BIB_ID
404548
Accession number
MA 8987.1
Creator
Blackie, John Stuart, 1809-1895.
Display Date
1895 February 8.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1908.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 17.9 x 11.4 cm
Notes
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
In the hand of an amanuensis.
On stationery with the letterhead "9 Douglas Crescent, Edinburgh."
In the hand of an amanuensis.
On stationery with the letterhead "9 Douglas Crescent, Edinburgh."
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from William Angus Knight, 1908.
Summary
Thanking Knight for an award; commenting that "[p]rofessional judgments are always, to a certain extent, biassed & apt to be narrow & one-sided, specially schoolmasters & teachers of languages in this country at the present hour"; listing the reasons for this: "1st.ignorance. 2nd.laziness. 3rd.cowardice. 4th.habit. 5th.official conceit. 6th.overwork & want of leisure. 7th.bibliolatry, which does not mean idol worship of the Bible as in religious phraseology, but idol worship of books, grammars & printed rules as opposed to the living powers of soul, ear & voice in direct vital connection with interesting surroundings"; concluding "I fear it will be long before our modern educational bookmongers understand this, but nature will be avenged & she will speak through the public."
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