2 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2019
    1. t much the poverty and narrowness of their minds, have taught them perhaps to rcpcut their Catechism and a few good Sentences, to read a Chapter and .my their Prayers, tho perhaps with as Jillie Understanding as a Par­rot, and fancied that this was Chunn enough to se­cure them against the temptations of the present world and to waft them lo a better: and

      This seems to expand upon an earlier annotation that asked whether rhetoric was innate or had to be taught. Here, Astell seems to indicate the "parroting" is innate, but complex rhetoric must be taught.

    1. Our good or evil depending not on their decrees, we may safely be ignorant of their notions: and therefore in the reading of them, if they do not use their words with a due clearness and per-spicuity, we may Jay them aside, and without any injury done them, resolve thus with ourselves.

      Hmm. I'm thinking back to my rant about language clarity. Is Locke trying to say that we shouldn't bother with trying to analyze the "true meaning" of an old complex text because our interpretation will be made under different linguistic conditions and therefore will have inherent inaccuracies? So we just shouldn't bother?