Two Ends

“Two ends, therefore, have been laid down by the ineffable providenceof God for man to aim at: the blessedness of this life, which consistsin the exercise of his natural powers, and which is prefigured inthe earthly Paradise; and next, the blessedness of the life eternal,which consists in the fruition of the sight of God's countenance, …

Wishes (and Witches)

“St. Nicholas, the Patron Saint of Children, finds a boiling pot in which two children have been reduced to a sort of Irish stew. He restores them miraculously to life; because they ought to be children and ought not to be Irish stew. But he does not turn them into angels; and I can remember …

Realism, and the Partisans of the Prosaic

If you throw enough mud, some of it will stick, especially to that unfortunate creature Man, who was originally made of mud. A realistic novel is written by stringing together all the tag-ends of human life - all the trains we miss, all the omnibuses we run after without catching, all the appointments that miscarry, …

Dante on The Imagination, Love’s True Passion, Indulgence, and Hell

“There is a brief time when the Imagination—the power of grasping images and exploring distances of meaning—remains suspended in a contemplation. We use the word ‘intellect’, but what is usually meant by ‘intellect’ is rather a part of this thing than this of it; it is not a matter of worldly education, but of a sensitive apprehension and spiritual knowledge."

The Creating Core

“We make, but thou art the creating core.Whatever thing I dream, invent, or feel,Thou art the heart of it, the atmosphere.Thou art inside all love man ever bore;Yea, the love itself, whatever thing be dear.Man calls his dog, he follows at his heel,Because thou first art love, self-caused, essential, mere.”— George MacDonald, The Diary of …

Who Knows the Least

“…It is the more imperfect being who knows the least his incompleteness, and for whom, seeing so little beyond himself, it is easiest to imagine himself the heart and apex of things, and rejoice in the fancy.” — George MacDonald, A Dish of Orts

Deaf, and Dumb, and Blind… But

"The heart is deaf and dumb and blind, but it has more in it--more life and blessedness, more torture and death--than any poor knowledge-machine of a brain can understand, or even delude itself into the fancy of understanding." — George MacDonald, Alec Forbes

Love is Never Abstract

Via The Wardrobe of Moral Imagination Love is never abstract.” — Wendell Berry

The Mortal Man, and the Child

The mortal man, all careful, wise, and troubled,The eternal child in the nursery doth keep.To-morrow on to-day the man heaps doubled;The child laughs, hopeful, even in his sleep.The man rebukes the child for foolish trust;The child replies, "Thy care is for poor dust;Be still, and let me wake that thou mayst sleep.George MacDonald, The Diary …

So Full of Slumber; A Vignette

Wither was not among those killed in the dining-room. He naturally knew all the possible ways out of the room, and even before the coming of the tiger he had slipped away. He understood what was happening, if not perfectly, yet better than anyone else. He saw that the Basque interpreter had done the whole …