Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

XLIII. Ignorance of Ourselves [from Reliquiae Juveniles. Miscellaneous Thoughts, in Prose and Verse, on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects]

London

Printed for Richard Ford and Richard Hett

1734

"A surprising Phænomenon of nature is this, that the soul of man, which ranges abroad though the heavens, and the earth, and the deep waters, and unfolds a thousand mysteries of nature, which penetrates the systems of stars and suns, worlds upon worlds, should be so unhappy a stranger at home, and not be able to tell what it self is, or what it is made of."

How strangely are we situated in this mortal state! We open our eyes, we employ our senses, and take notice of a thousand things around us; but we see and know almost nothing of ourselves.--We are conscious indeed of our being, and therefore we are sure that we are; but what we are, lies deep in darkness. We see and feel these limbs, and this flesh of ours; we are acquainted at least with the outside of this animal machine, and sometimes call it ourselves, though philosophy and reason would rather say, it is our houfe or tabernacle, because we possess it, or dwell in it: it is our engine, because we move and manage it at pleasure. But what is this Self, which dwells in this tabernacle, which possesses this house, which moves and manages this engine and these limbs? Here we are much at a loss, and our thoughts generally run into to some airy forms of being, some empty refinements upon sensible images, some thin rarefied shape and subtile confusion. We know not this Self of ours, which is conscious of its own existence, which feels so near an union of this flesh and limbs, and which knows a multitude of things within us and without us. A surprising Phænomenon of nature is this, that the soul of man, which ranges abroad though the heavens, and the earth, and the deep waters, and unfolds a thousand mysteries of nature, which penetrates the systems of stars and suns, worlds upon worlds, should be so unhappy a stranger at home, and not be able to tell what it self is, or what it is made of.

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Reliquiae Juveniles. Miscellaneous Thoughts, in Prose and Verse, on Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written Chiefly in Younger Years. By I. Watts, D.D. (London: Printed for Richard Ford at the Angel, and Richard Hett at the Bible and Crown, 1734). <Link to ECCO>

Text from Reliquiae Juveniles: Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse, New edition, Corrected (London: J. Buckland and T. Longman, 1789), 119-20. <Link to Google Books> (Compare 155-6 in 1734 edition.)

01/15/2012