The Great Hunger

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Century Company, 1919 - 318 pages
 

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Page 319 - And I knew now that what I had hungered after in my best years was neither knowledge, nor honour, nor riches; nor to be a priest or a great creator in steel; no, friend, but to build temples; not chapels for prayers or churches for wailing penitent sinners, but a temple for the human spirit in its grandeur, where we could lift up our souls in an anthem as a gift to heaven.
Page 318 - This will it was that by and by grew and grew in me, and made me strong. "I began to feel an unspeakable compassion for all men upon the earth, and yet in the last resort I was proud that I was one of them. "I understood how blind fate can strip and plunder us of all, and yet something will remain in us at the last, that nothing in heaven or earth can vanquish. Our bodies are doomed to die. and our spirit to be extinguished, yet still we bear within us the spark, the germ of an eternity of harmony...
Page 322 - ... negro setting up the first mark above the grave of his dead to the genius raising the pillars of a temple towards heaven. We bore our part, from the poor mother praying beside a cradle, to the hosts that lifted their songs of praise high up into boundless space. Honour to thee, O spirit of man! Thou givest a soul to the world, thou settest it a goal, thou art the hymn that lifts it into harmony; therefore turn back into thyself, lift high thy head and meet proudly the evil that conies to thee.
Page 17 - ... tackle a man twice his size on dry land. Once more Peer was jerked almost overboard. He thought of the forest fire the year before — it would never do to have another such mishap on his shoulders. Suppose the great monster did come up and capsize them — they were ever so far from land. What a to-do there would be if they were all drowned, and it came out that it was his fault. Involuntarily he felt for his knife to cut the line — then thrust it back again, and went on hauling. Here it comes...
Page 321 - Even the happiest must die. In his own home he is but on a visit. He never knows but that he may be gone tomorrow. And yet man smiles and laughs in the face of his tragic fate. In the midst of his thraldom he has created the beautiful on earth; in the midst of his torments he has had so much surplus energy of soul...
Page 318 - I began to feel an unspeakable compassion for all men upon earth, and yet, in the last resort, I was proud that I was one of them. "I understood how blind fate can strip and plunder us all, and yet something will remain in us at the last, that nothing in heaven or earth can vanquish. "Our bodies are doomed to die, and our spirit to be extinguished, yet still we bear within us the spark, the germ of our eternity, of harmony and light both for the world and for God. "And I knew now...
Page 318 - And I saw another, a puny creature, let loose; a humble, ashen-grey ascetic, that bent his head and bowed under the lash, and said: "Thy will be done. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away '' A pitiful being this, that stole out into the night and disappeared. But I myself sat there still. I sat alone on the promontory of existence, with the sun and the stars gone out, and ice-cold emptiness above me, about me, and in me, on every side. But then, my friend, by degrees it dawned on me that there...
Page 322 - ... He never knows but that he may be gone tomorrow. And yet man smiles and laughs in the face of his tragic fate. In the midst of his thraldom he has created the beautiful on earth; in the midst of his torments he has had so much surplus energy of soul that he has sent it radiating forth into the cold deeps of space and warmed them with God. So marvellous art thou, 0 spirit of man!
Page 15 - Here with the gaff!" cries Peer, and Peter throws it across to him. "What is it, what is it?" shriek the other three. "Steady! don't upset the boat; a catfish." A stroke of the gaff over the side, and a clumsy grey body is heaved into the boat, where it rolls about, hissing and biting at the bottom-boards and baler, the splinters crackling under its teeth. "Mind, mind!
Page 322 - Honour to thee, 0 spirit of man. Thou givest a soul to the world, thou settest it a goal, thou art the hymn that lifts it into harmony ; therefore turn back into thyself, lift high thy head and meet proudly the evil that comes to thee. Adversity o«n crush thee, death can blot thee out, yet art thou still unconquerable and eternal.

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