From An Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion (1849) by Sir George Cornewall Lewis. “in looking on the newspaper as one of the principal guides of public opinion, and as an authoritative source of practical convictions to a large part of the community, the most prominent characteristic which strikes the observer … Continue reading A Victorian View of Anonymity in the Press
James Mill on Aristocracy
From Mill's 1836 essay, 'Aristocracy'. Inequalities of fortune produce good effects. ‘Reformers are far from thinking evil of inequalities of fortune; on the contrary, they esteem them a necessary consequence of things which are so good, that society itself, and all the happiness of human beings, depend upon them: a consequence of those laws whence … Continue reading James Mill on Aristocracy
Bentham on lawyers
"It is the people’s interest that delay, vexation and expense of procedure should be as small as possible:—it is the advocate’s that they should be as great as possible: viz. expense in so far as his profit is proportioned to it; factitious vexation and delay, in so far as inseparable from the profit-yielding part of … Continue reading Bentham on lawyers
A translation of Antara
I reproach an age that does not bend to reproaching,And plead for security from calamities approaching.Promised by the days a promise that deceived me—I know well it was but the promise of mendacity.I served a people and took on relationsTo aid me, and yet they became as scorpions. — Antara,1 I reproach an age (my … Continue reading A translation of Antara
Epicurus on death
"Accustom yourself also to think death a matter with which we are not at all concerned, since all good and all evil is in sensation, and since death is only the privation of sensation. On which account, the correct knowledge of the fact that death is no concern of ours, makes the mortality of life … Continue reading Epicurus on death
John Stuart Mill on race and slavery
From Mill's 1850 essay, 'The Negro Question'. The law of the strongest. 'Your last month’s Number contains a speech against the “rights of Negroes,” the doctrines and spirit of which ought not to pass without remonstrance. The author issues his opinions, or rather ordinances, under imposing auspices, no less than those of the “immortal gods.” … Continue reading John Stuart Mill on race and slavery
Hume on the tendency of religion to ascetic morality
"The duties, which a man performs as a friend or parent, seem merely owing to his benefactor or children; nor can he be wanting to these duties, without breaking through all the ties of nature and morality. A strong inclination may prompt him to the performance: A sentiment of order and moral obligation joins its … Continue reading Hume on the tendency of religion to ascetic morality
Socratic temperance 2
Socrates: "And when real philosophers consider all these things, will they not be led to make a reflection which they will express in words something like the following? ‘Have we not found,’ they will say, ‘a path of thought which seems to bring us and our argument to the conclusion, that while we are in … Continue reading Socratic temperance 2
Seneca on the Shortness of Life
The portion of life allotted to us, if rightly arranged, is sufficient. “We do not have a very short time assigned to us, but we lose a great deal of it: life is long enough to carry out the most important projects: we have an ample portion, if we do but arrange the whole of … Continue reading Seneca on the Shortness of Life
English politicians described
Here let those reign, whom Pensions can inciteTo vote a Patriot black, a Courtier white; Explain their Country's dear-bought Rights away,And plead for Pirates in the Face of Day;With slavish Tenets taint our poison'd Youth,And lend a Lye the Confidence of Truth. – Samuel Johnson, London (1738).
Notes in the Margins of the Days 