210419 What I learned in my studies this morning

New lamp to read by

Shining forth on old wisdom.

Lightning in bottles.

From The Daily Stoic: 

An emperor quoting a former slave . . . I should never look down upon a source of wisdom or inspiration.  There is a 100% probability that they have experiences different from mine and that makes learning possible.

Today's Meditation:

A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy

Wisdom and knowledge are everywhere if we know how to look.

From Ward Farnsworth, Classical English Rhetoric, Chapter 2. Structural Matters:

8. Reversal of Structure: CHIASMUS

Technical term: 

Chiasmus: repeating words or other elements in reverse order, resulting in an ABBA pattern.

Antimetabole: reversing words (as opposed to purely structural reversals)

Patterns and Examples 

— Describing a reversal of action 

— Suggesting reciprocity

— Describing matches and mismatches

— Showing relationships between sets

— Stating identities 

— Dialogical applications

— Use by Chesterton 

— As a play on words

— As emphasis 

— Multiple chiasmus 

— Structural chiasmus

— Phonetic chiasmus

— Paired with repetition of words

— With isocolon

Conclusion 

Uses with care, chiasmus offers the rhetorician a way to — surprise! — emphasize a point, draw a comparison, or demonstrate a contrast. More than other patterns discussed so far, chiasmus is likely to be consciously noticed by the audience and, therefore, appear forced or overly clever. (Though structural chiasmus is less prone to this discovery than repetition of words and phrases.) 

(pp. 113-132)