Berkeley, George (1685-1753)

Siris:A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries

London

Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis

1744

"As the body is said to clothe the soul, so the nerves may be said to constitute her inner garment."

86. As the body is said to clothe the soul, so the nerves may be said to constitute her inner garment. And as the soul animates the whole, what nearly touches the soul relates to all. Therefore the asperity of tartarous salts, and the fiery acrimony of alcaline salts, irritating and wounding the nerves, produce nascent passions and anxieties in the soul; which both aggravate distempers, and render mens lives restless and wretched, even when they are afflicted with no apparent distemper. This is the latent spring of much woe, spleen, and tædium vitæ. Small imperceptible irritations of the minutest fibres or filaments, caused by the pungent salts of wines and sauces, do so shake and disturb the microcosms of high livers, as often to raise tempests in courts and senates. Whereas the gentle vibrations that are raised in the nerves, by a fine subtile acid, sheathed in a smooth volatile oil (a), softly stimulating and bracing the nervous vessels and fibres, promotes a due circulation and secretion of the animal juices, and creates a calm satisfied sense of health. And accordingly I have often known tar-water procure sleep and compose the spirits in cruel vigils, occasioned either by sickness or by too intense application of mind.
(§86, pp. 40-1)

Dress::Clothing

Reading John Richetti, Philosophical Writing: Locke, Berkeley, Hume (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1983), 179.

At least 9 entries in the ESTC (1744, 1747).

First published in Dublin in 1744. See A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water (London: C. Hitch and C. Davis, 1744). <Link to ESTC><Link to 2nd edition in Google Books>

01/27/2012