A London Encyclopaedia, Or Universal Dictionary of Science, Art, Literature and Practical Mechanics: Comprising a Popular View of the Present State of Knowledge : Illustrated by Numerous Engravings, a General Atlas, and Appropriate Diagrams, Volume 14

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Thomas Curtis
Thomas Tegg, 1829 - Aeronautics

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Page 409 - 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 381 - Tis evident that all the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and that however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even mathematics, natural philosophy, and natural religion are in some measure dependent on the science of man, since they lie under the cognizance of men and are judged of by their powers and faculties.
Page 251 - I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation ; nor the musician's which is fantastical ; nor the courtier's, which is proud ; nor the soldier's, which is ambitious ; nor the lawyer's, which is politic ; nor the lady's, which is nice ; nor the lover's, which is all these : but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
Page 381 - And, as the science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences, so, the only solid foundation we can give to this science itself must be laid on experience and observation.
Page 375 - We should not then perhaps be so forward, out of an affectation of an universal knowledge, to raise questions, and perplex ourselves and others with disputes about things to which our understandings are not suited; and of which we cannot frame in our minds any clear or distinct perceptions, or whereof (as it has perhaps too often happened) we have not any notions at all. If we can find out how far the understanding can extend its view; how far it has faculties to attain certainty; and in what cases...
Page 378 - ... another: but yet it is very difficult to treat of them asunder. Because it is unavoidable, in treating of mental propositions, to make use of words: and then the instances given of mental propositions cease immediately to be barely mental, and become verbal.
Page 377 - For, wit lying most in the assemblage of ideas, and putting those together with quickness and variety wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy...
Page 265 - O'er a' the ills o' life victorious. But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ; Or like the snow-falls in the river, A moment white — then melts for ever ; Or like the borealis race, That flit ere you can point their place ; Or like the rainbow's lovely form Evanishing amid the storm.
Page 366 - I suppose it may be of use to prevail with the busy mind of man, to be more Cautious in meddling with things exceeding its comprehension ; to stop when it is at the Utmost extent of its tether ; and to sit down in a quiet ignorance of those things, which, upon examination, are found to be beyond the reach of our capacities.
Page 358 - For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them : but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, a Thomas Aquinas, or any other doctor whatsoever.

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