HKB
5 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: religious persecution and toleration · magic, witchcraft, and the occult · justice as a virtue · virtue through institutions · the fear of death · slavery and bondage · simeon’s miracles · sandy’s african heritage · reformation and reformers · private moral education · prayer and worship · plague fear among the poor
Usually: argument (2) · crisis of belief (2) · the test or trial (2) · indignation (2) · skepticism (2) · dialogue (1) · narrative (1) · reflection (1) · censure (1) · curiosity (1)
“Certainly custom is most perfect, when it beginneth in young years: this we call education; which is, in effect, but an early custom.” Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral · precept
“Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Simeon” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · observation
“as if the plague was not the hand of God, but a kind of possession of an evil spirit, and that it was to be kept off with crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers tied up with so many knots” Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year · insight
After plague fears rise, Defoe describes further “madness” among the poor: reliance on charms, amulets, and magical abracadabra-like words to ward off God-sent plague.
Dr Hodges, Dr Berwick, or any, though the most famous men of the time. And I was told that some of them got five pounds a day by their physic. But there was still another madness beyond all this, which may serve to give an idea of the distracted humour of the poor people at that time: and this was their following a worse sort of deceivers than any of these; for these petty thieves only deluded …
Sandy advises Douglass to use an herb root as protective “magic” against Covey, claiming it will prevent whippings, while Douglass initially rejects superstition but eventually accepts the root.
There was the Chesapeake bay to the right, and “Pot-pie” river to the left, and St. Michael’s and its neighborhood occupying the only space through which there was any retreat. I found Sandy an old advisor. He was not only a religious man, but he professed to believe in a system for which I have no name. He was a genuine African, and had inherited some of the so-called magical powers, said to be possessed by African…
Gibbon claims monastic saints like Simeon were adored by princes and people, attracting pilgrims and even aiding rulers, while miracle-laden legends undermined philosophy and replaced rational historical judgment.
form, invited him to ascend, like Elijah, into a fiery chariot. The saint too hastily raised his foot, and Satan seized the moment of inflicting this chastisement on his vanity.] The monastic saints, who excite only the contempt and pity of a philosopher, were respected, and almost adored, by the prince and people. Successive crowds of pilgrims from Gaul and India saluted the divine pillar of Simeo…
Emerson claims that religious and political superstition is replicated in a person’s private life, and that reform movements repeat the risks to virtue even as individuals mature toward truth.
labor and such commanding contemplation, a haughty beneficiary begging in the name of God, as made good to the nineteenth century Simeon the Stylite, the Thebais, and the first Capuchins. The priestcraft of the East and West, of the Magian, Brahmin, Druid, and Inca, is expounded in the individual’s private life. The cramping influence of a hard formalist on a young child, in repressing his spirits and courage, paral…
Bacon says thoughts follow inclination but deeds follow custom; he argues education is early habit-formation, praises the power of societies to multiply virtues, and laments that best means are applied to least desired ends.
Of Custom And Education MEN'S thoughts, are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches, according to their learning and infused opinions; but their deeds, are after as they have been accustomed. And therefore, as Machiavel well noteth (though in an evil-favored instance), there is no trusting to the force of nature, nor to the bravery of words, except it be corroborate by custom. His instance …