Today I learned that the medal of the Swedish Academy given to Nobel laureates in literature bears these words from Virgil’s Aeneid: “Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes.” Which is to say something like this: “And they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery.” I was appalled at once. Saccharine to boot. Caeci caecos ducentes. Now I have yet another reason for never accepting the Nobel prize in literature. Pace Virgil.