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Excess, it seems to me, may justly be praised if we do not praise it to excess. In a
lukewarm world it is the enemy of lukewarmness. It is a protest against virtues that sail
among the shallows of caution and timidity and never venture among the perils of the
high seas. St. Paul might not have been so good a Christian if he had not previously been an excessive persecutor of Christians. All genius, whether religious or artistic, is a kind
of excess.