In this article, the author talks about evangelism and its relation to a sort of fancy--that is to say, to a certain level of operation of the imagination. He shares a short story concerning ways in which current regimes of quality control undermine the traditions of practice that are essential for the healthy development of disciplined and inter-disciplinary learning and enquiry. Everyone in higher education should be in favour of quality, standards, lifelong learning, but these are in danger of becoming newspeak words: the more loudly they are trumpeted the more hollow they sound. The longer story the author should like to tell seeks to explore more deeply questions of discipline and profession in the light of a recent paper of Jacques Derrida on the future of the profession (of university teaching). Although Derrida's argument has relevance to the role of the academic generally, he is particularly concerned with the position of the humanities. This longer story is an attempt to elaborate on the concepts of discipline and profession especially in relation to the contemporary changes in higher education. (Contains 14 notes.)