text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"Therefore setting aside, as much as may be, all ambiguous Expressions, it seems evident, that 'a Motive, from its very Nature, must be something that affects ourself.' If any Man hath found out a Kind of Motive which doth not affect himself, he hath made a deeper Investigation into the 'Springs, Weights, and Balances' of the human Heart, than I can pretend to. Now what can possibly affect ourself, or determine us to Action, but either the Feeling or Prospect of Pleasure or Pain, Happiness or Misery?
(p. 162-3)",2011-07-26 03:47:05 UTC,"""If any Man hath found out a Kind of Motive which doth not affect himself, he hath made a deeper Investigation into the 'Springs, Weights, and Balances' of the human Heart, than I can pretend to.""",2011-07-26 03:47:05 UTC,"Essay II, Section vi","",,"","",Reading,18990,7033
"Now, among all this infinite Variety of Tempers which is found in Nature, we see there cannot be any uniform Motive to Virtue, save only 'where the Senses are weak, the Imagination refined, and the public Affections strongly predominant.' For in every other Character, where either the Senses, gross Imagination, or selfish Passions prevail, a natural Opposition or Discordance must arise, and destroy the uniform Motive to Virtue, by throwing the Happiness of the Agent into a different Channel. How seldom this sublime Temper is to be found, is hard to say: But this may be affirmed with Truth, that every Man is not really possessed of it in the Conduct of Life, who enjoys it in Imagination, or admires it in his Closet, as it lies in the Enquiry concerning Virtue. A Character of this supreme Excellence must needs be approved by most: And the Heart of Man being an unexhausted Fountain of Self-Deceit, what it approves, is forward to think itself possessed of. Thus a lively Imagination and unperceived Self-Love, fetter the Heart in certain ideal Bonds of their own creating: Till at length some turbulent and furious Passion arising in its Strength, breaks these fantastic Shackles which Fancy had imposed, and leaps to its Prey like a Tyger chained by Cobwebs.
(pp. 186-7)",2011-07-26 03:57:40 UTC,"""Thus a lively Imagination and unperceived Self-Love, fetter the Heart in certain ideal Bonds of their own creating: Till at length some turbulent and furious Passion arising in its Strength, breaks these fantastic Shackles which Fancy had imposed, and leaps to its Prey like a Tyger chained by Cobwebs.""",2011-07-26 03:54:18 UTC,"Essay II, Section VII","",,"",USE IN ENTRY,Reading,18993,7033
"""But the next thing demanded, says Mr. Locke, sect. 25. is, Whether a man be at liberty to will which of the two he pleases, motion or rest?"" A question of which the absurdity is manifest. It is to ask, Whether a man can will what he wills, or be pleased with what he is pleased with?--A question which needs no answer."" True; and it is a question, therefore, which Mr. Locke might have spared himself the trouble of proposing. It is self-evident, that man has the liberty or rather the power to will that which he wills; and all that the Necessitarians pretend is, that man has not the Liberty or power of willing that which he does not will. ""In this, then,"" he repeats, sect. 28. ""consists freedom; in our being able to act or not to act, according as we shall chuse or will."" Thus far then Mr. Locke coincides with the advocates for philosophical Necessity, though his concessions are generally involved in a cloud of words; and he is still desirous, as it should seem, of ranking amongst the friends of philosophical Liberty. Our actions he allows to be necessarily determined by our volitions. He now goes on to ask, sect. 29. ""What determines the will?"" To which he answers, ""The mind or the intelligent agent itself, exerting its power this or that particular way; or, more explicitly, the mind is determined by motives grounded upon feelings of satisfaction or uneasiness."" This account is entirely consistent with the system of Necessity; for the advocates of that hypothesis insist as strongly as Mr. Locke, that our actions are the result of our volitions, which are themselves produced by motives, or by the mind actuated by a regard to motives; and as those motives were themselves produced by causes previously existing, it follows that motives, volitions, and actions, are all the definite effects of definite causes, and that they are all links of that
---- ""golden everlasting chain,
""Whose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth, and main.""
(pp. 280-1)",2011-08-24 03:18:57 UTC,"""[I]t follows that motives, volitions, and actions, are all the definite effects of definite causes, and that they are all links of that // ---- ""golden everlasting chain, / Whose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth, and main.""",2011-08-24 03:18:57 UTC,Essay XV,"",,"","",Reading in Google Books,19089,7066