“The luster of the present hour is always borrowed from the background of possibilities it goes with. Let our common experiences be enveloped in an eternal moral order; let our suffering have an immortal significance; let Heaven smile upon the earth, and deities pay their visits; let faith and hope be the atmosphere which man breathes in; and his days pass by with zest; they stir with prospects, they thrill with remoter values. Place around them on the contrary the curdling cold and gloom and absence of all permanent meaning which for pure naturalism and the popular-science evolutionism of our time are all that is visible ultimately, and the thrill stops short, or turns rather to an anxious trembling.”
From this blog post:
http://whitecrowbooks.com/michaeltymn/entry/suicide_and_the_life_after_death_factor
I need to read more James. I need to read more, period.
I will note in passing, though, that my goal with this blog is not to summarize the words of others. You can do that yourself. My goal is to say “I went down to the river today, and this is what I found.”
I don’t read as much as I used to, because my own thoughts keep me entertained and busy. I hadn’t thought of this until now, but I think that is true.