The following quotation (translated into English) is from the travel journal of an individual whose future fame would have surprised the two gentlemen he describes here.
The priests...entertained me with their stubborn clerical folles. I was amazed that such great arrogance and ambition, such great want of understanding, and such vulgarity, such obstinacy and meanness in discussion, should be found in a priest, who is commonly supposed to be an educated man; moreover, that anyone who had been a student for more than twelve years should not be better read. I understood only too well why these barbarians were kept far from civilization.
The pastor began to discuss the clouds in -----, how they sweep over the mountains carrying away with them stones, trees, and animals. I ascribed this to what it may well have been -- the violent winds, and said that clouds never lift anything. He smiled at me, saying I had never seen such clouds (who had never been in the mountains). Yes, I answered, when there is mist I walk in the clouds, and when the mist falls it immediately rains on me. At such sophistry he smiled sardonically. Still less acceptable was my talk on water bubbles which can rise into the air, etc., and he told me that clouds were solid. When I denied this he supprted himself with a scriptural text, smiled at my simplicity, and said that he himself would teach me how after rain a slime remains on the mountains where the clouds had descended on it. When I said that was called nostoc and was vegetable, I was judged, like St. Paul, to be made, too much science having made me crazy.... He advised me to trust people who understood such things and not, the moment I got home, write a thesis full of such nonsense.
The other (the pedagogue) reproached me for paying too much attention to worldly vanities at the expense of spiritual matters, and said that many souls were lost through hankering after learning. Both wondered at the Royal Society choosing such a student, instead of relying on a knowledgeable and responsible man on the spot who could explain all these things.
Who was the writer?
The first correct answer posted to comments wins a charming lacquered refrigerator magnet, which represents a seagull or perhaps a tern, which was folornly abandoned by the previous owners of our apartment. No Googling or consulting your tattered paperback copy of The History of Misconceptions Volume 53: Meteorology. One guess per comment, but comment as frequently as you like.
Posted by BT at October 17, 2003 10:31 AM