Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Ken Bresler requests a source for “God looks down and judges.”

“Tyranny of the left versus that of the right…dogs and cats” (March-April). Thomas Owen forwarded this unattributed anecdote from Leo Tolstoy (1946; page 651), by Ernest J. Simmons: “When asked ‘Is there not a difference between the killing that a revolutionist does and that which a policeman does?’ Tolstoy answered: ‘There is as much difference between cat-shit and dog-shit. But I don’t like the smell of either one or the other.’”

“Carving nature at her joints” (May-June). Lydia Kirsopp Lake was the first to identify Plato as the ultimate source of this concept, seen (in Harold N. Fowler’s translations for the Loeb Classical Library) in Phaedrus 265 d-e, “dividing things again by classes, where the natural joints are, and not trying to break any part, after the manner of a bad carver,” and in Statesman 287c, “Let us divide them, then, like an animal that is sacrificed, by joints.”

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

Click here for the July-August 2008 issue table of contents

You might also like

The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes Announced

Winners across five categories, from commentary on Gaza to criticism on public architecture

Faith through Film

The “Accidental Talmudist” on making Jewish movies

Ben Franklin’s Project

Historian Joyce E. Chaplin reinterprets an early era of invention, industrialization, and climate challenge

Most popular

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps University has taken, emphasizes compliance with the law.

Provocative Politician

South Korea’s Lee Junseok tries to break old binaries.

Jodie Foster at Radcliffe Day 2025

Actress and director discusses her film career and her transformative time at Yale.

Explore More From Current Issue