “gods” and “mighty ones.”
And this image of God granted to man does not exclude the internal uprightness of man, which
is so necessary for the former to be retained, that without it a ruler differs nothing from a savage
beast, except perhaps that he employs more subtlety and cunning in carrying out the malice of
his tyranny. This understanding of human dignity, according to which man is made in the image of God, was plainly set forth by Chrysostom in his exposition of Genesis chapter one, and
occasionally by Augustine in his dispute with the Manicheans.
And when the apostle says in First Corinthians chapter eleven that “a man indeed ought
not cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man,”
he thus plainly makes a distinction between the man and the woman, saying that the man is indeed made in the image of God, but the woman in the image of man. This cannot be understood
only of internal human rectitude and righteousness, of which the woman is a partaker together
with the man in the Lord, but is wholly to be understood of the authority of rule, which, as is
well known, was granted at once to the man at the beginning, but denied to the woman.

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The putting of Adam in a paradise of pleasure after he was made, a place more excellent and
exceptional in comparison with all other habitations on the whole earth, and that he put names

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�upon all the living creatures, also relate to this dignity of the image of God. For what else do
these things prove than that he was the lord and ruler of the whole earth?
Many other things are disputed concerning the status that our first parents had in paradise, and
what they would have had if they had not sinned, but these things from Sacred Scripture are
more certain and more profitable to students of theology: briefly, to hold, first, that man was
made; second, that he was made by God; third, that he was made from the dust of the earth;
fourth, that he was built with the special care of God; and fifth, that he was made in and elevated to the image of God, so that he is more outstanding in both nature and worth than all other
creatures. If properly considered, these things contain most ample subject matter of Christian
philosophy, and are conducive to this, that through the consideration of our origin we are restored to modesty, and through the knowledge of the uprightness and dignity of our first parents, we understand more deeply what we have lost in them, and what we have recovered, and
not without great gain, in Christ our second Adam, and the author of our regeneration.

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�Bad Dreams - Nadine Bucca
78

�“Creating a Community”
An Inter view with Associate Dean
Brendan Boyle
A vision for building community at the
St. John’s College Graduate Institute.
By Stephen Borsum

79

�It was what I would call the first cold day of the year when I came to the BBC to meet
Mr. Boyle for an interview. It was cold only in that the rain falling that day was a chilling one, one lacking the distinct warmth that rain has in summer and early fall here in
Annapolis. As I entered, I approached Mr. Boyle’s office to see it closed. Unexpected,
given I was just on time for our scheduled meeting. But he called to me from within the
GI Conference room where he had been taking some calls for the day, and after some
polite banter and the brewing of some green tea, we began our discussion. What follows
has been edited for clarity, and is ultimately a poor reflection of just how engaging a
face-to-face conversation with Mr. Boyle can be.
Stephen:
I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on the role you play as dean. You know, you’re
a liaison to the college. You are a tutor. You’re a family man. You have all of these responsibilities and so, where does worrying about the health of the GI community fall in
the list of priorities?
Mr. Boyle:
I think my top priority is the GI as a community. One thing I realized when I was thinking about this interview this morning is that I’m probably going to be borrowing a lot of
formulations that I heard from Walter Sterling yesterday. And I’m happy to credit him
and you can credit him in whatever way you think is necessary, but I hadn’t really even,
until yesterday, begun to notice that the first statement of the program is that St. John’s
College is a community of learning, and that even if I hadn’t noticed that, I don’t think
I had caught what he drew attention to. Which is that sentence, at least on his construction, is meant to distinguish St. John’s qua community from St. John’s qua institution
like in the first instance. At the same time it might well be an institution. But if it’s an
institution, that description is somehow much lower than the description of St. John’s
as a community. So I do feel like my first responsibility is to the community of learning
and more particularly to the community of learning that is the Graduate Institute now.
And that there’s a new aspect to that community given the fact that the community now
includes persons who are not physically located here, namely low-residency students.
And so, in some sense, I’m the first Associate Dean to inherit this. To walk into a community or to have responsibility of shepherding the community that is not physically in
the same place. It is true that Emily Langston also had that in the latter part of her term,
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�and maybe I’m the first to come into a term for a community of this sort. And that will
present, you know, new different challenges, but those are very much on my mind.
How does one hold together a community that includes a not small number of persons
who are not residents of this place? I’m trying to do some things, reading groups, for
example, that in the past, I think, would be unheard of for an associate dean to have a
reading group that was held online by design. But for me, in having the dean’s reading
group be part of the weekend, I made it online by design because I was trying to be responsive to the nature or shape of the community now. To return to to the formulation
of your question, I really do think that my job is as the steward of the community and
its intellectual health, but intellectual health understood in the most capacious term. I
also want people to be flourishing affectively and interpersonally because, in so doing,
their intellectual flourishing will be still greater.
Not to go on too long — I do want to make this conversation — but I will say one thing
that I really liked about some of the things [Walter Sterling] said yesterday is that it’s
very important for the person in a position of leadership to be physically present. And
I’m trying to keep that at the center of my own mind. Now, I think I can actually do a
much better job of being at ASG on Thursday nights — things like that. I could, in fact
— and should, in fact, do a better job of that. So one of the things that’s important to me
is to acknowledge the importance of the associate dean being physically present here as
much as possible.
Stephen:
I will say, I think the impact of that is already palpable. You and Ms. Langston both
have prioritized that, and I think it’s noted. I will give you the pass on being there at
ASG. You’re here at, you know, eight or nine in the morning. I don’t think we need you
there at 10 p.m. at night. That’s not on you.
Mr. Boyle:
That’s kind of you to say.
Stephen:
That splits off into two things, and feel free to go either direction with these questions.
I do think the gap between the in-person students and the low-residency students is a
very tough one to address and some things are being done like low residency weekends
and I think everyone really enjoys those and it’s hard to require them to come to us
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�more. So I think that solutions like online reading groups are excellent. The other thing
is the relationship between tutors and students seems so vital and, as much as I know,
certain tutors really enjoy the GI but I don’t see them present in some of those additional events. So I think the two main questions there are: Are there other things you are
considering to bridge the gap between in-person and low-residency? And how do we
keep the tutors involved at a greater level?
Mr. Boyle:
Yeah, two hard and great questions. I have some ideas for bridging this gap, and I’m not
sure even if the ideas were put in place and they were successful, I’m still not sure how
much the gap would be bridged.
One of the things that I’d like to do and want to start doing in the near future is just
doing something like a spotlight on a low-residency student, weekly or biweekly, or
something like that, and maybe having a little interview and then putting it up on the
board or sending it around. Just as a way to get the in-person students to know about
the low-residency students who are out there. Would that make intellectual connections? I don’t know. I’m hopeful that something like that, and I don’t know what their
exact right form is, could go some way. Now, to me, it’s still an open question. What
would the best possible outcome look like? How much of a divide would there be in
the best of all possible worlds between the low-residency students and the in-person
students? I don’t think that the answer would be none. But maybe it would be rather
little and I think that’s a perfect question. How do you achieve that “rather little.” The
question about tutors is also a good and hard one. And I think that one of the things
that Emily Langston did really well is integrate the Graduate Institute into the larger
life of the college, and I think that she would say that that was an important part of her
own work. I think that she would also say that it’s probably not yet finished, and it’s
my job to, if not finish it, then hopefully advance it. But it’s also true that we haven’t
really found a way to bring more tutors to the GI. I feel like there’s a somewhat small
subset of tutors, and the faculty who are teaching in the GI and we haven’t yet found
a way to broaden that subset. There are some restrictions, like untenured faculty can’t
teach in the GI seminar. OK, leave that to the side. I would like to find a way, and I’ve
begun to speak with [Annapolis Dean] Susan Paalman about this to find a way to bring
in mid-career tutors beyond the current subset of regulars into the GI, because I feel
like that problem is related to the problem that you’ve said of getting tutors to just be at
other co-curricular or curricular-adjacent events.
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�They seemed like separate problems, but I think they’re related in that if people think of
the GI as a regular part of the academic life of the college tutors, that is, they will see GI
events — be they ASG or (Campus) Convening weekend or what have you — as much
more of a piece with homecoming weekend or just general college events that they go
to with some regularity, even if they’re not teaching in the GI in that particular semester. So, that’s an aim of mine, and I think it would be good for the GI to have greater
circulation of the faculty through it. And I think that some of the GI students even like
the fact that there a subset of tutors who are especially dedicated to GI. I think there is
something to be said for that, but it would be nice for that subset to be larger, and then
I think we would have that circulation which would be good for all parties.
Stephen:
I think all of that addresses another question I have. It seems that It’s hard to build a
community with busy adults when you only have four segments to do so. And I know
that’s how the program is built and marketed, but do you see that as a hindrance to a
sustaining a community? Are there inclinations you have on how to address that other
than GIs coming back to do precepts and audit classes later?
Mr. Boyle:
Can I first ask a question in response? Is it somehow a corollary of that question that the
MALA could or should be longer than four segments?
Stephen:
It certainly could be. And I’m thinking of the four semesters and particularly how I hear
it marketed in some ways where you could do summer or fall, spring, summer and be
done in a year, and you can hardly form a friendship in a year regardless of your lifelong relationships.
Mr. Boyle:
That seems that seems fairly said. On the one hand, I think that the MALA is by most
Master’s standards long. Most other programs speak in the language of credit hours.
This Master’s program, seeing as it takes, let’s say, two academic years, generally is
more time for students to form community than I think a lot of other Master’s programs
have. I’m not entirely sure that the time component is works against us. I do agree that
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�when the program is marketed, or at least described, as a program that you could finish
in a year — summer, academic year, following summer — then the question of how
to put that frame together with the emphasis on community is a hard one, and maybe
even might sound a little bit disingenuous. As in, how can you promise the creation of
community in one calendar year? I would respect that criticism. I don’t actively talk
about the program as one that should be done in a single calendar year. When people
ask if they can do this, I tell them that of course they can, and I recognize that some
people have a year off of their job or a sabbatical that is just the calendar year, and we
want them to be able to do this in that in that single calendar year and I guess we’re in
some sense crossing our fingers that the intensity of the program will generate some
sort of community and lasting friendship that is typically brought about by time. It
might be important for me to think about those persons who have done the program in
a year and calendar year and whether they as a distinct group feel connected or not to
the college now.
One other open question for me is: does this segment structure itself work against community? That wasn’t precisely your formulation, but I wonder if you might endorse
it? And I say that because it’s not as if students move through the program together.
You’re in a segment with somebody one semester and then they’re in segment X in the
spring semester, but you’re in segment Y spring semester and you just don’t see each
other or aren’t reading the same texts any longer. Does that work against community?
Maybe it does. It’s certainly true that the undergraduates, you know, don’t have that
experience. So that’s something I may have to give some more thought to, but maybe I
could just pause for a second and ask you, do you think that segment structure works
against community? Insofar as the person with whom you are forging a deep friendship
now this fall very well will not be in the same class with you next semester, let alone in
the same segment.
Stephen:
I do think this type of thing plays out in ASG. And I haven’t seen enough evidence to
say that it’s positive or negative, but it is interesting to see the... I want don’t use the
term “clique” because it’s often so loaded, but it’s the most apt word. Cliques will form
in ASG often, and if they’re not people who are already established friends they will
form because of the shared texts. And those are bright and vibrant conversations, but
84

�at the same time, there is such a genuine interest in what everyone else is experiencing
that I think it overcomes itself, so I don’t think the segment structure is necessarily a
hindrance. I would be curious to know, and this is more of a general question, if there
is a perceived issue, how even flexible is the structure of the GI? It doesn’t seem like it’s
something that can change on a whim.
Mr. Boyle:
Definitely not something that could change on a whim. But the GI structure has changed
a lot, even in the short time that I’ve been at the college. For example, the decoupling of
the preceptorials from the segments. At one point, not during Emily Langston’s associate deanship but back in Jeff Black’s deanship, it used to be the case that the preceptorials were in a pretty strong sense pegged to the segments offered that term. So, if you
take this term for an example, Math and Natural Science, and Literature. The preceptorials offered would be two Literature preceptorials and two Math and Natural Science
preceptorials. Instead, what we actually have this fall is Canterbury tales, Galileo, three
modern poets, the Greek, and Plato. And yes some of those may fit the themes of the
current segments, but that seems to be circumstance, not designed.
I think in years past one might have said that Plato’s Republic somehow belongs to
Philosophy and Theology. So I do think that there is some kind of openness for the
structure of the GI to change, and you might hear people around the halls talk about
other paths to degree that the GI might pursue. Maybe we decouple — and I’m not
endorsing this, I’m just reporting things that I’ve heard — decouple the seminars and
tutorials. And it’s no longer the case that one needs to take four seminar-tutorial pairs
plus four preceptorials, but one needs to take four seminars, four tutorials and four preceptorials. And they can be somehow mixed and matched. That could not be changed
on a whim and I’m not sure that that’s even a good idea. I would say I do think that
the relationship between seminar and tutorial in the GI is unique and it’s not like the
relationship between seminar and tutorial in the undergraduate program. Insofar as
it’s unique, I can imagine people in the future thinking about different ways forward
to the degree that may not abandon the segment structure, but might actually in some
sense alter it because one would be no longer bound to these seminar-tutorial pairs.
Again I’m not endorsing this. I’m just speculating on things that I have heard, and I’m
of two minds. As you might recall yesterday, Walter Sterling talked about the GI as be
85

�ing a place for experiments, and I think that there’s definitely some truth to that. Now,
one needs to be cautious about imagining the GI as just some kind of laboratory where
one can try a bunch of different things, because that’s a deep disservice to the Institute,
as an institution with its own coherent program. It’s true that it’s more amenable to experimentation, new offerings, new MALA segments than with the undergraduate. Well,
obviously it might be amenable to new offerings than undergraduate programming is,
but one needs to be very measured about how one goes about doing such a thing.
Stephen:
I think this discussion of the structure of the GI program raises a question that ties the
conversation back to the relationship between the GI and the broader college community. I think the first thing I want to just hear your input on is, there is such a difference
in how the GI and the undergrad programs are built — and this might get at the heart
of the issue — do you think GIs and undergrads graduate from their programs prepared to have the same conversation with each other? Is there something inherently
true about the structure either way that creates that unity?
Mr. Boyle:
I think there’s enough overlap between the texts that are at the center of the GI. I want
to say that at the center of the GI are the books and at the center of the undergraduate
program are the books. It just so happens that we have kind of carved them up into segments for reasons that might be related to the unique position that a number of persons
who are coming to the GI find themselves in. That they’re organized by segments to
me will always remain a secondary fact about the about the Graduate Institute, and the
books on the lists will always remain the absolute center, and insofar as there is great
overlap between those lists and the list for the undergraduate program. I do think that
the two sets of graduates, GI and undergraduates, go out ready to talk to one another,
and the places in which they differ, it’s probably the case that undergraduates know
about and wish that they could have read things that are in the GI program and vice
versa. For example, the entire history segment. GI’s have ready ears to hear about things
that are in the graduate program but not in the undergraduate one, and seem genuinely
curious about the undergraduate experience and what it offers that they may not see
in the GI. Labs are a terrific example there. Music, by and large. But yeah, there’s a nice
amount of overlap. But with the possibility for growth because the overlap is not total.

86

�Stephen:
Absolutely. Well, I only have two more quick questions for you. I’m curious to hear
your take on what it is that makes the GI community so unique amongst the polity or
even in the world. And then the last question is just a question on your background and
what got you here. So I guess you if you want to take the GI community question first
and then we can jump into the other one.
Mr Boyle:
This is where I’m definitely going to steal from Walter yesterday because I thought it
was so moving of him to have said that. In some sense, the GI is most reflective of what
it is that is at the heart of St. John’s College. Insofar as, people come to the graduate program, people do not drift into the Graduate Institute in the way that 18-year-olds can
drift into the undergraduate program or be helped along by their parents into the undergraduate program, directed by their parents say, into the undergraduate program.
It’s not a knock on anybody, it’s just a recognition of that’s how life is. One at 18 is still
not quite in charge of one’s own life. But when one decides at the age of 25, 55, 75 to give
of oneself one’s time and one’s finances to intellectual inquiry, that is a demonstration
of the true choice-worthiness of the undertaking that we do here. That characterizes
the work of the college. And yes, it will always be the case that the undergraduate program is at the center of St. John’s. No one, no one is doubting that. But I thought that
Walter really highlighted a way in which something about the presence of persons who
have made a very considered and deliberate choice, in something like the middle of
their lives, to undertake this mode of inquiry through conversation is the best possible
endorsement of it. So, I found that very, very moving. And in some sense wish all GIs
could have heard that. It helps me even think about what I find so moving about seeing
a 25-year-old, a 55-year-old, a 75-year-old here together learning from one another. I
see in them hunger for a life of learning with others and in community with others but
also, recognition that that hunger is one that can be met by this distinct community, the
institution of St. John’s College. So, their presence here in the Graduate Institute is in
some sense the greatest endorsement of the institution as a whole.
Now, how did I get here? Again, I’m going to borrow a little bit from something that I
heard Walter say in a different meeting. I’ve been a tutor for 10 years, more or less. And
at some point along the way, I think I felt some sort of calling to take on a role in the
college over and above my work and the working of the classroom, which is, I believe,
the most important work at the college. But I thought that I might have had one or two
administrative talents that are in some sense very minor virtues like staying on top of
87

�things or keeping some things organized, that I felt like I could put in the college’s service. I Won’t be in this position forever and look forward to returning to the classroom,
but as I felt like I had these minor virtues I wanted to share them with the college. And
so when they asked me to do this, I was very glad to do it. And I came into the role with
the GI in a great position and hope to leave it in a still better one.
Stephen:
Building on your journey to this position I have one last question is and then we’ll get
you out of here. I saw in your background in classics is what led you into this world
of inquiry. But clearly, just even having a couple of brief intro or Campus Convening
Weekend seminars with you, there’s a vibrancy in you about educating itself. So I’m
curious, does that drive to be an educator come before the passion of the classics, or did
the passion of the classics inspire the drive to be an educator?
Mr. Boyle:
Can I do the thing that interviewers hate and just reject the terms of question?
Stephen:
Be my guest.
Mr Boyle:
I think I might have at one time thought of myself as an educator, but I’m very grateful
to St. John’s because I don’t any longer really think of myself as an educator. But I feel
like I can passionately model being a student, like I just love learning and I love learning
with others and I think I’m not bad at it. I think I know how it goes well, and what in
what conditions it goes well, and what conditions it goes somewhat poorly. And I think
I can model that for people. If I’m educating them in that regard, I’m happy to, but I’m
definitely not filling their minds with any theories.

88

I’m grateful to St. John’s because to be perfectly honest, before I came to St. John’s I
did just want to be filled with facts that I could report, but not really own as my own.
St. John’s, as I think it’s true for many tutors, marked a real new beginning in my own
intellectual life. What I could say if I have to start again from nothing and say, almost
all of what I take myself to know I know in only the most attenuated sense because it’s
so mediated. It’s been handed to me by so many other persons that I have never really
taken any ownership of my own education, and I think I was able to do that when I

�became a tutor and I hope I’m showing people that they can do that, too. And you can
start at any time. It’s available to anybody to just take ownership of their education.
And insofar as I’m showing people what that might look like, I may consider myself an
educator, but in the main, I’m just a student.

Stephen:
Well, it’s certainly palpable and thank you for taking some time with me today
Mr. Boyle:
It was a pleasure, glad to.

89

�Thank you to all our contributors

90

Austin Suggs

On Creation

Chris Macbride

Old Dog

Cynthia Crane

The First Postulate

John Harwood

Before the Blank Stare

Kyle Reynolds

The Creation of the Self

Louis Petrich

Children of That World

Nadine Bucca

Visual Art

Noah Vancina

The Nature of the Pilgramage

Sam Hage

Corruption at the Symposium

Shirley Quo

The Galileo Affair

Siobhán Petersen

How to Read Well

Stacey Rains

Forbidden Fruit

Stephen Cunha

On the Creation of Man

Sydney Rowe

Mimi

Sylvie Bernhardt

My Mind’s a Dark Forest

Yonas Ketsela

A Dialogue with Descartes

�COLLOQUY
St. John’s College, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis, Maryland
Volume 13: Fall 2023
Editor
Stephen Borsum
Editorial board:
Sarah Ritchie, Paul Harland-White, Shirley Quo, Stuart Williams,
Kyle Reynolds, Sylvie Bernhardt
With thanks to: Kashya Boretsky, Associate Dean Brendan
Boyle, and the Graduate Student Council
.....
Colloquy is a biannual publication of the Graduate Student
Council and St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. The journal is free of charge. Address correspondence to Colloquy, The
Graduate Institute at St. John’s College, 60 College Avenue,
Annapolis, Maryland, 21401. Or email to colloquy@sjc.edu.
Students, tutors, and alumni of St. John’s College and the Graduate Institute are encouraged to submit their manuscripts in PDF
or Word format by email to colloquy@sjc.edu . The journal also
accepts submissions of poetry, original art, and photography.
Please include your name, contact information, and the title of
your work with your submission.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the journal do
not necessarily reflect those St. John’s College, the Graduate
Council, or Colloquy.

91

�92

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                    <text>CELLS AND GENES ARE PARTS OF ANIMALS: ARISTOTLE IN THE LATE 2QTH CENTURY

James N. Jarvis, M.D., SJC '75 (Annapolis)
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Detroit, MI

1

�ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE LEC1'URE 09/16/M

CELLS AND GENES ARE PARTS OF ANIMALS: ARISTOTLE IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY
Ms. Braun, members of the St. John's faculty, fellow-members of the St. John's community. It is a
pleasure to be your guest this evening and to return to the campus where my intellectual and spiritual
life was nurtured for four years. I must begin by reassuring Mr. Michael Dink that I really do have a
talk planned this evening and that this is not just an elaborately-organized scheme for me to get a
bully-pulpit to regale yet. another generation of St. Johnnies about events that occurred on a nearby
softball field just under 20 years ago. Let me also assure those who think that the words •... mental
lapse .. ." and "Michael Dink" can't be spoken in the same sentence that the full telling of this story will
occur (yet again) during my class's 20th reunion a little more than a year from now.
This lecture has been incubating for more than eight years, since, in fact, my first introduction to

biomedical science in Paul Levine's laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. Until then, my
exposure to medical research, even in medical school, had been more bookish than practical and my
own view of how hypotheses are generated and tested was, I think, limited. Since that time, I have had
the great privilege of participating in a first-hand way in the investigation of living matter and how it
works. My primary interest in this activity has been a practical one: I have accepted the Baconian
premise that understanding how the body functions or operates under normal conditions is the key to
understanding what happens when it doesn't function or doesn't function well. I have, in effect, taken
a rather narrow and what might otherwise be called mechanistic approach to living matter. More
precisely, I have become interested in how cells, genes, and proteins work (this distinction between the
understanding the whole and the parts, and understanding how something works versus other kinds
of understanding, will be explored further in this lecture). Thus, this lecture will have something of a
narrow focus. Please don't expect insights of a profound nature, either about living matter or about
Aristotle. I am fully aware that there are individuals in this audience (probably sophomores, who have
read just enough Aristotle to be menacing) who may even be expecting me to finish this lecture by
telling you what "life", or living matter is. Please accept my humble apologies for not providing this and
offering, instead, some thoughts about the study of living things and Aristotle's contributions to that
study. During the course of this lecture I will share some of my insights into Aristotle's The Parts of
Animals, and I will also tell you a little bit about how to clone a gene. In the process of doing so, it is
my intention to awaken you to the incredible beauty and complexity of living things and enhance your
respect for Aristotle's understanding of them.
While engaged in this wonderful challenge of understanding the working of nature and its relation to
health and disease, I have been struck by the vocabulary of biological scientists, my friends and
colleagues. Although they themselves may not recognize it, it seems to me that the language of biology
is different from the language of other sciences, certainly different from the languages of geology,
physics, and chemistry, three disciplines I follow at a distance as an interested amateur (largely through
my perusal of the weekly journal, Science). What is more, that language, the language of modem
biological science, reminds me of an older scientific language, a language of a discipline that my friend
and mentor Leon Kass calls natural philosophy as a reminder of its pre·Baconian origins. This language
of biology, I submit, still uses important concepts which have been central to the study of biology since
they were articulated in The Parts of Animals. What I will try to point out to you this evening is how
those concepts articulated by Aristotle more than 2,000 years ago are still used in modem cell and
molecular biology, and I will try to convince you (as I continue to try to convince my colleagues) that
the use of these concepts is appropriate and, I think, necessary. I will this evening argue that not only
is the language of modern biology still essentially "Aristotelian," but that our approach to understanding
2

�living matter and how it works differs little from the paradigm presented in the opening paragraphs
of Parts of Animals. I will, furthermore, try to convince you that "good" and "bad" biological science
rests, to a large extent, upon the investigator's ability to see .the world of living things through
Aristotle's eyes.

a

should point out that I am not using the words "good" and "bad" here in a moral sense. What I mean
by "good science" is a shorthand for investigation that would be publishable in peer-reviewed medical
or scientific journals: experiments and conclusions that would be accepted by other knowledgeable
people in the investigator's field. Whether there is morally "good" and "bad" science, and whether
Aristotle's system of the investigation would recognize such, is a question I will not address here but
might be raised in the question period when I am finished these remarks).
I clearly cannot talk about all of The Parts of Animals this evening, so I have and will restrict my
observations to the opening chapter of the first book, in which Aristotle presents the terms and format
for the ensuing discussion. I think that this is really the richest part of the book, because, at risk of
stealing my own thunder, I believe that the genius of Aristotle is not his own particular observations
about animals and the functions of their parts. Many or most of his observations have not subsequently
been found either verifiable or generalizable. Rather, Aristotle's brilliance, at least in the field of
biology, rests in his having provided the framework for all future discussions about living matter.
I will share an anecdote that introduces some of the points that I will be making in the rest of this talk.
I was visiting a colleague at the University of Michigan Medical Center in nearby Ann Arbor last
winter, and, like a polite and interested scientist, I asked her how her work was going. She beamed and
proudly answered, "Great! I think I've found a function for my gene." This is a response that perhaps
only another cell or molecular biologist could understand or appreciate. Suffice it to say that, while the
modern revolution in molecular biology and medicine has given us tremendous power to clone and
sequence genes from every species of living matter, including human beings, those of us engaged in this
sort of endeavor are actually looking for something more than a genomic or complementary DNA library
and a gene sequence. What my colleague was telling me, I think, was that she had finished the 20th
century part of her work (discovering; cloning, and sequencing a gene), but that her work was seriously
deficient until she had done the Aristotelian part. She understood that a gene sequence in itself is a
rather paltry contribution to science and very unlikely to be published in a prestigious journal or by
itself provide the basis for a grant application to the National Institutes of Health without a context for
that gene sequence. That is, even after having intimate knowledge of the structure of a gene and the
related DNA sequences that control its transcription to RNA and protein, there is something more that
needs to be explored and considered before even one's fellow-scientists will consider the work either
compelling or complete. Let us look in more detail at the type of work that my friend had done and
try to define, in Aristotle's terms, what more needed to be done.
Anyone who has taken a high-school level biology course or is reasonably well-versed with the lay press
is aware that living things possess within their cells the information required to replicate either identical
copies of themselves or semi-allogenic copies which contain genetic material from another member of
the same or a nearly-related species (we call these copies "offspring", and, for the human species, they
are called "children"). However, although the discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as the source
of genetic information and the unravelling of its marvelous code has assuredly contributed in an
enormous way to our understanding of genetics and reproductive physiology, an equal impact bas come
in our ability to explore in a detailed fashion the functioning of cells and how the expression of
particular genes is controlled in particular cell types. Thus, specific cells in specific tissues are capable
of being studied in intricate detail and this, in turn, has allowed us tremendous insight into how these
cells and tissues function. It is this level of study, sometimes subsumed under the heading, •eeu and
Molecular Biology," that provides the core for much of modem medical research.

3

�If you examine appropriately-stained human tissue under a light microscope, it is very clear that what
you are viewing consists of an ordered arrangement, and that different-appearing cell types contribute
to this pattern. In fact, the absence of pattern and the appearance or predominance of a single cell type,
the pattern observed in tissue sections of malignant tumors, appears obviously pathological. Similarly,
within these cells, a semblance of pattern emerges, different for each cell type, with some common
patterns for all cells. DNA is largely confined to the nucleus, while RNA and the structures for protein
biosynthesis can be found in the cytoplasm. These observations, which have been accepted for many
years, suggest that, although every cell of a given organism contains the same genetic material as every
other cell, in multicellular organisms (and especially complex organisms like vertebrates), every gene
is not expressed in every cell of every tissue. That is, the different cell types and specialized functions
of specific cells (for example, insulin secretion by what are know as islet cells of the pancreas)
demonstrate or indicate that the transcription of encoded DNA into a messenger RNA template and
subsequently into protein occurs differently in the cell types, and sometimes differently depending upon
the tissue in which a given cell type might be found. This has lead to the hypothesis that certain cells
and tissues express genes that are not expressed in other cells or tissues, and that our understanding
of the functioning of such cells or tissues in health and disease might be aided considerably by our
knowledge of the genes expressed exclusively in these tissues and the factors that control their
expression.

The discovery of gene sequences expressed only in specific tissues is undertaken by the construction by
what are called gene libraries. This was the process that my colleague in Ann Arbor was engaged in
when I visited her last winter, and because the process by which this is accomplished is relevant to the
discussion that follows, I will share some of that with you. I apologize in advance for the somewhat
technical nature of this exposition, realizing that I am about to provide you with something that is
almost certain to squelch fruitful discussion at St. John's: factual information. Please bear with me,
however, because I believe your understanding of the process through which data is generated in the
modem biological sciences will help you to understand what I have to say about understanding this data
from Aristotle's point of view. I should also say that I believe the process itself would have been
interesting to Aristotle, and that I believe that it's the sort of thing he himself would have delighted
in had he had the means to do it.
The construction of gene libraries from specific cell or tissue types begins again with the "First Law"
of modern biology: that DNA contains information that encodes specific protein sequences, and that the
protein is synthesized from a template molecule of RNA, whose synthesis serves as the intermediary
step. You will recall (again, please forgive my pedantry) that proteins are composed of smaller building
blocks called amino acids. Each amino acid is specified within the DNA molecule by a three base-pair
sequence called a codon. The DNA code is somewhat "degenerate", as the currently-used jargon has
it, in that some of the amino acids are specified by more than one codon. In the normal sequence, a
gene is activated by the binding of certain proteins to a region of DNA called the promotor, which
results in the transcription of an RNA molecule whose sequence is complementary to that of the DNA
template (remembering the Second Law of modem biological science: adenine pairs with thymine [or,
in an RNA molecule, with uracil] and guanine with cytosine ). The newly-synthesized RNA molecule
is processed further in the cell cytoplasm and used as a template for the biosynthesis of a new protein.
Because of the complementarity of DNA or RNA, gene libraries can be constructed from either, those
using DNA referred to as genomic libraries (containing all the genes of the specific species from which
they were obtained and therefore identical whether the starting tissue was brain or skin) and those
starting with RNA being designated "complementary DNA libraries," as they begin with a RNA which
is then synthesized in vitro to a complementary strand of DNA Complementary DNA libraries contain
only the gene sequences are expressed in the tissue or cells from which they were obtained
The next steps in cloning involve the digestion of the DNA into smaller fragments that can be analyzed
4

�in a practical way, and the insertion of the fragments into a host (usually a virus) that will allow its
insertion into a cell (at this stage, usually, a bacterium) that will propagate and produce multiple copies
of the gene fragments. This is. necessary in order to have an adequate amount of DNA to manipulate
and analyze. After millions of copies of each gene are produced, the gene fragments can be isolated from
the bacteria, which grow as colonies on agar plates. Selection of the specific colonies which contain the
genes or genes of interest can be accomplished by examining products secreted by the bacteria or by
techniques which rely upon the binding of related DNA sequences to the DNA within the bacterial
plasmids. The bacteria containing the genes of interest can then be selectively grown, the plasmids
containing the cloned DNA isolated from the rest of the bacterial DNA, and the sequence and structure
of the cloned genes ascertained (the techniques used to sequence DNA are in themselves rather
interesting but not within the purview of a talk like this one). Using complementary DNA libraries,
unique genes expressed in specific tissues in response to specific stimuli or at specific times in
development can be identified, isolated, and their sequence determined
I want you to note that up to this point all we have is a gene sequence, a structure, a very minute part
of an animal (or plant). Furthermore, although there is some marvelous technical wizardry involved in
obtaining this sequence, the process through which the sequence is obtained is more or less mechanical
and, with some exceptions, more or less the same no matter what cell type, tissue, or even species the
scientist is working with. This is the equivalent, more or less, of doing what Aristotle describes in
lines 15-18 of the first chapter: taking a lion, or ox, or human being and describing the parts in infinite
detail. No attempt is made (yet) of relating the minute DNA sequences to commonly-expressed cell,
tissue, or organism functions. The reason for this relates, in part, to the method through which genes
are isolated and cloned. It should be clear from how I have described the method of cloning and
sequencing that the manipulation of DNA required for this process involves the almost complete
separation of that particular gene or DNA sequence from the context in which it is normally found
However, it is just that context that is crucial to our understanding of the role of that gene within the
cell and, subsequently, its role in the function of that particular tissue or organism. The rest of the
process, the activity that makes cloning and sequencing truly interesting, involves the understanding
of how the protein encoded by that gene functions or what it does (which is why my colleague was so
excited about having a function for her gene). To put it another way, one seeks the telos for that gene.
Until that is found, the mere gene or protein, sequence is singularly uninteresting to either the natural
philosopher or the molecular biologist. To put it in language that my peers might understand, it would
be very difficult to publish a gene sequence by itself without a context for that sequence which suggests
a functional. role for that gene in a cell or tissue or in a particular biological process. My knowledge of
that function might be limited or vague, but publishable molecular work invariably contains and
requires a context without which the gene sequence is neither useful nor enlightening.
So what does all this have to do with Aristotle? Because this is early in the year, I think I should say
a few things about the reading of Aristotle to the freshman, who should be engrossed in and captivated
by Homer at this time and have probably had little no exposure to Aristotle's scientific books. In this
way I will also reveal some of the prejudices that I have brought to this book as I read and reread it
over the past 8 years. I was once told that a key to reading Aristotle is the understanding that many
of his books seem to be written as answers for which the reader must supply the question. I have found
this insight very useful. Furthermore when reading The Parts of Animal.s, I have found it helpful to
pause after every sentence or two and ask, "As opposed to what?" We are fortunate that Aristotle
sometimes gives us alternative explanations or possibilities, but I think that one appreciates the genius
of Aristotle only after considering the explanations or alternative ideas that he has rejected without his
having belabored the point in writing Oest the freshmen should be misguided, let me quickly point out
that Aristotle is not above belaboring points).
To begin this discussion, we have to confront, first and foremost, our archnemesis. I believe that
understanding The Parts of Animal.a requires some insight into the alternative point of view about
5

�living things, which Aristotle attributes to Empedocles. I feel unfortunate that most of what I know
about Empedocles comes from Aristotle, and I think that we at St. John's, especially, have to be
cautious in judging a philosopher's thought simply on the basis of what somewhat else says about him.
I certainly would not want to judge Aristotle's system of natural science on the basis of what is said
about him in modern science textbooks, for example. However, be that as it may, whether fairly or
unfairly, Empedocles is used as representative of a school of thought that suggests that the coming·
to-be of living things has occurred by chance, that their formation has occurred haphazardly, and that
the compelling force in this process is necessity, in Greek, anangke. For example, the process of the
formation of the backbone, Empedocles is said to argue, occurs by necessity, a consequence of the fetus
becoming twisted in the uterus.
This approach is one that, on the surface, seems attractive to modern scientists. It is certainly consistent
with classical physics and mechanics and the so-called scientific ideal exemplified in Newtonian physics.
When I was a junior here at St. John's, I remember reading a quote by French biologist Andre Lwoff
attempting to support a role for Empedoclean necessity in biological science:

"The machine is built for doing precisely what it does. We may admire it, but we should
not lose our heads. If the living system did not perform its task, it would not exist. We
simply have to learn how it performs its task. "1

This same mechanistic approach seems to have been what Claude Bernard had in mind when he stated
that:

"...a created organism is a machine that necessarily2 works by virtue of the physico-chemical
properties of its constituent elements. "3
At a certain level, this seems to remain a deeply-cherished belief or prejudice of modern scientists, who,
even after the demise of classical physics in the early 20th century seem to yearn for a world more like
Newton's than Einstein's. However, when I confront this belief, as I often do when I encounter other
colleagues, particularly those who work exclusively in the laboratory rather than at the bedside, I recall
the words of Marcel Proust:
"Error is more obstinate than faith and does not examine the grounds of its belief."
I do believe that in biology and experimental medicine, the Newtonian/Cartesian model is erroneous,
or at least incomplete. The ·problem with this approach, is, ironically, a practical one: it simply doesn't
work. It may very well be. true that the coming-to-be of living matter occurred as an accident in the
"primordial soup" billions of years ago, requiring neither the direction of a beneficent deity or even
directedness from the impersonal forces of nature. It may very well be that what transpired was
1

Quoted from The Cell Carl Swanson. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 3rd Ed., 1969, p.7.

2

My italics

3

Claude Bernard, An Introducti.on to the Study of Experimental Medicine, trans. Henry Copley
Green. New York: Dover Books, 1957, p. 93.

6

�inevitable based on the laws that govern large molecules that we now call "organic" and the chemistry
of carbon and nitrogen. That does not negate the fact that what has come to be is organized matter,
and that our understanding of that matter requires our understanding of that organization and the
relationship between structure and function. As Aristotle points out, the Empedoclean view falls short
because of its lack of logos. It does not provide a framework which makes the phenomena
understandable. Aristotle follows this by gleefully pointing out that Empedocles, too "... being led and
guided by Truth itself, stumbles upon this.. ."' and is required to recant and retract, admitting, for
example that bone is more than its elements per se, but that there is a logos (which, in this context,
I believe might be translated "understandable feature" or "... understandable features ... ") that requires
several layers of explanation for us to discern.
Thus, while the mechanistic language borrowed by modern biologists from classical physics might
sometimes be used in the biological sciences, that is not the common language and certainly not the
language used in published research. Let me add that this is not because, in their heart of hearts,
modern biologists don't wish to have a language reminiscent of classical physics. Indeed, one of the
prejudices common among biological researchers is that the laws of biological science (dealing, as they
do, with the macroscopic world) are or will be shown to be more like classical mechanics, with orderly
phenomena of cause and affect occurring in ti.me, than like the topsy-turvy world of quantum physics
and relativity. They have learned however, that the language of classical physics and mechanics has
limited practical usefulness in modern biological research.
I will here therefore submit that there are several critical concepts in Aristotle's biology that remain
in common use in modern biological science (although in a somewhat disguised form), that remain
crucial to how we understand living matter. I will spend the rest of my time examining two of these
concepts in more detail. They are telos and anangke. My list is intentionally limited to these two, but
before I proceed I should state that a complete understanding of Aristotle's biological works and their
relevance to modern biology should also include a deeper discussion of cause and all its layers of
meaning. Similarly, eidos is clearly a unifying concept in Aristotle's physics and metaphysics and any
discussion of his natural works that does not address this concept is incomplete. However, both of these
topics are by themselves suitable lecture material and I have decided to avoid them in this discussion.
I envy the sophomores, however, who will able to immerse themselves in Aristotle's Physics later this
year and will have, therefore, a rich and ample opportunity to think about these issues.
There is, among modern scientists, perhaps no more greatly-misunderstood concept that of telos as
Aristotle understood it. Indeed, "teleologic" thinking is often apologized for in "serious" research seminars
and can subject its user to a measure of skepticism (if not scorn) by other investigators. This is, of
course, due to a misunderstanding of the concept of telos. We are, in this instance, partly at the mercy
of St. Thomas Aquinas, who brilliantly engrafted Aristotelian thought (physical and metaphysical) into
Christian theology. Thus, the Christian view of a beneficent Deity ordering Nature to His own
(sometimes inscrutable 5 but unquestionably _beneficent) ends has clearly influenced, or tainted, the
reading of Aristotle ever since. No such world view informs the Parts of Animals or the concept of
telos as used in Aristotle's works in the natural sciences. As used in the Parts of Animals, telos is
intended to describe the predictable culmination of natural processes. A robin's egg predictably hatches
a robin. A seed predictably grows into a plant. Thus, the end of the egg is the mature robin; the end
of the seed is either growth or the mature plant. These ends exist without either striving on the part
of the organisms or intervention from the deity. They do, however, provide the foundation for our

4

Aristotle, Parts of Animals, trans. AL Peck. Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press, 1983.

5

" ••• where

were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Job
7

�understanding of the egg or the seed, their logos, as Aristotle says. 6 Furthermore, while they c8n be
thought of separately, telos and necessity (anangke) are clearly co-existent and inter-related, just as
matter and form are. If an egg is to grow into a mature robin (its telos) it must, of necessity, have
certain characteristics which will protect it during gestation (e.g., a hard shell). None of this sort of
thinking, which is central to Aristotle's way of looking at living things, is completely foreign to cell
biology or experimental medicine. In the example of our gene sequence, the telos of the gene is twofold: the transmission of genetic information to progeny and the encoding of information required to
synthesize a protein, which, in turn, has its own its own telos. The second part of the molecular biology
in which my friend in Ann Arbor was engaged required that she put her gene back into context, both
literally and mentally, to discern the function of the protein encoded by the gene and factors regulating
its expression in different cells.
In my own career I was blessed to work with an outstanding molecular scientist (Dr. John Atkinson,
now chair of the Department of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis) who was singularly
unapologetic for his use of teleologic language and thinking. From Dr. Atkinson I learned how serious
scientific problems can be approached in a practical and illuminating way if the Aristotelian concept of
telos is applied creatively. Indeed, posing questions in cell biology that start with telos is often the best
way to start an inquiry into structure and mechanism, form and function. In this sense, telos remains
the prior or primary concept in much of cell biology, just as in Aristotle's biology. 7 Let me provide
some examples.
In both cell and molecular biology, the discovery of new genes and/or structures, or the finding that
a certain gene or protein is unexpectedly expressed in a certain cell or tissue, is one of the exciting and
rewarding events in the life of any investigator. However, insight into the significance of such a finding
is often provided only by an understanding of its telos. Scientists refer to this work and thoughtprocess as the elucidation of the function of the new gene or protein. This is nothing more or less than
an understanding of its telos and it is considered to be an essential part of the understanding of new
genes and proteins. They provide, I submit, the only means by which their biological significance can
be discerned, or, if I may speak in Aristotle's terms, the telos provides rational ground, or logos, for
the subsequent inquiry. That other scientists agree with my assessment of the importance of this
process is measured by my friend's excitement at finding a "...function for her gene." What my colleague
was asserting was the importance of the Aristotelian concept of telos in modern biology.
A question that Dr. Atkinson often used to ask at the beginning of his work was, ''Why would this cell
express this protein (or gene)?" Or, "Why would this cell express this protein (or gene) under these
conditions?". I learned by watching an experienced scientist begin his work this way that a tremendous
amount of experimental biology can be undertaken if such questions are asked and allowed to provide
the rationale for a series of well-designed experiments. Thus, the concept of telos provides not only a
theoretical framework which allows a scientist to understand the meaning of certain phenomena
produced in the laboratory, but it also provides a valuable starting point for further investigations. In
this very real sense, telos is the practical and logical starting point for the investigation, as Aristotle has
pointed out. 8
Necessity (anangke), is another concept that is used in modern biological research with some of the
same breadth of meaning as in Aristotle's biological works. Christianized Aristotelianism has attempted
6

Parts of Animals I, i, 639b 15-17.

7

Parts of Animals I, ~ 639b, 15.

8

Parts of Animals II (1) 646a25 - 646b5
8

�to elevate telos above necessity, maintaining that God's will and the mechanisms by which His world
operates are separable in fact and in thought. This allows, among other things, provision for Jaws of
nature to be suspended for the benefit of the Church, as Edward Gibbon stated. While this is a
convenient world view for the structuring of a politically-powerful church on earth, it had devastating
effects on the understanding of living creatures, and allowed the evolution of the concept of vitalism that
so seriously stymied biological thinking in Europe into the nineteenth century should also point out
that it made theology tough, too. The distinction between God's foreknowledge versus foreordination,
Grace versus Free Will, etc. are innate, I believe, in this dualistic approach to Nature and Nature's
God). This distinct separation of telos from anangke is clearly excluded from Aristotle's natural works,
and The Parts of Animal.sin particular. Rather, anangke and telos go hand in hand, and provide a basis
for the understanding of one-another. Thus, while telos is primary for Aristotle, in that it provides the
framework through which biological processes are understood (again, the logos), it is also clear that
both the coming-to-be and the maintenance of living things obeys the laws of anangke in the physical
and logical way that Aristotle understood this term.

a

I have mentioned before the wistful engagement of classical (Newtonian) physics and modem biology,
an engagement that is ever-prolonged while the wedding is continually postponed. I believe that there
is still a yearning among many biologists to believe that, because living things adhere to the Jaws of
chemistry and physics (or, more correctly, that novel laws of chemistry and physics are not required
to understand either the coming-to-be or the functioning of living matter), that all of the biological
sciences will be eventually be focused on understanding laws of absolute necessity which are the direct
descendants and consequences of the original Big Bang. However, in many cases, this concept of
absolute necessity (because "A" happened, "B" absolutely must happen) is only one of the ways in which
the concept of necessity is used in biological science and medicine. Furthermore, such logical thinking
is seldom the starting point in the practical world of modern medical research. Rather, modem
biologists, working with concepts of structure and function (telos, if you will), are more often fruitful
when they operate in the world of what may called "...conditional necessity." That is, the argument
that if "A" is to be formed, then other things must also occur. For example, if health is to be produced,
then certain actions are necessi~ted by the physician or the healer. This may still seem somewhat
abstract, so let me use an example from my own experiences at Washington University.
The complement system is a series of proteins that provide one of the important defenses of higher
organisms against invading micro-organisms. However, unlike other parts of the immune system,
complement proteins do not, in themselves, discriminate "self' from "non-self." Once activated, there
is nothing in the biochemistry of these proteins that precludes their amplifying on and destroying host
cell or tissues instead of the invading viruses or bacteria. This discovery that the complement system
is non-specific was made simultaneously in St. Louis and San Diego and much of this early work was
done by my mentor, Paul Levine. These discoveries led to the hypothesis that if the biochemistry of
the complement proteins is such that they can activate even on host cells, then by necessity there must
be some mechanism through which host cells can deactivate them. This is a very Aristotelian approach,
and it was the beginning of a series of investigations, carried out in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Cleveland,
that elucidated a new family of cell-surface proteins with a common genetic structure. These proteins
were shown on mammalian cells but not on bacteria or viruses (at least not under normal
circumstances) and were shown to deactivate complement on host cells exactly as would be predicted.
An understanding of these proteins and how they function has provided new insight into rheumatic
diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus, as well as some understanding of how cells
of the immune system are destroyed during the course of HIV infection (the latter is work from my
oWn laboratory). Thus, the concept of necessity, as used in its broader, "Aristotelian" sense, provided
the foundation not just for a theoretical approach to mammalian cells but for practical advances in the
science of immunology.
This is not to say that so-called "absolute" necessity is not used in modern biology. We know, for

9

�example, that if the pH or hydrogen ion concentration of the intracellular fluid drops below a certain
"physiologic" range, that certain predictable consequences will occur to in the efficiency with which
intracellular enzymes will function. We know that, eventually, prolonged lowering of intracellular pH
will eventually have profound disturbance of cellular energy metabolism and eventually lead to cell
death. However, in these cases, the concept of absolute necessity is still informed by the concept that
the enzymes in question do, in fact, have functions that relate to their roles in cellular processes. The
dysfunction of the enzymes is made more intelligible by the understanding that they are involved in
a process that we call intracellular metabolism. In the absence of this understanding, we have hydrogen
ions and a denatured polypeptide that can no longer catalyze the transfer of electrons. Even the most
ardent Newtonian would concede that such an understanding is incomplete.
These two concepts, telos and anangke, are ubiquitous in modern biology and appear to be tmavoidable.
They provide the core of work appearing in peer-reviewed journals as well as an important aspect of
any grant application to agencies such as the National Institutes of Health. They remain in use, as I
have said, not because, in the deepest hearts, modern experimental biologists are enamored of Aristotle,
but because they are unavoidable. Furthermore, they have been shown to be practically useful,
especially when linked to the modern techniques of cell and molecular biology. The admission that these
concepts are essential to the biological sciences is different from saying that unusual laws of chemistry
and physics are required to understand living things. What I am saying, and what Aristotle has said,
is that these concepts provide the framework through which the laws of chemistry and physics can be
understood in living matter.
I hope I have provided you, in this very brief way, with some insight into how certain ideas articulated
in Aristotle's Parts of Animals remain in use in modern experimental medicine. Furthermore, I hope
that I have convinced you that these ideas are not just part of a theoretical framework, but that they
provide a very practical starting point for the process of modern biological research. Let me also say
that I believe that if Aristotle were alive today, he would find very little in modern laboratory research
that is in direct conflict with his approach to living things as articulated in the Parts of Animals.
Let me close by saying a word about what modern experimental medicine has not borrowed from
Aristotle and something about how this may limit, or at least define, our understanding of living
things. Of all the concepts in modern biology, evolution is the one most clearly foreign to Aristotle's
biology. To Aristotle, the species were permanent, more or less immutable, and eternal. To the modern
biologist, species are what's left. over aft.er a process called natural selection. In its most extreme case,
evolution is so totally lacking in either direction or permanence that, ultimately, the theory of natural
selection is just as appropriately described as "... survival of the survivors... " rather than "... survival of
the fittest." Eidos (species) and telos are conspicuously absent from modern evolutionary theory. It is
thus hard to fmd common ground between evolutionary biologists and Aristotle. The two world views
are clearly not compatible.
However, in modern experimental medicine, the concept of evolution is, ironically, partly-informed by
the concept of telos. For example, the existence of certain structures or proteins in lower animals (for
example, fish) and humans is oft.en used an argument for their physiological importance. That is,
structures or proteins highly-conserved through evolution are considered significant. For example, the
fact that fish have complement proteins is used as an argument for the importance of this primordial
wing of the immune system. To put it another way, the telos of a structure is considered vital to the
extent that it is conserved in evolution. Thus, even with modem evolutionary theory as an overlay,
experimental medicine still derives tremendous power from essentially-Aristotelian ideas.
Another aspect of Aristotle's biology that is lacking in modem experimental medicine is its scope. By
this I mean that Aristotle's physics and metaphysics are essentially inseparable, and that they are part
of a system of thought that addresses human beings and their relationship to the world around them.
10

�While the world of clinical medicine may t.ake a person into many parts of the world of man and
display some of the best and worst of human life, the world of experimental medicine is, in the end,
neatly circwnscribed. People engaged in medical research are, in the end, focused on understanding how
things work. The final goal of this is, of course, to fmd out what's happening when something doesn't
work (that is, when someone is ill) so that remedies can be found. The answers given to the questions
raised by modern biologists will, therefore, reflect the form in which the question was asked. That is,
our answers will always only tell us how something works, not what it is or what our relationship to
it should be. We are, in essence, like the Lilliputians, who could dismantle Gulliver's watch and could
understood its mechanism perfectly, but were unaware of its purpose (believing, as they did, that it was
the god that he worshipped).
I will close as I began, with an anecdote, or actually, two anecdotes. Let me t.ake you, on a cool sunny
November afternoon, into the delivery room of an upstate New York hospital, where I, a third-year
medical student, am spending my first afternoon in labor and delivery. I want you to see a wet, blue
infant who t.akes her first gasp, utters her first cry, and begins to wiggle and squirm, her cries
becoming more vigorous with each passing second I want to see the beaming father and mother as they
hold their first-born daughter, call her by her name, and put their cheeks against her soft pink skin.
I also want to t.ake you into the pediatric intensive care unit on a frosty November evening. I will t.ake
you to the bed of an eight-year-old boy dying of infectious complications of AIDS. I will tell you that
this boy was the only child, the adopted son of an otherwise childless couple, and that I had come to
respect this couple's sorrow and struggle as one of the most profoundly sad and noble chapters I had
witnessed in my career. When the time came to accept that we had nothing left to offer but the
prolongation of suffering, when decisions were made to remove noxious tubes and hardware, when I
watched this child gasp his last breaths in the arms of his tearful parents, I understood the profound
ignorance of doctors, biologists, philosophers, and clergy. My experiences at the bedside, and with
birth and death in particular, have taught me that there is a great deal about life that I cannot explain.
I fully understand that the method of inquiry that I have inherited by Bernard, Bacon, and Descartes
was not designed to probe into the more compelling questions that raised by my experiences as a
physician. Thus, while my own career remains focussed in the understanding of the human body and
how it works, I remain profoundly humbled at how inadequate even a complete understanding at that
level would be. For all of our knowledge and our attempts at knowledge, we...
"...are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

11

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                    <text>Thursday
January 18
2024

The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication

Vol. II Issue 2

Printed Thursdays in Annapolis

Editorial

All college seminar held on
do the right thing

Against the New Housing
Price System

Seminar Scheduled to Commemorate Martin Luther King
Day, Saw High Tutor Attendance

Often, it seems as if a new policy decision by the
College administration is well intentioned but was not
properly thought through, particularly in the impact it
might have on the student body. The new housing
price tier system, recently unveiled by the College, is a
perfect example of this. It has the potential to cause
much harm to our campus community, while also does
not seem to have any actual benefit besides increasing
College housing revenue.
There is a principle of common experience at the
College that I worry the new pricing system endangers.
With the requirement to live on campus for our first
two years here, a community is created of people who
not only read the same books, but who live in the same
buildings, and eat the same food. A special kind of
unity is created, one that really brings together our
small, close-knit community, and which is so solid that
it is kept together even after people begin to move off
campus Junior year. As of now, the differing quality of
dorms does not hinder this campus cohesion: if
someone complains about rats in a dorm, there is
sympathy, as anyone could have ended up there.
Likewise, jealousy over good dorm conditions in the
suburbs only goes so far; it is simply taken as a privilege
of having spent more years on campus, and as a sign of
luck in the housing lottery.
However, with the change from flat rates for housing
to ones based on income, I worry that this cohesion
could be damaged. If someone’s housing condition is
determined by how much they are able to pay for a
dorm, there is not a sense that everyone is on the same
boat: on the contrary, there is a sense some paid for a
much nicer educational experience than others. The
argument that the difference in prices is too small to
cause this kind of socio-economic stratification is
ridiculous: if someone already has difficulty affording
college, which many Johnnies do, every dollar counts,
including the $400 between a Chase double and a
Gilliam split double, without even mentioning the
$2,550 that will divide some residents of Paca.
Students already sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to
save a few dollars on expenses, it is perfectly reasonable
to presume they would do the same if they needed to
on housing, and the divide between those that do need
to save, and those that don’t, would grow much more
visible.
There are also many issues that are (Cont. on Page 2)

This semester’s first All-College seminar was unusual
in two ways. First, it was not hosted by the SCI, who
has traditionally hosted such events, with organization
instead being lead by Assistant Dean Robert Abbott.
Secondly, the seminar was on a film, a medium which
has not been discussed before at an All-College
seminar. The movie, Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right
Thing, shown at 4 pm on January 12th, the day of the
seminar, with the actual conversation occurring at
7:30, in the place of a lecture.
The screening, which was attended by several dozen
students, as well as a handful of tutors, was slightly
delayed by audio problems in the FSK, but after
moving to the Hodson Room, the remainder Lee’s
beautiful, chaotic, poignant and thought-provoking
work was shown. The seminar itself was slightly better
attended, although many students who came to watch
the movie did not come to the seminar. Instead, a large
number of tutors turned out for the discussion. There
were enough people to split the participants into three
groups, led by Abbott, tutor George Russel and tutor
emeritus Jonathan Tuck.
Russel began by asking an opening question that
informed the conversation for all the groups, focused
around the statement made by da Mayor which gives
the movie its name: What does it mean to do the right
thing? Groups then split off, with each seminar leader
asking another opening question. The seminar ran for
an hour and a half, with participants congregating over
coffee, tea and snacks afterwards to continue
discussing the film.
Abbott explained that this seminar was intended to
commemorate, and spark discussion about Martin
Luther King Jr. Day, which took place the following
Monday. “In the past few years, the dean has ended up
asking the SCI to have their second semester all-college
seminar on texts that had something to do with slavery
or the civil rights movement. This seemed like an
uncomfortable arrangement since the SCI should be
able to have two all-college seminars every year on
whatever they decide. Also, last year, the president
formed a committee of staff, faculty, and students to
plan an event around MLK day. I volunteered for this
committee and my contribution was to hold a Tuesday
night seminar on a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, 'The
Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock, Fall
1957,' but only a few students attended. The then-

dean and I talked this over and decided to have a
separate all-college seminar on a Friday to give the event
more prominence.”
The College does not commemorate Martin Luther
King Jr. Day, a holiday created to honor civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. shortly after his
assassination, as part of a general policy not to respect
religious or civil holidays. ““We don’t recognize any of
the holidays, it just so happens that long weekend often
coincides with a holiday. I just really value that. I feel
like at the college should honor any individual’s
practices, and as an institution, we should be pretty
careful to remain open and neutral… I think about this
in terms of Herodotus. Particular cultures are
important, because they’re a way to understand what’s
universal… I want people to be able to be themselves in
the classroom and out at the college, but we also need
to say, this place would come apart at the seams if we’re
improperly recognizing some individuals and not
others,” explained Abbott. “At the same time, we have
found ways to use the occasion to do something that is
good, that is harmonious or consonant with what we’re
doing at the college anyway.”
The choice of seminar subject was proposed by Xena
Hitz, a tutor. “Ms. Hitz suggested discussing the film,
Do the Right Thing,” said Abbott. “I thought this was
an excellent suggestion for many reasons. The film
speaks to everyone; it asks the viewer difficult, pressing
questions about race, community, history, and
violence, without giving easy answers; it puts Martin
Luther King Jr. in conversation with Malcolm X.
There are a number of reasons I thought it would be
good for a seminar. And for all those same reasons, I
saw this all-college seminar as continuous with
conversations that develop out of reading works on the
program e.g. by Tocqueville, Twain, Melville, Conrad,
Lincoln, Douglas, Washington, and Du Bois, among
others…Human freedom is at stake; I can think of few
things as serious.”
Holding a conversation on a film posed a new
challenge, but one that was successfully met by most
participants in the seminars. In the seminar that I
participated in, the conversation hovered in generalities
at first, before plunging straight into a thorough and
interesting analysis of cinematographic choices, of the
role of characters, and of the (Cont. on page 2)

This Week in Seminar

Upcoming Events:

Freshman:
1/18: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, VII; VIII, 1–6, 45–end
1/22: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, IV, 75–end; V, 1–26, 84–116; VI
Sophomores:
1/18: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio XIX–XXXIII
1/22: Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradiso I–XVII
Juniors:
1/18: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (see official list for selections)
1/22: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (see official list for selections)
Seniors:
Essay writing Period

Friday 1/19
5 p.m., Mitchell Museum: Sampling a
Sampler Sampling Exhibit opening
Saturday 1/20
11 a.m., Studio Theater: Careers in Law
Alumni Panel
9 p.m., Boathouse: Pajama Waltz
9 p.m., McDowell Great Hall: Pangaea
Lunar New Years Party
Wednesday 1/24
2:30 p.m., Hodson room: Hodson
Internship info session
- 4 p.m., Conversation Room: Eams Power of
Ten film discussion.

Friday Night Lecture:

Concert by New York Polyphony, 8 p.m. in the FSK
Page 1

�Thursday January 18, 2024

St. John’s Collegian

Vol. II. Issue 2

First measurable snow in two years covers
campus: Two Hour Delay Implemented
By the time this writer exited Mellon for the first time
On Monday, January 15th at 11:30, he saw the snow
which had started in the morning had picked up once
more, and a thin layer was beginning to accumulate
on the grass, although not yet in paved areas. By the
time he returned to campus around 2:15, the snow
had not stopped, and it began sticking even to warmer
brick and asphalt. Speculation began, buzzing around
campus from eager freshmen to weary Juniors: will
they cancel seminar? Do they ever even do that?
When classes ended for the day, the snow was finally
great deal of frolicking going on, and a few snowballs
being tossed around. After receiving a tip-off that a
big scoop might be found on back campus, your
writer continued down towards the creek to find
Johnnies whizzing down the hill on sleds, trash can
lids, cardboard, garbage bags, and their own backs.
The enthusiasm of a child before a snow-day in 3rd
grade was in the air, and everyone was feeling it.
Walking along, this writer crossed paths with a very
enthusiastic Johnnie who perfectly summed this up:
“It’s snowing, it’s snowing!” he repeatedly declared,
while giving energetic hugs to all who went by.
By the 7:30 seminar time, there was no news about
any delays or cancellations, although the snow
continued to fall as the campus made its way towards
Mellon and McDowell. During seminar, however, an

Housing (Cont. from Page 1)
less obvious, but likely to cause problems likely not
foreseen by the College administration. For
example, this new pricing system would make
housing selection far more fraught. If there is
higher demand for the cheaper dorms, as I suspect
there will be, there may be less affordable housing
available for people lower on the list, who may be
penalized and have to pay more, perhaps even
more than they can afford. What happens if
someone can only afford a Group B double, but
when they get their chance to pick there are only
Group A doubles and split doubles left?
Likewise, this causes a problem for dorms set aside
for specific purposes. In the past, Spector has been
designated as a quiet dorm, and one floor has been
set aside as an alcohol-free floor. Would people
who prefer quiet, or to be further away from
alcohol, have to pay extra for that? It is wonderful
that the college tries to accommodate these needs,
but it would be a shameful undermining of what
they seem to be trying to accomplish to have access
to them determined by price.
The reasoning given for this change in housing
pricing is that people “have been asking for it.” I
would like to ask who these people are. I have not
met a single student who speaks in favor of this
system for reallocating housing. The argument
that many other institutions price dorms this way
is also a bad one, since many small liberal arts
colleges do not, and that something being done by
other institutions has never been a reason in itself
for St. John’s to do something.
I suspect the true motivation for this change is not
to respond to some swell of student requests for
this system, but a desire to raise housing prices
without upsetting people as much. At some level,
I understand this; prices need to be adjusted for
inflation, even though they are already very high.
However, if this way of raising prices is likely to
cause harm to our Polity, I think the decision to
implement this system should be reconsidered.

email was sent out by Aly Gontang, Vice-President of
Finance and Operations: “The Annapolis Campus
will be opening at 10:30 am on Tuesday, January 16,
2024, to allow facilities staff time to clear parking lots
and walkways – and to allow time for staff, students,
and faculty to travel safely to campus.”
Gontang explained that this decision was made
according to set College policies. “When we are
experiencing or expecting inclement weather, we
usually coordinate early in the morning to determine
road conditions, how long it may take to clear parking
lots and walkways, and if there are any other
operational challenges to opening on time. We try to
coordinate between 4:30am-5am to have facilities or
public safety staff check on campus conditions – so
we can post a notification no later than 6am by
campus alert, email, and website update. In the case
of [Monday’s] weather, with the extremely poor
conditions we monitored into the evening last night
(some of us were driving home late after work after
8pm) – and with the forecast of alternating freezing
rain and snow combined with low temperatures
during the ‘rush hour’ when most are driving into
campus – we posted the notice last night following
many of the county schools and agencies.
When we expect inclement conditions – just to also
call out the wonderful dedication and care of the Bon

Seminar (Cont. from Page 1)
between the events on the screen and pressing
concerns about communities relevant in our own
lives.
Abbott said that in his seminar, he also found success
in the challenge of discussing a movie. “I really love
film. Scott Buchanan, one of the founders of the
program, thought film was going to have a place in the
cannon. One of my worries about this seminar is that
we would treat the film simply as a text, and only
discuss ideas. I feel like my seminar didn’t fall into
that, which was nice… it was much more about the
way ideas were represented through the film and the
character who speak about them. It was much closer
to a discussion of the film as a film.”
Coming away from these seminars, and into the
discussions over coffee and tea, many participants
expressed a wide range of thoughts sparked by the
movie. By providing a space to reflect on race,
discrimination, representation, identity, violence and
resistance, and community, the seminar provided a
place to touch on many matters that often don’t come
up in day-to-day classes. The conversations begun
that night, however, are still very much alive as this
paper is going to print, at least amongst those who
attended that seminar.

Appetit staff - the dining service staff will oftentimes
nearby accommodations or even stay overnight find
in available residence rooms, that are separated from
students, to ensure food service remains on time.”
This delay, however, did not mean that classes were
canceled. While operations delays are determined by
the Gontang, academic delays are decided by the
Assistant Dean, who instead sent out an email saying
that class cancellations would be determined by
individual tutors, who could best determine whether
they could safely reach campus.
The possibility of classes, however, did not stop
students from celebrating the snow with Johnnie
passion. A massive, all-campus snowball fight
developed on the quad after seminar, with this
reporter being targeted for repeated pelting by a
frequent Gadfly and Collegian contributor who
often goes by his somewhat vulgar initials. After this
spirited combat, this writer set off on a walk with
someone rather special into an Annapolis
transformed into a silent, white mirror of itself. While
the following morning, classes resumed as usual,
(albeit with some confusion as to whether they would
begin at 10:30), the spell cast by the snow on this
campus will be fondly remembered for years to come.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman

About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick
and timely coverage of important events going on, to
help develop a more informed student body. If you’re
searching for more in-depth investigations and
reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out
the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350
words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor

El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
An interview for this article was conducted by Meliha
Anthony for the Communications office. We would
like to thank Communications for helping us with our
reporting, and Anthony for supporting journalism on
the Annapolis campus.

Aphorism of the Week:
"Does it make sense?" Says an American. "Does it
become a word?" Says a Korean.
I am clearly the one who is making sense, but who is
the one making the word?

Page 2

You may have noticed this edition only has one
contributor. This, to put it mildly, is a problem. Not
only is it better for the College to have a diversity of
view represented instead of just my ramblings, but it
is also not sustainable for me: I cannot write a full
edition of the Collegian every week. If you want to see
this paper continue to exist, and to continue to bring
up to date news reporting to the Polity, please send in
some submissions! You can write about anything:
enrollment trends, tutor retention, crazy moments in
your seminar, intramural games. Just write. The
Polity needs everyone to pitch in if we are to remain
engaged and well informed.

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                    <text>Thursday
January 11 2024

The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication

Vol. II Issue 1

Printed Thursdays in Annapolis

From the
polity

College releases plans for new
housing price structure

For the Improvement of
Collegium

Tiered Housing Price System to go into Effect Fall 2024,
Campus Dorms to See Price Increase

Collegium is one of the most wonderful institutions
we have on this campus. It is an excellent way to end
the semester, getting to hear the beautiful result of the
hard work campus musical groups have done, and
seeing the wide variety of campus talent, while also
gathering one last time as a whole Polity. However,
this beautiful moment of community togetherness is
often marred by simply having it run too long. Four
hours is too much for any performance, even if all the
performers are very skilled. With this length, people
get antsy, you have large numbers leave the hall before
it is finished, and few people stay for the other great
campus traditions like caroling.
The good news is that this can be easily remedied. The
students running Collegium are good at what they
do, and with a few changes, could help remedy the
problem of excessive length. While I recognize that
actively screening performances for quality is off the
table, I would like to propose five easy improvements
in the form of rules for performers, which would
reduce the number of acts, and thus overall length:
1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

No group should be allowed to perform
more than one piece.
No person may be in more than one solo,
duet or trio: we should try to give as many
people the chance to perform as possible.
Solos should be discouraged. While many of
our solo performers are incredibly skilled,
Collegium should be a space where campus
groups share with the polity, it is not a
private recital. A possible exception to this
should be poetry and writing.
No group should perform with backing
tracks: while some of these performances are
quite good, the focus of Collegium should
be on our campus’ artists.
The program should be adhered to, and
organizers should avoid having new groups
added in who were not originally registered.

Hopefully, by adopting some of these
recommendations, or other rules, the organizers of
Collegium will be able to make the event more
enjoyable for us all. If you disagree with me on these
recommendations, or have ideas of your own, please
write a letter in response, we need more opinion
articles!
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman

Shortly before winter break, an all-campus email was
sent out notifying the Polity of a major change to the
pricing system for dormitories on Campus. The
change was first announced at an earlier Committee
on Student Life Forum, but the full details were only
sent out on December 7th. This email announced
implementation of a system widely used in other
institutions of higher education at St. John’s, with
pricing for each dorm adjusted for the quality of each
type of room and the building that they are in.
“Since I’ve been here for four years, every year, I have
received a couple questions, as have my colleagues Ms.
Lico and Ms. Waters, from students themselves, as
well as parents, about why every room is the same
price when clearly some rooms are much newer than
others,” explained Jen Cline, Coordinator of Student
Services. In response to these concerns, the College
administration looked into the issue, and decided to
implement a new pricing policy, aimed at making sure
students pay for the quality they receive. “The
difference between some of the dorm rooms and their
prices just helps some of the prices be more equitable
across campus,” continued Cline.
Many students on campus, however, have raised
concerns that changing the pricing structure will
actually lead to more inequity on campus, with an
unhealthy social dynamic developing between
students who can afford more expensive, nicer dorms,
and those who cannot. Up to this point, the divide in
dorm
quality
has
mostly
been
an
underclassman/upperclassman divide, and a change
from that to a potentially more economically based
divide concerns some. When asked about this, Cline
responded that the price differences are not
significant enough to cause problems with social
dynamics. “I don’t think it will make much of a
difference than how singles are more expensive than
doubles. I’ve rarely ever seen a student choose a
double just to save a couple extra hundred dollars.”
The new system divides the dorms into eight tiers:
four tiers of singles, three tiers of doubles, and quads.
The most expensive dorm rooms will be a special
category of singles, which will be in what are now the
lofted doubles in Paca-Carroll. These four dorm
rooms will be rearranged to allow for a divided living
and sleeping space, and will cost $10,000 per year, or
$5,000 a semester, although Cline noted that the way

This Week in Seminar

Freshman:
- 1/11: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, II, 55–78; III, 1–87; IV, 1–74
- 1/15: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, IV, 75–end; V, 1–26, 84–116; VI
Sophomores:
- 1/11: Dante: Divine Comedy, Inferno XVIII–XXXIV
- 1/15: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio I–XVIII
Juniors:
- 1/11: George Eliot: Middlemarch
- 1/15: George Eliot: Middlemarch
Seniors:
- Essay writing Period

Friday Night Lecture:

All College Seminar on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Great Hall, 7:30 pm
Page 1

the rooms are laid out means that they can be reverted
to doubles should any trouble arise, or if there should
be demand for them as doubles from students.
The next tier of singles, in Gilliam, Spector, Campbell,
Fielding and Pinkney 1, will cost $8,550 per year,
while tier C, in Chase, Pinkney 2-4, and Paca will cost
$8,300. Split doubles in Gilliam and Spector Halls will
cost $7,850, while doubles in Gilliam, Spector,
Campbell, Fielding and Pinkney 1 will cost $7,600.
Doubles in Chase, Pinkney 2-4, and Paca will be
$7,450. Quads, which include the Paca loft and new
rooms in Campbell, will cost $7,670. The current
price of a single on campus is $8,054, and the current
price of a double is $7,340, meaning all housing prices
will be increased by between $246 and $510.
For upperclassmen, the process of selecting rooms will
be the same as in previous years, with selection taking
place first for Seniors, then Juniors and finally
Sophomores, with the order of selection chosen
through a lottery. Cline explained that the system for
freshmen room assignments will also not be changed
drastically. “The prices will be made clear, and if they
have a preference, they can do what is already an
option, which is to request a specific dorm in the
housing questionnaire, which every student fills out to
be paired as roommates… That could be how they
would request a hall if they wanted one that is less
expensive than another.” Freshmen will continue to
be in Humphreys, Fielding and Paca Halls, while the
newly renovated Campbell Hall will primarily be for
upperclassmen.
The renovations in Campbell are on track for
completion by the beginning of the Summer, with
drywall already being installed before winter break.
“The rooms will definitely be done by the end of the
semester,” said Cline. “The rooms are the first
priority.” The basement area, featuring the
Coffeeshop and bookstore, is also important for the
project, but the completion of the rooms will be
prioritized. With the addition of the rooms in
Campbell, and the return of some rooms that are
currently triples to their previous status as doubles,
there will be a total of 390 beds available on campus, a
much higher number than previously, which should
allow for more upperclassmen to stay on campus if
they choose.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday 1/16
- 3:45 pm, Hodson Room: Career
Services Wayfinding Workshop

It’s a quiet second week back on campus!
Look out for next issue for more information
on upcoming events in Annapolis as the
semester continues to pick up steam.

�Thursday January 11, 2024

St. John’s collegian

Vol. II. Issue 1

Cowards, Every Last One of You, All
Cowards: Or: A Better Gadfly
Dearest cowards,
On the street, in the hallways, at parties, people say
to me: “Hey I liked your articles in the Gadfly. Have
you ever thought about writing on [topic which
clearly interests them and not me]?” Any time
anything even remotely funny happens in one of my
classes, I’ll get a knowing look from someone across
the table inevitably followed by: “You should write
about that in the Gadfly.” Woe is me! Constantly
getting good ideas for articles! (My own fault really: I
write three god damn articles for every single issue. It
gets to the point where even tutors tease me for
using our college newspaper as my own personal
playground.) And you know for a fact that I am a
megalomaniacal narcissist who loves the attention
being solely on me, but my f*cking editors won’t let
me write even more articles per issue.
So let me ask something of you, sweet cowards: write
for the Gadfly. Don’t do it for the sake of school
spirit or civic duty or art. Do it for all the wrong
reasons: do it for your own ego (I know half the
bitches at this school want to be writers); do it
because you’re tired of reading Bennett Scott, Luke

The yellow
coffee shop
I have been sitting in the coffee shop for a few
hours now. I am not sure how many, but I am
alone. It is a rare treat to get the whole place to
myself, but I am starting to get a little nervous.
Though I really have no reason to be. It is nice to
be in the coffee shop alone. With it being so dark
and wet outside, and I am fairly sure I caught a
cold on the way home from break, it is nice to be
somewhere quiet and warm. The lighting is very
warm here. A comforting amber, not really
fluorescent at all. I think it has something to do
with the new paint job. All the previously white
and sterile walls are now a soft yellow color. It is
soothing. I like looking at it. Yet, the more I look
at it, the more nervous I feel. The light casts these
odd shadows on the wall now. Especially around
the fireplace. If I let my eyes focus on one place
for too long it almost seems like the bricks are
moving. Swirling around into hypnotic whorls.
The white of the baseboards seems like it is
bleeding up into the walls, and the chalk dust on
the floor is flowing about as if blown by an unfelt
wind. I have been sitting in the coffee shop for
many hours now. The walls feel like they are
pressing in, and out. Undulating like the stomach
of some great beast. The light is still playing tricks
on my eyes. The shadows are moving across the
lemony walls, they almost look like human
figures. I think that they might be. I'm almost
sure of it actually. There is someone in the yellow
walls of the coffee shop. They are trying to get
out, to escape the canary-colored bars of their
prison. I approach the wall. Scrabbling at the
paint with my fingers, I need to release them. The
light keeps shifting and I keep scratching. I break
through the paint, a layer of drywall, I push past
the studs of McDowell. I emerge out of the
darkness into the light on the other side of the
yellow yellow walls. I am sitting in the coffee
shop.

Briner, Bennett Scott, Luker Briner; do it because if
you don’t this entire publication will succumb to the
inevitable sludge of boring mediocrity that
inevitably consumes all such uncontested empires.

6.
7.

8.
Look, I know you’re worried about how long it’ll
take (a good article takes thirty minutes drunk and
one hour sober, no more) and about not having
anything decent to write on, so I’ll make it easy;
here’s a baker’s dozen of article ideas that people
have pitched around me that someone needs to
write:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

An advice column (multiple people have
said they will. No one has.)
An admonishment of the seniors for not
getting in relationships.
A series of out-of-pocket quotes from
tutors (a game where you have to match
quote to tutor?)
Actual investigative journalism into the
power structures of the college.
A Joseph Smith-esc series of found tablets
telling the real story of the New Program’s
founding.

A little New
year’s sonnet
Like snowflakes falling light upon the ground,
the year in silent rolling passes o’er,
turning over days without a sound
and, sighing, turning hours all the more.
Like drops which drip with sopping coat of rain,
the times with weight of ages slip in rule

9.
10.
11.
12.

13.

Dear Incels of the College.
A meta-Johnnie typology (every semester
we get typologies/taxonomies of Johnnies:
why not a taxonomy of taxonomies?)
A declaration of the rights of students
(anyone should be able to get up to the
board during any class. Even during
Spinoza seminars. Fight me on it.)
A dialogue between Socrates and Bad
Bunny.
Interviews with SJC legends like the
PubSafe staff and the Dining Hall workers.
The Classiflieds (Classifieds with an SJC
twist).
A stream of consciousness story from the
POV of a middie entering an SJC Waltz for
the first time.
An analysis of which St. John we are
named after.

I have a dozen more article ideas of my own
which you can come accost me for in person. Just
write one, cowards. Cause I may be your one but I
do not want to be your only.
B.S.

About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of
St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring
quick and timely coverage of important events going
on, to help develop a more informed student body.
If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations
and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check
out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.

in bright mosaic when the fire is fierce,

Want to submit an article? We always need more
writers, whether for opinion or reporting!
Submissions for news articles should be between
400-600 words, while opinion should be kept short
at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
with your article, and we will work to get it in print!
Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration
of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts
submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu.

the ticks and sequent tocks of clocks suspend

Contributors for this issue:

the brazen bells that morn and even pierce—

El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor

and puddle bigly in successive train
and under bearded shadows rise to pool.
Like sunlit leaves how off the bough descend

The thrush and wren together sing their round
like snowflakes falling light upon the ground.

B.S.
Andy Manne
Tarik Mahmud

Tarik Mahmud

Aphorism of the Week:
Ashes are the best fertilizer for new plants.
Are corpses the best fertilizer for new men?

A.M.

Page 2

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                    <text>Thursday
December 7
2023

The St. John’s Collegian
A Gadfly Publication

Vol. I
Issue 9

Printed Thursdays in Annapolis

From the
polity

Fall 2023: the Collegian’s
inaugural Semester in review

A Message from the Randall
Worms

Looking Back on the First Three Months of the St. Jon’s
Collegian, and Looking Forward to the Paper’s Future

To the Polity:
It has come to our attention that there has been an
attempt from residents of Randall Hall 2 to suppress
the reality of our plight under the guise of “privacy.”
Let the story be set straight. We are the worms.
We are the native inhabitants of the Randall 2 showers
and refuse to be ignored any longer.
In mid-August of this year our modest homes became
overrun with human beings who have incited violence
towards us. We have been wiped away and flushed
down drains. We have been smashed. We have been
bleach-bombed. We have had the higher powers of
Buildings &amp; Grounds called on us, all in a desperate
attempt to eradicate us from our rightful place in the
showers.
We understand we are not the most beautiful
creatures. But if you think it’s traumatic to shower
with us, imagine how we feel. Somehow, we are the
invaders, not you all, the ones entering our homes—
naked, mind you—and attempting to wash us away or
crush us underfoot. There are families who have been
living on these tiles for generations. Childhood friends
have been mutilated by your cruel tactics, and we have
had enough. No longer will we suffer in silence.
This message is for the aggressors of Randall 2: we
won’t be gotten rid of that easily. We have and will
continue to survive your assassination attempts and
will be exacting our revenge shortly.
Stay vigilant.
Sincerely,
The worms

Editor’s Note: This letter was submitted anonymously,
and as a publication we cannot speak to whether or not
any worms do actually reside in the Randall Two
showers, and as to whether or not they can write in
English. However, if there were worms, and if they
could write in English, a letter from them would be so
remarkable, it would be worth publishing here merely
on the chance that it may really be written by worms.

When I first decided to start the Collegian, it seemed
like the task ahead of me was particularly daunting. I
recognized the need for a more frequent campus
publication, but also saw that with our small student
body, it would be difficult to find enough writers to
keep up the kind of regular reporting I was hoping for.
More than that, I saw the task of keeping myself on a
weekly schedule as a challenging one, and a difficult
one to enforce for Johnnies, who are notoriously bad
at deadlines.
The task ahead of me seemed large, and it did turn out
to be so. For some issues, such as this one, I did struggle
to get enough contributors, not for lack of occurrences
on campus, but for the nearly universal lack of time
that all Johnnies, including myself, suffer from.
Likewise, I often found myself cutting precariously
close to my own deadlines, although fortunately
almost all of the paper’s other contributors were far
more punctual than I was. However, despite all these
difficulties, the paper took off, and largely successfully.
Certainly, there were no ends of spelling, grammar,
and printing errors (largely due to my editorial
procrastination), but news was reported on, opinions
were presented, and miscellaneous bits of commentary
and cryptic aphorisms were spread amongst the Polity.
Most of this success is due to the paper’s hard-working
team of contributors. We had, in the nine issues since
the beginning of publication in September, sixteen
different contributors, including, in order of the first
publication their articles appeared in, Caleb Briggs,
Lainey Rendelman, William Marchman, Augustus
Pananas, Georgia Green, Natalie Goldman, Semyon
Andruschenko, Louis Rosenberg, Ron Haflidson,
Andy Manne, Jack Huntley, Susan Paalman, and
Molly Sprout, not to mention the anonymous antismoking crusader, their rival J.S., and the Randall
Worms. I must sincerely thank each and every one of
these people for their contributions- without them, the
Collegian could not exist. In particular, I would like to
thank Briggs, Goldman and Manne, who all
contributed more than once and helped keep the paper
running.
In total, the paper had 36 articles this semester: eleven
opinion pieces, in the form of letters to the editor,
editorials or just very short, opinionated essay about
assorted nonsense; nineteen news articles, ranging
from reporting on the College Creek Connector to a

student attending two seminars, four arts features, on
the Mitchell Museum or KWP shows, and then
whatever this article and the first introductory piece in
the first issue could be classified as.
With all this, the newspaper covered important stories.
Looking back on the semester’s headlines serves as a
sort of summary of the year: September gives us the
summer BVG meeting and the College Creek
Connector, DC Budgeting, and, most importantly, the
incessant ringing of bells during seminar. In October,
dialogue on the bells continued alongside the official
reopening of Mellon and Public Safety’s Cleary
Report, the Polka and Limbo competitions and the
DC Budget Omnibus Bill. November continued to be
just as busy, with another BVG meeting, a tutor
walkout over pay, a suspicious item leading to Mellon
being evacuated, and the College Historical Taskforce.
In different ways, each and every one of these stories is
important to the Polity, and many of them, such as the
BVG meetings or the College Creek Connector, might
never have gotten any notice had there not been articles
written about them. To me with all the challenges the
Collegian has faced, the fact that at the end of the day
the Polity has become, even just a little, better informed
thanks to the work of the Collegian, makes me
motivated enough to keep this paper going to next
semester, next year, and hopefully further into the
future.
However, this will not be possible without other
people’s help. If you are interested in covering
anything, whether it be local Annapolis politics,
College administrative decisions, Intramurals, campus
music and art scenes, or anything at all, please send in
articles! The more regular contributors we have, the
better we can keep up the timely, efficient and
informative publication of the Collegian, and the more
interesting we can make this paper.
Save the Polity from having to read any more “year in
review” summaries from me- find a topic, and just
write! It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be
complicated, all we need here are articles on things
people care about, and I know that things like that are
not at all rare on this passionate, busy campus.
Farewell until next semester,
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman

This Week in Seminar

Upcoming Events:

Friday Night Lecture:

- 7 pm, Great Hall: Summerfield Live
Tuesday 12/12
- 7 pm, Great Hall: Collegium and
Assistant Dean’s Winter Party

Freshman:
- 12/7: Euripides: Medea
- 12/11: Plato: Symposium, Beginning–198A
Sophomores:
- 12/7: Christian Creeds, see official list; Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae,
Prologue; Prima Pars (First Part), see official list
- 12/11: Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars (First Part), see official list
Juniors and Seniors:
- Preceptorials

KWP’s production of the Importance of Being Earnest
Page 1

Friday 12/8
- 7:30 pm, FSK: The Importance of Being
Earnest
Saturday, 12/9
7:30 pm, FSK: The Importance of
Being Earnest
- 10 pm, Great Hall: Pangaea Just Dance
Party
Sunday 12/10

�Thursday December 7, 2023

St. John’s Collegian

Vol. I. Issue 9

Delegate Council semester ends, Shawamreh
elected Dc president
End of the Year for Delegate Council Featured Much Legislative Action, Planning for
Future Budgeting, and Contested Officer Elections
The end of the fall 2023 session was a busy end of the
year for the Delegate Council, which in the past has
slowed down at the end of budgeting season. This
year, however, the council shifted towards working
on legislation aimed at improving its budgeting
process and better representing student voice to the
College administration.
Two committees were formed for this purpose: the
archives committee and the budgeting committee.
The archives committee, which this writer headed in
his capacity as DC Secretary, reviewed current acts of
council, and looked to find ways to improve them
both through amendments and by writing new acts.
The archives committee brought forward three pieces
of legislation: an amendment to the archives act, to
make DC proceedings more accessible to the Polity,
as well as two new acts. The first of these, the

succession act, outlines what happens if both the
President and Secretary are unable to lead a meeting.
The second was the new Club Responsibility Act,
which formalizes the DC’s recommendation that
new clubs receive $500 in their first budget and
requires them to submit an official request do so, as
well as have the budget passed by a 2/3 majority of the
DC.

allocation process and give the Treasurer discretion as
to decide when budgets should be heard, to allow for
more urgent budgets to be heard faster; an
amendment to the Budget Role Clarification Act, to
help distinguish between emergency and
supplemental budgets; and a new act of council, the
High-Budget Sports Club act, which provides new
guidelines for clubs like Polo or Jiu-Jitsu.

The budgeting committee, headed by treasurer
Grace Jang, looked to address problems that have
arisen from the Council’s often confusing budgeting
rules, and pass acts of council resolving them.
Amendments provided by this committee included a
reworking of the Agora Act, which creates a fund any
student project for the benefit of the whole Polity can
request money from; amendments to the Allocations
Procedure Codification Act, to streamline check

Elections were also held for the officers and freshman
delegates. The Secretary and Polity Herald’s races
were uncontested, with incumbents El’ad NicholsKaufman and Rylee Bain being reelected, while in the
Treasurer election, Alexander Paden won in a race
against Rachel Rozsa, and in the Presidential election,
Ali Shawamreh won, running against Lainey
Rendelman.
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman

Behind All that Gadfly BS
A Psychological Analysis of Mr. Bennett Scott
[Note: Mr. Scott has forbidden this article from being
printed, but we shall not be silenced.]
Is he a madman, a prophet of modern decay, or
simply the weird roommate of Ben Maier who makes
those videos? Who really is B.S.? Bennett Scott, man
of many wiles, is known around the St. John’s College
campus as the archon of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, A Senior,
and turtleneck aficionado; lately, he has emerged in
the polity consciousness as the sole pursuer of what
he deems “SJC Mysteries.” His main output,
however, is satire, always signed with his initials: B.S.
Bennett Scott...B.S....Based on what he writes, it’s
enough to make any good wannabe psychologist
wonder whether Mr. Scott would do what he does if
his initials didn’t stand for bullshit. It’s almost too
perfect. Of course the man who writes about the “Bro
Scogan Experience,” the first “Intercollegiate World
National Chopsticks Championship,” and who
allegedly received a cease and desist from the college
for breaking and entering (something he wouldn’t be
so stupid to record himself doing) would write under
those initials. The be B.S. might not just be a tongue
in cheek acknowledgement: it might well be his
deepest insecurity.
The question is then one reminiscent of the chicken
and the egg. What came first? The antics, or the
signature? Did Mr. Scott realize the potential of his
name and begin playing into it, or was he always like
this, sufferer of nominal determinism, the years
passing and proving all too apparent how accurate his
initials are? The answer to this question was provided
by the man himself (in an off the record interview
that he has tried to hide, destroy, and block from
being published). In his wayward youth, Mr. Scott
was a member of Mr. Breck’s sixth grade algebra class.
In this class was also the much smarter, kinder, more
likable Bennie Surketz. As a result, he explained with
clear rage in his voice, his teacher referred to him as
“B.S. 2.” Mr. Scott lambasted Mr. Breck as “the worst

person [he] ever met,” his face turning red, his hands
shaking, muttering the quadratic equation under his
breath.
Not only did the title come first, it’s a name which
represents all of Bennett’s deepest insecurities. To
have to bear such worthless initials and be reminded
that you are only secondary in such worthlessness!?
No wonder Mr. Scott resorts to cheap absurdist
comedy and video podcasting. What respectable
outlet could be left for a man with so little faith in his
abilities that he signs every work with the very
moniker that has blighted and shadowed him since
childhood? Truly, he should be pitied, or at the very
least given a low-level writing job at GQ. Every article
in the Gadfly, every YouTube video, each and every
one is a desperate cry for help. Each inked B.S.
represents the burning soul of a tortured man (just
factor the damn equation Bennett!), a man searching
for answers in the mysteries of his little world, leaving
no cryptic stone unturned or cellar un-rummaged
through, searching for the way to overcome his own
feelings of inadequacy. Pushed aside even in his
weakness, he now presents every sign of narcissism
and “pick-me” syndromes, left in the most absurd of
fights: he tears at himself in search of the angst to
prove that he too is a starving artist. To be B.S, Mr.
Scott needs to do what he does, but to do what he
does, Mr. Scott must truly be B.S.
—A.M. (Assuredly Magnificent, not Ass Magnet)

Pensée of the Week
If religion is the opium of the masses, then revolution is
the crack cocaine of the masses.

Page 2

About the St.
John’s
Collegian
The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly
newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis.
We work to bring quick and timely coverage
of important events going on, to help
develop a more informed student body. If
you’re searching for more in-depth
investigations and reporting, as well as
essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly,
our affiliated publication, which is
published once every three weeks.
Want to submit an article? We always need
more writers, whether for opinion or
reporting! Submissions for news articles
should be between 400-600 words, while
opinion should be kept short at 350 words.
Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with
your article, and we will work to get it in
print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the
Gadfly, which accepts submissions at
lbriner@sjc.edu.
Contributors for this issue:
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor
Andy Manne
The Worms

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                  <text>Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"&gt;St. John's College website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Click on &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;amp;sort_dir=d"&gt;Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; to view and sort all items in the collection.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt; to listen and subscribe.</text>
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                  <text>St. John's College Greenfield Library</text>
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                <text>Song and Dance and Faith and Prayer: The Case of J. S. Bach's Magnificat</text>
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                <text>Audio recording of a lecture delivered on February 9, 1996 by Beate Ruhm von Oppen as part of the Formal Lecture Series.</text>
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                <text>Ruhm von Oppen, Beate</text>
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                <text>St. John's College</text>
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                <text>St. John's College has been given permission to make this item available online.</text>
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                <text>Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750</text>
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