test - pls ignore

[Bob Bernstein <rs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just a test...attached is a small text.


-- 
Bob Bernstein   

          And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
          Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

		  
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Yet we must not deal in too negative a fashion even with the
"external self." This self is not by nature evil, and the fact
that it is unsubstantial is not to be imputed to it as some kind
of crime. It is afflicted with metaphysical poverty: but all that
is poor deserves mercy. So too our outward self: as long as it
does not isolate itself in a lie, it is blessed by the mercy and
love of Christ. Appearances are to be accepted for what they are.
The accidents of a poor and transient existence have,
nevertheless, an effable value. They can be transparent media in
which we apprehend the presence of God in the world. It is
possible to speak of the external self as a mask: to do so is not
necessarily to reprove it. The mask that each man wears may well
be a disguise not only for that man's inner self but for God,
wandering as a pilgrim and exile in His own creation.


From _New Seeds of Contemplation_ (New York: New Directions,
1962), pp. 295-296