The Growth of Thought as Affecting the Progress of Society
()
About this ebook
Related to The Growth of Thought as Affecting the Progress of Society
Related ebooks
The Growth of Thought as Affecting the Progress of Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary (Volume II of II) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of James Harvey Robinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCulture and Anarchy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mind in the Making: The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mind in the Making (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Natural History Of Enthusiasm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings3 books to know Age of Enlightenment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Getting Rich (Condensed Classics): The Legendary Mental Program to Wealth and Mastery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSystem of Nature by Baron D’Holbach 2 Volumes in One: Laws of the Physical World and of the Moral World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Logic of Facts; Or, Every-day Reasoning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Treatise On Human Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Philosophizing: And Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Treatise of Human Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Instauration Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crowd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Natural History of Religion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Essays on Work and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Credo - Interpretation of the National Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife's Progress Through The Passions Or, The Adventures of Natura Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Consciousness of the Atom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReligion: Christianity in Practice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of Freedom of Thought Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Religion: The Natural History of Religion & Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Cardinal Virtues: Human Agency, Intellectual Traditions, and Responsible Knowledge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crowd & The Psychology of Revolution: Two Classics on Understanding the Mob Mentality and Its Motivations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of True Virtue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of David Hume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged) (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Growth of Thought as Affecting the Progress of Society
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Growth of Thought as Affecting the Progress of Society - William Withington
William Withington
The Growth of Thought as Affecting the Progress of Society
EAN 8596547217541
DigiCat, 2022
Contact: DigiCat@okpublishing.info
Table of Contents
Part I.
Part II.
Part III.
Part IV.
Part I.
Table of Contents
Introductory.
The meditation on human life—on the contrast between what is, and what might be, on supposing a general concurrence to make the best of things-yields emotions both painful and pleasing;—painful for the demonstrations every where presented, of a love of darkness, rather than light; pleasing, that the worst evils are seen to be so remediable; and so clear the proofs of a gradual, but sure progress towards the remedy.
The writer is not very familiar with those authors, who have so much to say on the problem of life—the question, What is life? He supposes them to follow a train of thought, something like this: The life of a creature is that perfection and flourish of its faculties, of which its constitution is capable, and which some of the race are destined to reach. Thus, the life of the lion is realized, when the animal ranges undisputed lord of the sunny desert; finds sufficiency of prey for himself and offspring, which he raises to inherit dominion; lives the number of years he is capable of enjoying existence, and then closes it, without excessive pains, lingering regrets, or fearful anticipations.
Life differs from happiness. It is supposable, that the lion, tamed and petted, trained to feed somewhat after man's chosen manner, may be as happy as if at liberty in his native range. But such happiness is not the animal's life; since this implies the kind of happiness proper to the creature's constitution, in distinction from that induced by forced habits.
To happiness add knowledge and intellectual culture, and all together do not realize the idea of life. The tame lion may be taught many arts, assimilating him to the intelligence of man; but these remove him so much further from his appropriate life. Thus there may be a cultivated intelligence, which constitutes no part of the creature's life; and this without considering the same as a moral agent.
Macauley remarks, that the Jesuits seem to have solved the problem, how far intellectual culture may be carried, without producing intellectual emancipation. I suppose it would be only varying the expression of his thought to say, Jesuitical education strikingly exemplifies, how much intellectual culture may be superinduced upon the mind, without awakening intellectual life—without developing a spontaneous aptness to appreciate, seek, find, embrace the truth. The head is filled with the thoughts of others-many ascertained facts and just conclusions. It can reason aright in the circles of thought, where it has been trained to move; but elsewhere, no spontaneous activity—no self-directed power of thinking justly on new emergencies and questions not yet settled by rule—no spring within, from which living waters flow.
The difference between intellectual culture and intellectual life appears in the fact, that in regard to those mastering ideas, which to after times mark one age as in advance of the preceding, the classical scholars, the scientific luminaries, the constitutional expounders of the day, are quite as likely to be behind the general sense of the age, as to be in advance.
The question, What is human life? arises on a contemplation like this: There is no difficulty in determining the life of all the other tenants of earth; unless, indeed, those which man has so long and so universally subjected to his purposes, that the whereabouts, or indeed the existence of the original stock, remains in doubt. The inferior animals, left to themselves in favorable circumstances, manifest one development, attain to one flourish, live the same life, from generation to generation. Man may superinduce upon them what he calls improvements, because they better fit them for his purposes. But said improvements are never transmitted from generation to its successor; left to itself, the race reverts to proper life, the same it has lived from the beginning.
Man here presents a singular exception to the general rule of earth's inhabitants. The favorite pursuits of one age are abandoned in the next. This generation looks back on the earnest occupations of a preceding, as the adult looks back on the sports and toys of childhood. It is more than supposable, that the planning for the chances of office, the competition for making most gain out of