The Religion of Nature Delineated by William Wollaston (mystery books to read .txt) 📕

It is not possible, in Joseph Albo’s words, לתת לאיש כדרכיו שוה בשוה ולשער העונשים במדה במשקל וכו׳: “to give to every man according to equity, with regard to his ways, and to estimate punishments by measure and weight.” (Sefer ha-Ikkarim I, 8.) ↩

Inter hominem et belluam hoc maximè interest, quod hæc⁠ ⁠… ad id solum quod adest, quodque præsens est, se accommodat, paululum admodum sentiens præteritum aut futurum, etc.: “Herein lies the chief difference between a man and a beast, that this latter conforms itself to that only which is present and before it, having but a very small sense of what is past or to come, etc.” (Cicero, De Officiis.) Nos et venturo torquemur et præterito. Timoris enim tormentum memoria reducit, providentia anticipat. Nemo tantum præsentibus miser est: “But we torment ourselves with what is to come, and with what is past: for by our foresight we anticipate the torment of fear, and by our memory we bring back that torment which is past. No man is miserable by the present things alone.” (Seneca, Epistles.) ↩

Præsens tempus brevissimum est, adeo quidem, ut quibusdam nullum videatur, etc.: “The present time is as short as is possible, insomuch that some have imagined it to be a mere nothing, etc.” (Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae.) ὅταν γὰρ μηδὲν αὐτοὶ μεταβάλλωμεν τὴν διάνοιαν, ἢ λάθωμεν μεταβάλλοντες, οὐ δοκεῖ ἡμῖν γεγονέναι χρόνος: “When we have no succession of thoughts, or if we have, but forget them, then time seems to us to be nothing.” (Aristotle, Physics.) ↩

אין השם חפץ שתמות בהמה הגם וכו׳: “God takes no delight that a beast should die, if there be no reason for its dying.” (Aben Ezra.) עושה צער לבהמה תנם⁠ ⁠… בא לדין וכו׳: “He that put a beast to any pain, without a just reason for so doing, shall be accountable for it.” (Judah ben Samuel, Sefer Hasidim.) ↩

The rants of those men, who assert, μὴ διαφέρειν ἡδονῆν ἡδονῆς, μηδὲ ἥδεῖον τι εἶναι, “that there is no difference in pleasures, that nothing can be more than pleasant,” nay, Φύσει οὐδὲν ἡδὺ, ἢ ἀηδὲς, “that there is nothing that is naturally pleasant or unpleasant,” in Diogenes Laërtius (Life of Aristippus), can surely affect nobody who has sense, or is alive. Nor that of the Stoics, in Plutarch, ὅτι ἀγαθὸ ὁ χρόνος οὐκ αὔξει προσγιγνόμενος, κ.τ.λ., “That the continuance of any good makes no addition to it.” (Moralia.) As if an age was not more than a moment, and (therefore) an age’s happiness more than a moment’s. ↩

Nocet [fit noxa] empta dolore voluptas: “Pleasure, that is procured by pain, is so much real hurt.” (Horace, Epistles.) And, multo corrupta dolore voluptas: “Pleasure vitiated by much pain.” (Horace, Sermons.) ↩

As when that Pompey, mentioned by Valerius Maximus, by burning his finger, escaped the torture. (Facta et dicta memorabilia.). ↩

Bona malis paria non sunt, etiam pari numero: nec lætitia ulla minimo mœrore pensanda: “Good things are not equal to evil things, though they were the same in number; nor is any joy an equivalent for the least sorrow.” (Pliny the Elder, Natural History.) ↩

Οἰόμεθά τε δεῖν ἡδονὴν παραμεμῖχθαι τῇ εὐδαιμονίᾳ: “We think that happiness must have some pleasure mixed with it.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics). ↩

Or ὁιονεὶ καθεύδοντός κατάστασις: “like a man in a deep sleep.” (Aristippus, in Diogenes Laërtius’s Life of Aristippus.) ↩

This is truly Bonum summum, quò tendimus omnes: “the chief good, which we all aim at.” (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura). Ἅπαντα γὰρ ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἑτέρου χάριν αἱρόυμεθα, πλὴν τῆς εὐδαιμονίας τέλος γὰρ αὕτη: “We choose all other things, except happiness, for the sake of something else; but that is itself the end.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.) ↩

Non dat Deus beneficia. Unde ergo quæ possides? quae⁠ ⁠…: “God does not give us any good things, whence then comes all that we have? which.⁠ ⁠…” (Seneca, De Beneficiis.) ↩

Παντὶ τὸ παρὰ φύσιν αὐτοῦ κακία καὶ κακοδαιμονία ἐστίν: “Everything that is contrary to the nature of any being, is evil and misery to it.” (Arrian, Enchiridion of Epictetus.) ↩

Τίνων ἡδονῶν καὶ κατὰ λόγον ὀρθὸν μεταλαμβάνομεν: “There are some pleasures which we claim by the dictates of right reason.” (Simplicius). Rectè facit, animo quando obsequitur suo: quod omnes homines facere oportet, dum id modo fiat bono: “He does right who follows the dictates of his own mind, as all men ought to do, if they do it in a proper manner.” (Plautus, Amphitryon.) ↩

Habebit philosophus amplas opes; sed nulli detractas etc.: “A philosopher would have large possessions, but then he would not have them taken from others, etc.” (Seneca, De Vita Beata.) Here he seems to confess the folly of the Stoics, who denied themselves many pleasures that were honest and almost necessary; living in tubs, feeding upon raw herbs and water, going about in a sordid garment, with a rough beard, staff, and satchel, etc. ↩

Quid rectum sit, apparet: quid expediat, obscurum est: ita tamen, ut⁠ ⁠… dubitare non possimus, quin ea maximè conducant, quæ sunt rectissima: “It is very evident what right is; but it is very difficult to say what is expedient; but yet there can be no