Essays on the Powers of the Human Mind, Volume 3Bell & Bradfute, 1803 - Philosophy |
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Common terms and phrases
abfurd active power affection againſt agent animal anſwer appetite becauſe believe benevolent brute-animals brutes cafe caufe cauſe CICERO circumftances conceive conception conclufion conduct confcience confequence confider confiftent conftitution contrary defire degree determination diftinct diftinguiſh duty eſteem evident exerciſe exift exiſtence expreffed faculty faid fame feeling feems fenfation fenfe fentiments fhall fhew fhould firft firſt focial fociety folely fome fpecies ftate ftrength fubject fuch fufficient fuperior fuppofe furely fyftem give happineſs himſelf human HUME impoffible inftance intereft itſelf judge judgment juft juftice kind language lefs leſs liberty mankind means mind moft moral moſt motive muft muſt nature neceffarily neceffary neceffity notion obferved object obligation oppofition ourſelves paffion perceive perfon Philofophers pleaſure poffible prefent principles of action produce promife propofition puniſhment purpoſe racter rational reafon regard ſenſe ſhall ſtate ſtrongeſt thefe themſelves theſe things thofe thoſe tion underſtanding uſe virtue wrong
Popular passages
Page 114 - By instinct, I mean a natural blind impulse to certain actions, without having any end in view, without deliberation, and very often without any conception of what we do.
Page 515 - Ask a man why he uses exercise ; he will answer, because he desires to keep his health. If you then enquire, why he desires health, he will readily reply, because sickness is painful. If you push your enquiries farther, and desire a reason why he hates pain, it is impossible he can ever give any.
Page 134 - I conceive it to be a part of our constitution, that what we have been accustomed to do, we acquire not only a facility but a proneness to do on like occasions; so that it requires a particular will or effort to forbear it, but to do it requires, very often, no will at all.
Page 214 - Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine, Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste, Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then To reach, and feed at once both Body and Mind...
Page 121 - They work most geometrically, without any knowledge of geometry ; somewhat like a child, who, by turning the handle of an organ, makes good music, without any knowledge of music. The art is not in the child, but in him who made the organ. In like manner, when a bee makes its comb so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee. but in that great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, weight, and measure.
Page 474 - In short, it may be established as an undoubted maxim that no action can be virtuous, or morally good, unless there be in human nature some motive to produce it, distinct from the sense of its morality.
Page 214 - And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
Page 422 - That honesty is the best policy, may be a good general rule, but is liable to many exceptions; and he, it may perhaps be thought, conducts himself with most wisdom, who observes the general rule, and takes advantage of all the exceptions.
Page 492 - Nothing is more usual in philosophy, and even in common life, than to talk of the combat of passion and reason, to give the preference to reason, and assert that men are only so far virtuous as they conform themselves to its dictates.
Page 316 - It is to this day problematical, whether all the phenomena of the material system be produced by the immediate operation of the First Cause, according to the laws 'which his wisdom determined, or whether subordinate causes are employed by him in the operations of nature ; and, if they be, what their nature, their number, and their different offices...