Essays (Classic Reprint) ~ Paperback ~ James Vila Blake

Excerpt from Essays Choice is good old English, with a root in the Saxon; but in the act it involves the Latin Sacrifice, which means to make something holy by offering it in worship; or, perhaps, to do something sacred - it being thought in primitive religion that nothing more holy can be done than to give or forego something for devotion. Choice and sacrifice go in one, and the philosophy of either is the statement of our circumscription. The simple principle is "that as we can not have everything, we must give up some things for the sake of having others." Choice, therefore, is the test and measure of us; for whoso can not have everything must needs pitch his choice, and he will pitch it as his nature is, high or low; wherefore choice becomes the vernier of our lives. Or better, perhaps, if I call it a double register, in two parts, the one following the other to divide more nicely still what the first already has measured. For our choices take our dimensions in two ways: First, By the kind of them. We may select paltry and showy things, ease, pleasures which have no mind in them, cheap influence with our fellows. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.