In response to my column yesterday, headed “The humility of the knowledgeable,” this letter:

“Howdy, Jaybert. [What the . . .?] In my capacity as a reporter, I covered a speech by Bill Buckley at the University of South Dakota. It would have been in the 1999-2001 range. During Mr. Buckley’s brief meeting with journalists prior to the speech, I asked about a piece of farm legislation. ‘I’m not competent to speak on it,’ he replied. There was neither defensiveness nor embarrassment in his tone. He was mature enough not to need to be thought an expert on every subject. (Though he was an expert on more subjects than most of us are.)

“I don’t say there are no humble liberals, and ‘arrogant conservative’ is no oxymoron. But real conservatism at least encourages humility.”

Do you remember this famous line from a WFB column? I’ll paraphrase: “In his testimony before the Senate committee, Carl Sagan was so arrogant, he reminded me of . . . well, me.” Probably, no one who was genuinely, deep-down, true-blue arrogant could have written that.

P.S. Do you know this, from Ben Franklin? Another paraphrase: “I would be humble, but I’m afraid I’d be proud of it.”