A Brill Calendar: January 13

W.S. Slijkhuis and "Poetry in Motion"

Few attributes of scholarship are as hard to grasp as the ‘elegance’ of its products.

This is true whether we talk of teacher-pupil interaction in class, or performance on pulpits at conferences & media; or writings that address not only direct peers but also colleagues in related fields of inquiry, students and, last but not least, investors, politicians and the general public.

Yet, this elusive ‘elegance’ is not limited to delivery. It may also be innate in lines of reasoning, selecting and structuring sources or employing evidence; it is seldom taken for granted. Etymologically the noun ‘elegance’ may be traced to ancient Western verbs for ‘being selective’. In that vein the concept is hard to separate from another, its ‘Doppelgänger’ to all practical purposes: Beauty, (capital letter in this case deliberately included). In mathematics, for instance, the pair has reigned supreme since Babylon and Mesopotamia.

Since refutation of scholarly paradigms fosters growth of knowledge, there is no discipline in which most of them were not changed or dismissed. Their practical usefulness may have gone, but more often than not the claims for Elegance and Beauty continue to be displayed in the appreciation of historians studying the evolution of ideas and concepts. All crafts, disciplines and universities of distinction cherish a list of achievement in this respect; Leyden University and its publishers not excluded.

Elegance in humanities and sciences may be compared with its counterpart in athletics. Olympic and world records will be broken, but the sheer beauty of motion of some heroes of the past remains; beyond feats expressed in increasing speed and distance. Willem Frederik Slijkhuis (Leyden, January 13 1923 – Badhoevedorp, 2003) is the perfect example: his unforgettable style of running, his tread, described by a British sports broadcaster as ‘poetry in motion’, remains an epitome of athletic elegance. It was his ‘very life’, Slijkhuis said. He found it hard not to run; an urge to excel recognized by scholarship at its best.