Non Fiction Authors

"People, even poor people, were in general more contented before the 1914-18 war than they are now, although not nearly so well provided with comforts and luxuries. Incidentally they were also more often people of strong individuality, "characters" or "personalities" as we might say; not of course always either virtuous or agreeable, but qualitatively distinctive, not mere drops in an ocean of mediocrity. And they were more content with their lot than we are. What then is the true criterion of contentment? Can it be anything but the acceptance of one's lot, whatever it may be? Or in other words, knowing one's place and fulfilling faithfully whatever function may be associated with it, with a pride in the quality of the product as the principal incentive rather than any tangible reward; knowing, perhaps, that not to want is better than to have; and above all being intelligent enough not to place one's best hopes in nothing but the satisfactions which a short sojourn in this world can bring. All these things are criteria of contentment, and at the same time they are universal ethical constituents of every religion and tradition."

"Now Euxenus realized that he was attached to a lofty ideal, and asked him at what point he would begin it. Apollonius answered: "At the point at which physicians begin, for they, by purging the bowels of their patients prevent some from being ill at all, and heal others." And having said this he declined to live upon a flesh diet, on the ground that it was unclean, and also that it made the mind gross; so he partook only of dried fruits and vegetables, for he said that all the fruits of the earth are clean. And of wine he said that it was a clean drink because it is yielded to men by so well-domesticated a plant as the vine; but he declared that it endangered the mental balance and system and darkened, as with mud, the ether which is in the soul. After then having thus purged his interior, he took to walking without shoes by way of adornment and clad himself in linen raiment, declining to wear any animal product."

"The opinion of the Greek writers at the beginning of the Christian era may be quoted as showing the high estimation in which Indian astronomy was held. In the Life of Appollonius of Tyana, the Greek philosopher and astrologer, written by Philo stratus about 210 CE, the wisdom and learning of Appollonius are set high above his contemporaries because he had studied astronomy and astrology with the sages of India."

"He preached to the people of Athens and other cities the purest and noblest ethics, and the phenomena he produced were as wonderful as they were numerous and well attested.... After crossing the Hindu Kush, Appollonius had been directed by a king to the abode of the Sages, ... by whom he was taught unsurpassed knowledge. His dialogues with the Corinthian Menippus indeed give us the esoteric catechism and disclose many an important mystery of nature. Appollonius was the friend, correspondent and guest of kings and queens, and no marvelous or "magic" powers are better attested than his. At the end of his long and wonderful life he opened an esoteric school at Ephesus, and died aged almost one hundred years."

"To speak falsely is the mark of a slave, but the truth is noble."

"The Visit of Apollonius to the North of India... While still a young man he heard of the existence and the Dwelling of the Brotherhood, from one who knew and collected strange tales. He paid little regard to it. But later... in the depths of his spirit decided to visit the North of India... The journey of Apollonius was long. He encountered numerous people upon his way. One of those whom he met... said, “I can be useful to you. He to Whom you journey is known to Me..." Apollonius never learned the name of the stranger. Reaching Taksila, Apollonius found the dwelling of the stranger, and... knocked... The door opened and a young Hindu invited Apollonius to enter... The door-keeper made a gesture and let Apollonius into a room where stood a table and two arm-chairs. Shortly the door opened and into the room entered a tall man, dressed in a kaftan with the insignia of a cavalry commander. Calling himself brother to the host, and as if knowing the purpose of Apollonius’s visit, he said, “My people shall accompany you tomorrow.” In the morning, in the courtyard, Apollonius saw several warriors and horses. They set out on their journey, hurrying towards the northern mountains. There the warriors left Apollonius."

"The soul that does not consider the question of the body’s self-sufficiency cannot make itself self-sufficient."

"A wonderful philosopher born in Cappadocia about the beginning of the first century; an ardent Pythagorean, who studied the Phoenician sciences under Euthydemus; and Pythagorean philosophy and other studies under Euxenus of Heraclea. According to the tenets of this school he remained a vegetarian the whole of his long life, fed only on fruit and herbs, drank no wine, wore vestments made only of plant-fibres, walked barefooted... He was initiated by the priests of the temple of Asclepios at Aegae, and learnt many of the "miracles" for healing the sick wrought by the god of medicine. Having prepared himself for a higher initiation by a silence of five years, and by travel, visiting Antioch, Ephesus, Pamphylia and other parts, he journeyed via Babylon to India. ... At Babylon he was initiated by the Chaldees and Magi. After his return from India, he shewed himself a true Initiate, in that the pestilences and earthquakes, deaths of kings and other events, which he prophesied duly happened. At Lesbos, the priests of Orpheus, being jealous of him, refused to initiate him into their peculiar mysteries, though they did so several years later."

"In my judgment excellence and wealth are direct opposites."

"If someone gives money to Apollonius, and the giver is someone considered respectable, he will take the money if he needs it. But he will not accept a fee for philosophy even if he does need it."

"Make yourself known as a philosopher, that is a free man."

"You must shun barbarians and not govern them since, barbarians as they are, it is not right that they should receive a benefit."

"Pythagoras said that medicine is the most godlike of arts. But if the most godlike, it should tend to the soul as well as the body, or else a living thing must be unhealthy, being diseased in its higher part."

"The natural philosopher Heraclitus said that man is naturally irrational. If this is true, as it is true, then everyone who enjoys futile glory should hide his face."

"You request my presence at the Olympic Games, and for that reason you have sent envoys. For myself, I would come for the spectacle of physical struggle, except that I would be abandoning the greater struggle for virtue."

"Greet your son Aristocleides from me. I pray he may not turn out like you, since you, too, were once an irreproachable young man."

"All wish to live in the nearness of God, but only the Hindus bring it to pass."

"Approve and pursue the kind that is in accordance with nature. But avoid the kind that claims to be inspired: people like that about tell lies about Gods, and urge us to do many foolish things."

"Where the Jesuits insisted on clear and simple postulates, the new mathematicians relied on a vague intuition of the inner structure of matter, whereas the Jesuits celebrated absolute certainty, the new mathematicians proposed a method rife with paradoxes, and seemed to revel in them; and whereas the Jesuits sought to avoid controversy at all cost, the new method was mired in intractable controversies... It was everything that the Jesuits thought mathematics must never be, and yet it flourished... It was known as the method of indivisibles."

"Theological and philosophical disputes could rage forever, he Christopher Clavius] believed, because there was no universally accepted way to decide who was right and who was wrong. ...But mathematics was different: with mathematics, the truth forces itself upon its audience whether they like it or not. One could dispute the Catholic doctrine of the sacraments, but one could not deny the Pythagorean theorem; and no one could deny the correctness of the new calendar, based as it was on the detailed mathematical calculations."

"It was clear to Clavius that Euclid's method was successful in doing precisely what the Jesuits were struggling so hard to accomplish: imposing a true, eternal, and unchallengeable order upon a seemingly chaotic reality."

"Catholics... believed that the grace of God was bestowed upon sinners only through the holy Church and its sacraments, enacted by an ordained priest. Protestants, conversely, believed in a "priesthood of all believers," meaning that God would bestow his grace directly upon them. Catholics believed that Christ was physically present in the bread and wine during the sacrament of the Mass. Protestants believed that Christ was either present everywhere (Luther) or that the Mass was a mere commemoration of his sufferings (Zwingli). Catholics believed that God would take into account a man's good works in this world in determining whether be saved or lost. Protestants believed that only faith and divine grace mattered. Catholics believed that the Bible required interpretation by the hierarchy and the traditions of the Church. Protestants believed that the Bible was a clear guide for righteous behavior, accessible to anyone. What these arguments had in common were that they were entirely inconclusive."

"...the whole point of studying and teaching mathematics was that it demonstrated how universal truth imposed itself upon the world—rationally, hierarchically, and inescapably. Ideally, the Jesuits believed, the truths of religion would be imposed on the world just like geometrical theorems, leaving no room for avoidance or denial by Protestant or other heretics and leading to the inevitable triumph of the Church."

"I saw the Indian Brahmans living on the earth and not on it, walled without walls, and with no possessions except the whole world."

"[Some] disobey the earth and sharpen knives against the animals to gain clothing and food. The Indian Brahmans disapproved of this personally and taught the Naked Philosophers of Egypt to disapprove of it too. From there Pythagoras, who was the first Greek to associate with Egyptians, borrowed the principle. He let the earth keep living creatures, but held that what the earth grows is pure, and so lived off that because it was sufficient to feed body and soul. Clothing made from dead creatures, which most people wear, he considered impure; he dressed in linen and, for the same reason, made his shoes of plaited bark. He derived many advantages from this purity, above all that of perceiving his own soul."

"The fact that the tragic story of Évariste Galois, the mathematical genius who burned brightly but all too briefly, is not as unusual as one might think among mathematicians of his and subsequent generations. It is, rather, the most famous and dramatic of an entire genre of mathematical stories that originated in the early decades of the nineteenth century but is still going strong today. Consider, for example... Niels Henrik Abel.. János Bolyai... Srinivasa Ramanujan... John Nash... Kurt Gödel... Alexander Grothendieck... Grigory Perelman... Among modern mathematicians, it seems, extreme eccentricity, mental illness, and even solitary death are not a matter of random misfortune. They are, rather... reserved only for the most outstanding members of the field."

"Plato said that virtue has no master [Republic 617e]. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself."

"Dr. Mantell lived successively at Lewes, Brighton, Clapham, and London in all of which places he sustained an extensive professional practice, both in medicine and surgery, and still found time, in consequence of his great industry, to cultivate geology and the allied sciences, especially comparative anatomy, and to give many lectures on these subjects, in compliance with invitations from various towns and cities. As a lecturer, he was lucid, animated, and eloquent; and having the advantage of a noble presence, with a voice of great power and of a fine musical cadence, his appearance was eminently attractive. ...His well deserved celebrity insured on the part of the public a welcome reception to several important works, which, in the course of a few years, he wrote and published."

"Petrifactions and their Teachings ...is a very interesting and instructive guide through the British Museum and is fitted to be a pioneer in palæontology generally."

"Thirty years ago, his splendid quarto... devoted to the geology of Sussex, his native county in England, made its appearance. It was followed, at the end of five years, by a thinner quarto, equally a finished production... of the geology of the south-east of England, including Sussex and Tilgate Forest. These original works, abounding with interesting and instructive observations, established the author's reputation throughout Europe as an able geologist, and as an acute and successful expositor."

"Every walk we take offers subjects for profound meditation,—every pebble that attracts our notice, matter for serious reflection; and contemplating the incessant dissolution and renovation which are taking place around us in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature, we are struck by the force and beauty of the exclamation of the poet— "My heart is awed within me, when I think Of the great miracle which still goes on In silence round me—the perpetual work Of Thy Creation, finished, yet renewed For ever!""

"Dr. Mantell, a number of years ago, sustained a severe injury on the spine, in consequence of a fall from his carriage, and an incurable tumor arose, which, by its pressure upon the nerves of the spinal chord, produced at first temporary paralysis, and subsequently through life, frequent and intense neuralgic suffering, attended by great emaciation. Still his powerful and enthusiastic mind rose above his sufferings, although they often deprived him of sleep. He wrote several of his works while he was a martyr to pain; at the same time he continued his professional visits, and at the bed side of his patients, and when in society at home or abroad, he assumed a degree of cheerfulness which might have led any one to suppose that he was in perfect health. During the last week of his life he suffered intensely, and was deprived almost entirely of sleep; still, although observed to look unusually ill, he gave a public lecture, with his usual animation, two days before his exit, and visited his patients the very day before he died."

"Living in the midst of a most interesting geological district, his quick appreciation could not fail to be struck with its interesting characteristics. As on his professional visits, he rode or drove over the South Downs and Weald of Sussex, he was continually searching for the organic treasures imbedded in the quarries or lying by the roadside, which afforded him an inexhaustible source of delight and instruction; and he thus accumulated materials which eventually enabled him to establish the fresh-water character of the Wealden,—a discovery which alone will hand down his name to the latest posterity as one of the great founders of the science of Geology,—and brought together the fragments of fossil bones which afterwards gave him the power of building up the skeletons of those gigantic reptiles, the hyleosaurus, iguanodon, pelorosaurus, and others, with which he astonished and delighted, not only the public generally, but the scientific world. The number of specimens so collected amounted to upwards of 1,200, and with these he founded the Mantellian Museum, which was visited, while he lived at Lewes, by the most eminent men of the day; among others by Baron Cuvier, and by the Royal Princes. This collection he afterwards removed to Brighton, when he went to reside there, and he made great efforts to have it established in the county from the strata of which it had been gathered, as the nucleus of a local geological museum, but the requisite funds were not forthcoming, and it was ultimately sold to the British Museum..."

"It is surely unnecessary to dwell on the interest and importance of a study which instructs us that every pebble we tread upon bears the impress of the Almighty's hand, and affords evidence of Creative wisdom; that every grain of sand, every particle of dust scattered by the wind, may be composed of the aggregated skeletons of beings, so minute as to elude our unassisted vision, but which possessed an organization as marvellous as our own;—a science discoveries have realized the wildest imaginings of the poet,—whose realities far surpass in grandeur and sublimity the most imposing fictions of romance;—a science whose empire is the earth, the ocean, the atmosphere, the heavens;—whose speculations embrace all elements, all space, all time;—objects the most minute, objects the most colossal;—carrying its researches into the smallest atom which the microscope can render accessible to our visual organs,—and comprehending all the phenomena in the boundless Universe, which the powers of the telescope can reveal."

"It seems scarcely credible, that but little more than a century ago it was a matter of serious question with naturalists, whether the petrified shells imbedded in the rocks and strata were indeed shells that had been secreted by molluscous animals; or whether these bodies, together with the teeth, bones, leaves, wood, &c., found in a fossil state, were not formed by what was then termed the plastic power of the earth; in like manner as minerals, metals, and crystals."

"In the latter part of the seventeenth century, there were several eminent men in England who were greatly in advance of the age in which they lived, and strenuously exerted themselves to discover and promulgate the true principles of Geology. Among these Dr. Martin Lister, physician to Queen Anne, was one of the most distinguished. This accomplished naturalist in his great work on shells... figures and describes many fossil shells as real animal productions, and carefully compares them with recent species. He also recognised the distinction of strata by the organic remains they contain; and to him the honour is due of having first suggested the construction of geological maps..."

"A work upon the plan originally contemplated by the Author seems still to be required, to initiate the young and uninstructed in the study of those MEDALS 0F CREATION—those electrotypes of nature—the mineralized remains of the plants and animals which successively flourished in the earlier ages of our planet, in periods incalculably remote, and long antecedent to all human history and tradition. With this conviction the present volumes are offered... as a guide for the Student and the Amateur Collector of fossil remains; for the intelligent Observer who may desire to possess a general knowledge of the subject, without intending to pursue Geology as a science; and for the Tourist who may wish, in the course of his travels, to employ profitably a leisure hour in quest of those interesting memorials of the ancient physical revolutions of our globe, which he will find everywhere presented to his observation."

"Our beautiful planet is indeed worthy of our study; it was once our cradle—it will soon be our grave: between the dawn and the night of life, it is the scene of our busy action, and from it we shall rise to another state of being."

"A mere savage, ignorant and brutal, and the creature of appetite alone, can never rise from his degradation, until he has learned to draw from the mineral kingdom the instruments of arts and civilization, or, at least, to use the aids that are thus obtained. The axe, the hoe, the plough, the loom, are inseparable means and companions of his advancement."

"If I have succeeded in explaining in a satisfactory manner, how by laborious and patient investigation, and the successful application of other branches of natural philosophy, the wonders of geology have been revealed—if I have removed but from one intelligent mind, any prejudice against scientific inquiries, which may have been excited by those who have neither the relish nor the capacity for philosophical pursuits—if I have been so fortunate as to kindle in the hearts of others, that intense and enduring love and admiration of natural knowledge, which I feel in my own,—or have illuminated the mental vision with that intellectual light, which once kindled can never be extinguished, and which reveals to the soul the beauty, and wisdom, and harmony of the works of the Eternal, I shall indeed rejoice, for then my exertions will not have been in vain. And although my humble name may be soon forgotten, and all record of my labours be effaced, yet the influence of that knowledge, however feeble it may be, which has emanated from my researches, will remain for ever; and, by conducting to new and inexhaustible fields of inquiry, prove a never-failing source of the most pure and elevated gratification."

"Whether we speak of the cedar, the oak, the lichens, or the grasses, all equally derive their support from the elements afforded by the mineral world, which, in its widest sense, includes not only the solid earth, but its waters, and all its fiuids—its atmosphere, and all its gases."

"In circumstances where the uninstructed and incurious eye can perceive neither novelty nor beauty, he who is imbued with a taste for natural science will everywhere discover an inexhaustible mine of pleasure and instruction, and new and stupendous proofs of the power and goodness of the Eternal! For every rock in the desert, every boulder on the plain, every pebble by the brook-side, every grain of sand on the sea-shore, is fraught with lessons of wisdom to the mind which is fitted to receive and comprehend their sublime import. "From millions take thy choice, In all that lives a guide to God is given; Ever thou hear'st some guardian angel's voice, When nature speaks of heaven!""

"In the prosecution of these researches... extraneous fossils were no longer regarded merely as subjects of natural history, but as memorials of revolutions which have swept over the face of the earth, in ages antecedent to all human record and tradition."

"The following pages contain the result of my labours. They have been composed under circumstances particularly unfavourable to literary pursuits; and such as those only can duly appreciate, who are aware of the numerous and anxious duties, which a country practitioner is called upon to perform."

"It appears that in the lapse of ages, the sea alternately encroaches on and retreats from the land, and the districts it formerly occupied become the habitation of terrestrial animals and vegetables;—but other revolutions succeed, the sea returns to its ancient bed, and the countries from which it retires, are again fitted for the reception of their former inhabitants."

"Upon fixing my residence at Lewes, I resolved to devote my leisure moments to the investigation of the "Organic remains of a former world"..."

"I had every reason to believe that my collection would be permanently established in Sussex, and serve as the foundation for a County Museum. In that expectation I have... been utterly disappointed. ...after the death of my noble and lamented friend, the late Earl of Egremont, the munificent patron of the Institution, the proposed measure was abandoned... I have therefore, in compliance with the wishes of my scientific friends, disposed of my entire collection to the Trustees of the British Museum. ...that collection, which would have been of tenfold importance if located in the district from whence it was derived, and whose physical structure it was designed to illustrate, is now broken up, and will be dispersed through the cabinets of our National Institution... a time will assuredly come, when their endeavours to promote a taste for scientific knowledge among the intelligent inhabitants of Sussex, and to direct attention to the investigation of its physical phenomena, will he properly appreciated, and the failure of their attempt to secure to the county a collection so rich in its peculiar fossil and mineral productions, be remembered with regret."

"Every artificial excavation—every well and cellar—every cut for a fort, common road, railway, or canal—every quarry—every tunnel through a mountain—and every pit and gallery of a mine bored into the solid earth, furnish means of investigating its interior. Still more do the inland precipices, and the rocky promontories and headlands along the rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans; the naked mountain-sides ribbed with strata, that bound the defiles, gorges, and valleys; the ruins accumulated at the feet of lofty pinnacles and barriers, and those that have been transported and scattered, far and wide, over the earth; present us with striking features of the internal structure of our planet. Most of all, do the inclined strata push up their hard edges, in varied succession, and thus faithfully disclose the form and substance of the deep interior, as it exists many miles and leagues beneath the observer's feet."

"Although we may not be able to mark the precise boundary beyond which organic beings do not appear, it is certain that in all geological epochs, subsequent, at least, to that of the primary rocks, animals and plants have existed in successive families; they have been created, have lived their day, and by the operation of physical causes, have perished; while new races have been called into being, and in their turn have ceased to be, in order to give room to other families, requiring, perhaps, a different climate, and a new order of things."

"Every part of the earth's surface presents unequivocal proofs that the elevation of the bed of the ocean in some places, and the subsidence of the dry land in others, have been, and are still, going on; and that, in truth, the continual changes in the relative position of the land and water, are the effects of laws which the Divine Author of the Universe has impressed on matter, and thus rendered it capable of perpetual renovation:— Art, Empire, Earth itself, to change are doomed; Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vail, And gulf's the mountain's mighty mass entombed, And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloomed."