To persons whose minds are habituated to feed on the vague jargon of our time, when we have a vocabulary for everything and exact ideas about nothing-when a word half-understood, torn from its place in some alien or half-formed science, as of psychology, conceals from both writer and reader the utter meaninglessness of a statement, when all dogma is in doubt except the dogmas of sciences of which we have read in the newspapers, when the language of theology itself, under the influence of an undisciplined mysticism of popular philosophy, tends to become a language of tergiversation-Andrewes may seem pedantic and verbose. It is only when we have saturated ourselves in his prose, followed the movement of his thought, that we find his examination of words terminating in the ecstasy of assent.

--- T. S. Eliot

It has not escaped our notice that among some people there isn't much love for the sort of word-dicing we sometimes engage in here. For some it is a major annoyance and for others it is an irritation they can easily dismiss with the words elitism, snobbery, uppity or, most often, divisive and unloving. Nothing warms the rube's heart like hearing three yahoos dismiss Plato and Aristotle. This attitude has the attraction of what Eliot calls the mysticism of popular belief.

We hear someone relating sexuality to the eschaton in a way that should make a roomful of high schoolers guffaw, but the only socially acceptable response is to entertain even more embarrassing insights from bystanders, or, if someone has been thoughtful enough to provide a couch, bysitters.

I have mentioned two names in the past. The first is Richard Mitchell. I do not know of anyone who skewered the guilty as deftly or as humorously as the Underground Grammarian. If you are philosophically disinclined, I think this is the best introduction you will ever get to the importance of clear thinking. From him I picked up the phrase "Language is the technology of thought." He was a real teacher living in a world of educrats.

I used to subscribe to his paper, and in one issue he offered to send fistfuls of his archives to anyone who would ask. I asked and got a nice packet of earlier numbers which you can now download and read for free. He also wrote books that you must read. They can be found and downloaded at this same site. He even gives you explicit encouragement to plagiarize his work. Can't say fairer than that.

I suggest you make a pig of yourself.

The second name we have mentioned repeatedly is T. S. Eliot's. Again, I think you ought to read everything he's written and I think you should memorize parts of it. I know some of you have already read bits of it, but for those of you still intimidated by the off-putting experiences you had in college, I recommend this introduction by Roger Scruton.

It is essential that our words mean things, and it is most necessary that our words about God have meaning. It is along about this moment that those who object will inform us that words have different meanings and that meanings change over time. This is the observation of a genius, of course. Lots of things change over time; nearly everything wears out, including our words. God does not change, yet the words we use to describe him do. Reading and understanding Eliot will help you understand how important it is that as meaning does change and as sensibilities must change with new experiences, change need not involve a loss of the permanent things.