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Giphantia: Or a View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World.Tiphaigne de La Roche, Charles-François

Philosophy

Giphantia: Or a View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World.

Name: Giphantia: Or a View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World.
Author: Tiphaigne de La Roche, Charles-François

Tiphaigne de La Roche, Charles-François

French fiction -- 18th century; Utopias -- Fiction; Voyages, Imaginary -- Fiction

Folly: for Folly creates her own happiness, independently of any thing
cross or disagreeable about her.... You are all of you in the wrong.
Nothing general can be assigned that may be productive of the happiness
of particular persons. So many men, so many minds: this desires one kind
of happiness, and that another: one wishes for riches, another is
content with necessaries; this would love and be loved; that considers
the passions as the bane of the soul. Every one must study himself and
follow his own inclination.... Not at all; and you are as much mistaken
as the rest. In vain do I persuade myself that I should be happy, if I
possessed such a thing; the moment I have it, I find it insufficient,
and wish for another. We desire without end; and never enjoy. A certain
man was continually travelling about, and always on foot: quite tired
out, he said: If I had a horse I should be contented. He had a horse;
but the rain, the cold, the sun were still troublesome to him. A horse
(says he) is not sufficient; a chariot only can screen me from the
inclemencies of the air. His fortune increased, and a chariot was
bought. What followed? Exercise till then had kept our traveller in
health: as soon as that ceased, he grew infirm and gouty, and presently
after, it was not possible for him to travel either on foot or on
horseback or in a chariot.”




                                CHAP. X.
                            THE HODGE-PODGE.


I did not keep the rod any longer in one place; but moved it here and
there without distinction: and I heard only broken discourses, such as
these:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Giphantia: Or a View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World.

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