In Thy light do we see light. (Psalm 36:10)

“Consider the beauty of the earth, the beauty of the sea and the beauty of the sky extending above us far and wide. Consider the beauty of the heavens, the order of the stars and the sun illuminating the day with its brilliance. Consider the moon, whose glow softens the shadows at the coming of the night...Consider all of these and they will proclaim to you: Behold us and gaze upon us, for we are beautiful. This beauty is their confession. Who made this ever-changing beauty, unless it is He, whose beauty is changeless?” St. Augustine Farewell to the Highlands (Song) Tune—“Failte na Miosg.”  Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,  The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth; Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,  The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.  Chorus.— My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,  My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;  Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,  My heart’s in the Highlands,...

 Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) Ulysses It little profits that an idle king,  By this still hearth, among these barren crags,  Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole  Unequal laws unto a savage race,  That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.  I cannot rest from travel: I will drink  Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd  Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those  That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when  Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades  Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;  For always roaming with a hungry heart  Much have I seen and known; cities of men  And manners, climates, councils, governments,  Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;  And drunk delight of battle with my peers,  Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.  I am a part of all that I have met;  Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'  Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin f...

 So if it is true that even our scientific knowledge, in considerable part, is a legacy from our forbears, it is still more certain that our moral, our social, and our artistic knowledge is an inheritance from men long dead. G. K. Chesterton coined the phrase “the democracy of the dead.” In deciding any important moral or political question, Chesterton writes, we have the obligation to consult the considered opinions of the wise men who have preceded us in time. We owe these dead an immense debt, and their ballots deserve to be counted. Thus we have no right simply to decide any question by what the momentary advantage may be to us privately: we have the duty of respecting the wisdom of our ancestors; and also we have the duty of respecting the rights of posterity, the generations that are to come after us. This complex of duties is what the old Romans called piety: reverence for our nation, our family in the larger sense, our ancestors, in a spirit of religious veneration. A Frenc...

 Often I think of the beautiful town        That is seated by the sea;  Often in thought go up and down  The pleasant streets of that dear old town,        And my youth comes back to me.              And a verse of a Lapland song              Is haunting my memory still:        "A boy's will is the wind's will,  And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."  I can see the shadowy lines of its trees,        And catch, in sudden gleams,  The sheen of the far-surrounding seas,  And islands that were the Hesperides        Of all my boyish dreams.              And the burden of that old song,              It murmurs and whispers still:        "A boy's will is the wind's will,  And the though...

 For perspective let us begin with Mark Twain’s great classic, Huckleberry Finn. Recall that Huckleberry has run away from his father, Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas (indeed the whole community, in relation to which he is a young outcast), and has with him as companion on the raft upon which they are sailing down the Mississippi Miss Watson’s runaway Negro slave, Jim. Recall, too, that Jim, during the critical moment of the novel, is stolen by two scoundrels and sold to another master, presenting Huck with the problem of freeing Jim once more. Two ways are open: he can rely upon his own ingenuity and “steal” Jim into freedom, or he might write Miss Watson and request reward money to have Jim returned to her. But there is a danger in this course, remember, since the angry woman might sell the slave down the river into a harsher slavery. It is this course which Huck starts to take, but as he composes the letter he wavers.  “It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in m...

This is true Liberty when free born men Having to advise the public may speak free, Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise, Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace; What can be juster in a State then this? Euripides, translated by John Milton for the title page of his    Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England (1644) Dag Hammarskjöld, from his book Markings:  Respect for the word is the first commandment in the discipline by which a man can be educated to maturity—intellectual, emotional and moral.  Respect for the word—to employ it with scrupulous care and an incorruptible heartfelt love of truth—is essential if there is to be any growth in a society or in the human race.  To misuse the word is to show contempt for man. It undermines the bridges and poisons the wells. It causes Man to regress down the long path of his evolution. ........... “We can never be sure that the opinio...

 True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd; Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind. from Essay on Man, by Alexander Pope:  Know, then, thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic’s pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little, or too much: Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused, or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled: The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! Alexande...

La Salle 1643-1687 Thus, in the vigor of his manhood, at the age of forty-three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle, "one of the greatest men," writes Tonty, "of this age;" without question one of the most remarkable explorers whose names live in history. His faithful officer Joutel thus sketches his portrait: "His firmness, his courage, his great knowledge of the arts and sciences, which made him equal to every undertaking, and his untiring energy, which enabled him to surmount every obstacle, would have won at last a glorious success for his grand enterprise, had not all his fine qualities been counterbalanced by a haughtiness of manner which often made him insupportable, and by a harshness towards those under his command, which drew upon him an implacable hatred, and was at last the cause of his death”... It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not easy to hide from sight the Roman virtues that redeemed them. Beset by a throng of enemies, he stands, lik...

 Look carefully then how you walk,  not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  (Eph 5:15–17)   He is not afraid of bad news;     his heart is firm,  trusting in the LORD. Psalm 112:7 ...God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2nd Timothy 1:7 ...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace. Numbers 6:24-26 "How are we to live in an atomic age?" I am tempted to reply: "Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited...

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4 :16 Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love.”  ― Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love  For unto us a child is born,    unto us a son is given:  The government will rest on      his shoulders.        And he will be called:  Wonderful Counselor,*      Mighty God,            Everlasting Father, Prince      of Peace.  His government and its      peace             will never end on the throne of David     and over his kingdom,     to establish it and to uphold it     with justice  and with righteousness        from this time forth  and forevermore.    ...

 ...For James Madison the central challenge of free government was to make power and right synonymous in republican government. The difficult challenge of placing the power of the majority on the side of natural right was the great object to which he dedicated his lifelong labors as a scholar and a statesman. It was the same challenge that would face and occupy the mind and energies of another great American thinker and statesman about a half century later, Abraham Lincoln. It is, in fact, the same challenge we always face in America, or abroad, or anywhere there is a people whose aspiration is to govern themselves. Standing on the floor on the Pennsylvania State House in the First Congress of the United States, as he introduced the Bill of Rights, Madison recalled the central truth that mandates the experiment in self-government. In so doing, he reminded his listeners that the truth that “All men are created equal” in our Declaration of Independence is an “absolute truth.”  O...