The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: cases is of no little weight. For example: A man may, by the
influence of an over-ruling planet, be disposed or inclined to
lust, rage, or avarice, and yet by the force of reason overcome
that bad influence; and this was the case of Socrates: But as the
great events of the world usually depend upon numbers of men, it
cannot be expected they should all unite to cross their
inclinations, from pursuing a general design, wherein they
unanimously agree. Besides the influence of the stars reaches to
many actions and events which are not any way in the power of
reason; as sickness, death, and what we commonly call accidents,
with many more, needless to repeat.
|