Why should all the major religions of the modern world include a crucial encounter with wilderness--Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed in ...the desert mountains, Siddhartha in the jungle? And why should the predominant modern view of the origin and development of life have arisen from the five-year wilderness voyage of a Victorian amateur naturalist named Charles Darwin? There evidently is more to wilderness than meets the eye--more than water, timber, minerals, the materials of physical civilized existence.... Placing Darwin in the tradition of Moses and Jesus may seem heresy from both the Judeo-Christian and scientific viewpoints, but I think the roles played by the three figures have been similar. They wrenched their respective cultures out of a complacency that amounted to self-worship and thrust them in new directions that (if not always entirely beneficial) enlarged the human perspective. Moses forced his society to accept a unifying law; Jesus forced his to accept the unity of all humanity; Darwin forced his to accept the unity of all life. I doubt whether any of the three would have been able to influence his society if he had not been fortified by a season in the wilderness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Adults understandably assume that the level of verbal proficiency a five-year-old displays represents his level of proficiency in ...all areas of functioning--if he talks like an adult, he must think and feel like one. However, five-year-olds,... belie the promise of adult-like behavior with their child-like, impulsive actions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The frantic search of five-year-olds for friends can thus be seen to forecast the beginnings of a basic shift in the parent-child ...relationship, a shift which will occur gradually over many long years, and in which a child needs not only the support of child allies engaged in the same struggle but also the understanding of his parents.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mr. Christian, it is about time for many people to begin to come to the White House to discuss different phases of the coal strike.... When anybody comes, if his special problem concerns the state, refer him to the governor of Pennsylvania. If his problem has a national phase, refer him to the United States Coal Commission. In no event bring him to me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is not a Musselman alive who would not imagine that he was performing an action pleasing to God and his Holy Prophet by exte...rminating every Christian on earth, while the Christians are scarcely more tolerant on their side.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
His creed no parson ever knew, For this was still his "simple plan,"... To have with clergymen to do As little as a Christian can.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
1992 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has... turned out to be an Annus Horribilis.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Captain Bligh: Mr. Christian, I give you your last chance to return to duty. Fletcher Christian: I'll take my chance against ...the law. You'll take yours against the sea.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
So you'll face me with a court of inquiry, eh, in England. Well, Mr. Christian, we're a long way from England and what can happen ...on this ship before we get there may surprise even you.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »