Date: Saturday, October 20, 1711
"It has been observed by some Writers, that Man is more distinguished from the Animal World by Devotion than by Reason, as several Brute Creatures discover in their Actions something like a faint Glimmering of Reason, though they betray in no single Circumstance of their Behaviour any Thing that ...
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Saturday, October 20, 1711
"It is certain, the Propensity of the Mind to Religious Worship; the natural Tendency of the Soul to fly to some Superior Being for Succour in Dangers and Distresses, the Gratitude to an invisible Superintendent which rises in us upon receiving any extraordinary and unexpected good Fortune; the A...
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Saturday, October 27, 1711
"Let him remove from my Mind, says Alcibiades, the Darkness, and what else he pleases, I am determined to refuse nothing he shall order me, whoever he is, so that I may become the better Man by it."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Saturday, October 27, 1711
"However that may be, we find that this great Philosopher saw, by the Light of Reason, that it was suitable to the Goodness of the Divine Nature, to send a Person into the World who should instruct Mankind in the Duties of Religion, and, in particular, teach them how to Pray."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 1712
"We shall no more admire at the Proceedings of Catiline or Tiberius, when we know the one was actuated by a cruel Jealousie, the other by a furious Ambition; for the Actions of Men follow their Passions as naturally as Light does Heat, or as any other Effect flows from its Cause."
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 1712
"We must therefore be very cautious, lest while we think to regulate the Passions, we should quite extinguish them, which is putting out the Light of the Soul: for to be without Passion, or to be hurried away with it, makes a Man equally blind."
preview | full record— Anonymous
Date: Saturday, April 5, 1712
"He likewise is represented as discovering by the Light of Reason, that he and every thing about him must have been the Effect of some Being infinitely good and powerful, and that this Being had a right to his Worship and Adoration."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Saturday, May 17, 1712
"Mirth is like a Flash of Lightning, that breaks thro a Gloom of Clouds, and glitters for a Moment; Chearfulness keeps up a kind of Day-light in the Mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual Serenity."
preview | full record— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)
Date: Wednesday, June 4, 1712
"It fills the Imagination with an Assemblage of such Ideas and Pictures as are hardly any thing but Shade, such as Night, the Devil, &c. These Portraitures very near over-power the Light of the Understanding, almost benight the Faculties, and give that melancholy Tincture to the most sanguine Com...
preview | full record— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)
Date: 1713, 1734
"I have been a long time distrusting my Senses; methought I saw things by a dim Light, and thro false Glasses. Now, the Glasses are removed, and a new Light breaks in upon my Understanding."
preview | full record— Berkeley, George (1685-1753)