Conduct of the Understanding |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
33 EAST able accustomed apply arguments assent axioms Bacon Bishop of Worcester Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute brought clear conduct determined ideas discourse distinct ideas edge edition endeavor enlarge error evidence examine exercise faculties false fancy freedom furnish GEORGE HENRY LEWES give habit HARRY PRATT JUDSON HENRY HALLAM High Laver Human Understanding indifferency inquiry John Locke judgment Julius Cæsar keep knowl knowledge laziness learned Leslie Stephen Locke says Locke's logic malè matter MAYNARD mean men's minds MERRILL mislead nature ness never notions Novum Organum object observe opinions ourselves passion perceive philosophy prejudice PUBLISHERS 29 question readers reason religion rules sciences sense serve settled sort stand taken tenets things Thomas Fowler thought Thoughts concerning Education tions true truth and falsehood visible wherein wholly words writings
Popular passages
Page 68 - Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. That is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy...
Page 125 - The human understanding is no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections ; whence proceed sciences which may be called " sciences as one would." For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes.
Page 123 - The commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders, whose mighty designs, in advancing the sciences, will leave lasting monuments to the admiration of posterity: but every one must not hope to be a Boyle or a Sydenham; and in an age that produces such masters as the great Huygenius and the incomparable Mr. Newton...
Page 68 - Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge, it is thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them' over again they will not give us strength and nourishment.
Page 30 - The legs of a dancing-master, and the fingers of a musician, fall as it were naturally, without thought, or pains, into regular and admirable motions. Bid them change their parts, and they will in vain endeavour to produce like motions in the members not used to them, and it will require length of time and long practice to attain but some degrees of a like ability.
Page 22 - We see but in part,1 and we know but in part, and therefore it is no wonder we conclude not right from our partial views. This might instruct the proudest esteemer of his own parts, how useful it is to talk and consult with others, even such as...
Page 24 - Jjuilgments]: the reason whereof is, they converse but with one sort of men, they read but one sort of books, they will not come in the hearing but of one sort of notions: the truth is, they canton out to themselves a little Goshen, in the intellectual world, •where light shines, and as they conclude, day blesses them; but the rest of that vast expansum they give up to night and darkness, and so avoid coming near it.
Page 67 - The business of education, as I have already observed,1 is not as I think to make them perfect in any one of the sciences, but so to open and dispose their minds as may best make them capable of any when they shall apply themselves to it.
Page 32 - Exchange, will find a different genius and turn in their ways of talking; and yet one cannot think that all whose lot fell in the city were born with different parts from those who were bred at the university or inns of court. To what purpose all this, but to show that the difference, so observable in men's understandings and parts, does not arise so much from their natural faculties as acquired habits.
Page 98 - There is one principal and as it were radical distinction between different minds, in respect of philosophy and the sciences; which is this: that some minds are stronger and apter to mark the differences of things, others to mark their resemblances. The steady and acute mind can fix its contemplations and dwell and fasten on the subtlest distinctions: the lofty and discursive mind recognizes and puts together the finest and most general resemblances. Both kinds however easily err in excess, by catching...