Word: actions
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...though his promises are so favorable to a correct philosophical theory, his conclusions are by no means as satisfactory as the facts from which he obtains them. The inferences which he draws connect the mind so intimately with body, and make it so dependent upon the body for its action, that we cannot see how it could exist after or without it. The study of actions, as far as it tends to a better knowledge of the mind, is advantageous; but in some cases Mr. Bain seems to reduce the mind to those actions, or, rather, to consider mental phenomena...
Again, when he concludes that "the final classification of the motives is the classification of pleasurable and painful feeling," he misrepresents men in many of their actions. Not to value human nature too highly, we can at least lay claim to some better motives than these. We should be unwilling to believe that all actions are induced by the wish to obtain pleasure or to get rid of pain, and that a feeling of right or duty was never considered in men's actions. There is in every man's nature something which calls for higher springs of action...
...University, has resulted in the suspension of thirty-nine Freshmen and forty-two Sophomores, these students having proclaimed themselves in favor of "the time-honored college custom of hazing," and having requested to share the penalty of six men detected in the practice. So far from the scene of action as we are, it is difficult to decide the rights of the case; but, after noticing the bad logic in the cards which contain the defiance of the undergraduates, and the dignified reply of the Faculty to that defiance, we cannot but side with the latter body...
...imperfect English gives way to the rich Italian of the new comer; but the English was Shakspere's, while the name of the translator of "Amleto" is not preserved. To almost all, it is Hamlet in pantomime; and the labor of mentally connecting Shakspere's words with the action of the player can hardly fail to detract somewhat from the spectator's pleasure. But, pantomime and all, Salvini's Hamlet interests and pleases. Throughout it recalls Booth much more than Fechter, to our mind. In the scene where the ghost first appears, a great deal of the acting seems strangely...
Words, ever words! We know well enough how to talk. Do we know how to think? Do we know how to act? For it is only action that tells in this world; action alone accomplishes anything great. Has not the reign of talkers been fatal to us? The spirit of our modern times demands of us something other than the power to arrange syllables, or scan the verses of Plautus. The time is no more when we could devote ten years of our life to so sterile an occupation. What need have we to-day to make Mithridates speak barbarous...