The Problem of Human Destiny: Or, The End of Providence in the World and ManJ. Miller, 1884 - 280 pages |
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ages amidst animal appetites atheism Auguste Comte beauty believe better body bond bosom Christian Cicero civilization consider creation culture dark death despotism destiny divine dwell earth Egypt error evil existence experience eye of Providence fact feel frame Greece Guizot happiness heart heaven Hegel Herodotus ideas idolatry imperfection inevitable infinite knowledge learned lecture light live look man's Manichæan means ment mind misery moral mountains mystery nations Natural Theology nature nature of things never noble numbers organization pain pantheism passion perhaps Persian philosophy Phoenicia physical Plato Plotinus Plutarch polytheism principle problem problem of evil progress purpose question regard religion Roman Rome selfishness sense social society solemn sorrow soul speak sphere spiritual step struggle suffering suppose theory things thou thought tion truth ture virtue whole wisdom wonder word worship wrong youth
Popular passages
Page 128 - Where are the ruder peasantry of Europe now resorting, for work and for subsistence ? To the heart of England and America. Many an enlightened man, building a railroad, or improving his estate, many a refined woman in her household, is made their teacher,— little suspecting the office, perhaps. It were fortunate, I think, for both parties, if they did ; it might make the relation more kindly and holy ; but any way the work will be done. How fine and delicate and penetrating is this power of man...
Page 129 - Traveling on a railroad, one day, I saw a little child in the company of some half a dozen affectionate relatives. From hand to hand it passed — to be amused, to be soothed, to be taught something from moment to moment — to receive many lessons and more caresses, all the day long. "Here," I thought with myself, "is a company of unpaid, loving, willing, unwearied teachers.
Page 48 - He says what more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done for it, will leave you without a speech and without an argument.
Page 235 - And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so.
Page 128 - ... civilized, by some means or other, in the everlasting ferment of human interests and passions, are thrown into communication and interfusion, — if by no better means, by war, by subjugation, by capture ; for Providence, if one may say so, will have them come together. Human injustice and cruelty are not to be abetted in this matter. There are better ways which Christian civilization ought to learn, — travel, trade, missions of light and mercy ; but, some way, the nations must mingle together,...
Page 128 - ... stationary, though civilization has been knocking at their gates for more than three centuries. And it is better — I speak of mere results, not principles — that the way for light should be opened into that country by English cannon balls, or the rending asunder of the empire, than never to be opened. 5. But such a fixed barrier to civilization is a solitary phenomenon in history. Nations, the barbarous and civilized, by some means or other, in the everlasting fer'ment of human interests...
Page 154 - Men are possessed of great and divine ideas and sentiments ; and to paint them, sculpture them, build them in architecture, sing them in music, utter them in eloquent speech, write them in books, in essays, sermons, poems, dramas, fictions, philosophies, histories, — this is an irresistible propensity of human nature. Art, inspiration, power, in these forms naturally places itself at the head of the human influences by which the world is cultivated and carried forward. The greatest thing in the...
Page 207 - I might rail at the world, and heap wrath and scorn upon it ; but I believe that philosophy is better than satire With a brotherly consideration and sympathy and sorrow must I take into my heart the struggling fortunes of my kind. What mistakes, what errors, what crimes, what sufferings, what overwhelming floods of disaster, what a mournful train of evils, filling the long track of ages ! I must see something besides this, — something beside evil or the Evil One in the world. I must see God in...
Page 69 - Finally, beauty in nature has a double function, though somewhat less distinctly marked. The colors, green and blue, and the neutral tints, scarcely less common, are naturally agreeable to the eye ; and if red and yellow were the pervading hues, the organ of sight would be dazzled and blinded by them. Then again variety, both in color and form, is naturally grateful; and if all the objects in nature were of one shape and of one hue, no prison could be so dreadful. To our constitution, therefore,...
Page 34 - The three acutest men with whom I was ever acquainted, James Mackintosh, Malthus, and Bobus Smith, were all agreed that the attributes of the Deity must be in some way limited, else there would be no sin and misery.