4.0687 Rs: Miners and Gold (5/66)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Sat, 3 Nov 90 11:29:27 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0687. Saturday, 3 Nov 1990.
(1) Date: Thu, 1 Nov 90 19:18:03 -0800 (9 lines)
From: Mary WhitlockBlundell <mwb@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 4.0679 Qs: (Who said...?)
(2) Date: 01 Nov 90 23:59:06 EST (10 lines)
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: 4.0679 Qs: (Who said...?)
(3) Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 06:35 CST (8 lines)
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Miners and gold
(4) Date: Fri, 02 Nov 90 04:10:07 EST (31 lines)
From: John Unsworth <JMUEG@NCSUVM>
Subject: Re: 4.0679 Qs: (Who said...?)
(5) Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 13:06 CST (8 lines)
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Willard's last query
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 90 19:18:03 -0800
From: Mary WhitlockBlundell <mwb@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: 4.0679 Qs: (Who said...?) (3/46)
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 500 BCE) said "those seeking gold dig up a
lot of earth and find little" (Fragment 22 DK).
Mary Whitlock Blundell
mwb@u.washington.edu
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: 01 Nov 90 23:59:06 EST
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: 4.0679 Qs: (Who said...?) (3/46)
Lots of dirt and a little gold? There's an old variant on that, which
seems to take its origin in a late antique life of Vergil, then crops up
in Jerome and Cassiodorus: Vergil, the greatest Latin epic poet, was
reading Ennius, the first but inevitably somewhat primitive Latin epic
poet, when somebody asked him what he was looking for: `aurum in
stercore quaero', he replied: `I'm looking for gold in a dungheap.'
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 06:35 CST
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Miners and gold
The quotation Willard McCarty is looking for concerning miners digging
through lots of earth for a little gold is from Heraclitus. I don't
have a text here with me, but later I'll forward the appropriate
reference.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------38----
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 90 04:10:07 EST
From: John Unsworth <JMUEG@NCSUVM>
Subject: Re: 4.0679 Qs: (Who said...?) (3/46)
In response to Willard's query about digging for gold (and removing
rubbish along the way), how about this passage from Melville's _Pierre_:
. . . it is often to be observed, that as in digging for precious
metals in the mines, much earthy rubbish has first to be trouble-
somely handled and thrown out; so, in digging in one's soul for
the fine gold of genius, much dullness and common-place is first
brought to light. Happy would it be, if the man possessed in
himself some receptacle for his own rubbish of this sort: but he
is like the occupant of a dwelling, whose refuse can not be clapped
into his own cellar, but must be deposited in the street before his
own door, for the public functionaries to take care of. No common-
place is ever effectually gotten rid of, except by essentially
emptying one's self of it into a book; for once trapped in a book,
then the book can be put into the fire, and all will be well. But
they are not always put into the fire; and this accounts for the vast
majority of miserable books over those of positive merit. Nor will
any man, who is an author, ever be rash in precisely defining the
period, when he has completely ridded himself of his rubbish, and
come to the latent gold in his mind. It holds true, in every case,
that the wiser a man is, the more misgivings he has on certain points.
(Book 18, Chapter 1)
I'm sure that Melville is cribbing the metaphor, probably from the source
Willard is really looking for, but his treatment of it has a certain
pointed relevance.
John Unsworth
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------16----
Date: Fri, 2 Nov 90 13:06 CST
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Willard's last query
To fill out my earlier note about the passage Willard McCarty is trying
to lo- cate, it is Heraclitus, Fragment B22 (DK): 'Those who search for
gold dig through much earth but find little' (the source is Clement of
Alexandria, *Mis- cellanies*, IV.ii.4.2). Or is that not what was wanted?