points reaching us by way of Dante,nAquinas, and some other unfashionablenfigures who are free of gnostic distortions.nThese viewpoints I will notnattempt to summarize, having by hintsnand reductions already gone about as farntowards reducing Marion Montgomery’snwhole and compelling creation tondry bones as Lockean theory has reducednchildren of God to trouserednapes.nHere, again and at last, is the book wenhave needed to open to their deepestnroots and widest ramifications the problemsnbesetting contemporary education,nthe probing that has to precede authenticnreform. But Liberal Arts and Communitynpresents no blueprint, no detailednschema for reform, the Five YearnPlan having no place in the Montgomerynapproach. So what are we to do?n28/CHRONICLESn1.nBlandword died; and now his ghostnDrifts gray through lobby, office, hall.nSome mourn diminished presence; mostnCan see no difference at all.nDr. Chainsaw has one rulenThat makes all others void and null,nEmbodying this sentiment:nGuilty till proven innocent.n3.nProfessor Pliant flits from school to school.nAn Archetypal Marxian Feminist,nA faithful Structural Deconstructionist,nHis beige enthusiasms never cool.nAnd never warm. As any fiihrer’s disciplenHe finds himself unable to confute ornWhy, read and learn about the ordinatenlove we must first apply to thenbasic problem — ourselves. Reform ofninstitutions requires precisely this, beingnan organic and contagious undertakingnthat will proceed once we againnstart to feel ourselves members one ofnanother.nVirtue and Modern Shadows ofnTurning complements Liberal Artsnand Community. The old question reexaminednhere is: can virtue be taught?nWell, no; education even in its broadestnsense can’t impart this. We are, here asnelsewhere, fallen. Still, seeds of virtuenand ordinate longing for virtue lie innevery heart to quicken by primarynaction of will and grace — points preciselynwhere formal learning about virtuencan prove an auxiliary indeed tonthose seeking to know and to order thenIntellectual Pollution:nSome Literary Critics Portrayednby Fred Chappellnnngood, the true, and the beautiful.nAbove you have only a postagenstamp-size simulacrum of Montgomery’snspacious illuminations on whynand how greatly we need to bestirnourselves on behalf of the qualitynwhose supply, through human innatenperversity but also through our presentnbrute ignorance about its nature andnimportance, grows sadly shorter at justnthe time it’s the more wanted.nBut well-placed enthusiasm has notnblinded your reviewer to shortcomings;nin this era of concern for graphicneffects to enhance readability, MarionnMontgomery will do well to shortennhis paragraphs and perhaps providenappropriate intrachapter captions beforensending his next brace of books tonthe printer. A sending which, rumornwhispers, may be very soon. <§>nChallenge even an obvious intellectual cripple.nHe is the very model of a hermeneuter.n4.nBlossom’s footnotes never shirknThe task of touting his own work.n5.nPeter Puffer piped a pack of poets intonUndeservedly prominent public view;nThen, just to show the power of his pen,nProvokingly piped them pouting out again.nStrychnine writes impartiallynOf novels, plays, and poetry;nHis judgments upon authors arenBy his own lights impeccably fairnBecause when all is said and donenBy God he hates them every one.n