A life in words

  • Christmas Carols in Prose #9: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

    Listen! The angel heralds sing glory to the newborn king! “Peace and mild mercy on earth, God and sinners are reconciled!” All you nations rise joyfully. Join the skies’ triumph. Proclaim with the angelic host—Christ is born in Bethlehem! Hail the heaven-born prince of peace! Hail righteousness’s son! He brings light and life to all.…

  • Christmas Carols in Prose #8: O Little Town of Bethlehem

    Little town of Bethlehem, we see you lie so still. The silent stars go by above your deep and dreamless sleep, yet the everlasting light shines in your dark streets. Tonight the hopes and fears of all the years meet in you. For Christ is born of Mary, and the angels, all gathered together up above,…

  • Christmas Carols in Prose #7: It Came upon the Midnight Clear

    At midnight on a clear night, that glorious old song came from angels bending to touch their golden harps to the earth: “Heaven’s all-gracious king says, ‘Peace on the earth, good will to everyone.’” The earth itself lay solemn and still so it could hear the angels sing. Angels are still coming through the opened skies with…

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion…. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations…. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form….John Stuart Mill, On LIberty