HKB
retrieves up to 250 passages, clusters them by period, and asks one strong model to reconcile them
87 passages kept of 219 candidates · 39 works · 431 BCE–1895 · 100% primary
Synthesis gpt-5.4-nano over 87 passages

Across the sources, explanations range from agnosticism to mechanism and from natural to divine causation. In the earliest cluster, Thucydides says there was “no ostensible cause” and he even leaves “speculation as to its origin and its causes” to other writers, choosing instead to set down symptoms [12][22]. Later Greek and Greco-Roman authors preserve multiple theories: Lucretius presents plague as driven by “noxious airs”/“mortal miasma” that creep through the environment [3][6], while Plutarch reports a social-crowding theory that blames plague on forcing people into town “in the heat of the summer-weather” and “stifling hovels” [4]. Ovid, by contrast, attributes pestilence to divine anger (Juno) and to Apollo/Diana in mythic accounts [8][11]. Roman/late antique writers increasingly systematize causation: Apuleius locates the “first cause” in bodily elements failing to “harmonize” [15], while Procopius gives an outbreak origin narrative “from the Aegyptians…in Pelusium” [24]. Much later, authors explain *why* people offered faulty causes (ignorance of “remote causes”) [34], or they ground causes in material conditions (privation and bad harvest producing typhus [16], hardship crowding households [14], and “cellars…sleeping-rooms, wells” affecting outbreaks [54]). Disagreement is clearest between divine/moral causation versus environmental/social/natural-mechanistic accounts [8][11] vs [3][4][15].

Caveat. This set cannot establish which explanation was actually correct, because the passages present differing traditions and often do not test competing causal claims.

Plague is explained by harmful air or environmental conditions that act on bodies. · 3 sources

Lucretius characterizes plague-like illness as “noxious airs”/“mortal miasma” creeping through the environment and influencing states; this aligns with later “temperature”/natural-change language in Plutarch’s commentary.

“And so The divers spots to divers parts and limbs Are noxious; 'tis a variable air That causes this. Thus when an atmosphere, Alien by chance to us, begins to heave, And noxious airs begin to crawl along, They creep and wind like unto mist and cloud, Slowly, and everything upon their way They disarrange and force to change its state.”
Titus Lucretius Carus — On the Nature of Things · c. 60–55 BCE (books composed over this period) · Rome · primary [3]
“In Attica the feet are oft attacked, And in Achaean lands the eyes. And so The divers spots to divers parts and limbs Are noxious; 'tis a variable air That causes this. Thus when an atmosphere, Alien by chance to us, begins to heave, And noxious airs begin to crawl along, They creep and wind like unto mist and cloud, Slowly, and everything upon their way They disarrange and force to change its state. It happens, too, that when they've come at last Into this atmosphere of ours, they taint And make it like themselves and alien. Therefore, asudden this devastation strange, This pestilence, upon the waters falls, Or settles on the very crops of grain Or other meat of men and feed of flocks.” BOOK I > BOOK VI (25/26) · passage 141 · cos 0.71
“THE PLAGUE ATHENS 'Twas such a manner of disease, 'twas such Mortal miasma in Cecropian lands Whilom reduced the plains to dead men's bones, Unpeopled the highways, drained of citizens The Athenian town.”
Titus Lucretius Carus — On the Nature of Things · c. 60–55 BCE (books composed over this period) · Rome · primary [6]
“change The atmospheric cloak, or whether nature Herself import a tainted atmosphere To us or something strange to our own use Which can attack us soon as ever it come. THE PLAGUE ATHENS 'Twas such a manner of disease, 'twas such Mortal miasma in Cecropian lands Whilom reduced the plains to dead men's bones, Unpeopled the highways, drained of citizens The Athenian town. For coming from afar, Rising in lands of Aegypt, traversing Reaches of air and floating fields of foam, At last on all Pandion's folk it swooped; Whereat by troops unto disease and death Were they o'er-given. At first, they'd bear about A skull on fire with heat, and eyeballs twain Red with suffusion of blank glare.” BOOK I > BOOK VI (26/26) · passage 142 · cos 0.58
“(Sophocles, "Antigone," 456.) How then should the body be subject to new diseases, since it hath not, like the soul, the principle of its own alteration in itself, but by common causes is joined to Nature, and receives a temperature whose infinite variety of alterations is confined to certain bounds, like a ship moving and tossing in a circle about its anchor.”
Plutarch — Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies · c. AD 1–120 (composed across the early Imperial period; exact dates vary by essay) · Chaeronea · primary [7]
“Yet are not they of late or now produced, And none can tell from whence they first arose. (Sophocles, "Antigone," 456.) How then should the body be subject to new diseases, since it hath not, like the soul, the principle of its own alteration in itself, but by common causes is joined to Nature, and receives a temperature whose infinite variety of alterations is confined to certain bounds, like a ship moving and tossing in a circle about its anchor. Now there can be no disease without some cause, it being against the laws of Nature that anything should be without a cause. Now it will be very hard to find a new cause, unless we fancy some strange air, water, or food never tasted by the ancients, should out of other worlds or intermundane spaces descend to us.” BOOK I. > BOOK VIII. (18/23) · passage 266 · cos 0.64

People saw plague as happening suddenly without a clear, publicly stated cause, and even Thucydides defers origin-cause speculation to others. · 2 sources

Thucydides directly says there was “no ostensible cause” and that he will not himself speculate about origins, preferring symptom description—shared emphasis on observation and restraint about causation.

“As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough.”
Thucydides — The History of the Peloponnesian War · Composed beginning at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (traditionally 431 BCE); continued thereafter (Book I–VIII survive; work unfinished). · Athens, Greece · primary [12]
“That year then is admitted to have been otherwise unprecedentedly free from sickness; and such few cases as occurred all determined in this. As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later.” BOOK I > CHAPTER VII (2/11) · passage 86 · cos 0.60
“All speculation as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to produce so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional; for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever break out again.”
Thucydides — The History of the Peloponnesian War · Composed beginning at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (traditionally 431 BCE); continued thereafter (Book I–VIII survive; work unfinished). · Athens, Greece · primary [22]
“Suddenly falling upon Athens, it first attacked the population in Piraeus—which was the occasion of their saying that the Peloponnesians had poisoned the reservoirs, there being as yet no wells there—and afterwards appeared in the upper city, when the deaths became much more frequent. All speculation as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to produce so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional; for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever break out again. This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself, and watched its operation in the case of others.” BOOK I > CHAPTER VII (1/11) · passage 85 · cos 0.53

Plague is explained as an outcome of divine anger or sacred punishment. · 2 sources

Ovid attributes pestilence to Juno’s anger and also reports Thebes’ plague being attributed to Apollo/Diana (through arrows/anger); this is a shared theology of causation rather than environmental mechanism.

“A dreadful pestilence fell upon my people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now} lay baffled.”
Ovid — The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII · c. 1st century CE (composed in stages across the principate of Augustus; Books I–VII within the broader work) · Rome (Latium and Campania region historically associated with Roman literary production) · primary [8]
“And how great a part were they of my resources that perished! A dreadful pestilence fell upon my people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now} lay baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, {and}, four times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds were blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting the rivers with their venom.” Book “on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,” was published in 1839, which had been already preceded by “a selection from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal translation,” published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. > BOOK THE SEVENTH. (23/36) · passage 215 · cos 0.62
“The plague, which ravaged the city of Thebes, destroyed all the children of Niobe; and contagious distempers being attributed to the excessive heat of the sun, it was fabled that Apollo had killed them with his arrows; while women, who died of the plague, were said to owe their death to the anger of Diana. Thus, Homer says, that Laodamia and the mother of Andromache were killed by Diana.”
Ovid — The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII · c. 1st century CE (composed in stages across the principate of Augustus; Books I–VII within the broader work) · Rome (Latium and Campania region historically associated with Roman literary production) · primary [11]
“The story of the destruction of her children is most likely based upon truth, and bears reference to a historical fact. The plague, which ravaged the city of Thebes, destroyed all the children of Niobe; and contagious distempers being attributed to the excessive heat of the sun, it was fabled that Apollo had killed them with his arrows; while women, who died of the plague, were said to owe their death to the anger of Diana. Thus, Homer says, that Laodamia and the mother of Andromache were killed by Diana. Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie, the wife of Cyzicus, on the death of her mother, killed by the same Goddess; so the Scholiast on Pindar (Pythia, ode iii.) says, on the authority of Pherecydes, that Apollo sent Diana to kill Coronis and several other women.” Book “on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,” was published in 1839, which had been already preceded by “a selection from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal translation,” published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. > BOOK THE SIXTH. (14/29) · passage 177 · cos 0.60

People’s uncertainty about remote causes leads them to misattribute events and rely on others’ authority. · 2 sources

Hobbes focuses on why people propose causes at all—ignorance and lack of science drive them to substitute immediate/instrumental causes or authorities.

“Adhaerence To Private Men, From Ignorance Of The Causes Of Peace Ignorance of remote causes, disposeth men to attribute all events, to the causes immediate, and Instrumentall: For these are all the causes they perceive.”
Thomas Hobbes — Leviathan · 1651 · Paris · primary [10]
“For I doubt not, but if it had been a thing contrary to any mans right of dominion, or to the interest of men that have dominion, That The Three Angles Of A Triangle Should Be Equall To Two Angles Of A Square; that doctrine should have been, if not disputed, yet by the burning of all books of Geometry, suppressed, as farre as he whom it concerned was able. Adhaerence To Private Men, From Ignorance Of The Causes Of Peace Ignorance of remote causes, disposeth men to attribute all events, to the causes immediate, and Instrumentall: For these are all the causes they perceive.” PART I. > CHAPTER XI. OF THE DIFFERENCE OF MANNERS (4/5) · passage 50 · cos 0.56
“And From The Ignorance Of Naturall Causes Want of Science, that is, Ignorance of causes, disposeth, or rather constraineth a man to rely on the advise, and authority of others. For all men whom the truth concernes, if they rely not on their own, must rely on the opinion of some other, whom they think wiser than themselves, and see not why he should deceive them.”
Thomas Hobbes — Leviathan · 1651 · Paris · primary [34]
“The two former, having given them caution against danger from him; the later gives them caution against danger from others. And From The Ignorance Of Naturall Causes Want of Science, that is, Ignorance of causes, disposeth, or rather constraineth a man to rely on the advise, and authority of others. For all men whom the truth concernes, if they rely not on their own, must rely on the opinion of some other, whom they think wiser than themselves, and see not why he should deceive them. And From Want Of Understanding Ignorance of the signification of words; which is, want of understanding, disposeth men to take on trust, not onely the truth they know not; but also the errors; and which is more, the non-sense of them they trust: For neither Error, nor non-sense, can without a perfect understanding of words, be detected.” PART I. > CHAPTER XI. OF THE DIFFERENCE OF MANNERS (3/5) · passage 49 · cos 0.53

Epidemics are explained through crowding from hardship and broader deprivation/crisis conditions. · 2 sources

Malthus highlights crowding into houses via hardship; Engels ties epidemics to privation/commercial crisis/bad harvest and their effects on the working class—both give material/social drivers.

“The mass of the people would, upon this supposition, be obliged to live harder, and a greater number would be crowded together in one house, and it is not surely improbable that these were among the natural causes that produced the three sickly years. These causes may produce such an effect, though the country, absolutely considered, may not be extremely crowded and populous.”
Thomas Robert Malthus — An Essay on the Principle of Population · 1798 (composed in 1798; dated 7 June 1798 within the text) · London, England (St. Paul’s Church-yard; publisher’s location) · primary [14]
“the increase, but the three years immediately follow ing the last period (to 1759) were so sickly that the births were sunk to 10,229 and the burials raised to 15,068." Is it not probable that in this case the number of inhabitants had increased faster than the food and the accommodations necessary to preserve them in health? The mass of the people would, upon this supposition, be obliged to live harder, and a greater number would be crowded together in one house, and it is not surely improbable that these were among the natural causes that produced the three sickly years. These causes may produce such an effect, though the country, absolutely considered, may not be extremely crowded and populous.” CHAPTER 1 > CHAPTER 7 (2/8) · passage 29 · cos 0.56
“He proves that a period of privation, a commercial crisis or a bad harvest, has each time produced the typhus epidemic in Ireland as in Scotland, and that the fury of the plague has fallen almost exclusively on the working-class.”
Friedrich Engels — The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 · 1844 (as a report/study of conditions; published in Germany 1845) · Manchester, England · primary [16]
“He asserts that privations and the insufficient satisfaction of vital needs are what prepare the frame for contagion and make the epidemic widespread and terrible. He proves that a period of privation, a commercial crisis or a bad harvest, has each time produced the typhus epidemic in Ireland as in Scotland, and that the fury of the plague has fallen almost exclusively on the working-class. It is a noteworthy fact, that according to his testimony, the majority of persons who perish by typhus are fathers of families, precisely the persons who can least be spared by those dependent upon them; and several Irish physicians whom he quotes bear the same testimony.” Act, the Masters' and Servants' Act; and Thomas Duncombe, the representative of the working-men in the House of Commons, was the great man of the session; while the Liberal middle-class with its motion for repealing the Corn Laws, and the Radical middle-class with its resolution for refusing the taxes, played pitiable roles. Even the debates about > act. God knows, there is much room for action nowadays." {32} (47/61) · passage 77 · cos 0.56

Plague is explained by social conditions—crowding people into town and stifling indoor living in summer heat. · 1 sources

Plutarch reports a specific causal theory: enemies blamed plague on concentrating country people into small tenements and forcing indoor, stifling life in hot weather.

“They had been possessed, by his enemies, with the belief that the occasion of the plague was the crowding of the country people together into the town, forced as they were now, in the heat of the summer-weather, to dwell many of them together even as they could, in small tenements and stifling hovels, and to be tied to a lazy course of life within doors, whereas before they lived in a pure, open, and free air.”
Plutarch — Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans · c. 100 CE (composed over time) · Chaeronea (birthplace/Greek mainland background) · primary [4]
“Upon occasion of which, the people, distempered and afflicted in their souls, as well as in their bodies, were utterly enraged like madmen against Pericles, and, like patients grown delirious, sought to lay violent hands on their physician, or, as it were, their father. They had been possessed, by his enemies, with the belief that the occasion of the plague was the crowding of the country people together into the town, forced as they were now, in the heat of the summer-weather, to dwell many of them together even as they could, in small tenements and stifling hovels, and to be tied to a lazy course of life within doors, whereas before they lived in a pure, open, and free air.” (228/1424) · passage 227 · cos 0.59

Plague/disease is explained by imbalance or failure of harmony among bodily elements (e.g., moisture and cold and opposites). · 1 sources

Apuleius gives an explicit three-headed causal scheme for disease with the first cause located in bodily elements failing to “harmonize.”

“After discoursing with great insight on the three powers that make up man's soul, and showing with the utmost clearness the divine purpose that shaped our various members, he treats of the causes of all diseases under three heads. The first cause lies in the elements of the body, when the actual qualities of those elements, moisture and cold and their two opposites, fail to harmonize.”
Apuleius of Madaura — The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura · c. 158–161 CE (composed after the Oea trial; includes the Apologia and related Florida orations, with the Florida pieces composed across the 160s) · Madaura (Mdaurusch), Roman Numidia · primary [15]
“The philosopher Plato, in his glorious work, the *Timaeus*, sets forth with more than mortal eloquence the constitution of the whole universe. After discoursing with great insight on the three powers that make up man's soul, and showing with the utmost clearness the divine purpose that shaped our various members, he treats of the causes of all diseases under three heads. The first cause lies in the elements of the body, when the actual qualities of those elements, moisture and cold and their two opposites, fail to harmonize. That comes to pass when one of these elements assumes undue proportions or moves from its proper place.” (45/111) · passage 44 · cos 0.59

Plague is explained as originating in a specific place/people and then spreading through events. · 1 sources

Procopius states it “started from the Aegyptians who dwell in Pelusium,” giving an origin narrative rather than a general mechanism.

“own judgment concerning the matter, both sophist and astrologer, but as for me, I shall proceed to tell where this disease originated and the manner in which it destroyed men. It started from the Aegyptians who dwell in Pelusium.”
Procopius of Caesarea — History of the Wars, Books I and II: The Persian War · c. 545–555 CE (composition of History of the Wars, Books I–II, covering the Persian war material) · Constantinople · primary [24]
“own judgment concerning the matter, both sophist and astrologer, but as for me, I shall proceed to tell where this disease originated and the manner in which it destroyed men. It started from the Aegyptians who dwell in Pelusium. Then it divided and moved in one direction towards Alexandria and the rest of Aegypt, and in the other direction it came to Palestine on the borders of Aegypt; and from there it spread over the whole world, always moving forward and travelling at times favourable to it. For it seemed to move by fixed arrangement, and to tarry for a specified time in each country, casting its blight slightingly upon none, but spreading in either direction right out to the ends of the world, as if fearing lest some corner of the earth might escape it.” BOOK I.--THE PERSIAN WAR 1 > Book VI. xxx. 30. (54/81) · passage 135 · cos 0.65

Declines in plague are explained as a practical consequence of there being fewer susceptible “objects” for the disease to affect. · 1 sources

Franklin explicitly gives a reasoning chain: plague not observed in places and decreas’d elsewhere because the disease has hardly any remaining “Objects left to work upon.”

“1.* They write from Italy, that the Plague is no longer observ'd at Marseilles, Aix, & several other Places; and that at Toulon it is very much decreas'd: But alas! how should it be otherwise, when the Distemper hath hardly any Objects left to work upon? At Arles it is likewise abated, we fear for the same Reason.”
Benjamin Franklin — Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · 1771-1790 (composed in stages) · Boston, Massachusetts, United States (then in colonial Massachusetts) · primary [72]
“*Schaffhausen Sept. 1.* They write from Italy, that the Plague is no longer observ'd at Marseilles, Aix, & several other Places; and that at Toulon it is very much decreas'd: But alas! how should it be otherwise, when the Distemper hath hardly any Objects left to work upon? At Arles it is likewise abated, we fear for the same Reason. Mean while, it spreads in the Gevaudan; and two large Villages in the Neighbourhood of Frejus were attack'd the beginning of this Month. The French Court hath prohibited all communication with the Gevaudan upon severe Penalties. The Plague is certainly got into the small Town of Marvegue in that District, which Town is shut in by eight hundred Men. Letters from Geneva say, the two Battalions employ'd in surrounding La Canourgue, are infected; and that Maages is very much suspected.” Part of the first chapter of *Job* modernized. (5/5) · passage 137 · cos 0.51

Plague-like illness is explained as human-origin and linked to living conditions such as cellars and wells; divine causation is rejected. · 1 sources

Alcott records advice that the cause is “human and not of divine origin” and that attention to specific domestic/environmental spaces should make it disappear.

“At length a very shrewd old gentleman told the people that the troublesome visitor was of human and not of divine origin; and that if they would attend properly to their cellars, sleeping-rooms, wells, etc., it would no more be heard of. At first, they were disposed to laugh at him; but the matter was talked of and agitated, till a work of general purgation was actually attempted and finally accomplished.”
William A. Alcott (William Andrus Alcott) — Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders · 1859 (composed in the late period of the author's life; printed in 1859) · Boston, Massachusetts, United States · primary [54]
“So regular and certain were its yearly visits and ravages, that not a few were disposed to regard it as a sort of necessary evil, or, perhaps, as a divine infliction. At length a very shrewd old gentleman told the people that the troublesome visitor was of human and not of divine origin; and that if they would attend properly to their cellars, sleeping-rooms, wells, etc., it would no more be heard of. At first, they were disposed to laugh at him; but the matter was talked of and agitated, till a work of general purgation was actually attempted and finally accomplished. The disease has never re-appeared. Was all this the result of mere accident? Do our diseases spring out of the ground? Are they the result of chance or hap-hazard? or, are they not the heaven-appointed penalties of transgression? FOOTNOTES: [F] Farmers, in former times, while making cider, were very slovenly.” CHAPTER. PAGE. > CHAPTER XLII. (3/3) · passage 82 · cos 0.52

not directly relevant · 75 sources

These passages do not explain plague causes in the material sense asked (they are about governance, general philosophy of evil, symptoms without causal theory, or unrelated topics).

“Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its origin to the plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property.”
Thucydides — The History of the Peloponnesian War · Composed beginning at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (traditionally 431 BCE); continued thereafter (Book I–VIII survive; work unfinished). · Athens, Greece · primary [18]
“dead body upon the stranger’s pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so went off. Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its origin to the plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property. So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things of a day. Perseverance in what men called honour was popular with none, it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object; but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to it, was both honourable and useful.” BOOK I > CHAPTER VII (4/11) · passage 88 · cos 0.55
“about the bodies, or indeed to be seen at all. But of course the effects which I have mentioned could best be studied in a domestic animal like the dog. Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper. Meanwhile the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any case occurred, it ended in this.”
Thucydides — The History of the Peloponnesian War · Composed beginning at the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (traditionally 431 BCE); continued thereafter (Book I–VIII survive; work unfinished). · Athens, Greece · primary [31]
“about the bodies, or indeed to be seen at all. But of course the effects which I have mentioned could best be studied in a domestic animal like the dog. Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper. Meanwhile the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any case occurred, it ended in this. Some died in neglect, others in the midst of every attention. No remedy was found that could be used as a specific; for what did good in one case, did harm in another. Strong and weak constitutions proved equally incapable of resistance, all alike being swept away, although dieted with the utmost precaution.” BOOK I > CHAPTER VII (3/11) · passage 87 · cos 0.62
“aged sire, whose venerable locks Proclaim thee spokesman of this company, Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave? My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate If such petitioners as you I spurned. PRIEST.”
Sophocles — Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone · c. 429 BCE–401 BCE · Athens · primary [79]
“Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks Proclaim thee spokesman of this company, Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave? My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt; Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate If such petitioners as you I spurned. PRIEST. Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king, Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege Thy palace altars—fledglings hardly winged, and greybeards bowed with years; priests, as am I of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth. Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs Crowd our two market-places, or before Both shrines of Pallas congregate, or where Ismenus gives his oracles by fire. For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State, Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head, Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.” Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus. (1/22) · passage 1
“Has he not, I said, an occupation; and what profit would there be in his life if he were deprived of his occupation? Quite true, he said. But with the rich man this is otherwise; of him we do not say that he has any specially appointed work which he must perform, if he would live. He is generally supposed to have nothing to do.”
Plato — The Republic · composed c. 360 BCE · Athens · primary [87]
“Has he not, I said, an occupation; and what profit would there be in his life if he were deprived of his occupation? Quite true, he said. But with the rich man this is otherwise; of him we do not say that he has any specially appointed work which he must perform, if he would live. He is generally supposed to have nothing to do. Then you never heard of the saying of Phocylides, that as soon as a man has a livelihood he should practise virtue? Nay, he said, I think that he had better begin somewhat sooner. Let us not have a dispute with him about this, I said; but rather ask ourselves: Is the practice of virtue obligatory on the rich man, or can he live without it?” Book I and the first half of Book II down to the paragraph beginning, > BOOK III (16/23) · passage 68 · cos 0.51
“[Sidenote: The inexplicable conduct of the Macedonians.] +9.+ As I blame those who assign fortune and destiny as the moving causes in common events and catastrophes, I wish now to enter as minutely on the discussion of this subject as the nature of an historical work will admit.”
Polybius — The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 2 (of 2) · 2nd century BCE (composition of the Histories); this volume contains Books X–XXXIX · Megalopolis, Achaea (Greece) · primary [43]
“[Sidenote: The inexplicable conduct of the Macedonians.] +9.+ As I blame those who assign fortune and destiny as the moving causes in common events and catastrophes, I wish now to enter as minutely on the discussion of this subject as the nature of an historical work will admit. Those things of which it is impossible or difficult for a mere man to ascertain the causes, such as a continuous fall of rains and unseasonable wet, or, on the contrary, droughts and frosts, one may reasonably impute to God and Fortune, in default of any other explanation; and from them come destruction of fruits, as well as long-continued epidemics, and other similar things, of which it is not easy to find the cause.” Chapter 59 in Book VI.: > BOOK XXXVII (4/5) · passage 352 · cos 0.54
“For as in the case of ulcers, sometimes medical treatment on the one hand only serves to irritate them and make them spread more rapidly, while if, on the other hand, the medical treatment is stopped, having nothing to check their natural destructiveness, they gradually destroy the substance on which they feed; just so at times it happens that similar plague spots and gangrenes fasten upon men’s souls; and when this is so, no wild beast can be more wicked or more cruel than a man.”
Polybius — The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) · c. 160–118 BCE (composition of the Histories; later books/fragments extend beyond this span) · Megalopolis (Arcadia), Greece · primary [59]
“Such horrors justify the remark that it is not only the bodies of men, and the ulcers and imposthumes which are bred in them, that grow to a fatal and completely incurable state of inflammation, but their souls also most of all. For as in the case of ulcers, sometimes medical treatment on the one hand only serves to irritate them and make them spread more rapidly, while if, on the other hand, the medical treatment is stopped, having nothing to check their natural destructiveness, they gradually destroy the substance on which they feed; just so at times it happens that similar plague spots and gangrenes fasten upon men’s souls; and when this is so, no wild beast can be more wicked or more cruel than a man.” BOOK I (73/73) · passage 105 · cos 0.52
“And of these causes, either May well have given to mortal men the fire. Next, food to cook and soften in the flame The sun instructed, since so oft they saw How objects mellowed, when subdued by warmth And by the raining blows of fiery beams, Through all the fields.”
Titus Lucretius Carus — On the Nature of Things · c. 60–55 BCE (books composed over this period) · Rome · primary [26]
“Yet also when a many-branched tree, Beaten by winds, writhes swaying to and fro, Pressing 'gainst branches of a neighbour tree, There by the power of mighty rub and rub Is fire engendered; and at times out-flares The scorching heat of flame, when boughs do chafe Against the trunks. And of these causes, either May well have given to mortal men the fire. Next, food to cook and soften in the flame The sun instructed, since so oft they saw How objects mellowed, when subdued by warmth And by the raining blows of fiery beams, Through all the fields.” BOOK I > BOOK V (22/30) · passage 108 · cos 0.56
“dusky lairs The wriggling generations of wild snakes. How far removed from true reason is this, Perceive thou straight; for now I'll try to say Somewhat about the very fact.”
Titus Lucretius Carus — On the Nature of Things · c. 60–55 BCE (books composed over this period) · Rome · primary [38]
“dusky lairs The wriggling generations of wild snakes. How far removed from true reason is this, Perceive thou straight; for now I'll try to say Somewhat about the very fact. And, first, This do I say, as oft I've said before: In earth are atoms of things of every sort; And know, these all thus rise from out the earth-- Many life-giving which be good for food, And many which can generate disease And hasten death, O many primal seeds Of many things in many modes--since earth Contains them mingled and gives forth discrete. And we have shown before that certain things Be unto certain creatures suited more For ends of life, by virtue of a nature, A texture, and primordial shapes, unlike For kinds alike.” BOOK I > BOOK VI (18/26) · passage 134 · cos 0.58
“subject, places in which the Roman people, with a small body of men, routed vast armies of the enemy; and cities, which, though fortified by nature, they carried by assault. VIII. But, assuredly, Fortune rules in all things. She makes every thing famous or obscure rather from caprice than in conformity with truth.”
Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus) — Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War · c. 44-40 BCE · Rome · primary [69]
“subject, places in which the Roman people, with a small body of men, routed vast armies of the enemy; and cities, which, though fortified by nature, they carried by assault. VIII. But, assuredly, Fortune rules in all things. She makes every thing famous or obscure rather from caprice than in conformity with truth. The exploits of the Athenians, as far as I can judge, were very great and glorious,[59] something inferior to what fame has represented them. But because writers of great talent flourished there, the actions of the Athenians are celebrated over the world as the most splendid achievements. Thus, the merit of those who have acted is estimated at the highest point to which illustrious intellects could exalt it in their writings. But among the Romans there was never any such abundance of writers;[60] for, with them, the most able men were the most actively employed.” (5/151) · passage 4 · cos 0.51
“subject, places in which the Roman people, with a small body of men, routed vast armies of the enemy; and cities, which, though fortified by nature, they carried by assault. VIII. But, assuredly, Fortune rules in all things. She makes every thing famous or obscure rather from caprice than in conformity with truth.”
Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus) — Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War · c. 44-40 BCE · Rome · primary [69]
“subject, places in which the Roman people, with a small body of men, routed vast armies of the enemy; and cities, which, though fortified by nature, they carried by assault. VIII. But, assuredly, Fortune rules in all things. She makes every thing famous or obscure rather from caprice than in conformity with truth. The exploits of the Athenians, as far as I can judge, were very great and glorious,[59] something inferior to what fame has represented them. But because writers of great talent flourished there, the actions of the Athenians are celebrated over the world as the most splendid achievements. Thus, the merit of those who have acted is estimated at the highest point to which illustrious intellects could exalt it in their writings. But among the Romans there was never any such abundance of writers;[60] for, with them, the most able men were the most actively employed.” (5/151) · passage 4 · cos 0.51
“then were foiled The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron, And Amythaon's son Melampus. See! From Stygian darkness launched into the light Comes raging pale Tisiphone; she drives Disease and fear before her, day by day Still rearing higher that all-devouring head. With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights.”
Virgil — The Georgics · Composed in the late Roman Republic/early Principate, chiefly 37–29 BCE · Italy (likely near Mantua, and/or Rome for composition within Augustus’ circle) · primary [37]
“then were foiled The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron, And Amythaon's son Melampus. See! From Stygian darkness launched into the light Comes raging pale Tisiphone; she drives Disease and fear before her, day by day Still rearing higher that all-devouring head. With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights. At last in crowds she slaughters them, she chokes The very stalls with carrion-heaps that rot In hideous corruption, till men learn With earth to cover them, in pits to hide.” (6/8) · passage 34 · cos 0.58
“then were foiled The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron, And Amythaon's son Melampus. See! From Stygian darkness launched into the light Comes raging pale Tisiphone; she drives Disease and fear before her, day by day Still rearing higher that all-devouring head. With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights.”
Virgil — The Georgics · Composed in the late Roman Republic/early Principate, chiefly 37–29 BCE · Italy (likely near Mantua, and/or Rome for composition within Augustus’ circle) · primary [37]
“then were foiled The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron, And Amythaon's son Melampus. See! From Stygian darkness launched into the light Comes raging pale Tisiphone; she drives Disease and fear before her, day by day Still rearing higher that all-devouring head. With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights. At last in crowds she slaughters them, she chokes The very stalls with carrion-heaps that rot In hideous corruption, till men learn With earth to cover them, in pits to hide.” (6/8) · passage 34 · cos 0.58
“Of sickness, too, the causes and the signs I'll teach thee. Loathly scab assails the sheep, When chilly showers have probed them to the quick, And winter stark with hoar-frost, or when sweat Unpurged cleaves to them after shearing done, And rough thorns rend their bodies.”
Virgil — The Georgics · Composed in the late Roman Republic/early Principate, chiefly 37–29 BCE · Italy (likely near Mantua, and/or Rome for composition within Augustus’ circle) · primary [45]
“Me list not then beneath the open heaven To snatch soft slumber, nor on forest-ridge Lie stretched along the grass, when, slipped his slough, To glittering youth transformed he winds his spires, And eggs or younglings leaving in his lair, Towers sunward, lightening with three-forked tongue. Of sickness, too, the causes and the signs I'll teach thee. Loathly scab assails the sheep, When chilly showers have probed them to the quick, And winter stark with hoar-frost, or when sweat Unpurged cleaves to them after shearing done, And rough thorns rend their bodies. Hence it is Shepherds their whole flock steep in running streams, While, plunged beneath the flood, with drenched fell, The ram, launched free, goes drifting down the tide.” (6/8) · passage 32 · cos 0.52
“But, if the advancing plague 'gin fiercer grow, Then are their eyes all fire, deep-drawn their breath, At times groan-laboured: with long sobbing heave Their lowest flanks; from either nostril streams Black blood; a rough tongue clogs the obstructed jaws.”
Virgil — The Georgics · Composed in the late Roman Republic/early Principate, chiefly 37–29 BCE · Italy (likely near Mantua, and/or Rome for composition within Augustus’ circle) · primary [66]
“These earlier signs they give that presage doom. But, if the advancing plague 'gin fiercer grow, Then are their eyes all fire, deep-drawn their breath, At times groan-laboured: with long sobbing heave Their lowest flanks; from either nostril streams Black blood; a rough tongue clogs the obstructed jaws. 'Twas helpful through inverted horn to pour Draughts of the wine-god down; sole way it seemed To save the dying: soon this too proved their bane, And, reinvigorate but with frenzy's fire, Even at death's pinch- the gods some happier fate Deal to the just, such madness to their foes- Each with bared teeth his own limbs mangling tore. See! as he smokes beneath the stubborn share, The bull drops, vomiting foam-dabbled gore, And heaves his latest groans. Sad goes the swain, Unhooks the steer that mourns his fellow's fate, And in mid labour leaves the plough-gear fast.” (6/8) · passage 33 · cos 0.51
“These variations in heat and the subsequent cooling off are harmful to the people living on such sites. The same conclusion may be reached in the case of inanimate things. For instance, nobody draws the light for covered wine rooms from the south or west, but rather from the north, since that quarter is never subject to change but is always constant and unshifting.”
Vitruvius Pollio — The Ten Books on Architecture · c. 30–20 BCE · Rome, Italy · primary [27]
“2. These variations in heat and the subsequent cooling off are harmful to the people living on such sites. The same conclusion may be reached in the case of inanimate things. For instance, nobody draws the light for covered wine rooms from the south or west, but rather from the north, since that quarter is never subject to change but is always constant and unshifting. So it is with granaries: grain exposed to the sun's course soon loses its good quality, and provisions and fruit, unless stored in a place unexposed to the sun's course, do not keep long. 3. For heat is a universal solvent, melting out of things their power of resistance, and sucking away and removing their natural strength with its fiery exhalations so that they grow soft, and hence weak, under its glow.” BOOK I > CHAPTER IV (1/3) · passage 17 · cos 0.56
“the duty of sentinels. The patrol and general supervision was assigned to the plebeian aediles: on them devolved the chief conduct of affairs and the majesty of the consular authority.”
Titus Livius (Livy) — Roman History, Books I-III · c. 30–17 CE; composed over more than forty years (extant Books I–III are within this span) · Rome (tradition/compilation in Augustus’ orbit) · primary [57]
“the duty of sentinels. The patrol and general supervision was assigned to the plebeian aediles: on them devolved the chief conduct of affairs and the majesty of the consular authority.” BOOK I > BOOK III (7/73) · passage 145 · cos 0.52
“to perish by an inglorious distemper. The boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor the bears to rush upon the powerful herds. “A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events.”
Ovid — The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII · c. 1st century CE (composed in stages across the principate of Augustus; Books I–VII within the broader work) · Rome (Latium and Campania region historically associated with Roman literary production) · primary [30]
“to perish by an inglorious distemper. The boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor the bears to rush upon the powerful herds. “A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events. The dogs, and the ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch them not; falling away, they rot, and, by their exhalations, produce baneful effects, and spread the contagion far and wide. With more dreadful destruction the pestilence reaches the wretched husbandmen, and riots within the walls of the extensive city. At first, the bowels are scorched,[102] and a redness, and the breath drawn with difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame.” Book “on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,” was published in 1839, which had been already preceded by “a selection from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal translation,” published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. > BOOK THE SEVENTH. (24/36) · passage 216 · cos 0.62
“Therefore, Diogenianus, you see that this account requires no new strange causes, no intermundane spaces; but the single alteration of our diet is enough to raise new diseases and abolish old. QUESTION X. WHY WE GIVE LEAST CREDIT TO DREAMS IN AUTUMN. FLORUS, PLUTARCH, PLUTARCH'S SONS, FAVORINUS.”
Plutarch — Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies · c. AD 1–120 (composed across the early Imperial period; exact dates vary by essay) · Chaeronea · primary [2]
“But our baths now inflame, vellicate, and distress; and the air which we draw is a mixture of air and water, disturbs the whole body, tosses and displaces every atom, till we quench the fiery particles and allay their heat. Therefore, Diogenianus, you see that this account requires no new strange causes, no intermundane spaces; but the single alteration of our diet is enough to raise new diseases and abolish old. QUESTION X. WHY WE GIVE LEAST CREDIT TO DREAMS IN AUTUMN. FLORUS, PLUTARCH, PLUTARCH'S SONS, FAVORINUS.” BOOK I. > BOOK VIII. (21/23) · passage 269 · cos 0.64
“Such was the plague at Athens described by Thucydides, who conjectures that it was new because that birds and beasts of prey would not touch the dead carcasses.”
Plutarch — Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies · c. AD 1–120 (composed across the early Imperial period; exact dates vary by essay) · Chaeronea · primary [5]
“How then is it strange that the body, having so many different powers in itself, and getting new qualities every day from its meat and drink, and using those motions and alterations which are not always in the same time nor in the same order, should upon the various complications of all these be affected with new diseases? Such was the plague at Athens described by Thucydides, who conjectures that it was new because that birds and beasts of prey would not touch the dead carcasses. Those that fell sick about the Red Sea, if we believe Agatharcides, besides other strange and unheard diseases, had little serpents in their legs and arms, which did eat their way out, but when touched shrunk in again, and raised intolerable inflammations in the muscles; and yet this kind of plague, as likewise many others, never afflicted any beside, either before or since.” BOOK I. > BOOK VIII. (20/23) · passage 268 · cos 0.67
“with this disease, for it is evident that he calls a dog rabid from the very same rage with which when men are possessed they are said to be mad. Against this discourse of Diogenianus Philo himself made some objections, and desired me to be the old physicians' patron; who must be branded with inadvertency and ignorance, unless it appears that those diseases began since their time.”
Plutarch — Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies · c. AD 1–120 (composed across the early Imperial period; exact dates vary by essay) · Chaeronea · primary [29]
“with this disease, for it is evident that he calls a dog rabid from the very same rage with which when men are possessed they are said to be mad. Against this discourse of Diogenianus Philo himself made some objections, and desired me to be the old physicians' patron; who must be branded with inadvertency and ignorance, unless it appears that those diseases began since their time. First then Diogenianus, methinks, very precariously desires us to think that the intenseness or remissness of degrees is not a real difference, and does not alter the kind. For, were this true, then we should hold that downright vinegar is not different from pricked wine, nor a bitter from a rough taste, darnel from wheat, nor garden-mint from wild mint. For it is evident that these differences are only the several degrees of the same qualities, in some being more intense, in some more remiss.” BOOK I. > BOOK VIII. (19/23) · passage 267 · cos 0.62
“Aude,[1351] the Orbe,[1352] and the Rauraris.[1353] On one of these[1354] is situated the strong city of Bætera,[1355] near to Narbonne; on the other Agatha,[1356] founded by the people of Marseilles. 7. Of one marvel of this sea-coast, namely the “dug mullets,” we have already spoken; we will now mention another, even more surprising.”
Strabo — The Geography of Strabo, Volume 1 (of 3) · c. 20 CE (Books I–VI likely composed/available by this period) · Achaea/Greco-Roman Greek world (Strabo’s scholarly base) · primary [50]
“Aude,[1351] the Orbe,[1352] and the Rauraris.[1353] On one of these[1354] is situated the strong city of Bætera,[1355] near to Narbonne; on the other Agatha,[1356] founded by the people of Marseilles. 7. Of one marvel of this sea-coast, namely the “dug mullets,” we have already spoken; we will now mention another, even more surprising. Between Marseilles and the outlets of the Rhone there is a circular plain, about 100 stadia distant from the sea, and about 100 stadia in diameter. It has received the name of the Stony Plain, from the circumstance of its being covered with stones the size of the fist, from beneath which an abundant herbage springs up for the pasturage of cattle. In the midst of it are water, salt-springs, and salt.” BOOK I. (6/11) · passage 154 · cos 0.50
“Those who humor the people are swallowed up in the common ruin; those who endeavor to lead them aright, perish the first in their attempt.”
Plutarch — Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans · c. 100 CE (composed over time) · Chaeronea (birthplace/Greek mainland background) · primary [35]
“At such times the conduct of public affairs is on all hands most hazardous. Those who humor the people are swallowed up in the common ruin; those who endeavor to lead them aright, perish the first in their attempt. Astronomers tell us, the sun's motion is neither exactly parallel with that of the heavens in general, nor yet directly and diametrically opposite, but describing an oblique line, with insensible declination he steers his course in such a gentle, easy curve, as to dispense his light and influence, in his annual revolution, at several seasons, in just proportions to the whole creation.” (1031/1424) · passage 1030 · cos 0.55
“nature of more such judgments, he would not yet suffer Moses and his people to depart, having granted that liberty rather out of fear than out of any good consideration. 3.”
Josephus, Flavius — Antiquities of the Jews · c. 93–94 CE · Jerusalem · primary [55]
“nature of more such judgments, he would not yet suffer Moses and his people to depart, having granted that liberty rather out of fear than out of any good consideration. 3. Accordingly, God punished his falseness with another plague, added to the former; for there arose out of the bodies of the Egyptians an innumerable quantity of lice, by which, wicked as they were, they miserably perished, as not able to destroy this sort of vermin either with washes or with ointments. At which terrible judgment the king of Egypt was in disorder, upon the fear into which he reasoned himself, lest his people should be destroyed, and that the manner of this death was also reproachful, so that he was forced in part to recover himself from his wicked temper to a sounder mind, for he gave leave for the Hebrews themselves to depart.” BOOK I. Containing The Interval Of Three Thousand Eight Hundred And > CHAPTER 14. Concerning The Ten Plagues Which Came Upon The Egyptians. (2/3) · passage 171 · cos 0.51
“nature of more such judgments, he would not yet suffer Moses and his people to depart, having granted that liberty rather out of fear than out of any good consideration. 3.”
Josephus, Flavius — Antiquities of the Jews · c. 93–94 CE · Jerusalem · primary [55]
“nature of more such judgments, he would not yet suffer Moses and his people to depart, having granted that liberty rather out of fear than out of any good consideration. 3. Accordingly, God punished his falseness with another plague, added to the former; for there arose out of the bodies of the Egyptians an innumerable quantity of lice, by which, wicked as they were, they miserably perished, as not able to destroy this sort of vermin either with washes or with ointments. At which terrible judgment the king of Egypt was in disorder, upon the fear into which he reasoned himself, lest his people should be destroyed, and that the manner of this death was also reproachful, so that he was forced in part to recover himself from his wicked temper to a sounder mind, for he gave leave for the Hebrews themselves to depart.” BOOK I. Containing The Interval Of Three Thousand Eight Hundred And > CHAPTER 14. Concerning The Ten Plagues Which Came Upon The Egyptians. (2/3) · passage 171 · cos 0.51
“LXXXII -- To MAXIMUS THE lingering disorder of a friend of mine gave me occasion lately to reflect that we are never so good as when oppressed with illness. Where is the sick man who is either solicited by avarice or inflamed with lust?”
Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) — Letters of Pliny · c. 97–c. 112 CE (letters collected/arranged for publication by Pliny) · Rome (for the imperial correspondence and publication-oriented circulation) · primary [80]
“LXXXII -- To MAXIMUS THE lingering disorder of a friend of mine gave me occasion lately to reflect that we are never so good as when oppressed with illness. Where is the sick man who is either solicited by avarice or inflamed with lust? At such a season he is neither a slave of love nor the fool of ambition; wealth he utterly disregards, and is content with ever so small a portion of it, as being upon the point of leaving even that little. It is then he recollects there are gods, and that he himself is but a man: no mortal is then the object of his envy, his admiration, or his contempt; and the tales of slander neither raise his attention nor feed his curiosity: his dreams are only of baths and fountains.” (86/158) · passage 92 · cos 0.52
“I have mentioned these things, I have been careful to quote the arguments of renowned philosophers, and to mention the books where they are to be found, and have avoided any reference to the works of physicians or poets, that my adversaries may cease to wonder that philosophers have learnt the causes of remedies and diseases in the natural course of their researches.”
Apuleius of Madaura — The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura · c. 158–161 CE (composed after the Oea trial; includes the Apologia and related Florida orations, with the Florida pieces composed across the 160s) · Madaura (Mdaurusch), Roman Numidia · primary [65]
“But unless you snatch up the skin as soon as it be shed, they straightway turn upon it and devour it, whether from a malign foreknowledge of its value to men or from a natural taste for it. I have mentioned these things, I have been careful to quote the arguments of renowned philosophers, and to mention the books where they are to be found, and have avoided any reference to the works of physicians or poets, that my adversaries may cease to wonder that philosophers have learnt the causes of remedies and diseases in the natural course of their researches.” (46/111) · passage 45 · cos 0.52
“in constant mutation, and yet the whole subsists. We might imagine the solar system resolved into its elemental parts, and yet the whole would still subsist “ever young and perfect.” All things, all forms, are dissolved and new forms appear. All living things undergo the change which we call death. If we call death an evil, then all change is an evil.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius · composed during the reign and campaigns of Marcus Aurelius; tradition places major composition in the 2nd century CE · Rome · primary [56]
“in constant mutation, and yet the whole subsists. We might imagine the solar system resolved into its elemental parts, and yet the whole would still subsist “ever young and perfect.” All things, all forms, are dissolved and new forms appear. All living things undergo the change which we call death. If we call death an evil, then all change is an evil. Living beings also suffer pain, and man suffers most of all, for he suffers both in and by his body and by his intelligent part. Men suffer also from one another, and perhaps the largest part of human suffering comes to man from those whom he calls his brothers. Antoninus says, (VIII. 55) “Generally, wickedness does no harm at all to the universe; and particularly, the wickedness [of one man] does no harm to another.” Section. I have also added a “1.” before the first “thought” in each > BOOK XII. (13/22) · passage 99 · cos 0.52
“speculate on the reason of any of those disorders or evils which we perceive. This I believe is the answer which may be collected from all that Antoninus has said. The origin of evil is an old question.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius · composed during the reign and campaigns of Marcus Aurelius; tradition places major composition in the 2nd century CE · Rome · primary [58]
“speculate on the reason of any of those disorders or evils which we perceive. This I believe is the answer which may be collected from all that Antoninus has said. The origin of evil is an old question. Achilles tells Priam that Zeus has two casks, one filled with good things, and the other with bad, and that he gives to men out of each according to his pleasure; and so we must be content, for we cannot alter the will of Zeus. One of the Greek commentators asks how must we reconcile this doctrine with what we find in the first book of the Odyssey, where the king of the gods says, “Men say that evil comes to them from us, but they bring it on themselves through their own folly.” The answer is plain enough even to the Greek commentator. The poets make both Achilles and Zeus speak appropriately to their several characters.” Section. I have also added a “1.” before the first “thought” in each > BOOK XII. (14/22) · passage 100 · cos 0.55
“And as the universe is made up out of all bodies to be such a body as it is, so out of all existing causes necessity [destiny] is made up to be such a cause as it is. And even those who are completely ignorant understand what I mean; for they say, It [necessity, destiny] brought this to such a person.—This then was brought and this was prescribed to him.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius · composed during the reign and campaigns of Marcus Aurelius; tradition places major composition in the 2nd century CE · Rome · primary [71]
“For there is altogether one fitness [harmony]. And as the universe is made up out of all bodies to be such a body as it is, so out of all existing causes necessity [destiny] is made up to be such a cause as it is. And even those who are completely ignorant understand what I mean; for they say, It [necessity, destiny] brought this to such a person.—This then was brought and this was prescribed to him. Let us then receive these things, as well as those which Aesculapius prescribes. Many as a matter of course even among his prescriptions are disagreeable, but we, accept them in the hope of health. Let the perfecting and accomplishment of the things which the common nature judges to be good, be judged by thee to be of the same kind as thy health.” Section. I have also added a “1.” before the first “thought” in each > BOOK V. (3/9) · passage 33 · cos 0.51
“in constant mutation, and yet the whole subsists; we might imagine the solar system resolved into its elemental parts, and yet the whole would still subsist "ever young and perfect." All things, all forms, are dissolved, and new forms appear. All living things undergo the change which we call death. If we call death an evil, then all change is an evil.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · c. 167–180 CE · Rome · primary [53]
“in constant mutation, and yet the whole subsists; we might imagine the solar system resolved into its elemental parts, and yet the whole would still subsist "ever young and perfect." All things, all forms, are dissolved, and new forms appear. All living things undergo the change which we call death. If we call death an evil, then all change is an evil. Living beings also suffer pain, and man suffers most of all, for he suffers both in and by his body and by his intelligent part. Men suffer also from one another, and perhaps the largest part of human suffering comes to man from those whom he calls his brothers. Antoninus says (viii. 55), "Generally, wickedness does no harm at all to the universe; and particularly, the wickedness [of one man] does no harm to another.” letter which is now extant may be one of those which Tertullian (29/43) · passage 34 · cos 0.52
“speculate on the reason of any of those disorders or evils which we perceive. This I believe is the answer which may be collected from all that Antoninus has said.[A] [A] Cleanthes says in his Hymn:-- "For all things good and bad to One thou formest, So that One everlasting reason governs all." See Bishop Butler's Sermons. Sermon XV., "Upon the Ignorance of Man." The origin of evil is an old question.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · c. 167–180 CE · Rome · primary [73]
“speculate on the reason of any of those disorders or evils which we perceive. This I believe is the answer which may be collected from all that Antoninus has said.[A] [A] Cleanthes says in his Hymn:-- "For all things good and bad to One thou formest, So that One everlasting reason governs all." See Bishop Butler's Sermons. Sermon XV., "Upon the Ignorance of Man." The origin of evil is an old question. Achilles tells Priam (Iliad, 24, 527) that Zeus has two casks, one filled with good things, and the other with bad, and that he gives to men out of each according to his pleasure; and so we must be content, for we cannot alter the will of Zeus.” letter which is now extant may be one of those which Tertullian (30/43) · passage 35 · cos 0.53
“And as the universe is made up out of all bodies to be such a body as it is, so out of all existing causes necessity [destiny] is made up to be such a cause as it is. And even those who are completely ignorant understand what I mean; for they say, It [necessity, destiny] brought this to such a person.--This then was brought and this was prescribed to him.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus · c. 167–180 CE · Rome · primary [75]
“For there is altogether one fitness [harmony]. And as the universe is made up out of all bodies to be such a body as it is, so out of all existing causes necessity [destiny] is made up to be such a cause as it is. And even those who are completely ignorant understand what I mean; for they say, It [necessity, destiny] brought this to such a person.--This then was brought and this was prescribed to him. Let us then receive these things, as well as those which Aesculapius prescribes. Many as a matter of course even among his prescriptions are disagreeable, but we accept them in the hope of health. Let the perfecting and accomplishment of the things which the common nature judges to be good, be judged by thee to be of the same kind as thy health.” letter which is now extant may be one of those which Tertullian > book. Gataker placed them at the beginning of the second book. (20/42) · passage 68 · cos 0.51
“of worms and corruption, from the evaporation caused by the heat, and the various diseases of the people; and here I will briefly explain whence diseases of this kind arise. 2.”
Ammianus Marcellinus — The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus · c. 390s CE · Antioch (modern Antakya), Roman Syria · primary [1]
“of worms and corruption, from the evaporation caused by the heat, and the various diseases of the people; and here I will briefly explain whence diseases of this kind arise. 2. Both philosophers and skilful physicians agree that excess of cold, or of heat, or of moisture, or of drought, all cause pestilences; on which account those who dwell in marshy or wet districts are subject to coughs and complaints in the eyes, and other similar maladies: on the other hand, those who dwell in hot climates are liable to fevers and inflammations. But since fire is the most powerful of all elements, so drought is the quickest at killing. 3. On this account it is that when the Greeks were toiling at the ten years' war,[103] to prevent a foreigner from profiting by his violation of a royal marriage, a pestilence broke out among them, and numbers died by the darts of Apollo, who is the same as the Sun.” C.D. YONGE, M.A. > BOOK XIX. (5/17) · passage 124 · cos 0.59
“For as to any accurate knowledge of their causes, not only has that never been attained by the ignorance of the common people, but they have equally eluded the long lucubrations and subtle researches of natural philosophers. 10.”
Ammianus Marcellinus — The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus · c. 390s CE · Antioch (modern Antakya), Roman Syria · primary [19]
“I think this a good opportunity to enumerate a few of the conjectures which the ancients have formed about earthquakes. For as to any accurate knowledge of their causes, not only has that never been attained by the ignorance of the common people, but they have equally eluded the long lucubrations and subtle researches of natural philosophers. 10. And on this account in all priestly ceremonies, whether ritual or pontifical, care is taken not at such times to name one god more than another, for fear of impiety, since it is quite uncertain which god causes these visitations. 11.” C.D. YONGE, M.A. > BOOK XVII. (10/23) · passage 90 · cos 0.55
“And the affairs went on as if people had been consulting Claros, or the oaks at Dodona, or the Delphic oracles of old fame, with a view to the destruction of the emperor. 16.”
Ammianus Marcellinus — The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus · c. 390s CE · Antioch (modern Antakya), Roman Syria · primary [61]
“15. And the affairs went on as if people had been consulting Claros, or the oaks at Dodona, or the Delphic oracles of old fame, with a view to the destruction of the emperor. 16. Meantime, the crowd of courtiers, inventing every kind of deceitful flattery, affirmed that he would be free from all common misfortunes, asserting that his fate had always shone forth with vigour and power in destroying all who attempted anything injurious to him. 17.” C.D. YONGE, M.A. > BOOK XIX. (17/17) · passage 136 · cos 0.52
“Or when the people, after the serious and long-continued disturbances at Rome, at last plundered the city and withdrew to Janiculus; a danger so grave, that Hortensius was created dictator,--an office which they had recourse to only in extreme emergencies; and he, having brought back the people, died while yet he retained his office,--an event without precedent in the case of any dictator, and which was a shame to those gods who had now Æsculapius among them?”
Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo — The City of God, Volume I · composed 413–426; published/issued in installments during composition · Hippo Regius (Annaba), Roman North Africa · primary [9]
“Or when, at one time, the Lucanians, Brutians, Samnites, Tuscans, and Senonian Gauls conspired against Rome, and first slew her ambassadors, then overthrew an army under the prætor, putting to the sword 13,000 men, besides the commander and seven tribunes? Or when the people, after the serious and long-continued disturbances at Rome, at last plundered the city and withdrew to Janiculus; a danger so grave, that Hortensius was created dictator,--an office which they had recourse to only in extreme emergencies; and he, having brought back the people, died while yet he retained his office,--an event without precedent in the case of any dictator, and which was a shame to those gods who had now Æsculapius among them?” BOOK I. > BOOK THIRD. (18/33) · passage 103 · cos 0.57
“In this instance, the cause of the plague was said to be that so many temples had been used as private residences. And thus Æsculapius for the present escaped the charge of either ignominious negligence or want of skill.”
Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo — The City of God, Volume I · composed 413–426; published/issued in installments during composition · Hippo Regius (Annaba), Roman North Africa · primary [17]
“Spite of all the drugs of Æsculapius, it only grew worse in its second year, till at last recourse was had to the Sibylline books,--a kind of oracle which, as Cicero says in his *De Divinatione*, owes significance to its interpreters, who make doubtful conjectures as they can or as they wish. In this instance, the cause of the plague was said to be that so many temples had been used as private residences. And thus Æsculapius for the present escaped the charge of either ignominious negligence or want of skill. But why were so many allowed to occupy sacred tenements without interference, unless because supplication had long been addressed in vain to such a crowd of gods, and so by degrees the sacred places were deserted of worshippers, and being thus vacant, could without offence be put at least to some human uses?” BOOK I. > BOOK THIRD. (19/33) · passage 104 · cos 0.58
“If this was a portent, how serious a calamity must have been portended by a plague which, whether portent or no, was in itself a serious calamity! Had it happened in our day, the heathen would have been more rabid against us than their animals were against them. 24. _Of the civil dissension occasioned by the sedition of the Gracchi._”
Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo — The City of God, Volume I · composed 413–426; published/issued in installments during composition · Hippo Regius (Annaba), Roman North Africa · primary [67]
“Before the Latins began the social war against Rome, all the animals used in the service of man--dogs, horses, asses, oxen, and all the rest that are subject to man--suddenly grew wild, and forgot their domesticated tameness, forsook their stalls and wandered at large, and could not be closely approached either by strangers or their own masters without danger. If this was a portent, how serious a calamity must have been portended by a plague which, whether portent or no, was in itself a serious calamity! Had it happened in our day, the heathen would have been more rabid against us than their animals were against them. 24. _Of the civil dissension occasioned by the sedition of the Gracchi._” BOOK I. > BOOK THIRD. (26/33) · passage 111 · cos 0.51
“But what kind of gods were these, pray, who declined to live with a people who worshipped them, and whose corrupt life they had done nothing to reform? 23. _That the vicissitudes of this life are dependent not on the favour or hostility of demons, but on the will of the true God._”
Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo — The City of God, Volume I · composed 413–426; published/issued in installments during composition · Hippo Regius (Annaba), Roman North Africa · primary [78]
“Now, the departure of the gods "from each fane, each sacred shrine," and their abandonment of the city to destruction, was an act of justice, if their laws inculcating justice and a moral life had been held in contempt by that city. But what kind of gods were these, pray, who declined to live with a people who worshipped them, and whose corrupt life they had done nothing to reform? 23. _That the vicissitudes of this life are dependent not on the favour or hostility of demons, but on the will of the true God._” BOOK I. > BOOK SECOND. (25/33) · passage 73 · cos 0.51
“Indeed, the work of wisdom is more clear and manifest in its operation when the happiness of rulers is somehow passed on to the people around them, especially considering that the prison, the law, and the other pains of legal punishment are properly due only to mischievous citizens on whose account they were originally instituted.”
Boethius — The Consolation of Philosophy · c. 523–525 CE · Pavia, Lombardy, Italy · primary [81]
“Surely, no sensible man would rather be exiled, poor and disgraced, than dwell prosperously in his own country, powerful, wealthy, and high in honour. Indeed, the work of wisdom is more clear and manifest in its operation when the happiness of rulers is somehow passed on to the people around them, especially considering that the prison, the law, and the other pains of legal punishment are properly due only to mischievous citizens on whose account they were originally instituted. Accordingly, I do exceedingly marvel why all this is completely reversed--why the good are harassed with the penalties due to crime, and the bad carry off the rewards of virtue; and I long to hear from thee what reason may be found for so unjust a state of disorder. For assuredly I should wonder less if I could believe that all things are the confused result of chance.” BOOK I. > BOOK IV. (11/18) · passage 62 · cos 0.48
“Indeed, the work of wisdom is more clear and manifest in its operation when the happiness of rulers is somehow passed on to the people around them, especially considering that the prison, the law, and the other pains of legal punishment are properly due only to mischievous citizens on whose account they were originally instituted.”
Boethius — The Consolation of Philosophy · c. 523–525 CE · Pavia, Lombardy, Italy · primary [81]
“Surely, no sensible man would rather be exiled, poor and disgraced, than dwell prosperously in his own country, powerful, wealthy, and high in honour. Indeed, the work of wisdom is more clear and manifest in its operation when the happiness of rulers is somehow passed on to the people around them, especially considering that the prison, the law, and the other pains of legal punishment are properly due only to mischievous citizens on whose account they were originally instituted. Accordingly, I do exceedingly marvel why all this is completely reversed--why the good are harassed with the penalties due to crime, and the bad carry off the rewards of virtue; and I long to hear from thee what reason may be found for so unjust a state of disorder. For assuredly I should wonder less if I could believe that all things are the confused result of chance.” BOOK I. > BOOK IV. (11/18) · passage 62 · cos 0.48
“Now in the case of all other scourges sent from Heaven some explanation of a cause might be given by daring men, such as the many theories propounded by those who are clever in these matters; for they love to conjure up causes which are absolutely incomprehensible to man, and to fabricate outlandish theories of natural philosophy, knowing well that they are saying nothing sound, but considering it sufficient for them, if they completely deceive by their argument some of those whom they meet and ”
Procopius of Caesarea — History of the Wars, Books I and II: The Persian War · c. 545–555 CE (composition of History of the Wars, Books I–II, covering the Persian war material) · Constantinople · primary [21]
“XXII [542 A.D.] During these times there was a pestilence, by which the whole human race came near to being annihilated. Now in the case of all other scourges sent from Heaven some explanation of a cause might be given by daring men, such as the many theories propounded by those who are clever in these matters; for they love to conjure up causes which are absolutely incomprehensible to man, and to fabricate outlandish theories of natural philosophy, knowing well that they are saying nothing sound, but considering it sufficient for them, if they completely deceive by their argument some of those whom they meet and persuade them to their view. But for this calamity it is quite impossible either to express in words or to conceive in thought any explanation, except indeed to refer it to God.” BOOK I.--THE PERSIAN WAR 1 > Book VI. xxx. 30. (53/81) · passage 134 · cos 0.58
“body which is called "boubon,"[16] that is, below the abdomen, but also inside the armpit, and in some cases also beside the ears, and at different points on the thighs. Up to this point, then, everything went in about the same way with all who had taken the disease.”
Procopius of Caesarea — History of the Wars, Books I and II: The Persian War · c. 545–555 CE (composition of History of the Wars, Books I–II, covering the Persian war material) · Constantinople · primary [25]
“body which is called "boubon,"[16] that is, below the abdomen, but also inside the armpit, and in some cases also beside the ears, and at different points on the thighs. Up to this point, then, everything went in about the same way with all who had taken the disease. But from then on very marked differences developed; and I am unable to say whether the cause of this diversity of symptoms was to be found in the difference in bodies, or in the fact that it followed the wish of Him who brought the disease into the world. For there ensued with some a deep coma, with others a violent delirium, and in either case they suffered the characteristic symptoms of the disease. For those who were under the spell of the coma forgot all those who were familiar to them and seemed to be sleeping constantly.” BOOK I.--THE PERSIAN WAR 1 > Book VI. xxx. 30. (55/81) · passage 136 · cos 0.64
“the bubonic swellings, decided to investigate the bodies of the dead. And upon opening some of the swellings, they found a strange sort of carbuncle that had grown inside them. Death came in some cases immediately, in others after many days; and with some the body broke out with black pustules about as large as a lentil and these did not survive even one day, but all succumbed immediately.”
Procopius of Caesarea — History of the Wars, Books I and II: The Persian War · c. 545–555 CE (composition of History of the Wars, Books I–II, covering the Persian war material) · Constantinople · primary [36]
“the bubonic swellings, decided to investigate the bodies of the dead. And upon opening some of the swellings, they found a strange sort of carbuncle that had grown inside them. Death came in some cases immediately, in others after many days; and with some the body broke out with black pustules about as large as a lentil and these did not survive even one day, but all succumbed immediately. With many also a vomiting of blood ensued without visible cause and straightway brought death. Moreover I am able to declare this, that the most illustrious physicians predicted that many would die, who unexpectedly escaped entirely from suffering shortly afterwards, and that they declared that many would be saved, who were destined to be carried off almost immediately.” BOOK I.--THE PERSIAN WAR 1 > Book VI. xxx. 30. (56/81) · passage 137 · cos 0.59
“the devout; towards the beginning of the spring of the said year the doleful effects of the pestilence began to be horribly apparent by symptoms that shewed as if miraculous.”
Giovanni Boccaccio — The Decameron, Volume I · c. 1349–1353 (composition of The Decameron) · Florence · primary [28]
“the devout; towards the beginning of the spring of the said year the doleful effects of the pestilence began to be horribly apparent by symptoms that shewed as if miraculous. Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men and women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumours in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli. From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, now minute and numerous.” (13/218) · passage 12 · cos 0.63
“Besides which many succumbed, who with proper attendance, would, perhaps, have escaped death; so that, what with the virulence of the plague and the lack of due tendance of the sick, the multitude of the deaths, that daily and nightly took place in the city, was such that those who heard the tale--not to say witnessed the fact--were struck dumb with amazement.”
Giovanni Boccaccio — The Decameron, Volume I · c. 1349–1353 (composition of The Decameron) · Florence · primary [32]
“In consequence of which dearth of servants and dereliction of the sick by neighbours, kinsfolk and friends, it came to pass--a thing, perhaps, never before heard of that no woman, however dainty, fair or well-born she might be, shrank, when stricken with the disease, from the ministrations of a man, no matter whether he were young or no, or scrupled to expose to him every part of her body, with no more shame than if he had been a woman, submitting of necessity to that which her malady required; wherefrom, perchance, there resulted in after time some loss of modesty in such as recovered.” (15/218) · passage 14 · cos 0.55
“about their chaps; whereupon, almost immediately, they gave a few turns, and fell down dead, as if by poison, upon the rags which in an evil hour they had disturbed.”
Giovanni Boccaccio — The Decameron, Volume I · c. 1349–1353 (composition of The Decameron) · Florence · primary [33]
“about their chaps; whereupon, almost immediately, they gave a few turns, and fell down dead, as if by poison, upon the rags which in an evil hour they had disturbed. In which circumstances, not to speak of many others of a similar or even graver complexion, divers apprehensions and imaginations were engendered in the minds of such as were left alive, inclining almost all of them to the same harsh resolution, to wit, to shun and abhor all contact with the sick and all that belonged to them, thinking thereby to make each his own health secure. Among whom there were those who thought that to live temperately and avoid all excess would count for much as a preservative against seizures of this kind.” (14/218) · passage 13 · cos 0.61
“the persons, who appear hereafter met together for interchange of discourse, they, under the rule of Pampinea, discourse of such matters as most commend themselves to each in turn.”
Giovanni Boccaccio — The Decameron, Volume I · c. 1349–1353 (composition of The Decameron) · Florence · primary [68]
“the persons, who appear hereafter met together for interchange of discourse, they, under the rule of Pampinea, discourse of such matters as most commend themselves to each in turn. -- As often, most gracious ladies, as I bethink me, how compassionate you are by nature one and all, I do not disguise from myself that the present work must seem to you to have but a heavy and distressful prelude, in that it bears upon its very front what must needs revive the sorrowful memory of the late mortal pestilence, the course whereof was grievous not merely to eye- witnesses but to all who in any other wise had cognisance of it. But I would have you know, that you need not therefore be fearful to read further, as if your reading were ever to be accompanied by sighs and tears.” (12/218) · passage 11 · cos 0.54
“220.] What causes of the misadventures that befall us do we not invent? what is it that we do not lay the fault to, right or wrong, that we may have something to quarrel with? It is not those beautiful tresses you tear, nor is it the white bosom that in your anger you so unmercifully beat, that with an unlucky bullet have slain your beloved brother; quarrel with something else.”
Michel de Montaigne — Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 02 · c. 1580–1588 (for the bulk of the Essays; this volume’s contents belong to the later, expanded Book I as printed in Montaigne’s lifetime) · Château de Montaigne, Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne (Périgord), France · primary [62]
“After this manner brute beasts direct their fury to fall upon the stone or weapon that has hurt them, and with their teeth a even execute revenge upon themselves for the injury they have received from another: "Pannonis haud aliter, post ictum saevior ursa, Cui jaculum parva Lybis amentavit habena, Se rotat in vulnus, telumque irata receptum Impetit, et secum fugientem circuit hastam." ["So the she-bear, fiercer after the blow from the Lybian's thong- hurled dart, turns round upon the wound, and attacking the received spear, twists it, as she flies."--Lucan, vi. 220.] What causes of the misadventures that befall us do we not invent? what is it that we do not lay the fault to, right or wrong, that we may have something to quarrel with?” BOOK THE FIRST > CHAPTER IV · passage 13 · cos 0.52
“And the many people who, impatient of the perpetual alarms of fear, have hanged or drowned themselves, or dashed themselves to pieces, give us sufficiently to understand that fear is more importunate and insupportable than death itself.”
Michel de Montaigne — Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Volume 03 · c. 1580s (original Composition of the Essays; Volume 3 contains later revisions/additions) · Château de Montaigne, near Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne (Dordogne), France · primary [76]
“Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk. And the many people who, impatient of the perpetual alarms of fear, have hanged or drowned themselves, or dashed themselves to pieces, give us sufficiently to understand that fear is more importunate and insupportable than death itself. The Greeks acknowledged another kind of fear, differing from any we have spoken of yet, that surprises us without any visible cause, by an impulse from heaven, so that whole nations and whole armies have been struck with it.” CHAPTER XIII > CHAPTER XVII (2/2) · passage 7 · cos 0.51
“To speak, therefore, of the causes of new sects; and to give some counsel concerning them, as far as the weakness of human judgment can give stay, to so great revolutions.”
Francis Bacon — The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral · c. 1597–1612 (main composition/expansion of the Essays) · London, England (historical core of Tudor/early Stuart political life) · primary [42]
“The true religion is built upon the rock; the rest are tossed, upon the waves of time. To speak, therefore, of the causes of new sects; and to give some counsel concerning them, as far as the weakness of human judgment can give stay, to so great revolutions. When the religion formerly received, is rent by discords; and when the holiness of the professors of religion, is decayed and full of scandal; and withal the times be stupid, ignorant, and barbarous; you may doubt the springing up of a new sect; if then also, there should arise any extravagant and strange spirit, to make himself author thereof. All which points held, when Mahomet published his law. If a new sect have not two properties, fear it not; for it will not spread. The one is the supplanting, or the opposing, of authority established; for nothing is more popular than that.” (96/99) · passage 95 · cos 0.52
“108 Although people may have no interest in what they are saying, we must not absolutely conclude from this that they are not lying; for there are some people who lie for the mere sake of lying. 109 When we are well we wonder what we would do if we were ill, but when we are ill we take medicine cheerfully; the illness persuades us to do so.”
Blaise Pascal — Pascal's Pensées · c. 1660 (notes compiled earlier/later, as left unfinished at his death) · Port-Royal-des-Champs (near Paris), France · primary [77]
“I sometimes struggle against luck, the glory of mastering it makes me master it gaily; whereas I am sometimes surfeited in the midst of good fortune. 108 Although people may have no interest in what they are saying, we must not absolutely conclude from this that they are not lying; for there are some people who lie for the mere sake of lying. 109 When we are well we wonder what we would do if we were ill, but when we are ill we take medicine cheerfully; the illness persuades us to do so. We have no longer the passions and desires for amusements and promenades which health gave to us, but which are incompatible with the necessities of illness. Nature gives us, then, passions and desires suitable to our present state.[64] We are only troubled by the fears which we, and not nature, give ourselves, for they add to the state in which we are the passions of the state in which we are not.” SECTION > Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] (8/19) · passage 32 · cos 0.51
“up and rush after phantoms, and suffer the impressions of this mistress of the world. This is one of the sources of error, but it is not the only one.] Our magistrates have known well this mystery.”
Blaise Pascal — Pascal's Pensées · c. 1660 (notes compiled earlier/later, as left unfinished at his death) · Port-Royal-des-Champs (near Paris), France · primary [85]
“up and rush after phantoms, and suffer the impressions of this mistress of the world. This is one of the sources of error, but it is not the only one.] Our magistrates have known well this mystery. Their red robes, the ermine in which they wrap themselves like furry cats,[50] the courts in which they administer justice, the *fleurs-de-lis*, and all such august apparel were necessary; if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they would never have duped the world, which cannot resist so original an appearance. If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough.” SECTION > Part I, 1, 2, c. 1, section 4.[44] (3/19) · passage 27 · cos 0.51
“verse 1.) examine Spirits, than in all things that concern the power of the Romane Church, (the abuse whereof either they suspected not, or had benefit by it,) to discredit their testimony, in respect of too rash beleef of reports; which the most sincere men, without great knowledge of naturall causes, (such as the Fathers were) are commonly the most subject to: For naturally, the best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.”
Thomas Hobbes — Leviathan · 1651 · Paris · primary [48]
“4. verse 1.) examine Spirits, than in all things that concern the power of the Romane Church, (the abuse whereof either they suspected not, or had benefit by it,) to discredit their testimony, in respect of too rash beleef of reports; which the most sincere men, without great knowledge of naturall causes, (such as the Fathers were) are commonly the most subject to: For naturally, the best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes. Gregory the Pope, and S. Bernard have somewhat of Apparitions of Ghosts, that said they were in Purgatory; and so has our Beda: but no where, I beleeve, but by report from others. But if they, or any other, relate any such stories of their own knowledge, they shall not thereby confirm the more such vain reports; but discover their own Infirmity, or Fraud.” PART I. > CHAPTER XLVI. OF DARKNESSE FROM VAIN PHILOSOPHY, AND FABULOUS TRADITIONS (14/14) · passage 382 · cos 0.53
“By Their Passions; Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime, one, is Vain-glory, or a foolish over-rating of their own worth; as if difference of worth, were an effect of their wit, or riches, or bloud, or some other naturall quality, not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority.”
Thomas Hobbes — Leviathan · 1651 · Paris · primary [51]
“And of those defects in Reasoning, there is none that can Excuse (though some of them may Extenuate) a Crime, in any man, that pretendeth to the administration of his own private businesse; much lesse in them that undertake a publique charge; because they pretend to the Reason, upon the want whereof they would ground their Excuse. By Their Passions; Of the Passions that most frequently are the causes of Crime, one, is Vain-glory, or a foolish over-rating of their own worth; as if difference of worth, were an effect of their wit, or riches, or bloud, or some other naturall quality, not depending on the Will of those that have the Soveraign Authority.” PART I. > CHAPTER XXVII. OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, AND EXTENUATIONS (4/11) · passage 157 · cos 0.53
“the chips or cones, being burnt, extinguish moths, and expels the gnats and flies, &c. not omitting the gum which it yields, not much inferior to the terebinthine or lentise.”
John Evelyn — Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2) · c. 1660s · England (London, for composition/publishing context) · primary [83]
“the chips or cones, being burnt, extinguish moths, and expels the gnats and flies, &c. not omitting the gum which it yields, not much inferior to the terebinthine or lentise. We have often mention’d the virtue of these odoriferous woods, for the improvement of the air; upon which I take occasion here to add, what I have (some years since) already{277:1} publish’d, concerning the melioration of it, in, and about this great and populous city, accidentally obnoxious to the effects of those nauseous vapours, exhaling from those many unclean places, and tainting that dismal cloud of sulphurous (if not arsenical) smoke, which we uncessantly breathe in.” BOOK I. > CHAPTER IV. (16/17) · passage 229 · cos 0.51
“worked wonders, and will laugh at what he will call the chimeras of the moderns, who claim to explain through mechanical structure what passes in the body of an animal. 153. The explanation of the cause of evil by a particular principle, _per principium maleficum_, is of the same nature. Evil needs no such explanation, any more than do cold and darkness: there is neither _primum frigidum_ nor principle of darkness.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von — Theodicy · 1710-1711 · Hanover, Lower Saxony (historic) · primary [40]
“worked wonders, and will laugh at what he will call the chimeras of the moderns, who claim to explain through mechanical structure what passes in the body of an animal. 153. The explanation of the cause of evil by a particular principle, _per principium maleficum_, is of the same nature. Evil needs no such explanation, any more than do cold and darkness: there is neither _primum frigidum_ nor principle of darkness. Evil itself comes only from privation; the positive enters therein only by concomitance, as the active enters by concomitance into cold. We see that water in freezing is capable of breaking a gun-barrel wherein it is confined; and yet cold is a certain privation of force, it only comes from the diminution of a movement which separates the particles of fluids.” book with much acrimony. But the accused won his case in a Synod. > PART TWO (32/80) · passage 177 · cos 0.54
“its modifications, it is obvious that action arises in the creature in relation to the limitations or negations which it has within itself, and which are diversified by this change. 378. I have already pointed out more than once in this work that evil is a consequence of privation, and I think that I have explained that intelligibly enough. St. Augustine has already put forward this idea, and St.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von — Theodicy · 1710-1711 · Hanover, Lower Saxony (historic) · primary [41]
“its modifications, it is obvious that action arises in the creature in relation to the limitations or negations which it has within itself, and which are diversified by this change. 378. I have already pointed out more than once in this work that evil is a consequence of privation, and I think that I have explained that intelligibly enough. St. Augustine has already put forward this idea, and St. Basil said something of the same kind in his *Hexaemeron*, Homil. 2, 'that vice is not a living and animate substance, but an affection of the soul contrary to virtue, which arises from one's abandoning the good; and there is therefore no need to look for an original evil'. M. Bayle, quoting this passage in his *Dictionary* (art. 'Paulicians', lit. D, p.” book with much acrimony. But the accused won his case in a Synod. > V.D.H.) attacking the power of the Governor of Holland, which was at that time considered a danger to the Republic; for the memory of Prince William the Second's attempt upon the city of Amsterdam was still quite fresh.[351] (2/71) · passage 290 · cos 0.54
“on account of what they are. The more intricate processes take up too much ground, too much space, too much place, too much time that might have been better employed. [258] 209. Now since everything resolves itself into this greatest perfection, we return to my law of the best.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von — Theodicy · 1710-1711 · Hanover, Lower Saxony (historic) · primary [46]
“on account of what they are. The more intricate processes take up too much ground, too much space, too much place, too much time that might have been better employed. [258] 209. Now since everything resolves itself into this greatest perfection, we return to my law of the best. For perfection includes not only the _moral good* and the *physical good_ of intelligent creatures, but also the good which is purely *metaphysical*, and concerns also creatures devoid of reason. It follows that the evil that is in rational creatures happens only by concomitance, not by antecedent will but by a consequent will, as being involved in the best possible plan; and the metaphysical good which includes everything makes it necessary sometimes to admit physical evil and moral evil, as I have already explained more than once. It so happens that the ancient Stoics were not far removed from this system. M.” book with much acrimony. But the accused won his case in a Synod. > PART TWO (67/80) · passage 212 · cos 0.53
“imply that the morally good is mastered by the agreeably good, which makes more impression on souls when they are disturbed by the passions. 155. Furthermore, M. Bayle himself supplies Melissus with a good answer; but a little later he disputes it. Here are his words, p.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von — Theodicy · 1710-1711 · Hanover, Lower Saxony (historic) · primary [70]
“imply that the morally good is mastered by the agreeably good, which makes more impression on souls when they are disturbed by the passions. 155. Furthermore, M. Bayle himself supplies Melissus with a good answer; but a little later he disputes it. Here are his words, p. 2025: 'If Melissus consults the notions of order, he will answer that man was not wicked when God made him; he will say that man received from God a happy state, but that not having followed the light of conscience, which in accordance with the intention of its author should have guided him along the path of virtue, he has become wicked, and has deserved that God the supremely good should make him feel the effects of his anger. It is therefore not God who is the cause of moral evil: but he is the cause of physical evil, that is, of the punishment of moral evil.” book with much acrimony. But the accused won his case in a Synod. > PART TWO (33/80) · passage 178 · cos 0.53
“Tyranny has been, and will always be, the chief source of the depraved morals and habitual calamities of the people.”
Jean Meslier (trans. Anna Knoop) — Superstition in all ages · c. 1729 · Étrépigny, Champagne, France · primary [20]
“The priests deceive them, tyrants corrupt them in order to subjugate them more easily. Tyranny has been, and will always be, the chief source of the depraved morals and habitual calamities of the people. These, almost always fascinated by their religious notions or by metaphysical fictions, instead of looking upon the natural and visible causes of their miseries, attribute their vices to the imperfections of their nature, and their misfortunes to the anger of their Gods; they offer to Heaven vows, sacrifices, and presents, in order to put an end to their misfortunes, which are really due only to the negligence, the ignorance, and to the perversity of their guides, to the folly of their institutions, to their foolish customs, to their false opinions, to their unreasonable laws, and especially to their want of enlightenment.” (6/148) · passage 5 · cos 0.53
“word "chance" to cover their ignorance of the true causes; nevertheless, although they may ignore them, these causes act, but by certain laws. There is no effect without a cause. Nature is a word which we make use of to designate the immense assemblage of beings, diverse substances, infinite combinations, and all the various motions which we see.”
Jean Meslier (trans. Anna Knoop) — Superstition in all ages · c. 1729 · Étrépigny, Champagne, France · primary [49]
“word "chance" to cover their ignorance of the true causes; nevertheless, although they may ignore them, these causes act, but by certain laws. There is no effect without a cause. Nature is a word which we make use of to designate the immense assemblage of beings, diverse substances, infinite combinations, and all the various motions which we see. All bodies, whether organized or not organized, are the necessary results of certain causes, made to produce necessarily the effects which we see. Nothing in nature can be made by chance; all follow fixed laws; these laws are but the necessary union of certain effects with their causes. An atom of matter does not meet another atom by accident or by hazard; this rencounter is due to permanent laws, which cause each being to act by necessity as it does, and can not act otherwise under the same circumstances.” (18/148) · passage 17 · cos 0.53
“Oppressed by the double yoke of spiritual and temporal power, it was impossible for the people to instruct themselves and to work for their own welfare. Thus, religion, politics, and morals became sanctuaries, into which the profane were not permitted to enter. Men had no other morality than that which their legislators and their priests claimed as descended from unknown empyrean regions.”
Jean Meslier (trans. Anna Knoop) — Superstition in all ages · c. 1729 · Étrépigny, Champagne, France · primary [64]
“These, after having fettered him by the ties of opinion, have remained his masters or delivered him up defenseless to the absolute power of tyrants, no less terrible than the Gods, of whom they were the representatives upon the earth. Oppressed by the double yoke of spiritual and temporal power, it was impossible for the people to instruct themselves and to work for their own welfare. Thus, religion, politics, and morals became sanctuaries, into which the profane were not permitted to enter. Men had no other morality than that which their legislators and their priests claimed as descended from unknown empyrean regions. The human mind, perplexed by these theological opinions, misunderstood itself, doubted its own powers, mistrusted experience, feared truth, disdained its reason, and left it to blindly follow authority.” (5/148) · passage 4 · cos 0.52
“CLIV.--CHARLATANRY OF THE PRIESTS. What would we say of a crowd of quacks, who every day would exhibit in a public place, selling their remedies and recommending them as infallible, while we should find them afflicted with the same infirmities which they pretend to cure?”
Jean Meslier (trans. Anna Knoop) — Superstition in all ages · c. 1729 · Étrépigny, Champagne, France · primary [82]
“CLIV.--CHARLATANRY OF THE PRIESTS. What would we say of a crowd of quacks, who every day would exhibit in a public place, selling their remedies and recommending them as infallible, while we should find them afflicted with the same infirmities which they pretend to cure? Would we have much confidence in the recipes of these charlatans, who would bawl out: "Take our remedies, their effects are infallible--they cure everybody except us?" What would we think to see these same charlatans pass their lives in complaining that their remedies never produce any effect upon the patients who take them? Finally, what idea would we form of the foolishness of the common man who, in spite of this confession, would continue to pay very high for remedies which will not be beneficial to him?” (82/148) · passage 81 · cos 0.51
“Our Ministers are of opinion that the increase of our trade and manufactures, that our growth by colonisation and by conquest, have concurred to accumulate immense wealth in the hands of some individuals; and this again being dispersed amongst the people, has rendered them universally proud, ferocious, and ungovernable; that the insolence of some from their enormous wealth, and the boldness of others from a guilty poverty, have rendered them capable of the most atrocious attempts; so that they h”
Edmund Burke — Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches · c. 1769 (pamphlet drafted) · London · primary [74]
“It is a compliment due, and which I willingly pay, to those who administer our affairs, to take notice in the first place of their speculation. Our Ministers are of opinion that the increase of our trade and manufactures, that our growth by colonisation and by conquest, have concurred to accumulate immense wealth in the hands of some individuals; and this again being dispersed amongst the people, has rendered them universally proud, ferocious, and ungovernable; that the insolence of some from their enormous wealth, and the boldness of others from a guilty poverty, have rendered them capable of the most atrocious attempts; so that they have trampled upon all subordination, and violently borne down the unarmed laws of a free Government--barriers too feeble against the fury of a populace so fierce and licentious as ours.” (4/90) · passage 3 · cos 0.51
“In short, might not the Deity exterminate all ill, wherever it were to be found; and produce all good, without any preparation, or long progress of causes and effects? Besides, we must consider, that, according to the present economy of the world, the course of nature, though supposed exactly regular, yet to us appears not so, and many events are uncertain, and many disappoint our expectations.”
David Hume — Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · 1780 (composed; posthumously published) · London · primary [52]
“But might not other particular volitions remedy this inconvenience? In short, might not the Deity exterminate all ill, wherever it were to be found; and produce all good, without any preparation, or long progress of causes and effects? Besides, we must consider, that, according to the present economy of the world, the course of nature, though supposed exactly regular, yet to us appears not so, and many events are uncertain, and many disappoint our expectations. Health and sickness, calm and tempest, with an infinite number of other accidents, whose causes are unknown and variable, have a great influence both on the fortunes of particular persons and on the prosperity of public societies; and indeed all human life, in a manner, depends on such accidents.” PART 1 > PART 11 (3/8) · passage 51 · cos 0.53
“or refuses its assistance ... we should also have our own temper to struggle with, and should be deprived of that faculty which can alone fence against these multiplied evils. The fourth circumstance, whence arises the misery and ill of the universe, is the inaccurate workmanship of all the springs and principles of the great machine of nature.”
David Hume — Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · 1780 (composed; posthumously published) · London · primary [84]
“or refuses its assistance ... we should also have our own temper to struggle with, and should be deprived of that faculty which can alone fence against these multiplied evils. The fourth circumstance, whence arises the misery and ill of the universe, is the inaccurate workmanship of all the springs and principles of the great machine of nature. It must be acknowledged, that there are few parts of the universe, which seem not to serve some purpose, and whose removal would not produce a visible defect and disorder in the whole. The parts hang all together; nor can one be touched without affecting the rest, in a greater or less degree.” PART 1 > PART 11 (6/8) · passage 54 · cos 0.51
“A probable cause of epidemics--Extracts from Mr Suessmilch's tables--Periodical returns of sickly seasons to be expected in certain cases--Proportion of births to burials for short periods in any country an inadequate criterion of the real average increase of population--Best criterion of a permanent increase of population--Great frugality of living one of the causes of the famines of China and Indostan--Evil tendency of one of the clauses in Mr Pitt's Poor Bill--Only one proper way of encouragi”
Thomas Robert Malthus — An Essay on the Principle of Population · 1798 (composed in 1798; dated 7 June 1798 within the text) · London, England (St. Paul’s Church-yard; publisher’s location) · primary [39]
“A probable cause of epidemics--Extracts from Mr Suessmilch's tables--Periodical returns of sickly seasons to be expected in certain cases--Proportion of births to burials for short periods in any country an inadequate criterion of the real average increase of population--Best criterion of a permanent increase of population--Great frugality of living one of the causes of the famines of China and Indostan--Evil tendency of one of the clauses in Mr Pitt's Poor Bill--Only one proper way of encouraging population--Causes of the Happiness of nations--Famine, the last and most dreadful mode by which nature represses a redundant population--The three propositions considered as established. By great attention to cleanliness, the plague seems at length to be completely expelled from London.” CHAPTER 1 > CHAPTER 7 (1/8) · passage 28 · cos 0.52
“If the number of people which they contain be less now than formerly, it is, probably, rather to be attributed to the tyranny and oppression of the government under which they groan, and the consequent discouragements to agriculture, than to the loss which they sustain by the plague.”
Thomas Robert Malthus — An Essay on the Principle of Population · 1798 (composed in 1798; dated 7 June 1798 within the text) · London, England (St. Paul’s Church-yard; publisher’s location) · primary [47]
“It may even be doubted whether Turkey and Egypt are upon an average much less populous for the plagues that periodically lay them waste. If the number of people which they contain be less now than formerly, it is, probably, rather to be attributed to the tyranny and oppression of the government under which they groan, and the consequent discouragements to agriculture, than to the loss which they sustain by the plague. The most tremendous convulsions of nature, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, if they do not happen so frequently as to drive away the inhabitants, or to destroy their spirit of industry, have but a trifling effect on the average population of any state. Naples, and the country under Vesuvius, are still very populous, notwithstanding the repeated eruptions of that mountain.” CHAPTER 1 > CHAPTER 6 (3/3) · passage 27 · cos 0.51
“the revenue of a state, cannot, therefore, be considered of the same importance as an increase of food, which forms the principal revenue of the great mass of the people. Foreign commerce adds to the wealth of a state, according to Dr Adam Smith's definition, though not according to the definition of the economists.”
Thomas Robert Malthus — An Essay on the Principle of Population · 1798 (composed in 1798; dated 7 June 1798 within the text) · London, England (St. Paul’s Church-yard; publisher’s location) · primary [63]
“the revenue of a state, cannot, therefore, be considered of the same importance as an increase of food, which forms the principal revenue of the great mass of the people. Foreign commerce adds to the wealth of a state, according to Dr Adam Smith's definition, though not according to the definition of the economists. Its principal use, and the reason, probably, that it has in general been held in such high estimation is that it adds greatly to the external power of a nation or to its power of commanding the labour of other countries; but it will be found, upon a near examination, to contribute but little to the increase of the internal funds for the maintenance of labour, and consequently but little to the happiness of the greatest part of society.” CHAPTER 1 > CHAPTER 17 (4/6) · passage 88 · cos 0.52
“Even in Manchester the people have not the same appearance; these pale, lank, narrow-chested, hollow-eyed ghosts, whom one passes at every step, these languid, flabby faces, incapable of the slightest energetic expression, I have seen in such startling numbers only in London, though consumption carries off a horde of victims annually in the factory towns of the North.”
Friedrich Engels — The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 · 1844 (as a report/study of conditions; published in Germany 1845) · Manchester, England · primary [44]
“If one roams the streets a little in the early morning, when the multitudes are on their way to their work, one is amazed at the number of persons who look wholly or half-consumptive. Even in Manchester the people have not the same appearance; these pale, lank, narrow-chested, hollow-eyed ghosts, whom one passes at every step, these languid, flabby faces, incapable of the slightest energetic expression, I have seen in such startling numbers only in London, though consumption carries off a horde of victims annually in the factory towns of the North. In competition with consumption stands typhus, to say nothing of scarlet fever, a disease which brings most frightful devastation into the ranks of the working-class.” Act, the Masters' and Servants' Act; and Thomas Duncombe, the representative of the working-men in the House of Commons, was the great man of the session; while the Liberal middle-class with its motion for repealing the Corn Laws, and the Radical middle-class with its resolution for refusing the taxes, played pitiable roles. Even the debates about > act. God knows, there is much room for action nowadays." {32} (46/61) · passage 76 · cos 0.53
“In endeavoring to trace out carefully the causes of his disease, the first thing that attracted my attention was his employment. His father was a blacksmith, and being in moderate circumstances and destitute of any other help besides this son, had for a considerable time required him to perform the work of an adult, or nearly such.”
William A. Alcott (William Andrus Alcott) — Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders · 1859 (composed in the late period of the author's life; printed in 1859) · Boston, Massachusetts, United States · primary [13]
“Nearly at the beginning of my practice in medicine, I was called to see a fine and hitherto healthy youth, twelve years old, but who had for several weeks before application was made to me, complained of a steady and sometimes severe pain in his bowels, attended with more or fewer febrile symptoms and a loss of appetite. In endeavoring to trace out carefully the causes of his disease, the first thing that attracted my attention was his employment. His father was a blacksmith, and being in moderate circumstances and destitute of any other help besides this son, had for a considerable time required him to perform the work of an adult, or nearly such. It had not been suspected at the time, that the work injured him, though he had sometimes complained of great fatigue, and of a slight weakness and uneasiness in the place where the pain had now become fixed.” CHAPTER. PAGE. > CHAPTER XXVIII. (1/4) · passage 51 · cos 0.56
“I say, here, *cure*; for the idea would hardly have found a lodgment, at that early period, in any human brain which could have been found in that region of rural simplicity, hardly in my own somewhat more highly enlightened cranium, that *medical men never cure*; and that when people get well, it is the result of the operations and efforts of nature, or of nature's God, who is doing the best thing possible to set matters right.”
William A. Alcott (William Andrus Alcott) — Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders · 1859 (composed in the late period of the author's life; printed in 1859) · Boston, Massachusetts, United States · primary [23]
“Thus it was, in a remarkable degree, in the region where it was my lot to meet and palliate and try to cure diseases. I say, here, *cure*; for the idea would hardly have found a lodgment, at that early period, in any human brain which could have been found in that region of rural simplicity, hardly in my own somewhat more highly enlightened cranium, that *medical men never cure*; and that when people get well, it is the result of the operations and efforts of nature, or of nature's God, who is doing the best thing possible to set matters right. It was even deemed by many as not only foolish, but almost sacrilegious, to say much about the causes of disease, and especially about lead.” CHAPTER. PAGE. > CHAPTER XXVIII. (2/4) · passage 52 · cos 0.54
“SCARLATINA CURED BY LETTING ALONE. At a certain season when scarlet fever was very prevalent among us, a member of my family was attacked with it slightly, and, as it was believed by almost everybody to be contagious, the case excited much alarm.”
William A. Alcott (William Andrus Alcott) — Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders · 1859 (composed in the late period of the author's life; printed in 1859) · Boston, Massachusetts, United States · primary [86]
“SCARLATINA CURED BY LETTING ALONE. At a certain season when scarlet fever was very prevalent among us, a member of my family was attacked with it slightly, and, as it was believed by almost everybody to be contagious, the case excited much alarm. The fact that in persons of my friend's age, it had, during the season, occasionally proved fatal, no doubt increased the apprehension and alarm, and led to many anxious fears about the treatment. Those who regarded my general method of treating disease as rather too "tame," and who supposed themselves in special danger of "taking the disease," were not only curious, but curiously inquisitive to know what I would do in my own family, to meet this supposed terrible malady. My first object was to quiet all fears, especially in the patient. It would have been easy--comparatively so--to do this, had it not been for the croakings of our neighbors.” CHAPTER. PAGE. > CHAPTER LXXXII. · passage 173 · cos 0.51
“But if this contagiousness of sacredness helps to explain the system of interdicts, how is it to be explained itself? Some have tried to explain it with the well-known laws of the association of ideas. The sentiments inspired in us by a person or a thing spread contagiously from the idea of this thing or person to the representations associated with it, and thence to the objects which these representations express.”
Émile Durkheim — The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life · 1895 (composed as the doctoral thesis); 1912 (published later in expanded form) · Paris, France · primary [60]
“But if this contagiousness of sacredness helps to explain the system of interdicts, how is it to be explained itself? Some have tried to explain it with the well-known laws of the association of ideas. The sentiments inspired in us by a person or a thing spread contagiously from the idea of this thing or person to the representations associated with it, and thence to the objects which these representations express. So the respect which we have for a sacred being is communicated to everything touching this being, or resembling it, or recalling it. Of course a cultivated man is not deceived by these associations; he knows that these derived emotions are due to mere plays of the images and to entirely mental combinations, so he does not give way to the superstitions which these illusions tend to bring about.” BOOK I (17/20) · passage 242 · cos 0.52

By period

metadata clusters — composition century, never content

5th–4th century BCE · 6 Thucydides reports plague symptoms striking people “all of a sudden” with “no ostensible cause,” while explicitly postponing any speculation about “its origin and its causes” to other writers [22]. This cluster therefore stresses symptom-description over causal explanation, even as it acknowledges that people attempted to interpret the disturbance [12].
1st century BCE · 13 A more naturalistic explanation appears in Lucretius: a “variable air” and “noxious airs” (miasma-like) creep through the environment and transform conditions, and a “mortal miasma in Cecropian lands” is tied to the Athenian plague [3][6]. Other voices attribute plague to divine anger (Juno; Apollo/Diana) or give heat-related/air-corruption motifs rather than a single consistent scientific cause [8][11], showing explanation through either natural conditions or mythic agency.
1st century · 9 In this cluster, Plutarch preserves competing explanations: one account says Thucydides “conjectures” the plague was “new” partly because birds/beasts did not touch the dead [5], while another claims a human/social cause—crowding and stifling indoor life in summer heat—was thought responsible [4]. Plutarch also frames disease as arising from “common causes” linked to Nature and bodily change, rather than a single external trigger [7].
2nd–6th century · 13 Apuleius explicitly categorizes disease causes as arising from bodily elements where “moisture and cold” (and opposites) fail to harmonize, i.e., a theory grounded in natural balance [15]. Procopius later describes a specific outbreak origin “from the Aegyptians who dwell in Pelusium” and then provides bodily findings (buboes/carbuncle, pustules), but those passages emphasize event narration over a general theory of causes [24][36].
17th century · 7 Rather than offering plague causation directly, these sources focus on epistemic causes of error: Hobbes ties misattribution to “Ignorance of remote causes” and “Want of Science” that makes people rely on others’ authority [10][34]. Thus the cluster explains why people propose wrong or simplistic causes, not what the plague’s cause was [10][34].
18th century · 16 Malthus uses crowding conditions as “natural causes” that can contribute to epidemics when populations are forced into harder living and greater household crowding [14]. Franklin reports observation-based reasoning about plague declining as there are “hardly any Objects left to work upon” [72], indicating causal explanation via empirical depletion rather than providential or purely miasmatic theory.
19th century · 7 Engels links epidemic fury to social/economic conditions, stating that privation, crisis, or bad harvest “has each time produced” typhus epidemics and that its impact fell “almost exclusively” on the working class [16][44]. Alcott adds a practical, human-origin explanation for a “troublesome visitor,” attributed to “human and not of divine origin,” with proposed attention to “cellars, sleeping-rooms, wells” [54].