Washington, DC, 1999.
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LIFE
TEMPORAL
LIFE TEMPORAL
[???] TO LIVE—WHAT IS IT? IS IT TO LABOR AND TO LOVE? IT IS THAT AND MORE. IT IS EVEN LESS THAN THAT: TO EAT AND DRINK.
[???] BUT THESE AND OTHERS ARE PARTICULAR MODES OF LIFE.
[???] WHAT, IN A GENERAL SENSE AND REDUCED TO ITS SIMPLEST AND LOWEST TERMS, CONSTITUTES LIFE? WHAT IS THE ONE UNFAILING UNIVERSAL CHARACTERISTIC OF LIFE? PRECISELY THIS: BREATH.
[???] BREATH IS THE STUFF LIFE IS MADE OF. IT BEGINS LIFE, IT BEARS LIFE, IT ENDS LIFE.
[???] BEHOLD: NOTHING LIVES BUT BREATHES; NOTHING BREATHES BUT LIVES.
[???] ONLY, MOST IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER, THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF BREATH: OUTER AND INNER, PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIC. THE ONE IS HORIZONTAL IN FORM AND IS THE ANIMAL KIND; THE OTHER IS VERTICAL AND IS THE HUMAN KIND; RESPIRATION AND ASPIRATION, RESPECTIVELY.
[???] ONE MAY THUS BE AN ANIMAL WITHOUT BEING MAN; BUT ONE CANNOT BE MAN WITHOUT BEING AN ANIMAL. THE VERTICAL LINE RISES OUT OF THE HORIZONTAL, AND DOMINATES THE HUMAN ARC.
[???] TO LIVE IS TO ASPIRE.
GABRIEL WELLS
CHRISTMAS, 1926
ARRANGED BY BRUCE ROGERS: PRINTED BY WILLIAM EDWIN RUDGE