My inheritance, how wide and fair!
Time is my fair seed-field, of Time I'm heir.
The ethical side of Paul's character is reflected in the appended quotations from some of his essays:
Sacrifice is always the lot of the divine man.
What is "to do good"? It is to think of other people.
Joy only comes to Faust when at last he is labouring for others. As Wolsey puts it in Henry VIII: "Love thyself last," and "bear peace in thy right hand."
The Epicurean idea is vile and detestable. If everyone thinks only of his own indulgence, how can the wherewithal for that indulgence be forthcoming? What is the use of man having all his glorious gifts of character and intellect if he does not use them? Why is man made so different from the animals if he is to be the mere slave of his passions?
Stoicism finally degenerates into mere pessimism.
The great defect of Puritanism was its hostility to Art; for Art glorifies and ennobles Life.
"What is the final cause of the Universe?" This is the old problem of the philosophers. Goethe's lines leap to the mind:
"How, when and where?
The Gods make no reply;
To causes give thy care,
And cease to question why."