An old Chinese proverb

[Freek Vrugtman]

Not only scholars expressed these sentiments.

Lewis Carrol [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 1832-1898], in 

"Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There", 1871,

Chapter 3: Looking-Glass Insects, wrote: 

 

". . . she found herself sitting quietly under a tree--while the Gnat (for that was the insect she had been talking to) was balancing itself on a twig just over her head, and fanning her with its wings. 

 

It certainly was a very large Gnat: "about the size of a chicken," Alice thought. Still, she couldn't feel nervous with it, after they had been talking together so long. "--then you don't like all insects?" the Gnat went on, as quietly as if nothing had happened. 

 

"I like them when they can talk," Alice said. "None of them ever talk, where I come from." 

 

"What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?" the Gnat inquired. 

 

"I don't rejoice in insects at all," Alice explained, "because I'm rather afraid of them--at least the, large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them." 

 

"Of course they answer to their names?" the Gnat remarked carelessly. 

 

"I never knew them to do it." 

 

"What's the use of their having names," the Gnat said, "if they won't answer to them?" 

 

"No use to them," said Alice; "but it's useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?" 

 

"I can't say," said the Gnat. "In the wood down there, they've got no names- . . . ."

 

[http://sunsite.tus.ac.jp/coll/alice/alice_22.html]

Freek Vrugtman
International Lilac Registrar
Royal Botanical Gardens
PO Box 399
HAMILTON  Ontario
CANADA       L8N 3H8
lilacreg at rbg.ca