Swing the Lantern Higher (A Sense of Responsibility)

- 6 - "A little learning is a dangerous thing, Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring, There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain And drinking largely sobers us again." The Pierian spring in North Thessaly was the symbol in Greek Mythology of pure learning; the Muses drank from the spring and so refreshed the wisdom and skill of the arts and the sciences with which they inspired the human race. The spring was the source and origin of a culture that revered truth, beauty, reason and freedom---the foundations of Western civilization and still the inspiration of free nations in their efforts to preserve that civilization. But today, says President Griswold, we have changed the old lines to read in this manner: "A little learning is a difficult thing, How far is it to the Pierian spring? Let's have a quick one at the nearest bar, Or better still, curb service in the car." Lewis Mumford refers to "the modern world with its overcharges of empty stimuli, its perpetual miscarriage of technique, its materialistic repletion, its costly ritual of conspicuous wastes, its highly organized purposelessness". Virginia Brazier has expressed an extreme pessimism in her lines, "Time of the Mad Atom"