An essay on man. Cornish ed1798 |
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Page 45
... Fools ! who from hence into the notion fall , That vice or virtue there is none at all . If white and black blend , soften , and unite A thousand ways , is there no black or white ? Ask your own heart , and nothing is so plain ; " Tis ...
... Fools ! who from hence into the notion fall , That vice or virtue there is none at all . If white and black blend , soften , and unite A thousand ways , is there no black or white ? Ask your own heart , and nothing is so plain ; " Tis ...
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Common terms and phrases
act the soul alike ambition angels beast blessing blest blind bliss breath Cæsar's Catiline cause chain chain of love charity complaints against Providence confest creature death diff'rent earth EPISTLE ESSAY Eternal Etna Ev'n ev'ry extreme fame fix'd fool form'd forms gen'ral giv'n gives gods happiness hath heav'n Hope humbly human instinct int'rest kings knave knowledge Learn learn'd less than angel Lord LORD BOLINGBROKE luxury man's mankind mind monarch moral evil natural evil nature nature's nature's law nautilus never o'er pain passions peace perfect plac'd Pleas'd pleasure poet pow'r pride principle reason rest rill rise self-love and social sense seraph shade shew Sir Isaac Newton sire Socrates sphere superior taught thee things thinks thou thro true truth tyrant universal vanity vice or virtue virtue's weak Whate'er whole wise
Popular passages
Page 32 - KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little, or too much...
Page 100 - What Conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do — This, teach me more than hell to shun, That, more than heaven pursue.
Page 28 - Cease then, nor order imperfection name; Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: this kind this due degree Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee. Submit. — In this, or any other sphere, Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear: Safe in the hand of one disposing Power, Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
Page 71 - For forms of government let fools contest ; Whate'er is best administer'd is best : For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight ; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right...
Page 35 - Two Principles in human nature reign; Self-love, to urge, and Reason, to restrain; Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, Each works its end, to move or govern all: And to their proper operation still, Ascribe all Good; to their improper, 111.
Page 74 - Ask of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind; This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; "° Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these...
Page 78 - Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence But health consists with temperance alone ; And peace, oh virtue ! peace is all thy own.
Page 108 - Were there all harmony, all virtue here; That never air or ocean felt the wind; That never passion discompos'd the mind.
Page 96 - God loves from whole to parts : but human soul Must rise from individual to the whole. Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads ; Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace ; His country next, and next all human race ; Wide and more wide, th...
Page 76 - Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell ; There needs but thinking right and meaning well ; And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common sense and common ease. Remember man, " the Universal Cause Acts not by partial but by general laws," And makes what happiness we justly call Subsist not in the good of one, but all.