Jojo Lapin X Wrote:
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> Remember, Smith learned all his words from
> encyclopedias and dictionaries---much like Tarzan,
> I might add---so he only knew what they looked
> like, not how they sounded.

In this you are entirely wrong - Clark's Father was, however much an adventurer, an extremely well-read and sophisticated man - remember he was named for the most controversial of Plato's dialogues which contradicts the things he said in "the Republic" - parents who knew this work could hardly have raised a dummy - and his mother, an authentic "Southern Belle" whose youthful rebellion contracted her to the dashing world traveler and gold-seeker, was an equally well-read and articulate lady, capable, by the accounts of those who knew her,of witty and scintillating conversation with a bit of an edge to it if needed - Clark's "home schooling" was amply edited and enlarged upon around the family wood-stove - where, I might add, the recitation from memory of Wordsworth and Byron et al (the common fodder of all education appropriate to the youth of Clark's parent's ages) was commonly expressed - might account for the "Latinity" in his verse - Read the Letters home of boy's from the front in the civil war to realize how deeply an accomplished style was valued in the 19th century -