"...the theologians themselves have felt the insurmountable difficulties which their divinities presented to reason: they were so substantive, that as they felt the impossibility of withdrawing themselves out of the dilemma, they endeavoured to prevent man from reasoning, by throwing his mind into confusion--by continually augmenting the perplexity of those ideas, already so discordant, which they offered him of the gods. By these means they enveloped them in mystery, covered them with dense clouds, rendered them inaccessible to mankind: thus they themselves became the interpreters, the masters of explaining, according either to their fancy or their interest, the ways of those enigmatical beings they made him adore. For this purpose they exaggerated them more and more--neither time nor space, nor the entire of nature could contain their immensity--every thing became an impenetrable mystery." --Baron d"Holbach
"This dark night
I heard owl call this dark night,
When the light so bright had dimmed,
Saw his ghostly, silent flight,
Eerie sight, bone-white, sky-skimmed.
This night they walk, fox and deer,
Without fear, not here, for we
Are abed until the lark,
Though dogs bark, too dark to see.
Dawn will break, mother-of-pearl,
Day uncurl, unfurl, fill soon
With swifts. Till then shadows creep,
Blackbirds sleep, hares leap the moon."
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