Showing papers on "Wonder published in 1970"

Language, attitude, and social change

Abstract: T he F lower G irl (with feeble defiance) I've a right to be here if I like, same as you. T he N ote T aker . A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. T he F lower G irl (quite overwhelmed, looking up at him in mingled wonder and depreciation without daring to raise her head) Ah-ah-ah—ow-ow-ow-oo!

Changes in Mean Fitness under Natural Selection

Abstract: The Reformation in Europe changed Man’s view of his relation with God; no longer dependent on a hierarchy of ordained vicars, the individual must seek God by his own efforts. There grew, particularly in England, the tradition of Natural Theology: not only was God approached through His Works of Nature, but those very Works were held to be evidence of His Divine Wisdom. This idea was applied especially to living organisms, whose adaptations, whose fitness to the ends they served, suggested powerfully that they had been designed by an intelligent, beneficent creator. This “Argument from Design”, a very popular proof of the existence of a Christian God, is well summarized by Robert Boyle (1688): And I confess, that when I assist at a well-administered Anatomy, I do so wonder at the admirable Contrivance of a Humane Body, that I cannot but somewhat wonder, that there should be found among Philosophers, men that can ascribe it to blind Chance. The Stoick that in Cicero asked an Epicurean, why Chance did not make Palaces and other Buildings, seems not to me to have made an impertinent Question.

Rock Poetry, Relevance, and Revelation.

Abstract: CLASSROOMS in English have been too long emphasizing subject matter that is impersonal and irrelevant. No wonder warm bodies deposited in those thirty-six chairs are tuned out, spaced out, and burned out. Many of our students are underachieving, filled with unbridled hostility, uninvolved intellectually and emotionally in what passes as a lesson in English classrooms. Students often wear a sophisticated facade which says, "All right, try to interest me! This lesson is bound to be the same old bor-

Ethos & Social Class: Referenda in Canadian Cities

Abstract: As a result of studying referenda in several Canadian cities, Harlan Hahn concludes that social class is a more useful indicator of voting choice than such other widely considered characteristics as ethnic background or religion. He thus proposes a serious attempt to use Richard Hofstadter's concept of "political ethos" in voting studies. Readers may wonder whether it is possible to separate voting groups into "public regarding" and "private regarding" categories without knowing more than we do about their motivations, but this is not an essential part of Professor Hahn's analysis.

The Publishing of Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell

Abstract: IN 1846, Charlotte Bronte was attempting to find a publisher for the sisters' first book—a selection of their poems. It was a bad time for poetry. In the earlier years of the century it had flourished remarkably with the rise of Scott and Byron, whose popularity brought record sales, but by the 1840s the demand had declined, and while prose fiction had a reasonable market, poetry was unwanted. Even the arch‐publisher of Victorian poets, Edward Moxon, was not keen to undertake the Poems (1844) of the established Elizabeth Barrett, and showed some reluctance even in the publication of Wordsworth. By 1848 Charlotte had come to appreciate ‘that “the Trade” are not very fond of hearing about poetry, and that it is but too often a profitless encumbrance on the shelves of the bookseller's shop’. It is little wonder, therefore, that of 1846 she later wrote: ‘As was to be expected, neither we nor our poems were at all wanted…. The great puzzle lay in the difficulty of getting answers of any kind from the publishers to whom we applied.’

application form design

Abstract: When one sees the application forms of some organisations, one is led to wonder how they ever manage to obtain any applicants. The scanners of the job advertisements in the newspaper may without too much difficulty be enticed to send off a quickly‐written letter for further details and an application form. But when they receive the requested form and find that they are asked at length and in badly worded English for much seemingly irrelevant information, several of them will opt out and decide that it is worth remaining in their present organisation a little longer.

Were Those the Days

Abstract: The turbulence of the American university today has so many causes and needs so many cures that it defies comprehensive assess ment War, race, revolution, reaction, numbers, money and lack of money, meaning and lack of meaning?it is no wonder that analyses abound while solutions are few Nor is it any wonder that many of the older members of university faculties have taken to looking back at the time before the turmoil as a kind of golden age I am without direct experience of university life since 1960, but I share the view that the earlier time was a good one So I have welcomed the suggestion of the editor that I might usefully ask myself what we thought we were doing in the 1950's, and since I would like to be concrete, clear, and sometimes personal, I have asked that question about the place I know best I was at Harvard, as a teacher and then also as a dean, from 1949 to 1960 It was a happy time What was it about? WTiat was good and bad about it? And does it have anything left to say in the 1970's? I am strongly of the view that universities have nothing to live for but the future, and I would reject entirely the notion that they are likely to solve their current problems by trying to make the clocks run backward But history too is for the future

To Mr. Smith from the Staff

Abstract: The departure of an AGU staffer occasions the usual farewells, a final paycheck, and desk-cleaning, highlighted by a group lunch or afterwork drink-along. On August 31, another member of our staff will leave, and we wonder how one says farewell to the man at the top—a man who became the first staff member before some of us were even born. As days blend together, one undistinguished from the other, Mr. Smith has become a part of the office scene, sometimes searching through file cabinets, another time checking figures with the accountant, or perhaps looking through stacks of books in a closet. A new staffer will usually wonder about this man whose authority is often suffused with anonymity. The newcomer might even feel a certain apprehension on first meeting him; but Mr. Smith always makes a point of meeting new people, and the expression that initially seems severe relaxes in a smile that becomes a part of the whole man.

The revival of astrology—Its implications for pastoral care

Abstract: r162 do you believe in the " " s t a r s ? asks a woman parishioner of her pastor-counselor. "It's no wonder my husband and I can't hit it off, we were born under the wrong signs!" states an angry young woman during ,a marriage counseling session with their pastor. Astrology seems to be increasingly invading the pastor-counselor's conversations with his counselees. It has permeated the very air we breathe, leaving many people today uncertain whether to liken it to pollution that beclouds the senses, or to incense whose fragrance begets clarity of vision and greater happiness for those who use it. As with many phenomena of recent vintage, this form .of secular religion may be seen as part of what has been called the "Soft Revolution." Sam Keen of the Behavioral Science Institute of California writes that "this religion is eclectic, experienti~al, mystical and nonprofessional~a do-it-yourself kit composed of disciplines and insights drawn from many religious and occult traditions. ''1 Never has the nation's youth con-

The Better School

Abstract: There are those, critics and literature professors, in particular, who regard the theater as a branch of literature. When they say so, there are those whose workaday world is in the theater, who rise in scorn, undiluted with sadness, and speak of the theater as an art wholly its own, and bewail the poor professors who know nothing of costumes or lighting, and therefore cannot understand the many-sided art of the theater.2 The Elizabethans, who wrote some of the best plays that our language has, and virtually the only old plays that are now presented, did not regard the theater as a branch of “literature.” They did not even use this word in its eighteenth to twentieth century meaning. Nor did they see the theater as sui generis. Of lighting and costumes they knew little. They did not have the modern skills at deception. Of their speech we have no recordings. But each play had at least one logos, the logos of its own apparent and simple development. The word “plot” is too thin, for the logos encompasses the reasoning, the reality, the poetry, the schooling of which Burke speaks. The drama itself was a form of poetry, from Aristotle’s Poetics during the days when poets wrote for the theater, and close to our own time. And Aristotle pointed to the deterioration when poetry gave way to spectacles. But the theater was also a school, a “school of moral sentiments,” as Burke called it. To be a school of moral sentiments, and a school to which the generations turned in eagerness and wonder, it had to know the condition humaine. It had to have something of a philosophical understanding.

The Wonder of Myself: Ethical-Theological Aspects of Direct Abortion:

Abstract: THE MAGNIFICENT wonders and mysteries of the creation and development of each human person are expressed simply and eloquently in Scripture. Addressing himself to Yahweh, the Psalmist inspiringly sings (Ps 139:13-15): "It was you who created my inmost self, and put me together in my mother's womb; for all these mysteries I thank you: for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of your works. You know me through and through, from having watched my bones take shape when I was being formed in secret, knitted together in the limbo of the womb." The Second Book of Maccabees (7:20-29) communicates a similar message and inspiration:

The Invisible Theater: The Rise Of Radio Drama In Germany After 1945

Abstract: RADIO DRAMA IS ALMOST TOTALLY IGNORED BY CRITICS on this continent. And no wonder; for all artistic purposes, the genre has become extinct in America. Not so in Europe, where the unique possibilities of the art form have been fully realized, and where radio drama leads a flourishing artistic life, fully independent from the moloch TV which brought about its downfall in America. The striking difference between the state of radio drama in America and Europe is brought out forcefully if one compares handbooks of the art published here and there.

The Philosopher King

Abstract: I thought it best to divide the study of The Tempest into two chapters. One of the most interesting questions from a politico-philosophic viewpoint is the question of wonder. The treatment of this question in a more general chapter might seem digressive, and I have decided to reserve a discussion of wonder for a separate chapter.

Reshaping the image of physics

Abstract: Most students have a jaded image of the individuals who call themselves “physicists” and of the subject called “physics.” This regrettable state of affairs has arisen primarily because of the manner in which we present physics to our students, particularly to our beginning students. At present the wonder, the excitement, the awe and the enthusiasm of the physicist is too often missing. The intrinsic beauty of physics, its humanistic dimension and its inherent limitations are seldom part of our classroom fare and are unknown to the student.