Postby Technomancer » Thu Oct 07, 2004 5:35 am
The poem "The Seafarer" it should be pointed out, is not an excerpt from Beowulf, but a stand alone work. You should probably have been given Pound's translation, since that's the most common one. If not it's easy enough to find a copy either on the web or in your school/public library. An excellent compilation BTW, of Anglo-Saxon verse is a book entitled "Anglo-Saxon Poetry", which contains most of the major poems from this period (excepting Beowulf).
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov