Page 123

Commissioned by Paul to:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

So, the nearest book is Republicanism: a shared European heritage by van Gelderen and Skinner and sentences six to eight (describing the argument of Frans Goethal's 1566 treatise de foelice et infoelice republica) are:

That state is happy which is built on virtue: "Therefore not the presence of proud buildings, nor high walls make a city famous, but strong excellent men and cultivators of virtue". Virtue of the people will be achieved through religious training and civic education. The state should support the studia humanitatis through the founding of literary academies.

(I'm sitting at my desk next to my politics books, in case you're wondering.)

And I'll tag J-dom, Hadjiboy, Ian, Dave, and The Gorse Fox.

Comments

[Paulie]

I slighty cheated on this one. When I saw I'd been tagged I was at my desk at work - with a copy of Excel 2003 For Dummies next to me.

I decided to wait til I got home.

Oh - your quote - how different is Goethal's 'virtue' from Machiavelli's 'virtu'? Quite a bit, I'd say, though they both *mean* the same thing in terms of being 'fit to survive'.

[Anthony]

It's not that dissimilar. I haven't read the whole chapter yet, but earlier on it's described as "Ciceronian virtue" - less about military leadership, more about political/philosophical skill, but still fundamentally an idealisation of maleness.