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

and engraven on an immortal soul.” (Philo Judaeus, Every Good Man Is Free.) More to this purpose might easily be collected. ↩

Λόγος ἐστὶν ἐικὼν Θεοῦ: “reason is the image of God.” (Philo Judaeus, De Monarchia.) ↩

Τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν καὶ κυριεῦον τῆς ψυχῆς σου μέρος: “The governing part of the soul.” (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.) Or as it is in [Pseudo-]Plutarch, τῆς ψυχῆς ἀνώτατον μέρος: “the supreme part of the soul.” (Placita Philosophorum.) Principatus, “the principal part,” in Cicero. Summus in anima gradus. (Tertullian, De Anima.) ↩

Criterion. (Editor’s note.) ↩

Religio cogi non potest, verbis potiùs quàm verberibus res agenda est, ut sit voluntas: “Religion cannot be forced upon anyone, it must be done by words and not by blows, that it may be a thing of choice.” (Lactantius, Divine Institutes.) ↩

Tantulus ille⁠ ⁠… sol: “The sun⁠ ⁠… that small thing.” (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura.) Poor creature! ↩

Nec nimio solis major rota⁠ ⁠… Esse potest, nostris quàm sensibus esse videtur: “The orb of the sun cannot be much bigger than it appears to our senses.” (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura.) Epicurus autem posse putat etiam minorem esse quàm videatur, etc.: “Epicurus thought it might be less than it appears, etc.” (Cicero, Academica.) ↩

Natura etiam nullo docente profecta ab iis, quorum, ex prima et inchoata intelligentia, genera cognovit, confirmat ipsa per se rationem, et perficit: “For nature, without any teaching, proceeds upon those general truths which we are convinced of, as soon as we begin to have any understanding, and confirms and perfects them by reason.” (Cicero, De Legibus.) ↩

Semina nobis scientiæ dedit [natura] scientiam non dedit: “The seeds or principles of knowledge are given us [by nature], but not knowledge itself.” (Seneca, Epistles.) ↩

Si sani sunt [sensus], et valentes, et omnia removentur, quæ obstant et impediunt: “If [the senses] be sound and strong, and if everything be removed out of the way that might obstruct or hinder them.” (Cicero, Academica Priora.) ↩

Socrates’s saying, in Cicero, nihil se scire, nisi id ipsum: “that he knew nothing but this,” viz. that he knew nothing, savors of an affected humility, and must not be understood strictly. But they, who followed, went further (… omnes pæne veteres: qui nihil cognosci, nihil percipi, nihil sciri posse dixerunt: “… almost all the ancients, who affirmed, that nothing could be known, nothing perceived, nothing understood”): and particularly Arcefilas negabat esse quidquam quod sciri posset, ne illud quidem ipsum, quod Socrates sibi reliquisset: “Arcefilas denied that anything could be certainly known, not so much as that which Socrates reserved to himself.” And thus the absurdity grew to a size that was monstrous. For no man can act, or even be alive, if he knows nothing at all. Besides, to know that one knows nothing is a contradiction, and not to know that he knows even that, is not to know whether he knows anything or not; and that is to know for ought he knows. (Quotes from Cicero’s Academica.) ↩

Nec scire fas est omnia: “Nor is it possible to know all things.” (Horace, Odes.) ↩

This was the opinion of a wise man. חגוך לגער על פי דרכו גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנה: “Train up a child in the way that he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6.) For הלימזד בימי הנערות הוא כפתוח, על האבז⁠ ⁠… והלימוד בימי הזקנה כפתוח על החול: “learning in the days of youth, is like graving upon a stone⁠ ⁠… and learning, in the days of old age, is like marking upon the sand.” (Elisha ben Abraham ben Judah, Kab we-Naki.) Οὐ μικρὸν διαφέρει τὸ οὕτως ἢ οὕτως εὐθὺς ἐκ νέων ἐθίζεσθαι ἀλλὰ πάμπολυ, μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ πᾶν: “It is not a small but a very great advantage, or indeed all that can be, to be accustomed to such and such things from our very youth.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.) ↩

Τετράκις ἔλεγον ἐξ ἠθέων τὸν ἥλιον ἀνατεῖλαι· ἔνθα τε νῦν καταδύεται, ενθεΰτεν δίς επαντεΤλαι, και ενθεν νΰν ανατελλει, ενθαΰτα δις καταδΰναι: “That the sun had risen four times contrary to what it usually does, viz. risen twice where it now sets, and set twice, where it now rises.” (Histories: Euterpe.) ↩

עולם כמנהגו הולך: “The world goes on in its usual course.” (Avodah Zarah.) ↩

פתי יאמין לכל דבר: “A fool believes everything that he hears.” (Proverbs 14:15) (which sure one may convert thus, המאמין לכל דבר פתי הוא: “He that believes everything that he hears, is a fool”). ↩

Statuere enim, qui sit sapiens, vel maximè videtur esse sapientis: “It seems requisite that a man must be himself wise, in order to determine who is a wise man.” (Cicero, Academica Priora.) ↩

Non numero hæc judicantur, sed pondere: “these are to be judged of, not by number, but by weight,” as Cicero speaks upon another occasion (De Officiis). Therefore I cannot, without a degree of indignation, find a sort of writers pleasing themselves with having discovered some uncivilized nations, which have little or no knowledge of the Deity, etc., and then applying their observations to the service of atheism. As if ignorance could prove anything, or alter its nature by being general! ↩

Aristotle’s