Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development

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J. Chapman, 1851 - Naturalism - 390 pages

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Page 214 - And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Page 179 - ... though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men : therefore, atheism did never perturb states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking no further, and we see the times inclined to atheism (as the time of Augustus Caesar) were civil times; but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new "primum mobile," J that ravisheth all the spheres of government.
Page 342 - How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns.
Page 152 - But it is manifest that Plato in his opinion of Ideas, as one that had a wit of elevation situate as upon a cliff, did descry that forms were the true object of knowledge ; but lost the real fruit of his opinion, by considering of forms as absolutely abstracted from matter, and not confined and determined by matter ; and so turning his opinion upon Theology, wherewith all his natural philosophy is infected.
Page 390 - While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions...
Page 227 - MAN, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows nor is capable of more.
Page viii - In my opinion, profound minds are the most likely to think lightly of the resources of human reason; and it is the pert superficial thinker who is generally strongest in every kind of unbelief. The deep philosopher sees chains of causes and effects so wonderfully and strangely linked together, that he is usually the last person to decide upon the impossibility of any two series of events being independent of each other...
Page 178 - I had rather believe all the fables in the legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind ; and, therefore, God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it.
Page 241 - For certain it is that God worketh nothing in nature but by second causes; and if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere imposture, as it were in favour towards God; and nothing else but to offer to the author of truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie.
Page 89 - how I wish that we could have one hearty laugh together. Here, at Padua, is the principal professor of philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass, which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here ? "What shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly, and to hear the Professor of Philosophy at Pisa labouring before the Grand Duke, with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations, to charm the new planets...

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