classics digests, reflections and reviews
The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; … It may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment; and must […]
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The Character of the Government In order to ascertain the real character of the government, it may be considered in relation to the foundation on which it is to be established; to the sources from which its ordinary powers are to be drawn; to the operation of those powers; to the extent of them; and to the authority by which future changes in the government are to be introduced. On […]
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Being Accountable The Autobiography of George Müller, also known as The Life of Trust, should be titled The Life of an Account Manager. For starters, Müller gives a detailed account of all the money that has passed through his hands, in his capacity as a missionary and director of orphanage in Bristol. Second, he also painstakingly records the actions he has taken and choices he has made in the same […]
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The Case of Socrates It is a historical fact that Socrates was convicted of impiety and sentenced to death by an Athenian court in 399 BC. It is a matter of dispute whether the verdict was just and whether Socrates was right to submit to the State of Athens and not escape with the aid of his friends. In a recent blogpost, a Thomist philosopher stated that Socrates went too […]
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Glory, as Christianity teaches me to hope for it, turns out to satisfy my original desire and indeed to reveal an element in that desire which I had not noticed …just as the moment of vision dies away, as the music ends or as the landscape loses the celestial light… For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world. Now we wake to find that […]
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I’ve always known Don Quixote by name, and thought he was a clown. I never understood why a novel about a clown was so popular, even considered one of the greatest ever written, until I read it recently for the first time, and realized who Don Quixote really is: he is everyman. He dreams of travelling around the world in search of adventures (Having being cooped up at home by […]
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Who Wants to Live Forever [The struldbrugs, or immortals] commonly acted like mortals till about thirty years old; after which, by degrees, they grew melancholy and dejected, .. When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying. They […]
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