work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
7371,"",Reading,2013-04-03 04:02:19 UTC,"I justified my use of the word Spirit in that Sense from the Authorities of Cicero and Virgil, applying the Latin word Spiritus, from whence Spirit is derived, to the Soul as a thinking Thing, without excluding Materiality out of it. To which your Lordship replies,*That Cicero, in his Tusculan Questions, supposes the Soul not to be a finer sort of Body, but of a different Nature from the Body.—That he calls the Body the Prison of the Soul.—And says, That a wise Man's Business is to draw off his Soul from his Body. And then your Lordship concludes, as is usual, with a Question, Is it possible now to think so great a Man look'd on the Soul but as a modification of the Body, which must be at an end with Life? Answ. No; it is impossible that a Man of so good Sense as Tully, when he uses the word Corpus or Body for the gross and visible parts of a Man, which he acknowledges to be mortal, should look on the Soul to be a modification of that Body; in a Discourse wherein he was endeavouring to persuade another, that it was immortal. It is to be acknowledge'd that truly great Men, such as he was, are not wont so manifestly to contradict themselves. He had therefore no Thought concerning the modification of the Body of Man in the Case: He was not such a Trifler as to examin, whether the modification of the Body of a Man was immortal, when that Body it self was mortal: And therefore that which he reports as Dicoearchus's Opinion, he dismisses in the beginning without any more ado, c. 11. But Cicero's was a direct, plain and sensible Enquiry, viz. What the Soul was, to see whether from thence he could discover its Immortality? But in all that Discourse in his first Book of Tusculan Questions, where he lays out so much of his Reading and Reason, there is not one Syllable shewing the least Thought, that the Soul was an immaterial Substance; but many Things directly to the contrary.
(pp. 431-2)",,20093,"","""I justified my use of the word Spirit in that Sense from the Authorities of Cicero and Virgil, applying the Latin word Spiritus, from whence Spirit is derived, to the Soul as a thinking Thing, without excluding Materiality out of it. To which your Lordship replies,*That Cicero, in his Tusculan Questions, supposes the Soul not to be a finer sort of Body, but of a different Nature from the Body.—That he calls the Body the Prison of the Soul.—And says, That a wise Man's Business is to draw off his Soul from his Body.""",Rooms,2013-04-03 04:02:19 UTC,""
4103,"",Reading,2013-07-09 19:28:06 UTC,"The Question is, Whether this be fair or no? and, Whether it be not just and reasonable, to make as free with our own Opinions, as with those of other People? For to be sparing in this case, may be look'd upon as a piece of Selfishness. We may be charg'd perhaps with wilful Ignorance and blind Idolatry, for having taken Opinions upon Trust, and consecrated in our-selves certain Idol-Notion, which we will never suffer to be unveil'd, or seen in open light. They may perhaps be Monsters, and not Divinitys, or Sacred Truths, which are kept thus choicely, in some dark Corner of our Minds: The Specters may impose on us, whilst we refuse to turn 'em every way, and view their Shapes and Complexions in every light. For that which can be shewn only in a certain Light, is questionable. Truth, 'tis suppos'd, may bear all Lights: and one of those principal Lights or natural Mediums, by which Things are to be view'd, in order to a thorow Recognition, is Ridicule it-self, or that Manner of Proof by which we discern whatever is liable to just Raillery in any Subject. So much, at least, is allow'd by All, who at any time appeal to this Criterion. The gravest Gentlemen, even in the gravest Subjects, are suppos'd to acknowledg this: and can have no Right, 'tis thought, to deny others the Freedom of this Appeal; whilst they are free to censure like other Men, and in their gravest Arguments make no scruple to ask, Is it not ridiculous?
(pp. 60-1; pp. 29-30 in Klein)",,21584,"","""They may perhaps be Monsters, and not Divinitys, or Sacred Truths, which are kept thus choicely, in some dark Corner of our Minds: The Specters may impose on us, whilst we refuse to turn 'em every way, and view their Shapes and Complexions in every light.""",Rooms,2013-07-09 19:28:06 UTC,""