[Excerpt] When Ronald Knox, at the age of four, was asked what he did for his insomnia, he replied, "I lie awake and think about the past." I suspect that even the future celebrated biblical scholar did not, at the age of four, have much of a past to think about-- unless, with Plato and Wordsworth, we believe that a child is not born in entire forgetfulness, but comes trailing clouds of glory. In my own case when I lie awake and think about the past, I do have a relatively long past to think about--it is thirty-eight years since I began my teaching career, and almost thirty years since I came to Cornell.