(Chesterton 80)
When I was in school, I did not need supplementary books to understand my readings--that was why I had professors. Now that I am without I have to look to other sources for understanding; mainly, commentaries and secondary books. I found this little jewel in G.K. Chesterson's book St. Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox.
The great intellectual tradition that comes down to us from Pythagoras and Plato was never interrupted or lost through such triffles as the sack of Rome, the triumph of Attila or all the barbarian invasions of the Dark Ages. It was only lost after the introduction of printing, the discovery of the enlightenment of the Renaissance and the modern world. It was there, if anywhere, that there was lost or impatiently snapped the long thin delicate thread that had descended from distant antiquity; the thread of that unusual human hobby; the habit of thinking.
The great intellectual tradition that comes down to us from Pythagoras and Plato was never interrupted or lost through such triffles as the sack of Rome, the triumph of Attila or all the barbarian invasions of the Dark Ages. It was only lost after the introduction of printing, the discovery of the enlightenment of the Renaissance and the modern world. It was there, if anywhere, that there was lost or impatiently snapped the long thin delicate thread that had descended from distant antiquity; the thread of that unusual human hobby; the habit of thinking.
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