Pope's Thoughts on God and Man....good stuff, read it.

So while I was waiting for WebReg to stop being such a douche, I started reading Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man." The first epistle is a bit slow, but it's got some Milton-esque qualities I find most agreeable. It had this great passage at the end of the first epistle carrying over into the second, so I copied it down. Enjoy!

"Cease then, nor order imperfection name,
our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit in this, or any other sphere,
secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
safe in the hand of one disposing Power,
or in the natal, or in the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
all chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
all discord, harmony not understood;
all partial evil, universal good;
and, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite
one truth is clear: Whatever IS, is RIGHT."

Isn't that rad? that one is all about God. The next one is about man.

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
the proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on an isthmus of a middle state,
a being darkly wise, and rudely great:
with too much knowledge for the skeptic side,
with too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
he hangs between, in doubt to act, or rest,
in doubt to deem himself a god or beast,
in doubt his mind or body to prefer,
born but to die, and reasoning but to err,
alike in ignorance, his reason such,
whether he thinks too little, or to much:
chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
still by himself abused, or disabused;
created half to rise, and half to fall,
great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!"

awsome view of the funtionality of mankind. brilliant. i love words.

Good things I'm listening to.

I highly recommend the following playlist.

1. Forever My Friend: Ray LaMontagne
2. Hotel Song: Regina Spektor
3. Messes of Men: mewithoutYou
4. Bold as Love: John Mayer
5. She: Elvis Costello
6. Soul Meets Body: Death Cab for Cutie
7. Grey Gardens: Rufus Wainwright
8. Faith in Angels: Peter Mayer
9. Beautiful World: Colin Hay
10. America: Simon and Garfunkle
11. Stay (Faraway, So Close): U2
12. 30th Century Man: Scott Walker
13. This Side: Nickle Creek
14. Wonderful for You: The Polyphonic Spree
15. Crystal Ball: Keane
16. Crush: Dave Matthews Band
17. Subterranean Homesick Blues: Bob Dylan
18. Desire: Ryan Adams
20. The Wrong Idea: Chris Thile
21. Breathe In: Frou Frou
22. Rebel Rebel: David Bowie
23. Modern Way: Kaiser Chiefs
24. Not the Doctor: Alanis Morissette
25. Across the Universe: The Beatles
26. Everything in it's Right Place: Radiohead
27. Pretty Vacant: The Sex Pistols
28. One by One: The Shins
29. How Do You Do: Shakira
30. Hold on Hope: Guided by Voices
31. Fuzzy: The Incredible Moses Leroy
32. Fighting for my Love: Nil Lara
33. Fix You: Coldplay

and that's all I have for tonight. Ah, bella luna...