When I was at Oxford there was a great and terrible debate that shook
the Empire, and that intensely exercised the men whom we send out to
govern the Empire, and which, therefore, must have had its effect upon
the Empire, as to whether one should say 'under these circumstances'
or 'in these circumstances'; nor did I settle matters by calling a
conclave and suggesting _Quae quum ita sint_ as a common formula,
because a new debate arose upon when you should say _sint_ and when
you should say _sunt,_ and they all wrangled like kittens in a basket.
Until there rose a deep-voiced man from an outlying college, who said,
'For my part I will say that under these circumstances, or in these
circumstances, or in spite of these circumstances, or hovering
playfully above these circumstances, or--
I take you all for Fools and Pedants, in the Chief, in the Chevron,
and in the quarter Fess. Fools absolute, and Pedants lordless. Free
Fools, unlanded Fools, and Fools incommensurable, and Pedants
displayed and rampant of the Tierce Major. Fools incalculable and
Pedants irreparable; indeed, the arch Fool-pedants in a universe of
pedantic folly and foolish pedantry, O you pedant-fools of the world!'
But by this time he was alone, and thus was this great question never
properly decided.
Under these circumstances, then (or in these circumstances), it would
profit you but little if I were to attempt the description of the
Valley of the Emmen, of the first foot-hills of the Alps, and of the
very uninteresting valley which runs on from Langnau.