Words and Intelligence II

It has been said of the brothers Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt that between them they were the last people to have known all that there was to know, to have had a mastery of the best that contemporary science knew and to have made significant contributions, to be that rare thing Renaissance men. In a world of ever-greater specialisation, especially in academia, the ability to cross intellectual boundaries, bring together ideas beyond the confines of one’s narrow discipline and yet make sign