accidental sagacity

Random stuff about serendipity. Discussion, Questions, Paraphernalia.
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Timbalu
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Joined: Sun May 02, 2004 3:04 pm

accidental sagacity

Post by Timbalu »

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SERENDIPITY !!! :D

I have a reminder in my calendar about the 260ths birthday of Serendipity today.
First I wanted to write a small excerpt about this fascinating story, but couldn't find the time for it. So please read for youself: http://livingheritage.org/three_princes.htm
On the morning of January 28, 1754, an exceptional Englishman sat down at his desk in the library of his gothic mansion, Strawberry Hill, to attend to his correspondence. ...
The naming of accidental sagacity by Horace Walpole
"This discovery indeed is almost of that kind which I call serendipity, a very expressive word, which as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right – now do you understand serendipity? "
Need an example? Just one of many curious Serendipity inventions out there: http://uselessinformation.org/priestley/index.html

And this - my fellow listeners - is the real story behind the word "Serendipity"! :wink:
Regards,
Ian

Serendipity Styx Edition and additional_plugins @ https://ophian.github.io/ @ https://github.com/ophian
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