Microcosmographia Academica on Gemini

As another step in establishing a long-term archive of good texts on Gemini, I've converted F.M. Cornford's classic "Microcosmographia Academica" to Gemini text.

It was fairly painless getting the text into the strictures of Gemini; a lack of italics is something we can just put up with.

Microcosmographia Academica is a wonderful essay which rewards re-reading. Some of Lynn & Jay's "Yes, Prime Minister" lifts material word for word from Cornford, though he only came back out of copyright in 2014. A taste:

The Principle of the Dangerous Precedent is that you should not now do an admittedly right action for fear you, or your equally timid successors, should not have the courage to do right in some future case, which, ex hypothesi, is essentially different, but superficially resembles the present one. Every public action which is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.

The whole essay is full of timeless, cynical wisdom.

F.M. Cornford was married to Charles Darwin's granddaughter. The Cornfords used to live on my street, and I have in my possession a framed photograph signed by him (which I'm pretty sure must have been stolen). The couple is buried nearby alongside Wittgenstein and Arthur Eddington, who also lived locally.