Theologico-Political Treatise (Complete)
sep. 2020 · Library of Alexandria
E-bog
278
Sider
family_home
Kvalificeret
info
reportBedømmelser og anmeldelser verificeres ikke Få flere oplysninger
Om denne e-bog
Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. The human mind is readily swayed this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over - confident, and vain. This as a general fact I suppose everyone knows, though few, I believe, know their own nature; no one can have lived in the world without observing that most people, when in prosperity, are so over-brimming with wisdom (however inexperienced they may be), that they take every offer of advice as a personal insult, whereas in adversity they know not where to turn, but beg and pray for counsel from every passer-by. No plan is then too futile, too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causes will raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair - if anything happens during their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they think it portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may have proved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen. Anything which excites their astonishment they believe to be a portent signifying the anger of the gods or of the Supreme Being, and, mistaking superstition for religion, account it impious not to avert the evil with prayer and sacrifice. Signs and wonders of this sort they conjure up perpetually, till one might think Nature as mad as themselves, they interpret her so fantastically. Thus it is brought prominently before us, that superstition's chief victims are those persons who greedily covet temporal advantages; they it is, who (especially when they are in danger, and cannot help themselves) are wont with Prayers and womanish tears to implore help from God: upbraiding Reason as blind, because she cannot show a sure path to the shadows they pursue, and rejecting human wisdom as vain; but believing the phantoms of imagination, dreams, and other childish absurdities, to be the very oracles of Heaven. As though God had turned away from the wise, and written His decrees, not in the mind of man but in the entrails of beasts, or left them to be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, and birds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!
Bedøm denne e-bog
Fortæl os, hvad du mener.
Oplysninger om læsning
Smartphones og tablets
Installer appen Google Play Bøger til Android og iPad/iPhone. Den synkroniserer automatisk med din konto og giver dig mulighed for at læse online eller offline, uanset hvor du er.
Bærbare og stationære computere
Du kan høre lydbøger, du har købt i Google Play via browseren på din computer.
e-læsere og andre enheder
Hvis du vil læse på e-ink-enheder som f.eks. Kobo-e-læsere, skal du downloade en fil og overføre den til din enhed. Følg den detaljerede vejledning i Hjælp for at overføre filerne til understøttede e-læsere.
