ABSTRACT
Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. That it is not sufficient for this knowledge to consider Man in the Abstract: Books will not serve the purpose, nor yet our own Experience singly, v. I. General maxims, unless they be formed upon both, will be but notional, v. 10. Some Peculiarity in every man, characteristic to himself, yet varying from himself, v. 15. The further difficulty of separating and fixing this, arising from our own Pass£ons, Fancies, Faculties, &c. v. 23. The shortness of Life, to observe in, and the uncertainty of the Principles of Action in men, to observe by, v. 29, &c. Our own Principle of action often hid from ourselves v. 41 . No judging of the Motives from the actions,. the same actions proceeding from contrary Motives, and the same l'v10tives influencing contrary actions, v. 5I. Yet to form Characters, we can only take the strongest actions of a man's l~fe, and try to make them agree: The utter uncertainty of this, from Nature itself, and from Policy, v. 71. Characters given according to the rank oj men in the world, v. 87. And some reason for it, v. 92. Education alters the Nature, or at
Heading] First printed in 1733 [P]. Sir Richard Temple (1675-1749), Whig politician and soldier, raised to the peerage as Viscount Cobham on the Hanoverian succession, became a Field Marshal in 1742. He opposed the Government in the debates on the Excise Bill (1733) and thereafter was one of the Opposition Whigs. He lived at Stowe, where he entertained his friends and erected monuments and temples to their memories in the elaborate landscape gardens.
