Evidence: | ' [Johnson said] "Hume, and other sceptical innovators, are vain men, and will gratify themselves at any expence. Truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to error. Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull. If I could have allowed myself to gratify my vanity at the expence of truth, what fame might I have acquired Every thing which Hume has advanced against Christianity had passed through my mind long before he wrote. Always remember this, that after a system is well settled upon positive evidence, a few partial objections ought not to shake it. The human mind is so limited, that it cannot take in all the parts of a subject, so that there may be objections raised against any thing. There are objections against a plenum, and objections against a vacuum; yet one of them must certainly be true."
I mentioned Hume's argument against the belief of miracles, that it is more probable that the witnesses to the truth of them are mistaken, or speak falsely, than that the miracles should be true. [Johnson then argues against this]'
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Century: | 1700-1799 | ||||||||||
Date: | Until: 21 Jul 1763 | ||||||||||
Country: | n/a | ||||||||||
Time: | n/a | ||||||||||
Place: | n/a | ||||||||||
Type of Experience (Reader): |
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Type of Experience (Listener): |
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Reader: | James Boswell |
Age | Adult (18-100+) |
Gender | Male |
Date of Birth | 29 Oct 1740 |
Socio-economic group: | Professional / academic / merchant / farmer |
Occupation: | writer and lawyer |
Religion: | n/a |
Country of origin: | Scotland |
Country of experience: | n/a |
Listeners present if any: (e.g. family, servants,
friends, workmates) |
n/a |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Author: | David Hume |
Title: | Enquiry concerning Human Understanding |
Genre: | Philosophy |
Form of Text: | Print: Book |
Publication details: | n/a |
Provenance: | unknown |
Record ID: | 20933 | |
Source - | ||
Author: | James Boswell | |
Editor: | R.W. Chapman | |
Title: | Life of Johnson | |
Place of Publication: | Oxford | |
Date of Publication: | 1980 | |
Vol: | n/a | |
Page: | 314 | |
Additional comments: | n/a |
Citation: | James Boswell, R.W. Chapman (ed.), Life of Johnson (Oxford, 1980), p. 314, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=20933, accessed: 06 June 2023 |
Originally published 1791. This is likely to be the text in question as it contains the section on miracles mentioned by Boswel. |
Reading Experience Database version 2.0. Page updated: 27th Apr 2016 3:15pm (GMT)