Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
["Woody Guthrie~ All You Fascists Bound To Lose"] and ["Pete Seeger/ Guantanamera" -- Live at Wolftrap, August 8, 1993.]
The CD this track comes from, incidentally, is a good one to listen to with the lights down and volume up if you ever need or want to scare a ghost.
["Sir John Tavener - Akathist of Thanksgiving, Slava Tebie Kontakion 1/Ikos1"]
["LEON RUSSELL Beatles Cover I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE" --09/26/09 Red Hook, NY]
"Now it is written, 'Abundance of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him who is of it.'
And again, what is said is confirmed more clearly by this saying, 'All things are in the sight
of those who understand' -- all things, both Hellenic and barbarian; but the one or the other
is not all. 'They are right to those who wish to receive understanding. Choose instruction, and
not silver, and knowledge above tested gold,' and prefer also sense to pure gold; 'for wisdom
is better than precious stones, and no precious thing is worth it.'”
~ St. Clement of
Alexandria (c.150-c.215), The Stromata, Book I, Ch. 13.
"And Plato does not deny that he procured all that is most excellent in philosophy from the
barbarians; and he admits that he came into Egypt. Whence, writing in the Phaedo that the
philosopher can receive aid from all sides, he said: 'Great indeed is Greece, O Cebes, in which
everywhere there are good men, and many are the races of the barbarians.' Thus Plato thinks
that some of the barbarians, too, are philosophers. But Epicurus, on the other hand, supposes
that only Greeks can philosophise. And in the Symposium, Plato, landing the barbarians as
practising philosophy with conspicuous excellence, truly says: 'And in many other instances
both among Greeks and barbarians, whose temples reared for such sons are already numerous.' And
it is clear that the barbarians signally honoured their lawgivers and teachers, designating
them gods. For, according to Plato, 'they think that good souls, on quitting the super-celestial region, submit to come to this Tartarus; and assuming a body, share in all the ills
which are involved in birth, from their solicitude for the race of men;' and these make laws
and publish philosophy, 'than which no greater boon ever came from the gods to the race of men,
or will come.'”
~ Ibid. Ch 15.
"But among the lies, the false prophets also told some true things. And in reality they prophesied 'in an ecstasy,” as the servants of the apostate. And the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, says to Hermas, of the false prophet: 'For he speaks some truths. For the devil fills him with his own spirit, if perchance he may be able to cast down any one from what is right.' All things, therefore, are dispensed from heaven for good, 'that by the Church may be made known the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal foreknowledge, which He purposed in Christ.' [Eph. 3:10-11] Nothing withstands God: nothing opposes Him: seeing He is Lord and omnipotent. Further, the counsels and activities of those who have rebelled, being partial, proceed from a bad disposition, as bodily diseases from a bad constitution, but are guided by universal Providence to a salutary issue, even though the cause be productive of disease. It is accordingly the greatest achievement of divine Providence, not to allow the evil, which has sprung from voluntary apostasy, to remain useless, and for no good, and not to become in all respects injurious. For it is the work of the divine wisdom, and excellence, and power, not alone to do good (for this is, so to speak, the nature of God, as it is of fire to warm and of light to illumine), but especially to ensure that what happens through the evils hatched by any, may come to a good and useful issue, and to use to advantage those things which appear to be evils, as also the testimony which accrues from temptation."
~ Ibid. Ch. 17.
["Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love [ High Definition ]"]
The spirit governing Pharaoh very possibly wanted to keep Israel and the Israelites as his de facto love slave or on-demand paramour, and, further, all that this did or might entail as a matter of that spirit person's pride; therefore drastic measures were necessary to break bonds that might alternatively have been persisted in and maintained, and on potentially legitimate grounds no less (such as, say, if the Israelites had acquiesced to such a relationship.)