On a pro-Latin website is posted the following quote from Italian author Giovanni Guareschi: “Latin is a precise, essential language. It will be abandoned, not because it is unsuitable for the new requirements of progress, but because the new men will not be suitable for it. When the age of demagogues and charlatans begins, a language like Latin will no longer be useful, and any oaf will be able to give a speech in public and talk in such a way that he will not be kicked off the stage. The secret to this will consist in the fact that, by making use of words that are general, elusive, and sound good, he will be able to speak for an hour without saying anything. With Latin, this is impossible.”
The ancient Romans would have been quite surprised to hear that demagoguery was impossible in their language. That would be the nation of Catiline, Gaius Gracchus, et al.; the same ancient Romans who lost their republic to an empire, and their empire to what somebody, I forget who, summarized as a “decline and fall.”
But this is a case of – if you will pardon a phrase in a foreign language – “quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.” Guareschi is, in general, a charming writer. I encourage readers to look into his Don Camillo stories– charming Cold War–era tales of a Catholic priest, often involving his showdowns with a Communist mayor.
Annals of Bad Arguments, Cont.