D--The Book of Wesley

The Book of Wesley

Being an Inconcise Compendium

of Irrational Thought

in the Fields of Science, Language,

Philosophy, Music, and Theology

Which

Borders on Truth—

Most of the Time.

By J. Wesley Allen

MCMLXXXIV

Introduction to the Fifth Hundred

Sometime referred to as “Wesley’s 500”, The Book of Wesley enters the last discovered 101 points. The existence of point 501 indicates that Wesley had intended to continue, but either lost interest or became unable to go on. This may have coincided with his “rescue” from the dimensional trap in which he had been held for over twenty years. He must have had a sort of Rip Van Winkle experience as he re-entered contemporary society. His concluding point, therefore, becomes a touchstone for the hundred that lead up to it. “#501: It is a hard thing to make a living as a professional victim.” Wesley spends a great deal of his time in this final hundred contemplating love in all its varieties.

Nathan Everett, editor

August 11, 1986

CDX

401. All things are forever temporary.

402. There can be no healing where there is no injury.

403. Many believe that falling is the penalty for breaking the law of gravity. Actually, falling is the penalty for obeying the law of gravity. When you break the law of gravity, you do not fall.

404. Many of our laws extract a more severe penalty for obedience than for disobedience.

405. While it may be noble to maintain a respect for prophecy, no matter what the faith, we are all endangered when we place in authority a person who believes in the imminent destruction of the world or the promised rescue of a savior.

406. Prophecy itself is frequently the cause of its own fulfillment.

407. Violence is a byproduct of assuming the infinite.

408. Humanity has always assumed the possibility of escape: over the mountain, across the ocean, to the moon, to the stars.

 

409. This ability to go elsewhere inevitably leads to a cavalier attitude toward the treatment of the present environment.

410. The religious notion of a hereafter reinforces the temporal nature of the present. Even nihilists assume they will escape from the present.