The Works of the Late Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, Volume 5J. Johnson, 1809 |
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Page 11
... experience , three thou- sand years before the Greeks , or even their mas ters , who boasted of a much greater antiquity , the Egyptians . A crowd of reflections presents itself ; but these may serve to show how ridiculous it is , while ...
... experience , three thou- sand years before the Greeks , or even their mas ters , who boasted of a much greater antiquity , the Egyptians . A crowd of reflections presents itself ; but these may serve to show how ridiculous it is , while ...
Page 31
... experience of mankind . Things repugnant to this experience are to be found in many , that pass however for authentic ; in that of Livy , for instance : but then these incre- dible anecdotes stand by themselves , as it were , and the ...
... experience of mankind . Things repugnant to this experience are to be found in many , that pass however for authentic ; in that of Livy , for instance : but then these incre- dible anecdotes stand by themselves , as it were , and the ...
Page 32
... experience of our own . The strange stories they relate , represented in pictures or in prints , are the amusements of our infancy ; we read them , as soon as we learn to read , and they make their impressions on us , like the tales of ...
... experience of our own . The strange stories they relate , represented in pictures or in prints , are the amusements of our infancy ; we read them , as soon as we learn to read , and they make their impressions on us , like the tales of ...
Page 33
... experience of mankind and to the natural course of things . I except here and there a di- vine , because I remember one , who speaking of the conversation of the serpent with the first wo- man , and the other circumstances of the fall ...
... experience of mankind and to the natural course of things . I except here and there a di- vine , because I remember one , who speaking of the conversation of the serpent with the first wo- man , and the other circumstances of the fall ...
Page 74
... experienced lately something more than I prognosticate . Fools and knaves should be modest at least ; they should ask quarter of men of sense and virtue ; and so they do till they grow up to a majority ; till a similitude of character ...
... experienced lately something more than I prognosticate . Fools and knaves should be modest at least ; they should ask quarter of men of sense and virtue ; and so they do till they grow up to a majority ; till a similitude of character ...
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abstract absurd according action affirm ancient appear archetypes ascribed assert assume atheist authority believe body cerning Christian complex ideas conceive concerning corporeal dæmons Democritus Descartes discover distinct divine doctrine doubt effects efficient cause Egyptians employed errour Esdras essence eternal existence faculties fantastical figure former frame give human knowledge human mind hypothesis ideas and notions idolatry ignorance imagination immaterial inspiration instance intellectual intuitive knowledge invented Israelites Jews Josephus kind learned least ledge less Lord Bacon Malebranche mankind manner matter means metaphysical modes Moses natural philosophy nature neral observe occasion opinion outward objects particular Pentateuch perceive phænomena philosophers physical Plato polytheism preserved pretend principles prove Pythagoras real knowledge reason religion sensation sense sensible serve signify simple ideas soul speak spirit substance sufficient superstition suppose Supreme taught theology things thought tion traditions true truth wherein whole wisdom word
Popular passages
Page 42 - And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God...
Page 87 - Rather than creep up slowly, a posteriori, to a little general knowledge, they soar at once as far and as high as imagination can carry them. From thence they descend again, armed with systems and arguments a priori; and, regardless how these agree or clash with the phenomena of Nature, they impose them on mankind.
Page 96 - ... the whole that we may distinguish what is divine from what is human; adhere to the first implicitly, and ascribe to the last no more authority than the word of man deserves. Such an examination is the more necessary to be undertaken by every one who is concerned for the truth of his religion, and for the honor of Christianity, because the first preachers of it were not, and they who preach it still are not, agreed about many of the most important points of their system; because the controversies...
Page 319 - For I see no contradiction in it, that the first eternal thinking being should, if he pleased, give to certain systems of created senseless matter, put together as he thinks fit, some degrees of sense, perception, and thought: though, as I think, I have proved, lib.
Page 55 - Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night, and to give light upon the earth; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.
Page 229 - For example, does it not require some pains and skill to form the general idea of a triangle ? (which is yet none of the most abstract comprehensive and difficult) ; for it must be neither oblique nor rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural, nor scalenon, but all and none of these at once.
Page 95 - Let us proceed agreeably to these maxims. Let us seek truth, but seek it quietly as well as freely. Let us not imagine, like some who are called free-thinkers, that every man, who can think and judge for himself, as he has a right to do, has therefore a right of speaking, any more than of acting, according to the full freedom of his thoughts. The freedom belongs to him as a rational creature. He lies under the restraint as a member of
Page 291 - First, by REAL IDEAS, I mean such as have a foundation in nature; such as have a conformity with the real being and existence of things, or with their archetypes. FANTASTICAL or CHIMERICAL, I call such as have no foundation in nature, nor have any conformity with that reality of being to which they are tacitly referred, as to their archetypes.
Page 95 - doubt concerning the opinions of your fathers, " keep to them ; they will be sufficient for you. " If you find any reason to doubt concerning " them, seek the truth quietly ; but take care not " to disturb the minds of other men.
Page 75 - PLATO, and his antient and modern disciples, to the imagination only. There is no need however to banish eloquence out of philosophy; and truth and reason are no enemies to the purity, nor to the ornaments of language. But as the want of an exact determination of ideas, and of an exact precision in the use of words, is inexcusable in a philosopher, he must preserve them, even at the expence of style.