Can we ring the bells backward? Can we unlearn the arts that pretend to civilize, and then burn the world? There is a march of science; but who shall beat the drums for its retreat?
Interpretation
The quote questions the destructive aspects of civilization and technology, suggesting a need to reconsider our progress.
Charles Lamb's quote prompts deep reflection on the consequences of technological and scientific advancement. It highlights the irony of progress, where civilization may lead to destruction rather than enlightenment. Lamb is asking whether we can reverse our advancements or abandon the arts that often mislead us, and calls for an awareness of the potential negative impacts of our scientific march—a reminder to balance progress with consideration for its repercussions.
In practice
During a lecture on technology's impact on society, one might quote this to emphasize the need for critical reflection on progress.
Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see, So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee. As still to the star of its worship, though clouded, The needle points faithfully o'er the dim sea, So dark when I roam in this wintry world shrouded, The hope of my spirit turns trembling to Thee.
The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.
Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour, I 've seen my fondest hopes decay; I never loved a tree or flower But 't was the first to fade away. I never nurs'd a dear gazelle, To glad me with its soft black eye, But when it came to know me well And love me, it was sure to die.
May my last breath be drawn through a pipe, and exhaled in a jest.
A pun is not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit. It is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.
Your mind makes out the orange by seeing it, hearing it, touching it, smelling it, tasting it and thinking about it but without this mind, you call it, the orange would not be seen or heard or smelled or tasted or even mentally noticed, it's actually, that orange, depending on your mind to exist! Don't you see that? By itself it's a no-thing, it's really mental, it's seen only of your mind. In other words it's empty and awake.
Where is the indignation about the fact that the US and USSR have thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?
I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic make-up, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life.
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