Re: Providence drug ring offered dealers wages, overtime

[Mycos]

than we are, and that, on the other hand, we may fall into the
blindness wherein they are, we must do for them what we would they should do
for us if we were in their place, and call upon them to have pity upon
themselves, and to take at least some steps in the endeavour to find light.
Let them give to reading this some of the hours which they otherwise employ
so uselessly; whatever aversion they may bring to the task, they will
perhaps gain something, and at least will not lose much. But as for those
who bring to the task perfect sincerity and a real desire to meet with
truth, those I hope will be satisfied and convinced of the proofs of a
religion so divine, which I have here collected, and in which I have
followed somewhat after this order...

195. Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it
necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference
to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which
touches them so nearly.

Of all their errors, this doubtless is the one which most convicts them of
foolishness and blindness, and in which it is easiest to confound them by
the first glimmerings of common sense and by natural feelings.

For it is not to be doubted that the duration of this life is but a moment;
that the state of death is eternal, whatever may be its nature; and that
thus all our actions and thoughts must take such different directions

[Mycos]

to himself. But in pleasure it is man who yields to pleasure. Now
only mastery and sovereignty bring glory, and only slavery brings shame.

161. Vanity.--How wonderful it is that a thing so evident as the vanity of
the world is so little known, that it is a strange and surprising thing to
say that it is foolish to seek greatness?

162. He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider the
causes and effects of love. The cause is a je ne sais quoi (Corneille), and
the effects are dreadful. This je ne sais quoi, so small an object that we
cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country, princes, armies, the entire
world.

Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would
have been altered.

163. Vanity.--The cause and the effects of love: Cleopatra.

164. He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain.
Indeed who do not see it but youths who are absorbed in fame, diversion, and
the thought of the future? But take away diversion, and you will see them
dried up with weariness. They feel then their nothingness without knowing
it; for it is indeed to be unhappy to be in insufferable sadness as soon as
we are reduced to thinking of self and have no diversion.

165. Thoughts.--In omnibus requiem quaesivi.21 If our condition were truly
happy, we not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves
happy.

166. Diversion.--Death is easier to bear without thinking of it than is the
thought of death without peril.

167. The miseries of human life has established all this: as men have seen
this, they have taken up diversion.

168. Diversion.--As men are not able to fig