Were I e'er deigned to compose prose worthy of yesteryear's graces, I bemuse myself upon introspection of a century past to take up the erudition and bombast of that era like a mynah bird does a songstress.  I am aided in the recognition that the education of yore concerned itself less with mathematics and the sciences and more with literature and the arts.  Whereas I with my modern and urban education can intuitively understand electron shell theory and the calculation of integrals, neither of which serve me any quotidian purpose, my grandfather's youth was invested in reading and memorizing Shakespeare, Coleridge, Chaucer, and Longfellow.  My dear ancestor quoted Poe with great gusto unto his death.  Alas, my efforts of eloquence are but a shadow of once was.