Starting with the Introduction, McFarland hits home with anyone suffering with any type of cancer. Everyone can relate to his thoughts and comical situations with dealing with this disease. This material is also wonderful for all humans who need to start "living" again.

Even though I do not have cancer, I find the theology and thought process of this caring man to be of the best quality I have encountered. John Robert McFarland knows who he is and whose he is and wants to share that with all readers. Each short chapter is enough food for thought to help one through a rough day, and through personal experience the Rev. McFarland has certainly helped me set new priorities and therefore I've helped others, hopefully. This book makes a wonderful gift when you are searching for a way to share your concern with others, and it's a "must have" for your library as well.

J. HORACE McFARLAND A Thorn for Beauty

by Ernest J. Morrison

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 1995 ISBN 0-89271-063-2

This fine work by Ernest J. Morrison might be a little dry for some readers, but not for those who are; "one of us"; passionate lovers of nature, and the whole of life.

Morrison is a great writer, who has done us all a lasting service by bringing people like J. Horace McFarland to his readers. He has a concise and clear, and yet deeply sensitive way of revealing the true and subtle nature of a personality's inner character. I hope, like John F. Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage," that he will continue to find and hold up to recognition, the lives and dreams of great men and quiet heroes of history who have been lost or forgotten by posterity.

Morrison has shown us in this perceptive biographical sketch of the life of J. Horace McFarland, that not only was McFarland a practical idealist in his work to enrich us all with the enrichment of beauty, but he was also a visionary and an early wholistic thinker who saw, long before many men, some of the truth concerning God's will, and man's needs as reflected in the needs of nature, in what we are only now beginning to see as the bio-one-world.

Mr. McFarland didn't just think of beauty, preservation and reconstitution of nature as being a nice cutesy adjunct or afterthought to the activities and relationship man has with nature. He considered it an absolute necessity to counter-balance the disastrous negative effects that man has had on the environment, and spiritually; a saving grace for the disastrous effect man has had on himself.

Few could argue with this prophetic view from the past, as we begin to realize the universal wisdom and truth in living in healthful harmony with ourselves and with nature; with respect and love instead of the self abuse of exploitation. Horace would say it's time to start giving something back to mother earth, instead of just taking. There are ways to do this, by proper city planning that helps make people proud of their neighborhoods, and by constant beautification, and by protection and replacement of natural resources.

He felt that if mankind is to evolve successfully, he must displace the love of money with the more adaptive love of nature and beauty.

After being involved with the cross pollination and hybridization of plants, he began to see evolution as a process that God uses to change things in His on-going creation of life.

He believed in "equality" and helped get out the vote for women, and was involved with them in the many projects related to nature and beauty, and city planning during his lifetime. He had a view towards equality of value of other life forms- What we might today call an appreciation of, and sensitivity to, bio-diversity. He thought we should all be stewards of nature, and like the emerging global unity paradigm, that we have an obligation and responsibility to nurture and protect it. And that these were democratically based concepts, activities, and relationships. Ie: Of, by, and for the people.

J. Horace was, like a truly religious and spiritual man should be, a person who practiced his religion, his ideals, and his world view, like a daily prayer, each and every day of his life- like a church without walls. He wanted to be remembered as "a man who loved a garden." Indeed, he, materially, nurtured and loved, and helped renew the Garden of Life on this Earth; and will continue to do so spiritually through his life as example, and with his words, and with his works. We could all use a little of the spirit of McFarland in our hearts and in our souls.

McFarland was not only a great defender and protecter of nature and his beloved roses; he himself was like a "Rose of the World," a "lover of all good things, surmounted (and surrounded) by his love of beauty." His life was made up of tentacles of successes that reached far into many diverse areas of endeavor, each supporting and giving sustenance to the main body of his beautiful and high ideals. J. Horace McFarland, indeed a thorn for beauty... and a giant Oak of a man.

Curtis Bard, Editor - Bard Books on CD-ROM and The Computer Classifieds:

THIS WAS JUST WHAT A NEEDED HALFWAY THROUGH 6 MONTHS OF CHEMOTHERAPY. IT MAKES YOU REALIZE NO MATTER HOW ALONE YOU FEEL DURING THIS TIME YOU MUST BE THE ONE THAT DECIDES TO GET WELL AND SURROUND YOURSELF WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE.

Some leaders I would follow, others leave me high and dry; what a fun task- interviewing leaders....

I was totally motivated in reading this very comprehensive book. I felt my purpose in life was revived after many years of suffering a busy yet empty life. Now I have found what specific personal interests and career to pursue and my skills and abilities are already showing up. I have evaluated myself on every level and decided on a new set of values to follow. I'm a new man. And I believe now that I too can be a leader in what I love to do. So I recommend this book to my family and my business partners and customer. You will be definitely motivated and shown exactly how to lead a better life by reading this book.

I'm a CEO and found this book so inspiring and empowering for every part of my life and work, that I have given it to my executive team, staff, customers, business associates and friends. There are all kinds of good ideas for running a successful company and really any organization large and small, including non profit and community groups. This book helped me get on track with my vision, our company mission, and accomplishing what we set out to do. Many leaders in this book are great examples to follow and they become your mentors. Rare it is to find such a positive helpful book. We should encourage college kids to read this too, so they start early knowing how to be a leader and follow their life path.

Vertebrate Life would serve as an excellent upper-level college textbook to anyone interested in becoming informed about vertebrates. Professionally, I am a physicist, who after visiting the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Vertebrates, wanted to learn more about the subject. Even after reading Vertebrate Life, I don't think that I could point out the squamate bone on a fossilized skull. On the other hand, with 733 pages, it is unfair to critize this book about a lack of coverage! The authors provide several pages of excellent references at the end of each chapter. So, if I really wanted to be able to identify a squamate bone, I'm sure that I could have found out from one of references. However, I was troubled by a number of typos, some of the them serious. Figure 15-3 appears to have the second half of the figure repeated as the first half. It would have been nice to see missing illustrations. Figure 3-6b identifies the Otic capsule as "Optic capsule" at one point. This confused me for a while. Even with all this, I was fascinated by what I read, and read the entire book, cover to cover, all 733 pages worth. For the serious student of our natural world, I would recommend spending full price for this book, and plan on spending more than a few hours with it.

Dark Ages Mage, or DAMage, is not a game for everyone. And before I get started, I want to make sure everyone knows: you need to have the Dark Ages Vampire core book to play it.

DAMage is not for me. Why? I'm a fan of the Mage: The Ascension game line, and my thoughts start from there. Your mileage may vary.

The game defines magic separately for each group. It defines four "pillars" for each group, each with five ranks. These serve (supposedly) to measure what a Mage can and cannot do. Like any good game mechanic?

A lot of people didn't like the ambiguity inherent in M:tA's description of spheres. If that's you, avoid DAMage like the plague-- DAMage mechanics for Magic are described totally from the in-character point-of-view of the individual paradigm. As a way to understand what each kind of magic can really do, or settle disputes about whether a given Mage has the right knowledge to attempt a casting, they're completely unplayable.

They are, however, creative, even sometimes inspiring. If they were presented as magical theory, rather than a game mechanic, they'd be alright.

They'll also be good for selling supplements. The pillars demand exhaustive lists of "rotes," concrete definitions of individual powers, to be playable, and STs and players will find themselves obliged to go buy the "tradition book" for all the groups they intend to portray.

Another thing that bugged people about Mage: The Ascension, was that the sphere system seems "homogenous." That is, the progression in various abilities is pretty arbitrary, and if it's seen as universal among all kinds of will-workers, it intrudes on the in-character integrity of that paradigm.

I think that's a reasonable objection-- the Mage line's approach to Magic is it's own scenario, and though people claim you can do "any kind" of magic with it, that's not entirely true.

And, I think this helps us see why DAMage was developed along these lines. People wanted each paradigm to make sense "unto itself." Unfortunately, they chose to carry baggage from M:tA over. (Why? In an attempt to sell copy to Mage players.)

Wary of alienating Mage players, they retained an analog to a "sphere system," and gave lip-service to the "dynamic" quality of magic as found in Mage. And the result is something that is a glorified freestyle role-playing of magic, based on flavor text, or, with the eventual publication of massive rote lists, will really boil down to spell lists.

What people don't realize is that M:tA's sphere system was *born* out of a desire for a playable compromise between the reliable klunkiness of spell-lists, and the flexibility, but potential twinkery, of free-form role-play. It's imperfect, but, taken as what it is, it's also superb.

DAMage could have used M:tA's finely-tuned compromise. Instead it tried to reinvent the wheel, moving in both directions, failing to do either justice. DAMage could have been Mage: the Ascension with really cool, useful material on RPing in the Dark Ages setting.

And by the way. The presentation of the setting is rather lackluster, in DAMage. Possibly this is because they expect you go out and pay more money for Dark Ages Vampire. But if you're an Order of Hermes fan, for example, prepare to be disappointed. (Moreover, personally, my mind boggles at the authors' encouragement to send Muslim sorcerers off with their Christian cabalmates to kill Muslims in the Crusades.)

Alternatives better than DAMage include Mage: the Sorcerer's Crusade, Mage: the Ascension, or Sorcerer, each already in White Wolf mechanics, and adaptable to the Dark Ages setting (DAMage expects you to have other books too!) If you're a vampire player, particularly, I would think Sorcerer would be the way to go. There're also Ars Magica and D&D. And GURPS puts out great supplements, including on the Middle Ages. Which, if you want setting and flavor, are far superior.

As a fan of mage the ascension, i bought this book hoping to get some more insight into the DA magical societies. This, of course, was in the book, but it also flips everything on its head. while the magic system is similar, the 9 spheres have been done away with in favor of a 4 pillar system which is more taylored to each society. THis, i actually like for the setting. On the othe hand they trampled all over one of the most interesting groups off the age, The Order of Hermes. While they are still depicted as powerful, and organized, their house system is nearly ignored. (check out Ars magica for more Order of Hermes data) ALso, the book tries to promote interfellowship cabals, which is absolutely absurd in an era where most mages would sooner kill a rival mage than work with him for the most part. Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade makes it very clear that such cabals almost NEVER happened until the uniting of the Traditions, and the writers expect us to believe they already worked together happy and together 2-300 years previous? Please...

Not to say the book is bad, because for the most part it is rather good. For Storytelling material it is bad, but as setting information and rules it is excellent.

Oh, on a final note, i only gave it 3 stars because White wolf decided not to put any rules in it outside of magic rules simply to sell more copies of Dark Ages: Vampire. It desserves 4 in its own right.

I must admit, I was waiting impatiently for this book more than even the new Dark Ages: Vampire that preceded it (and is necessary in order to make full use of Dark Ages: Mage). I love Mage: The Ascension, especially it's new incarnation in the Revised Edition of that game. This game however is not Mage: The Ascension.

The similarities are obvious and yes, it is the World of Darkness set back into the Dark Medieval, but the truth of the matter is that this is not the same game as it's predecessors, Mage: The Ascension or Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade. There is no War for Reality, there is no competition. There is only magic. The opening chapter on medieval superstition gives a blanket feel of ambiguity to everything in the age and I think this is where the real strength of this game shines.

This book is not intended for first-time roleplayers. This book is advanced in every respect of the word. As a Storyteller for Dark Ages, having the rules to create and use Mage NPC's in my chronicles is outstanding and the rules for their creation, advancement, societies, everything... is right here. However, I was disappointed by the fact that although this game (and although it requires the use of Dark Ages: Vampire to use it, it -is- a separate and dinstinct game unto itself if allowed) has rules to actually play Mages, I can't say it's that easy. But then again, it obviously isn't supposed to be simple, after all these are willworkers, people whose expectations charge reality and force it to change. It's just not cut and dry.

The character creation is easy. The rules for advancement, simple enough. Unfortunately, it's the ambiguity of each of the pillars that catches me off guard, because, although we are playing these mages and their mindset is critical to their play, having the levels of power measured by interpretation is asking for complications. However, I believe now, after having re-read this book two times + since purchasing it, that it is SUPPOSED to be ambiguous and inexact, facilitating the person to person interpretation that was the rule of the day. After all, if someone easily adhere to exacting rules in the Dark Medieval, they were not Mages. Mages break the rules in every way, shape, and fashion and don't apologize for it; rather they take their success to mean that are due even more power. Enter hubris.

All in all, this is a great book and more visually stunning that I first imagined it would be. The spine, once again, is not attached to the book itself, but I'm beginning to suspect it's not supposed to. I gave this game 4 stars (instead of 3) because of the innate potential of such a game and the Dark Ages line. However, if you're are die hard fan of the Sphere system, I heartily recommend The Sorcerer's Crusade instead. This game is darker, more brutal, and more ambigious. These can be good things in the hands of the right people, but not for everyone.