Read the passage from An Essay on Man.Self-love and reason to one end aspire,Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;But greedy that, its object would devour,This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r
Read the sentence from a paper on Gulliver's Travels.Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels so he could humorously criticize the government.
Read the passage from "An Essay on Man.”Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,Formed but to check, deliberate, and advise.Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh;Reason’s at distance, and in prospect lie:
To determine the central idea of An Essay on Man, what should the reader do first?
a paraphrasea quotationtext evidenceverbal irony
Read the passage from Of the Wisdom of the Ancients.This Love is introduced without any parent at all; only, that some say he was an egg of Night. And himself out of Chaos begot all things, the gods included. The attributes which are assigned to him are in number four: he is always an infant; he is blind; he is naked; he is an archer. There was also another Love, the youngest of all the gods, son of Venus, to whom the attributes of the elder are transferred, and whom in a way they suit.
Read the passage from Of the Wisdom of the Ancients.For Venus excites the general appetite of conjunction and procreation; Cupid, her son, applies the appetite to an individual object. From Venus therefore comes the general disposition, from Cupid the more exact sympathy.
Read the passage from "An Essay on Man.”Most strength the moving principle requires;Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires.Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,Formed but to check, deliberate, and advise.
Read the passage from Gulliver's Travels.There was a most ingenious architect, who had contrived a new method for building houses, by beginning at the roof, and working downward to the foundation.
Read the passage from Gulliver's Travels.There was a man born blind, who had several apprentices in his own condition: their employment was to mix colours for painters, which their master taught them to distinguish by feeling and smelling. It was indeed my misfortune to find them at that time not very perfect in their lessons, and the professor himself happened to be generally mistaken. This artist is much encouraged and esteemed by the whole fraternity.
Read the excerpt from Thoughts and Sentiments.The longer that men continue in the practice of evil and wickedness, they grow the more abandoned; for nothing in history can equal the barbarity and cruelty of the tortures and murders committed under various pretences in modern slavery, except the annals of the Inquisition and the bloody edicts of Popish massacres.
Read the sentence from Of the Wisdom of the Ancients.They say then that Love was the most ancient of all the gods; the most ancient therefore of all things whatever, except Chaos, which is said to have been coeval with him; and Chaos is never distinguished by the ancients with divine honour or the name of a god.
Read the paragraph from the Declaration of Independence.When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.Now, read the paragraph from the Declaration of Sentiments.When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
When Bacon changes the definition of love in Of the Wisdom of the Ancients, he is
Read the two passages from Of the Wisdom of the Ancients.Passage 1:The fable relates to the cradle and infancy of nature, and pierces deep. This Love I understand to be the appetite or instinct of primal matter; or to speak more plainly, the natural motion of the atom; which is indeed the original and unique force that constitutes and fashions all things out of matter.Passage 2:Let us now consider his attributes. He is described with great elegance as a little child, and a child for ever; for things compounded are larger and are affected by age; whereas the primary seeds of things, or atoms, are minute and remain in perpetual infancy.
Read the passage from Of the Wisdom of the Ancients.Now the philosophy of the Greeks, which in investigating the material principles of things is careful and acute, in inquiring the principles of motion, wherein lies all vigour of operation, is negligent and languid; and on the point now in question seems to be altogether blind and babbling; for that opinion of the Peripatetics which refers the original impulse of matter to privation, is little more than words—a name for the thing rather than a description of it.
Read the excerpt from the Declaration of Sentiments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
Read the excerpt from the Declaration of Independence.For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal."Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flea the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.
Read the excerpts from historical documents.From the Declaration of Independence:. . . all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.From the Declaration of Sentiments:. . . all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed.
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