Aids to reflection in the formation of a manly character, on the several grounds of prudence, morality, and religion: by Coleridge Samuel Taylor 1772-1834 & Marsh James 1794-1842

Author:Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 & Marsh, James, 1794-1842. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Burlington, Vt. C. Goodrich
Published: 1829-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

CIS AIM TO UETLBCTIOW.

K quent, not to say ordinary, disproportion between moral worth and worldly prosperity—must, indeed, at all times and in all countries of the Civilized World have led the observant and reflecting Few, the men of meditative habits and strong feelings of natural equity, to a nicer consideration of the current Belief, whether instinctive or traditional. By forcing the Soul in upon herself, this Enigma of Saint and Sage from Job, David and Solomon to Claudian and Boetius, this perplexing disparity of success and desert, has, I doubt not, with such men been the occasion of a steadier and more distinct consciousness of a Something in man different in kind, and which not merely distinguishes but contra-distinguishes, him from animals—at the same time that it has brought into closer view an enigma of yet haider solution—the fact, I mean, of a Contradiction in the

, Human Being, of which no traces are observable elsewhere, in animated or inanimate nature [79] ! A struggle of jarring impulses; a mysterious diversity between the injunctions of the mind and the elections of the will; and (last not least) the utter incommensurateness and the unsatisfying qualities of the things around us, that yet are the only objects which our senses discover or our appetites require us to pursue. Hence for the finer and more contemplative spirits the ever-strengthening suspicion, that the two Phenomena must some way or other stand in close connexion with each other, and that the Biddle of Fortune and Circumstance is but a form or effluence

of the Riddle of Man! And hence again, the persuasion, that the solution of both problems is to be sought for—hence the presentiment that this solution will be found, in the confra-distinctive Constituent of Humanity, in the Something of Human Nature which is exclusively human! And as the objects discoverable by the senses, as all the Bodies and Substances that we can touch, measure, and weigh, are either mere Totals, the unity of which results from the parts, often accidental, as that of a pebble, and always only apparent; or Substances, whose Unity of Action is owing to the nature or arrangement of the partible bodies which they actuate or set in motion; Steam, for instance, in a steam-engine, or the (so called) imponderable fluids;—as oil

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.