The dreams of avarice, we all have them

 I often wish'd that I had clear,

For life, six hundred pounds a year.

 

-- Jonathan Swift 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Samuel Johnson, who quoted Jonathan Swift more than three thousand times in his dictionary, had himself to write for money most of his life, until he received a royal pension of £300 a year from King George III in 1762, the equivalent of about £53,400 today, or about $72,500.

 

In death, Johnson left his servant and friend Francis Barber an annuity of but £70 a year, from a fortune of just £750. This, however, turned out to be too generous an annual sum, seeing that only skilled tradesmen might make as much as £50 a year. A prudent man could have lived comfortably on less.

 

The money did run out in the hands of the spendthrift Barber. Not many years later he was forced to sell off Johnson memorabilia which he had inherited to pay debts he had incurred, and he died in poverty not seventeen years after Johnson had died.

 

This means that, for his part, Johnson himself had run through about £5,800 or so by the time he died in 1784. The servant had learned from his master. 

 

Swift, meanwhile, had died with a fortune of £12,000 in 1745. 

Few want to consider that the impulse to genocide has deep roots in human nature, and even in Jewish religion itself

 

Mandy Patinkin on Gaza: "How Could It Be Done To Your Ancestors, And Then You Turn Around And Do It To Someone Else?"

But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.

-- Deuteronomy 20:16

 

They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.

 

 -- Psalm 106:34

 

 

On Repentance

 

 Repentance so altereth and changeth a man through the mercy of God,

be he never so defiled, that it maketh him pure and clear.

 

-- John Whitgift (1530?-1604), Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University from 1567, tutor of Francis Bacon in the 1570s, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583, and persecutor of the Puritans 

Salvation for Narcissus

 

 The stream is so transparent, pure, and clear,

That, had the self-enamour'd youth gaz'd here,

He but the bottom, not his face, had seen.

 

-- John Denham 

'Tis better to be lowly born . . .

I would rather be a poor beggar's wife and be sure of heaven, than queen of all the world . . ..

 

Verily, I swear, ’tis better to be lowly born
And range with humble livers in content
Than to be perked up in a glist’ring grief
And wear a golden sorrow.

 

-- Anne Boleyn of Catherine, in William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act 2, scene 3

Hymn for a School of Biblical Studies in a Secular University

 

 Hymn for a School of Biblical Studies in a Secular University 

Come, all ye sons of Science,

   That magic name of awe,

And Medicine, and Music,

  And Arts (poor thing), and Law;

 

Here shall we speak of gospels

  That to your peace belong,

And faith that hath moved mountains

  And filled men's mouths with song.

 

Fear not ye be converted:

  The University

For truth has strictly ordered

  No bias here shall be;

 

Here shall we hold the balance

  That weighs the creeds divine

In scales that may not falter

  Nor thus, nor thus, incline:

 

That so, with faith unfaithful,

  We tread the narrow way --

Of truth (but not too much truth) --

  That lies 'twixt Yea and Nay.

 

-- P. B. R. Forbes, The University of Edinburgh, 1947, reproduced in F. F. Bruce, In Retrospect: Remembrance of Things Past (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), p. 141.

Donald Trump is the decay of a whole age teeming with zeroes

 

 He that plots to be the only figure among cyphers, is the decay of a whole age. 

 

-- Francis Bacon 

Alrighty then

 

 

Dalai Lama Says He Plans to Reincarnate, Ensuring Institution Will Continue

AP

If you are wondering why Jews have always been reticent to utter the holy name of G-d, you won't learn why in this article in Christianity Today by a Texas theology professor, lol

 

 

The God Who Must Not Be Named

Brad East, Christianity Today

 

He makes no reference whatsoever to The Ten Commandments, which constituted from the time of Luther the first of the six chief parts of the Christian catechism, and from time immemorial the heart of the Torah for Jews. But the professor is otherwise a very educated imbecile. 

 

Now you may understand why Texas law will require Ten Commandments posted in every classroom... ! 

 

 

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

 

-- Exodus 20:7

 

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

 

-- Deuteronomy 5:11