From Pauline Meier’s American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
...achievement in the Eighteenth Century “lay instead in the creative adoption of preexisting models to different circumstances, and the highest praise of all went to imitations whose excellence exceeded that of the examples that inspired them.” For this reason, younger men “were taught to copy and often memorize compelling passages from their readings for future use since you could never tell when, say, a citation from Cicero might come in handy.”
...achievement in the Eighteenth Century “lay instead in the creative adoption of preexisting models to different circumstances, and the highest praise of all went to imitations whose excellence exceeded that of the examples that inspired them.” For this reason, younger men “were taught to copy and often memorize compelling passages from their readings for future use since you could never tell when, say, a citation from Cicero might come in handy.”
no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 02:25 pm (UTC)Mr Johnson borrowed from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the start of his speech, paraphrasing the words of Brutus as he said now was “a time not to fight the tide of history but to take that tide at the flood and sail on to fortune”.
For those paying attention, Brutus’s words were a subtle hint. Et tu Michael? Then fall, Boris.