Word: virtuouse
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Since his death Orwell has become a kind of paragon to many writers. Those who have not stopped with Lionel Trilling's conclusion that "He was a virtuous man," have used this conclusion to vindicate the cherished suspicions that each has imputed to Orwell's now-protean figure. Hollis' attempt to Christianize Orwell is no more mistaken than the projections of R. J. Voorhees, for instance, who writes about Orwell's "Secular crusade," or of John Atkins who calls him a "social saint," forgetting perhaps that Orwell had written in his essay on Gandhi, "Sainthood is a thing human beings...
...worship of nature is as old as Chinese history. Confucius, the great precept-giver on manners and morals, said as early as 500 B.C.: "The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills." Lao-tzu, an elder contemporary of Confucius, added another dimension, proclaiming that underlying nature was an all-pervading spiritual force, which he called Tao, and likened to water...
Such masterpieces go far to explain the response made by the great nth century Painter Kuo Hsi, who asked: "Why does a virtuous man take delight in landscape?" His own reply: "Having no access to the landscape, the lover of forest and stream, the friend of mist and haze, enjoys them only in his dreams. How delightful then to have a landscape painted by a skilled hand! Without leaving the room, at once he finds himself among the streams and ravines; the cries of the birds and monkeys are faintly audible to his senses; light on the hills and reflections...
When the English Department considers reform next fall, it should remember that reading is not, in itself, either educational or virtuous. Reading contributes to a liberal education only when it engages the reader's attention and intelligence. Thus in educational terms, one book is better than another only because it earns a more complete scrutiny from more diverse points of view. When the student stops paying attention, education also stops. While Departmental reading lists may "deserve" attention, they are not nearly so likely to get it as the book which the student chooses spontaneously...
...Dulles, and to many Americans, this attitude seems harmless, and moreover, laudable. After all, they think, waging peace is seventy times seven better than waging war. But Dulles, and whatever company he has, fails to realize how aggressive this is. They cannot see that even "virtuous" aggressiveness is offensive to the Indians, the Middle East, and the satellites. To the neutral country, it is not a question of strength and virtue. Both America and Russia are strong, and both say they are virtuous. The real question to them is of motive--does America want the world to be American...