Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One: The ‘Mental Exercises’: List of Members and Scribes’ Rota
- Members’ Agreement
- On Study
- On Honour
- On Argument
- On Imagination and Judgement
- Hope
- On General Character
- On the Pleasures and Uses of the Imagination
- On Politeness
- Agis
- The Charms of Sleep
- Friendship & Charity
- An Ode to the PASS
- Garreteer's Epistle
- A Mathematical Love Letter
- On seeing a Rose in the Possession of a Lady at the SMHPABNASL
- On Courage
- Irritus to the Manager
- Marriage is Honourable in All
- Friendship
- On Mind and the Duty of Improving It
- A word for Page 73
- On the Early Introduction of Females to Society
- Memoranda
- On prematurely Forming Opinion of Characters
- On the Death of the Princess Charlotte
- Affectation
- On Conscious Approbation
- The Origin of a Critic—A Fable
- Reflections on Death
- On Avarice
- On Tradesmen
- On Laws
- On the Changes of the mind
- On Marriage
- On Calumny
- Letter to the Secretary
- Enigma
- On Marriage
- Effeminacy & Luxury
- A Brother's Letter to Mr. Deeble
- Junius & Tullia
- A Ramble to Melincourt
- On Triflers
- 139th Psalm
- Infancy
- At a Village on the Dunchurch Road
- Part Two: Contexts: Faraday and Self–Education Faraday, from the Correspondence (1812–16)
- Faraday, from Observations on the Means of Obtaining Knowledge (1817)
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on the Inertia of the Mind’ (1818)
- Faraday's indexes to eighteenth-century periodicals
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on Mental Education’ (1854)
- The Improvement of the Mind: Isaac Watts, from The Improvement of the Mind (1741)
- Samuel Johnson, from The Rambler (1751)
- Thomas Williams, from The Moral Tendencies of Knowledge (1815)
- Isaac Taylor, from Self-Cultivation Recommended: Or, Hints to a Youth Leaving School (1817)
- From The Black Dwarf (1819)
- Mary Shelley, from Frankenstein (1818)
- Henry Brougham, from Practical Observations upon the Education of the People (1825)
- The Pleasures of the Imagination: Joseph Addison, from The Spectator (1712)
- Mark Akenside, from The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
- Index
Reflections on Death
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One: The ‘Mental Exercises’: List of Members and Scribes’ Rota
- Members’ Agreement
- On Study
- On Honour
- On Argument
- On Imagination and Judgement
- Hope
- On General Character
- On the Pleasures and Uses of the Imagination
- On Politeness
- Agis
- The Charms of Sleep
- Friendship & Charity
- An Ode to the PASS
- Garreteer's Epistle
- A Mathematical Love Letter
- On seeing a Rose in the Possession of a Lady at the SMHPABNASL
- On Courage
- Irritus to the Manager
- Marriage is Honourable in All
- Friendship
- On Mind and the Duty of Improving It
- A word for Page 73
- On the Early Introduction of Females to Society
- Memoranda
- On prematurely Forming Opinion of Characters
- On the Death of the Princess Charlotte
- Affectation
- On Conscious Approbation
- The Origin of a Critic—A Fable
- Reflections on Death
- On Avarice
- On Tradesmen
- On Laws
- On the Changes of the mind
- On Marriage
- On Calumny
- Letter to the Secretary
- Enigma
- On Marriage
- Effeminacy & Luxury
- A Brother's Letter to Mr. Deeble
- Junius & Tullia
- A Ramble to Melincourt
- On Triflers
- 139th Psalm
- Infancy
- At a Village on the Dunchurch Road
- Part Two: Contexts: Faraday and Self–Education Faraday, from the Correspondence (1812–16)
- Faraday, from Observations on the Means of Obtaining Knowledge (1817)
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on the Inertia of the Mind’ (1818)
- Faraday's indexes to eighteenth-century periodicals
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on Mental Education’ (1854)
- The Improvement of the Mind: Isaac Watts, from The Improvement of the Mind (1741)
- Samuel Johnson, from The Rambler (1751)
- Thomas Williams, from The Moral Tendencies of Knowledge (1815)
- Isaac Taylor, from Self-Cultivation Recommended: Or, Hints to a Youth Leaving School (1817)
- From The Black Dwarf (1819)
- Mary Shelley, from Frankenstein (1818)
- Henry Brougham, from Practical Observations upon the Education of the People (1825)
- The Pleasures of the Imagination: Joseph Addison, from The Spectator (1712)
- Mark Akenside, from The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
- Index
Summary
The Man how wise who sick of gaudy scenes
Is led by choice to take his fav'rite walk
Beneath Death's gloomy silent Cypress shades
Unpierced by Vanity's fantastic ray
To read his Monuments—to weigh his dust
Visit his vaults and dwell among the tombs!
Young.
Where is the certainty of things
On what in life can we confide
The like attends the Sovereign Kings
The blooming Youth the lovely bride
Death looks around his victims fall
The high & low his summons ’tend
Both rich & poor obey his call
At his command all humbly bend
No earthly ties of dearest kind
Of youthful wife in brides attire
Or children loved in whom we find
All the fond heart can wish desire
Not Parents, Brothers, Sisters dear
Or those we love; Nor with tender sighs
Nor tears avail when Death draws nigh
Vain all their sorrow vain their cries
The unwelcome Messenger of fate
Walks o'er the land with rapid stride
Each memory quick his deeds relate
Our humbling fear we cannot hide
And when he calls us to our home
Calmly resigns us to the grave
We seek the rude wide world to roam
And yet a little longer crave
We fain would stay still longer yet
We cast a lingering look behind
As if t'were pain that world to quit
Where nought but care and grief we find
We dare not think our end is near
But with the constant stream of joy
Repel the sickening thought of Death
Drink pleasures cup without alloy
We swirl in the tempest roar
The wirlwind rushes o'er the main
Destruction waits us at the door
We ne'er can think time's on the wane
Till Death grim Death his arrows throw
Then Man collects his scattered thoughts
Truly forgives each injured foe
Feeling the stream of life cut short
He vainly thinks O could the times
In each successive year return
That he might take the sacred lines
And from that holy volume learn
That it contains the truth reveal'd
That hope of comfort to the heart
The bulwark strong the mighty shield
Able to quench the fiery dart
Which wicked Men in wrath have thrown
Against that holy sacred book
Who cruel brought to nought God's own
All his wise Counsel hath forsook.
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- Michael Faraday’s Mental ExercisesAn Artisan Essay-Circle in Regency London, pp. 132 - 134Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2008