The Heart. or THE HEART, ( of itself gone away from God) (gone Brought back again to him. and INSTRUCTED by him. By FRANCIS QUARLES, in 47 Emblems. to which is added The Learning of the Heart by the same Author: London "inted & Sold by George Offor, Tower Hill. 1823. THE PREFACE. IT is generally agreed, by the learned and the serious, that self-knowledge is the great knowledge: and that an adept in universal science, if he remain a stranger to himself, is only a lump of pride and conceit, and unfit for, not to say an offence to, the society of his fellow men. SELF-KNOWLEDGE is the knowledge of what a man really is, considered in every relation in which he stands, A as a moral agent, as well as an erect creature. And it is to be presumed, that this was the meaning of that renowned precept of the Pythian Apollo, "Nosce teipsum," Know thyself. Though it is impossible for a man to know himself, without being acquainted with a subject which is full of mortification to human pride and vanity. We hear much talk, in modern times, though there never was, perhaps, less reason to talk, of the dignity of human nature. Human nature, in its original state, no doubt, was crowned with dignity and glory too. But alas! how is it now fallen! how is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! For, since the fall of man, there has been no true dignity in human nabeheld in HIM, in whom was seen "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." ture, but as it was THE state of the mind, or HEART, may be said to determine the state and character of man. As it is, so is He. And the sacred writings every where represent the heart as the seat of true religion, moral excellence, or virtue; which are in truth one and the same: for there can be no virtue, where there is not true religion. But such is the wretched state of every heart by nature, that |