登陆注册
5590400000025

第25章 DEAD FOLK.(1)

From my own Apartment,November 17.

It has cost me very much care and thought to marshal and fix the people under their proper denominations,and to range them according to their respective characters.These my endeavours have been received with unexpected success in one kind,but neglected in another;for though I have many readers,I have but few converts.

This must certainly proceed from a false opinion,that what I write is designed rather to amuse and entertain than convince and instruct.I entered upon my Essays with a declaration that I should consider mankind in quite another manner than they had hitherto been represented to the ordinary world,and asserted that none but a useful life should be,with me,any life at all.But,lest this doctrine should have made this small progress towards the conviction of mankind,because it may appear to the unlearned light and whimsical,I must take leave to unfold the wisdom and antiquity of my first proposition in these my essays,to wit,that "every worthless man is a dead man."This notion is as old as Pythagoras,in whose school it was a point of discipline,that if among the Akoustikoi,or probationers,there were any who grew weary of studying to be useful,and returned to an idle life,the rest were to regard them as dead,and upon their departing,to perform their obsequies and raise them tombs,with inions,to warn others of the like mortality,and quicken them to resolutions of refining their souls above that wretched state.It is upon a like supposition that young ladies,at this very time,in Roman Catholic countries,are received into some nunneries with their coffins,and with the pomp of a formal funeral,to signify that henceforth they are to be of no further use,and consequently dead.Nor was Pythagoras himself the first author of this symbol,with whom,and with the Hebrews,it was generally received.Much more might be offered in illustration of this doctrine from sacred authority,which I recommend to my reader's own reflection;who will easily recollect,from places which I do not think fit to quote here,the forcible manner of applying the words dead and living to men,as they are good or bad.

I have,therefore,composed the following scheme of existence for the benefit both of the living and the dead;though chiefly for the latter,whom I must desire to read it with all possible attention.

同类推荐
  • Thornton on Labour and Its Claims

    Thornton on Labour and Its Claims

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • THE GREAT HOGGARTY DIAMOND

    THE GREAT HOGGARTY DIAMOND

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 推拿抉微

    推拿抉微

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 妙法莲华经

    妙法莲华经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Dead Men Tell No Tales

    Dead Men Tell No Tales

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 全冠英雄传

    全冠英雄传

    一群懵懂少年成长道路上的波折,造就了他们不一样的性格,最终站在人生的巅峰醒。什么梦。第二天一早,滴滴滴,哒哒哒,卡卡卡,有人在外面吹笛,青儿一个筋斗翻起,飞身上房,朝着音乐的方向望去,声音是从西北方向的山林里传出的,听音形似乎满腹惆怅,忽然笛声停下,见一个白衣男子飞身而过,轻功不在青儿之下,发现了青儿的所处的位置,落身房前。何阿生家中,不知是他的朋友,还是亲人,我劝你离他远一些。青儿见白衣男子和阿生年纪差不多,手撑一只白笛子,吹出的是萧的沉默声音,没有笛子的优异。青儿道:你是哪里的,什么人?白衣男子轻笑:我?韩笑紫。记着有空的时候喊我的名字,我会来陪你的。青儿见此人一身洁白,说话放荡不羁。青儿道:谁用你陪,让阿生知道。韩笑紫:他知道更好,倒要领教他的一招半式。
  • 长安

    长安

    江陵沈氏与洛阳王氏联姻,生女沈如。此女贤良淑静,嫁南平王郑源,虽无独宠,却夫妻举案齐眉,沈如觉得,此般生活甚好。相府嫡女沈如遭南平王休弃,生女长安。此女三岁才能走,五岁方能言,七岁仍说话不太利落,人称痴儿,郑长安觉得,此般生活甚好。若生活永远只停留在最初,便不会生出许多怨憎痴恨……
  • 流水人生

    流水人生

    离婚?魏亚东的话再次令章晓茵吃惊不已。事后,她给陈水云打了个电话。陈水云的声音在电话里显得冷淡而礼貌,还有几丝——也许只有章晓茵才能感觉到的拒人千里。她立刻明白了,陈水云不希望她多嘴询问,更不需要她的安慰,尤其是不需要她的安慰。时间是多么奇妙的东西,曾经,她以为魏亚东是她错失的爱情,是陈水云从她手里掠夺的幸福。然而,时间把这一切置换了,魏亚东不是“爱情”,更不是“幸福”。陈水云处心积虑,挖空心思从她手里抢走的,也许只是一场有始无终的荒唐婚姻。
  • 龟巢稿

    龟巢稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 一顾倾城:齐少的甜美娇妻

    一顾倾城:齐少的甜美娇妻

    【已完结,请放心阅读!】一纸婚书,一无所有的寂静成了豪门阔少齐默然的新婚妻子。婚后,丈夫的冷落,小三的步步紧逼,是什么成就了她的义无反顾?情景一:寂静:“齐默然,你想用我们的孩子去救你和她的孩子?你不觉得你太残忍了一点吗?”齐默然:“残忍,哼……寂静,我告诉i你,要说残忍,我都不及你们的母女的千分之一!”情景二:寂静:“你非我爱人,怎知我情深。难过亦过,难道嫌我伤得还不够多?”齐默然:“青梅枯萎,竹马老去,从此,我爱上的人都只能是你。”
  • 公文写作模板与常用语汇

    公文写作模板与常用语汇

    谭慧编著的《公文写作模板与常用语汇》分为基本行政公文、规章制度、通用文书、会议文书、传播文书、专用书信、法律文书、经贸文书、社交文书等九个类别,以“实用”为出版理念,内容涉及各类公文的概述、写作模板和常用语汇。基本涵盖了常用的公文种类,可以为不同需求的读者提供公文写作方面的帮助。本书集实用性、可操作性、规范性、通俗性为一体,内容丰富、文字简明、通俗易懂、体例新颖,一册在手,必能帮助您轻松自如地应对各种文体写作!
  • 电影世界开拓者

    电影世界开拓者

    突然有了穿越电影世界的能力,齐山开始起飞了。
  • 至尊玄黄系统

    至尊玄黄系统

    一次试练,玄黄世界的一个身受重伤叫叶天的少年和一个来自地球叫叶天的灵魂,奇迹般的融合在一起,全新的他从玄黄大陆大乾帝国魔都中走出,在成长的路上,有人说他是魔,有人说他是仙,有人说他是佛,少年却说,我就是我,是不一样的烟火。
  • 神佛散尽

    神佛散尽

    相传,在那三十三天之上的如意天,曾有堪与西天如来比肩的神佛。也不知在多少世多少劫以前,双方爆发过一场后世鲜有记载的神佛之战。是役,天庭全毁,西天极乐圣景消失十之八九。漫天神佛死伤无数。如意天从此销声匿迹。
  • 亘古剑尊

    亘古剑尊

    当轮回宿忆觉醒,当一切恩怨浮现,巨轮始动,万世恩怨都将尽数展现而出,是胜?是败?万古岁月都将随之而终结。遥望诸天,坐看万古风云事,一朝尽览!万世情仇,是非恩怨转成空,且看今昔!(PS:本来想叫无上剑尊的,但是被用了。这是一个剑仙的浩大世界,希望大家能够支持!)