Date: 1731

"For which Cause that wise Philosopher Socrates altogether shunned that Dictating and Dogmatical Way of Teaching used by the Sophisters of that Age, and chose rather an Aporetical and Obstetricious Method; because Knowledge was not to be poured into the Soul like Liquor, but rather to be invited ...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"Lastly, from hence is that strange Parturiency that is often observed in the Mind, when it is sollicitously set upon the Investigation of some Truth, whereby it doth endeavour, by ruminating and revolving within it self as it were to conceive it within itself, to bring it forth out of its own Wo...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But there are many Objects of our Mind, which we can neither See, Hear, Feel, Smell nor Taste, and which did never enter into it by any Sense; and therefore we can have no Sensible Pictures or Ideas of them, drawn by the Pencil of that Inward Limner or Painter which borrows all his Colours from ...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"As for Example, Justice, Equity, Duty and Obligation, Cogitation, Opinion, Intellection, Volition, Memory, Verity, Falsity, Cause, Effect, Genus, Species, Nullity, Contingency, Possibility, Impossibility, and innumerable more such there are that will occur to any one that shall turn over the Voc...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"And therefore many times, when the Intellect or Mind above is Exercised in Abstracted Intellections and Contemplations, the Fancy will at the same time busily employ it self below, in making some kind of Apish Imitations, counterfeit Iconisms, Symbolical Adumbrations and Resemblances of those In...

— 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

"But indeed this Opinion attributes as much Activity to the Mind, if at least the Agent Intelligence be a Part of it, as ours doth; as he would attribute as much Activity to the Sun, that should say the Sun had a Power of educing Light out of Night or the dark Air, as he that should say the Sun h...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"That there are some Ideas of the Mind which were not stamped or imprinted upon it from the Sensible Objects without, and therefore must needs arise from the Innate Vigour and Activity of the Mind it self, is evident, in that there are, First, Ideas of such things as neither are Affections of Bod...

— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)

Date: 1731

"But that which imposes upon Mens Judgements here, so as to make them think, that these are all Passive Impressions made upon the Soul by the Objects of Sense, is nothing else but this; because the Notions both of those Relative Ideas, and also of those other other Immaterial things, (as Vertue, ...

— 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)