~ above pic from an illustration by Norman Rockwell.
Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
www.gunjones.com
Think of professional criminal spirit people as much like the Dauphin and Duke in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn; i.e., persons eminently qualified and expert at taking in and swindling dumb people into thinking that they are royalty and arbiters of all our greater affairs and matters.
~ above pic from an illustration by Norman Rockwell.
...Therefore, leaving the authors of this earthly philosophy, who bring forward nothing certain, let us approach the right path; for if I considered these to be sufficiently suitable guides to a good life, I would both follow them myself, and exhort others to follow them. But since they disagree among one another with great contention, and are for the most part at variance with themselves, it is evident that their path is by no means straightforward; since they have severally marked out distinct ways for themselves according to their own will, and have left great confusion to those who are seeking for the truth. But since the truth is revealed from heaven to us who have received the mystery of true religion, and since we follow God, the teacher of wisdom and the guide to truth, we call together all, without any distinction either of sex or of age, to heavenly pasture. For there is no more pleasant food for the soul than the knowledge of truth, to the maintaining and explaining of which we have destined seven books, although the subject is one of almost boundless and immeasurable labour; so that if any one should wish to dilate upon and follow up these things to their full extent, he would have such an exuberant supply of subjects, that neither books would find any limit, nor speech any end. But on this account we will put together all things briefly, because those things which we are about to bring forward are so plain and lucid, that it seems to be more wonderful that the truth appears so obscure to men, and to those especially who are commonly esteemed wise, or because men will only need to be trained by us—that is, to be recalled from the error in which they are entangled to a better course of life...
~ Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325), Divine Institutes (Book I, ch. 1)
...And so greatly did the name and authority of the truth prevail with them [men of learning], that they proclaimed that the reward of the greatest good was contained in it. But they did not obtain the object of their wish, and at the same time lost their labour and industry; because the truth, that is the secret of the Most High God, who created all things, cannot be attained by our own ability and perceptions. Otherwise there would be no difference between God and man, if human thought could reach to the counsels and arrangements of that eternal majesty. And because it was impossible that the divine method of procedure should become known to man by his own efforts, God did not suffer man any longer to err in search of the light of wisdom, and to wander through inextricable darkness without any result of his labour, but at length opened his eyes, and made the investigation of the truth His own gift, so that He might show the nothingness of human wisdom, and point out to man wandering in error the way of obtaining immortality.
~ Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325), Divine Institutes (Book I, preface)
OEDIPUS [addressing Theseus, king of Athens]:
Dearest son of Aegeus, only gods
are never troubled by old age and death.
All other things are finally destroyed
by all-conquering Time. The power of Earth
passes away, the body’s strength withers, [610]
loyalty perishes, distrust appears,
and between one city and another,
just as between good friends, relationships
never remain the same. Sooner or later
pleasant concord turns to bitter hatred
and then hatred, once again, to friendship.
So if today between yourself and Thebes
the sun is shining bright and all is well,
the endless passage of infinite Time
engenders innumerable days and nights,
and in that time some trivial reason
will persuade them to shatter with their spears [620]
whatever treaties you now have between you...
~ Sophocles [5th century B.C.], from "Oedipus at Colonus," translated by Ian Johnston.
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for the full text in .pdf, see:
http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/sophocles/oedipusatcolonuspdf.pdf
I myself got an especial thrill and enjoyment when, in elementary school, I first read Bram Stoker's Dracula. However, like so many things, once the novelty and surprise has been experienced, the second time around trying to relive the same is rarely or never quite the same. Although, for whatever reason one might ascribe, "Classics Illustrated" had versions of the novels Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, they did not have one for Dracula. However, in 1976, Marvel Comics put out a an excellent and reasonably authentic rendering that makes a nice substitute for reading the 350+ page original (in fine print), but which is unfortunately rare and not so easy to get a hold of. For any then who might be interested, here it is (zipped) in .cbr format:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w5J5EI99sj3xeP7iahdWpEfNcwfS5gGu/view?usp=share_link
If you need a free .cbr reader, one to go with is: CDisplay
11. Lastly, if the gods drive away sorrow and grief, if they bestow joy and pleasure, how are there in the world so many and so wretched men, whence come so many unhappy ones, who lead a life of tears in the meanest condition? Why are not those free from calamity who every moment, every instant, load and heap up the altars with sacrifices? Do we not see that some of them, say the learned, are the seats of diseases, the light of their eves quenched, and their ears stopped, that they cannot move with their feet, that they live mere trunks without the use of their hands, that they are swallowed up, overwhelmed, and destroyed by conflagrations, shipwrecks, and disasters; that, having been stripped of immense fortunes, they support themselves by labouring for hire, and beg for alms at last; treat they are exiled, proscribed, always in the midst of sorrow, overcome by the loss of children, and harassed by other misfortunes, the kinds and forms of which no enumeration can comprehend? But assuredly this would not occur if the gods, who had been laid under obligation, were able to ward off, to turn aside, those evils from those who merited this favour. But now, because in these mishaps there is no room for the interference of the gods, but all things are brought about by inevitable necessity, the appointed course of events goes on and accomplishes that which has been once determined.
~ Arnobius (c.284-c.305), Against the Heathen (Book VII)
