HKB
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Often appears with: logic, method, and demonstration · language, naming, and meaning · fate, destiny, and necessity · doubt, skepticism, and certainty · the nature and attributes of God · perception and the senses · justice as a virtue · education and the training of the young · the passions and the emotions · will, choice, and freedom · religious persecution and toleration · history and the writing of history
Usually: argument (1953) · detachment (1137) · skepticism (969) · curiosity (640) · reflection (408) · exhortation (326) · crisis of belief (317) · censure (274) · commentary or gloss (219) · wonder (214)
“All sceptics pretend, that, if reason be considered in an abstract view, it furnishes invincible arguments against itself; and that we could never retain any conviction or assurance, on any subject, were not the sceptical reasonings so refined and subtle.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · insight
“Our senses, you say, are fallacious; our understanding erroneous; our ideas, even of the most familiar objects, extension, duration, motion, full of absurdities and contradictions.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · observation
“A celebrated prelate [Monsr. Huet] too, of the Romish communion, a man of the most extensive learning, who wrote a demonstration of Christianity, has also composed a treatise, which contains all the cavils of the boldest and most determined PYRRHONISM.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · observation
“Experience, therefore, proves, that there is an original principle of order in mind, not in matter.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · insight
“When two species of objects have always been observed to be conjoined together, I can infer, by custom, the existence of one wherever I see the existence of the other; and this I call an argument from experience.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · observation
“Suppose, therefore, that an articulate voice were heard in the clouds, much louder and more melodious than any which human art could ever reach:” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · vivid
“Happily, these circumstances are all to be found in the subject of NATURAL RELIGION.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · observation
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense · insight
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense · insight
“Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense · insight
“We can now legitimately ask as to the “truth” of geometrical propositions interpreted in this way, since we are justified in asking whether these propositions are satisfied for those real things we have associated with the geometrical ideas.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · insight
“There is no such thing as an independently existing trajectory (lit. “path-curve”), but only a trajectory relative to a particular body of reference.” Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory · observation
The story of Moses and his mysterious companion continues: Moses’s impatience is tested, the companion damages a ship, kills a youth, and explains each act as divinely guided interpretation.
on till they met a youth, and he slew him. Said Moses, "Hast thou slain him who is free from guilt of blood? Now hast thou wrought a grievous thing!" He said, "Did I not tell thee that thou couldst not have patience with me?" Moses said, "If after this I ask thee aught, then let me be thy comrade no longer; but now hast thou my excuse." They went on till they came to the people of a city. Of this people they asked…
The passage continues Luqman’s counsel, emphasizing God’s knowledge of hidden things, the duty of prayer and enjoining right and forbidding wrong, modest conduct, and trust in God over inherited religions; notes discuss the surah’s composition and references.
parents. His mother carrieth him with weakness upon weakness; nor until after two years is he weaned.7 Be grateful to me, and to thy parents. Unto me shall all come. But if they importune thee to join that with Me of which thou hast no knowledge, obey them not: comport thyself towards them in this world as is meet and right; but follow the way of him who turneth unto me. Unto me shall ye return at last, and then wil…
The text argues against those who deny God’s signs, speaks of Muhammad as a warner, questions knowledge of the Hour, affirms God’s control, describes human creation and parental duty, then recounts Ad’s destruction by a storm and djinn listening to the Qur’an.
But as for those who treat our signs as lies, we will gradually bring them down by means of which they know not: And though I lengthen their days, verily, my stratagem shall prove effectual. Will they not bethink them that their companion Muhammad is not djinn- possessed? Yes, his office is only that of plain warner. Will they not look forth on the realms of the Heaven and of the Earth, and on all things which God…
The passage argues that Muhammad’s message arose from conviction about God’s unity, yet may involve self-deception, and then quotes Qur’anic-style verses calling for monotheism, debates with “People of the Book,” and moral warnings.
And the Jews plotted, and God plotted: But of those who plot is God the best. Remember when God said, "O Jesus! verily I will cause thee to die,22 and will take thee up to myself and deliver thee from those who believe not; and I will place those who follow thee above those who believe not, until the day of resurrection. Then, to me is your return, and wherein ye differ will I decide between you. And as to those wh…
Pepys continues London business: presenting Balty to Wren, discussing Navy regulation, consulting eye surgeons and dissecting animal eyes, meeting Coventry, and attending committees.
was bad enough too. This morning Mr. May showed me the King's new buildings at White Hall, very fine; and among other things, his cielings and his houses of office. JULY 1, 1668. To White Hall, and so to St. James's where we met; and much business with the Duke of York. And I find the Duke of York very hot for regulations in the Navy; and I believe is put on it by Sir W. Coventry; and I am glad of it: and particu…
Darwin introduces correlation of growth, claiming that accumulated variations in one part can modify other parts during development, with examples from homologous structures and illustrative cases like stags with unilateral antlers.
of the structure of various organs; but that the effects of use and disuse have often been largely combined with, and sometimes overmastered by, the natural selection of innate differences. *Correlation of Growth*.—I mean by this expression that the whole organisation is so tied together during its growth and development, that when slight variations in any one part occur, and are accumulated through natural selectio…
Darwin cautions against attributing everything to correlation, explaining that shared inherited ancestry or the mechanics of natural selection (e.g., winged seeds needing opening fruits) can create apparent correlations across groups.
as of high value, may be wholly due to unknown laws of correlated growth, and without being, as far as we can see, of the slightest service to the species. We may often falsely attribute to correlation of growth, structures which are common to whole groups of species, and which in truth are simply due to inheritance; for an ancient progenitor may have acquired through natural selection some one modification in struc…
Darwin illustrates analogous variation and reversion using pigeons and turnips, arguing that shared traits can reappear from inheritance, such as slaty-blue wing-bar patterns returning to breeds.
plants, not to the vera causa of community of descent, and a consequent tendency to vary in a like manner, but to three separate yet closely related acts of creation. With pigeons, however, we have another case, namely, the occasional appearance in all the breeds, of slaty-blue birds with two black bars on the wings, a white rump, a bar at the end of the tail, with the outer feathers externally edged near their base…
He contrasts divine-planned creation with natural selection’s struggle for existence, arguing that advantageous variations allow very different forms to occupy new niches, producing surprising distributions.
goose may be said to have become rudimentary in function, though not in structure. In the frigate-bird, the deeply-scooped membrane between the toes shows that structure has begun to change. He who believes in separate and innumerable acts of creation will say, that in these cases it has pleased the Creator to cause a being of one type to take the place of one of another type; but this seems to me only restating the…
Darwin tackles the evolution of the eye, saying intermediate stages should exist because inherited variation and usefulness under changing conditions can build complex organs gradually, like a telescope analogy.
head. In this great class we should probably have to descend far beneath the lowest known fossiliferous stratum to discover the earlier stages, by which the eye has been perfected. In the Articulata we can commence a series with an optic nerve merely coated with pigment, and without any other mechanism; and from this low stage, numerous gradations of structure, branching off in two fundamentally different lines, can…
Darwin warns that traits may look adaptive but arise from secondary causes like sexual selection, laws of growth, reversion, and correlated growth, giving examples from woodpeckers, bamboo hooks, vulture skin, and skull sutures.
of no advantage to the species, but may subsequently have been taken advantage of by the descendants of the species under new conditions of life and with newly acquired habits. To give a few instances to illustrate these latter remarks. If green woodpeckers alone had existed, and we did not know that there were many black and pied kinds, I dare say that we should have thought that the green colour was a beautiful ad…
Darwin addresses naturalists’ protest against utilitarian explanations, conceding many traits lack direct utility while arguing inheritance, correlation of growth, and reversion explain structures, including shared limb bones in different animals.
can apparently be thrown on the origin of these differences, chiefly through sexual selection of a particular kind, but without here entering on copious details my reasoning would appear frivolous. The foregoing remarks lead me to say a few words on the protest lately made by some naturalists, against the utilitarian doctrine that every detail of structure has been produced for the good of its possessor. They believ…
He argues instincts likely evolved by gradual accumulation of slight profitable variations under natural selection rather than by habits acquired in one generation, citing hive-bee and ant instincts and discussing possible gradations.
embarrassed, and, in order to complete its hammock, seemed forced to start from the third stage, where it had left off, and thus tried to complete the already finished work. If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited—and I think it can be shown that this does sometimes happen—then the resemblance between what originally was a habit and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distinguished. If Mozart, in…
Darwin argues hive-bee hexagonal combs can be derived from simple instincts plus spatial constraints, comparing humble-bee and Melipona cell shapes, and uses geometry to suggest how small instinct changes yield hive-bee perfection.
But the difficulty is not nearly so great as it at first appears: all this beautiful work can be shown, I think, to follow from a few very simple instincts. I was led to investigate this subject by Mr. Waterhouse, who has shown that the form of the cell stands in close relation to the presence of adjoining cells; and the following view may, perhaps, be considered only as a modification of his theory. Let us look to …
Darwin explains how many bees coordinate implicitly, using a painted vermilion-wax diffusion test, and describes how bees sometimes pull down and rebuild cells at angles before completion.
plates of the pyramidal basis being about twice as thick. By this singular manner of building, strength is continually given to the comb, with the utmost ultimate economy of wax. It seems at first to add to the difficulty of understanding how the cells are made, that a multitude of bees all work together; one bee after working a short time at one cell going to another, so that, as Huber has stated, a score of indivi…
Darwin argues that extinct species fit into a single natural system with living forms via descent, so fossils often fill gaps between groups even if they are not directly intermediate in every character.
of life, and the order would falsely appear to be strictly parallel; nevertheless the species would not all be the same in the apparently corresponding stages in the two regions. _On the Affinities of extinct Species to each other, and to living forms_.—Let us now look to the mutual affinities of extinct and living species. They all fall into one grand natural system; and this fact is at once explained on the princi…
Using a simplified diagram, Darwin explains how divergence increases with time from common ancestors, why older fossils should differ more, and how missing records affect what look like intermediate relationships.
the older Fish, the older Cephalopods, and the eocene Mammals, with the more recent members of the same classes, we must admit that there is some truth in the remark. Let us see how far these several facts and inferences accord with the theory of descent with modification. As the subject is somewhat complex, I must request the reader to turn to the diagram in the fourth chapter. We may suppose that the numbered lett…
He shows that discovering fossils lower or higher in the stratigraphic sequence can make living families appear more or less distinct, yet the overall pattern still follows descent with modification and circuitous intermediary lineages.
of character, has become divided into several sub-families and families, some of which are supposed to have perished at different periods, and some to have endured to the present day. By looking at the diagram we can see that if many of the extinct forms, supposed to be embedded in the successive formations, were discovered at several points low down in the series, the three existing families on the uppermost line w…
He claims that newer species must be “higher” in natural selection because each new species gains an advantage, discusses why progress is hard to test, and connects embryo-development theories to his mechanism.
we assuredly do find. We find, in short, such evidence of the slow and scarcely sensible mutation of specific forms, as we have a just right to expect to find. *On the state of Development of Ancient Forms*.—There has been much discussion whether recent forms are more highly developed than ancient. I will not here enter on this subject, for naturalists have not as yet defined to each other’s satisfaction what is mea…
Darwin argues that inheritance of later-life variations can leave embryos nearly unchanged, so embryos may preserve an ancient condition only partially; he also outlines continuity of types within continents across later Tertiary periods.
being inherited at a corresponding age. This process, whilst it leaves the embryo almost unaltered, continually adds, in the course of successive generations, more and more difference to the adult. Thus the embryo comes to be left as a sort of picture, preserved by nature, of the ancient and less modified condition of each animal. This view may be true, and yet it may never be capable of full proof. Seeing, for inst…
Darwin summarizes prior chapters by listing reasons the fossil record is extremely imperfect and transitional forms are rarely preserved, concluding that rejecting this view undermines his whole natural selection theory.
orders, with the genera and species decreasing in numbers, as apparently is the case of the Edentata of South America, still fewer genera and species will have left modified blood-descendants. *Summary of the preceding and present Chapters*.—I have attempted to show that the geological record is extremely imperfect; that only a small portion of the globe has been geologically explored with care; that only certain cl…
Darwin critiques the idea that classification reveals the Creator’s plan, insisting similarity reflects “propinquity of descent,” and he says classification should rely especially on less-adaptive, more consistent traits.
Thus, the grand fact in natural history of the subordination of group under group, which, from its familiarity, does not always sufficiently strike us, is in my judgment fully explained. Naturalists try to arrange the species, genera, and families in each class, on what is called the Natural System. But what is meant by this system? Some authors look at it merely as a scheme for arranging together those living objec…
He argues that physiological importance does not determine classificatory value, that rudimentary organs can be highly informative, and that classifications work by correlations among multiple traits.
on which their whole life depends, are of little signification, excepting in the first main divisions; whereas the organs of reproduction, with their product the seed, are of paramount importance! We must not, therefore, in classifying, trust to resemblances in parts of the organisation, however important they may be for the welfare of the being in relation to the outer world. Perhaps from this cause it has partly a…
Darwin argues that classification is guided by inherited common descent rather than superficial similarity, noting difficulties with crustaceans, questionable use of geography, and how plant and insect groups shift ranks without new structural evidence.
of the plumule and radicle. In our discussion on embryology, we shall see why such characters are so valuable, on the view of classification tacitly including the idea of descent. Our classifications are often plainly influenced by chains of affinities. Nothing can be easier than to define a number of characters common to all birds; but in the case of crustaceans, such definition has hitherto been found impossible. …
Darwin argues that classification relies on descent even when relationships are inferred, so systematists prefer characters least likely shaped by recent conditions, including rudimentary or correlated traits like jaw shape and wing folding.
have to be classed under the bear genus. The whole case is preposterous; for where there has been close descent in common, there will certainly be close resemblance or affinity. As descent has universally been used in classing together the individuals of the same species, though the males and females and larvæ are sometimes extremely different; and as it has been used in classing varieties which have undergone a cer…
He distinguishes real affinities from analogical or adaptive resemblance, using examples like dugong–whale–fishes and turnips, and explains how natural selection and adaptation can obscure true relationships.
play in classing large and widely-distributed genera, because all the species of the same genus, inhabiting any distinct and isolated region, have in all probability descended from the same parents. We can understand, on these views, the very important distinction between real affinities and analogical or adaptive resemblances. Lamarck first called attention to this distinction, and he has been ably followed by Macl…
He concludes that natural selection explains nested groupings and the “Natural System” as genealogical, then introduces morphology as the unity of type via homologous structures across animals and plants.
has lately insisted, in an able paper, on the high importance of looking to types, whether or not we can separate and define the groups to which such types belong. Finally, we have seen that natural selection, which results from the struggle for existence, and which almost inevitably induces extinction and divergence of character in the many descendants from one dominant parent-species, explains that great and unive…
Darwin argues that shared anatomical patterns across mammals, insects, crustaceans, and plants are not explainable by final causes, but arise from natural selection acting on small, correlated modifications over time.
of an upper lip, mandibles, and two pairs of maxillæ. Analogous laws govern the construction of the mouths and limbs of crustaceans. So it is with the flowers of plants. Nothing can be more hopeless than to attempt to explain this similarity of pattern in members of the same class, by utility or by the doctrine of final causes. The hopelessness of the attempt has been expressly admitted by Owen in his most interesti…
He extends natural selection to serial homologies, explaining why skull bones, arthropod segments, and flower whorls match internal patterns, and why embryos show early similarities despite later differences.
actually see in embryonic crustaceans and in many other animals, and in flowers, that organs, which when mature become extremely different, are at an early stage of growth exactly alike. How inexplicable are these facts on the ordinary view of creation! Why should the brain be enclosed in a box composed of such numerous and such extraordinarily shaped pieces of bone? As Owen has remarked, the benefit derived from th…
Darwin describes embryological resemblance, citing Agassiz and cirripede larvae, and argues that embryos of allied animals look similar early on even when adults differ greatly in form and function.
which they would probably have retained through inheritance, if they had really been metamorphosed during a long course of descent from true legs, or from some simple appendage, is explained. *Embryology*.—It has already been casually remarked that certain organs in the individual, which when mature become widely different and serve for different purposes, are in the embryo exactly alike. The embryos, also, of disti…
The text contrasts good and evil speech drawn from the heart, then explains Jesus’ teaching that doing hearers’ words matters, followed by miracles in Capernaum, including a centurion’s servant healed and a widow’s son raised at Nain.
is good. And the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart, the mought speaketh. Why call ye me Master, Master: and do not as I bid you? whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doth the same, I will shew you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built an house: which digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. When the wa…
After the empty tomb, Peter verifies the linen cloth; Jesus joins two disciples on the road to Emmaus, explains Scripture, breaks bread, is recognized, and then appears among the gathered followers.
Then arose Peter and ran unto the sepulchre, and stooped in, And saw the linen clothes laid by them self. And departed wondering in himself at that which had happened. And behold, two of them went that same day to a town, which was from Ierusalem about three score furlongs, called Emaus: and they talked together of all these things that had happened. And it chanced, as they communed together, and reasoned, that Iesu…
Responding to doubts about resurrection, Paul compares sowing and bodily change, distinguishes natural from spiritual bodies, proclaims a transformation at the last trumpet, and links salvation hope to steadfast labor.
Be not deceived: malicious speakings corrupt good manners. Awake truly out of sleep, and sin not. For some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this unto your rebuke. But some man will say: how shall the dead arise? with what body shall they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest, is not quickened except it die. And what sowest thou? Thou sowest not that body that shall be: but bare corn (I mean either of wheat, …
Paul continues with the Corinthian ministry, saying the gospel is hidden among the lost but revealed by God in believers, comparing believers to “earthen vessels,” and describing inward renewal and eternal glory.
unhonesty, and walk not in craftiness, neither corrupt we the word of God: but walk in open truth, and report ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. If our Gospell be yet hid, it is hid among them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest should shine unto them the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, for we pre…
This passage defines faith and illustrates it through biblical exemplars—Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and others—culminating in endurance and the hope of a better, heavenly country.
The .xj. Chapter. Faith is a sure confidence of things which are hoped for, and a certainty of things which are not seen. By it the elders were well reported of. Thorow faith we understand that the world was ordained, by the word of God: That by the means of things which appear, things which are invisible might be known. By faith Abel offered unto God a more plenteous sacrifice than Cain: by which, he obtained witne…
The text transitions to “The pistel of S. Iames” addressed to the twelve tribes, teaching joy in trials, asking God for wisdom in faith, and warning that temptation comes from one’s own desires.
Happy is the man that endureth in temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which the lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God: for God tempteth not unto evil: he tempteth no man: But every man is tempted drawn away, and enticed of his own concupiscence. Then when lust hath conceived, she bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is fi…
Livy argues that Hannibal’s lack of disorder during his adversity was remarkable, describes his long war in Italy, contrasts Italy with Spain’s suitability for war, and introduces Hasdrubal’s large army in Spain.
the legions themselves also escaped into a place free from danger. Proceeding thence into Lucania, the whole of that people returned, without a contest, into subjection to the Roman people. 12. No action with Hannibal took place this year; for neither did he present himself after the public and personal calamity so recently inflicted, and the Romans did not provoke him while he remained quiet, such power did they co…
Hamilton introduces the essay by claiming that political and ethical maxims resemble axioms, then recaps core arguments for a general federal power of taxation and frames the objections he will answer.
To the People of the State of New York: In disquisitions of every kind, there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend. These contain an internal evidence which, antecedent to all reflection or combination, commands the assent of the mind. Where it produces not this effect, it must proceed either from some defect or disorder in the organs of perception, or fro…
Hamilton opens by arguing that moral and political reasoning, like geometry, rests on first principles and warns that disputes over taxation often stem from prejudice or faulty “obvious” maxims.
To the People of the State of New York: IN DISQUISITIONS of every kind, there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend. These contain an internal evidence which, antecedent to all reflection or combination, commands the assent of the mind. Where it produces not this effect, it must proceed either from some defect or disorder in the organs of perception, or fro…
Joseph interprets prison and royal dreams, predicts years of plenty and famine, gains authority over Egypt’s granaries, and tests his brothers by planting a cup in Benjamin’s pack.
"What," said the Egyptians, "shall be the recompense of him who hath stolen it, if ye be found liars?" They said, "That he in whose camel-pack it shall be found be given up to you in satisfaction for it. Thus recompense we the unjust." And Joseph began with their sacks, before the sack of his brother, and then from the sack of his brother he drew it out. This stratagem did we suggest to Joseph. By the King's law he…
Meditating on Acts 4:12 and Romans, Equiano experiences a conversion vision of Christ on Calvary, concludes justification is by Christ not deeds, and describes being “born again” by divine grace.
pleased God to enable me to wrestle with him, as Jacob did: I prayed that if sudden death were to happen, and I perished, it might be at Christ's feet. In the evening of the same day, as I was reading and meditating on the fourth chapter of the Acts, twelfth verse, under the solemn apprehensions of eternity, and reflecting on my past actions, I began to think I had lived a moral life, and that I had a proper ground …
Equiano reflects on surviving Baker’s rage and preserves his life through patience and scripture, expressing the idea that uncontrolled anger is like an unbridled horse.
I was enabled to do. I found him a present help in the time of need, and the captain's fury began to subside as the night approached: but I found, "That he who cannot stem his anger's tide Doth a wild horse without a bridle ride."
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is presented as a new Philadelphia edition dated February 14, 1776, with an introduction arguing that America may question British claims, and that America’s cause is universal.
COMMON SENSE; addressed to the INHABITANTS of AMERICA, On the following interesting SUBJECTS Of the Origin and Design of Government in general, with concise Remarks on the English Constitution. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession Thoughts on the present State of American Affairs Of the present Ability of America, with some miscellaneous Reflections A new edition, with several additions i…
Continuing the thought experiment, Paine describes why early parliaments shift toward elected representatives as colonies grow, then claims that government’s origin is moral failure and offers a critique framework for England’s complex constitution.
will have the title only of Regulations, and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man, by natural right, will have a seat. But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, th…
He insists William the Conqueror’s claim is dishonorable and explains kingship’s supposed roots as lot, election, or usurpation, then argues hereditary rule is corrupt because nature rejects it and it makes rulers ignorant and insolent.
to favor hereditary pretensions; by which means it happened, as it hath happened since, that what at first was submitted to as a convenience, was afterwards claimed as a right. England, since the conquest, hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones; yet no man in his senses can say that their claim under William the Conqueror is a very honorable one. A French bastard land…
Du Bois argues that real political power must rest with electors because rulers lack knowledge of citizens’ conditions; when citizens are valued as sources of wisdom, democracy can judge and build just government.
strength, chance, and intrigue; to make the selection a matter of birth simply transfers the real power from sovereign to minister. Inevitably the choice of rulers must fall on electors. Then comes the problem, who shall elect. The earlier answer was: a select few, such as the wise, the best born, the able. Many people assume that it was corruption that made such aristocracies fail. By no means. The best and most ef…
Du Bois frames education as humanity’s central problem around the “Immortal Child,” then introduces a personal example: the life of a “dark child” meant to illustrate how one gifted Black figure could be formed and lost.
THE IMMORTAL CHILD If a man die shall he live again? We do not know. But this we do know, that our children's children live forever and grow and develop toward perfection as they are trained. All human problems, then, center in the Immortal Child and his education is the problem of problems. And first for illustration of what I would say may I not take for example, out of many millions, the life of one dark child. …
Du Bois’ travel memory becomes a visionary description of the Grand Canyon, portraying it as a wound in earth and a spiritual drama that he believes exceeds ordinary material explanation.
peaks and throw their bowels to the sky. Their earth is air; their ether blood-red rock engreened. You stand upon their roots and fall into their pinnacles, a mighty mile. Behold this mauve and purple mocking of time and space! See yonder peak! No human foot has trod it. Into that blue shadow only the eye of God has looked. Listen to the accents of that gorge which mutters: "Before Abraham was, I am." Is yonder wall…
Plutarch tells anecdotes about Solon courting wisdom, Thales’ counsel about marriage, and debates over grief and affection, arguing that reason and morality—not refusing attachment—protect people from suffering.
agreed with the conjecture of Anacharsis than Solon's hope. Anacharsis, being once at the assembly, expressed his wonder at the fact that in Greece wise men spoke and fools decided. Solon went, they say, to Thales at Miletus, and wondered that Thales took no care to get him a wife and children. To this, Thales made no answer for the present; but, a few days after, procured a stranger to pretend that he had left Ath…
Pericles is portrayed as acquiring composure, refined speech, and rational piety from Anaxagoras, including an anecdote of him ignoring street abuse and a story where Anaxagoras interprets a ram’s horn as fate for political victory.
or compulsion, but to a pure, unadulterated intelligence, which in all other existing mixed and compound things acts as a principle of discrimination, and of combination of like with like. For this man, Pericles entertained an extraordinary esteem and admiration, and, filling himself with this lofty, and, as they call it, up-in-the-air sort of thought, derived hence not merely, as was natural, elevation of purpose a…
Plutarch explains Archimedes’ mechanics as geometry turned to practical siege use at King Hiero’s request, contrasting it with philosophers’ suspicion, and recounts Archimedes’ experiments with moving heavy loads.
walls, relying on the abundance and magnificence of his preparations, and on his own previous glory; all which, however, were, it would seem, but trifles for Archimedes and his machines. These machines he had designed and contrived, not as matters of any importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with king Hiero's desire and request, some little time before, that he should reduce to practice some …
Marcellus escapes unhurt and mocks Archimedes’ “geometrical Briareus”; Archimedes is praised for refusing engineering as profit, focusing on pure mathematical truth, and for reputedly drawing figures even while distracted.
most of his engines immediately under the wall; whence the Romans, seeing that infinite mischiefs overwhelmed them from no visible means, began to think they were fighting with the gods. Yet Marcellus escaped unhurt, and, deriding his own artificers and engineers, "What," said he, "must we give up fighting with this geometrical Briareus, who plays pitch and toss with our ships, and, with the multitude of darts which…
Plutarch argues about Roman naming customs by rejecting the idea that a third name was a proper name, then describes Caius Marius as harsh, anti-Greek, and ultimately prone to violent passions.
CAIUS MARIUS We are altogether ignorant of any third name of Caius Marius; as also of Quintus Sertorius, that possessed himself of Spain; or of Lucius Mummius that destroyed Corinth, though this last was surnamed Achaicus from his conquests, as Scipio was called Africanus, and Metellus, Macedonicus. Hence Posidonius draws his chief argument to confute those that hold the third to be the Roman proper name, as Camill…
Plutarch shifts to writing lives of Alexander and Caesar, explaining his method: he writes “lives” not full histories, aiming to reveal virtue and vice through character-revealing details rather than only wars.
souls of men, and while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great battles to be treated of by others. It is agreed on by all hands, that on the father's side, Alexander descended from Hercules by Caranus, and from Aeacus by Neoptolemus on the mother's side. His father Philip, being in Samothrace, when he was quite young, fell in love there with Olympias, in comp…
Demosthenes disciplines daily practice by reviewing conversations, speeches, and arguments; he is seen as lacking natural genius, prepared before speaking, and defends premeditation as respectful to the people.
oftentimes without intermission, two or three months together, shaving one half of his head, that so for shame he might not go abroad, though he desired it ever so much. Nor was this all, but he also made his conversation with people abroad, his common speech, and his business, subservient to his studies, taking from hence occasions and arguments as matter to work upon. For as soon as he was parted from his company…
As Brutus prepares to leave Asia for Europe, he sees an apparition declaring itself his evil genius and foretelling Philippi; Cassius responds with Epicurean arguments against supernatural reality.
having taken above a hundred and fifty talents from the Lycians, and having done them no other manner of injury, parted from thence with his army to go into Ionia. Through the whole course of this expedition, Brutus did many memorable acts of justice in dispensing rewards and punishments to such as had deserved either; but one in particular I will relate, because he himself, and all the noblest Romans, were gratifie…
Kant explains the formal conditions for the critique—certainty and clearness—arguing that opinion and hypotheses are inadmissible for a priori cognition, and that he addresses both objective and subjective deduction of the pure understanding.
two indispensable conditions, which any one who undertakes so difficult a task as that of a critique of pure reason, is bound to fulfil. These conditions are *certitude* and *clearness*. As regards *certitude*, I have fully convinced myself that, in this sphere of thought, *opinion* is perfectly inadmissible, and that everything which bears the least semblance of an hypothesis must be excluded, as of no value in suc…
In the second-edition preface (1787), Kant argues that metaphysics lacks scientific certainty because metaphysicians fail to agree on method and repeatedly retrace their steps, unlike logic which has completed its course since Aristotle.
laws of all thought, whether it be *à priori* or empirical, whatever be its origin or its object, and whatever the difficulties—natural or accidental—which it encounters in the human mind. The early success of logic must be attributed exclusively to the narrowness of its field, in which abstraction may, or rather must, be made of all the objects of cognition with their characteristic distinctions, and in which the u…
Kant defends logic’s advance as due to its narrow, abstract field, while arguing that rational sciences must distinguish their a priori elements and that mathematics and physics determine objects partly or wholly a priori.
he must not attribute to the object any other properties than those which necessarily followed from that which he had himself, in accordance with his conception, placed in the object. A much longer period elapsed before *Physics* entered on the highway of science. For it is only about a century and a half since the wise BACON gave a new direction to physical studies, or rather—as others were already on the right tra…
Kant claims that mathematics reached secure science among the Greeks through a revolutionary geometrical method attributed to a discoverer like Thales, using a priori construction rather than mere contemplation of figures.
strength in mock-contests—a field in which no combatant ever yet succeeded in gaining an inch of ground, in which, at least, no victory was ever yet crowned with permanent possession. This leads us to inquire why it is that, in metaphysics, the sure path of science has not hitherto been found. Shall we suppose that it is impossible to discover it? Why then should nature have visited our reason with restless aspirati…