The past

By Diomedes | Robert O'Reilly | 15 Aug 2024

Why is learning Latin important?

Robert O'Reilly Journeyman Electrician (1982–present)

Before I learned Latin at U.C. Berkeley in the seventies I was an English major and I happened to read this passage from Samuel Johnson’s one travel book, ‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’: (he was walking on a grey and rainy day and pacing out the measurements of the stone foundation of the ruins of what once had been a very famous monastery and one of the few libraries of Latin that survived through the dark ages}, “We were now treading that illustrious island that was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.”

I think this is the best argument for studying a beautiful language two thousand years old, rich in poetry and prose from a large diversity of minds. What amazes me most is that devout monks preserved the gems we have left by copying out again and again, over centuries, such things as the poems of Catullus and Lucretius or Petronius, the most irreligious works you might imagine. Yet they did this for the undeniable beauty of the poems and the thoughts. In our bleak days which I consider to be the beginning of another dark age, I recommend you study Latin and read it and allow your mind to soar, and ‘advance yourself in the dignity of a thinking being’.

I have some near future sci-fi novels and an autobiography on this site ready for you to look into:

Roland House: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/roland-house-xnnxllm

Wet Chip: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/wet-chip-xpzexnd

The Whitening: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/the-whitening-xvmqrxl

I am: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/i-am-xgjmxdz

autobiography: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/buddy-xeevxnv

Pandemica, a novel: https://www.publish0x.com/robert-oreilly/a-story-about-the-pandemic-covid-19-six-months-from-now-xnxgzgd

Resources

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Diomedes

B.A. in Latin and Greek from U.C. Berkley. Writer, Blogger and retired Electrician.

Robert O'Reilly

I am educated in the Western Classical Tradition, B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in Latin and Greek, English major, one year at U. of Toronto, studied under Alain Renoir and Northrop Frye, read most classics full time for many years after university in French, English, Latin and Greek to the modern day. I am interested in the near future of technology, what changes it imposes upon our heritage and character as humans. Short stories and Essays are my medium.