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The holy state, and the profane state / By Thomas Fuller 1841
Leather Binding on Spine and Corners with Golden Leaf Printing on round Spine (extra customization on request like complete leather, Golden Screen printing in Front, Color Leather, Colored book etc.) Reprinted in 2019 with the help of original edition published long back [1841]. This book is printed in black & white, sewing binding for longer life, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, we processed each page manually and make them readable but in some cases some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. If it is multi volume set, then it is only single volume, if you wish to order a specific or all the volumes you may contact us. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers who want to know more about our old treasure so we brought it back to the shelves. Hope you will like it and give your comments and suggestions. - eng, Pages 494. EXTRA 10 DAYS APART FROM THE NORMAL SHIPPING PERIOD WILL BE REQUIRED FOR LEATHER BOUND BOOKS. COMPLETE LEATHER WILL COST YOU EXTRA US$ 25 APART FROM THE LEATHER BOUND BOOKS. {FOLIO EDITION IS ALSO AVAILABLE.}
494 pages, Leather Bound
First published March 22, 2013
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About the author
Thomas Fuller
362 books26 followersThomas Fuller was an English churchman and historian.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 19, 2009
It's hard to imagine a pithier aphorist than Thomas Fuller, one of my favorite forgotten writers and a deserving third in the trinity of 17th century English prose masters alongside Izaak Walton and Sir Thomas Browne. The Holy State is a treatise on the types of people who dwell in Fuller's ideal ('holy') and dystopian ('profane') states and a sort of birder's manual on how to identify them in your own holy-profane society. Fuller's method is to name a type (say, 'the king', 'the priest', or 'the harlot'), characterize it through observation and insight, then illustrate it through a biographical sketch of some exemplary figure from classical or Christian history. Fuller has the perfect blend of style, acumen, and quaintness to make a great antiquary, but rather than blather about why I think that, I'll let the man speak for himself. (If you like the following quotes, get thee to a university library and check this out posthaste! This guy is overdue for a revival.)
* "{The tyrant} leaves nothing that his poor subjects can call their own but their miseries. And, as in the West Indies, thousands of kine are killed for their tallow alone, and their flesh cast away, so many men are murdered merely for their wealth, that other men may make mummy of the fat of their estates."
* "{When choosing whom to marry}, neither choose all, nor not at all, for beauty. A cried-up beauty makes more for her own praise than her husband's profit. They tell us of a floating island in Scotland, but sure no wise pilot will cast anchor there, lest the land swim away with his ship. So are they served, and justly enough, who only fasten their love on fading beauty, and both fail together."
* "To clothe low-creeping matter with high-flown language is not fine fancy but flat foolery. It rather loads than raises a wren, to fasten the feathers of an ostrich to her wings. Some men's speeches are like the high mountains in Ireland, having a dirty bog in the top of them: the very ridge of them in high words having nothing of worth, but what rather stalls than delights the auditor."
* {On animal memory.} "Brute creatures equal, if not exceed men in a bare retentive memory. Through how many labyrinths of woods, without other clew of thread than natural instinct, doth the hunted hare return to her muce? How doth the little bee, flying in several meadows and gardens, sipping of many cups, yet never intoxicated, through an ocean (as I may say) of air steadily steer herself home, without help of card or compass!"
* "Everyone who can play well on Apollo's harp cannot skillfully drive his chariot, there being a peculiar mastery of government. Yet, as a little alloy makes gold to work the better, so perchance some dullness in a man makes him fitter to manage secular affairs; and those who have climbed up Parnassus but half-way better behold worldly business than such as have climbed up to the top of the mount."
* "A good memory is the best monument. Others are subject to casualty and time, and we know that the pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders. Let us be careful to provide rest for our souls, and our bodies will provide rest for themselves. And let us not be herein like unto gentlewomen, who care not to keep the inside of the orange, but candy and preserve only the outside thereof."
* "Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. Not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtracting men's desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear many clothes in getting them, spoil many teeth in cracking them, but fill no belly with eating them, obstructing only the stomach with toughness and filling the guts with windiness. Yea, our souls may sooner surfeit than be satisfied with earthly things. He that at first thought ten thousand pounds too much for any one man will afterwards think ten million too little for himself."
* "A favorite {courtier} is a trade, whereof he that breaks once seldom sets up again. Rare are the examples of those who have compounded and thrived well afterwards. Mean [='common':] men are like underwood, which the law calls sylva caedua, quae succisa renascitur ("Being cut down, it may spring again"). But favorites are like oaks, which scarce thrive after being lopped; if but once cut down, never grow more."
* "{The ideal priest's} mortified mind is no whit moved by the magnificent vanities of the court. No more than a dead corpse is affected with a velvet hearsecloth over it. He is so far from wondering at their pomps, that though he looks daily on them, he scarce sees them, having his eyes taken up with higher objects."
* "Our king having a firm footing in his subjects' affections, what may he do? Yea, what may he not do? Making the coward valiant, the miser liberal! For love, the key of hearts, will open the closest coffers. Meantime, how poor is that prince, amidst all his wealth, whose subjects are kept only by a slavish fear, the jailor of the soul! An iron arm, fastened with screws, may be stronger, but never so useful, because not so natural, as an arm of flesh, joined with muscles and sinews. Besides, where subjects are envassaled with fear, prince and people mutually watch their own advantages, which, being once offered them, it is wonderful if they do not -- and woeful if they do -- make use thereof."
* "{The tyrant} leaves nothing that his poor subjects can call their own but their miseries. And, as in the West Indies, thousands of kine are killed for their tallow alone, and their flesh cast away, so many men are murdered merely for their wealth, that other men may make mummy of the fat of their estates."
* "{When choosing whom to marry}, neither choose all, nor not at all, for beauty. A cried-up beauty makes more for her own praise than her husband's profit. They tell us of a floating island in Scotland, but sure no wise pilot will cast anchor there, lest the land swim away with his ship. So are they served, and justly enough, who only fasten their love on fading beauty, and both fail together."
* "To clothe low-creeping matter with high-flown language is not fine fancy but flat foolery. It rather loads than raises a wren, to fasten the feathers of an ostrich to her wings. Some men's speeches are like the high mountains in Ireland, having a dirty bog in the top of them: the very ridge of them in high words having nothing of worth, but what rather stalls than delights the auditor."
* {On animal memory.} "Brute creatures equal, if not exceed men in a bare retentive memory. Through how many labyrinths of woods, without other clew of thread than natural instinct, doth the hunted hare return to her muce? How doth the little bee, flying in several meadows and gardens, sipping of many cups, yet never intoxicated, through an ocean (as I may say) of air steadily steer herself home, without help of card or compass!"
* "Everyone who can play well on Apollo's harp cannot skillfully drive his chariot, there being a peculiar mastery of government. Yet, as a little alloy makes gold to work the better, so perchance some dullness in a man makes him fitter to manage secular affairs; and those who have climbed up Parnassus but half-way better behold worldly business than such as have climbed up to the top of the mount."
* "A good memory is the best monument. Others are subject to casualty and time, and we know that the pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders. Let us be careful to provide rest for our souls, and our bodies will provide rest for themselves. And let us not be herein like unto gentlewomen, who care not to keep the inside of the orange, but candy and preserve only the outside thereof."
* "Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. Not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtracting men's desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear many clothes in getting them, spoil many teeth in cracking them, but fill no belly with eating them, obstructing only the stomach with toughness and filling the guts with windiness. Yea, our souls may sooner surfeit than be satisfied with earthly things. He that at first thought ten thousand pounds too much for any one man will afterwards think ten million too little for himself."
* "A favorite {courtier} is a trade, whereof he that breaks once seldom sets up again. Rare are the examples of those who have compounded and thrived well afterwards. Mean [='common':] men are like underwood, which the law calls sylva caedua, quae succisa renascitur ("Being cut down, it may spring again"). But favorites are like oaks, which scarce thrive after being lopped; if but once cut down, never grow more."
* "{The ideal priest's} mortified mind is no whit moved by the magnificent vanities of the court. No more than a dead corpse is affected with a velvet hearsecloth over it. He is so far from wondering at their pomps, that though he looks daily on them, he scarce sees them, having his eyes taken up with higher objects."
* "Our king having a firm footing in his subjects' affections, what may he do? Yea, what may he not do? Making the coward valiant, the miser liberal! For love, the key of hearts, will open the closest coffers. Meantime, how poor is that prince, amidst all his wealth, whose subjects are kept only by a slavish fear, the jailor of the soul! An iron arm, fastened with screws, may be stronger, but never so useful, because not so natural, as an arm of flesh, joined with muscles and sinews. Besides, where subjects are envassaled with fear, prince and people mutually watch their own advantages, which, being once offered them, it is wonderful if they do not -- and woeful if they do -- make use thereof."
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May 27, 2015A thoroughly enjoyable, albeit outdated book. Fuller is an absolute genius. Let's establish that fact. However, like many authors of his day, he is fond of drawing illustrations from poor sources. He is fond of turning to the Natural Histories of Latin authors, such as Pliny, to make clever applications. This does not make his point invalid, it simply makes it dated, in the worst way possible. Also, many of the characters he describes are obsolete. That being said, Fuller is still a master of wit and wisdom.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews