ISBN: 9781154120363

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not … Altro …

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... unbelieving. But on the other hand his whole habit of mind is perfectly fatal to orthodox religion; and it is clear that, despite his professions of conformity, he did not hold the ordinary Christian beliefs.1 Whatever he might say in the Apology, in the other essays he repeatedly reveals a radical unbelief. The essay on Custom strikes at the root of all orthodoxy, with its thrusts at the gross imposture of religions, wherewith so many worthy and sufficient men have been besotted and drunken, and its terse avowal that miracles are according to the ignorance wherein we are by nature, and not according to nature''s essence.2 Above all, he rejected the great superstition of the age, the belief in witchcraft. His function in literature was thus to set up a certain mental atmosphere,1 and this the extraordinary vitality of his utterance enabled him to do to an incalculable extent. He had the gift to disarm or at least to baffle hostility, to charm kings,4 to stand free between warring factions. No book ever written conveys more fully the sensation of a living voice; and after three hundred years he has as friendly an audience as ever. Mr. Owen notes (French Skeptics, p. 446; cp. Champion, pp. 168-9) that, though the Papal curia requested him to alter certain passages in the Essays, it cannot be shown that he erased or modified a single one of the points. Sainte-Beuve, indeed, has noted many safeguarding clauses added to the later versions of the essay on Prayers (i, 56); but they really carry further the process of doubt. M. Champion has well shown how the profession of personal indecision and mere self-portraiture served as a passport for utterances which would have brought instant punishment on an author who showed any clear purpose.... John MacKinnon Robertson, Books, History, A short history of freethought ancient and modern Volume 2 Books>History, General Books LLC<

ISBN: 1154120368

Taschenbuch, [EAN: 9781154120363], Rarebooksclub.com, Rarebooksclub.com, Book, [PU: Rarebooksclub.com], Rarebooksclub.com, 65140011, Geschichte, 65141011, Afrika, 65383011, Altertum, 6519… Altro …

Taschenbuch, [EAN: 9781154120363], Rarebooksclub.com, Rarebooksclub.com, Book, [PU: Rarebooksclub.com], Rarebooksclub.com, 65140011, Geschichte, 65141011, Afrika, 65383011, Altertum, 65196011, Amerika, 65622011, Arktis & Antarktis, 65400011, Asien, 65450011, Australien & Ozeanien, 65458011, Europa, 65538011, Historische Forschung, 65567011, Militär, 65621011, Militärwissenschaft, 65550011, Nahost, 65449011, Russland, 65597011, Weltgeschichte, 54071011, Genres, 52044011, Fremdsprachige Bücher<

ISBN: 1154120368

Paperback, [EAN: 9781154120363], Rarebooksclub.com, Rarebooksclub.com, Book, [PU: Rarebooksclub.com], Rarebooksclub.com, 65, History, 271237, Ancient History & Civilisation, 276416, Archa… Altro …

Paperback, [EAN: 9781154120363], Rarebooksclub.com, Rarebooksclub.com, Book, [PU: Rarebooksclub.com], Rarebooksclub.com, 65, History, 271237, Ancient History & Civilisation, 276416, Archaeology, 271343, Britain & Ireland, 271480, Europe, 271565, North America, 271411, Military History, 772016, Maritime History, 771710, Political History, 772148, Social & Economic History, 772162, Cultural History, 771714, Religious History, 271389, Other Historical Subjects, 771724, Essays, Journals, Letters & True Accounts, 271605, Reference, 771718, World History, 771708, Countries & Regions, 4119251, Academic History, 1025612, Subjects, 266239, Books<