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A63842 A discourse of the government of the thoughts by George Tullie ... Tullie, George, 1652?-1695. 1694 (1694) Wing T3238; ESTC R1827 60,979 194

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A DISCOURSE OF THE Government OF THE THOUGHTS By GEORGE TULLIE Sub-Dean of York LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCIV Imprimatur Aug. 17. 1693. Geor. Royse Rmo in Christo Patri ac Dom. Dom. Johanni Archiep. Cantuar. à sacris Domest TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By Divine Providence Lord Arch-Bishop of York His Grace Primate of England and Metroplitan May it please your Grace THAT I take the liberty to Prefix so Great a Name to so small a Treatise only the Dignity of the Subject indeed makes some Compensation for the defects and meanness of the Present for the Argument is Truly Great and Noble in it self and what would deserve a much abler Pen more leisure for Abstractions a more Philosophical Genius and both a wider compass and a closser collection of Thought than any I can pretend to Thus much however may be said that a sense of that Edification which ought always to be the cheif aim and Design of the Pulpit which first gave Birth to this Discourse obliged me to write as familiarly and Practically as the Subject would well admit of Such as it is My Lord my Relation to the Church of York the Just esteem one has for the Concurrence of so many excellent qualifications in one Person and my particular obligations to your Grace makes this publick Acknowledgment of them a Just Debt from My Lord Your Graces Most Dutiful and Obliged Servant GEORGE TULLIE THE PREFACE THO I have no great opinion of Prefaces to small Tracts especially that seem not to require any Prolegomena and so consequently design'd none yet since the printing This off I find my self under a sort of obligation to say something that way having been inform'd by some Friends that there was a Treatise lately publish'd which has since come to my hands with the same Title I design'd for mine and with a great name annex'd to it and that both the Book and the Vanity as they thought it of the Title page pass'd for mine with those that did not know me From which imputation the publishing of this will I hope sufficiently clear me As to the Tract it self I shall make no other reflexion on it than that it were indeed to be wish'd that That excellent person whose name the Author is pleas'd to make use of had carried on his Meditations from The Government of the Tongue to the Springs and Wheels of all its motions those Thoughts that set it a going for then we might have expected a just discourse indeed upon the Argument I have little more to add but that I am sensible the subject I have here undertaken might be managed after a much different manner from what it is by me and that without running out either into the wide field of Logic or the Passions which are distinct Arguments both in themselves and from what I here intended A Man who can turn his eyes vigorously inward and read the hidden and mysterious part of himself might no doubt make several reflections thereupon not unworthy the observation of the thinking World as that in our most abstracted researches after Truth our notices of things are fetch'd more from extrinsick and accidental hints than a just and regular inquiry and a Man often falls upon a lucky thought as casually as Printing and Gunpowder were invented that if the motion of our Thoughts in composing c. like that of the Sun be both quick and bright too that yet somthing of Earth as the objects of sense a fume or vapour in the head often interposes betwixt us and the Sun-shine we enjoyed and Eclipses the expected discovery that sometimes a sudden flash of Thought breaks in upon us but either so faintly bright that it but just gildes our Understanding and then flies off or so plentifully that it dazles and over-powers our Faculties that we cannot retain it as Meats of too high a Taste are not easily digested by a weak Stomach that if our Thoughts run turbid and lutulent as the dregs and sediments of Mortality will often make them do that then they rise not up to the heighth of their Subject if quick and nimble that they seldom prove solid and weighty as the same stream is rarely rapid and deep too that the Position of a Chain of Thoughts may be easilier banter'd than confuted and that their Succession is by no means so fortuitous a thing as unobserving men are apt to apprehend it He might shew particularly and at large how the prejudices of Education Interest Passion c. pervert the Sentence of the Understanding when it sits upon its Object that hence principally derive those different sentiments of things and persons that so much imbroil the World and that were it not for these bribes that corrupt our Thoughts all Mankind would think a-like here as 't is certain they will do in each different state hereafter since Truth in every thing is still the same and like its Great Author can be but one a streight line that admits of none but it self betwixt the same indivisible points and that 't is therefore in a considerable measure the obliquity of mens Wills and Affections that hinder their thoughts from running parallel with it and one another Thus a man by observing the working of his Thoughts upon all Occasions whether of speculation or practice might furnish the World with such Remarks as would carry both Pleasure and Profit in them and let us more and more into the knowledge of the terra incognita of our own lesser World shew us both how we think and how we might improve the mighty Talent And herein the Genius of Aristotle was admirably great He read himself and therein all Mankind in their true light and proper colours for one man stript to his reason and the due use of his faculties is but the counterpart of another His Logic was the pure result of his own Observations upon the working of his Thoughts and the proceeds of his Reason for Logic does not teach us to argue Nature did that before it but reduces our arguings into rules and methods and shews us how we do it These Reflections I have only briefly and hastily huddled together that if they chance to fall in with any happy and observing Genius they may set it on work and be the fortunate occasion of more perfect and consummate productions in this kind and then I should think this lame and imperfect Essay infinitely better bestow'd than otherwise 't is like to be for I am so sensible of its Imperfections that I could beartily wish it in my hands again But 't is now out of my own power and so I must be content to lie at the mercy of the Reader for venturing with so small a force of Thought on so great and noble an Argument for he that writes on Thoughts writes on the pride and perfection of Humane Nature on that which must yeild us in