OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book II/Chapter 32

Chapter 32.—Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed by Man.
50. And yet the validity of logical sequences is not a thing devised by men, but is observed and noted by them that they may be able to learn and teach it; for it exists eternally in the reason of things, and has its origin with God. For as the man who narrates the order of events does not himself create that order; and as he who describes the situations of places, or the natures of animals, or roots, or minerals, does not describe arrangements of man; and as he who points out the stars and their movements does not point out anything that he himself or any other man has ordained;—in the same way, he who says, “When the consequent is false, the antecedent must also be false,” says what is most true; but he does not himself make it so, he only points out that it is so.  And it is upon this rule that the reasoning I have quoted from the Apostle Paul proceeds. For the antecedent is, “There is no resurrection of the dead,”—the position taken up by those whose error the apostle wished to overthrow. Next, from this antecedent, the assertion, viz., that there is no resurrection of the dead, the necessary consequence is, “Then Christ is not risen.” But this consequence is false, for Christ has risen; therefore the antecedent is also false. But the antecedent is, that there is no resurrection of the dead. We conclude, therefore, that there is a resurrection of the dead. Now all this is briefly expressed thus: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; but Christ is risen, therefore there is a resurrection of the dead. This rule, then, that when the consequent is removed, the antecedent must also be removed, is not made by man, but only pointed out by him. And this rule has reference to the validity of the reasoning, not to the truth of the statements.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book II/Chapter 38

Chapter 38.—The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered, by Man.
56. Coming now to the science of number, it is clear to the dullest apprehension that this was not created by man, but was discovered by investigation. For, though Virgil could at his own pleasure make the first syllable of Italia long, while the ancients pronounced it short, it is not in any man’s power to determine at his pleasure that three times three are not nine, or do not make a square, or are not the triple of three, nor one and a half times the number six, or that it is not true that they are not the double of any number because odd numbers have no half. Whether, then, numbers are considered in themselves, or as applied to the laws of figures, or of sounds, or of other motions, they have fixed laws which were not made by man, but which the acuteness of ingenious men brought to light.
57. The man, however, who puts so high a value on these things as to be inclined to boast himself one of the learned, and who does not rather inquire after the source from which those things which he perceives to be true derive their truth, and from which those others which he perceives to be unchangeable also derive their truth and unchangeableness, and who, mounting up from bodily appearances to the mind of man, and finding that it too is changeable (for it is sometimes instructed, at other times uninstructed), although it holds a middle place between the unchangeable truth above it and the changeable things beneath it, does not strive to make all things redound to the praise and love of the one God from whom he knows that all things have their being;—the man, I say, who acts in this way may seem to be learned, but wise he cannot in any sense be deemed.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Intelligibiles numeri.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book II/Chapter 30

Chapter 30.—What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics.
47. Further, as to the remaining arts, whether those by which something is made which, when the effort of the workman is over, remains as a result of his work, as, for example, a house, a bench, a dish, and other things of that kind; or those which, so to speak, assist God in His operations, as medicine, and agriculture, and navigation; or those whose sole result is an action, as dancing, and racing, and wrestling;—in all these arts experience teaches us to infer the future from the past. For no man who is skilled in any of these arts moves his limbs in any operation without connecting the memory of the past with the expectation of the future. Now of these arts a very superficial and cursory knowledge is to be acquired, not with a view to practising them (unless some duty compel us, a matter on which I do not touch at present), but with a view to forming a judgment about them, that we may not be wholly ignorant of what Scripture means to convey when it employs figures of speech derived from these arts.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book II/Chapter 35

Chapter 35 .—The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be Applied to Falsities.
53. Again, the science of definition, of division, and of partition, although it is frequently applied to falsities, is not itself false, nor framed by man’s device, but is evolved from the reason of things. For although poets have applied it to their fictions, and false philosophers, or even heretics—that is, false Christians—to their erroneous doctrines, that is no reason why it should be false, for example, that neither in definition, nor in division, nor in partition, is anything to be included that does not pertain to the matter in hand, nor anything to be omitted that does. This is true, even though the things to be defined or divided are not true. For even falsehood itself is defined when we say that falsehood is the declaration of a state of things which is not as we declare it to be; and this definition is true, although falsehood itself cannot be true. We can also divide it, saying that there are two kinds of falsehood, one in regard to things that cannot be true at all, the other in regard to things that are not, though it is possible they might be, true. For example, the man who says that seven and three are eleven, says what cannot be true under any circumstances; but he who says that it rained on the kalends of January, although perhaps the fact is not so, says what posssibly might have been. The definition and division, therefore, of what is false may be perfectly true, although what is false cannot, of course, itself be true.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/On Christian Doctrine/Book II/Chapter 36

Chapter 36.—The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What is False.
54. There are also certain rules for a more copious kind of argument, which is called eloquence, and these rules are not the less true that they can be used for persuading men of what is false; but as they can be used to enforce the truth as well, it is not the faculty itself that is to be blamed, but the perversity of those who put it to a bad use. Nor is it owing to an arrangement among men that the expression of affection conciliates the hearer, or that a narrative, when it is short and clear, is effective, and that variety arrests men’s attention without wearying them. And it is the same with other directions of the same kind, which, whether the cause in which they are used be true or false, are themselves true just in so far as they are effective in producing knowledge or belief, or in moving men’s minds to desire and aversion. And men rather found out that these things are so, than arranged that they should be so.
# My Mother's Memory

* "My Mother's Memory" in Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems, 1873.
* "My Mother's Memory" in Songs, Legends, and Ballads, 1878.
* "My Mother’s Memory" in The Riverside song book, 1893.
* "My Mother's Memory" in Fanatic Heart, 1997.
# My Mother's Grave

From The Poets of America (ed. John Keese, 1841)
In beauty lingers on the hills The death-smile of the dying day; And twilight in my heart instills The softness of its ray I watch the river's peaceful flow, Here, standing by my mother's grave, And feel my dreams of glory go, Like weeds upon its sluggish wave.
God gives us ministers of love Which we regard not, being near; Death takes them from us, then we feel That angels have been with us here! As mother, sister, friend, or wife, They guide us, cheer us, soothe our pain, And when the grave has closed between Our hearts and theirs, we love—in vain!
Would, mother! thou couldst hear me tell How oft, amid my brief career, For sins and follies loved too well Hath fall'n the free repentant tear. And, in my waywardness of youth, How bitter thoughts have given to me Contempt for error, love for truth, Mid sweet remembrances of thee.
The harvest of my youth is done, And manhood, come with all its cares, Finds, garnered up within my heart, For every flower a thousand tares. Dear mother! couldst thou know my thoughts, Whilst bending o'er this holy shrine, The depth of feeling in my breast, Thou wouldst not blush to call me thine!
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# My Mother's Bible

This book is all that's left me now!  Tears will unbidden start— With faltering lip and throbbing brow,  I press it to my heart. For many generations past,  Here is our family tree; My mother's hands this Bible clasp'd;  She, dying, gave it to me.
Ah! well do I remember those  Whose names these records bear, Who round the hearth-stone used to close  After the evening prayer, And speak of what these pages said,  In tones my heart would thrill! Though they are with the silent dead,  Here are they living still!
My father read this holy book  To brothers, sisters dear; How calm was my mother's look,  Who lean'd God's word to hear! Her angel face—I see it yet!  What thronging memories come! Again that little group is met  Within the halls of home!
Thou truest friend man ever knew,  Thy constancy I've tried; Where all were false I found thee true,  My counsellor and guide. The mines of earth no treasure give  That could this volume buy: In teaching me the way to live,  It taught me how to die.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume I/Letters of St. Augustin/Letters of St. Augustin/Chapter 56

Letters LVI. And LVII.
are addressed (a.d. 400) to Celer, exhorting him to forsake the Donatist schismatics. They may be omitted, being brief, and containing no new argument.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume I/Letters of St. Augustin/Letters of St. Augustin/Chapter 59

Letter LX.
(a.d. 401.)
To Father Aurelius, My Lord Most Blessed, and Revered with Most Justly Merited Respect, My Brother in the Priesthood, Most Sincerely Beloved, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord.
1. I have received no letter from your Holiness since we parted; but I have now read a letter of your Grace concerning Donatus and his brother, and I have long hesitated as to the reply which I ought to give. After frequently reconsidering what is in such a case conducive to the welfare of those whom we serve in Christ, and seek to nourish in Him, nothing has occurred to me which would alter my opinion that it is not right to give occasion for God’s servants to think that promotion to a better position is more readily given to those who have become worse. Such a rule would make monks less careful of falling, and a most grievous wrong would be done to the order of clergy, if those who have deserted their duty as monks be chosen to serve as clergy, seeing that our custom is to select for that office only the more tried and superior men of those who continue faithful to their calling as monks; unless, perchance, the common people are to be taught to joke at our expense, saying “a bad monk makes a good clerk,” as they are wont to say that “a poor flute-player makes a good singer.” It would be an intolerable calamity if we were to encourage the monks to such fatal pride, and were to consent to brand with so grievous disgrace the clerical order to which we ourselves belong: seeing that sometimes even a good monk is scarcely qualified to be a good clerk; for though he be proficient in self-denial, he may lack the necessary instruction, or be disqualified by some personal defect.
2. I believe, however, that your Holiness understood these monks to have left the monastery with my consent, in order that they might rather be useful to the people of their own district; but this was not the case: of their own accord they departed, of their own accord they deserted us, notwithstanding my resisting, from a regard to their welfare, to the utmost of my power. As to Donatus, seeing that he has obtained ordination before we could arrive at any decision in the Council as to his case, do as your wisdom may guide you; it may be that his proud obstinacy has been subdued. But as to his brother, who was the chief cause of Donatus leaving the monastery, I know not what to write, since you know what I think of him. I do not presume to oppose what may seem best to one of your wisdom, rank, and piety; and I hope with all my heart that you will do whatever you judge most profitable for the members of the Church.

## Footnotes

* ↑ The Council held at Carthage in September 401.
# Mystic Treatises

MYSTIC TREATISES BY
ISAAC OF NINEVEH
TRANSLATED FROM BEDJAN'S SYRIAC TEXT
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND REGISTERS
BY
A. J. WENSINCK
VERHANDELINGEN DER. KONINKEIJKE AKADEMIE
VAN WETENSCHAPPEN" TE AMSTERDAM
AFDEELING LETTERKUNDE
NIEUVVE REEKS
DEEL XXIII N$^{0.}$ 1
UITGAVE DER
KONINKLIJKE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN
AMSTERDAM 1923
page
Contents
# Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness/Part 1

   What the world, which truly knows nothing, calls ‘mysticism’ is the science of ultimates, . . . the science of self-evident Reality, which cannot be ‘reasoned about,’ because it is the object of pure reason or perception. The Babe sucking its mother’s breast, and the Lover returning, after twenty years’ separation, to his home and food in the same bosom, are the types and princes of Mystics.
   —Coventry Patmore, “The Rod, the Root, and the Flower”
# Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness

* Preface
* Part One The Mystic Fact
** Chapter I The Point of Departure
** Chapter II Mysticism and Vitalism
** Chapter III Mysticism and Psychology
** Chapter IV The Characteristics of Mysticism
** Chapter V Mysticism and Theology
** Chapter VI Mysticism and Symbolism
** Chapter VII Mysticism and Magic
* Part Two: The Mystic Way
** Chapter I Introductory
** Chapter II The Awakening of the Self
** Chapter III The Purification of the Self
** Chapter IV The Illumination of the Self
** Chapter V Voices and Visions
** Chapter VI Introversion. Part I: Recollection and Qui
** Chapter VII Introversion. Part II: Contemplation
** Chapter VIII Ecstasy and Rapture
** Chapter IX The Dark Night of the Soul
** Chapter X The Unitive Life
** Conclusion
* Appendix: Historical Sketch of Mysticism

## External links

* Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1945, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 78 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/City of God/Book IV/Chapter 5

Chapter 5.—Of the Runaway Gladiators Whose Power Became Like that of Royal Dignity.
I shall not therefore stay to inquire what sort of men Romulus gathered together, seeing he deliberated much about them,—how, being assumed out of that life they led into the fellowship of his city, they might cease to think of the punishment they deserved, the fear of which had driven them to greater villainies; so that henceforth they might be made more peaceable members of society. But this I say, that the Roman empire, which by subduing many nations had already grown great and an object of universal dread, was itself greatly alarmed, and only with much difficulty avoided a disastrous overthrow, because a mere handful of gladiators in Campania, escaping from the games, had recruited a great army, appointed three generals, and most widely and cruelly devastated Italy. Let them say what god aided these men, so that from a small and contemptible band of robbers they attained to a kingdom, feared even by the Romans, who had such great forces and fortresses. Or will they deny that they were divinely aided because they did not last long? As if, indeed, the life of any man whatever lasted long. In that case, too, the gods aid no one to reign, since all individuals quickly die; nor is sovereign power to be reckoned a benefit, because in a little time in every man, and thus in all of them one by one, it vanishes like a vapor. For what does it matter to those who worshipped the gods under Romulus, and are long since dead, that after their death the Roman empire has grown so great, while they plead their causes before the powers beneath? Whether
those causes are good or bad, it matters not to the question before us. And this is to be understood of all those who carry with them the heavy burden of their actions, having in the few days of their life swiftly and hurriedly passed over the stage of the imperial office, although the office itself has lasted through long spaces of time, being filled by a constant succession of dying men. If, however, even those benefits which last only for the shortest time are to be ascribed to the aid of the gods, these gladiators were not a little aided, who broke the bonds of their servile condition, fled, escaped, raised a great and most powerful army, obedient to the will and orders of their chiefs and much feared by the Roman majesty, and remaining unsubdued by several Roman generals, seized many places, and, having won very many victories, enjoyed whatever pleasures they wished, and did what their lust suggested, and, until at last they were conquered, which was done with the utmost difficulty, lived sublime and dominant. But let us come to greater matters.

## Footnotes

* ↑ It was extinguished by Crassus in its third year.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/City of God/Book IV/Chapter 9

Chapter 9.—Whether the Great Extent and Long Duration of the Roman Empire Should Be Ascribed to Jove, Whom His Worshippers Believe to Be the Chief God.
Therefore omitting, or passing by for a little, that crowd of petty gods, we ought to inquire into the part performed by the great gods, whereby Rome has been made so great as to reign so long over so many nations. Doubtless, therefore, this is the work of Jove. For they will have it that he is the king of all the gods and goddesses, as is shown by his sceptre and by the Capitol on the lofty hill. Concerning that god they publish a saying which, although that of a poet, is most apt, “All things are full of Jove.” Varro believes that this god is worshipped, although called by another name, even by those who worship one God alone without any image. But if this is so, why has he been so badly used at Rome (and indeed by other nations too), that an image of him should be made?—a thing which was so displeasing to Varro himself, that although he was overborne by the perverse custom of so great a city, he had not the least hesitation in both saying and writing, that those who have appointed images for the people have both taken away fear and added error.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Virgil, Eclog. iii. 60.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/City of God/Book IV/Chapter 32

Chapter 32.—In What Interest the Princes of the Nations Wished False Religions to Continue Among the People Subject to Them.
Varro says also, concerning the generations of the gods, that the people have inclined to the poets rather than to the natural philosophers; and that therefore their forefathers,—that is, the ancient Romans,—believed both in the sex and the generations of the gods, and settled their marriages; which certainly seems to have been done for no other cause except that it was the business of such men as were prudent and wise to deceive the people in matters of religion, and in that very thing not only to worship, but also to imitate the demons, whose greatest lust is to deceive. For just as the demons cannot possess any but those whom they have deceived with guile, so also men in princely office, not indeed being just, but like demons, have persuaded the people in the name of religion to receive as true those things which they themselves knew to be false; in this way, as it were, binding them up more firmly in civil society, so that they might in like manner possess them as subjects. But who that was weak and unlearned could escape the deceits of both the princes of the state and the demons?
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume II/City of God/Book IV/Chapter 34

Chapter 34.—Concerning the Kingdom of the Jews, Which Was Founded by the One and True God, and Preserved by Him as Long as They Remained in the True Religion.
Therefore, that it might be known that these earthly good things, after which those pant who cannot imagine better things, remain in the power of the one God Himself, not of the many false gods whom the Romans have formerly believed worthy of worship, He multiplied His people in Egypt from being very few, and delivered them out of it by wonderful signs. Nor did their women invoke Lucina when their offspring was being incredibly multiplied; and that nation having increased incredibly, He Himself delivered, He Himself saved them from the hands of the Egyptians, who persecuted them, and wished to kill all their infants. Without the goddess Rumina they sucked; without Cunina they were cradled, without Educa and Potina they took food and drink; without all those puerile gods they were educated; without the nuptial gods they were married; without the worship of Priapus they had conjugal intercourse; without invocation of Neptune the divided sea opened up a way for them to pass over, and overwhelmed with its returning waves their enemies who pursued them. Neither did they consecrate any goddess Mannia when they received manna from heaven; nor, when the smitten rock poured forth water to them when they thirsted, did they worship Nymphs and Lymphs. Without the mad rites of Mars and Bellona they carried on war; and while, indeed, they did not
conquer without victory, yet they did not hold it to be a goddess, but the gift of their God.  Without Segetia they had harvests; without Bubona, oxen; honey without Mellona; apples without Pomona: and, in a word, everything for which the Romans thought they must supplicate so great a crowd of false gods, they received much more happily from the one true God. And if they had not sinned against Him with impious curiosity, which seduced them like magic arts, and drew them to strange gods and idols, and at last led them to kill Christ, their kingdom would have remained to them, and would have been, if not more spacious, yet more happy, than that of Rome.  And now that they are dispersed through almost all lands and nations, it is through the providence of that one true God; that whereas the images, altars, groves, and temples of the false gods are everywhere overthrown, and their sacrifices prohibited, it may be shown from their books how this has been foretold by their prophets so long before; lest, perhaps, when they should be read in ours, they might seem to be invented by us. But now, reserving what is to follow for the following book, we must here set a bound to the prolixity of this one.