Introduction: Toward a new history of sympathy -- Sir Kenelm Digby and the matter of sympathy -- The "self-themes" of Margaret Cavendish and Thomas Hobbes -- Milton and the link of nature -- Paradise Lost and the human face of sympathy -- "Moral magick": Cambridge Platonism and the third Earl of Shaftesbury -- The future of sympathy I: the poetry of the world -- The future of sympathy II: Hume and the afterlife of Shaftesburianism -- Coda: Hawthorne's Digby and Mary Shelley's Milton.
Summary:
"Beginning with an analysis of Shakespeare's The Tempest and building to a new reading of Milton's Paradise Lost, author Seth Lobis charts a profound change in the cultural meaning of sympathy during the seventeenth century. Having long referred to magical affinities in the universe, sympathy was increasingly understood to be a force of connection between people. By examining sympathy in literary and philosophical writing of the period, Lobis illuminates an extraordinary shift in human understanding"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.