There are exceptions, perhaps foolish exceptions, and the writer of this paper is conscious of proving the rule. But I venture to think anyone who cares passionately for abstract discussion, be his hair never so grey, his hand never so palsied, is in spirit young. I do not say this is an advantage. It is possible to stay young too long. There is a “time to grow old.” If you stay young beyond your time, you gain some ways; but you will pay for it: it is a form of hybris, of transgression, of “uppishness”.

Two years ago I was charmed by Jane Ellen Harrison’s Reminiscences of a Student’s Life; the word was inadequate then and remains so. Hence my pleasure at a new Alpha and Omega. I intend it to accompany this late summer, with secondary reading, and with the Prolegomena, which one does not dip into so much as submit to.