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Sunday 5 January 2014

WISP IN THE WIND

Among the forces ( that) sweep and play throughout the universe, untutored man is but a wisp in the wind.  Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason... We see man far removed from the lairs of the jungles, his innate instincts dulled by too near an approach to free-will, his free will not sufficiently developed to replace his instincts and afford him perfect guidance. He is becoming too wise to hearken always to instincts and desires; he is still too weak to always prevail against them. 

Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (CH. viii)

DUST AND DESIRE

Man the sum of his climatic experiences Father said. Man the sum of what have you. A problem in impure properties carried tediously to an unvarying nil: stalemate of dust and desire.

William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (Part ii)

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