“The rudest heathen that worshipped Canopus, or the Caabah Black-Stone, he, as we saw, was superior to the horse that worshipped nothing at all! Nay there was a kind of lasting merit in that poor act of his; analogous to what is still meritorious in Poets: recognition of a certain endless divine beauty and significance in stars and all natural objects whatsoever.”

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Priest

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Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… 1795–1881

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