by Theodore Dalrymple (January 2015)

Men who bestride their academic disciplines and institutions like colossi are soon forgotten, in part because these days there are simply too many disciplines and too many institutions for them all to be remembered as they deserve and as their work merits. Names that once inspired awe or fear, or both, now evoke mere puzzlement among their successors, or at best ring the faintest of bells in the back of their minds. (Incidentally, when something rings a faint bell in the back of my mind, I feel it physically, somewhere inside my skull just above and to the left of the nape of my neck.)  more>>>