This undertaking of a natural history they thought possible because their college halls and libraries seemed firmly established in the shadow of revered institutions like Church and State. Little did they know that scholarship is based on a common bond between laity and scholars called the Church, and on a common law of freedom called the State, in our era. Before we can criticize at leisure, we must be at leisure. No science of man is truly scientific which remains ignorant of this, its own, premise.

rosenstock-heussy, fruit of lips, p.15