Therefore in this present time it
is proper that noble spirits equipped with truth and enlightened with
the Divine intelligence, should arm themselves against dense ignorance
by climbing up to the high rock and tower of contemplation.[L]
[L] If meditation be a nobler thing
Than action, wherefore, then, great Ke['s]ava!
Dost thou impel me to this dreadful fight?
--("Song Celestial.")
To them it is seemly that they hold every other object as vile and vain.
Nor should these spend their time in light and vain things; for time
flies with infinite velocity; the present rushes by with the same
swiftness with which the future draws near. That which we have lived is
nothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is
not yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall
have been. And with all this we crowd our memories with genealogies:
this one is intent upon the deciphering of writings, that other is
occupied in multiplying childish sophisms, and we shall see, for
example, a volume full of: Cor est fons vitae. Nix est alba, ergo cornix
est fons vitae alba, and one prattles about the noun; was it first, or
the verb; the other, whether the sea was first or the springs; again,
another tries to revive obsolete vocabularies which, because they were
once used and approved by some old writer, must now be exalted to the
stars.
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