April 1, 1748

Nosce teipsum1

There is not in the World any Advice more excellent in its Nature, more usefull & benificial to us, nor any at the same time less attended to & worse practis'd than that off Studying & attaining the Knowledge of our Selves. This is in Truth the Foundation upon wch. all Wisdom is built, the Direct & high road to all Happiness. And Sure no Folly can be compar'd to that wch. draws off mens attention & employs their diligence & pains in the search off other Objects, & fixes them every where & any where rather than upon themselves. For wn. all is done the true Learning is att home And the proper Science & Subject for man contemplation, is man himself.

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Were this advice thus generally Neglected, the Omission were more excusable; but the matter is quite otherwise. For God, Nature, Wise men & the World, all conspire to inculcate it, And both by the instructions they give & the Examples they Sett loudly call upon man to make himself the Employment of his thoughts & the Objects of his Studies. God all know is perpetually taken up in the Contemplation of himself, & the Unspeakable Happiness as well as constant buisness of that vast Eternity is the Veiwing & considering & knowing his own infinite perfection.

The World is so contrivd., as to have all its Eyes turn'd inward, & the Severall parts of this Universe are ever beholding the beauties & convenienceis of themselves or of one another. For the Heavens, Earth & Sea, & air may seem so many independant Bodies yet they are in reality but so many distinct parts of one Body & the mutuall regards of these to each other are but the severall Prospects wch. one vast united whole takes of it Self. But why should we go abroad for Arguments who have such Convincines ones att home? For Man hath this Engagement to know & Study himself, wch. such a Degree as no other partt of the World hath, That to him to think. This is the peculiar character, the very Essence of man, And nothing is so near, nothing presents it self so immediately to his Thought, as Himself. So that Nature has here plainly taught our Dutys, And Shew'd that this is the Work He cuts out for man. And Can there by Any more naturall, any that hath a greater right to this contemplation in this Lower System? Is there any here more nearly related, or that more highly concerns us to be acquainted with? Certainly to ramble abrod and fix on foreign matters, & at the samtime quite Overlook & forgett one self is the Injustice & the most unnaturall Neglect that can be. No doubt every Mans true buisness is looking to himself & seing how matters go att home. These are our Trade & our Concern, the rest but Entertainment & Diversion. And yet thou O Vain man who will be grasping att the Universe, who pretended to knowledge unlimited & takest upon thee to control & judge every thing art perfectly ignorant of thy Self & nott at any Pains to be otherwise.

Thus while in short we Labour to be the most accomplished part of the Creation, we are indeed the most ignorant & the only Foolls in the whole World. The most empty & wanting the most impotent & most wretched & yet in despite of all these Mortifications the most proud & Concieted.

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If we consider self Knowledge in the Severall tendencies of it it will still appear more amiable.

1 And first. The Knowledge of Mans Self is a Step to the Knowledge of God. The best & shortest way we can possibly take of raising our mind up to Heaven. It must needs be so since there is no other thing capable of being known by us, wch. carries such lively strokes & express Images & characters, such clear & convincing Testimonies of God as man Does. David says: Thou hast fashioned & clos'd me in, & laid thy hand upon me: therefore is thy Knowledge become wonderfull:2 That is the Knowledge of these wch. results from the Contemplation of my self.

2 An other happy tendency is That it disposes a man to be wise. Would a man make it his business to lead the most regular compos'd & pleasant Life that can be we need go no farther to fetch instructions for it than our own selfes. Had we but Diligence & application as we have capacity & oppertunity to learn, every Man would be able to teach himself more & better than all the books in the World, & all his poring there can ever heal him. He that shall remmember, and critically observe the extravagent Sallies of his Anger, To What furies & Frenzies this raging Fever of the mind hath formerly transported him will more distinctly See the monstrous Deformity of this Passion & conceive a juster abhorence against it Than all the fine things that Aristotle, Plato, & even Seneca, have saidd can work him up to.

And the Same may be expected in proportion from a reflection on all the other vicious excesses or violent concussion of the mind, as if we reflect upon every false Conclusion we have made or erroneous Judgemt. wch. we have pass'd, or upon the Slips & miscarrages of an Unfaithfull Memory, or upon any Error we have run into for want of forsight, & allmost ins in other Difficultis wch. by reflection we may find our selves overwhelm'd in. I say that by reflecting upon these & the severall circumstances we may more easily know how to manage our ways for time to come in orde to escape these things than if wn. once done they should never enter our Thought again till the same difficulty overwhelm'd. By persuing this method carfully in a little time all the pevishness of Temper & morosseness of Disposition, all hasty arrogance & proud possitiveness, all rash resentments & malicious revenges & in short all behaving to our fellow mortalls as we would nott they should behave to us would be intirely Dissipated; & on the other hand Sweettness of Temper Brotherly Kindness, Charity, Freindships, Long suffer & Patience; Humanity con­35descention Religion & others Strict morall Virtue would be the happy Consequante of so fruitfull an Antecedant. It would Strike a great Stroke to the reducing man to his Primitive happiness all war would cease & a universell Peace extenderd their Olive Branch all in this Lower SystemWorld. And Now my Brethren are nott these things all to be Desired more than Rubies, & the Knowledge more than fine Gold?3 Does not the very method of obtaining these things appear delectable in yr. Eyes? And shall we nott persue it then? Shall we live so ignorant while the very seed of Knowledge lies so near? Shall we not daily be making incursions into this Small yet Capacious this bounded yet boundless Soul of ours to bring news to the Hearts the regall Palace of all tht. Inner World, how the various Ranks and Orders of Officers disspensed Some over Larger & some over Smaller trust how these behave in & live up to their various Commissions with wch. they are severally intrusted & as we find them faithfull or unfaithfull so trust or distrust them for the future? Shall we nott be calling frequently to an account these servents to whom talents are intrusted to see if they have or are in a likely way to gain proportionably to stock first granted them? Would nott this be an encoraging their servants to lay them selves out & exerts themselves to the utmost to improve the price put into their hands for the sake of gaining that Expl wch. might be put upon their faithfullness? Certainly this would have a happy tendancy as has been above shewn & certainly this is the only way to cure our selves for we must know our Disease before any medicine can be apply'd. But alas our great misery is we are contented with ourselves & think all is well. For if we did but Know our failings we should be in a far happier condition than one who knows them nott. He that has but one Eye is as a king among those that have none att all. Wherefore we Ought to lay ourselves out in obtaining this self Knowledge. And now tho' it must be Acknowledged that the Knowledge of ones self is a thing difficult to be attain'd by reason of great depravity since the Fall yet 'tis nott a thing impossible nor yet impractible. A Person that setts about this work needs be exceeding Cautious of being imposs'ed upon. We are more apt to believe a discovery that Favours us than One that Disscovers the Nautiness of our heart to us. If we would come to the truth & certainty of our Selfes we must nott sett our selves up nor engage a high conciet of performances if perhaps we shall find our selves commendable for one action; we must know our selves in private before we pretend to set our up selves in Public. We can Know nothing to profit of all the outward 36appendages of a Man his Employments, his preferments, Honour, Riches, Birth, good acceptanc & gen'rall applause of great & common Men.. nor yet by his Deportment wn. abroad; for there the man plays the check stands upon his Guard & every motion is in constant & Deserve. Fear & shame & a thousand other Passions put him upon playing the Part yo. then see Acted. To Know him throroughly yo. must follow him to his tireing room & in his every day Garb, Alass! he is oftentimes quite an other thing att home from what he appears abroad, one sort of man to strangers & an other to his servants. Wn. he goes out of his house he dresses for his stage that can lay no stress upon wt. yo. see then, nor will yo. ever know any thing of him till you make a difference betwen the person of the Comedian that plays & the Person represented. And do we nott too often find this our Case? The Knowledge of man is not to be found out by Any of these ways no but we must watch all our Words & Actions & See from wt. Bottom they Spring how they grow up with what design they are utter'd. We must examine our very inmost Thought ransack the most confined corners of our hearts. We must be ever Severe upon those thing wch. we think be virtuous for vice too often lurke under the mark of Piety. We must nott make a search once att a Sett time but it must be our constant buisness for if we do so soon ever our Backs are turn those serpents that were as it were benum'd with the perfection will wax warm & persue their buisness as Eager as or ever. But if we are always on the Scout after them we shall either keep them perpetually confin'd or suppress the first motion of them.

But wn. alls said & done Man has a 'heart deceitfull & above all things desparately Wicked. Compounded of such intricate mazes, windings, and turnings & false Bottoms too nice to be perciev'd by human Eye, & all the Garrisons are posses'd by such, Learned, Smooth Tongued, Eloquent, Decietfull, & desperate foes, that a man must be furnished with a Head fill'd with Wisdom, affections chain'd with adamant, an Heart of Polish'd Steel, a brain well skill'd with their Severall Scouts & rescouts & Lastly a Resolution to Dye or Conquer or in vain will he engage this Enemy

pr. Robertum Treat Paine discantat in Phenephilenca 1 mo. Aprilis 1748

MS. This is the first essay in a small notebook containing several others by RTP which were also presented to the Phinphilenici Club.

1.

Know thyself. Greek proverb from Delphi.

2.

Paraphrase of Psalms 119:73.

3.

Paraphrase of Proverbs 8:10–11.