An ethical treatise on the passions : founded on the principles investigated in the Philosophical treatise / by T. Cogan.

  • Cogan, T. (Thomas), 1736-1818.
Date:
1807-1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An ethical treatise on the passions : founded on the principles investigated in the Philosophical treatise / by T. Cogan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    part of the universal system with which we are acquainted. Nor are the abstruser sciences devoid of pleasure. On the contrary, they are peculiarly calculated to arrest the attention, and occupy all the powers of the soul. The more they are pur- sued, the more are they confessed to become inte- resting and attractive. It is here that the mind is rendered the most conscious of the extent of its powers, in the midst of a conviction that they bear no proportion to the nature of their subject! It feels a satisfaction, and even a degree of triumph, in its being able to explore, in its imperfect man- ner, regions, from which more common mind* are totally excluded. Lost as it were in a bound- less ocean, it is yet deHghted with the immensity of its objects; and the sense of self-abasement is relieved by the elevating and transporting aston- ishment with which it is accompanied ! We have remarked of sensual gratifications, that they are in their own nature transitory; and of the more elegant gratifications derived from the organs of sense, that they can only be enjoyed with ge- nuine relish as occasional pursuits, and temporary relaxations. The love of knowledge is permanent. The mind may be fatigued in its pursuits, but it cannot be satiated. Nor can it be divested of the stores thus acquired, but by the loss of the faculties. Another singular security to enjoyment from this source is, that the objects to which a scientific.