Oxen

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. II, Chapter 21, § 254 (tr. Adrian Del Caro and Christopher Janaway): When we add to this the neglect of ancient languages as happens ever more frequently today, whereby general education in the humanities is declining and is not helped by learning the languages halfway, then we will see scholars who outside their special discipline are veritable oxen. — In general such an exclusive academic specialist is analogous to a factory worker who, his whole life, makes nothing but a specific screw, hook or handle for a specific tool or machine, in which he of course achieves incredible virtuosity. One can also compare the academic specialist to a man who lives in his own house but never comes out. He knows everything in the house, each little stair, each corner and beam, somewhat as Victor Hugo's Quasimodo knows the cathedral of Notre Dame: but outside it everything is foreign and unknown to him. — A true education for humanity,…