The Religion of Nature Delineated William Wollaston (my reading book .TXT) 📖

to have a love for a great many at the same time.” (Nicomachean Ethics.) Ἔστι γὰρ φίλος ἅλλος ἀυτός: “For a friend is a second self.” (Plutarch, Moralia.) ↩

Fœcunda culpæ sæcula nuptias Primàm inquinavere, et genus, et domos. Hôc fonte derivata clades In patriam, populumque fluxit: “The ages that were fruitful in vice first defiled marriages, corrupted relations and families. From this fountain flowed that destruction which overwhelmed the country and its inhabitants.” (Horace, Odes.) ↩

Κρατεῖν δεῖ τὸν ἄνδρα τῆς γυναικός οὐχ ὡς δεσπότην κτήματος, ἀλλʼ ὡς ψυχὴν σώματος, συμπαθοῦντα καὶ συμπεθυκότα τῇ ἐυνόιᾳ: “The husband ought to have a power over the wife, not such as a man has over his goods, but such as the soul has over the body, sympathizing and becoming one in benevolence.” (Plutarch, Advice to Bride and Groom.) (A sentence which deserves to be written in letters of gold.) Ὅπου σὺ Γάϊος, ἐγὼ Γαἵα·⁠ ⁠… ὅπου σὺ κύριος καὶ οἰκοδεσπότης, καὶ ἐγὼ κυρία καὶ οἰκοδέσποινα: “Where you are the man Gaias, I am the woman Gaia; where you are master and governor, I am mistress and governess.” (Also in Plutarch, Roman Questions.) ↩

Κατὰ φύσιν οἱ ἄῤῥενες οὐ μόνον ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀλλοις ζώοις ἄρχουι: “Nature has appointed the males to govern, not only among mankind, but among all other living creatures.” (Plato, according to Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.) ↩

Πολυπλέθρους δέ σοι γυίας Λέίψω. Πατρὸς γὰρ ταῦτ᾿ ἐδεξάμην πάρα: “I shall leave you a very good estate. For I had such a one from my father.” (Euripides, Alcestis.) Parentes vos alendo nepotum nutriendorum debito (si quis est pudor) alligaverunt: “Your parents, in maintaining you, made it a debt upon you (if you have any sense of shame) to maintain your children.” (Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia.) ↩

Incertus quò fata ferant, ubi sistere detur: “it is uncertain which way fate will carry me, or where I shall settle,” in the poet’s language. (Virgil, Aeneid.) ↩

See that moving description of the Ἦμαρ ὀρφανικὸν: “an orphan” in Homer’s Iliad. ↩

I could never think of that Arabic saying without pity, “The barber [אלחגאם] learns to shave upon the head of an orphan.” ↩

For certainly, when it can be, Hoc patrium est, potius consuefacere filium sua sponte recte facere, quàm alieno metu: “It is the duty of a father to accustom his son to do right from his own good will, rather than from the fear of others.” (Terence, The Brothers.) ↩

Πρὸς ταῦτα μόνον ἀπειθοῦντες γονεῦσι, πρὸς ἃ καὶ αὺτοὶ τοῖς θείοις νόμοις οὐ πέιθονται: “We should refuse obedience to parents, only in such things as are contrary to the laws of God.” (Hierocles, Commentary on the Carmen Aureum.) ↩

The barbarity of the thing at length put a stop to the custom of exposing children: but it had been practised by the Persians, Greeks, etc. Romulus’s law only restrained it, but did not abolish it. For it enjoined his citizens only, ἅπασαν ἄρρενα γενεὰν ἐκτρέφειν, καὶ θυγατέρων τὰς πρωτογόνους· ἀποκτιννύναι δὲ μηδὲν τῶν γεννωμένων νεώτερον τριετοῦς, πλὴν εἴ τι γένοιτο παιδίον ἀνάπηρον, κ.τ.λ.: “to bring up all the males, and the firstborn of the daughters; and not to destroy any of them after they were three years old, unless they were maimed.” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities.) And besides, ἅπασαν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἔδωκεν ἐξουσίαν πατρὶ καθ’ υἱοῦ, καὶ παρὰ πάντα τὸν τοῦ βίου χρόνον, κ.τ.λ.: “the father had absolute power over the son given him, and that during his whole life.” (Hierocles, Commentary on the Carmen Aureum.) ↩

Ῥωμαίοις οὐθὲν ἴδιόν ἐστι κτῆμα ζὡντων ἔτι τῶν πατέρων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ χρήματα καὶ τὰ σώματα τῶν παίδων ὅ, τι βούλονται διατιθέναι τοῖς πατράσιν άποδέδοται: “Among the Romans, children had nothing of their own, while their fathers were alive; but the goods and the bodies of the children were entirely at the disposal of the fathers, to do what they would with them.” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities.) These are instances of such laws as should not be, by proposition IV, section VII. ↩

Roma patrem patriæ Ciceronem libera dixit: “When Rome had liberty to speak, she called Cicero the father of his country.” (Juvenal, Satires.) ↩

Ὡς λογικῶν ἡμῶν ἄρξον: “That should govern us as rational creatures.” (Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus.) ↩

שללתן שותפין ביצירתם: “All the three had a share in the formation of them.” (Eliezer Azkari, Sefer Haredim.) ↩

Utinam oculos in pectora possent Inserere, et patrias intus deprendere curas: “I wish they could look into their breasts, and see what the inward cares of parents are.” (Ovid, Metamorphoses.) ↩

I confess in Seneca’s words, minimum esse beneficium patris matrisque concubitum, nisi accesserint alia, quæ prosequerentur hoc initium muneris, et aliis oficiis hoc ratum facerent: “that parents merely begetting of their children is the smallest kindness, if there were nothing else which followed this first office, and confirmed it by other duties.” (De Beneficiis.) ↩

Τὸ αἰσθάνεσθαι ὅτι ζῇ τῶν ἡδέων καθ᾿ αὑτό· φύσει γὰρ ἀγαθὸν ἡ ζωή·: “To feel that we are alive is a real pleasure of itself; for life is naturally a good thing.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.) The sense of life (of being alive) seems to be something more than what Seneca