Enduring Beauty

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  “Beauty is the quality which makes to endure. In a house that I know, I have noticed a block of spermaceti lying about closets and mantel-pieces, for twenty years together, simply because the tallow-man gave it the form of a rabbit; and, I suppose, it may continue to be lugged about unchanged for a century. Let an artist scrawl a few lines or figures on the back of a letter, and that scrap of paper is rescued from danger, is put in portfolio, is framed and glazed, and, in proportion to the beauty of the lines drawn, will be kept for centuries. Burns writes a copy of verses, and sends them to a newspaper, and the human race take charge of them that they shall not perish.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson. (1803–1882).   Essays and English Traits.

Finished “Lives Of The Stoics”

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In the spirit of Plutarch’s “Lives,” Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman present “The Lives of The Stoics. The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius.” The work is an uncomplicated biographical history of Stoicism starting in late Greece through the Roman Empire, centralized on practicing Stoics, who they were and what they did. Students of the Bible should give careful attention to this book, as it provides insight to the world of the early church from a historical perspective. Most telling are the trends that led to the persecution and exiles of the philosophers long before Christianity appeared on the scene. That so many notable Stoics came from Tarsus should be of particular interest. While the book provides an indirect introduction to the thinking of those who met Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17), the authors present principles for present-day living. 


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