Sublime

“Men are so necessarily mad that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.”

The Berlin press badgered the Prussian ruler, Frederick William IV, to do something about the disaster. Finally, the public outcry forced the government to form a commission of investigation, under the direction of the Privy Councillor for Health. Rudolf Virchow’s “strongest desire” was fulfilled when he was named medical officer to the commission.

While our secular age seems to stymie pastors, surgeons like Kalanithi are awakening to the pastoral task as central and transformational. The invitation to share in the depth of human experience, to enter into the reality of death, seems to bring an overwhelming sense of transcendence within the most immanent of occupations.

Nature was benign and, if only people heeded her laws, bodies would naturally be well.

by pulling back the veil and peering in close, a person can make sense of what is most confusing or strange or disturbing.

(1738–1814), whose praise of its humanity (it was fast and foolproof) illustrates the Revolution’s chilling blend of idealism and inhumanity.

such operations were left to