To recap: "such" can be an specify-er: such and such, vs. such and such
other, or "to such a degree that...". Hence a limit-er: "only at such time
and place (as....)" Or it can be an intensifier: "such a catch!", "such a
beauty!" (vs. "such a loser!", "such a witch!"). And Spenser being
Spenser, I guess we might agree it could be all three at once. Or else that
it tries our own presuppositions.
On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:33:31 +0000
andrew zurcher <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I know Jim has in a sense prevented this, gracefully, but I just thought I
>would chip in that I'm not that exercised about 'such', as grace could do
>different things at different stages on the road to salvation, and one of
>those stages (not the final one, by any means) was obviously the process
>that resulted in contemptus mundi. I was thinking about Donne's 'Oh my
>black soule!':
>
> Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lacke;
> But who shall give thee that grace to beginne?
>
> The grace that brings you to repentance is different from the grace you
>receive as a consequence of repentance.
>
> It will be obvious that I interpret 'all heavenly grace' to mean 'really
>souped-up heavenly grace', rather than 'every single heavenly kind of
>heavenly grace'. And it will also be obvious that I hold Redcrosse's sin
>responsible for his ongoing deathwish, and not grace itself. In the same
>way that a surgeon has to make some initial cuts before she can perform the
>necessary operation, grace here makes the problem worse before it can
>improve it; but that's not to be laid at grace's door.
>
> If I am manifesting some serious misunderstandings about heavenly grace,
>my errant soul would be very grateful for a charitable correction (or two).
>
>
> andrew
>
> Andrew Zurcher
> Queens' College
> Cambridge CB3 9ET
> United Kingdom
> +44 1223 335 572
>
> hast hast post hast for lyfe
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
|