"Hall of mirrors"

     "If the right hemisphere delivers 'the Other' – experience of whatever it is that exists apart from ourselves – this is not the same as the world of concrete entities 'out there' (it is certainly more than that), but it does encompass most of what we would think of as actually existing things, at least before we come to think of them at all, as opposed to the concepts of them, the abstractions and constructions we inevitably make from them, in conscious reflection, which forms the contribution of the left hemisphere. But what if the left hemisphere were able to externalise and make concrete its own workings – so that the realm of actually existing things apart from the mind consisted to a large extent of its own projections? Then the ontological primacy of right-hemisphere experience would be outflanked, since it would be delivering – not 'the Other', but what was already the world as processed by the left hemisphere. It would make it hard, and perhaps in time impossible, for the right hemisphere to escape from the hall of mirrors, to reach out to something that was truly 'Other' than, beyond, the human mind.
     "In essence this was the [culminating] achievement of the Industrial Revolution."

     Iain McGilchrist, The master and his emissary:  the divided brain and the making of the Western world, new revised edition (New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press, 2019), 386.

"Receive us . . . not troubled, not shrinking back on that day of death or uprooted by force"

Index of Medieval Art, below

"O Lord and Maker of all, and especially of this body of ours! O God and Father and Pilot of mankind! O Master of life and death! O Guardian and Benefactor of our souls! O You who make and change all seasonably by Your creative Word, . . . receive us, ready and not troubled by fear of You, not turning away in our last days, nor forcibly drawn from things of earth, as is the misfortune of souls loving the world and the flesh, but eagerly drawn to the heavenly life, everlasting and blessed, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

     St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Funeral oration On his brother, St. Caesarius 24, trans. McCauley, FC 22 (Funeral orations (Washington, DC:  Catholic University of America Press, 1953)), 25.  Trans. Liturgy of the hours for Friday in the 31st week of Ordinary time:

"Lord and Creator of all, and especially of your creature man, you are the God and Father and ruler of your children; you are the Lord of life and death, you are the guardian and benefactor of our souls. You fashion and transform all things in their due season through your creative Word, as you know to be best in your deep wisdom and providence. Receive. . . . us too at the proper time, when you have guided us in our bodily life as long as may be for our profit. Receive us prepared indeed by fear of you, but not troubled, not shrinking back on that day of death or uprooted by force like those who are lovers of the world and the flesh. Instead, may we set out eagerly for that everlasting and blessed life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen [(δέχοιο δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς ὕστερον ἐν καιρῷ εὐθέτῳ, οἰκονομήσας ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ἐφ' ὅσον ἂν ᾗ συμθέρον· καὶ δέχοιό γε διὰ τὸν σὸν φόβον ἑτοιμασθέντας, καὶ οὐ ταρασσομὲνους, οὐδὲ ὑποχωροῦντας ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τελευταίᾳ, καὶ βὶᾳ τῶν ἐντεῦθεν ἀποσπωμένους, ὃ τῶν φιλοκόσμων ψυχῶν πάθος καὶ φιλοσάρκων, αλλὰ προθύμος πρὸς τὴν αὐτόθεν ζωὴν τὴν μακραίωνά τε καὶ μακαρίαν, τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.)]."

     Greek from SC 405 (1995), , and PG 35, col. 788B-C.  A lovely illustration of this (St. Caesarius interpreted by me as both returning home upon exile as mentioned in this funeral oration and welcoming his brother and mother to "that everlasting and blessed life which is in Jesus Christ our Lord") would be Index of Medieval Art no. 49875.

"being and being known as a Christian"

"Although he possessed many important honors, his own first claim to dignity consisted in being and being known as a Christian."

     St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Funeral oration On his brother, St. Caesarius 10, trans. McCauley, FC 22 (Funeral orations (Washington, DC:  Catholic University of America Press, 1953)), 12.  Cf. "Their sole enjoyment in their children was that they be known as Christ's and called His" (4, p. 7).  This is, if memory serves, a theme of St. Gregory's.

"Every new object, clearly seen, opens up a new organ [of perception] in us"

"In his Anthropology, . . . Dr. Heinroth . . . calls my approach unique, for he says that my thinking works objectively.  Here he means that my thinking is not separate from objects; that the elements of the object, the perceptions of the object, flow into my thinking and are fully permeated by it; that my perception itself is a thinking, and my thinking a perception. . . .
     "I must admit that I have long been suspicious of the great and important-sounding task:  'know thyself.'  This has always seemed to me a deception practiced by a secret order of priests who wished to confuse humanity with impossible demands, to divert attention from activity in the outer world to some false, inner speculation.  The human being knows himself only insofar as he knows the world; he perceives the world only in himself, and himself only in the world.  Every new object, clearly seen, opens up a new organ of perception in us.
     "But the greatest help comes from our fellow men:  they have the advantage of being able to compare us with the world from their own standpoint, and thus they know us better than we ourselves can.
     "Since reaching the age of maturity, I have always paid strict attention to what others might know of me:  from them and in them, as in so many mirrors, I can gain a clearer idea of myself and what lies within me.
     "Here I exclude adversaries, for they find my existence odious, repudiate my goals, and condemn my means of reaching them as a mere waste of time.  Thus I pass them by and ignore them, for they offer me no help with the growth which is the point of my life.  But friends may call attention to my limitations or to the infinite in my being--in either case I listen to them and trust that they will truly instruct me."

"Hiebei bekenn' ich, daß mir von jeher die große und so bedeutend klingende Aufgabe: erkenne dich selbst, immer verdächtig vorkam, als eine List geheim verbündeter Priester, die den Menschen durch unerreichbare Forderungen verwirren und von der Thätigkeit gegen die Außenwelt zu einer innern falschen Beschaulichkeit verleiten wollten. Der Mensch kennt nur sich selbst, in sofern er die Welt kennt, die er nur in sich und sich nur in ihr gewahr wird. Jeder neue Gegenstand, wohl beschaut, schließt ein neues Organ in uns auf."

     Johann Wolfang von Goethe, "Significant help given by an ingenious turn of phrase [(Bedeutende Förderniß durch ein einziges geistreiches Wort)]," in Scientific studies, ed. & trans. Douglas Miller, Works 12  (New York:  Suhrkamp Publishers, 1988, 39 (39-41).  German:  Goethes Werke: Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Großherzogin Sophie von Sachsen: II. Abtheilung: Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften: 11. Band: Zur Naturwissenschaft: Allgemeine Naturlehre: I. Theil,  58-64. Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, 1893, p. 59, ll. 10-20.  I was put onto this by Iain McGilchrist, The master and his emissary, new expanded edition (New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press), 359-360, who, however, quotes a slightly different translation.