Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	body_n	earth_n	see_v	7,359	5	3.8059	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47658	The characters, or, The manners of the age by Monsieur de la Bruyere ... made English by several hands ; with the characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, and a prefatory discourse to them, by Monsieur de la Bruyere ; to which is added, a key to his Characters.; Caractères. English	La Bruyère, Jean de, 1645-1696.; Theophrastus. Characters. English.	1699 (1699)	Wing L104; ESTC R10537	259,067	532

of the Stars this Sun this Earth and the ninety millions of miles that are betwixt ●em would seem to him but as one point There are demonstrations given for it 'T is for this reason that the distance there is betwixt any two Stars tho they appear never so near one another is not to be measur'd You would think if you judg'd by your eye the Plyades almost touch'd one another There is a Star seems to be plac'd on one of those which make the Tail of the Great Bear your sight can hardly perceive that part of the Heavens which divides 'em they make together as it were but one double Star Yet if the most skilful Astronomers cannot with all their Art find out their distance from each other how far asunder must two Stars be which appear remote from one another And how much farther yet the two Polar Stars How prodigious the length of that line which reaches from one to the other How immense the Circle which this line is the Diameter of How unfathomable the solidity of the Globe which this Circle is but a Section of Shall we still wonder that these Stars though so exceeding great seem no larger to us than so many Sparks Shall we not rather admire that from so vast a heighth they should p●eserve the least appearance of bodies and that they should be seen at all And indeed the quantity of them that is unseen is innumerable 'T is true we limit the number of the Stars but that is only of such Stars as are visible to us for how should we number those we cannot see Those for example which make up the Via Lactea that trace of light which on a clear night you may observe from North to South in the Sky Those I say which being by their extraordinary heighth so far out of the reach of our eyes that we cannot distinguish every individual Star amongst 'em give a white cast only to that part of the Heavens they are plac'd in Behold then the Earth on which we tread it hangs loose like a grain of Sand in the air A multitude of fiery Globes the vastness of whose bulk confounds my imagination and whose heighth exceeds the reach of my conceptions all perpetually rowling round this grain of Sand has been for above these six thousand years and are still daily crossing the wide the immense spaces of the Heavens Or if you desire an other and yet as wonderful a system the Earth itself is turning round the Sun which is the center of the Universe with a swiftness that surpasses my imagination Methinks I see the motion of all these Globes the orderly march of these prodigious bodies they never disorder never hit never touch one another should but the least of them happen to start aside and to run against the Earth what must become of the Earth But on the contrary● all keep their respective stations remain in the order prescrib'd to them follow the tracts which are laid before them And this at least with respect to us is done with so little noise that the vulgar knows not that there are such Bodies What a strange and wonderful effect of chance Could intelligence itself have done any thing beyond this One only thing I cannot understand Lucilius These vast bodies are so exact and so constant in thei● courses in their revolutions and their relations to each other that a little Animal being confin'd in a corner of that wide space which is call'd the world having made their observations on them has contriv'd an exact and an infallible method of foretelling in what degree of their respective Courses every one of these Stars will be two thousand four thousand nay twenty thousand years hence Here lyes my scruple Lucilius If it be by chance that they observe such constant rules what is order and what are rules Nay I 'll ask you what is chance is it a Body is it a Spirit is it a Being which you distinguish from all other Beings which has a particular existence or which resides in any place Or rather is it not a mode or a fashion of Being When a Bowl runs against a Stone we are apt to say it is a chance but is it any thing more than the accidental hitting of these bodies one against the other If by this chance or this hitting the Bowl it changes its strait course into an oblique one if its direct motion becomes more contracted if ceasing from rowling on its Axis i● winds and whirls like a top shall I from thence infer that motion in general proceeds in this Bowl from the same chance Shall I not rather suspect that the Bowl owe it to itself or to the impulse of the arm that threw it Or because the circular motions of the wheels of a Clock are limited the one by the other in their degrees of swiftness shall I be less curious in examining what may be the cause of all these motions Whether it lyes in the wheels themselves or is derived from the moving faculty of a weight that gives 'em the swing But neither these Wheels nor this Bowl could produce this motion in themselves And it does not lye in their own nature if they can be depriv'd of it without changing this nature It is therefor● likely that they are mov'd some other way and through a foreign power And as for the Coelestial Bodies if they should be depriv'd of their motion should therefore their nature be alter'd Should they cease from being bodies I can't believe they should Yet they move and since they move not of themselves nor by their own nature one would examine Lucilius whether there is not some principle without 'em that causes this motion Whatever you find it I call it God Shou'd we suppose these great bodies to be without motion indeed I could not ask who moves ' em But I should still be allow'd to inquire who made them as I may examine who made these Wheels or this Bowl And though each of these Bodies was suppo●'d to be but a heap of Atomes which have accidentally knit themselves together through the figure and conformity of their parts I should take one of those Atomes and should say who created this Atome is it Matter is it a Spirit had it any Idea of itself before it made itself If so then it existed a minute before it did exist It was and it was not at the same time And if it be the Author of its own being and of its manner of being why made it itself a Body rather than a Spirit Or else had this Atome no beginning Is it Eternal Is it Infinite Will you make a God of this Atome * The mite has eyes and turns away if it meets with such objects as may be hurtful to it place it on any thing that is black for the help of your observation and if while it is walking you lay but the least bit of Straw in its way you 'll see

Settlement but is very uncertain as to the Wives disposition how she has been bred and in what manner she will live with him they depend upon the frail agreement between the Mother-in-law and the Daughter-in-law and he is often deceived in it the first year of his Marriage * A Father-in-law loves his Daughter-in-law a Mother-in-law her Son-in-law so both are reciprocal * A Cruel Step-mother hates her Husbands Children and the more she loves her Husband the more she hates them * Step-mothers have made whole Towns and Villages desert and peopled the Country of Beggars Vagabonds Servants and Slaves more than Poverty * G. and H. are Neighbours their Lands are contiguous they inhabit a desart and solitary Country far from Towns or Commerce Methinks Solitude and the love Men have for Society should force 'em to a mutual correspondence But they are perpetually at variance and 't is hard to express the trifle that causes the difference which renders 'em implacable and continues their hatred in their descendants Relations nor even Brothers never differ'd about a thing of less moment Suppose there were but two men on the whole Earth who possest it entirely to themselves and parted it between them I am perswaded there would be quickly some cause of rupture created tho it were only for the limits of their Divisions * 'T is commonly easier to make peace amongst other men than to keep it ourselves * I am now approaching a little Town I am already on an ascent where I discover it seated in a pleasant Valley 't is shaded by Woods and Hills which cover it from cold Blasts and Northern Winds I see it in so fair a day that I view its Tower Steeple and Turrets it seems on the declension of a Hill and has a fine River running through it into lovely Meadows I am so pleas'd with the prospect that I burst forth into this Exclamation How pleasant must it be to live under so clear a Sky in so delicious an Abode I descend into the Town and have not lain there above two or three nights associating with the Inhabitants before I long to get out of it * There is a certain thing which never was seen under the Heavens and in all likelihood never will be 'T is a little City without Faction and Parties where the Families are united The Relations see one another with confidence Where a Marriage does not raise a Civil War Where there are not every moment Disputes and Quarrels about Precedency Where Lying Scolding Prating and Gossiping are banisht Where the Mayor and the Sheriffs the Assessors and the People have a good Understanding Where the Bishop lives well with the Dean the Dean with the Cannons The Cannons with the Parsons and the Parsons with their Clerks * Countrymen and Fools are apt to be angry and fancy you despise 'em if you are the least merry at their imperfections You must never venture the most innocent and in offensive Rai●lery or Pleasantry unless it be amongst polite Men and Men of Wit * Merit discerns and finds it self out reciprocally he that would be esteem'd must converse with persons who are themselves esteemable * He who thinks he is by his dignity above a Jest and will not take a Repartee ought not to give one * We are not angry at being rallied for some little defects and we should make choice of faults of the same kind when we rally others * 'T is the Blockheads priviledge to laugh at a Man of Wit but he is in the World what the Fool is at Court of no consequence * Buffoonry is an Indigence of Wit * You believe a Man your Bubble when he feigns himself to be so who then is the greatest Bubble He or You * Observ● those People who never commend any o●e are always railing are con●ent with no body and you will find them persons with whom no body is content * The P●oud and Disdainful will find the contrary of what they expect if by their Carriage they look for Esteem * The pleasure of Society amongst Friends is cultivated by a likeness of Inclinations as to Manners and a difference in Opinion as to Sciences the one confirms and humours us in our sentiments the o●h●r exercises and instructs us by disputation * Two persons will not be friends a long time if they can●t forgive each other little failings * How many fine unprofitable reasons are laid before one in great Adversity to put him into a state of Tranquility Outward things which we call Events are sometimes too strong for Reason o● Nature Eat Drink don't kill your self with Melancholy are insignificant admonitions which are ●mpossible to be put in practice when a Man is master'd by his Sorrows Are you a ●●se man to put your self to such trouble Is it not to say Are you not a Fool to be unfortunate * There are some necessary coun●els which are frequently hurtful to those w●o give them● and unprofitable to the persons they are addrest to You observe perhaps defects in Manners which are either not confest or esteem'd as Vertues You blot out a passage in an Author's Writings which pleases him most where he thought he surpast himself and by this means you lose the confide●ce of your friends without maki●g them better or more ingenious * Not long since certain persons of both Sexes leagued themselves together for Conversation and Witty Commerce They left talking intelligibly to the vulgar a thing said amongst them with a little clearness d●ew after it another more obscure● which they enricht with bad Enigma'● and cr●wn'd with long Applauses What they call'd delicacy thought turn and fine expression was a faculty they had to be unintelligible to others and themselves Good sense judgment memory or the least capacity was not necessary to furnish out their discourse some wit was proper tho not the best sort but that which is false where fancy has too great a share * I know Theobaldus you are old but would you have me think you decline That you are no longer a Wit or a Lover or as bad a Critick in all kind of Writings● as you are an Author That you have nothing new easy natural and delicate in your Conversation No Sir your free and arrogant Mien perswade and assure me of the contrary You are the ●ame to day as you were fifty years ago and perhaps better for if you are so furious and lively at this Age how could you be more brisk and airy in your Yo●●● You who at these years infatuate the 〈◊〉 ●●nd make 'em of your Party Wh● can prevail on 'em to swear on●● for y●u and upon your Credit that as of●en as you speak they presently cry out That'● delicate What did he say * We frequently talk hastily in Company through Vanity and Humour rarely with the necessary Caution Every one is desirous to reply before he has heard out the Question demanded of him he then follows his own Notions and

business to receive Visits to give out Orders and Commissions and at the same time to attend the Responses to chuse a Director and rely on him more than the Gospel itself to derive all his sanctity from the reputation of his Director to despise all those that he has a slender opinion of and scarce allow them to be in a state of Salvation to be fond of the word of God only from the mouth of his Director to prefer Mass of his celebration and the Sacraments from his hands before all others to make his spiritual Repast only Books of Devotion as if there were neither Gospels Epistles of the Apostles or Morals of the Fathers to read and talk a Jargon unknown to the first ages to be very exact to confess the sins of others and palliate his own to cry out of his sufferings and his patience to talk of his small progress in Gallantry as of a sin to be in a secret alliance with some persons against others to have no value for any but those of his own side and cabal and to suspect even Virtue herself to taste and relish prosperity and favour to wish no body well but himself never to assist merit to make piety subservient to his Ambition to go to heaven by the way of Fortune and Dignity this is now adays the greatest effort of Devotion * An Hyprocrite is one that will be an Atheist under a Ring that is so Hypocrites esteem nothing a crime but incontinence or to speak more exactly the reputation and appearance of it If Pherecides passes for one that is cured of his fondness for women and Pherenice for a chaste wife ' t●s enough for then let them play a destructive game to ruin their credit or to rejoice at the misfortunes of another and to advantage themselves by it to idolize the great and contemn the meaner sort to be intoxicated with their own merit to be dried up with envy to lye to calumniate to cabal to blacken this is their way would you that they should usurp a place amongst good men who with all their vices avoid pride and injustice * When a Courtier becomes humble is cured of pride and ambition when he ceases to raise his Fortune on the ruin of his Companions when he shall be just indulgent to his Vassals and pay his Creditors when he shall be neither Knave nor Calumniator when he shall leave off luxurious Feasting and unlawful Love when he shall pray otherwise than with his Lips and out of his Prince's presence when he shall not be morose and difficult of access to others when he shall have no austerity in his countenance or sowreness in his mein when he shall be no more negligent and contemplative when by his scrupulous application to business he shall render different affairs very compatible when he shall harass himself and be willing to bend his mind to vast cares and laborious imployments to those of the greatest consquence for the good of the state and people when his Character shall make me afraid to mention him in this place and his modesty prevent it If I do not name him yet when I think of him I shall say he is Religious or rather that he is a man given to the age for a model of sincere virtue and for the detection of the Hypocrite * Onuphrius has nothing for his Bed but a Coverlet of grey Serge but he lies upon Cotton and Down he is plainly but decently habited I would say he wears a slight Stuff in the Summer and a very good Cloath in the Winter he wears extraordinary fine Shirts but takes a great deal of care to hide them he does not brag of his course Garment his strict Discipline on the contrary he passes for what he is an Hypocrite and would pass for what he is not in the least a devout man 'T is true he makes us in a sort believe without telling us that he wears a course Under-garment and that he disciplines himself severely he has several Books that are indifferently disperst about his Chamber this is the Spiritual Combat that the Interiour Christian the other the Holy Year his other Books are under Lock and Key if he is going along the Streets and observes a man to whom 't is necessary he should seem devout down-cast Eyes a slow and modest Gate a devout Air are familiar to him he plays his part if he enters a Church he observes whose eyes are upon him and according to the discovery he makes he falls upon his knees and goes to prayer or else never thinks of kneeling or praying if he sees a good man or a man of anthority approach that ob●serves him he not only prays but meditates too le ts drop tears and sighs but this good man is hardly gone but he is silent and can scarce be perceiv'd to breathe another time he goes to an holy place rushes thro the croud and chooses a place for his Devotion where all the world may see how he humbles himself if he perceives any Courtiers who laugh and talk in the Chapel louder than in the Anti-chamber he makes a greater noise than they on purpose to silence them and returns to his meditation which is always the comparison he makes between those persons and himself in which he finds his account of all things he avoids an empty Church where he may hear two Masses one after another a Sermon and Vespers only between God and himself without any other witness he loves that Parish and frequents the Churches where there is the greatest concourse for there he does not lose his labour he is observ●d by the Congregation he chooses two or three days to fast in without any occasion towards the end of the Winter he has a Cough his Stomach is out of order he has the Vapours and a Fever he begs and presses with all the earnestness in the world to break Lent as soon as it is begun and it is granted him in complaisance If Onuphrius is named Abitrator amongst Relations or in a Family ●a●se he is for the strongest I would say the richest side and cannot be perswaded that he that has a plentiful Estate can ever be to blame If he finds a rich man which he can impose upon and make his advantage of he is his Parasite he never cajoles his Wife nor makes the least advances that way but rather flies her and will leave her a part of his Garment to be gone unless he is as sure of her as himself he never attempts to seduce or debauch her by his hypocritical Jargon He never talks because it is customary so to do but out of design which is always advantageous to him and is always silent where his discourse would render him very ridiculous He knows where to find Ladies more● sociable and agreeable than his Friends Wife which he very seldom absents himself from unless it be to give occasion to a publick report that he retires from

it alter its course immediately And can you think that the Cristalline humour t●e retina and the optick nerve all which convey sight to this little animal are the product of chance One may observe in a drop of Water that a little Pepper which has been steep'd in it has excited the thirst of an infinite number of small Animals whose figure may be perceiv'd with the help of a Magnifying-glass and who are moving to and fro with an incredible swiftness like so many Monsters in the wide Ocean Each of these small Animals is a thousand times less than a Mite and yet is a body that lives which receives nourishment which grows which must not only have Muscles but such Vessels also as are equivalent to Veins Nerves and Arteries and a Brain to make a distribution of its Animal Spirits A bit of any thing that is mouldy tho it be no bigger than a grain of Sand appears thro a Microscope like a heap of many Plants of which some are plainly seen to bear Flowers and other Fruits some have buds only and others are wither'd How extreamly small must be the Roots and Fibers through which these little plants receive their nourishment And if one considers that these plants bear their own Seed as well as Oaks or Pines or that these small Animals are multiply'd by generation as well as Elephants and Whales whether will not such observations lead one Who could work all these things which are so fine so exceeding small that no eye can perceive 'em and that they ●s well as the Heavens border upon infinity it self tho in the other extream Would not one think it was the same Being who made and who moves with so much ease the Heavens and the Stars those vast Bodies which are so wonderful in their bigness their elevation the swiftness and the prodigious extent of their Courses * Man enjoys the Sun the Stars the Heavens and their influences as much as he does the Air he breathes and the Earth on which he treads and by which he is supported This is Matter of Fact and if besides the fact I were to prove the probability of the thing and that it is fitting he should do so I might easily make it out since the Heavens and all that is contain'd in them are not to be compar'd in nobleness and dignity with one of the meanest men on Earth And since there can be no other porportion betwixt them than what there is betwixt Matter which is destitute of Sentiment and is only an extent according to three dimensions and a spiritual a reasonable or an intelligent Being And if any one says that all these things might have serv'd for the preservation of Man I answer that less could not have serv'd for the Glory of God and for the magnifying of his power his goodness and his magnificence since let his works be never so great and wonderful they might still have been infinitely greater The whole universe if it be made for man is in a literal sense the least thing that God has done for man the proof of which may be drawn from Religion Man is therefore neither presumptuous nor vain when submitting to the evidence of Truth he owns the advantages he has receiv'd and might be tax'd with blindness and stupidity did he refuse to yield himself convinc'd thro the multitude of proofs which Religion lays before him to shew him the greatness of his prerogatives the certainty of his refuge the reasonableness of his hopes and to teach him what he is and what he may be Ay but the Moon is inhabited at least we don't know but it may What and to how little purpose is it you talk of the Moon Lucilius If you own there is a God nothing indeed is impossible But do you design to ask whether it is on us alone that God has bestow'd such great blessings Whe●her there are not other Men or other Creatures in the Moon whom also he has mad● the objects of his Bounty To so vain a curiosity to so frivolous a question let me answer Lucilius that the Earth is inhabited we are the Inhabitants of it and we know that we are so we have proofs demonstrations and convictions for all that we are to believe of God and of our selves Let the Nations who inhabit the Celestial Globes whatever those Nations are be mindful of their own concerns They have their cares and we have ours You have observ'd the Moon Lucilius you have found its spots its deeps its ruggedness its elevation its extent its course and its eclipses no Astronomer has yet done more Now contrive some new and more exact Instruments observe it again and see whether it is inhabited what are its Inhabitants whether they are like men or whether they are really men let me look after you and let us both be convinc'd that there are men who inhabit ●he Moon and then Lucilius we 'll consider whether those men are Christians or no and whether God has made 'em to share his favours with us * Many millions of years nay many thousand millions of years in a word as many as can be comprehended within the limits of time are but an instant being compar'd with the duration of God who is Eternal The spaces of the whole universe are but a point of an Atome being compar'd with his Immensity If it be so as I affirm it is for what proportion can there be between what is finite and what is infinite I ask what is a man's life or the extent of a grain of Sand which is call●d the Earth nay of a small part of that Earth which man inhabits and enjoys The wicked are prosperous while they live Yes some of them are I own Virtue is opprest and Vice remains unpunish'd It happens so sometimes 't is true This is then an injustice No not at all You should have prov'd to draw this conclusion the wicked absolutely happy the virtuous absolutely depriv'd of happiness and vice absolutely and always remaining unpunish'd That short time in which the good are opprest and the wicked are prosperous should at least have a duration What we call prosperity and good fortune should be something more than a false appearance or a vain shadow which vanishes away This Atome the Earth in which Virtue and Vice so seldom meet with their deserts should be the only stage on which they are to receive their pu●ishments or their rewards I can't infer more clearly from my thinking that I am a Spirit than I conclude from what I do or do not according as I please that I am free Now freedom is the power of choosing or of taking a voluntary determination towards good or evil so that the doing of good or evil is what is call'd Virtue or Vice● For Vice to remain absolutely unpunish'd would be an injustice 't is true For Vice to remain unpunish'd on Earth is a mystery only yet let us with the Atheist suppose that an injustice