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David
K. Knox
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"It seems
that nature has given the dog to man for his defense and
pleasure; it is of all animals the most faithful; it is the
best possible friend of man." |
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My doctoral dissertation (soon to be a major book): |
Non Sibi Sed Aliis: The Dawn of the University of Georgia Graduate School (this is the first and only history of graduate education at the University of Georgia - accept no substitutes). |
Commentary
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What I am reading: (This is my serious reading - click here for my recreational reading). |
La Dame d'Esprit: A Biography of the Marquise Du Chatelet
by Judith Zinsser |
PHILOSOPHICAL LETTERS or LETTERS REGARDING THE ENGLISH NATION by
Voltaire INTRODUCTION Francois Marie Arouet, who called himself Voltaire, was the son of
Francois Arouet of Poitou, who lived in Paris, had given up his
office of notary two years before the birth of this his third son,
and obtained some years afterwards a treasurer's office in the
Chambre des Comptes. Voltaire was born in the year 1694. He lived
until within ten or eleven years of the outbreak of the Great French
Revolution, and was a chief leader in the movement of thought that
preceded the Revolution. Though he lived to his eighty-fourth year,
Voltaire was born with a weak body. His brother Armand, eight years
his senior, became a Jansenist. Voltaire when ten years old was
placed with the Jesuits in the College Louis-le- Grand. There he was
taught during seven years, and his genius was encouraged in its bent
for literature; skill in speaking and in writing being especially
fostered in the system of education which the Jesuits had planned to
produce capable men who by voice and pen could give a reason for the
faith they held. Verses written for an invalid soldier at the age of
eleven won for young Voltaire the friendship of Ninon l'Enclos, who
encouraged him to go on writing verses. She died soon afterwards, and
remembered him with a legacy of two thousand livres for purchase of
books. He wrote in his lively school-days a tragedy that afterwards
he burnt. At the age of seventeen he left the College Louis-
le-Grand, where he said afterwards that he had been taught nothing
but Latin and the Stupidities. He was then sent to the law schools,
and saw life in Paris as a gay young poet who, with all his brilliant
liveliness, had an aptitude for looking on the tragic side of things,
and one of whose first poems was an "Ode on the Misfortunes of Life."
His mother died when he was twenty. Voltaire's father thought him a
fool for his versifying, and attached him as secretary to the Marquis
of Chateauneuf; when he went as ambassador to the Hague. In December,
1713, he was dismissed for his irregularities. In Paris his
unsteadiness and his addiction to literature caused his father to
rejoice in getting him housed in a country chateau with M. de
Caumartin. M. de Caumartin's father talked with such enthusiasm of
Henri IV. and Sully that Voltaire planned the writing of what became
his "Henriade", and his "History of the Age of Louis XIV.," who died
on the 1st of September, 1715. Under the regency that followed,
Voltaire got into trouble again and again through the sharpness of
his pen, and at last, accused of verse that satirised the Regent, he
was locked up--on the 17th of May, 1717--in the Bastille. There he
wrote the first two books of his "Henriade", and finished a play on
OEdipus, which he had begun at the age of eighteen. He did not obtain
full liberty until the 12th of April, 1718, and it was at this
time--with a clearly formed design to associate the name he took with
work of high attempt in literature--that Francois Marie Arouet, aged
twenty-four, first called himself Voltaire. Voltaire's "OEdipe" was
played with success in November, 1718. A few months later he was
again banished from Paris, and finished the "Henriade" in his
retirement, as well as another play, "Artemise", that was acted in
February, 1720. Other plays followed. In December, 1721, Voltaire
visited Lord Bolingbroke, who was then an exile from England, at the
Chateau of La Source. There was now constant literary activity. From
July to October, 1722, Voltaire visited Holland with Madame de
Rupelmonde. After a serious attack of small-pox in November, 1723,
Voltaire was active as a poet about the Court. He was then in receipt
of a pension of two thousand livres from the king, and had inherited
more than twice as much by the death of his father in January, 1722.
But in December, 1725, a quarrel, fastened upon him by the Chevalier
de Rohan, who had him waylaid and beaten, caused him to send a
challenge. For this he was arrested and lodged once more, in April,
1726, in the Bastille. There he was detained a month; and his first
act when he was released was to ask for a passport to England.
Voltaire left France, reached London in August, 1726, went as guest
to the house of a rich merchant at Wandsworth, and remained three
years in this country, from the age of thirty-two to the age of
thirty-five. He was here when George I. died, and George II. became
king. He published here his "Henriade". He wrote here his "History of
Charles XII." He read "Gulliver's Travels" as a new book, and might
have been present at the first night of "The Beggar's Opera". He was
here whet Sir Isaac Newton died. In 1731 he published at Rouen the
"Lettres sur les Anglais", which appeared in England in 1733.
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What I am listening to: |
Spirit
of Eden
by Talk Talk |
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Visit my web sites! |
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My Fuego web site is one of the oldest continuously running automotive web sites on the www. In the over 11 years it has been up it has had thousands of visitors from all over the world. |
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My Greek Philosophy web site is one of the oldest continuously running philosophy web sites on the www. In the over 11 years of its existence it has had hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world. It has been used as a substitute for textbooks in dozens of classes. |
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The world's first web server was built by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990 on a NeXT cube. The NeXT Unix operating system is the basis of today's MacOS. |
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The first graduate degree was conferred by the University of Georgia in 1803. The formal organization of the Graduate School was established in 1910 under the guidance of Willis Henry Bocock. Today the Graduate School offers the M.A. in 34 disciplines, the M.S.in 47 disciplines and the Ph.D in 80 disciplines. Professional master's degrees are available in 28 areas, and professional doctoral degrees are offered in education and music. For more information read the book. |
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The University of Georgia campus is one of the most beautiful in the world. On campus, one may see superb examples of all periods of American architecture from Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival through Postmodernism and New Classicism. These buildings are sited in an environment of ancient trees and breathtaking plantings. |
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Since I am a Porsche and MG owner/enthusiast my TR7 site may seem anomalous. However, I think the TR7/TR8 was a fine design that never achieved its potential. (plus the TR8 had the same engine as my beloved Range Rover). |
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Wolseley Brochures: The 1972 Wolseley Six and the 1971 Wolseley 18/85 brochures. |
My grandfather was a Wolseley enthusiast. His beautiful Wolseley Six "landcrab" is one of my earliest automotive memories. |
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Some of my favorite links: |
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The world's greatest prep school. Founded by Robert Stringfellow Walker in 1889. |
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The Phi Kappa Literary Society was founded at the University of Georgia in 1820. I was president of Phi Kappa in 1992. |
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Perspectives on the Arts without the dessicated political cant. Read Counterpoints: 25 Years of The New Criterion on Culture and the Arts by Roger Kimball and Hilton Kramer for a retrospective. |
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Today's news in Latin. |
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My favorite book on Mr. Jefferson's house is Jefferson's Monticello by William Howard Adams. |
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Mr. Jefferson's other home. I recommend Poplar Forest & Thomas Jefferson as an informative and elegant introduction to this unique house. |
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Next year is the 100th anniversary of Ferdinand Anton Ernst "Ferry" Porsche's birth (born 19 September 1909). Cool man. Cool cars. |
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The best 4x4 by far. |
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News and views from the Manhattan Institute. |
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Dedicated to preserving and promulgating the works and legacy of one of the greatest minds of all time. |
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If anyone wants to buy me a present, a full set of reds (Latin) and greenies (Greek) would be a nice gift. |
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The PDP combines a traditional approach to the study of Dante's Comedy with new techniques of compiling and consulting data, images, and sound. |
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