46
“The true university of these days is a collection of books.”
What shall a student do when school is propagating lies:
That truth does not exist, and that what lives is really dead,
That man is just an animal with more malicious eyes,
And humankind a parasite which nature’s heart has fed?
Thank God that books exist, to which a student still may turn
And commit scholastic blasphemy: to seek the truth, and learn.
47
“The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.”
How many men, great conquerors, who had trophies line their shelves,
Could win the world, and break its back, and yet were slaves themselves?
48
“Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.”
The commotion of the world will jostle on
Till time itself is dead and gone;
So seek those moments of timeless repose,
When one may pause and ponder where he goes.
49
“Dreams, books are each a world.
Books we know are a substantial world,
Both pure and good.”
Dreams and books may be like founts, from which good proverbs burst;
But fools dream too, and also read, and twist the best to worst.
50
“Studies perfect nature and are perfected by experience.”
Studies alone will make one soft;
At learning brute experience scoffed!
Combined they bring sweet balance to the soul,
The blessings of wisdom and self-control.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - IX (2009)
41
“They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts.”
Reading makes us many friends, who enter in our souls to dwell,
Who strengthen us when life contends, and make a heaven out of hell.
42
“It is the mind that makes the man and our vigor is in our immortal soul.”
A word of wisdom feeds the mind and fills the hungry soul;
Yet fools will die with bellies stretched and reaching for another bowl.
43
“There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind.”
Some people are blessed with an inscrutable power,
Which delves deep, deep beneath the ways of things,
To places where diamonds are wrought from common coal
And crystalline waters gather in secret springs.
Such treasures illume with strange, unearthly lights,
With power to scatter the darkest of our nights.
44
“The universal cause acts to one end, but acts by various laws.”
Could the Many exist before the One?
Could there be much when nothing was begun?
Could Two be made if One came not to be?
Could the Finite come before Infinity?
45
“Nature is the art of God.”
Nature is the art of God, who paints the thoughtless earth and sky;
But we are free to choose our hues, for whom and how we wish to die.
“They are never alone who are accompanied by noble thoughts.”
Reading makes us many friends, who enter in our souls to dwell,
Who strengthen us when life contends, and make a heaven out of hell.
42
“It is the mind that makes the man and our vigor is in our immortal soul.”
A word of wisdom feeds the mind and fills the hungry soul;
Yet fools will die with bellies stretched and reaching for another bowl.
43
“There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind.”
Some people are blessed with an inscrutable power,
Which delves deep, deep beneath the ways of things,
To places where diamonds are wrought from common coal
And crystalline waters gather in secret springs.
Such treasures illume with strange, unearthly lights,
With power to scatter the darkest of our nights.
44
“The universal cause acts to one end, but acts by various laws.”
Could the Many exist before the One?
Could there be much when nothing was begun?
Could Two be made if One came not to be?
Could the Finite come before Infinity?
45
“Nature is the art of God.”
Nature is the art of God, who paints the thoughtless earth and sky;
But we are free to choose our hues, for whom and how we wish to die.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - VIII (2009)
36
“The true shekinah is man.”
And so it was, when all was formed, that God was gracious in His plan;
In everything His face beams forth, but most of all in woman and in man.
37
“Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones and good in everything.”
The tome of nature’s splendour is most marvellous to read,
For it tells us of its Author, of the wonder of His character and creed.
38
“Man is one world and hath another to attend him.”
Imagination makes itself a garden of a wilderness,
Where every bud and floret has a poem to express,
Where loveliness is order and a harmony of peace,
And skylarks sing celestial hymns which never fade nor cease;
Imagination suffers when the heart turns flinty hard,
And all that serves us suffers when humanity is scarred;
An unhappy world attends on us; I pray we find the might
To build an earthly image of our subtle, inner light.
39
“Vain, very vain, the weary search to find that very bliss which only centers in the mind.”
Long will you seek for happiness, yet never find its home,
If over the pastures of pleasure and pain you choose to graze and roam.
40
“Creation’s heir, the world, the world is mine.”
The world is yours as it is mine, but only for a certain time;
To us dominion is leased, that the kingdom be not lessened, but increased.
“The true shekinah is man.”
And so it was, when all was formed, that God was gracious in His plan;
In everything His face beams forth, but most of all in woman and in man.
37
“Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
sermons in stones and good in everything.”
The tome of nature’s splendour is most marvellous to read,
For it tells us of its Author, of the wonder of His character and creed.
38
“Man is one world and hath another to attend him.”
Imagination makes itself a garden of a wilderness,
Where every bud and floret has a poem to express,
Where loveliness is order and a harmony of peace,
And skylarks sing celestial hymns which never fade nor cease;
Imagination suffers when the heart turns flinty hard,
And all that serves us suffers when humanity is scarred;
An unhappy world attends on us; I pray we find the might
To build an earthly image of our subtle, inner light.
39
“Vain, very vain, the weary search to find that very bliss which only centers in the mind.”
Long will you seek for happiness, yet never find its home,
If over the pastures of pleasure and pain you choose to graze and roam.
40
“Creation’s heir, the world, the world is mine.”
The world is yours as it is mine, but only for a certain time;
To us dominion is leased, that the kingdom be not lessened, but increased.
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