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Often appears with: justice as a virtue · reason and the intellect · fate, destiny, and necessity · the fear of death · the nature and attributes of God · religious persecution and toleration · myth and the gods of the nations · judgment, heaven, and hell · crime and punishment · the passions and the emotions · education and the training of the young · conversion and faith
Usually: argument (59) · detachment (49) · confronting death (31) · curiosity (28) · wonder (27) · narrative (25) · reflection (24) · skepticism (24) · reverence (19) · exhortation (18)
“Either then, let us refute this conclusion, or, while it remains unrefuted, let us never say that fever, or any other disease, or the knife put to the throat, or even the cutting up of the whole body into the minutest pieces, can destroy the soul, until she herself is proved to become more unholy or unrighteous in consequence of these things being done to the body;” Plato, The Republic · precept
“Plato is most true to the character of his master when he describes him as ‘not of this world.” Plato, The Republic · observation
“Him they told to look and listen, as he was to be their messenger to men from the world below.” Plato, The Republic · observation
“A POWER OVER A MAN’s SUBSISTENCE AMOUNTS TO A POWER OVER HIS WILL.” Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison, The Federalist Papers · insight
“Either then, let us refute this conclusion, or, while it remains unrefuted, let us never say that fever, or any other disease, or the knife put to the throat, or even the cutting up of the whole body into the minutest pieces, can destroy the soul, until she herself is proved to become more unholy or unrighteous in consequence of these things being done to the body;” Plato, The Republic · precept
“Yet such things happen for folks' sins, that they will not love God and righteousness.” (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; translator/editor) James Ingram, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle · insight
“There is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence and describe the condition, of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · insight
“Plato is most true to the character of his master when he describes him as ‘not of this world.” Plato, The Republic · observation
“you must contemplate her with the eye of reason, in her original purity; and then her beauty will be revealed, and justice and injustice and all the things which we have described will be manifested more clearly.” Plato, The Republic · insight
“And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved and has not perished, and will save us if we are obedient to the word spoken; and we shall pass safely over the river of Forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled.” Plato, The Republic · insight
“Venus, if it be your will You in this garden thus to transfigure Before me sorrowful wretched creature, Out of this prison help that we may scape.” Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems · vivid
“Blessed whoso loveth Thee, and his friend in Thee, and his enemy for Thee. For he alone loses none dear to him, to whom all are dear in Him who cannot be lost.” Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, The Confessions of St. Augustine · precept
Pepys describes desperate pressed sailors due to lack of pay, reports drownings and limits of punishment, considers visiting imprisoned Commissioner Pett, and hears Dutch letters that peace is proclaimed though terms are bad.
did tell us that there never was so much need of it in the world as now, we being brought to the lowest straits that can be in the world. 22nd. Up, and to the office: whence Lord Brouncker, J. Minnes, and W. Pen, and I went to examine some men that are put in there for rescuing of men that were pressed into the service: and we do plainly see that the desperate condition that we put men into for want of their pay …
Jesus continues with parables and teachings about forgiveness, then moves from Galilee to Judea beyond the Jordan; he debates Pharisees about lawful divorce and answers questions about chastity, marriage, and eternal life.
besought him saying: Sir, give me respite, and I will pay it every whit. Then had the lord pity on that servant, and lowsed him, and forgave him the debt. The same servant went out and found one of his fellows, which ought him an hundred pence. And laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying: pay that thou owest. And his fellow fell down, and besought him, saying: have patience with me, and I will pay thee…
At the tomb Mary weeps, sees two angels, then meets the risen Jesus who tells her not to touch him; later that same day he appears to locked-in disciples and commissions them with the Holy Ghost.
and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the scriptures, that he should rise again from death. And the disciples went away again unto their own home. Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: As she wept, she bowed herself into the sepulchre and saw two angels clothed in white sitting the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where they had laid the body of Iesus. They said unto her: woman why weep…
Hamilton explains that fixed, undiminished judicial salaries are necessary for independence, describes the constitutional compensation rule for U.S. judges, and adds that responsibility comes through impeachment rather than removals for incapacity.
To the People of the State of New York: Next to permanency in office, nothing can contribute more to the independence of the judges than a fixed provision for their support. The remark made in relation to the President is equally applicable here. In the general course of human nature, A POWER OVER A MAN’s SUBSISTENCE AMOUNTS TO A POWER OVER HIS WILL. And we can never hope to see realized in practice, the complete se…
The work shifts to a philosophical-theological reflection: souls survive death, and good men’s virtues are translated into heroes and gods, followed by competing etymologies for Romulus’s surname Quirinus.
All human bodies yield to Death's decree, The soul survives to all eternity. For that alone is derived from the gods, thence comes, and thither returns; not with the body, but when most disengaged and separated from it, and when most entirely pure and clean and free from the flesh; for the most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud; but that which…
The work shifts to a philosophical-theological reflection: souls survive death, and good men’s virtues are translated into heroes and gods, followed by competing etymologies for Romulus’s surname Quirinus.
All human bodies yield to Death's decree, The soul survives to all eternity. For that alone is derived from the gods, thence comes, and thither returns; not with the body, but when most disengaged and separated from it, and when most entirely pure and clean and free from the flesh; for the most perfect soul, says Heraclitus, is a dry light, which flies out of the body as lightning breaks from a cloud; but that which…
Plutarch argues that popular artistic admiration does not necessarily produce imitation, whereas moral virtue—seen in action—creates admiration and a practical desire to act, then introduces his tenth book on Pericles and Fabius Maximus.
sometimes to hear others sing, and he does the muses quite honor enough when he pleases to be but present, while others engage in such exercises and trials of skill. He who busies himself in mean occupations produces, in the very pains he takes about things of little or no use, an evidence against himself of his negligence and indisposition to what is really good. Nor did any generous and ingenuous young man, at th…
Kant denies that a rational psychology can add knowledge of the soul’s constitution beyond experience, claiming reason’s unity of consciousness cannot apply categories to an object as it wishes, so speculation must stop.
discovered to exist in the natural and necessary limitation of our reason, our opponents must submit to the same law of renunciation and refrain from advancing claims to dogmatic assertion. But the right, say rather the necessity to admit a future life, upon principles of the practical conjoined with the speculative use of reason, has lost nothing by this renunciation; for the merely speculative proof has never had …
He says explaining the soul’s community with the body lies beyond the psychology here because it targets personal identity after death, then transitions to “I think” as an empirical proposition tied to internal sense.
We showed in the introduction to this part of our work, that all transcendental illusion of pure reason arose from dialectical arguments, the schema of which logic gives us in its three formal species of syllogisms—just as the categories find their logical schema in the four functions of all judgements. The first kind of these sophistical arguments related to the unconditioned unity of the subjective conditions of al…
He claims that disputes about God, atheism, and the soul’s permanent unity vs transitory material unity are not resolvable by pure reason with decisive proof, so opponents cannot demonstrate the opposite either.
propositions are perfectly consistent with each other, because phenomena as phenomena are in themselves nothing, and consequently the hypothesis that they are things in themselves must lead to self-contradictory inferences. But there are cases in which a similar misunderstanding cannot be provided against, and the dispute must remain unsettled. Take, for example, the theistic proposition: There is a Supreme Being; a…
He claims that disputes about God, atheism, and the soul’s permanent unity vs transitory material unity are not resolvable by pure reason with decisive proof, so opponents cannot demonstrate the opposite either.
propositions are perfectly consistent with each other, because phenomena as phenomena are in themselves nothing, and consequently the hypothesis that they are things in themselves must lead to self-contradictory inferences. But there are cases in which a similar misunderstanding cannot be provided against, and the dispute must remain unsettled. Take, for example, the theistic proposition: There is a Supreme Being; a…
Using David Hume and Priestley as examples, Kant explains their motives for undermining religion as part of teaching reason self-knowledge and responding to limits of natural science, while urging fair treatment of both.
it is perfectly permissible to employ, in the presence of reason, the language of a firmly rooted faith, even after we have been obliged to renounce all pretensions to knowledge. If we were to ask the dispassionate David Hume—a philosopher endowed, in a degree that few are, with a well-balanced judgement: What motive induced you to spend so much labour and thought in undermining the consoling and beneficial persuasi…
He argues reason’s ultimate speculative targets—freedom, immortality, and God—are useless for knowing experience, so their true importance lies in their practical role in guiding life.
There exists in the faculty of reason a natural desire to venture beyond the field of experience, to attempt to reach the utmost bounds of all cognition by the help of ideas alone, and not to rest satisfied until it has fulfilled its course and raised the sum of its cognitions into a self-subsistent systematic whole. Is the motive for this endeavour to be found in its speculative, or in its practical interests alone?…
Benjamin endures three-plus months of imprisonment, re-chaining after defiance, then is finally sold to a slave trader for three hundred dollars, while his mother and grandmother labor to buy others’ freedom.
worth it,” said he. “I wish I had some of your goodness. You bear every thing patiently, just as though you thought it was all right. I wish I could.” She told him she had not always been so; once, she was like him; but when sore troubles came upon her, and she had no arm to lean upon, she learned to call on God, and he lightened her burdens. She besought him to do likewise. We overstaid our time, and were obliged …
Durkheim examines the idea of the soul in Australian societies, linking reincarnation to the totemic principle, comparing soul versus body, and then distinguishing souls, spirits, and gods, including how spirits relate to magic.
THE IDEA OF THE SOUL I.--Analysis of the idea of the soul in the Australian societies 240 II.--Genesis of this idea--The doctrine of reincarnation according to Spencer and Gillen: it implies that the soul is a part of the totemic principle--Examination of the facts collected by Strehlow; they confirm the totemic nature of the soul 246 III.--…
Durkheim argues that different interpretations of the ancestor soul’s incarnation (whole soul vs emanation) and its post-death fate are closely related, concluding that neither version preserves the individual soul.
[807] Strehlow, II, p. 58. [808] The difference between the two versions becomes still smaller and is reduced to almost nothing, if we observe that, when Spencer and Gillen tell us that the ancestral soul is incarnated in the woman, the expressions they use are not to be taken literally. It is not the whole soul which comes to fertilize the mother, but only an emanation from this soul. In fact, according to their ow…
Durkheim compares soul and totem conceptions across groups, arguing that totemic species can be treated as mythological equivalents and that soul-animal transformations are shaped by the “perversion” or change of totemism.
[838] J. Bishop, *Die Niol-Niol*, in *Anthropos*, III, p. 35. [839] Roth, *Superstition*, etc., § 68; cf. § 69a, gives a similar case from among the natives on the Proserpine River. To simplify the description, we have left aside the complications due to differences of sex. The souls of daughters are made out of the choi of their mother, though these share with their brothers the ngai of their father. This peculiari…
Durkheim reasons that the idea of the soul must include social and intellectual “higher” states of consciousness, and he discusses debates about whether ideas like personality and unity undermine or adapt the notion of a soul.
the same time, spirits more actively demand attention. Then the marked affinities of the soul for the animal kingdom are manifested, especially after it is freed from the human body. [860] See above, p. 170. On the generality of the doctrine of metempsychosis, see Tylor, II, pp. 8 ff. [861] Even if we believe that religious and moral representations constitute the essential elements of the idea of the soul, still w…
Durkheim develops the argument that spirits associated with place and nature (e.g., Mura-mura) connect to moral conscience and individual guidance, and he outlines how a duplicated soul can become expressed through individual totems.
[879] See the case of a Mura-mura who is considered the spirit of certain hot springs, in Howitt, *Nat. Tr.*, p. 482. [880] *Nor. Tr.*, pp. 313 f.; Mathews, _Journ. of the Roy. Soc. of N.S. Wales_, XXXVIII, p. 351. Among the Dieri there is also a Mura-mura whose function is to produce rain (Howitt, *Nat. Tr.*, pp. 798 f.). [881] Roth. *Superstition*, etc., § 67. Cf. Dawson, p. 59. [882] Strehlow, I, pp. 2 ff. [88…
Durkheim explains how, when collective totemism declines and the protecting ancestor fades, people devise another representation of the soul’s double nature, using a protecting power sought through magical-like techniques.
has a collective totem in addition, he finds himself having many souls. But there is nothing surprising in this plurality of souls: it is the condition of a superior power. But when collective totemism once begins to lose ground, and when the conception of the protecting ancestor consequently begins to grow dim in the mind, another method must be found for representing the double nature of the soul, which is still f…
After depicting William’s suffering and death in Normandy, the Chronicle summarizes his reign as wise and rich yet harsh, stresses his church-building, describes strict justice and prisoner-taking, and emphasizes his rigid control over nobles and bishops.
tremendous was the thunder and lightning, that it killed many men; and it continually grew worse and worse with men. May God Almighty better it whenever it be his will. A.D. 1087. After the birth of our Lord and Saviour Christ, one thousand and eighty-seven winters; in the one and twentieth year after William began to govern and direct England, as God granted him, was a very heavy and pestilent season in this land. S…
He shifts to philosophy: Gibbon says Cicero’s writings show ancient uncertainty about the soul’s immortality, describes Plato’s followers as inferring immortality and preexistence, and argues Roman public life did not treat future judgment as a real guide.
and in proportion to the increase of zeal, they combated with the more ardor and success in the holy war, which they had undertaken against the empire of the demons. II. The writings of Cicero 51 represent in the most lively colors the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples a…
Gibbon argues that philosophy alone cannot guarantee a reliable future state, so he lists defects in Greek and Roman religion—lack of proof, inconsistent afterlife imagery, and weak doctrinal focus—while claiming other regions taught immortality more effectively.
so far at least as that doctrine is compatible with religion, was adopted by many of the Greek and Latin fathers. See Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, l. vi. c. 4.] 53 (return) [ See Cicero pro Cluent. c. 61. Cæsar ap. Sallust. de Bell. Catilis n 50. Juvenal. Satir. ii. 149. ——Esse aliquid manes, et subterranea regna, —————Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum æree lavantæ.] Since therefore the most …
He asserts that Moses’ law omitted immortality, that Jewish hopes grew slowly through later eras and sects, and that after Cyrus and Ezra the Sadducees rejected immortality while the Pharisees adopted it from tradition, preparing for Christ.
to the credit of the merchant, and that the Druids derived from their holy profession a character of responsibility, which could scarcely be claimed by any other order of men.] We might naturally expect that a principle so essential to religion, would have been revealed in the clearest terms to the chosen people of Palestine, and that it might safely have been intrusted to the hereditary priesthood…
Gibbon states that belief in life and immortality, first grounded in nature and reason and reinforced by superstition, required Christ’s authority and example to become divinely sanctioned truth.
life and immortality, which had been dictated by nature, approved by reason, and received by superstition, should obtain the sanction of divine truth from the authority and example of Christ. 57 (return) [ The right reverend author of the Divine Legation of Moses as signs a very curious reason for the omission, and most ingeniously retorts it on the unbelievers. * Note: The hypothesis of Warburton …
Engels argues that poor relief and philanthropy are insufficient in crises, that mutual credit helps briefly, that most sufferers survive due to crisis brevity, and then shifts to “Irish immigration” as a permanent factor pushing wages down.
working-men at every street corner, and many mills were still standing idle. In the following months these unwilling corner loafers gradually vanished, and the factories came into activity once more. To what extent want and suffering prevail among these unemployed during such a crisis, I need not describe. The poor-rates are insufficient, vastly insufficient; the philanthropy of the rich is a rain-drop in the ocean…
Cortes and officers daily entertain the imprisoned Motecusuma, including playing the ball game totoloc with gold stakes; Motecusuma reproves fake scoring by Alvarado and their gains are distributed, while he also punishes a sailor’s repeated misconduct with reprimand and gold gifts.
_How we entertained and amused Motecusuma during his confinement, and granted him permission to visit his temple._ Our general was a man who thought of everything, and strove as much as possible to enliven the monarch in his confinement, that he might not feel the weight of his misfortune too deeply. Cortes, therefore, every morning after we had said prayers, visited the monarch with four of our principal office…
Auditor Lucas Vázquez de Aillon, supportive of Cortés, clashes with Narváez, who imprisons and sends him to Spain; Aillon urges the ship to St. Domingo, prompting complaints in Spanish councils, while Cortés’s network gains defectors.
_The high words which arose between the auditor Vazquez de Aillon and Narvaez, who orders him to be seized and sent back prisoner to Spain._ The auditor Aillon, as I have before mentioned, was most favorably inclined towards Cortes, and had purposely come to New Spain with instructions from the royal court of audience at St. Domingo and the Hieronymite brothers, who were aware of the great and important serv…
Tocqueville says legislators should give democracies education and freedom and let them improve material life, while constantly working to elevate souls; he attacks materialism as dangerous in a democracy’s physical-gratification cycle.
pursuit of riches, and displayed an excessive liking for physical gratifications, I should not be alarmed; these peculiar symptoms would soon be absorbed in the general aspect of the people. The attention of the legislators of democracies is called to other cares. Give democratic nations education and freedom, and leave them alone. They will soon learn to draw from this world all the benefits which it can afford; th…
Tocqueville says legislators should give democracies education and freedom and let them improve material life, while constantly working to elevate souls; he attacks materialism as dangerous in a democracy’s physical-gratification cycle.
pursuit of riches, and displayed an excessive liking for physical gratifications, I should not be alarmed; these peculiar symptoms would soon be absorbed in the general aspect of the people. The attention of the legislators of democracies is called to other cares. Give democratic nations education and freedom, and leave them alone. They will soon learn to draw from this world all the benefits which it can afford; th…
He argues that some supersensual belief—even imperfect ones like metempsychosis—is less harmful than denying the soul, explaining how non-material doctrines elevate tastes and political life despite democracy’s temptations.
passage from one faith to another, the soul being left for a while stripped of all belief, the love of physical gratifications should grow upon it and fill it wholly. The doctrine of metempsychosis is assuredly not more rational than that of materialism; nevertheless if it were absolutely necessary that a democracy should choose one of the two, I should not hesitate to decide that the community would run less risk o…
Tocqueville argues that in democratic ages spiritual opinions must prevail, and that governments can only secure this by acting as if they believe immortality and by conforming to religious morality in public affairs.
earth and the love of those of heaven: at times it may seem to cling devotedly to the one, but it will never be long without thinking of the other. If it be easy to see that it is more particularly important in democratic ages that spiritual opinions should prevail, it is not easy to say by what means those who govern democratic nations may make them predominate. I am no believer in the prosperity, any more than in …
Tocqueville argues that in democratic ages spiritual opinions must prevail, and that governments can only secure this by acting as if they believe immortality and by conforming to religious morality in public affairs.
earth and the love of those of heaven: at times it may seem to cling devotedly to the one, but it will never be long without thinking of the other. If it be easy to see that it is more particularly important in democratic ages that spiritual opinions should prevail, it is not easy to say by what means those who govern democratic nations may make them predominate. I am no believer in the prosperity, any more than in …
Tocqueville argues war can enlarge minds but cannot remove democratic military dangers, since armies grow impatient of peace and war increases civil government power, threatening liberty.
These perils must be reckoned amongst the most formidable which beset their future fate, and the attention of statesmen should be sedulously applied to find a remedy for the evil. When a nation perceives that it is inwardly affected by the restless ambition of its army, the first thought which occurs is to give this inconvenient ambition an object by going to war. I speak no ill of war: war almost always enlarges th…
He begins a new essay on idleness, comparing idle or untrained minds to overgrown fields that produce weeds, and to unplanned imagination; he explains that even retirement and leisure spawn constant varied thoughts, which he then writes down.
OF IDLENESS As we see some grounds that have long lain idle and untilled, when grown rich and fertile by rest, to abound with and spend their virtue in the product of innumerable sorts of weeds and wild herbs that are unprofitable, and that to make them perform their true office, we are to cultivate and prepare them for such seeds as are proper for our service; and as we see women that, without knowledge of man, do …
Calvin answers the objection that a promising son’s death is a loss, insisting Christ’s dominion over living and dead remains; he frames Louis’s death as maturity and promises resurrection.
But what advantage, you will say, is it to me to have had a son of so much promise, since he has been torn away from me in the first flower of his youth? As if, forsooth, Christ had not merited, by his death, the supreme dominion over the living and the dead! And if we belong to him, (as we ought,) why may he not exercise over us the power of life and of death? However brief, therefore, either in your opinion or in m…
The text explains that humans return to a shared divine rational substance, compares death to the consumption of frankincense on an altar, and dismisses the craving for posthumous honor as ultimately meaningless.
more vile if it be not commended? Doth gold, or ivory, or purple? Is there anything that doth though never so common, as a knife, a flower, or a tree? XVII. If so be that the souls remain after death (say they that will not believe it); how is the air from all eternity able to contain them? How is the earth (say I) ever from that time able to Contain the bodies of them that are buried? For as here the change and res…
It argues against a simplistic afterlife by discussing what would happen if souls remain in air, and adds that all beings are reshaped back into an original rational source through transmutation, transfusion, or conflagration.
must he use himself to cut off actions only, but thoughts and imaginations also, that are unnecessary for so will unnecessary consequent actions the better be prevented and cut off. XXI. Try also how a good man's life; (of one, who is well pleased with those things whatsoever, which among the common changes and chances of this world fall to his own lot and share; and can live well contented and fully satisfied in th…
It argues against a simplistic afterlife by discussing what would happen if souls remain in air, and adds that all beings are reshaped back into an original rational source through transmutation, transfusion, or conflagration.
must he use himself to cut off actions only, but thoughts and imaginations also, that are unnecessary for so will unnecessary consequent actions the better be prevented and cut off. XXI. Try also how a good man's life; (of one, who is well pleased with those things whatsoever, which among the common changes and chances of this world fall to his own lot and share; and can live well contented and fully satisfied in th…
Augustine generalizes that friends are loved as reflections of mutual love, so loss of a friend deepens sorrow, and he pivots to theology: only God is never lost, while all earthly things pass away; he urges the soul to fix itself on Truth.
loved again, by the countenance, the tongue, the eyes, and a thousand pleasing gestures, were so much fuel to melt our souls together, and out of many make but one. This is it that is loved in friends; and so loved, that a man's conscience condemns itself, if he love not him that loves him again, or love not again him that loves him, looking for nothing from his person but indications of his love. Hence that mournin…
Augustine develops a theology of the “heaven of heavens” as God’s “house,” where a created intellectual creature continually contemplates God; he contrasts this with formlessness that cannot produce time through motion and figure.
sight clear unto me, and let it be more and more cleared to me, I beseech Thee: and in the manifestation thereof, let me with sobriety abide under Thy wings. Thou hast told me also with a strong voice, in my inner ear, that neither is that creature coeternal unto Thyself, whose happiness Thou only art, and which with a most persevering purity, drawing its nourishment from Thee, doth in no place and at no time put fo…
He concludes that God made two non-coeternal realities: a formed, unceasingly contemplative realm enjoying God’s eternity, and a formless realm suited to become changeable and thus subject to time and days.
that could exhibit the vicissitudes of times? For plainly it could not, because, without the variety of motions, there are no times: and no variety, where there is no figure. These things considered, as much as Thou givest, O my God, as much as Thou stirrest me up to knock, and as much as Thou openest to me knocking, two things I find that Thou hast made, not within the compass of time, neither of which is coeternal…
Boswell reports further talks with Johnson about immortality and literary fame, Johnson’s remark about hell and good intentions, and his views at Easter on admiration versus judgment and the value of reading over conversational knowledge.
too little done, or that the weather was fair or rainy. He had, till very near his death, a contempt for the notion that the weather affects the human frame. I told him that our friend Goldsmith had said to me, that he had come too late into the world, for that Pope and other poets had taken up the places in the Temple of Fame; so that, as but a few at any period can possess poetical reputation, a man of genius can …
Aristotle explains that most arts of poetry are forms of imitation, differing by medium, objects, and manner, using examples from music, dance, and spoken verse.
THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE By Aristotle A Translation By S. H. Butcher [Transcriber's Annotations and Conventions: the translator left intact some Greek words to illustrate a specific point of the original discourse. In this transcription, in order to retain the accuracy of this text, those words are rendered by spelling out each Greek letter individually, such as {alpha beta gamma delta...}. The reader can distingu…
He illustrates that metaphysics and other difficult subjects generate less conviction because straining the imagination disrupts the passions and sentiments that belief depends on, whereas easy natural thought sustains lively belief.
diverted from their natural course, are not governed in their movements by the same laws, at least not to the same degree, as when they flow in their usual channel. If we desire similar instances, it will not be very difficult to find them. The present subject of metaphysics will supply us abundantly. The same argument, which would have been esteemed convincing in a reasoning concerning history or politics, has litt…
Hume argues that the mind’s imagination transitions between related ideas can ease or block transitions between pride/humility and love/hatred, explaining why self-directed passions resist being redirected to others.
to lively ideas, but with difficulty from lively to obscure. In the one case the relation is aided by another principle: In the other case, it is opposed by it. Now I have observed, that those two faculties of the mind, the imagination and passions, assist each other in their operations when their propensities are similar, and when they act upon the same object. The mind has always a propensity to pass from a passio…
Using examples like Britain and smaller islands, Hume argues that accession is not simply driven by the ease of imagining transitions, and offers an explanation based on the imagination’s agility.
product of his own country: And this from a principle, which, in some measure, is the source of those laws of nature, that ascribe property to occupation, prescription and accession. In all these Cases, and particularly that of accession, there is first a natural union betwixt the idea of the person and that of the object, and afterwards a new and moral union produced by that right or property, which we …
Hobbes explains imagination as “Decaying Sense,” arguing motion in the body continues unless hindered, and that waking images fade into memory, with time and distance weakening our past imaginings.
That when a thing lies still, unlesse somewhat els stirre it, it will lye still for ever, is a truth that no man doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally be in motion, unless somewhat els stay it, though the reason be the same, (namely, that nothing can change it selfe,) is not so easily assented to. For men measure, not onely other men, but all other things, by themselves: and because they fi…
Hobbes argues Scripture does not prove that the soul is naturally immortal, reading passages in Ecclesiastes, Genesis/Enoch, Job, and others to mean that humans’ spirits depend on God’s grace and that natural knowledge of death ends before resurrection.
with that which I have before (Chapter 38.) alledged out of the 14 of Job, seem to mee much more subject to a divers interpretation, than the words of Job. And first there are the words of Solomon (Ecclesiastes 12.7.) "Then shall the Dust return to Dust, as it was, and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it." Which may bear well enough (if there be no other text directly against it) this interpretation, that Go…
Hobbes argues Scripture does not prove that the soul is naturally immortal, reading passages in Ecclesiastes, Genesis/Enoch, Job, and others to mean that humans’ spirits depend on God’s grace and that natural knowledge of death ends before resurrection.
with that which I have before (Chapter 38.) alledged out of the 14 of Job, seem to mee much more subject to a divers interpretation, than the words of Job. And first there are the words of Solomon (Ecclesiastes 12.7.) "Then shall the Dust return to Dust, as it was, and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it." Which may bear well enough (if there be no other text directly against it) this interpretation, that Go…
Hobbes further specifies his view of “eternal torments” by claiming Scripture allows that fire prepared for the wicked can last forever even if individuals do not; after resurrection, the wicked may perpetuate generation, but only the elect are truly immortal.
Eternall Torments What These things considered, the texts that mention Eternall Fire, Eternal Torments, or the Word That Never Dieth, contradict not the Doctrine of a Second, and Everlasting Death, in the proper and naturall sense of the word Death. The Fire, or Torments prepared for the wicked in Gehenna, Tophet, or in what place soever, may continue for ever; and there may never want wicked men to be tormented in …
Darwin illustrates association by describing everyday bodily habits, involuntary movements when thinking or rejecting ideas, inherited or odd gestures, and imitation or sympathy in synchronized actions.
hunger rather than to eat the leaves of another tree, although this afforded them their proper food, under a state of nature;[104] and so it is in many other cases. The power of Association is admitted by everyone. Mr. Bain remarks, that “actions, sensations and states of feeling, occurring together or in close succession, tend to grow together, or cohere, in such a way that when any one of them is afterwards presen…
Philomela is lured to meet Progne’s request, but Tereus’ passion grows; he travels with her, receives Pandion’s plea for her protection, then imprisons and rapes her, hiding her in a wooded dwelling.
much of dark night do the breasts of mortals contain! Through his very attempt at villany, Tereus is thought to be affectionate, and from his crime does he gather praise. And how is it, too, that Philomela desires the same thing? and fondly embracing the shoulders of her father with her arms, she begs, even by her own safety (and against it too), that she may visit her sister. Tereus views her, and, while viewing he…
Daedalus escapes King Minos’ prison with help from Pasiphae and sails away; later it transitions to the Calydonian boar hunt, introduced as Diana’s punishment for Oeneus’ neglected vows.
and Strabo. Philochorus, however, as quoted by Plutarch, says that it did not resemble the Labyrinth of Egypt, and that it was only a prison in which criminals were confined. Minos, being informed that Dædalus had assisted Pasiphaë in carrying out her criminal designs, kept him in prison; but escaping thence, by the aid of Pasiphaë, he embarked in a ship which she had prepared for him. Using sails, which till …
Hercules arranges the pyre on Mount Oeta, and Jupiter comforts the gods that only his mortal part will burn; the fire consumes him, and Hercules rises, resembling a serpent shedding its skin.
to a height, and retains the traces of the human form. This, the sailors are afraid to tread upon, as though it could feel it; and they call it Lichas. But thou, the famous offspring of Jupiter, having cut down, trees which lofty Œta bore, and having raised them for a pile, dost order the son of Pœas[25] to take the bow and the capacious quiver, and the arrows which are again to visit[26] the Trojan realms; by whose…
Pythagoras teaches that souls are immortal and continually change bodies, then shifts to the constant change of time and seasons, explaining cosmic and biological transformation.
craving of the appetite, cease, I warn you, to expel the souls of your kindred {from their bodies} by this dreadful slaughter; and let not blood be nourished with blood. “And, since I am {now} borne over the wide ocean, and I have given my full sails to the winds, there is nothing in all the world that continues in the same state. All things are flowing {onward},[12] and every shape is assumed in a fleeting course. …
Pythagoras teaches that souls are immortal and continually change bodies, then shifts to the constant change of time and seasons, explaining cosmic and biological transformation.
craving of the appetite, cease, I warn you, to expel the souls of your kindred {from their bodies} by this dreadful slaughter; and let not blood be nourished with blood. “And, since I am {now} borne over the wide ocean, and I have given my full sails to the winds, there is nothing in all the world that continues in the same state. All things are flowing {onward},[12] and every shape is assumed in a fleeting course. …
In ‘Fable VIII’, Julius Caesar’s assassination is followed by his transformation into a star through Venus’s intercession; the poet ends by praising Augustus and promising immortality for himself.
The story here narrated by Ovid is derived from the Roman history, to which we will shortly refer for an explanation. Under the consulate of Quintus Fabius Gurges, and Decimus Junius Brutus Scæva, Rome was ravaged by a frightful pestilence. The resources of physic having been exhausted, the Sibylline books were consulted to ascertain by what expedient the calamity might be put an end to, and they found that …
Venus secretly lifts Julius Caesar’s liberated soul from the slain body, transforms it into a star above the moon, and praises Augustus’ lineage while concluding with a promise of enduring fame for Ovid.
change this soul, snatched from the murdered body, into a beam of light, that eternally the Deified Julius may look down from his lofty abode upon our Capitol and Forum.” Hardly had he uttered these words, when the genial Venus, perceived by none, stood in the very midst of the Senate-house, and snatched the soul, just liberated {from the body}, away from the limbs of her own Cæsar, and, not suffering it to dissolve…
Debate turns to whether the national legislature should remove the executive on request of majorities of state legislatures, with Dickinson’s proposal, counterarguments about federalism and political intrigue, and a close vote rejecting it.
is, that I move the amendment. If it is not seconded or accepted I must be contented with the satisfaction of having delivered my opinion frankly and done my duty. The motion was seconded by Col. Hamilton, with the view he said merely of bringing so respectable a proposition before the Committee, and which was besides enforced by arguments that had a certain degree of weight. No debate ensued, and the proposition wa…