A typically perspicacious and thought provoking remark by Mark Vernon on a recent thoughtful essay on Inner Development:

the word “contemplation” originally referred to the building of cities with the temple at the centre, con-templum, much as “consideration” was originally engaging with the divine stars, con-sideris. That both these words have become wholly inner struck me as significant, part of the closed-system cosmology that is assumed as default by the modern educated mind.