Re: CFL database

["Robert L Bass" <RobertLBass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

than the
rest. I see those frightful spaces of the universe which surround me, and I
find myself tied to one corner of this vast expanse, without knowing why I
am put in this place rather than in another, nor why the short time which is
given me to live is assigned to me at this point rather than at another of
the whole eternity which was before me or which shall come after me. I see
nothing but infinites on all sides, which surround me as an atom and as a
shadow which endures only for an instant and returns no more. All I know is
that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I
cannot escape.

"As I know not whence I come, so I know not whither I go. I know only that,
in leaving this world, I fall for ever either into annihilation or into the
hands of an angry God, without knowing to which of these two states I shall
be for ever assigned. Such is my state, full of weakness and uncertainty.
And from all this I conclude that I ought to spend all the days of my life
without caring to inquire into what must happen to me. Perhaps I might find
some solution to my doubts, but I will not take the trouble, nor take a step
to seek it; and after treating with scorn those who are concerned with this
care, I will go without foresight and without fear to try the great event,
and let myself be led carelessly to death, uncertain of the eternity of my
future state."

Who would desire to have for a friend a man who talks in this fashion? Who
would choose him out from others to tell him of his affairs? Who would have
recourse to him in affliction? And indeed to what use in life could one put
him?

In truth, it is the glory of religion to have for enemies men so
unreasonable; and their opposition to it is so little dangerous that it
serves, on the contrary, to establish its truths. For the Christian faith
goes mainly to establish these two fa