"Methinks, my Lord, it wou'd be well for us, if before we ascended into the higher Regions of Divinity, we wou'd vouchsafe to descend a little into ourselves, and bestow some poor Thoughts upon plain honest Morals."
— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for J. Morphew
Date
1708, 1714
Metaphor
"Methinks, my Lord, it wou'd be well for us, if before we ascended into the higher Regions of Divinity, we wou'd vouchsafe to descend a little into ourselves, and bestow some poor Thoughts upon plain honest Morals."
Metaphor in Context
Methinks, my Lord, it wou'd be well for us, if before we ascended into the higher Regions of Divinity, we wou'd vouchsafe to descend a little into ourselves, and bestow some poor Thoughts upon plain honest Morals. When we had once look'd into our selves, and distinguish'd well the nature of our own Affections, we shou'd probably be fitter Judges of the Divineness of a Character, and discern better what Affections were sutable or unsutable to a perfect Being. We might then understand how to love, and praise, when we had acquir'd some consistent Notion of what was laudable or lovely. Otherwise we might chance to do God little Honour, when we intended him the most. For 'tis hard to imagine, what Honour can arise to the Deity from the Praises of Creatures, who are unable to discern what is Praise-worthy or Excellent in their own Kind.
(pp. 41-2; pp. 21-2 in Klein)
(pp. 41-2; pp. 21-2 in Klein)
Categories
Provenance
Reading; text from C-H Lion
Citation
At least 10 entries in ESTC (1708, 1711, 1714, 1733, 1744, 1751, 1757, 1758, 1773, 1790). Letter dated September, 1707; printed the following year.
See A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, To My Lord ***** (London: J. Morphew, 1708). <Link to ESTC><Link to Google Books>
See also "A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm" in Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. In Three Volumes. (London: John Darby, 1711). <Link to ESTC>
Some text drawn from EEBO and ECCO, most from Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, ed. Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge: CUP, 2001). Klein's text is based on the British Library's copy of the second edition of 1714. [Texts to be collated.]
See A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, To My Lord ***** (London: J. Morphew, 1708). <Link to ESTC><Link to Google Books>
See also "A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm" in Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. In Three Volumes. (London: John Darby, 1711). <Link to ESTC>
Some text drawn from EEBO and ECCO, most from Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury. Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, ed. Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge: CUP, 2001). Klein's text is based on the British Library's copy of the second edition of 1714. [Texts to be collated.]
Date of Entry
07/09/2013
