If a man would go yet
higher and found a new and permanent system, or create some new idea
or work of art which remains to give delight to ages--he must not
only not be paid, but he will have to pay very heavily out of his own
pocket into the bargain.
Again, we are to get all men to speak well of us if we can; yet we
are to be cursed if all men speak well of us.
So when the universe has gathered itself into a single ball (which I
don't for a moment believe it ever will, but I don't care) it will no
sooner have done so, than the bubble will burst and it will go back
to its gases again.
Contradiction in terms is so omnipresent that we treat it as we treat
death, or free-will, or fate, or air, or God, or the Devil--taking
these things so much as matters of course that, though they are
visible enough if we choose to see them, we neglect them normally
altogether, without for a moment intending to deny their existence.
This neglect is convenient as preventing repetitions the monotony of
which would defeat their own purpose, but people are tempted
nevertheless to forget the underlying omnipresence in the superficial
omniabsence. They forget that its opposite lurks in everything--that
there are harmonics of God in the Devil and harmonics of the Devil in
God.
Contradiction in terms is not only to be excused but there can be no
proposition which does not more or less involve one.
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