kelley wrote:
> English today exhibits the
> contradictory attributes of a religion in its late phase—a certain
> desperation to attract converts, combined with an evident lack of convinced
> belief in its own scriptures and traditions."
This is almost exactly how a grad school friend of mine described the study of English in 1957. He called English professors frustrated preachers, which is of course also a good description of the chief founder (and still secret guiding spirit) of english studies: Matthew Arnold.
Carrol