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

"If Intellection and Knowledge were mere Passion from without, or the bare Reception of Extraneous and Adventitious Forms, then no Reason could be given at all why a Mirrour or Looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as Sensibly perceive those Images which it receives and r...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"The Mind being a kind of Notional or Representative World, as it were a Diaphanous and Crystalline Sphære, In which the Ideas and Images of all things existing in the Real Universe may be reflected or represented."

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"And hence it comes to pass, that in Speech, Metaphors and Allegories do so exceedingly please, because they highly gratify this Phantastical Power of Passive and Corporeal Cogitation in the Soul, and seem thereby also something to raise and refresh the Mind it self, otherwise lazy and ready to f...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Wherefore that we may the better understand how far the Passion of Sense reaches, and where the Activity of the Mind begins, we will compare these three Things together: First, a Mirror, Looking-glass or Crystal Globe; Secondly, a Living Eye, that is, a Seeing or Perceptive Mirror or Looking-gla...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"For what is Pulchritude in Visible Objects, or Harmony in Sounds, but the Proportion, Symmetry and Commensuration of Figures, and Sounds to one another, whereby Infinity is Measured and Determined, and Multiplicity and Variety vanquished and triumphed over by Unity, and by that means they become...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Now Sense, that is a Living Eye or Mirror, as soon as ever it is Converted toward this Object, will here Passively perceive an Appearance of an Individual Thing, as existing without it, White and Triangular, without any Distinction Concretely and Confusedly together; and it will perceive no more...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)