Now I have. From June 28, 2003: On books promiscuously read @ AMERICAN DIGEST
From Areopagitica by John Milton
"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
"Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure; her whiteness is but an excremental whiteness. Which was the reason why our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas, describing true temperance under the person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through the cave of Mammon, and the bower of earthly bliss, that he might see and know, and yet abstain.
"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates and hearing all manner of reason? And this is the benefit which may be had of books promiscuously read."Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 28, 2013 1:18 PM
Congratulations on 10 fantastic years!
Posted by: Donald Sensing at June 28, 2013 1:28 PMMore than a blog, really, and one of the very finest. One of the first things I read each morning, and perhaps the most enjoyable. Well done!
Posted by: Terry Kirkpatrick at June 28, 2013 1:34 PMCongratulations and thank you for your fine blog. I enjoy it daily and particularly like your writing.
Posted by: Jack Rackim at June 28, 2013 2:07 PMSto Lat.
Posted by: Fat Man at June 28, 2013 2:13 PMCongratulations. I like the mix of topics.
Posted by: Scott M at June 28, 2013 2:34 PMHappy Blog anniversary! We'll be eating a home made peach cobbler on your behalf.
Posted by: Jewel at June 28, 2013 3:15 PMHappy blogiversary!
Posted by: John Farrier at June 28, 2013 3:39 PMThanks.
Posted by: Grace at June 28, 2013 6:22 PMThanks for your hard work, good taste, and the secret ingredient -- love of virtue, truth, and beauty!
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at June 28, 2013 6:49 PMThank you.
Posted by: Mary*Ann at June 28, 2013 6:59 PMCongrats Gerard. Well done and bravo. Still one of the finest blogs on the 'net.
Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at June 28, 2013 7:27 PMSwell news, and many happy returns. I read here daily!
Posted by: Casey Klahn at June 28, 2013 8:38 PMYou make my life better. Congratulations!
Posted by: Leslie at June 28, 2013 8:56 PMBest port of call in the hourly sail around the intertubes. A decade of daily delight! Been with you from the get-go, will remain as long as we both shall live. And if that sounds like a pitch for homomarriage - fuggetabahtit ....
Posted by: Frank P at June 29, 2013 5:19 AMAd astra per ad aspera - wait, reverse that.
Posted by: Dewey at June 29, 2013 11:10 AMAd astra per ad aspera - wait, reverse that.
Posted by: Dewey at June 29, 2013 11:10 AMThat's like 70 in dlog years, ain't it?
Congrats!
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
I think I have been following AD ~5 years now. Thanks for putting up such a great place to visit.
Posted by: sTevo at June 30, 2013 3:26 PMCongratulations and thank you. I really do like your style.
Posted by: slehtine at July 1, 2013 1:03 PMoh please may there be at very least ten more ...
Posted by: DeAnn Crowley at August 3, 2013 5:35 AMoh please may there be at very least ten more ...
Posted by: DeAnn at August 3, 2013 5:35 AM
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