重點摘要

Beginnings to1700

P119 Anne Bradstreet (first female writer in North America)

The Author to Her Book

P145 Edward Taylor (宗教)

Prologue

Lord, Can a Crumb of Dust(聖經典故: ash to ash, dust to dust) the Earth outweigh,     

Outmatch all mountains, nay the Crystal Sky?     

Embosom in't designs that shall Display     

And trace into the Boundless Deity?     

Yea, hand a Pen whose moisture doth guild o’re

Eternal Glory with a glorious glore.     

 

If it its Pen had of an Angels Quill(是德語,真神所以大寫),     

And sharpened on a Precious Stone ground tight,     

And dipped in Liquid Gold, and moved by Skill     

In Crystal leaves should golden Letters write,     

It would but blot and blur, yea, jag, and jar

Unless Thou mak'st the Pen and Scrivener.     

…

Thy Crumb of Dust breathes two words from its breast,     

That Thou wilt guide its pen to write aright     

To Prove Thou art, and that Thou art the best     

And show Thy Properties to shine most bright     

And then Thy Works will shine as flowers on Stems

Or as in Jewelry Shops, do gems. (整段使用Metaphor,考ID)          

P213-216 Jonathan Edwards

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

…

So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold ‘em up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out; and they have no interest in any mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the meer arbitrary will, and uncovenanted unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

…

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell: You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.

…

Puritanism

1. Original sin

2. Predestine

3. inherited guilty

P234-236 Benjamin Franklin (經商致富,外交官,科學實驗)

成功商人也幫助別人成功

Franklin had an uncanny instinct for success and knew that the new commercialism demanded that anyone in business assume a public persona that best served his and his clients’ interests, even if it masked one’s true self.

The Way to Wealth 勤勉致富

P248-249 From The Autobiography 農民曆

1. Felicity

2. Natural in old Man

3. Vanity

P301-304 Names of Virtues

1. Temperance 氣質

2. Silence

3. Order

4. Resolution

5. Frugality 節儉

6. Industry (Lose no time)

7. Sincerity

8. Justice

9. Moderation

10. Cleanliness

11. Tranquility 平穩

12. Chastity 正直/禁慾

13. Humility

每天都會檢核自己是否有做到

P305 日程表(詳細記錄自己一天的行程)

P323-324 Thomas Paine

Two of the most popular books: Crisis, Rights of Man and Age of Reason.

Rights of Man

The horrors of the French Revolution, however, brought home to Paine the fact that overthrow of monarchy寡頭政治 did not necessarily usher in light and order.

Age of Reason 被逐出教會

Paine’s attempt to define his beliefs was viewed as an attack on Christianity and, by extension, on conventional society.

P337-340 Thomas Jefferson

President of the United States, first secretary of states, minister to France, governor of Virginia, and congressman.

He wished to be remembered for only three things:

1. Drafting the Declaration of Independence

2. Writing and supporting the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

3. Founding the University of Virginia

On June 11, 1776, he was appointed to join Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston drafting a declaration of independence.

In 1784 he was appointed minister to France and served with Benjamin Franklin on the commission that signed the Treaty of Paris.

In 1809 he returned to Monticello and remained an agrarian aristocrat all his life with his children and his younger slaves, Sally Hemings.

As Dumas Malone puts it, he was a “homely aristocrat in manner of life and personal tastes; he distrusted all rulers and feared the rise of an industrial proletariat, but more than any of his eminent contemporaries, he trusted to common man, if measurably enlightened and kept in rural virtue.” 低調簡樸的生活。

Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the usual name of a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced the thirteen American colonies.

The thirteen colonies were: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The Federalist

The Federalist is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution.

三權分立 check balance

No man us allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment and, not improbably, corrupt his intergrity.