Sublime

Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), first Secretary of the Treasury, had two sons, both named Philip. Philip the younger (1802-1884) was assistant District Attorney in New York and was a member and Past Master of Albion Lodge 26. He was often confused with his older brother of the same name who died prior to the second Philip's birth. The elder Philip

God is not some gentleman or lady out there in the great beyond who happens to have a superlatively good character, but is the very ontological substance of goodness.

The domestic hearth had a high priest, who was the father of the family; the hearth of the cury, had its curio, or phratriarch; every tribe, in the same manner, had its religious chief, whom the Athenians called the king of the tribe. It was also necessary that the city religion should have its supreme priest.

So here was a wall that would let through no moonshine.

Good should be done for its own sake and not because it is commanded by some version of religion’s God, especially since we know how often in the past religion’s God has been used for evil purposes.

Drew up magic from the ground and poured it into their shields, imbuing them with strange properties. Powered by the earth. There might be enough magic left in the ground for the old charms to still do their job. But a lead bullet, chemically propelled, pays as much attention to old fay magic as it might pay to a veil of cobwebs. It punches through

God must mean, among other things, that mystical and multitudinous balance of all things, by which they are at least able to stand up straight and endure; and any scientist who pretends to have exhausted this subject of ultimate sanity, I will call the lowest of religious fanatics.