I have an extremely annotated version of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire at home. It’s one of those books that I keep on a table and glance at now and then. In the midst of my occasional glancing I’m starting to see why that book was such a classic. In addition to describing the intricate doings of the Mediterranean world some 18 centuries ago, Gibbons interlaces the boring details with great insights about TWIG (The World In General). Here’s a quote that is very troubling to an eternal student like myself, but is nevertheless valuable as a reality fix:

the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

Yea, natural learners just learn; their teachers pretty much just go along for the ride. For everyone else, learning is a huge, distasteful struggle. Been like that since the days of the Roman Empire, probably well before. Yea, I guess that we eternal students are a fragile minority. It’s too bad. Hey world, you don’t know what you’re missing.