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  • Science and art may invent splendid modes of illuminating the apartments of the opulent; but these are all poor and worthless compared with the common light which the sun sends into all our windows, which he pours freely, impartially over hill and valley, which kindles daily the eastern and western sky; and so the common lights of reason, and conscience, and love, are of more worth and dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few.

    William Ellery Channing (1839). “Self-culture: An address introductory to the Franklin lectures, delivered at Boston, September, 1838”, p.4