Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	blood_n	body_n	nourish_v	3,797	5	10.3232	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38504	Epictetus his Morals, with Simplicius his comment made English from the Greek, by George Stanhope ...; Manual. English	Epictetus.; Simplicius, of Cilicia. Commentarius in Enchiridion Epicteti. English.; Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.	1694 (1694)	Wing E3153; ESTC R10979	277,733	562

Company may be confident and rude enough to tell you so But if you hear this Reproach without being concerned then be assured your Philosophy begins to have its due effect For as Sheep do not give up again the Grass they have eaten to shew how well they are fed but prove the Goodness of the Pasture and their own Case by concocting their Meat well and bringing a large Fleece and giving large quantities of Milk so must you approve the Excellence of your Doctrines to the World not by Disputes and plausible Harangues but by digesting them into practice and growing strong in Vertue COMMENT BY this Passage you may plainly perceive that the Person address'd to is not supposed to be a compleat Philosopher for such a one is in no danger of bringing up indigested Notions nor can he need the Advice given to that purpose This is applicable only to one that is still in a state of Probation and Proficiency who hath not yet absolutely delivered his Mind from the importunate Passions of Popularity and Self-conceit and affecting to be thought wise Vices which this Author hath taken great Pains to expose and reform and that as by other Arguments so particularly by one which the Method taken in this Chapter plainly insinuates viz. That as one cannot with any truth say That the Brass while it is melting down is a Statue or that an Embryo is a Man so neither can we That a Person who is still under Discipline and Proficiency is a Philosopher These are the rude and imperfect Beginnings of what is to come after but they are not the Things themselves They are the Matter under preparation but they have not the Form which must constitute their Essence And though they be in never so fair a Disposition to receive it yet till this is done they are not the perfect Beings which they must and would be But though in other cases it be sufficient to say That to call them so were a Breach of Truth yet in this that seems too gencle an Imputation For there is in a truly Philosophical Life something so great and venerable something so much above the common Condition of Humane Nature and so very near approaching to Divine that the ascribing such exquisite Perfection to Persons who are as yet only climbing up to it may justly seem not only a bold Falshood but an imperious and blasphemous one too Shall then that Man who must not pre●ume to call himself a Philosopher take upon him the Office of one Shall he set himself in the Chair and think it becomes him who is but a Learner to teach and magisterially dictate to others No certainly It is fit he should know his distance and keep it But you●ll object That this will be a mighty Hindrance to his Proficiency by debarring him that Discourse with Men of less Attainments which should exercise and improve his Talent I answer That the Discourse Epictetus disallows is not such as is intended for a Trial but the Effect of Vanity nor is the Design of it Advancement in Wisdom but Ostentation and Applause Well but How must he behave himself in such Company then Why the properest and most effectual course to recommend himself will be to forbear the vending his Principles in Words which is but an empty and a very superficial way of propagating them and to demonstrate the Power and Influence of them in his Actions This is a substantial Argument and answers the true End of Philosophy which is not florid Harangue and nice Dispute but prudent and unblamable Practice for this was never intended to teach us to talk well but to live well If therefore you be at a Publick Dinner do not trouble your self to read grave Lectures to the Company concerning Temperance in Eating and its just Bounds and Measures but take care to observe those Measures and to keep within those Bounds your self For by this means you will gain Authority to your Instructions and when it comes to your turn to prescribe to others every Word will make its own way For how ridiculous and absurd is it to set other Men Rules of Temperance or Patience and at the same time to be guilty of Gluttony or sink under the Burden of Afflictions one 's self What force or weight can such a one expect his most studied Discourses should find And How unreasonable and inconsistent is it to impose such Laws upon other Men's Conduct as we are not content to submit to in our own But this is not all He requires a higher degree of self-denial still He does not only forbid the beginning of such kind of Discourse but if any of the Ignorant and Vulgar engage in it of their own accord he will not allow us to join with them nor set up for an Oracle or great Doctor among Men of meaner attainments than our selves For this he says is very suspicious and looks as if what is so very ready to come up loaded the Stomach and was never well digested For as Meats when they are duly concocted distribute themselves into the several parts and mix with the vital Juices and Blood to nourish and strengthen the Body so do Maxims and Doctrines when well digested convert into nourishment and make the Soul healthful and vigorous There they lie like Sap in the Root which when occasion serves spreads it self and brings forth the Fruits of vertuous Actions first and when the proper Season comes and these have attained to a just maturity then of edifying Discourses in great abundance But if any one shall force this Fruit of Discourse before its time when it is not yet ripe and kindly this in all likelihood will turn to no better account than the discharging ones Stomach of undigested Meat And there cannot be a clearer proof that it wants digestion than our not being able to keep it any longer For this is directly that Man's Case that brings up his Precepts of Philosophy again while they are raw and whole and does not shew the effect and strength of them in the improvement of his Mind and growing in those vertuous Habits which they were intended to produce and confirm And in regard the Soul is naturally given to look abroad into the World and for that reason feels it self very powerfully wrought upon by good Examples he proposes Socrates for an eminent pattern of Modesty Who though a most accomplished Philosopher and declared by the Testimony of Apollo himself to be the wisest Man in the World One who consequently had good warrant to take more upon him than any mere Proficient ought to pretend to was yet the farthest that could be from an assuming Temper and made it the business of his whole Life to decline and discountenance Pride and Ostentation One very remarkable instance of this kind was his behaviour to some silly people who came with a design to put a Slur upon him and desired that he would recommend them to some Philosopher capable

Forms according to which those Productions and Motions are modelled and proportioned For if the constituent Forms are not in Bodies originally but derived immediately from some free Agent then certainly the Soul is the efficient Cause and assigns to each Body its particular Form Now these Forms in the Soul are exceeding pure and untainted As for example Beauty in the Body of an Animal consists in the Flesh and Skin and Vessels and Blood that make and fill up this Mass Now it does indeed to the best of its power temper and adorn these things but at the same time it is sullied and changed by them and sinks into their Deformity But now this Beauty in the Soul is free from all these Allays and is not only the Image and Representation of Beauty but pure substantial unblemished original Beauty not graceful in one place and not in another but perfectly and all over so From whence it comes to pass that when the Soul contemplates its own or another Soul's Beauty all bodily Graces lose their Charms and appear despicable and deformed in comparison And this instance hints to us the purity of all other original Forms as they are in the Soul Now it is very plain that as there are different Bodies moved by these Souls so there are likewise different sorts of Souls that move them and some of these are celestial and others sublunary For it were an intolerable absurdity to suppose that Bodies less refined and inferiour in Dignity and Duration should have Life and Souls and that those above should want both It is therefore in this case with Souls as with Bodies the heavenly ones are the Causes of the sublunary ones And indeed the Soul is a noble and most excellent Being especially the heavenly one advanced by Nature to the Prerogative of being a Principle though not the First and Highest in the Order of Causes For though the self-moving and self-existent Being is superiour to those whose Motion and Existence is derived from something else yet still even this is capable of being considered in a double Capacity as Active and Passive as a Cause and as an Effect and it is plain that Simples must have been before Compounds and One before Two Again Though this self-moving Agent depend upon no other for its Motion yet Motion it hath and Motion inferrs Mutation not an essential Change indeed but such as respects its Operations And neither are these Motions Local and Corporeal for in that respect it is immovable but Spiritual and peculiar to the Soul such as we call Consideration and Debate and Dis●erning and Opinion and according as ●he is moved by these motions she impresses corporeal ones upon the Body Now whatever this Change be yet that which is mutable in any kind or proportion must have something besore it absolutely immutable that so those things that are mutable may still be preserved so For all motion and mutation ●oth above and in our lower Regions proceeds from the impression made by the First Cause But since all things undergo such various Changes and great motions are violent How come the heavenly Bodies to continue so much the same in their Constitution their manner of moving the Centre about which they roul their mutual Order and Position And whence is it that though the sublunary ones undergo more visible and frequent Alterations yet still there is a perpetual restitution and constant return to their first Form Thus we observe it plainly in Elements and Seasons and Plants and Animals For though these do not continue to be numerically the same as Celestial Bodies do yet they go round in a Circle till at last they return to the point from whence they set out at first Thus 〈◊〉 is convert●d into Air Air condensed into Water Water into Earth and then Earth 〈◊〉 into Fire again So the Year brings us first into Spring then to Summer after that Autu●n and at last Winter thaws into Spring again So again Wheat is turned into the Stem then the Blade after that the Ear and so ripe Wheat again So from Man proceeds first the Seminal Principle after that the Formation and Vital Nourishment and this at last comes to be Man again Now I would ask any one since motion is of it self always violent and always tending to Change how it comes to pass that the same Species and the same Course and Constitution of Nature is so exactly preserved Certainly this must needs be the Effect of some Superiour Cause which is it self Immoveable and Immutable and remains for ever in all Points exactly the same For even in mental Motions that Agent which is uncertain in his Motions and acts sometimes with ease and freedom and speed and sometimes slowly and with difficulty must needs have some other mind antecedent to it one whose Essence and whose Operations are always the same that brings all thingsto pass in an instant and at pleasure And no Man need be told how much such a Being as this which is fix'd and unchangeable not only as to his own Nature and Essence but as to his Influence too is more excellent than that which is still in motion and liable to Change though that Motion be from it self alone and Reason will convince us that those Beings which are most Noble and Excellent must needs have had an Existence before those that are indigent and depending Now we shall do well according to this Rule to ascend the whole Scale of Causes in our Thoughts and try whether we are able to find any Principle more Excellent than what is already fix'd upon and if we can do so then to drive that still higher till we come to rest at last in the loftiest and most majestick Notions that we are capable of entertaining and this is a Course we may boldly take nor is there any fear of going too far or overshooting the Mark by conceiving any Ideas too great and above the Dignity of this First Cause For alas the boldest Flights our Minds can aspire to are too low and feeble so far from surmounting that they fall infinitely short of his Divine Perfections This Contemplation upon God as it is the most Excellent so it is the only One in which we are sure not to be guilty of any Excess or an over-valuing the Object And when we have taken all imaginable pains to collect all the Ideas that are Great and Venerable and Holy and Independant and Productive of Good all these Names and all these Persections put together do yet give us but a very poor and impersect Notion of him only he is graciously pleased to pardon and accept these because it is not in the power of humane Nature to admit any higher and better When therefore our Consideration hath carried us from Self-moving Beings up to that which is Immovable and absolutely Immutable always the same in Essence its Power and its Operations fix'd for ever in a vast Eternity out of which Time and all