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Posted by ecagetx on February 18, 2008, 7:06 am
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On Jan 24, 2:10=A0pm, Jonatha...@live.co.uk (Jonathan90) wrote:
> and those who live without troubling or thinking
> about it.
>
> I can have only compassion for those who sincerely bewail their doubt, who=
> regard it as the greatest of misfortunes, and who, sparing no effort to
> escape it, make of this inquiry their principal and most serious occupatio=
n.
>
> But as for those who pass their life without thinking of this ultimate end=
> of life, and who, for this sole reason that they do not find within
> themselves the lights which convince them of it, neglect to seek them
> elsewhere, and to examine thoroughly whether this opinion is one of those
> which people receive with credulous simplicity, or one of those which,
> although obscure in themselves, have nevertheless a solid and immovable
> foundation, I look upon them in a manner quite different.
>
> This carelessness in a matter which concerns themselves, their eternity,
> their all, moves me more to anger than pity; it astonishes and shocks me; =
it
> is to me monstrous. I do not say this out of the pious zeal of a spiritual=
> devotion. I expect, on the contrary, that we ought to have this feeling fr=
om
> principles of human interest and self-love; for this we need only see what=
> the least enlightened persons see.
>
> We do not require great education of the mind to understand that here is n=
o
> real and lasting satisfaction; that our pleasures are only vanity; that ou=
r
> evils are infinite; and, lastly, that death, which threatens us every
> moment, must infallibly place us within a few years under the dreadful
> necessity of being for ever either annihilated or unhappy.
>
> There is nothing more real than this, nothing more terrible. Be we as hero=
ic
> as we like, that is the end which awaits the world. Let us reflect on this=
> and then say whether it is not beyond doubt that there is no good in this
> life but in the hope of another; that we are happy only in proportion as w=
e
> draw near it; and that, as there
test
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> about it.
>
> I can have only compassion for those who sincerely bewail their doubt, who=