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''Homo unius libri'' ("(a) man of one book") is a Latin phrase attributed to Thomas Aquinas in a literary tradition going back to at least the 17th century, bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) being the earliest known writer in English to have done so. Saint Thomas Aquinas is reputed to have employed the phrase "''hominem unius libri timeo''" (meaning "I fear the man of a single book"). There are other attributions, and variants of the phrase. Variants include ''cave'' for ''timeo'', and ''virum'' or ''lectorem'' for ''hominem''. ''The Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations'' (London 1998), attributes the quote to Augustine of Hippo. Other attributions named Pliny the Younger, Seneca, Quintilian or Augustine, but the existence of the phrase cannot be substantiated as predating the early modern period.〔 Andreas Fritsch, "Timeo lectorem unius libri", '' Vox Latina'' 19 (1983), 309 ff. Pliny did express a comparable sentiment. "''CAVE AB HOMINE UNIUS LIBRI.'' Never was this old Latin proverb of greater import, never did it convey a deeper meaning than in this, our own century, when everyone appears to have become an "heluo librorum." Since most men seem to know a little of everything and not much of anything, the man of one book, the reader who is intimate with one great author, whom he has chosen for his favorite, who has imbibed the spirit of his model, and fashioned almost insensibly his own mind after that of his exemplar, is, indeed, a formidable antagonist. Pliny tells us that we should read much, but not many books." ''The Stylus'', Volume III, Number 3, 1 April 1885.() 〕 The phrase was in origin a dismissal of eclecticism, i.e. the "fear" is of the formidable intellectual opponent who has dedicated himself to and become a master in a single chosen discipline; however, the phrase today most often refers to the interpretation of expressing "fear" of the opinions of the illiterate man who has "only read a single book". 〔In ''The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader'', Clarence Brown, e ditor (Penguin) 1985, p. 246; see ''The Hedgehog and the Fox'' for further discussion of this phrase.〕 ==Interpretations== ===Mastery of a single topic=== The literary critic Clarence Brown described the phrase in his introduction to a novel by Yuri Olesha: :"() words are generally quoted today in disparagement of the man whose mental horizons are limited to one book. Aquinas, however, meant that a man who has thoroughly mastered one good book can be dangerous as an opponent. The Greek poet Archilochus meant something like this when he said that the fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows one big thing."〔In ''The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader'', Clarence Brown, e ditor (Penguin) 1985, p. 246; see ''The Hedgehog and the Fox'' for further discussion of this phrase.〕 The poet Robert Southey recalled the tradition in which the quotation became embedded: :"When St Thomas Aquinas was asked in what manner a man might best become learned, he answered, 'By reading one book'; 'meaning,' says Bishop Taylor, 'that an understanding entertained with several objects is intent upon neither, and profits not. 〔Jeremy Taylor, ''Life of Christ'', Pt. II. Sect. II. Disc. II. 16.〕 The ''homo unius libri'' is indeed proverbially formidable to all conversational figurantes. Like your sharp-shooter, he knows his piece perfectly, and is sure of his shot." — Robert Southey, ''The Doctor'', p. 164.〔(Robert Southey, ''The Doctor, &c'', (1848), Interchapter VII (e-text) ). Southey's version of the quote was taken up by John Bartlett (1820-1905), the compiler of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (ninth edition, 1902, p. 853). 〕 By way of comparison, Southey quotes Lope de Vega's ''Isidro de Madrid'' expressing a similar sentiment, :''For a noteworthy student is he, :''The man of a single book. :''For when they were not filled up :''With so many extraneous books,'' The writer and naturalist Charles Kingsley, following the tradition laid down by Gilbert White in ''The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne'' (1789), also invoked the proverb in favour of knowing completely one small area. "A lesson is never learnt till it is learnt over many times, and a spot is best understood by staying in it and mastering it. In natural history the old scholar's saw ''Cave hominem unius libri''〔"Beware the man of one book."〕 may be paraphrased by, 'He is a thoroughly good naturalist who knows one parish thoroughly.'"〔Charles Kingsley, ''At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies'', 1871.〕 John Wesley invoked the phrase in this sense and declared himself to be a "homo unius libri", the "one book" being the Bible.〔"in 1730 I began to be homo unius libri, to study (comparatively) no book but the Bible." Letter to John Newton, May 14, 1765. He wrote privately on another occasion :"I receive the written word as the whole and sole rule of my faith..... From the very beginning, from the time that four young men united together, each of them was homo unius libri... They had one, and only one, rule of judgement with which to regard all their tempers, words and actions; namely, the oracles of God." Wesley used it more publicly in the ''Preface'' to his collected sermons; :"He came from heaven; He hath written it down in a book. O give me that Book! At any price, give me the Book of God. I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri!" 〕 Like Methodists in the strict Wesleyan tradition of depending upon the One Book, many seventeenth century and modern radical Protestants pride themselves on being ''homines unius libri''. The poet William Collins in his deranged condition, met by chance his old friend Dr. Samuel Johnson, who found Collins carrying a New Testament. "I have but one book," said Collins, "but it is the best". 〔Collins' epitaph in Chichester Cathedral reads, in part: ''Sought on one book his troubled mind to rest, And wisely deemed the book of God the best.''The Johnson anecdote and Collins' epitaph are reported in Walsh 1892 ''s.v.'', "Book, Beware of the man of one".〕 ===Narrow learning=== Edward Everett applied the remark "not only to the man of one book, but also to the man of one idea, in whom the sense of proportion is lacking, and who sees only that for which he looks."〔Reported in William Shepard Walsh, ''Handy-book of Literary Curiosities'', 1892, ''s.v.'', "Book, Beware of the man of one". 〕 Joseph Needham, in the general conclusions to his ''Science and Civilisation in China'' series, observed of the saying, "It could mean that this man has only read one book, has only written one book, does not possess more than one book, or puts his faith in one book only. The fear that is felt may be on behalf of the man himself. Having read so little he is quite at the mercy of his one book!"〔''Science and Civilisation in China'', "50 General Conclusions and Reflections", p. 97.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Homo unius libri」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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