Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary. David Hume

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ sorrow is fruitless, and will not change the course of destiny. Very true: And for that very reason I am sorry.

      Cicero’s consolation for deafness is somewhat curious. How many languages are there, says he, which you do not understand? The PUNIC, SPANISH, GALLIC, ÆGYPTIAN, &c. With regard to all these, you are as if you were deaf, yet you are indifferent about the matter. Is it then so great a misfortune to be deaf to one language more?¹⁰

      I like better the repartee of ANTIPATER the CYRENIAC, when some women were condoling with him for his blindness: What! says he, Do you think there are no pleasures in the dark?¹¹

      Nothing can be more destructive, says FONTENELLE,¹² to ambition, and the passion for conquest, than the true system of astronomy. What a poor thing is even the whole globe in comparison of the infinite extent of nature? This consideration is evidently too distant ever to have any effect. Or, if it had any, would it not destroy patriotism as well as ambition? The same gallant author adds with some reason, that the bright eyes of the ladies are the only objects, which lose nothing of their lustre or value from the most extensive views of astronomy, but stand proof against every system. Would philosophers advise us to limit our affection to them?

      ^cExile, says PLUTARCH to a friend in banishment, is no evil: Mathematicians tell us, that the whole earth is but a point, compared to the heavens. To change one’s country then is little more than to remove from one street to another. Man is not a plant, rooted to a certain spot of earth: All soils and all climates are alike suited to him.¹³ These topics are admirable, could they fall only into the hands of banished persons. But what if they come also to the knowledge of those who are employed in public affairs, and destroy all their attachment to their native country? Or will they operate like the quack’s medicine, which is equally good for a diabetes and a dropsy?°

      It is certain, were a superior being thrust into a human body, that the whole of life would to him appear so mean, contemptible, and puerile,° that he never could be induced to take part in any thing, and would scarcely give attention to what passes around him. To engage him to such a condescension as to play even the part of a PHILIP with zeal and alacrity, would be much more difficult, than to constrain the same PHILIP, after having been a king and a conqueror during fifty years, to mend old shoes with proper care and attention; the occupation which LUCIAN assigns him in the infernal regions.¹⁴ Now all the same topics of disdain towards human affairs, which could operate on this supposed being, occur also to a philosopher; but being, in some measure, disproportioned to human capacity, and not being fortified by the experience of any thing better, they make not a full impression on him. He sees, but he feels not sufficiently their truth; and is always a sublime philosopher, when he needs not; that is, as long as nothing disturbs him, or rouzes his affections. While others play, he wonders at their keenness and ardour; but he no sooner puts in his own stake, than he is commonly transported with the same passions, that he had so much condemned, while he remained a simple spectator.

      There are two considerations chiefly, to be met with in books of philosophy, from which any important effect is to be expected, and that because these considerations are drawn from common life, and occur upon the most superficial view of human affairs. When we reflect on the shortness and uncertainty of life, how despicable seem all our pursuits of happiness? And even, if we would extend our concern beyond our own life, how frivolous appear our most enlarged and most generous projects; when we consider the incessant changes and revolutions of human affairs, by which laws and learning, books and governments are hurried away by time, as by a rapid stream, and are lost in the immense ocean of matter? Such a reflection certainly tends to mortify all our passions: But does it not thereby counterwork the artifice of nature, who has happily deceived us into an opinion, that human life is of some importance? And may not such a reflection be employed with success by voluptuous°

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

/9j/4RDZRXhpZgAASUkqAAgAAAAMAAABAwABAAAAEA4AAAEBAwABAAAAGBUAAAIBAwADAAAAngAA AAYBAwABAAAAAgAAABIBAwABAAAAAQAAABUBAwABAAAAAwAAABoBBQABAAAApAAAABsBBQABAAAA rAAAACgBAwABAAAAAgAAADEBAgAiAAAAtAAAADIBAgAUAAAA1gAAAGmHBAABAAAA7AAAADwBAAAI AAgACACAjVsAECcAAICNWwAQJwAAQWRvYmUgUGhvdG9zaG9wIENDIDIwMTUgKFdpbmRvd3MpADIw MTY6MDY6MjEgMTU6MTY6NTkAAAAFAACQBwAEAAAAMDIyMYaSAgAOAAAALgEAAAGgAwABAAAA//8A AAKgBAABAAAAEA4AAAOgBAABAAAAGBUAAAAAAABLTUJUX0M1NTIgUTc2AAYAAwEDAAEAAAAGAAAA GgEFAAEAAACKAQAAGwEFAAEAAACSAQAAKAEDAAEAAAACAAAAAQIEAAEAAACaAQAAAgIEAAEAAAA3 DwAAAAAAAEgAAAABAAAASAAAAAEAAAD/2P/tAAxBZG9iZV9DTQAC/+4ADkFkb2JlAGSAAAAAAf/b AIQADAgICAkIDAkJDBELCgsRFQ8MDA8VGBMTFRMTGBEMDAwMDAwRDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwM DAwMDAwMDAwMDAENCwsNDg0QDg4QFA4ODhQUDg4ODhQRDAwMDAwREQwMDAwMDBEMDAwMDAwMDAwM DAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDAwM/8AAEQgAoABrAwEiAAIRAQMRAf/dAAQAB//EAT8AAAEFAQEBAQEB AAAAAAAAAAMAAQIEBQYHCAkKCwEAAQUBAQEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAQACAwQFBgcICQoLEAABBAEDAgQC BQcGCAUDDDMBAAIRAwQhEjEFQV

СКАЧАТЬ