"Welcome the unforeseen," he says again, by way of a
counsel of perfection in the matter of culture, "but give to [35] your life unity, and bring the unforeseen within the lines of your plan." Bring, we should add, the Great Possibility at least within the lines of your plan--your plan of action or production; of morality; especially of your conceptions of religion.
After prolonged consultation, the working-plan adopted was recognized as not so much a "counsel of perfection" as a frank adjustment of ideals to what was practical within the limits of time, space and scope proposed (2).
Ideals--"counsel of perfection"--drive our work, but compromise is unavoidable as you try to match the content with its users via the technology of the medium through which it is delivered.
But perhaps that is a
counsel of perfection. Fortunately the biographies of all those mentioned above appear in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
And the suggestion that they time these blessed events with the precision of a moon landing, so that they never interfere with a sudden promotion, may be good advice but is a
counsel of perfection. It is equivalent to telling a spouse to "drive carefully, dear." In real life, they never listen, and accidents do happen.
She took the command to love your enemies seriously, not just as a
counsel of perfection for a select few, but as a standard for Christian discipleship, which put her very much at odds with the mainstream.
This is indeed a
counsel of perfection, unlikely to be heeded by writers who think they have something to say.
In fact, the aim has been to allow the interested scholar or player to reconstruct the exact appearance of a piece in all sources, by means of a combination of the printed text and textual commentary, a
counsel of perfection recommended in Caldwell's indispensable Editing early music (Oxford, 2/1995).
"Shop 'til you drop" is a
counsel of perfection. Buy the cross in 24-carat gold.
