A10663:935
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the…A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the…
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the several dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edward Reynolds, late preacher to the honourable society of Lincoln's Inn: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the severall dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edvvard Reynoldes, late preacher to the honorable society of Lincoln's Inne: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.
London: printed by R. Hearne and John Norton for Robert Bostock, 1640
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
for if his Eyes were as clear ⟨p. 466⟩and well-disposed as a young mans, he would be able by his Natural Power, without Art, to receive the Species of small Letters. And next, there is an Imperfection and deficiency in the Letters; for if they had the same Magnitude and fitness in themselves, which they seem to have by Refraction through the Glass, the weakness of his power might haply have sufficient strength to receive them without those Helps. So that always the Uncertainty of Opinion is grounded on the Insufficiency of the Understanding to receive an Object, and on the Disproportion of the Object to the Nature of the Understanding.
for if his Eyes were as cleare ⟨p. 466⟩and well-dispos'd as a young mans, hee would be able by his Naturall Power, without Art, to receive the Species of small Letters. And next, there is an Imperfection and deficiencie in the Letters; for if they had the same Magnitude and fitnesse in themselves, which they seeme to have by Refraction through the Glasse, the weaknesse of his power might haply have sufficient strength to receive them without those Helps. So that alwayes the Uncertainty of Opinion is grounded on the Insufficiencie of the Vnderstanding to receive an Object, and on the Disproportion of the Object to the Nature of the Vnderstanding.
The next Cause of Opinion and Uncertainty in Assents, may be Acuteness and Subtlety of wit, when Men out of Ability, like *Carneades, to discourse probably on either side, and poising their Judgements between an equal weight of Arguments, are forced to suspend their Assents, and so either to continue unresolved and equally inclineable unto either part, or else, if to avoid Neutrality, they make choice of some thing to aver (and that is properly Opinion) yet it is rather an Inclination, than an Assertion, as being accompanied with fear, floating and Inconstancy.