Austin Hall Library

Scott-King's Perspective on Modernity

Evelyn Waugh's, Scott-King's Modern Europe, which I mention here, is a very short book, written in an entirely light tone. But, it manifests a clear intention.

Scott-King's concluding comment that his commitment to the classics is "the most long-sighted view it is possible to take" is intended as a serious perspective. The reader is meant to infer from this short work that the modern world is unmistakably disordered, that "progress" is actually devolution, and that the modern word is quite likely to dash itself against the rocks in the future. Thus, it is a purposeless effort to come to terms with it, much less to prepare oneself to "fit" within it.

Scott-King is a conservative, that is, a person who refuses to believe that the unending quest for progress is movement in the right direction. In fact, that unexamined and unprincipled progress is quite likely the path to cultural insanity. It is Scott-King's perspective that a classical education provides the prophylactic to insanity, and affords an opportunity to cling to the few remaining moral principles in the chaos that is shortly to come. 

The Wickedness of Modern Education--It Makes Students Fit for the Modern World

In the somewhat hard to find novel by Evelyn Waugh, Scott King's Modern Europe, the "slightly bald and slightly corpulent" senior classics master of a fictional English public school (Granchester), engages in a poignant dialogue with the headmaster.

"You know," [the headmaster] said, "we are starting this year with fifteen fewer classical specialists than we had last term!"

"I thought that would be about the number."

"As you know I'm an old Greats man myself. I deplore it as much as you do. But what are we to do? Parents are not interested in producing the 'complete man' any more. They want to qualify their boys for jobs in the modern world. You can hardly blame them, can you?"

"Oh yes," said Scott-King. "I can and do."

"I always say you are a much more important man here than I am. One couldn't conceive of Granchester without Scott-King. But has it ever occurred to you that a time may come when there will be no more classical boys at all?"

"Oh yes. Often."

"What I was going to suggest was--I wonder if you will consider taking some other subject as well as the classics? History, for example, preferably economic history?"

"No, headmaster."

"But, you know, there may be something of a crisis ahead."

"Yes, headmaster."

"Then what do you intend to do?"

"If you approve, headmaster, I will stay as I am here as long as any boy wants to read the classics. I think it would be very wicked indeed to do anything to fit a boy for the modern world."

"It's a short-sighted view, Scott-King."

"There, headmaster, with all respect, I differ from you profoundly. I think it the most long-sighted view it is possible to take."

One Book

One book that changed my life: The Intellectual Life: It’s Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges (the book that triggered my intellectual conversion)
One book that I’ve read more than once: Confessions by St. Augustine (the book that broke my heart, and does it again each time I re-read it)
One book I’d want on a desert island: Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas (the book that holds the greatest promise of one day educating me—one book, multiple volumes!)
One book that made me laugh: Southern by the Grace of God by Michael Andrew Grissom (a refreshing look at a much misunderstood way of life)

One book that made me cry: The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis (exquisite prose in defense of suffering)
One book that I wish had been written: Mastering Latin in Ten Minutes a Week (because I lack sufficient discipline and time to master Latin)
One book that I wish had never been written: The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels (no longer satisfied with the authentic Gospels, Pagels fawns over the false ones)

One book that I’m currently reading: The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene (a compelling chronicle of the inner turmoil and moral and emotional breakdown of a human being)

One book I’ve been meaning to read: In the House of Brede by Rumer Godden (humanity and holiness in an English cloistered Benedictine monastery—awaiting my read during Lent)