Testing Words

When Rafe has gone he takes out his evening's work and begins on it, methodical, tapping the papers into place. His bills are passed but there is always another bill. When you are writing laws you are testing words to find their utmost power. Like spells, they have to make things happen in the real world, and like spells, they only work if people believe in them.

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, p. 574

Have been trying to write about faith and religion in looping, elliptical ways –– remembered that I meant to copy a quote out of Wolf Hall without remembering the exact quote. This turned out to be it, I think, and I can see why: Read in the name of your Lord, the Qur'an instructs us, read words that, by definition, testify, bear witness, to the utmost power.