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FORSAN ET HEAC OLIM MEMINISSE IUVABIT. My father was to receive the Distinguished Service Award1 from the White Institute, and he intended to open his remarks of acceptance with a quote from The Aeneid: "Perhaps, in times to come, you will remember these things with pleasure." I think that was how he translated the
Latin. He was to receive the award at the graduation ceremonies in November 1985, and we discussed his acceptance speech while he was composing it. He was honored and deeply moved by the award that his colleagues had chosen to give him; he knew that he did not have long to live, and the satisfactions that were to be had from his current work were limited by his failing health. The award had been given only three times before, and for him it represented an opportunity to enjoy the memories of earlier times. I do not recall much else about the speech that he was preparing, although I expressed some dismay about his intention to read from a prepared text. He was at his best when speaking extemporaneously. His delivery, when reading, tended to be stiff and formal, causing his speech to lose some of its color and animation. He received the comments, responding only that he no longer felt comfortable addressing an audience extemporaneously, and went back to work.
I said nothing about his intention to use the quote from Virgil, although it irritated me. Better simply to say what he had to say and omit the Latin. He loved Latin; he loved it