I only mention Samuel’s feast day today because some of Sistertech’s best friends are philosophers. I realize that it is rather “edgy” of me, but one does not always have control of one’s heart. Some of you agree, I’m sure, with BP — no, not that “BP”:
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
Now, Samuel is not high on the list of Sistertech’s “go to philosophers”. But one has to admire his spunk, at least on the polemical side. He never has struck me, however, as a “stand up guy”. I mean, really. The guy is deathly afraid of small pox. Flees his post. Surprise. His wife…, well you read it and then tell me:
He remained in Stratford until 1754, when the vestrymen of the Anglican Trinity Church in New York City considered him the logical choice to serve as after the first president of King’s College. Though reluctant to leave his family in Connecticut, Johnson ultimately took up the post, assisting in behind-the-scenes maneuverings to ensure the college would be explicitly Anglican, rather than nonsectarian. In the early years of the institution, Johnson was the sole instructor, primarily teaching classics and philosophy. Owing to his fear of smallpox, Johnson was frequently absent from the city, and increasingly shared his teaching responsibilities. When his wife died of smallpox, Johnson began to seek a means to leave his post. In 1763 he returned to his ministry at Stratford, where he died.
But let us not cast the first stone, shall we? Let us remember that Samuel, as with at least some philosopher are part of that peculiar breed of thinker. I suppose Peter might have had them in mind when he wrote the following:
But you are a chosen race, a royal philosophy club, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of The One In Charge who called you out of darkness into the marvelous light.