Date: 1731

"Whereas Sense it self is but the Passive Perception of some Individual Material Forms, but to Know or Understand is Actively to Comprehend a thing by some Abstract, Free and Universal Reasonings, from whence the Mind as it were looking down (as Boetius expresseth it) upon the Individuals below i...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"The Eye which is placed in a Level with the Sea, and touches the Surface of it, cannot take any large Prospect upon the Sea, much less see the whole Amplitude of it. But an Eye Elevated to a higher Station, and from thence looking down, may comprehensively view the whole Sea at once, or at least...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"That which wholly looks abroad outward upon its Object, is not one with that which it perceives, but is at a distance from it, and therefore cannot Know and Comprehend it; but Knowledge and Intellection doth not meerly look out upon a thing at distance, but makes an Inward Reflection upon the th...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But Sense is of that which is without, Sense wholly gazes and gads abroad, and therefore doth not know and comprehend its Object, because it is different from it."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Sense is a Line, the Mind is a Circle. Sense is like a Line which is the Flux of a Point running out from it self, but Intellect like a Circle that keeps within it self."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"And Reason interposing, brings in its Verdict for those Stronger Phantasms also whose Objects are durable and permanent, by means whereof the latter only seem to be Real Sensations, the former counterfeit and Fictitious Imaginations; or meer Picture and Landskip in the Soul."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"In the day they [Phantasms] are shut out and disappear, the Senses and Understanding working, as the lesser Fire is made to disappear by the Greater; and small Griefs and Pleasures by Great ones. But when we are at rest in our Beds, the least Phantasms make Impressions upon us."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But when we are asleep, the same Phantasms and Imaginations are more strong, vivid and lively; because the Nerves are relaxated, there are often no Motions transmitted by them from the outward Objects into the Brain, to confound those Motions of the Spirits within, and distract the Soul's Attent...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Secondly, Neither doth every Involuntary Phantasm, or such as the Soul is not Conscious to it self to have purposely excited or raised up within it self, seem to be a Sensation or Perception of a thing, as existing without us; for there may be Straggling Phantasms, which come into the Mind we kn...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"To have not only Reason degraded and dethroned, but even Sense it self Perverted or extinguished, and in the room, thereof boisterous Phantasms protruded from the Irrational Appetites, Passions and Affections (now grown Monstrous and Enormous) to become the very Sensations of it, by means whereo...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)