Re: Piratemasters1
Piratemasters1
But what is this thought? How foolish it is!
366. The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so independent
that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din about it. The noise
of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its thoughts; it needs only the
creaking of a weathercock or pulley. Do not wonder if at present it does not
reason well; a fly is buzzing in its ears; that is enough to render it
incapable of good judgement. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth,
chase away that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that
powerful intellect which rules towns and kingdoms. Here is a comical god! O
ridicolosissimo eroe!
367. The power of flies; they win battles, hinder our soul from acting, eat
our body.
368. When it is said that heat is only the motions of certain molecules, and
light the conatus recedendi which we feel, it astonishes us. What! Is
pleasure only the ballet of our spirits? We have conceived so different an
idea of it! And these sensations seem so removed from those others which we
say are the same as those with which we compare them! The sensation from the
fire, that warmth which affects us in a manner wholly different from touch,
the reception of sound and light, all this appears to us mysterious, and yet
it is material like the blow of a stone. It is true that the smallness of
the spirits which enter into the pores touches other nerves, but there are
Piratemasters1
time goes slowly with me and that I judge by imagination. They do not know
that I judge by my watch.
6. Just as we harm the understanding, we harm the feelings also.
The understanding and the feelings are moulded by intercourse; the
understanding and feelings are corrupted by intercourse. Thus good or bad
society improves or corrupts them. It is, then, all-important to know how to
choose in order to improve and not to corrupt them; and we cannot make this
choice, if they be not already improved and not corrupted. Thus a circle is
formed, and those are fortunate who escape it.
7. The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men.
Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
8. There are many people who listen to a sermon in the same way as they
listen to vespers.
9. When we wish to correct with advantage and to show another that he errs,
we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is
usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on
which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not
mistaken and that he only failed to see all sides. Now, no one is offended
at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that
perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and
that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions
of our senses are always true.
10. People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have
themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
11. All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all
those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the
th