A supplement to the Athenian oracle : being a collection of the remaining questions and answers in the old Athenian mercuries intermixt with many cases in divinity, history, philosophy, mathematicks, love, poetry, never before publish'd. To which is prefix'd the history of the Athenian Society, and an essay upon learning / [by J. Dunton?] By a member of the Athenian Society.

John Dunton

Date:: 1710

Credit: A supplement to the Athenian oracle : being a collection of the remaining questions and answers in the old Athenian mercuries intermixt with many cases in divinity, history, philosophy, mathematicks, love, poetry, never before publish'd. To which is prefix'd the history of the Athenian Society, and an essay upon learning / [by J. Dunton?] By a member of the Athenian Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$: ~/athenfan Mace, “497 therefore “he afpires to «change |befearch’d , fince fuperiority 3t- The oppofition of. contraries | affords fuch fenfible pleafure, eoritributes alfc, thereto: For{and con{picuous advantage 5 obferving the evils which at-| Command being,to {peak truch, send fuch as are reduc’d under] nothing elfe bur an affective » ‘the will of another; and on the| power of applying what means other fide, the content which] we pleafe wherewith to com- Mafters feem ta have, while| pafs our Profit or Delight. they live at their own dilcre-| But feeing Nature has elta- tion, and more eafily fuffer a-|blifh’d this Law, that. inferi- ny evil of their own dojng,/or things ought to, obey the becaufe evety Man can ber |Superior, the lefs worthy the terbear with himlelf than with | more worthy ; fo thar Obedj- another ; hereupon they as|ence and Commandare the dif- much defire Command as they | ferent confonances which com- deteft Obedience. Now befides| pofe the Harmony of the all this,the realon why we are| Worlds Whence it is that {o fond of command is, becaule { Man alone raifing up theTones every thing defires to be in A+} or Notes of his Ambition, ie tion ,and all Being ‘confifts pri- | terrupts the Confort of the marily in Aion. Our Will, a- |niverle, and makes Difcord. _ ecordingly, is forward to exert | amongit this agreeable Mufick ? the aé& of volition. ; but it wills |The reaion is, that as Nature - only. by halves, when it iscon- | gives no defires but fhe alfo trol’d, and. nothingoffends us | gives power, fo fhe gives no morethan when we command,| power without defire. Where- and no body itirs to obey us 5/0} tore haying made Man free by that fome are impatient of be-|a power, to wit a Will -moft ing, gain-faid, even jn. things free and independent, fhe has notorjoufly impertinent or un- | alfo made him free by Inclina- jot. Witmels Philip of Ma-|tionand Defire. Now fora{- cedon,who haying unjuitly con, | much as Obedience is the re- demn'd a poor Woman, chole | firiction and modification, ox tather to pay her Adverfary | ratheran annihilation of, and himfelf, than retra&t his own| contrary motion. to this Wall judgment. er and Detire of freedom, “tis no 2 This Queition has no di- | wonder that Man fo abhors {ere ficulty in the general, fince | vitude and defires command 3 all who are comented with a| becaule in doing fo he mott fervile condition, make their | powerfully exerciles his will ebedience fublervient. to their] in all its extent. defire of raifing a fortune,| The Willof Man being al- which may one Pay enable *em| ways mutable, and in_ perpe- t9. command. Nor is the reafon} tual motion, ‘tis no wonder of it lefs eafie. For fince no|ifit abhors Obedience which motive is more powerful to ine | checks its courle, deprives it _ gline the Willot Man than.De-| of the means of change, and light and, Profit, no. other|{ ufually carries it by a retro- reafon,...of this defire need | grade vs ~ - ,$

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