Madam, - Kieran Allen's spirited piece on UCD (Opinion & Analysis, September 14th) includes a welcome defence not only of the disinterested search for truth but of the ideal that knowledge should be "freely shared and held in common".
Academics (and not only those in the humanities) might do well to inscribe in their minds and hearts the wise observation made in the 17th century by Sir Thomas Browne in Religio Medici.
To dispel ignorance through imparting knowledge, he suggests, is to create what we now call a win-win situation; it is not only "the cheapest way of beneficence", but, "like the natural charity of the Sun, illuminates another without obscuring itself". - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN COSGROVE,
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Cornelscourt Hill,
Dublin 18.