Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Up, still lying long in bed; then to the office, where sat very long. Then home to dinner, and so to the office again, mighty busy, and did to the joy of my soul dispatch much business, which do make my heart light, and will enable me to recover all the ground I have lost (if I have by my late minding my pleasures lost any) and assert myself. So home to supper, and then to read a little in Moore’s “Antidote against Atheisme,” a pretty book, and so to bed.
Temperature: 0°C / 32°F (Jan 1667 avg.)
The pretty book-
in which More gives his version of the Ontological Argument: “‘a Spirit, Eternal, Infinite in Essence and Goodness, Omniscient, Omnipotent, and it self necessarily Existent’
http://www.luc.edu/philosophy/LockeStudies/articles/rogers-infinity.htm
Seems More also belived in witches was a colaborator with our recently met Glanvill, author of the last theological work Pepys read.
“…and so to the office again, mighty busy…” And so— like all who emerge from the xmas/new year food and wine extravaganza into the cold, short light of January and work work work, Pepys has discovered, as many do, that getting down to the tasks at hand has its own pleasures. (Of course for those emerging in Australia, the seasonal light is different, but the rest is probably the same.)
Henry More and witches
The Third Book of the *Antidote against Atheism* (1653) contained “a favourite stratagem of More’s, the rehearsal of well-known or well-attested stories of witchcraft, snake-charming, raising of tempests by the power of words, and other “spiritual” phenomena as evidence for the existence of an immaterial realm. Throughout More builds up a picture of immaterial spirit as the only substance capable of spontaneous activity, and insists that inert matter is incapable of explaining all physical phenomena on its own.”
More would take on Hobbes’ *Leviathan* (1651) in Immortality of the Soul, So farre forth as it is demonstrable from the Knowledge of Nature and the Light of Reason (1659). http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/henry-more/
The Glanvill mention
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1666/11/24/#c289291
Hobbes’ *Leviathan* (1651)
This is just a note advising readers to click on “discussion group” below to be directed to the 1846 London diary of a 19-year-old Victorian clerk. It is being published daily online by the City of Westminster and started Jan. 1st. It takes place in London locales familiar to Pepys readers, covers such Pepysian concerns as the diarist’s clothing, his love life, public executions, and his extensive walking around to various destinations — e.g., on 11 Jan 1846 the diarist estimates that he walked 22 miles!
The Victorian diary to which L. K. van Marjenhoff referred.
http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/archives/victorian-clerk/intro/
Like Pepys, Nathaniel Bryceson carefully notes who gave him what, and what others still owe him. Orwell is equally scrupulous when it comes to his hens:
http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/
Many thanks for this tip; Bryceson’s entries are enlivened by colourful period illustrations.
Okay, how about Darwin’s Beagle Diary too? darwinbeagle.blogspot.com
Another clickable link: http://darwinbeagle.blogspot.com/
Thanks.