JB/015/160/001

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29

O no! Pleasure was not good enough for them, it was something better than
pleasure – as it could not be better without being different from it.

Now has their practice been what their preaching was, – it could
only have been said that they resembled the dog who, snapping at the shadow,
lost the substance. But theirs was no such folly. Pleasure was good for one
thing – summum bonum for another:- pleasure was to be enjoyed – summum
bonum to be talked about of. While they were all of them chattering about the
summum bonum each was amusing him with his . Socrates had
his Alcibiades, Plato his , Aristotle his & each his favorites
of either sex, without number whom no history has canonized.*
* Dependent as were the philosophers on public opinion they knew better than
to allow themselves to be governed as James the First was, by them.
Of the Such was the uncontrollable character of the passion of Socrates , – of Socrates
the most prudent of the whole – that he himself confessed he could
hardly trust himself to utter the common customary salutations to a young &
handsome person of his own sex.

It is curious as amusing to look at some of the dark activities contests among men called
antiquity sages & as it is instructive to trace their results. While a in later act times a set
of physical philosophers were hunting for the universal panacea – the moral
philosophers were running after their summum bonum. Excellent objects both –
& all agreed that both were in existence – both were findable, – but none agreed they
did not agree as to where they were to be found.

"The idea of good" – said one. There it is, – there, the summum
bonum is to be found. Catch the idea of good & you have caught the summum bonum.
And now having caught it – are you a bit the happier – are you, with your summum
bonum happier than the happiest of men who has not got it. But when you have
got it, what will you do with it: – you need not perplex yourself with the question – it is
time enough to know when you have managed to get it.

Two sets of philosophers took to this view of the matter.
The Platonists & the Academics: the Platonists including of course the
master manufacturer of nonsense, from whom his followers took their nonsense
& their names.

Nonsense is very like an eel, when you think you have it
fast, it slips through your fingers, – & in comes another lot of nonsense in the
stead of it: – for after giving the summum bonum of these philosophers
the idea of good as if this were not unintelligible enough, comes in the
same breath – in the same sentence & in the very next words, in comes
the compound matter with a sive – sive visione et fructione Dei i.e. the
vision & fruition – the seeing & enjoying of God.

Identifier: | JB/015/160/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	160	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f29
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5376
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