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James, William, 1842-1910

"Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature"

If
thou seest thyself fallen once and a thousand times, thou
oughtest to make use of the remedy which I have given thee, that
is, a loving confidence in the divine mercy. These are the
weapons with which thou must fight and conquer cowardice and vain
thoughts. This is the means thou oughtest to use--not to lose
time, not to disturb thyself, and reap no good."[68]
[68] Molinos: Spiritual Guide, Book II., chaps. xvii., xviii.
abridged.

Now in contrast with such healthy-minded views as these, if we
treat them as a way of deliberately minimizing evil, stands a
radically opposite view, a way of maximizing evil, if you please
so to call it, based on the persuasion that the evil aspects of
our life are of its very essence, and that the world's meaning
most comes home to us when we lay them most to heart. We have
now to address ourselves to this <129> more morbid way of
looking at the situation. But as I closed our last hour with a
general philosophical reflection on the healthy-minded way of
taking life, I should like at this point to make another
philosophical reflection upon it before turning to that heavier
task.


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