Three Essays on Religion |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action admitted afford agencies analogy animal antecedent appear argument attributes belief benevolence Berkeley Berkeley's called causation cause character Christianity conclusion conditions independent considered contrivance coprolite course of nature Creator cultivated Deism Deity Descartes direct divine doctrine effect Essay evidence evil existence experience external fact favour feelings force freethinkers give ground human mind idea imagination imperfect improvement induction inference instinct JOHN STUART MILL justice knowledge laws of nature limited Lysicles Malebranche mankind matter means ment miracle mode moral motive Natural Theology never notion objects omnipotent opinion origin particular perceive perception perfect person pheno phenomena philosophers physical Plato positive possible posteriori present probably produced prove purpose question reason religion religious revelation scientific sensations sense sentiments speculation spontaneous order sufficient supernatural supposed supposition take place tar-water Theism theory things thought tion tivated true truth universe virtue volition whole word Nature
Popular passages
Page 28 - In sober truth, nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another are Nature's everyday performances.
Page 281 - The table I write on I say exists, that is I see and feel it, and if I were out of my study I should say it existed, meaning thereby that if I was in my study I might perceive it, or that some other spirit actually does perceive it.
Page 290 - If the term same be taken in the vulgar acceptation, it is certain (and not at all repugnant to the principles I maintain) that different persons may perceive the same thing ; or the same thing or idea exist in different minds.
Page 29 - Nature impales men, breaks them as if on the wheel, casts them to be devoured by wild beasts, burns them to death, crushes them with stones like the first Christian martyr, starves them with hunger, freezes them with cold, poisons them by the quick or slow venom of her exhalations, and has hundreds of other hideous deaths in reserve such as the ingenious cruelty of a Nabis or a Domitian never surpassed.
Page 35 - Nature's general rules and part of her habitual injustice that "to him that hath shall be given, but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.
Page 174 - I think it must be allowed that, in the present state of our knowledge, the adaptations in Nature afford a large balance of probability in favour of creation by intelligence.
Page 116 - One only form of belief in the supernatural — one only theory respecting the origin and government of the universe — stands wholly clear both of intellectual contradiction and of moral obliquity. It is that which, resigning irrevocably the idea of an omnipotent creator, regards Nature and Life not as the expression throughout of the moral character and purpose of the Deity, but as the product of a struggle between contriving goodness and an intractable material, as was believed by Plato, or a...
Page 253 - And whatever else may be taken away from us by ' rational criticism, Christ is still left ; a unique figure, not more unlike all His precursors than all His followers, even those who had the direct benefit of His personal teaching.