20 / CHRONICLESnintellectual health, is the effect upon the would-be teachersnwhose survival is determined at a Darwinian level. That manynbear false witness is inevitable, even should witnessing count.nNor do I necessarily impute deliberate intellectual subversion,nthough young professors are like the rest of us—human and soncapable of willful distortion. Intentionally or not, they put thenword at risk. Very often a prematurity of mind results in thenwrong use of words. It is with that recognition in mind that ancolleague of mine, reflecting on the flood of academicnpublications, remarked that here, too, are “children havingnchildren.”nThese are certainly analogies between the biological andnintellectual levels of community, in both of which the gifts ofnbeing are no longer generally valued. If pornography is viewednas a factor in the rate of teenage pregnancy and perhaps evennin the violence of ordinary social affairs, surely it has tacitnapproval when community authority dissolves. There is, Insuggest, a parallel pornographic industry in the undisciplinednuse of words, in this instance actually encouraged by academicnauthority.nNew knowledge reveals its validity in the light of oldnknowledge held by an active mind. That mind casts a lightnbackward to meet a light of mind cast forward by oldnknowledge, feeding the infant flame — the active mind—innthe surrounding intellectual night. And any mind in any age isnalways struggling in that night. There is a symbiotic relationnbetween old and new knowledge, lifting and feeding andnbearing the growing intellect. In this respect we might say thatnontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. The discrete intellectualnbody—this particular mind—is enlarged, advancing beyondnitself But see how easily one uses the wrong word? “Advancingnbeyond” has tempted me to imply an intellectual race,nrather than a fulfillment of the mind’s dance in creation. It isnexactly such wavering in the academic authority which castsn”new knowledge” in the role of programming an endlessnassembly line in the name of Progress. Thus academicnauthority invests “originality” with a glamor and value beyondnits merits through an obsession with “new knowledge.” Thatnassembly line, in the daily round of community life, is annnratification of acceptable signs—the concrete consumer products.nThis is the world which we pretend to believe, with thenhelp of a very active advertising industry, a crystal palace allncompact of roses and the morning. But our restlessness givesnadvertising’s “poetry” the lie, though its poetry is a far morendemonic sort than Plato imagined. For it is, with deliberatenessnto deceive, an imitation of a decreed illusion, and not even anshadow of a shadow.nThe structure of community is not that of an infinitencollocation of shelves among which we wander, supplied bynthat factory we call the academy, with its “new knowledge.”nCurrent pressures upon the academy would make it preciselynand only this. But our restlessness suggests that life itself is notnan action of desperate pursuit of illusions posited as reality, tonbe encountered as we turn into the next aisle. The perfectnmachine with its attendant warehouse and outlets is not ansuitable symbol for either personhood or community, thoughnsuch a symbol has its effective uses in the control of personsnand communities by the lords of power.nWe may discover the truth about such illusions, only if wencan determine the validity of new knowledge about the truth ofnthings. That is why it is crucial to recover what Dorothy Sayersncalls the “Lost Tools of Learning.” It is obvious that tools arenneeded so that we may excavate the site where communityncollapsed, burying its mind. What is needed is a recovery ofnknown but forgotten truths. In a philosophy department, thenteacher who knows what men have said of virtue and all itsncomplexities is far more important to the intellectual health ofnthe student than one who labors at situation ethics from an adnhoc present, thereby encouraging his student to regard his ownnwhims and twitches of mind as sound thought. This is anspecific instance of intellectual pornography very popular innthe academy for a number of years now. But it is only thatnprofessor who knows old virtues, who knows what men havensaid of virtue since saying began, who can see clearly thenpossible truth or probable falseness in situation ethics. Thenadolescent intellectual, whether full professor or freshman, is atnlast capable only of thought at an adolescent level. In one waynor another he will be one of those “children having children,”nmost of which offspring are destined to perish in the righteousnessnof time.nOld knowledge, depending upon our familiarity with it, willnbe dismissed as cliche, especially if we let old things pass, likenChaucer’s fat monk, who was given to the new world aboutnhim, of fine horses and fat roasted swans. But there are clichesnand cliches. Once upon a time I spent much energy trying tondemonstrate the meaning of cliche to my freshman themenwriters. In our text, a Thanksgiving “groaning table” was saidnto be improperly described because the metaphor was wornnout. But my freshmen had never encountered “groaningnboard” before. It was as fresh to them as any other poeticndevice, poetry having been largely killed in them. A metaphornappears worn out only after we have encountered it too often,nlike the “long moment,” so misused in hundreds of shortnstories and novels.nIn my attempt to rescue cliche, I have no brief for “groaningntable” or “a long moment,” though they might be effective asnsatire or irony. What I would have us do, however, is tonrecognize and distinguish among so-called cliches. Some arennot only valid but crucial, however much used and abused.nWhat is more worn than “two plus two equals four”? Then