Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

The Life of John Buncle, Esq.

London

Printed for J. Noon

1756, 1766

"Then only you are qualified for life, when you are able to oppose your appetites, and bravely dare to call your opinions to account; when you have established judgment or reason as the ruler in your mind, and by a patience of thinking, and a power of resisting, before you choose, can bring your fancy to the test of truth."

All things have their nature, their make and form, by which they act, and by which they suffer . The vegetable proceeds with perfect insensibility . The brute possesses a sense of what is pleasurable and painful, but stops at mere sensation. The rational, like the brute, has all the powers of mere sensation, but enjoys a farther transcendent faculty . To him is imparted the master-science of what he is, where he is, and the end to which he is destined. He is directed by the canon of reason to reverence the dignity of his own superior character, and never wretchedly degrade himself into natures to him subordinate. The master science (he is told) consists in having just ideas of pleasures and pains, true notions of the moments and consequences of different actions and pursuits, whereby he may be able to measure, direct or controul his desires or aversions, and never merge into miseries. Remember this, Arrianus. Then only you are qualified for life, when you are able to oppose your appetites, and bravely dare to call your opinions to account; when you have established judgment or reason as the ruler in your mind, and by a patience of thinking, and a power of resisting, before you choose, can bring your fancy to the test of truth. By this means, furnished with the knowledge of the effects and consequences of actions, you will know how you ought to behave in every case. You will steer wisely through the various rocks and shelves of life. In short, Arrianus, the deliberate habit is the proper business of man; and his duty, to exert upon the first proper call, the virtues natural to his mind; that piety, that love, that justice, that veracity, that gratitude, that benevolence; which are the glory of human kind. Whatever is fated in that order of incontroulable events, by which the divine power preserves and adorns the whole, meet the incidents with magnanimity, and co-operate with chearfulness in whatever the supreme mind ordains. --Let a fortitude be always exerted in endurings; a justice in distributions; a prudence in moral offices; and a temperance in your natural appetites and pursuits. --This is the most perfect humanity. This do, and you will be a fit actor in the general drama; and the only end of your existence is the due performance of the part allotted you.

Government::Rule and Subjection::Rule of Reason Government::Rule and Subjection::Rule of Judgment Government::Ruler

Searching "Rule" and "Reason" in HDIS; Found again searching "judg" and "mind" (11/16/2004)

At least 4 entries in the ESTC (1756, 1763, 1766, 1770).

Text from first printing: The Life of John Buncle, Esq; Containing Various Observations and Reflections, Made in Several Parts of the World; and Many Extraordinary Relations, (London: Printed for J. Noon, 1756). <Link to ECCO><Link to LION>

See also The Life of John Buncle, Esq; Containing Various Observations and Reflections, Made in Several Parts of the World, and Many Extraordinary Relations, 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. Johnson and B. Davenport, 1766). <Link to Google Books>

06/08/2004

01/09/2012