Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4) : $b Selected from the works of Feyjoo, and translated from the SpanishFeijoo, Benito Jerónimo
Philosophy
Essays, or discourses, vol. 2 (of 4) : $b Selected from the works of Feyjoo, and translated from the Spanish
Feijoo, Benito Jerónimo
Spanish essays -- Translations into English
CLX. In this situation, what can the most resolute woman do? How can
she resist two impulses, directed to the same point, one that impels,
and the other which attracts her? If heaven does not stretch forth a
powerful and a friendly hand to support her, her fall is inevitable.
And if she does fall, who can deny that her own husband forced her over
the precipice? If he had not treated her with indignity and abusive
railing, the flattery of the lover would have been of no avail. It was
his ill-treatment which occasioned her downfall. All this mischief,
most frequently proceeds from the mean opinion, which married men are
apt to entertain of the other sex. Let them renounce these erroneous
maxims, and the consequence will be, that their wives will become more
faithful and constant. Let them cherish and esteem them, for God has
commanded they should love them; and I can’t understand, how love and
contempt, with respect to the same object, can be entertained, and
accommodate themselves together in one and the same heart.
ON
CHURCH MUSIC.
SECT. I.
I. In ancient times, if we believe Plutarch, music was used only in
temples, and that afterwards it passed to theatres. Formerly, it
served as an ornament to divine worship; afterwards, it was used to
stimulate vice. Heretofore, the melody of sacred hymns only were heard;
afterwards, we began to listen to profane songs. Music originally,
was used as an obsequies to the Deities, it was afterwards applied to
inflame the passions. In old times, it was dedicated to Apollo, but it
seems as if afterwards, Apollo had divided the protection of this art
with Venus; and as if to poison the soul, and paint on the theatres
the charms of vice, the finest colourings of rhetoric, joined to the
harmony of poetic numbers, were not sufficient, they, to render these
charms more attracting, and make the venom more active, confectioned
and compounded rhetoric, poetry, and music together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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