Education: Death of a Grammarian

"He settled Hoti's business—let it be!—Properly based Oun— Gave us the doctrine of the enclitic De . . . This man decided not to Live but Know— . . . Leave him—still loftier than the world suspects, Living and dying." Robert Browning, A Grammarian's Funeral.

The death of such a grammarian as Browning wrote of was reported last week from London (where the news had been picked up from Denmark's Nazi-controlled Kalundborg radio). On April 30 death had come to 82-year-old Jens Otto Harry Jespersen after an operation in Roskilde's hospital. In this handsome Danish giant of...