Clergy

"I seek God, but where can I find him? (1028, 1995)"

"Oh, how sweet was the conversation I had with heaven this morning! It was such that, even if I wanted to try to tell you everything, I could not; there were things that cannot be translated into human language without losing their profound and heavenly meaning. The Heart of Jesus and mine, if I may say so, merged. There were no longer two hearts beating, but only one. My heart had disappeared, like a drop of water lost in the sea. Jesus was paradise, the king. The joy within me was so intense and profound that I could no longer contain myself; the most delightful tears flooded my face. (273, 1995)"

"Patience!... I suffer, it is true, but I enjoy it very much. (206, 1995)"

"I want to suffer. This is my desire. (1051, 1995)"

"Jesus tells me that in love it is he who delights me; in pain, however, it is I who delight him. (335, 1995)"

"I am not worthy to tell you what happened during this period of superlative martyrdom. I was confessing our boys on the evening of the fifth, when all of a sudden he was filled with extreme terror at the sight of a heavenly figure who appeared before my mind's eye. He was holding a kind of tool, similar to a very long iron blade with a sharp point, from which fire seemed to be coming out. Seeing all this and watching this figure violently hurl the aforementioned tool into my soul was all one and the same thing. I barely uttered a moan; I felt like I was dying. I told the boy to leave, because I felt ill and no longer had the strength to continue. (1065, 1995)"

"I will never tire of praying to Jesus. It is true that my prayers are more deserving of punishment than reward, because I have disgusted Jesus too much with my countless sins; but in the end, he will take pity on me. (209, 1995)"

"(About the wife of the champion, when they went to San Giovanni Rotondo in 1953; a week later, as widely predicted by journalists at the time, Coppi left his wife to go and live with Giulia Occhini) Mrs. Coppi, be careful not to get hit on."

"I no longer understand anything. I do not know if my prayers are such, or if they are strong resentments that my heart directs toward its God in the fullness of its pain. (1029, 1995)"

"(At the beginning of Giacomo Gaglione‘s book, ’'Allo specchio della mia anima'‘ (In the Mirror of My Soul)) Never let the Passion of Christ leave your mind if you want to share in his triumphs."

"Before coming here to see me... go to Monte Sant'Angelo and invoke the help and protection of the Archangel Michael."

"Even at the altar, my father, God alone knows how much violence I must do to myself to avoid further sins. (278, 1995)"

"Poor my dear Mum, how much you love me! (276, 1995)"

"Bless the hand that strikes you, for it is always the hand of a father."

"(About Giacomo Gaglione) With Jesus on the Cross, with Jesus in holy Paradise."

"Blasphemy brings God's curse upon your home and is the surest way to go to hell."

"Where there is more sacrifice, there is more generosity."

"Circumstances make the hero, but everyday courage makes the righteous man."

"God's omnipotence is not limited to planet Earth alone. On other planets there are creatures and other beings who have not sinned as we have and who pray to God."

"Better a mouse between two cats than a sick man between two doctors."

"Here, finally, is the return of the month of beautiful Mommy. (357, 1995)"

"Every holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know. It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the holy Sacrifice of the Mass."

"Is he a saint? Giacomino is a great saint!"

"The sight of Jesus in distress caused me great pain, so I wanted to ask him why he was suffering so much. I received no answer. However, his gaze returned to those priests. But shortly afterwards, almost horrified and as if tired of looking, he withdrew his gaze and when he raised it towards me, to my great horror, I saw two tears running down his cheeks. He moved away from that crowd of priests, with a great expression of disgust on his face, shouting: Butchers! (350, 1995)"

"Vainglory is an enemy of souls who have consecrated themselves to the Lord and given themselves to the spiritual life. (396, 1995)"

"The most beautiful creed is the one that bursts from your lips in the darkness, in sacrifice, in pain, in the supreme effort of an infallible will for good; it is the one that, like a bolt of lightning, pierces the darkness of your soul; it is the one that, in the flash of the storm, lifts you up and leads you to God."

"In the Diary which begins 1845 there is a much larger infusion of secular matter. I find myself deep in the literary history of the eighteenth century, reading Gray's Correspondence, Prior's Life of Goldsmith, Hume's Life and Correspondence ..."

"Pattison lived through a formative period in the history of the modern university in England, and in his person he embodied many of the transformations that occurred in the half century he spent at Oxford. To re-trace his life and thought is therefore to explore through the eyes of a key figure the elements of that transition to the modern university: the secularization of intellectual life, the emergence of the professional academic, and the challenge posed by the emergent German idea of the university to the traditions of English university life. When Pattison arrived at Oxford as an undergraduate in 1832, the University's chief purpose was to provide a gentlemanly education for intending clergy."

"I wanted not merely to get up my classics, but to penetrate to the secrets and mysteries which I vaguely understood to be somehow wrapt up in books, though they had not, as yet, been revealed to me. I was disconcerted to find that none of my new acquaintance had any share of this yearning curiosity."

"... I began at the beginning, and read Hind's Logic, Whately's Logic, Reid's Enquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense. But the book which was of most use to me on these subjects was Stewart's Elements. I found on odd volume of this in my father's study at Hauxwell. It attracted me; I read and re-read it with increasing satisfaction. To Dugald Stewart, an author now obsolete, I owe the first infusion of a taste for philosophical inquiry. ...."

"Another book read this term seized upon my interest in an exceptional way, this was Gibbon's Autobiography. I had long before got hold of a few extracts from this, which had found their way into Lord Sheffield's Memoir of the author, prefixed to an edition of the Decline and Fall which we had at home. Those extracts had fixed themselves in my memory. I now procured the whole book and devoured it, reading it again and again till I could repeat whole paragraphs. Gibbon, in fact, supplied the place of a college tutor; he not only found me advice, but secretly inspired me with the enthusiasm to follow it."

"My father's views for me, which were to guide his choice of college, were twofold. He really wanted me to learn; to get a good education, not so much with the idea of my making my way in the world, as from the value which he had learned to set upon intellect. ... He was fond of repeating the sentence in the Eton Latin grammar—" Concessi Cantabrigiam ad capiendum ingenii cultum. . . ." This was the proverb which presided over my whole college life. Though often dimmed, it was never lost sight of, and however much I may have had to hate the grammar on other accounts, I think no other sentence of any book has had so large a share in moulding my mind and character as that one. It was then essential to my father's plans for me that the college to be selected for me should be one where the instruction given was reputed to be good."

"But there was in my father's mind another sentiment, less creditable to him, than the wish to give me the best education to be had. I mean those social aspirations which he continued to nourish, though by his removal to the remote situation of Hauxwell, and consequent detachment from the Castle, he was no longer able to gratify them. He had the instinct of good society, and liked to live with gentlemen, and to know what was going on in the upper world. His acquaintance with the peerage was accurate; he must have read Debrett at that time more than the Bible. Hence, in estimating colleges he was led to take the footman's view, and to prefer one which was frequented by the sons of gentlemen."

"Keep the crucified Jesus in your heart and all the crosses of the world will seem like roses to you. Those who have felt the pricks of the crown of thorns of the Savior, who is our head, do not feel the other wounds in any way. (III, 827)"

"This blessed war will be a salutary purge for our Italy, for the Church of God; it will reawaken in the Italian heart the faith that lay there hidden, as if asleep and suffocated by evil desires; it will cause beautiful flowers to bloom in the Church of God, from soil that was almost parched and dry. But, my God, before this happens, what a harsh trial awaits us. We must go through an entire night covered in the thickest darkness, the likes of which our homeland has never seen before. (583, 1995)"

"My God! What martyrdom is the temptation of vainglory. (314, 1995)"

"A man who does not know what has been thought by those who have gone before him is sure to set an undue value upon his own ideas—ideas which have perhaps been tried and found wanting. As accumulated learning stifles the mental powers, so original thinking has been known to bring about a puffy, unsubstantial mental condition."

"Only one thing remains my friend: death. (767, 1995)"

"About 1500 it seemed as if Europe was about to cast off at one effort the slough of feudal barbarism, and to step at once into the fair inheritance of the wisdom and culture of the ancient world. The Church led the van, and smiled on free inquiry and the new learning. About the third decennium of the century the resistance of the obscurantists was organised, the Catholic reaction set in, and nascent humanism was submerged beneath the rising tide of theological passion and the fatal and fruitless controversies of Lutheran, Calvinist, and Catholic, to the rival cries of the Bible and the Church. The " sacrificio d'intelletto " of Loyola took the place of the free and rationalising spirit with which Erasmus had looked out upon the world of men."

"Gassendi, le meilleur philosophe des littérateurs et le meilleur littérateur des philosophes... [Gassendi, the greatest philosopher among literati and the greatest literato among philosophers...]"

"The last quarter of 's life was spent on projects that grew out of his earlier work at Greenwich Observatory as assistant observer to Astronomer Royal Bradley. From studies of Bradley's records Mason prepared tables for and he was able to improve Mayer's Tables of the Moon by comparing them with the Greenwich records. was established by in 1767, immediately after his appointment as Astronomer Royal, and it has appeared annually ever since. In the first issue the latitude and longitude of are given as found by Mason and Dixon in 1761. The comment follows that "it is probable that the Situation of few Places is better determined." To the Almanac for 1773 Mason contributed a catalogue of stars. The preface, written by Maskelyne, states: To this are annexed... a Catalogue of 387 fixed Stars.... adapted to the beginning of the year 1760... calculated from the late Dr. Bradley's Observations by Mr. Charles Mason, formerly his Assistant. ...After the Catalogue follow some Memoranda... communicated by the same Mr. Mason."

"The ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus, propounded an hypothesis of the constitution of matter, and gave the name of atoms to the ultimate unalterable parts of which he imagined all bodies to be constructed. In the 17th century, Gassendi revived this hypothesis, and attempted to develope it, while Newton used it with marked success in his reasonings on physical phenomena; but the first who formed a body of doctrine which would embrace all known facts in the constitution of matter, was Roger Joseph Boscovich, of Italy, who published at Vienna, in 1759, a most important and ingenious work, styled Theoria Philosophiæ Naturalis ad unicam legem virium, in Natura existentium redacta. This is one of the most profound contributions ever made to science; filled with curious and important information, and is well worthy of the attentive perusal of the modern student. In more recent days, the theory of Boscovich has received further confirmation and extension in the researches of Dalton, Joule, Thomson, Faraday, Tyndall, and others."

"The issue [of the Nautical Almanac] for 1774 first introduces Mason's improvements of Mayer's Lunar Tables. The preface written by Maskelyne on July 2, 1772, states: To this Ephemeris are annexed 1220 Longitudes and Latitudes of the Moon deduced from the late Dr. Bradley's Observations. ...The greater part of these calculations were made during Dr. Bradley's Lifetime by himself and his Assistant Mr. Charles Mason; and what was left unfinished has been completed by Mr. Mason since, at the Instance and at the Expense of the Board of Longitude. A Series of Observations this for Number and Exactness far excelling anything of the kind which the World ever saw before... Accordingly the Board of Longitude have thought proper to employ Mr. Mason farther in making the necessary calculations for improving Mayer's printed Tables under my Direction..."

"And at Greenwich Mason first learned to know Mayer's Tables of the Moon. ...Bradley first reported on Mayer's Tables on February 10, 1756, and finally on April 14, 1760. With the assistance of Charles Mason, Bradley had compared positions of the Moon as predicted in the Tables with positions as observed at Greenwich. Eleven hundred comparisons led to the comment: So far as it will depend upon the lunar tables the true longitude of a ship at sea may in all cases be found within about half a degree and generally much nearer. It remained to be examined within what limits the errors arising from observations actually taken at sea could be contained. This test was carried out for Bradley by Captain Campbell, of H.M.S. Royal George, on cruises near Ushant in 1758 and 1759. A sextant was made especially for the trials by John Bird, instrument maker for Greenwich Observatory. Bradley's final comment reads: However great the difficulties of finding the longitude by this method seem to be, they are not insuperable, or such as ought to deter those whom it most nearly concerns from attempting to remove them. James Bradley was now nearing the end of his days. His hand was faltering. Nevil Maskelyne and Charles Mason received the torch he had carried. They made the development of the method of lunar distances for finding the longitude at sea a major concern of the rest of their lives."

"James Bradley had not published his Greenwich observations. In law they proved to be his personal property, and after his death they were claimed successfully by his only child, a daughter, and her husband, the Reverend Samuel Peach. They in turn gave the records to Oxford University where Bradley had studied and had held the Savilian professorship of Astronomy. The first of Bradley's records to be published was the catalogue of stars that Mason prepared for the Nautical Almanac of 1773. The Clarendon Press of Oxford University undertook the publication of all the records. The first volume appeared in 1798 under the editorship of Professor . It includes Mason's star catalogue. Mason and Hornsby carried on an extensive correspondence about the Greenwich records that undoubtedly aided in preparing them for the press. The second volume, edited by Dr. Abram Robertson, appeared in 1805. Finally in 1832 there was published The Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of Reverend James Bradley under the editorship of Professor S. P. Rigaud."

"James Bradley's successor as Astronomer Royal was , who lived only two years after his appointment. Maskelyne succeeded him early in 1765 and thus became the fifth Astronomer Royal at Greenwich."

"Boyle entertains the hypothesis of a universal matter, the concept of atoms of different shapes and sizes, and the possibility of existence of substances that might properly be called elements... The atomic theory as originally conceived by Democritus and Epicurus, developed by Lucretius, and resurrected by Gassendi from about 1647 on, was doubtless the source from which Boyle derived his ideas, ...as he cites both Epicurus and Gassendi. Boyle, however... avoids any dogmatic assertion of these hypotheses. It is plain, however, that these atoms or "corpuscles" as he calls them are a constant element of his thought."

"The registers of Bradley's observations occupied thirteen folio volumes, and at his death were taken possession of by his executors. In 1767 the Government, under the impression of their being public property, commenced a law-suit with a view to their recovery, which, however, they abandoned in 1776. As soon as it was ascertained that the Government had relinquished their claim, the manuscripts were transmitted to Lord North, who was then Chancellor of the University of Oxford, to be presented by him to the University. They were finally printed, at the expense of the University, in two folio volumes. The first volume was published in 1798, under the superintendence of Dr. Hornsby. The second volume was prepared for the press by Dr. Robertson, and appeared in 1805. These two volumes contain the observations made by Bradley, from 1750 to 1762. The original manuscripts, as well as the registers of the observations made by Bradley, at Greenwich, previous to 1750, are deposited in the , Oxford."

"The vast mass of observations made by Bradley... two volumes... continued inapplicable to any useful purpose, in consequence of their not being reduced, until... Bessel undertook to execute this task... The results of his labours were published in 1818, at Königsberg, in one folio volume, entitled Fundamenta Astronomiæ pro anno 1755, deducta ea Observationibus viri incomparabilis James Bradley, in specula Astronomica Grenovicensi per annos 1750 1762 institutis. In this work Bessel has determined, by a series of elaborate investigations, the quantity and laws of refraction, the maximum value of aberration, and other fundamental points of astronomy, as deducible from Bradley s observations."

"The observations made with the zenith sector at Kew and Wanstead, by the intercomparison of which Bradley was conducted to the discovery of aberration, were at one time supposed to be lost; but having been found among the papers of the late Dr. Hornsby, they were published by Professor Rigaud, in 1832, at the expense of the University, of which the immortal author of the discovery forms one of the brightest ornaments."