Panthera,
You flatter me too much on that count. I'm not sure if my apparent knowledge is more educated guesswork than received wisdom. I passed most of my college English requirement in high school, and after that I had a mostly technical education, even at university, and never had formal study of philosophy. But I'm on my third professional career now and that must in itself force a broadening if not a deepening of my knowledge of some things.
It seems to me that observations such as from Jefferson and Adams on "happiness" are the result not so much of book learning as it is from examining their own experiences, and observing other's experiences, with the "purfuit of happiness", and they drew some conclusions about what really constitutes a successful bottling of that elusive elixir, i.e., one that will age gracefully, and not leave one with a sour aftertaste.
Since college I set about to broaden my knowlege. I used to pour through a borrowed set of Collier's Encyclopedia, and then my own set of Grolier's. Now the Internet is like a vast if somewhat chaotic and mostly unedited encylopedia. One of my favorite works is Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Can that man write, and of things that actually happened, too. I'm pretty sure my own writing would generally improve when I read his work, and as you may discern, I haven't read him for a while. He is, I think, the ultimate journalist, because he makes ancient history almost seem like it is happening in the here and now. His exposition on the comparative suitability of soldiers vs. kings to govern is breathtaking, even if one doesn't agree with his point of view (which is predictably pro-British crown, but not without a little winking). I suppose it's one of those rare cases of a historical treatise also being a work of great literature.
