text,updated_at,metaphor,created_at,context,theme,reviewed_on,dictionary,comments,provenance,id,work_id
"In the long Experience I have had in the World, I have seldom, if ever, found any Man's Company worth enjoying, that did not begin with some Difficulty, if not Prejudice; for Conversation, like Oysters, is nothing the better for opening so easie, and so soon. Neither is there any more dangerous Acquaintance, than that over-hasty Familiarity contracted betwixt good Fellows, as we call them in England, who usually begin their Friendship in the Entry, and strike it up in the Cellar, where Servants are disciplin'd to be the Ministers of their Masters Luxuries, whose Vices seldom miss to be taken up by them, as if they were the Badges to witness to whom they belonged. There is no greater Mark nor Discovery of a Man, than to judge him by the Company he keeps, it being impossible but that he shall much resemble them, and partake some of their Qualities. Si juxta claudum habites, sub claudicare disces, says Plutarch: Bad Company is very contagious to the wisest and best settled Men. What befel Joseph was out of Contagion, frequenting the Egytian Court learnt him to Swear by the Life of Pharoah. Dum spectant oculi laesos, laeduntur & ipsi, Multaque corporibus transitione nocent. I remember Aristotle in his Problems makes a Question, Why Health does not infect as well as Sickness, a diseased Person often communicating his Infirmity, never his Health; the Reason is, says he, because the Health of the Body hath no transient Force on others, and is personal and not communicative. But Malvezzi tell us, it is, for that Nature in Providence drives away the Evil from it self, and thriftily reserves that which is Good; and for this Reason it is, says he, that those who have the Plague are desirous to come into Company, that they may give it to others; and by the same Reason, those who have ill Qualities in them, will be sure to work and apply their Vices, like Rust, into the nearest and purest Mind.
(pp. 71-72)",2013-09-22 21:16:20 UTC,"""But Malvezzi tell us, it is, for that Nature in Providence drives away the Evil from it self, and thriftily reserves that which is Good; and for this Reason it is, says he, that those who have the Plague are desirous to come into Company, that they may give it to others; and by the same Reason, those who have ill Qualities in them, will be sure to work and apply their Vices, like Rust, into the nearest and purest Mind.""",2013-09-22 21:16:20 UTC,Essay 1,"",,Metal,"",Searching ECCO-TCP,22819,7686
"Nor is this true only in respect to money or food. Every want that springs, not from any need, but from vice is of a like character; however much you gather for it will serve, not to end, but to advance desire. He, therefore, who keeps himself within the bounds of nature will not feel poverty; but he who exceeds the bounds of nature will be pursued by poverty even though he has unbounded wealth. Even places of exile will provide necessaries, but not even kingdoms superfluities. It is the mind that makes us rich; this goes with us into exile, and in the wildest wilderness, having found there all that the body needs for its sustenance, it itself overflows in the enjoyment of its own goods. The mind has no concern with money--no whit more than have the immortal gods. Those things that men's untutored hearts revere, sunk in the bondage of their bodies--jewels, gold, silver, and polished tables, huge and round--all these are earthly dross, for which the untainted spirit, conscious of its own nature, can have no love, since it is itself light and uncumbered, waiting only to be released from the body before it soars to highest heaven. Meanwhile, hampered by mortal limbs and encompassed by the heavy burden of the flesh, it surveys, as best it can, the things of heaven in swift and winged thought. And so the mind can never suffer exile, since it is free, kindred to the gods, and at home in every world and every age; for its thought ranges over all heaven and projects itself into all past and future time. This poor body, the prison and fetter of the soul, is tossed hither and thither upon it punishments, upon it robberies, upon it diseases work their will. But the soul itself is sacred and eternal, and upon it no hand can be laid.
(XI.4-7)
[ 4. Nec hoc in pecunia tantum aut alimentis euenit; eadem natura est in omni desiderio quod modo non ex inopia sed ex uitio nascitur: quidquid illi congesseris, non finis erit cupiditatis sed gradus. Qui continebit itaque se intra naturalem modum, paupertatem non sentiet; qui naturalem modum excedet, eum in summis quoque opibus paupertas sequetur. Necessariis rebus et exilia sufficiunt, superuacuis nec regna. 5. Animus est qui diuites facit; hic in exilia sequitur, et in solitudinibus asperrimis, cum quantum satis est sustinendo corpori inuenit, ipse bonis suis abundat et fruitur: pecunia ad animum nihil pertinet, non magis quam ad deos inmortalis. 6. Omnia ista quae imperita ingenia et nimis corporibus suis addicta suspiciunt, lapides aurum argentum et magni leuatique mensarum orbes, terrena sunt pondera, quae non potest amare sincerus animus ac naturae suae memor, leuis ipse, expeditus, et quandoque emissus fuerit ad summa emicaturus; interim, quantum per moras membrorum et hanc circumfusam grauem sarcinam licet, celeri et uolucri cogitatione diuina perlustrat. 7. Ideoque nec exulare umquam potest, liber et deis cognatus et omni mundo omnique aeuo par; nam cogitatio eius circa omne caelum it, in omne praeteritum futurumque tempus inmittitur. Corpusculum hoc, custodia et uinculum animi, huc atque illuc iactatur; in hoc supplicia, in hoc latrocinia, in hoc morbi exercentur: animus quidem ipse sacer et aeternus est et cui non possit inici manus.]",2015-08-05 18:33:08 UTC,"""Those things that men's untutored hearts revere, sunk in the bondage of their bodies--jewels, gold, silver, and polished tables, huge and round--all these are earthly dross, for which the untainted spirit, conscious of its own nature, can have no love, since it is itself light and uncumbered, waiting only to be released from the body before it soars to highest heaven.""",2014-07-16 15:37:23 UTC,"","",,"","",Reading,24195,7972