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

part of themselves; and so have the children for the parents, because they are derived from them.⁠ ⁠… Brothers also (love) one another, because they are born of the same parents⁠ ⁠… cousins also and other relations,⁠ ⁠… because they proceed from the same parents also.⁠ ⁠… And there are some nearer related, and some further off.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.) ↩

Quàm copiosæ suavitatis illa recordatio est? In eodem domicilio, antequam nascerer, habitavi: in iisdem incunabulis infantiæ tempora peregi: eosdem appellavi parentes, etc.: “How very pleasant is the remembrance of these things? I dwelt in the same dwelling (with such a one) before I was born; I passed my infancy in the same cradle; I called the same persons my parents, etc.” (Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia.) ↩

There is no name for any descendent who is more than trinepos: “three degrees removed from us.” ↩

It becomes ἀμυδρά: “very obscure.” (Andronicus of Rhodes.) ↩

Man and Wife are supposed to be one, and therefore have no place here, any more than a man and his self. Otherwise considered distinctly, the one of them ought always to be the first care of the other. ↩

Μηδὲ κασιγνήτῳ ἶσον ποιεῖσθαι ἑταῖρον: “We must not treat a friend equally with a relation.” (Hesiod, Works and Days.) ↩

For many I acknowledge there are, who seem to be without reflection, and almost thought. Τίς ἀγνοεῖ τὴν οἰκέιαν φύσιν; πολλόι· τάχα δὲ πάντες πλὴν ὀλίγων: “Who is there that does not understand what he himself is? A great many truly; nay, all but a very few.” (St. Chrysostom, Homily on Acts of the Apostles.) ↩

Nec se quæsiverit extra: “Let him not seek for himself out of himself.” (Plotinus, Enneads.) ↩

Illud γνῶθι σεαυτὸν noli putare ad arrogantiam minuendam solùm esse dictum, verùm etiam ut bona nostra norimus: “Do not imagine that that (precept) ‘understand yourself thoroughly,’ was said only to lessen men’s pride, but further that they might know all the good things which belong to them.” (Cicero, in his letters to his brother Quintus.) ↩

Non sentire mala sua non est hominis: et non ferre non est viri: “Not to be sensible of the evils we lie under is not to be a man, and not to be able to bear them is to want the courage of a man” (Seneca, who condescends here, in De Consolatione ad Polybium, to be something like other men). As also when he says, Alia sunt, quæ sapientem feriunt, etiamsi non pervertunt; ut dolor capitis, etc. Hæt non nego sentire sapientem, etc.: “There are some things which strongly affect a wise man, though they don’t quite overpower him, as the headache, etc.; I do not deny but that a wise man feels such things,” etc. (De Constantia Sapientis.) ↩

Qui se ipse norit, aliquid sentiet se babere divinum, etc.: “He that understands what sort of a being he himself is, will perceive that he has something that is divine in him.” (Cicero, De Legibus.) ↩

טבע החומר ויצר הרע: “nature which is backward, and a will corrupted,” are (in Jewish language, see Berakhot) שאור בעיסה: “the leaven in the lump.” ↩

Ἀμήχανον εἶναι ἄνθρωπόν τινα ἀναμάρτητον: “It is next to impossible for a man to be free from all sin.” (Johannes Chrysostom, De Lazaro.) ↩

The author of Sefer Haredim reckons eight, the right use of which comprehends all practical religion: the heart, the eye, the mouth, nose, ear, hand, foot, and ראש הגויה: “the principal member.” The duties respecting these are the subject of that (not bad) book. ↩

Cùm tria sint hæc, esse, vivere, intelligere: et lapis est, et pecus vivit, nec tamen lapidem puto vivere, aut pecus intelligere: qui autem intelligit, eum et esse et vivere certissimum est. Quare non dubito id excellentius judicare, cui omnia tria insunt, quàm id cui duo vel unum desit: “Since there are these three things: to exist, to live, and to have understanding; and a stone exists, beasts live, for I cannot think that a stone lives, or a beast has understanding; it is most certain, that the being which has understanding, both exists and lives. Wherefore I don’t at all scruple to declare him, that has in him all these three, to be a superior being to him who wants one or two of them.” (St. Augustine, De Libero Arbitrio.) Thus reason sets man above the other visible orders of beings, etc. ↩

Præsto est domina omnium et regina ratio⁠ ⁠… Hæc ut imperet illi parti animi, quæ obedire debet, id videndum est viro: “Reason, the governor and ruler of all things, is ready⁠ ⁠… ; every man therefore is to see that she governs that part of the soul which ought to be obedient to her.” (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations.) ↩

Abjecto homine in sylvestre animal transire: “To cast off the man, and become a wild creature.” (Seneca, De Clementia.) Ἐν τῷ λογικῷ τίνων χωριζόμεθα; τῶν θηρίων⁠ ⁠… Ὅρα οὖν μή τί πως ὡς θηρίον ποιήσῃς: “Whom are we distinguished from by our reason?⁠ ⁠… from the beasts; take care then that you do not imitate the beasts in anything.” (Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus.) Pertinet ad omnem officii quæstionem semper in promptu habere, quantum natura hominis pecudibus reliquisque belluis antecedat: “In all inquiries concerning our duty we ought always to have this uppermost, viz.: