Thursday, July 14, 2011

 

Hate

Psalm 139.21:
Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
Aldous Huxley, Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934; rpt. New York: Vintage Books, 1960), p. 68:
Hate is like lust in its irresistible urgency; it is, however, more dangerous than lust, because it is a passion less closely dependent on the body. The emission of a glandular secretion suffices to put an end to lust, at any rate for a time. But hate is a spiritual passion, which no merely physiological process can assuage. Hate, therefore, has what lust entirely lacks—persistence and continuity: the persistence and continuity of purposive spirit. Moreover, lust is "perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame," only before action; hate, both before and during action. In the case of lust, the time of action is limited to a few minutes or seconds, and with the ending of the action coincides the temporary or permanent ending of that particular passion of lust. Very different is the case of hatred. Its action may continue for years; nor does the ending of any particular phase of the action necessarily entail the ending of the emotional state which was its justification.



<< Home
Newer›  ‹Older

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?