putterings 405 < 406 > 407 index
the notion that juggling disconnected words is aesthetic, to abandon
We are hoping, however, that within a generation there may be a reaction in favor of men who have been better employed than in puttering over such doctors’ theses as we have been discussing — men who have read widely and reflected on their reading, men who have ideas or who a least might recognize an idea if they saw it...
The first step on the road to salvation is to persuade a large group of men who pose as scholars to abandon the notion that all facts are of equal value, and that skill in juggling disconnected words is aesthetic appreciation of literature.
ex “The Science of Literature,” The Nation Vol. 84, No. 2174 (February 28, 1907) : 194 : link (google books)