Of Superstition by Francis Bacon:
Plutarch: Greek philosopher who lived around 46 – 120 CE under the rule of the Roman Empire. He was one of two priests of Apollo at Delphi. He wrote PARALLEL LIVES, comparing the lives of two exemplary men, one Greek, one Roman, and revealing the character of each as a lesson to the living.
Saturn: the Roman name for the Greek titan Chronos, who was one of the gods before the arrival of the more commonly known Greek gods such as Zeus. Zeus was the son of Chronos, or Saturn, who tricked his father from devouring him and his other siblings as they were being born from Chronos’s head. Chronos existed before there was time. He was the creator of time and his name forms the root of many of our English words which deal with time or sequence of events: chronological, chronicle.
Intransitive Verbs: Action verbs that do not take a direct object; they may be followed by a preposition.
Example: During the midday, the cats lie under our cars to escape the heat.
Elizabeth had a headache so she had to lie down.
Transitive verb:
An action verb which is followed by a direct object (noun or pronoun).
Please pass the paper to me.
Paper is the direct object of the action verb pass.
Linking Verbs:
Linking verb: a “to be” verb. The "to be verbs: are: is, are, were, was, been, have been.
Other linking verbs deal with change: appear, become, grow, remain, stay, taste.
Other linking verbs deal with the senses: feel, look, seem, smell, taste.
A linking verb is used to link a nominative pronoun or a subject with its complement or predicate nominative.
It is me.
Nope! It is I!
These are them? Nope! These are they!
The nominative predicate must follow a linking verb.
Nominative pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
These pronouns go before the verb (I drive a car).
These pronouns also follow the linking verb as predicate nominatives.
(The director of the play is I!)
I drive the car to work. (Nominative pronoun as subject.)
The winner of the contest is he. (Nominative pronoun as predicate nominative.)
Nominative: it is a noun and when it appears in the predicate it is called a predicate noun. A predicate pronoun acts like a complement; it completes the meaning of the subject.
Veronica is a student in Ms. Bridges’ third period class.
Veronica is the subject.
Is (a "to be" verb and a linking verb)
Student is the predicate nominative
The linking verb "is" links the subject (Veronica) to the nominative predicate, student; thus completing the meaning of the sentence.
Back to Transitive/Intransitives:
Transitive:
Transitive verbs take a direct object:
The student passed the paper to the front.
Passed is a transitive verb because it is followed by a direct object (noun). The paper is the thing receiving the action of the verb “passed”.
Compare the transitive with the intransitive:
The drunk man passed out.
Passed out is intransitive because it does not take a direct object; it is followed by a preposition (out).
An intransitive verb will often be followed by a preposition.
A transitive verb will be followed by a direct object (noun or pronoun)
Ravisheth: to destroyeth
In Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the epicycle was a geometric model used to explain the variations in speed and direction of the moon, sun and planets.
Spheres: astronomers believed that the planets traveled in crystal spheres. Sphere is also a round object.
Astronomers would make up reasons to explain planets suddenly traveling retrograde (going backwards).
Orb: a round object; can be a planet or an eyeball (Edgar Allen Poe used the word orb to describe the eyeball).
Primum mobile: first movable object
Trent (the name of the place); 1545 (was the date) Trent was a council of Catholic priests who met in order to answer doctrinal questions concerning original sin in rebuttal to the heresies raised by the Protestants.
Heresy: an unorthodox idea which challenges established doctrine.
Schoolmen: lecturers in the church schools
Pharisaical: of the Pharisees; loud, censorious, hypocritical self righteousness
Pharisees: a powerful socio-political group of Jewish rabbis and scholars in early Judaism.
Lucre: money; from the Latin for money
The causes of superstition are:
pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies;
(sensual means relating to the senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell)
The Catholic Church offers many sensual pleasure during its mass: the beautiful music (pleasant to the ears, ) beautiful paintings, sculptures and architecture (pleasant to the eyes), incense (pleasant to the nose), etc.
excess of outward and pharisaical holiness;
Censorious, hypocritical indignation
overgreat reverence of traditions, which cannot but load the Church;
(We've always done it this way - something bad will happen if we change it!)
the strategems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre;
(strategems=strategies, plotting, scheming)
Lucre: money; from the Latin for money; this is where we get the word "lucrative".
the favoring too much of good intentions, which openeth the gate to conceits and novelties;
Novelties: fads; something which is in favor for a brief period of time and then quickly discarded; like "Goths".
the taking an aim at divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations;
Myths which are used to explain the unknown.
and lastly, barbarous times, especially joined with calamities and disasters.
Barbarous time: wars, battles, violence,
Disasters: natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, etc.
Semi colons can also be used to set off long lists of items.
Ad hominum: an attack on the person rather than a reasoned rebuttal to the person's argument.
Notice that "Of Superstition" is one long paragraph. Unless you are reading James Joyce or William Faulkner, most writings in the 20th and 21st Centuries have much shorter paragraphs.
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