[lit-ideas] Professor Nowell-Smith and geometry
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:20:44 -0700
"One one occasion, [P. H.] Nowell-Smith [The 'Trinity' (Coll.)
philosopher] (cast in the role of straight man) offered as an example of
non-understandable English an extract from a sonnet of Donne:
"From the round earth's imagined corners,
Angels, your trumpets blow."
"Austin said, 'It is perfectly clear what _that_ means; it means,
'Angels, blow your trumpets from what pe[r]sons less cautious than I would
call the four corners of the earth'". (Grice, 'Reply to Richards').
There is a slight difference between what Nowell-Smith remembered and
what Donne wrote.
Holy Sonnet VII, begins
At the round earth's imagined corners blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go,
All whom the flood did, and fire shall, overthrow...
(I'm surprised nobody involved pointed out that 'numberless infinities,'
prefigures the great work of Cantor.)
Robert Paul,
working overtime to correct the mistakes of philosophers
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