Challenge on the Table

There is was.  The CHALLENGE.  It was on the table.  In the middle of the table.  Thomas might have put it there.  It looked like something he’d write:

There are the votaries of fashion, who, in this way, have at length become the victims of fashionable excess—in whom the very multitude of their enjoyments, has at last extinguished their power of enjoyment—who, with the gratifications of art and nature at command, now look upon all that is around them with an eye of tastelessness—who, plied with the delights of sense and of splendour even to weariness, and incapable of higher delights, have come to the end of all their perfection, and like Solomon of old, found it to be vanity and vexation.

Of course it might not be Thomas …had Thomas ever used the word “votary” before?  The CHALLENGE had many “v” words in it (e.g. “vanity” & “vexation” & “victims”), but what did this prove?  …And what about the BONUS CHALLENGE? – – – >

Love may be regarded in two different conditions. The first is, when its object is at a distance, and then it becomes love in a state of desire.The second is, when its object is in possession, and then it becomes love in a state of indulgence.

The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself?