TAKING ABSTRACTION TO AN EXTREME

emotion wisdom prayer ... take someone with strong emotion some wisdom and no prayer ... what kind of a thing would he be ... call him the abstract romantic ... make the emotion very strong and give the wisdom a particular and potent form and make the absence of prayer not just habitual but determined ... set the creature loose in bitter times and see what such a thing can do ... give him the charismatic power of oratory and the dramatic wisdom of set design and spectacle ... give him a word one word where all the others have but many ... and give him devotion to that word ... to the idea behind it ... the kind of skill and the kind of devotion that confuse the two in the power of their expression ... in willful disregard of any virtue the idea the object of the devotion might have had ... in violent regard only for its promotion only for its success ... how tall could such a man grow before he were cut down ... how far could such a practice spread before it were investigated and found wanting ... all four of its arms and legs broken