ISBN: 9781458839909

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

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1805 Excerpt: ... been silent in these latter times on personal failings, surely satire has exerted her voice. Has Dryden or Pope spared manners or men? Has la Bruyere or Boileau, though the slaves Of arbitrary power, been more civil to sinners? Ay, but they attacked vices. Are follies then more sacred than vices? Are men less ashamed of being wicked than absurd? And are you really puzzled for the precise meaning of the word enthusiasm? Why, then, I will give it to you: but take this by the way, that the term was never applied by me to the leader of the methodists, but to his deluded disciples only; for the very essence of an enthusiast is, that though mistaken, he is sincere; though erroneous, he is in earnest. Enthusiasm in divinity is a kind of a religious phrensv, that mistakes the dictates of an inflamed imagination, the vapours of a troubled brain, for the operation of a divine possession, the effects of an immediate inspiration. Nor is it material that the enthusiast should think himself the person inspired; if his distempered judgment bestows the same attribute on any other individual., his delusion is equally the same; you have now my reason for distinguishing, in this place, the pastor from his flock. Enthusiasm in arts, is that effort of genius, that glow of fancy, that ethereal fire, which, at particular times, transports the artist beyond the limits of his usual execution, and produces a height of perfection, which, in his cooler hour, is astonishing even to himself. Nor is this Promethean heat, this divine fervour, confined to any particular subject; but is as discernible in a Hudibras as a Milton; in the comic pencil of a Hogarth, as the serious designs of a Raphael. With this last kind of enthusiasm the methodists have little to do; and indeed it very rarel... William Cook, Books, History, Memoirs Of Samuel Foote, Esq Volume 3; With A Collection Of His Genuine Bon-mots, Anecdotes, Opinions, &c., Mostly Original, Books>History Subtitle: With a Collection of His Genuine Bon-Mots, Anecdotes, Opinions,<