The Good Book

by A. C. Grayling

  Chapter 9

  1. The generations of the world and life in the world evolve, one from another, through the vastness of time.

  2. Earths from each sun burst, and second planets issued from the first;

  3. Then the sea at their coeval birth, surge over surge, involved the shoreless earth;

  4. Nursed by warm sunlight in the primeval caves, organic life arose beneath the waves.

  5. First, heat from chemical changes springs, and gives to matter its elliptic wings;

  6. With strong repulsion parts the exploding mass, melts into solids, or kindles into gas.

  7. Attraction next, as earth or air subside, the heavy atoms from the light divide,

  8. Approaching parts with quick embrace combine, swell into spheres, and lengthen to a line.

  9. Last, as fine goads the matter-threads excite, cords grapple cords, and webs with webs unite,

  10. And quick contraction with ethereal flame lights into life the atom-woven frame.

  11. Hence in biochemical spontaneous birth rose the first specks of animated earth;

  12. From nature’s womb the plant or insect swims, and buds or breathes, with microscopic limbs.

  13. In earth, sea, air, around, below, above, life’s subtle weft in nature’s loom is wove;

  14. Points joined to points a living line extends, and touched by light approach the bending ends.

  15. Rings join to rings; and outreaching tubes clasp with young lips the nutrient globes or cubes,

  16. And urged by new appetencies select, imbibe, retain, digest, secrete, eject.

  17. In branching cones the living web expands, organs grow, and life-giving glands;

  18. Arterial tubes carry nascent blood, and lengthening veins return the crimson flood;

  19. Leaves, lungs and gills the vital ether breathe, on earth’s green surface, or in the waves beneath.

  20. So life’s first powers arrest the winds and floods, to bones convert them, or to shells, or woods;

  21. Stretch the vast beds of argil, lime and sand, and from diminished oceans form the land.

  Chapter 10

  1. Next, nerves unite their long synaptic train, and new sensations wake the early brain;

  2. Through each new sense the keen emotions dart, flush the cheek, and swell the throbbing heart.

  3. From pain and pleasure quick volitions rise, command the limbs and guide enquiring eyes;

  4. With reason’s light new-woken man direct, and right and wrong with balance nice detect.

  5. Last, multiple associations spring, thoughts join to thoughts, feelings to emotions cling;

  6. Whence in long trains of linkage quickly flow imagined joy and voluntary woe.

  7. Organic life beneath the shoreless waves was born and nursed in ocean’s pearly caves;

  8. First forms minute, unseen by microscope, swim the sea, or climb the muddy slope;

  9. These, as successive generations bloom, new powers acquire, and larger forms assume;

  10. Whence countless forms of vegetation spring, and breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing.

  11. Thus came our world and life, a natural realm, from nature born, with nature at the helm:

  12. By evolution, in the aeons vast, since life first rose, to complex life at last.

  Chapter 11

  1. In all species, nature works to renew itself as it works to nourish itself, and to protect itself from danger,

  2. Each by its kind and for its kind, in the great work of continuation that is evolution.

  3. In humankind the work of renewal lies in the work of affection, the bond of one to another made by desire;

  4. Among the objects that nature everywhere offers desire, there is little more worthy of pursuit, little that makes people happier,

  5. Than the enjoyment of another who thinks and feels as oneself,

  6. Who has the same ideas, experiences the same sensations, the same ecstasies,

  7. Who brings affectionate and sensitive arms towards one’s own,

  8. Whose embraces and caresses are followed with the existence of a new being who resembles its progenitors,

  9. And looks for them in the first movements of life to embrace them,

  10. Who will be brought up by their side to be loved together, whose happy birth already strengthens the ties that bind its parents together.

  11. If there is anyone who could take offence at the praise given to the most noble and universal of passions, let us evoke nature before him, and make it speak.

  12. For nature would say: ‘Why do you blush to hear the praise of pleasure, when you do not blush to indulge its temptations under cover of night?

  13. ‘Are you ignorant of its purpose and of what you owe to it?

  14. ‘Do you believe that your own mother would have imperilled her life to give you yours if there were not inexpressible charms in the embrace of her husband?

  15. ‘Be quiet, unhappy man, and consider that it was this pleasure that pulled you out of nothingness, and gave you life.

  16. ‘The propagation of beings is the greatest object of nature. It imperiously solicits both sexes as soon as they have gained their share of strength and beauty.

  17. ‘A vague and brooding restlessness warns them of the moment; their condition is mixed with pain and pleasure.

  18. ‘At that time they listen to their senses and turn their attention to themselves.

  19. ‘But if an individual should be presented to another of the same species and of a different sex,

  20. ‘Then the feeling of all other needs is suspended: the heart palpitates, the limbs tremble;

  21. ‘Voluptuous images wander through the mind; a flood of sensations runs through the nerves, excites them,

  22. ‘And proceeds to the seat of a new sense that reveals itself and torments the body.

  23. ‘Sight is troubled, delirium is born; reason, the slave of instinct, limits itself to serving the latter, and nature is satisfied.

  24. ‘This is the way things took place at the beginning of the world,

  25. ‘And the way they still take place among the silks of the wealthy boudoir, just as in the shadows of the savage’s cave.’

  26. Such is the great command of nature, that in a hundred thousand ways and forms, seeds flood in abundance and super-abundance,

  27. Sea and air in season float myriads of possible lives; man and animals in season turn to their mates, obedient to desire;

  28. Spring sees newborns emerge into light, or call from the nest for sustenance; and at the mother’s breast the suckling lies,

  29. Proof that no human law or folly can change the river of life, that must flow in its power from the beginning always onwards,

  30. And seek every path to its future, accepting no obstacle or hindrance.

  31. For its one monarch is nature, its one guide nature’s hand, its one aim fulfilment of nature’s great imperatives.

  Chapter 12

  1. I wander afield, thriving in studious thought, through unpathed groves of woods trodden by none before.

  2. I delight to come on undefiled fountains there, to drink their cool waters deep,

  3. To pluck new flowers, and the leaves of laurel and green myrtle,

  4. To make a crown for my head from regions where inquiry never yet garlanded the brow of man.

  5. For, since I teach concerning mighty things, and seek to loose man’s mind from coils of blinding ignorance;

  6. Since I vouchsafe themes so large, of smallest and greatest, of origin and end, in nature’s broad empire,

  7. I choose a path without brambles, and frame a lucid song, touching all throughout with charm,

  8. As when physicians, needing to give infants the bitter wormwood, first spread the cup’s brim with juice and honey,

  9. That the unheeding child might be cajoled as far as the lips, and meanwhile swallow a healthsome draught;

  10. So now I too expound in song, soft-speaking, to touch with honey the rim of truth
.

  11. If one thereby might teach the world, its multitudes would cease the strife that ignorances bring,

  12. Knowing truth at last, and the nature of things.

  Chapter 13

  1. Let us admit no more causes of natural things than are both true and sufficient to explain what we see.

  2. For it is observed that nature does nothing in vain, and more is vain where less will serve.

  3. Nature is pleased with simplicity, and does not need the pomp of superfluous causes.

  4. Always assign the same effects to the same causes, as respiration in a man and in a beast;

  5. As the geological formations of mountains in Europe and in America;

  6. As the heat of our cooking fire and the heat of the sun;

  7. As the reflection of light on the earth and by the planets.

  8. For the same laws apply everywhere, and the phenomena of nature are the same, whether here at hand or in a distant galaxy.

  9. Those qualities of bodies, which admit neither intension nor remission of degrees,

  10. And which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our investigations,

  11. Are to be esteemed the universal qualities of bodies everywhere.

  12. For since the qualities of bodies are only known to us by experiment, we are to hold for universal all such as universally agree with experiment.

  13. We are not to ignore the evidence of experiments for the sake of dreams and fictions of our own devising;

  14. Nor are we to part from the analogy of nature, which is simple, and always consonant to itself.

  15. We know the extension of bodies only by means of our senses, and our senses do not reach into all the parts of bodies;

  16. But because we perceive extension in everything that we can sense, therefore we ascribe it universally to what we cannot directly sense.

  17. This is the order and discipline of science.

  18. We are to look upon propositions collected by general induction from phenomena as accurately or nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined,

  19. Till such time as other phenomena occur, by which they may either be refuted, or made more accurate.

  20. This rule we must follow, that the argument of induction may not be evaded by hypotheses.

  Chapter 14

  1. I am convinced that the human intellect makes its own difficulties, not using the true, sober and judicious methods of inquiry at our disposal,

  2. From which comes the manifold ignorance of things which causes innumerable mischiefs in the world.

  3. Therefore let us try to see whether that commerce between the human mind and the nature of things,

  4. A commerce more precious than anything on earth, for it is nothing less than the search for truth,

  5. Can be perfected; or if not, yet improved to a better condition than it now displays.

  6. We cannot hope that the errors which have hitherto prevailed, and which will prevail for ever if inquiry is left uninstructed and uncorrected, will correct themselves;

  7. Because the early notions of things, which our minds in childhood or without education so readily and passively imbibe,

  8. Are false, confused, and overhastily abstracted from the facts; nor are the secondary and subsequent notions we form from them less arbitrary and inconstant.

  9. It follows that the entire fabric of human reason employed in the inquisition of nature, is badly built up, like a great structure lacking foundations.

  10. For while people are occupied in admiring and applauding the false powers of the mind, they pass by and throw away its true powers,

  11. Which, if supplied with proper aids, and if content to wait upon nature instead of vainly affecting to overrule her, are within its reach.

  12. Such is the way to truth and the advancement of understanding.

  Chapter 15

  1. There was but one course left, at the dawn of true science:

  2. To try the whole anew on a better plan, and to commence a reconstruction of human knowledge on proper foundations.

  3. And this, though in the project and undertaking it may seem a thing infinite and beyond the powers of man,

  4. Yet when it came to be dealt with was found sound and sober, vastly more so than what had been done before.

  5. For from this there have been great advances; whereas earlier speculations, unscientific and fanciful,

  6. Produced only a whirling and perpetual agitation, ending where it began.

  7. And although the first encouragers of enquiry were aware how solitary an enterprise it would at first be,

  8. To encourage science where there had been only ignorance drawn from the dreams of mankind’s infancy,

  9. And how hard a thing to win credit for, nevertheless they were resolved not to abandon the attempt,

  10. Nor to be deterred from trying and entering upon the great path of truth open to human inquiry.

  11. For it is better to make a beginning in that which may lead to something,

  12. Than to engage in perpetual struggle and pursuit in courses which have no exit.

  13. And certainly the two ways of contemplation are much like those two ways of action, so much celebrated, in this:

  14. That the one, arduous and difficult in the beginning, leads out at last into open country;

  15. While the other, seeming at first sight easy and free from obstruction, leads to pathless and precipitous places.

  16. Moreover, because people did not know how long it might be before these things would occur to others,

  17. Judging especially from this, that they had found no one who had hitherto applied thought to the like,

  18. They resolved at once to say as much as they were able. The cause of which was not ambition for themselves, but solicitude for true knowledge;

  19. That there might remain some outline and project of what could be achieved for the benefit of humanity.

  20. Many other ambitions of the human breast seem poor compared with such work,

  21. Seeing that the task is a thing so great that it can be content with its own merit, requiring no further reward:

  22. For it is nothing less than seeking to understand the world, and mankind within it:

  23. It is nothing less than science, mankind’s greatest endeavour, greatest achievement, and greatest promise:

  24. If only humanity will be wise in its use.

  Wisdom

  Chapter 1

  1. Give your ears to hear what is said, and your heart to understand what is meant.

  2. Let what is wise rest in the casket of your mind, to be a key to your heart.

  3. He whose works exceed his wisdom, his wisdom will endure.

  4. But he whose wisdom exceeds his works, his wisdom will not endure.

  5. The mighty man is he who conquers himself;

  6. The rich man is he who is satisfied with what he has;

  7. The honourable man is he who honours others;

  8. But the wise man is he who learns from all men.

  9. The wise do not speak before the face of one who is wiser.

  10. The wise do not interrupt, but open the gates of their eyes and ears to learn.

  11. The wise do not hasten into speech, nor to reply.

  12. The wise ask what is relevant, and speak to the point.

  13. The wise speak of first things first, and last things last.

  14. The wise say of things they have not heard, ‘I have not heard’,

  15. And of things they have not seen, ‘I have not seen’.

  16. The wise acknowledge truth.

  17. The wise are hard to anger and easy to appease.

  18. The wise study to practise, not only to teach.

  19. The wise know that according to the painstaking is the reward.

  20. The wise know to say little, do much, and face the world with cheerful countenance.

  21. The question to be asked at the end of each day is,
‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

  Chapter 2

  1. Let your house be a meeting-place for sages. Sit at their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.

  2. Silence is a safeguard around wisdom, and attentiveness is its gateway.

  3. Those who say they know everything and do not wish to learn more, are not wise;

  4. But those who wish to learn more, even if they know nothing, they are wise.

  5. The best have said: much I learned from my teacher, more from my colleagues, most from my pupils.

  6. The wise judge everyone with scales weighted in their favour.

  7. The wise see others with a liberal eye, not begrudging their good, neither wishing them ill.

  8. The wise are as quick to carry out small duties as great ones.

  9. The wise would rather be least among the best than first among the worst:

  10. As they have said, be rather a tail to a lion than a head to a jackal.

  11. The wise know that the right course is whatever a man deems praiseworthy,

  12. Among whatever is deemed praiseworthy by well-judging persons.

  13. Hope is the armour of the wise, kindness their weapon, courage their mount;

  14. And the destination of all their journeys is understanding.

  15. The question to be asked at the end of each day is, ‘How long will you delay to be wise?’

  Chapter 3

  1. A human life is less than a thousand months long. The wise are those who multiply their months by endeavour, living many lives in the fullness of one life.

  2. For we are everywhere under sentence, but with an indefinite reprieve: we have an interval, and then our place knows us no more.

  3. Some spend this interval in listlessness, some in high passions, the wisest in art and song.

  4. The wise see that our great chance lies in expanding that interval, in getting as much as possible into the given time.

  5. Passion may offer a quickened sense of life, may give the ecstasy and the sorrow of love:

  6. The wise say, let us only be sure that it yields the fruit of a true and multiplied consciousness.