This document is quite old: it is about sixty years old. It is small in size, slightly larger than a postcard; it has turned yellow with time, decays and fades every year. But I carefully store it between two sheets of blank paper in the folder where the documents that are most valuable to me are placed.
Bunin's theme of love is a big "window" into life. It allows him to correlate deep spiritual experiences with the phenomena of external life, as well as to penetrate into the “secret secrets” of the human soul, based on the influence of objective reality on a person. The great feeling that binds people turns under Bunin's pen into suffering, bringing bitterness and excruciating pain. The theme of love is very important in terms of the writer's aesthetic attitude to reality and explains a lot in his worldview.
Why only a month when I lived in Tashkent for at least three years? Yes, because that month was special for me. Forty-three years later, a difficult task arose to remember the distant days when people, against their will, left their native places: there was a war! With great reluctance, I moved to Tashkent from Moscow, Anna Akhmatova - from besieged Leningrad. It just so happened: both she and I are native Petersburgers, and we met many thousands of kilometers from our hometown. And it happened not at all in the first months after arrival.
A descendant of ordinary fishermen who managed to make his way to the "stars", Mikhail Lomonosov is known not only as a great scientist and discoverer, but also as a poet. It's hard to believe, but in one person mind and lyricism are harmoniously and brilliantly combined. Lomonosov wrote poetic works of various genres: odes, parables, poems. He talked about both the sublime and the ordinary. And quite often in poems something great collided with something quite ordinary. Thus, the author's writings became more realistic and understandable to the common people.
The poem "Two Astronomers Happened Together at a Feast ..." was written by a famous scientist in the form of a rhyme. It tells about the heroes who argue.
The Earth and the Sun - what revolves around what? This complex scientific problem has always given rise to numerous discussions. However, the poem has a different tone: the sublime is gradually replaced by the ironic.
The main characters are Copernicus and Ptolemy. The first was the Great Polish astronomer, who lived at the end of the Middle Ages, but ideologically ascended to another more enlightened Renaissance. He was able to scientifically substantiate the heliocentric theory, that is, to prove that our planet revolves around the large Sun, and not vice versa.
The second was an ancient scientist who believed that the bright Luminary moves around the Earth. It was his views that science adhered to for a very long time.
As you can see, in reality, the conversation between these historical figures could not have happened, since they lived at different times. The author uses characters from different eras to clash two opposing ideas.
A heated argument between astronomers takes place at a feast. During the general fun, scientists arrange a scientific skirmish, which already looks a little inappropriate. Therefore, the third hero, an ordinary cook, fits well into their dispute. And oddly enough, it is the third hero with his simple thinking that gives a simple answer to the question of two famous scientists. This is the light irony of the author. Jokingly, the cook says that although he has not been to the Sun, he knows that Copernicus is right: “Who has seen a simpleton from cooks who would turn the hearth around Zharkov?” This simple example has more logic than many scientific theories. Lomonosov believed that truthful knowledge should be accessible to everyone.
This poem is a small poetic parable about a serious scientific problem. But due to the playful tone at the end, the work has a satirical character. In the image of an unpretentious cook, the author embodied common sense, which defeats theory.
Lomonosov violates the rules of classicism when he allows "low" in the "high" work: the refined style of the astronomers' speech at the end is replaced by the vernacular of the cook. However, it was this deviation from the rules that helped the author achieve the desired effect. The poem about a complex problem has become understandable even to ordinary people thanks to the third character from the people, who has common sense and ingenuity.
1. Why does Lomonosov refer to the situation of a feast in a poem dedicated to astronomy?
2. Who are Ptolemy and Copernicus?
3. Could they meet at the same table?
4. What are two astronomers arguing about?
5. Why does the cook put an end to this dispute?
6. How does the cook explain the correctness of one of the scientists?
This poem is a scientific anecdote on an astronomical subject. Scientific truth is affirmed with the help of everyday example. The abstract hypothesis is projected onto quite specific objects: the sun is a hearth, the earth is hot.
The central theme of the early Enlightenment, which gave rise to many heated discussions, is the theory of the universe proposed by Copernicus. We are talking about the actual concept of the plurality of worlds, which has become the subject of scientific and religious disputes in Russia. The Russian history of this idea begins with A. Cantemir's translation of Fontenelle's treatise Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds (1686), made in 1730. Fontenelle contributed to the popularization of the theory of Copernicus. In an elegant and easy form of conversations that supposedly took place in the evenings in the open air between the author and the marquise, who had not heard anything about the subject before, he sets out to the interlocutor the most important information about the earth, moon, planets, fixed stars, etc.
As early as the first half of the 18th century, the heliocentric theory of Copernicus irritated the Catholic Church; official Protestantism was no more tolerant in this respect. In Russia, this theory ran into opposition from the church, for which it was no less difficult to come to terms with the revision of the traditional geocentric concept than for the Western churches. This idea acquired a scandalous history in the denunciations and prohibitions of the Holy Synod on the printing of books containing mention or allusions to the idea of the non-uniqueness of God's world.
Because of the opposition of church circles, Fontenelle's work was published in Russia only in 1740. Lomonosov continued to defend the point of view proposed by Copernicus in his scientific and literary works.
"Letter on the Benefits of Glass" (1752)
1. What was the reason for writing this poem?
2. How is poetry indicated in the poem?
3. What is opposed to glass and why?
5. What place is given to Prometheus in this story? How did Lomonosov rethink the image of Prometheus in comparison with the traditional myth of Prometheus?
6. What properties of glass does Lomonosov describe?
7. How are these properties used for the benefit of man?
8. How are glass and science related in Lomonosov?
9. Where does the physical-theological doctrine find its expression in this poem?
10. How are glass and science related in Lomonosov?
“Letter on the Benefits of Glass” (1752) is a landmark work both for Russian culture of the 18th century and for Lomonosov’s work, since it is here that the priorities of his activity are clearly set:
A word that helps to popularize it
The informative richness of the text, which reflects the key ideas and concepts - political, religious, scientific - of the Age of Enlightenment, the realities of everyday life and culture of that time, allows us to consider this work an educational encyclopedia.
The title refers to the epistolary form, in terms of content it is a presentation of scientific ideas in poetic form, as well as a scientific and practical guide to the use of glass, in terms of pathos - an apology of enlightenment ideas, in terms of topoi - high poetry.
As the name already implies, the significance of science is determined by Lomonosov in a Petrovsky way - through benefit. All levels of Russian culture of the 18th century are permeated by the principle of hierarchy. In "Letter ..." Lomonosov constructs a hierarchy of things, and the main criterion of hierarchy for him is utility - one of the basic concepts of the cultural paradigm of the 18th century. Benefit is a universal criterion for evaluating life phenomena (cf.: on September 6, 1751, in a public meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Lomonosov pronounces “The Word on the Benefits of Chemistry”; in 1757 he wrote “Foreword on the Benefits of Church Books in the Russian Language”). In the Letter on the Benefits of Glass, Lomonosov tries to balance between utility and beauty, but he does not have beauty without utility: these two categories in the message are successfully synthesized in the image useful beauty- in the most desirable for that era and utopian in nature.
The first couplet has a polemical focus and reflects Lomonosov's scientific strategy aimed at debunking frozen opinions. In September 1736, Lomonosov sailed to Germany to study chemistry and mining, and upon returning he was assigned to the Mineral Cabinet. He wrote several works on mineralogy and made many discoveries in this area. The scientist-poet knew a lot about minerals, but by the time the Letter was written, colored smalts had captured his scientific attention.
The study of poetry in the "Letter ..." is indicated by a rhetorical formula - climbing Parnassus. The metaphor of movement between two worlds - earthly and heavenly - illustrates the specifics of the interaction between scientific and poetic creativity of Lomonosov. To discover and cognize the laws of nature, and then with Parnassian inspiration to tell about what was found, discovered and understood. At the end of the letter, the Parnassus Mountains also appear, from which the poet descends to earth. Delight- the basic category of the normative poetics of classicism - in this case, it is needed to sing the Glass. Before us is an ode dedicated to glass.
The subject of poetic delight - Glass - Lomonosov opposes "false happiness", more precisely, "fragility of happiness". The appearance of a pair of Glass - Happiness seems strange: the subject of the material world is included in comparison with the concept of the ideal world. The main meanings that made up the concept of Happiness - Good Luck in the 18th century were changeability and omnipotence, the unexpectedness of Fortune's actions. The motives for overcoming the impermanence of happiness and the desire to keep happiness motionless become common odic passages. Happiness is an attainable thing, although changeable and dependent on the will of the gods. Glass gives true, useful happiness. Glass, like happiness, shines with an alluring beam. Glass's preference for "the fragility of false happiness" denotes the idea of the superiority of the material world over the ideal world, pragmatics over abstraction, constancy over variability, truth over lies. The word "fragility" (synonymous with impermanence) belongs to scientific vocabulary and denotes a physical property. And this is the originality of Lomonosov's image of happiness.
In a didactic poem intended to promote scientific knowledge, the poet-scientist Lomonosov creates a scientific (educational) myth of the creation of natural glass - First Glass. The basis of this myth is Lomonosov's scientific ideas about natural processes (in particular, about volcanic eruptions and the chemical composition of magma), which are dressed in the form of an archaic myth about the structure of the first natural objects. The poet not only animates the natural elements, he constructs a special mythological reality with its own set of characters and chronotope. In the era of Lomonosov, the very potential of the archaic myth turned out to be in demand as the oldest way of interpreting the world, containing an adaptive mechanism for explaining the surrounding reality, which makes it possible to broadcast scientific ideas in a mythopoetic form. The poetic form of the myth answered the task of popularizing scientific knowledge, introducing it into cultural use in a naive and artistic form, accessible to everyday consciousness. Lomonosov's myth of the creation of Glass - a kind of prologue to the story of its usefulness - tells of the appearance of the first glass as a result of the combined efforts of Fire and Nature.
Glass acquires a biography - the history of its birth. The reason for the birth of Glass is the desire that appeared in Fire to “produce a child”. Fire finds freedom in a volcanic eruption. Mother of Glass - Nature. A worthy child is a useful child.
In Lomonosov's myth about Glass, Fire occupies a dominant position. Such a preference is connected with the sphere of activity of Lomonosov, with his conscious attitude to broadcast to society new knowledge about the power of underground fire in a mythopoetic form. If the sun, earth, water were available to Lomonosov's contemporaries for direct observation, then the underground fire, hidden from view, is a phenomenon that requires description and explanation.
In the mythopoetic picture of the world, Lomonosov does not have God the creator, the creator of the world. The author connects the process of creation with the natural elements, which obey their own laws. Such an interpretation should be assessed not as anti-religious, but as scientific and mythological. The appeal of the poet-scientist to the mythopoetic interpretation of creation, in which figurative and scientific comprehension of the world is merged, is connected with the functional orientation of his work. The Letter affirms the usefulness of any natural process, even one that gives rise to fear. The eschatological horror presented in the myth is compensated by the acquisition of the material necessary for life. Two discourses, mythopoetic and popular science, unexpectedly coincide in a single function - the popularization of knowledge.
What follows is a cumulative enumeration of Glass's utilities. The choice of such a modest object as glass acquires programmatic significance: in contrast to the despicable gold that has caused mankind a lot of evil, glass is useful in many respects. Lomonosov names and describes many objects that use various properties of glass: vessels in which drinks and medicines are stored, windows, mirrors, beads, greenhouses, incendiary glasses, microscopes, telescopes, barometers, a glass ball of an electrostatic machine. All these achievements of human ingenuity are for him the embodiment of the idea of progress.
In particular, Lomonosov not only points to one of the areas of application of Glass (microscope), but also presents one of the methods of scientific research - the microscopic method, new for Russian science and in need of justification and popularization.
In his scientific and literary works, Lomonosov tries to reconcile the materialistic and idealistic views on us, thereby giving rise to "academic religiosity" (as L. V. Pumpyansky defines it). He develops a way of philosophizing, which for some time will become a priority method in Russian culture of the 18th century. Traditionally, this method of understanding the world is called scientific-religious: scientific ideas do not contradict the idea of the divine creation of the world, moreover, they provide evidence for the existence of God, thereby providing evidence for the existence of God, thereby glorifying the genius of the “architect of the world”.
Literature
1. Abramzon T. E. “Letter on the benefits of Glass” by M. V. Lomonosov. Experience of the commentary of the educational encyclopedia. M., 2010.
2. Klein I. Ways of cultural import: Works on Russian literature of the XVIII century. M., 2005. - S. 287-300.
3. Ospovat K. A. Lomonosov and “Letter on the Use of Glass”: Poetry and Science at the Court of Elizabeth Petrovna // New Literary Review. 2007. No. 87. S. 148-183.
4. Trilesnik V. I. Problems of science and religion, reason and faith in Lomonosov's worldview // Lomonosov. Collection of articles and materials. T.9. SPb., 1991. - S. 15-27.
Lomonosov wrote not only scientific works, but also poetic works. A significant place in his work is occupied by odes of various content, as well as other poems, which tell about both sublime and everyday objects.
So, in the poem “Two Astronomers Happened Together at a Feast…”, written in 1761, the author discusses a complex scientific problem, resorting to the form of a parable.
Two Astronomers happened together in a feast And argued very among themselves in the heat.
One kept repeating: the earth, spinning, the circle of the Sun walks;
The other is that the Sun leads all the planets with it:
One was Copernicus, the other was known as Ptolemy.
Here the cook settled the dispute with his grin.
The owner asked: “Do you know the course of the stars?
Tell me, how do you talk about this doubt?
He gave the following answer: “What is Copernicus right in that,
I will prove the truth, I have not been to the Sun.
Who saw a simpleton of cooks is
Who would turn the hearth around Zharkov?
A parable as a short symbolic story, in which a deep philosophical meaning is hidden, originated in antiquity and existed among many peoples. In the East, parables about Hadji Nasreddin are very popular, in which the hero acts either as a philosopher and sage, or looks rather stupid.
Lomonosov in his impromptu poetic parable introduces characters who in real life could never meet and talk, as they lived in different historical eras, separated by several hundred years.
One of them is Nicholas... Copernicus, a Polish astronomer who lived at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries and scientifically substantiated the heliocentric theory of the universe, proving that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Another character in Lomonosov's poem is Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek scientist who lived in the 2nd century AD, who believed that the Sun moves around the Earth. His views dominated astronomy for a very long time, and the Catholic Church severely persecuted those who tried to refute them.
Introducing into the poem the image of a cook who decides the dispute between two great scientists, Lomonosov lowers the sublime tone of the work.
“Two Astronomers happened together at a feast ...” is a small satirical work. According to the rules of classicism, “low” was not allowed in “high” works, but thanks to this technique, the poem acquires a satirical sound. Thus, it becomes clear and close not only to scientists, but also to ordinary people, since a complex scientific problem is resolved on the basis of ordinary common sense.
Literary critics subsequently established that the argument that the cook leads in favor of the Copernican theory could have been borrowed by Lomonosov from the book of the French writer Cyrano de Bergerac “Another Light, or the States and Empires of the Moon”. However, this does not in the least detract from the originality of this small witty poem, in which Lomonosov, not only in a somewhat fantastic form, shows the centuries-old conflict between supporters of two different theories of the universe. The author also makes it clear to the reader what the author's own views on this issue are.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was born in November 1711 near the village of Kholmogory in the Arkhangelsk province. The first books, according to which M.V. Lomonosov learned to read and write, there were Simeon Polotsky's Rhyming Psalter (Fig. 2), Slovenian Grammar by Maletiy Smotrytsky (Fig. 3), Arithmetic by Leonty Magnitsky (Fig. 4).
Rice. 2. "Rhymed Psalter" by Simeon of Polotsk ()
Rice. 3. "Slovenian grammar" Melety Smotrytsky ()
Rice. 4. "Arithmetic" by Leonty Magnitsky ()
At the age of 19, Lomonosov left his home and went to study in Moscow. He entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (Fig. 5), graduated from it among the best students. After that, he entered the university at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (Fig. 6) and graduated from it.
Rice. 5. Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy ()
Rice. 6. Petersburg Academy of Sciences ()
He continued his studies at the universities of Europe (Fig. 7) and at the age of 34 he became a professor of chemistry.
Rice. 7. University of Marburg ()
The circle of interests of M.V. Lomonosov includes many sciences, it included mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology and geography.
In 1754 he developed a project for the creation of Moscow University. And a year later, in 1755, this university was opened in Moscow, which now bears the name of its founder (Fig. 8).
Rice. 8. Moscow University ()
All his life the scientist was interested in astronomy, probably because he was from Kholmogory. It was there that the first Russian observatory was opened in 1692.
Two thousand years ago, Claudius Ptolemy lived in ancient Greece (Fig. 9).
Rice. 9. Claudius Ptolemy ()
He argued that the Earth is at the center of the universe. The moon, the sun and the rest of the planets move around it, his teaching was called the "geocentric system". Geocentric system - from the word "geo", which means Earth.
In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus (Fig. 10), a Polish scientist, developed another system of the universe - the Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun (heliocentric system). Heliocentric system - from the word "helios", which means the Sun. But his ideas were not accepted, and his writings were banned for many years.
Rice. 10. Nicolaus Copernicus ()
For a long time the theory of Copernicus was abandoned, even in the 18th century there were few of its supporters.
In 1761 M.V. Lomonosov writes a comic poem called "Two Astronomers Happened Together at a Feast..." (Fig. 11).
Rice. 11. Poem ()
Let's analyze the words and expressions that are outdated in our time in order to make the meaning of the poem clearer (Fig. 12):
Rice. 12. Parsing obsolete expressions ()
Roast - a fried dish, usually meat, or a frying pan in which this dish is cooked.
Copernicus and Ptolemy could not meet, as they lived at different times, with a difference of 1300 years. M.V. Lomonosov connects them at a feast, in a place where important disputes about the universe and the Universe cannot be resolved, with this technique he creates a comical situation.
Disputes about the theories of Ptolemy and Copernicus continued into the 18th century. Mikhail Vasilyevich depicts in his poem two scientists who are arguing heatedly with each other. The cook is next to them, the scientists ask his opinion in order to resolve the dispute. The cook, comparing the hearth with the Sun, explains at the household level that the hearth cannot revolve around the frying pan on which food is fried. This method of comparison is important in literary works.
Bibliography
- Merkin G.S. Textbook for grade 5 educational institutions. In 2 parts. - Russian Word, 2013.
- Albetkova R.I. Russian literature. From word to literature, grade 5 - 13th ed., erased. - M.: 2013 - 208 p.
- Korovina V.Ya. etc. Literature. Grade 5 Textbook in 2 parts - 2nd ed. - M.: 2013. Part 1 - 303 p.; Part 2 - 303 p.
- Buneev R.N., Buneeva E.V. Literature. Grade 5 ("Step beyond the horizon") In 2 books - 2nd ed., Rev. and additional - M.: 2008. - 224 p.
- Kurdyumova T.F. Literature. Grade 5 Textbook-reader in 2 parts - 13th ed., Sr. - M.: 2011. Part 1 - 256 p.; Part 2 - 256 p.
- Lomonosov300.ru ().
- Ras.ru().
- Physchem.chimfak.rsu.ru ().
Homework
- In which educational institutions M.V. Lomonosov studied?
- Name the first books according to which M.V. Lomonosov learned to read and write.
- In what year M.V. Lomonosov writes a poem "Two Astronomers happened together at a feast ..."?
