Silly About Names

It is difficult to believe that people who are obviously careless about language can really be very careful about anything else… The modern man, regarding himself as a second Adam, has undertaken to give all the creatures new names; and when we discover that he is silly about the names, the thought will cross our …

The False Refuge of a Weary Collapse

Of all things let us avoid the false refuge of a weary collapse, a hopeless yielding to things as they are. It is the life in us that is discontented; we need more of what is discontented, not more of the cause of its discontent. Discontent, I repeat, is the life in us that has …

It we do not Know

“When he woke not even the shadow of a dream lingered to let him know what he had been dreaming. He woke with such a clear mind, such an immediate uplifting of the soul… The wind came round him like the stuff of thought unshaped, and every breath he drew seemed like God breathing afresh …

Do it Again

For all the ancient things truly exist only to teach us to be young. The quaintest carved font exists only that we may be born again, and be babyish. The most venerable altar only exists that we may be married again and go on another honeymoon. It’s a very good thing, by the way, to …

THE STANDARDS

That last, Blown from our Sion of the Seven Hills, Was no uncertain blast! Listen: the warning all the champaign fills, And minatory murmurs, answering, mar The Night, both near and far, Perplexing many a drowsy citadel Beneath whose ill-watch’d walls the Powers of Hell, With armed jar And angry threat, surcease Their long-kept compact …

Make it Beautiful

It appears to us that of all the fairy-tales none contains so vital a moral truth as the old story, existing in many forms, of Beauty and the Beast. There is written, with all the authority of a human scripture, the eternal and essential truth that until we love a thing in all its ugliness …

Wretched Machine

“But if you are a poor creature—poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels—saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion—nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends—do not despair. He knows all about …

Deliciae Sapientiae de Amore

Love, light for me Thy ruddiest blazing torch, That I, albeit a beggar by the Porch Of the glad Palace of Virginity, May gaze within, and sing the pomp I see; For, crown'd with roses all, 'Tis there, O Love, they keep thy festival! But first warn off the beatific spot Those wretched who have …