Virgil, Where Are You?

By James S. Panero | Wednesday, May 22, 1996

'Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.' So Dante writes in canto I of the 'Inferno.' Lost, the dark wood is an allegory of his uncertainty. In this forest of doubt Dante finds his guide, the Roman poet Virgil. 'My master and my author, thou art he from whom alone I took the style whose beauty has done me honor.' Under Virgil's protection, Dante descends into the deepest levels of the underworld, through Purgatory, and up into Paradise.

Four years at Dartmouth may not be as epic, but for us the journey can be just as monumental. Indeed Dante's forest can be an allegory for our own experiences. When we begin at Dartmouth we have little guidance. The freshman advising system leaves us with little support.

But, Virgil can be our guide. Though the College does not have a core Curriculum like Columbia's, Dartmouth still offers some of the finest courses anywhere to guide us through the complexities of Western civilization. The courses may not be for all, but they will never lead one astray.

Discussions over curriculum and the elusive canon — they can get quite polemic. Beneath it all, though, there are real questions about education that have never been fully answered. To teach, to learn, these are quite mystic concepts. They have always been mysterious. What is it that makes something 'click.' Some think students should have to read particular texts. Others believe students will find their own calling, with little human guidance. Somewhere between the oppression and anarchy lies education.

Virgil was Dante's professor, though they lived over a millennium apart. It was Virgil's Aeneid that surely gave Dante his inspiration. Look at Aeneid book VI, read about Aeneas's own journey to the underworld, and see an unmistakable connection.

Step back, and one understands that the development of Western civilization — and indeed every civilization — is about the relationship of teacher and student. The innumerable ideas that have arisen over millennia in the West are not isolated. Ideas have a steady flow. When one studies the West through its expanse, one begins to see the connections.

And the ideas begin to make sense. Western progress reaches the human scale when one sees the development of one idea to another, the inspiration of one teacher to pupil. Just look at The Divine Comedy. Virgil provided its inspiration, and Roman and Greek mythology taught Dante's master. Does Dante still live? As the muse of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness he does. One can even look at the movie Apocalypse Now and see a whole progression of Western thought projected on the silver screen.

We go to Dartmouth to learn, undeniably, and we learn though the connections. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes personal interest. Study the West, and all the ideas of Western civilization can become our own.

Virgil, Where Are You?

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