A stone-mason may be a mere machine for breaking rock or he may be an architect’s assistant. It all depends on his point of view. If he is absolutely ignorant of the purpose of the stone which he hammers he will be the machine. But if he has even a remote idea that his block of stone is going to be set somewhere between the base line and the finial of a cathedral of a thousand years his work graduates into the artistic. The knowledge that the earnest expectation of the cathedral waits for his chunk of stone makes that stone mean something more than stone to him.—T. C. McClelland.
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Purpose of God—See [Plans, Human, Transcended].
Purpose, Organic—See [Design of God].
Puzzling, Things that are—See [Mystery in Religion].
Q
Qualities Admired—See [Appreciation of Character].
QUARRELSOMENESS
The New York Times comments upon a disagreeable trait in a great artist:
The quarrelsomeness of Whistler began with a combination of nervous fastidiousness and temperamental gaiety of disposition. That spring, that elasticity of mind which kept his hand so full of craftsmanship, was the source of his eternal youth, his quips and cranks and love of teasing. In time the habit became fixt and Whistler developed a Mephistophelean dexterity in touching the raw, ever losing thereby one friend after another. Like the dog that has a reputation for biting, the genial master made a desert about his den, but consoled himself with noting how efficacious this reputation was in holding off bores.