Re: [P] Train Derails in Pakistan, Killing 58
AP / ASHRAF KHAN
docility. It is a natural vice like credulity, and as pernicious.
Superstition.
255. Piety is different from superstition.
To carry piety as far as superstition is to destroy it.
The heretics reproach us for this superstitious submission. This is to do
what they reproach us for...
Infidelity, not to believe in the Eucharist, because it is not seen.
Superstition to believe propositions. Faith, etc.
256. I say there are few true Christians, even as regards faith. There are
many who believe but from superstition. There are many who do not believe
solely from wickedness. Few are between the two.
In this I do not include those who are of truly pious character, nor all
those who believe from a feeling in their heart.
257. There are only three kinds of persons; those who serve God, having
found Him; others who are occupied in seeking Him, not having found Him;
while the remainder live without seeking Him and without having found Him.
The first are reasonable and happy, the last are foolish and unhappy; those
between are unhappy and reasonable.
258. Unusquisque sibi Deum fingit.[37]
Disgust
259. Ordinary people have the power of not thinking of that about which they
do not wish to think. "Do not meditate on the passages about the Messiah,
said the Jew to his son. Thus our people often act. Thus are false religions
preserved, and even the true one, in regard to many persons.
But there are some who have not the power of thus preventing thought, and
who think so much the more as they are forbidden. These undo false religions
and even the true one, if they do not find solid arguments.
AP / ASHRAF KHAN
when they are reached, we begin to see beyond. Nothing stops the nimbleness
of our mind. There is no rule, say we, which has not some exceptions, no
truth so general which has not some aspect in which it fails. It is
sufficient that it be not absolutely universal to give us a pretext for
applying the exceptions to the present subject and for saying, "This is not
always true; there are therefore cases where it is not so." It only remains
to show that this is one of them; and that is why we are very awkward or
unlucky, if we do not find one some day.
264. We do not weary of eating and sleeping every day, for hunger and
sleepiness recur. Without that we should weary of them. So, without the
hunger for spiritual things, we weary of them. Hunger after righteousness,
the eighth beautitude.
265. Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of
what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
266. How many stars have telescopes revealed to us which did not exist for
our philosophers of old! We freely attack Holy Scripture on the great number
of stars, saying, "There are only one thousand and twenty-eight, we know
it." There is grass on the earth, we see it--from the moon we would not see
it--and on the grass are leaves, and in these leaves are small animals; but
after that no more. O presumptuous man! The compounds are composed of
elements, and the elements not. O presumptuous man! Here is a fine
reflection. We must not say that there is anything which we do not see. We
must then talk like others, but not think like them.
267. The last proceeding of reason is to recognise that there is an infinity
of things which are beyond it. It is but feeble if it does not see so far as
to know this. But if natural thi